The Village of Shkoze, Albania

Hopefully this little video I made will appear and show the people we met and tried to minister to in Albania this summer. Mainly in the village of Shkoze outside of Tirana, the capitol of Albania and the Pastor Fredi, his wife Lale, as well as the Brewer family - missionaries working with them in the village.

Even tho' Heidi missed her mummy, when she saw this video whe was glad I went. ;)

Nineteen Years Invested

Well, boy left on a big ol' jet airliner Monday night headed for OZ, Brisbane exactly. As his Dad and I stood watching the boy go thru security alone, all of a sudden I saw a little slim, bowlcut boy heading up the stairs to Highland Park Elementary for Kindergarten, he was so small we had to buy a mini backpack, lest a regular drag on the ground. .. My little Man.
Talked to him and he landed safe, no jet lag yet, and already looking for a job, got a bank account, and filled out forms for his tax ID ( ss #). I was reminded today by a dear old friend (Thanks popsicle mom) that he was bathed in prayer. But what was brought to my mind when she said that was all his life bathed in prayer. Of course I prayed for him the day we knew I was pregnant on. But I could not have raised this boy alone. Of course his Dad has some credit, he is a great man. But sometimes in the quiet times of being a single mom, thinking I was all alone, I knew that God had provided family for this boy. Here are the names, no particular order. If your name is there, you have part of you, and lessons you taught him in him.

Katie Karl Stein Molly Afarin Hill PA's Moyer PA's Barb (rest in peace dear angel) All Stubblefields Nan Grandad (also in heaven watching our Boy) Joy Rick JJ (trips to the Zaney Brainy store) Casey (very good baby bather) Granny woman Melinda (always including) Maxwells (even Poppa Max and Paw Paw Pete) Lynns (thanks for not eating the weak all the time) Rowcliffes Fowlers Nani Phyllis and Amos Elmers The Feils, "my friend Rhonda" Scott and Katina Pam Chelsey and Savannah Uncle Scott Bill and Stacy Cody Youth at Northbrook McCravy boys the 1345 Hollywood Drive Gang and Harry

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I know there is more, don't be hurt if I forgot your name. You know if you bathed him in prayer. I thank you so much. As Moms we strive to build in our children good habits, and choices for their futures, that one day they will be grown up be independent and go off and be men and women for God. Then dang it, they go and do it.And we cry. and cry. Then cry more later on. Boy,
you have been my best friend and little buddy, my shadow, my pal. We played store, Star Trek, and baseball. You know I miss you and it is harder than I thought it would be, like you said. But I will be ok, and so will Dad. We will just walk around here with Boy shaped holes in our hearts. And that is ok. As Dad says, "I won't hate you for it". You are my best. The most wonderful thing God has ever done for me besides my salvation, is you. I prayed for you, wished for you, and he gave you to me, of all people. Crazy, immature, financially unstable me. Thank you for looking down from heaven and saying, I 'll take her, she can be my Mummy. Thank you for the priviledge of knowing you as a young adult. Thank you boy. I love you. My heart goes with you to my home town. Enjoy it. I did.

Missin You

Hewo friends,
It me, Heidi!
Mummy is busy and left puter on so me, Heidi, is bwogging! Are-ent you glad? My word today is about how much God misses me n yous. If we donts talks to him reg-u-ar-ly he misses us so. See when Mummy went to 'bania, mees go to Sues (big fun! for another bwog), but Alley, she no go nowhere. she stay at Jackson Garden Sweets (home) all bys her own selfs. We come home, she no like it. She tell us in cat words over and over, then over and over sumore! It gettin like we can not go to potty outside, she think we leavin hers. Then when she think we forget, she tell again. " I was lonely, you left me, you no come home, I worry, I sad, I lonely".

No God no get lonely, but he might beez sad. You no talk to him, he say "what up? I wub you, I want to hear your raspy voice". Like when Mummy call "Hootie" I smile. I like to hear my Mummy. Alley must like to hear Mummy too, she not leave Mummy alone these days! So I be thinkin, God like that too. He wubs us so, he gave his precious son (mummy call me precious and sweet baby) who he wubs most, to take our place and die for all our badness, dat be lub, real deep lub! So I says, talk to God today and then a little later, he miss you, he want to hear from you - good and bad, happy and sad, all of your day....

