"to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faithin me." Acts 26:18

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Installation into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church

We just arrived home from a wonderful time in Washington attending Eric's installation service into the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC).

Many of you know that currently Eric serves as pastor in the United Reformed Churches of North America (URCNA), but we are serving in Uganda as part of the OPC.  Typically, if a pastor were to switch his credentials into the OPC, his installation would be at his local church, but because Eric isn't being called to a particular congregation, but rather to Uganda, his installation service was held at the meeting of presbytery (the gathering of leaders from OPC churches throughout the greater Northwest area).  So in addition to the installation service, we also sat in on the meetings, which I could give a wife-ly commentary on, but I'll refrain...



Pastor and good friend, Dan McManigal, gave a very challenging and encouraging message from I Thessalonians 2. 


Rev. Dan McManigal of Grace Church

Rev. Calvin Malcor asked the questions of installation.

Rev. Calvin Malcor and Eric


Mr. Mark Bube, General Secretary of the Committee on Foreign Missions for the OPC, gave the charge.  Once again, we felt our utter helplessness to do this on our own strength and our utter dependence upon God.
Mr. Mark Bube

These two men, Rev. David Thoman on the left and Rev. Dan McManigal on the right have been a constant source of encouragement to Eric in recent years.  Rev. Thoman is the assistant pastor of our current church and is in the trenches, planting a new congregation: Redeemer Reformed.  Rev. McManigal planted another daughter church of our current congregation a few years ago (Grace Church) and has seen the Lord pour out abundant blessing on that congregation.  The six of us have enjoyed quite a few triple dates in the past few years and the fellowship and encouragement from these men has sustained us and edified us.  These men are lovers of God, warriors of the cross and and men of courage...we count ourselves blessed to have walked with them these past years.  Dan McManigal is also moving on as he and his family are moving to another city to obtain adequate education for their sweet boy who struggles with his hearing.  So our prayers are with them both: Dan as he seeks what God would have him to do next, and David as he continues to fight the good fight here.  We are also praying for God to richly bless our current congregation with a new pastor who will be an even greater blessing here than Eric has been.  
David, Eric and Dan
This week has also been exciting as we have purchased our plane tickets and packed our first boxes.  We praise the Lord for his grace.  Please continue to pray for us as we are in great need of God's continued grace and strength.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Five Years Home...


Can you believe it? 

Five years ago we were picking up these precious ones from the airport... 

Five years ago, we jumped in way over our heads...

Five years of seeing God at work in our lives in incredible ways...

Five years of blessing upon blessing...




To God be the glory, great things HE has done!!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Update...

Where to begin???  We've been so busy since coming home!!  Unpacking, three weddings for Eric to officiate, full preaching schedule, one house-showing, one round of the stomach bug and trying ever-so-hard to do some school...makes me tired just to think about it all!

::I think that we had a bit of a rough re-entry from MTI life back to real life.  I think we all felt a bit jerked around as we went to focusing for five weeks on our future, back to real life here.  We were super thankful that two different young ladies were able to come spend some time with us those first two weeks back and offer a helping hand around the house.  After the second girl left, we had the first day in almost 8 weeks with just our family.  Wow...what a difference!  I was exhausted by the end of the day! :)

::It snowed one morning when we got home...I thought we were done with the white stuff when we left Colorado...but Oregon loves to give us Daffodils and snow at the same time...



But what of it?  Snow "mommies" with straw hair and red-berry lip stick are kinda' cute... especially when you know it's the last glimps of snow for quite a long time...


::The family that vaccinates together stays together??

All ten of us tromped into the travel clinic and got everything we needed for Uganda.  Ouch!!  The kids all did great though!  (A small bribe and the promise of ice cream afterwards may or may not have had anything to do with that... :)

Here's William and Benaiah showing off their battle scars...



::plans for Uganda are coming along.  It's busy, but the Lord continues to provide in amazing ways.  We are still praying for a good vehicle in Uganda and that we would have wisdom as to what to pack and what to plan on buying there and what to live without. :)  So much to think about and plan for!!

::Thank you for praying for us!  We appreciate it more than you know!!  Don't forget to scroll down...I've been blogging tonight! :D

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Talitha--Six months

My sweet blue-eyed babe is already more than six months old! 


She loves to have her siblings love on her... (she even tolerates William and Benaiah's "lovin'")

She's as chunky as anything and just found her feet...


I think the grandmas will agree that...


...she's pure sugar... (as we say in the South...)

Benaiah; no nap; 4 PM

I often think to myself, "It's a good thing the Lord made 2 year old boys so stinkin' cute..." 


For example... when they throw a very-much-so NOT cute temper tantrum by flinging themselves to the floor while I am feeding baby on the couch and I want to pull my hair out and while I take one minute to get baby situated to deal with it and I suddenly look up to find this...


It really, truly is such a blessing that he's so cute... (I mean, really...look at those lashes!)

...and that he's finally asleep so I can quick make dinner...