Blogger MIA

Hey everyone... for anyone who's counting, and I believe that would be NO ONE, I haven't posted here in 10 days. I'm such a slacker! I am not feeling so hot... that is what happens when the weather goes from 60 degrees, to 18 degrees, to 60 degrees, to 33 degrees.... everyone in our house is coughing their lungs up! Sheesh! Anyway, I have to get to work, so I can't "really" blog right now. Just had to post my formal apology. We have church this evening, so not sure if I will blog tonight, or wait until tomorrow. Guess what???

WE LEAVE FOR MARYLAND THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY!!!!! But who's counting? LOL! We can't wait! Talk to y'all later!

pile management becomes overwhelming

I can't take it! The piles of junk and stuff in my house are officially unmanageable! DAN AND SARAH! I need to borrow your book again... I cannot remember the title, but I must reconnect with the THROW IT OUT message in your book! AHHHHH!!!!! It is so hard to come home from a fabulous church service where the Holy Ghost moved and ministered so powerfully, to a home that is too cluttered to function on a basic level! And what's worse, is that this thanksgiving vacation, my children are off but I am not. Not even a chance to get a head start on the pile busting! Grrrr.... I want to decorate for christmas, but how can I with all the JUNK?!?!?!?!? I feel the urge to invest in 30 gallon trash bags and go to town. Anyone wanna come help??

Turkey Catapult and other tidbits

I must admit that I have been having a bit of trouble finding the motivation to post here on the northern apostolic mom blog lately. I feel like the mundane things of life no one wants to read, the frustrating things in life (like my husband's recent car accident... which was NOT his fault) are too frustrating to revisit in blog format, and besides... I've just been flat out too busy to sit here and BLOG! So, what's a blogging mom to do?

Tonight, I feel like I can actually share some things.

1. Earlier this week, my sons' pack meeting was a blast! It was the turkey catapult competition! If you want to see 6-11 year old boys get excited about something, give them a catapult and ANYTHING to launch! LOL! What a blast we had! There was also the "shoes built for two" contest, the balloon popping game, and the very cool indian arrow head necklaces they made. Cub scouts is cool. Adam is working on his Bear badge, and one of his requirements is to complete the "God and Me" project. He will be earning a special pendant to wear on his uniform that has a cross on a shield, with the words God and Me on a bar at the top. It is different, in that it's not awarded by the den leader, but by his pastor IN CHURCH. Adam is excited to invite his den leader and the boys in his den to church to see him receive the award! We are praying for each of them!

2. Wed. evening, our church had a thanksgiving dinner together, and it was absolutely wonderful! The fellowship was wonderful, the food was fabulous, and I want the people who worked at setting up and serving to know how much we all appreciate them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!! Thank you Monica and Monica, Ben and Stacy, Sue Hazen, Shueh Ling, and everyone else I didn't know about! It was really a great time! Our pastor took many photos, and probably has some new "blackmail" pictures to post on our annual watch night service "year in review" slide show! I LOVE the year in review slide show!!!!!

3. Tonight was my stepdad's birthday party, and we had a wonderful time celebrating with him! He and my mom are retiring the end of Dec. They are counting down days of work left...only 25 days of barbering left for my stepdad! Amazing! He's been cutting hair for around 40 something years. My mom is retiring from the Dept. of Homeland Security (formerly Immigration). She can't WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are going to Florida, we are sad but happy for them. They deserve NOT to have to endure the cold winters here anymore! LUCKY DUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P

4. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Our family is doing a cool thing right now as part of Adam's "God and Me" project. We are playing the Prayer Rock game. We have a rock (it's supposed to be a real rock, but Adam made one out of paper.... colored like a rainbow). It is a prayer rock. The person with the rock prays for someone in the family, then puts it somewhere where that person only will definitely find it (i.e. on their pillow, on their dresser, in their shoe, etc.) You can't put it in a general space like the refrigerator... everyone uses that, and no one would know who got prayed for. So, you find the rock on your pillow... you know that person prayed for you... now it is time for you to pray for someone else in the family and then put the rock in a spot THEY will find it... etc. etc. It is working beautifully. We all love this game, and may just keep doing it after a week is up!

5. My friend Lisa lost her mom this week. I will be attending the funeral. Lisa used to serve the Lord in the truth, but she and her sister both left the church. It will be good to reconnect with them this weekend, albeit under sad circumstances.

Well, I was going to close with a couple of pictures, but it seems that the Hello/Picasa program is non-functioning this evening. So you will have to wait. Sorry.

Bye Kevin

By the way... I decided to delete my virtual pet penguin Kevin. He was too big and I couldn't figure out how to make him fit the sidebar better.... so if you liked playing with him, I'm sorry.