...Not like Alley, she annoy and only want good and happy! *sigh* I pway for her attitude every day.

Albania 2009

So, until I get my life together enough to blog about it...here is a link to Ronda's blog, she told what we did each day and posted great pictures...feel free to read it. After I sort out my thoughts and feelings -our Sam leaves for Australia Aug - I will post more.

http://roaringlamb3.blogspot.com/

Ugly Religion or How do Others See the Church?

1. "They just don't know what to think about Northbrook", a friend said to me. You see we have these missionary friends who our church (Northbrook) supports. We support them financially, spiritually, and emotionally. We sincerely love this family. Our youth love their kids, our moms love the mom, our dads love the dad, our leadership loves their freindship and counsel and vise versa. They needed a car - the work the family does is with missionaries all over the country where they are requires a car. We raised money sent it and some members gave above that, it was not enough. But, they hesitated to ask, after all, Northbrook had given so much already, and we are not a big church, nor a financially growing group.
See when you are a missionary, you feel like you are always asking; for prayers for money for bodies to help. That is a hard place, imagine if you had to do that year after year... to do a job that you cannot possibly NOT do because God asked you to do it for him.
I digress... the church found the last amount of money to get them a car. When my friend called to tell them, they were speechless, speechless is something these people are not, usually. Speechless. "They just don't know what to think about Northbrook", she said. It completely floored them to receive freely from the church, what the church had found extra. Yes, I am blessed by a missions minded church, so why not give the extra to missions they thought.

2. "Do not think of paying this back", she said. As a single mom, things in our house tend to break then stay broken because you need to buy school clothes, or groceries. My dishwasher broke, well I thought, it is an extra, a "luxury" people in other countries don't have them at all. No problem. I have a job that requires me to wash my hands up to 10 times in a work day (ok I do obsess about clean hands), and there fore I have a skin problem because of that. And in the winter it is worse. A dear friend who had knowledge of this problem with my hands rallied our small group and they along with a big donation from her, bought me a nice dishwasher, not the cheapest, but a really nice one. She couldn't stand to think about my hands cracked and sore doing dishes as well as the other things I did for my son alone. "Do not think of paying this back", she said. This is our gift to you. (I am crying now as I write this, just remembering)

I did not know what to think of them, of Northbrook, the church. You see our church sees church differently than alot of churches. As a preachers kid/church planters kid, I have seen them all, everykind of church available to mankind, even different denominations. We see church as living life together. We see church as the body of Christ. We do for eachother, we do for others, we do for fellow Christians, we do for people seeking the Lord, we do for those who don't know Christ (yet). We feel this is what the church is for, to worship God especially by doing. We strive to not just be hearers but doers of the word. In our church there are so many stories like the two above.

When we, those who profess to be closest to Christ, refuse to show Christ to other people, the result is empty, hollow religion (Max Lucado). Lucado even calls it Ugly. Needs ignored while opinions are disputed - ugly religion. People go hungry and with out the Lord as we argue over whose denomination has it right - ugly religion. A missionary family goes hungry, unable to provide for their family nor do thier job while a church argues over new carpet colors - dare I say ugly religion.

I know I have a special bend towards missions, but we send people out to do the Lords work, work we are either unwilling to do or feel not called to, and then cut the "missions budget" to get new microphones, new pews, new carpet, add personnel. I know this is strong, but I feel sometimes the "western" church has it all wrong. It is not about he building, but the people inside and outside the building.

I challenge you to look at your church. How can you change it if it needs changing? What are you doing for others in your community, in your church, in the mission field?


How awesome if your community didn't know what to think of your church? Oh and by the way our missionary friends are now shopping for a car!

Destin 09: 9 Ladies, 1 Condo, 3 Days

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Nine crazy ladies in Destin. Yes the imagination boggles. Ages ranged from 30's to 50's. heaps of Fun!!!
Lets just say, we ate, slept on the beach, ate, rode the waves, and ate.