Exciting things are happening!

So much is happening around our family and church family! It is so awesome to see Christ bring people together is HIS time and then watch the vision we are following so diligently become a reality. Saturday a few of us Oasis folks visited La Puerta in Greenwood. We came along side some amazing people from different churches to help begin planting a garden for the community of Greenwood. La Puerta is more than just a food ministry, but it is also a place where families can go to learn to speak english, get help with homework and make new friends. Visit this blog to check out the progress and view photos from Saturday!

Today's church service was amazing! We had soooo many new visitors who came early just to help set up! God is really beginning to blow our minds. We have been through so many seasons of doubt, pain and just being unsure of where God was taking us. Through it all we have been in prayer and have been faithful as we let HIM lead! So, this Sunday, Oasis decided to dig a well in a third world country. We took up our first well offering today and our goal is to raise $5,000 by July! Let's just say that we are well on our way and we have extremely giving people in our church. That is funny because most of our congregation are college students.........broke, young college students whom we were told would never give money to church because they don't have any. I believe that God has a great sense of humor and He can use anyone.......!!! I am so excited! Check out this website to learn more about your church or community group digging a well in a needy community!

What we've been up to

Not much going on around here lately. Luke and CG had the flu the week of the big snow so we were pretty much homebound from Wednesday to the following Monday. Curt and I were able to go to the ARMS/CP Net conference in Bluffton with some friends of ours, Carl and Peggy Martin. We spent a summer with them a few years ago as they planted Crosspoint Bluffton which is now doing so great! We are thankful that they have taken our hands as we have walked this lonely road of church planting.

Thanks to the oh so wonderful Brandi and Addam, we were able to leave the kids for a trial run for our Russia trip:)! We are so blessed to have these friends in our lives! No news from Russian yet, in the words of the band CALEB....."We will Wait"! We have already received quite a few registration forms in the mail and it is still pretty early! We are so blessed to have people joining with us as we support a call that is so dear to our hearts!!! Thanks and have a blessed week everyone!

Leading and Loving It

I have been reading this blog for quite a while and have had the opportunity more than once to hear Lori's husband speak. So, when I saw that sign-up's were on again for the Leading and Loving it virtual roundtable discussion I immediately signed up. I am anxious to get to know pastor's wives from other churches and hopefully learn from their journey's as well as share my own. Ministry does make for interesting conversation that's for sure!

Lifesong Blog Update

William from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Six year-old William once asked his mother, “Why do other children walk on the bottoms of their feet? Why am I like this? What did you do to me?” When she told him that it was God who did it, not her, William said, “Then please tell God to fix me.”
William was born with clubfoot, affecting both of his feet. If William had been born in America this common deformity would have been easily fixed when he was still a baby. But in Zambia it’s a different story. In Zambia, where the resources are few and the funds are even fewer, healing is only a distant dream.

Last February Lifesong Zambia coordinator, Dru Smith wrote about William in her newsletter. When Wendy in Illinois heard his story she was prompted to act. After a thorough investigation she discovered CURE Clubfoot International, which had a clinic in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia! In April William was fitted for casts (first in a series of 3) and then had corrective surgery on his right foot in June and his left foot in September (the video was taken in September just before his second surgery).
God used His people to “fix” William. Today William can walk! Soon he will be strong enough to return to school, play with the other children, and be able to do many of the simple tasks we take for granted!

Through this journey the Lifesong staff has been able to help not only William, but his family as well. William’s brother, Bright, and cousin, Gift, have both been enrolled at Lifesong school. In addition his father, Victor, who was unemployeed now works in the Lifesong gardens! We’re so thankful our God is the master at doing “abundantly and immeasurably more” than we even think to ask!

*Find out more about Blogging for Orphans here.

Ways you can help!

As we wait on our referral from Russia we have many people ask how they can help. Well, adoption is expensive! From paying for agency fees, homestudy, passports, physicals, dossier translation, travel, ect......it costs a LOT!!! So, to help us ease the financial stress here are a few ways you can help!

Purchase a T-shirt or Hoodie! The links are located on the side of the blog

Purchase some coffee! Fresh Cup of Hope link in on the side of the blog too! (it is yummy)

Purchase an "Unto the Least of These" bracelet for $1.00!!! Comment if interested

Register for the 5k Race for Children! www.abbevillespringfestival.com

Donate items for our yard sale coming up in May!

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!!

Honduras

I received an interesting email yesterday while I was at school. The email was from our adoption agency, NO it wasn't about our adoption, just a newsletter about what is going on at America World. I began to read and found that the Honduras adoption is finally back open. At first, I blew past this and thought, huh, that it interesting. Then, I went back and read that the adoptions in Honduras have been frozen since 2003. My very sweet cousin and her husband make a journey to Honduras at least once a year with their church and we are always putting together big bags of clothes and shoes for the needy children there. I am not sure why Honduras was closed, maybe for the Hague process, I don't know. What I do know is there are tons of couples and families who have been waiting and praying the Honduras adoptions would be open again, and now, 8 years later, their prayers have been answered! So, if you have ever longed for Honduras like we are longing for Russia, now is the time. Check out the link above to begin your adoption journey!