God provides

How amazing is my God? He handed me a job on a silver platter today, that I wasn't even pursuing! I am a substitute teacher in two different schools (K-2). One little school I just really love being at. The staff are all so sweet and fun to be around, and the kids have my heart wrapped around their finger. Well... Polly called me to ask me if I wanted to "sub" a few days in a position that hasn't been officially created yet... working with a student in a 2nd grade class. "Sure!" I said. Little did I know that the prinipal and the special ed staff had already pinpointed me to FILL this not-yet-created position. Today after working with the child, the prinipal came to me in the lunchroom and said, "So, do you want the position? It's yours if you want it." WOW! How often does this happen? Not often in my realm! God literally dropped this job in my lap. It couldn't be more perfectly suited to my needs! What an amazing God I serve!

In other fun news, my son Nick and his tiger cub den went to visit the local rescue squad tonight as part of a "go see it" , which is required to earn the tiger cub badge. It was so fun for the boys... they were backboarded and collared, they had blood pressures and O2 sats done, they had their heart monitored, they toured the rescue garage, they played with the lights on the ambulance, etc etc. How cool is that for 6 year old boys?? Of course, it was OLD OLD hat for Nicolas... he's been playing in ambulances and hanging out in rescue garages since he was BORN! But he had fun being the "expert" in the group. :)

I am noticing that I haven't posted any pictures in a long time.... let's see what fun stuff I have available to post this evening....

OH! Here are a couple of pictures of my boys as seeds... they did a sunday school skit about the parable of the sower, and they were seeds of the fruits of the Spirit. They were cute!

Adam as the seed of peace.

Nick as the seed of joy.

View of most of the "seeds". Our upstairs neighbor Taylor is the seed of righteousness! (First yellow seed on left).


And here are a couple pictures from Adam's ninth birthday celebrations...

Eight darth vaders with light sabers... I sense a disturbance in the force!

The Darth Vader cake with very cool star candles "from a galaxy far, far away..."

Adam and his friends having fun and being goofy!


Opening presents at the family party... like the bow in his hair??


There. All updated. Will chat with you again soon. Blessings!
Michelle

Bullying

I had an interesting, revealing conversation with my oldest son this evening. It was not a new conversation. In fact, these types of talks are becoming more common... a fact I am concerned about. It seems Adam is being teased and bullied at school, on the playground and in the lunch room. Now, I know there is a fair amount of this that is considered "normal growing up". But today's world is a lot different than the one we grew up in, and the spiritual climate is much darker today than it was 30 years ago. The enemy is taking full advantage of the weak in these last days, and I refuse to let my son be his prey! A verse I found in the Bible tonight says,

Psalm 12:5 “Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the Lord. “I will protect them from those who malign them.” (NIV)

Another says:

2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (NIV)

And my favorite verse:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I will be praying these and other scriptures for my son, and with the help of the Lord, we will overcome this issue. There can't be many things more painful for a mom than to see others hurt and mistreat the child they love so dearly. Please pray for me to use wisdom in helping Adam through all this... to come out on top, more confident and sure of who he is and what he is about.

Missionary to Hong Kong

All I can say is... we are spoiled rotten here in the American church. We are babies. We don't even know what it is to fellowship with Him in His suffering. The church in China is undergoing incredible persecution... persecution we could never IMAGINE having to endure, and the Christians over there just say, "Don't feel sorry for me! Don't worry about me! I have joy and strength from the Lord that you can't imagine!" True. They have an intensely deep-rooted faith that most Americans can only wish they had. But that kind of faith came at a very high price. Bro. O'Donnell told us tonight that when communism took over China in 1949, ALL churches of every religion, and ALL religious literature of any faith were completely banned, closed, burned, and erased from the nation of China. Every pastor, minister, priest, rabbi, of every faith was lined up before a firing squad from 1949 to 1958 and shot. The Chinese government told the people, "There is no God. Anything you need, the government will provide for you." Complete darkness overtook the nation of China. He likened it to Genesis chapter one... where the earth was without form and void and DARKNESS covered the face of the deep. Void of all knowledge of God. But He was there. Moving on the face of the deep... His Spirit was there. And He was moving in China the whole time... rooting out thousands of years of Chinese tradition that was so deeply rooted, this was the ONLY way to get rid of it. And so the people of China have lived in darkness for decades, wondering if this is all there is to life. And an intensely deep spiritual hunger developed in the hearts of the Chinese, so that when God spoke and said "Let there be light in China", the effect was such that the people didn't even WONDER if what they heard was true! They read it or heard it, believed it, and acted on it. They are receiving God's truth in China like we've never seen here in the states. No arguing, no second guessing, no church hopping due to itching ears... just eager ready acceptance of His Word! Their soul recognizes the God-breathed Word of Life! If only it would be so here in America! You tell your friends and family about the Lord, and they just say, "YES! I BELIEVE! I WANT IT!" Does that happen to you every day??? Me neither. But I am determined to be much more bold than I have ever been before. Bro. O'Donnell told us of one lady who had the Holy Ghost two weeks, and she already had 40 people in her home that she was teaching Bible studies to... and she had NO Bible, NO tracts, No anything! Just her testimony! Praise God!!! My neighbors are going to be hearing from me this week.......... Thank you Bro. and Sis. O'Donnell, for your willingness to GO and reach the lost of China!