A little lift needed...

Face lift? (Maybe, but not a chance) ski lift (yeah, I'd like to try that someday), lift chair (not quite yet although my body sure feels worn right now after all the gardening), emotional/spiritual lift (jackpot!!) Nothing really out of the ordinary at our house right now. If you know what our last two years have been like then you know that ordinary can be a bit.........difficult. I could really use a huge "out of the ordinary" experience right now, like, winning some of the sweepstakes I've entered for a new washer and dryer or the new 2010 Dodge Caravan that I just entered today, or how about the $1,000,000 giveaway I entered a month or so back. The best "out of the ordinary" experience though would be for Isaac to be completely healed. He had some valleys again in our climb to wellness recently. We are looking forward to his complete healing. Please pray for him to be completely healed and for his spirits to be lifted up. He's planning to go to Mexico on the next missions trip so I pray God has it planned for his healing to be complete before then (possibly next February). I know so many of you are praying for Isaac already but if you could just please remember him in your prayers he'd appreciate it and we can petition God together to bring a blessing upon Isaac's body.

Misc...

Kevin, the missionary who housed the team is getting a new set of tires when his went flat. He is actually giving tracts and Bibles right here. He witnessed to the owners of the place and the lady wanted to know if he had more Bibles and tracts for her to give out to others. The team were all pleased to see God work out the flat tire for His glory!
Jordan, on the trip home at the Gulf of Mexico. It was very, very windy this day. Jordan is not really a swimmer so she enjoyed watching the others and walking along the beach.

Mason and some new Mexican friends. Mason is my Gideon's age and nearly as cute :)

Jordan and her good friend Rachel H. She is the oldest of 6 who live about 11 miles from us and home school too. It was good for the two of them to go on this trip together. We've been friends forever but our busy lives don't always cross paths.

Mason playing with these really neat sticks. I saw these at the Home School Convention and he entertained children with his brother at Children's Crusades with them. His brother can do tricks with them behind his back, under legs, etc.

Jordan braiding Rachel K's hair. Rachel attends the same church as us and went without her family on the trip. it.

Braiding Amanda's hair. Always something to do with 13 people around. Jordan was able to fix someones cut with her band aids and Tea Tree Oil (kills germs), soothed bug bites with the oil too and share her chex mix when someone got a headache they thought from not enough salt.

Juggling at one of the Crusades. She was helping one of the other boys get warmed up and did a turn herself juggling just two balls though.

Her first authentic Mexican meal. The green strips are cactus. The large white thing is an onion. There was steak, spicy chicken and other meat here to make fajitas. She enjoyed it all.

Work in Mexico...

Ooops! Warren set his tools on this sink and it was not strong enough to hold them! He was in here fixing or putting in a toilet. Thankfully there is another sink.

Unloading the palate of wood they brought from Minnesota with them. It will be used for many things.

The kids all took part in helping with the construction projects.

Here they are fixing a roof!

Prayer...

My favorite picture of prayer from Jordan's trip. This little boy from one of the churches they did street ministry with, is laying hands on another "little" boy. He's 6 years old and plays drums with the worship team. He is already being used by God in a mighty way! How awesome!
Praying before they go out for street evangelism. They went door to door in some neighborhoods handing out tracts and Bibles and talking to the people. A Mexican member of the church was teamed up with two or three mission team members.

Praying before they crossed into Mexico. Warren is giving everyone the "rules". Only answer questions asked and don't joke or talk too much. If you say one thing suspicious they will pull you over to the side of the road and have you empty your entire vehicle, trailer, etc. This was on their way in and their trailers were loaded.

Praying with the members of one of the churches they worked with.

Praying over the children that came to one of the kid's crusades they held. They juggled, did skits, and other entertainment for the kids before and then after passed out clothes and toys to the people who came. So, anyone who gave things at our church, some of that stuff was used in these crusades! Neat! Huh?!

I heard Jordan comment to Kevin on the phone today that it is a little hard to get back into dishes and doing school when you've been there doing the things that she was doing. It was exciting for her to work for the Lord in that way. It gives you a high and you want to keep on doing it and getting the response that you get.

Jordan...

Church this last Sunday with Pastor Leannel, his wife Blanca, Kevin and Jordan.

Jordan with the Pastor's daughter whom they called Naomi (I believe her name was too difficult to say in Spanish so they called her this for short.) In the background two of her brother's heads (to the left).

Jordan, in Mexico, drinking down a Coca (as Coke is called there). There were Coke stands everywhere. They were told that up in the remote mountains you would find a Coke truck. It is the original formula for Coke made with cane sugar so supposedly better tasting. Jordan said it was too much in a bottle for her so she didn't buy them as much as most of the kids did.

Jordan arrived home to much welcoming by her siblings. She got home around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. She talked non-stop until about midnight telling her tales of adventure. She had a great time! She made new friends and strengthened old ones and learned a lot about the love of the Mexican people. They were friendly and happy and when they make a decision to know the Lord, they mean business and worship in a much more enthusiastic way than most of us staid American Norwegians, Germans, Baptists, etc. She had to learn to loosen up a bit. We went to church on Sunday a the same church that sent the missions team. The nice surprise was the team brought back the pastor, his wife and four kids from Mexico (the pastor that they helped do some construction projects for), The church here got them a vehicle and they came to pick up the vehicle. We enjoyed the sermon, visiting with them and praying with them. There was a potluck dinner and a showing of some pictures of the team's trip. We all enjoyed the day greatly!

Happy Birthday...

Lena is just way too cute. She was smiling for the camera. It gets cheesier each time she tries.

11 fingers being held up in the back over Caleb's head. Check out Moriah's smile, it looks a lot like Lena's in the above picture?!?

Caleb is now 11! He's a great kid who thanked me so many times for a great day. We invited two friends over and they had a treasure hunt that Isaac designed that ended in a sword fight for the treasure (several boxes of candy to be shared among them all). We had Chinese food per Caleb's request to have egg rolls so that helped me decide what the rest would be. They watched the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was funny in parts. It is not a movie I would own. There were some little things thrown in that gave me pause, therefore I would not want to own it and have the kids watch it again and again. We have enjoyed reading the book by that title so wanted to check out what it was like. The kids sure laughed and laughed. We took the extra boys home and visited another hour and got home at nearly 1 a.m.! It was a good day.

I have been cleaning the house in anticipation of Jordan coming home. We started Thursday dusting, vacuuming, etc. Today, I decided to vacuum the whole basement. Kevin worked on the lawn mower and sprayer. I sure hope to get rid of these pesky dandelions. Every year we mean to do something and something else always happens. The story of our life. Well, got to go move the chicken tractor off my garden so I can till the ground if it isn't too wet. Jordan tells me the whole team has a few thousand pictures together from the trip. They hope to get it onto one disc. Come on over sometime to see it and let Jordan share. I talked to her a few minutes today and it sounds like they did some neat things. I could hear it in her voice that she liked what they did down there.