Memorial Box Monday - Anonymous Blessings

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.
"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells the Isrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that every time they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays
go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays?

aka We will remember..." post.

So last week we did a few speaking events. The first was at another campus of our church and the second was with a group of kids at CHF. We love sharing God's story and how he uses us to do his work to encourage others, hence the blog... so we had fun!

After a few times of sharing with people we get used to getting asked questions, and even one lady had said that she read our blog during the Food Pak challenge! But last week we were blessed with something that has never really happened before. And we hope that the person doesn't mind us sharing this (we don't actually know who it was). But last week we got a call from our friend Jesse at CHF asking if we were around the office because he had something for us that someone dropped off. Since we live in San Antonio now, it is a lot easier to just hop on over to the the warehouse. :)

When we got there we got to see some of our friends- Char, Paul, and Jesse- a blessing in itself! Then Jesse made us work just a bit...pppsshh typical Jesse. But when we left we got a sweet card, no name signed, but in it was a hundred dollar bill! Someone who was volunteering at CHF when we shared our story was just really blessed and wanted to share their heart with us.

As an unemployed couple this is a huge blessing! But not as a means to pay bills or anything... During the time we were raising money for the well last year we opened up a savings account to keep the money in. After we met our goal we left this account open and continued to put extra money in it creating a "Projects Fund". We did this so no matter what was going on in our lives we would always have money to do the things we love. Like help sponsor someone's mission trip, or donate to an adoption, or buy $200 in toys to hand out for Christmas... just little things like that. ;) But after 6 months of no income that fund has been long depleted.

But now with the opening of our LOVE shop and a sweet $100 blessing, we can start creating some of our ideas for products to help more people- like the hungry, the sick, the orphaned, and the enslaved as well as continuing our LOVE shirts for the thirsty- all in time for Christmas! We are so excited to use this blessing to keep sharing God's love and to continue living to love others!

This is what the card read: The Lord has touched the lives of so many through your service. As you give of your time so lovingly, it's easy to see His light shining through you. May God bless you as you continue to impact lives and light the way to Him.
"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 (The same verse we shared in our last MBM post!)

Into our Memorial Box will go a $100 bill! Ha, ha, not the real one - that's gonna be put to use! So thankful for God's blessings lately and to be able to continue to serve Him with our lives.

Memorial Box Monday ~ Camp Eagle

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.

"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells theIsrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that every time they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays? aka We will remember..." post.

We have been blessed this summer to be able to spend time together volunteering and joining our church in the activities that they have been doing. One of the things we got to join in on was Camp Eagle with the middle school students.

Not familiar with Camp Eagle? The website says "...it is a unique and fast-paced week of summer camp for groups, jam-packed full of outdoor adventure activities." And they are not kidding! The best part was the journey that the students took to recognize and tell their stories and to have the chance to align them with God's plan. With the students, the leaders were also along for the ride. We didn't know what the plan was, we didn't have a schedule, we were out of the loop the whole week and it was sweet!

The theme for the week was STORY and at the beginning of the camp we were all asked to find a rock that represented us and our story so far. We were told to hold on to that rock and to take it everywhere we went. Throughout the week we got to tell our stories, decide who the hero was, ponder why we tell our story, and learn how we can tell a better story. At the end of the week we were asked to consider putting our story (rock) down and giving it to God.

When the time came to lay our rocks down I didn't want to give mine up. Not figuratively, because daily I want to lay my life down for God's plan to prevail, but my rock was really cool and I liked how it told my story. But as we ventured out to pray with our groups one last time before giving up our rocks, we sat down in a circle and right there in front of me was another rock. (When we chose our rocks their were literally thousands of rocks around us. There were rocks all over Camp Eagle. Rocks and dirt. But as we found a spot to sit in the grass there were very few rocks around.) This rock was different, too. It was shaped like an arrow! And in the middle of our circle where it was pointing sat a brightly shining lantern. This little rock reminded me why I was letting go of my story- to point to the Light. To live a life that glorifies the God who made me so that others don't have to walk in darkness. Don't tell Camp Eagle, but I picked up the rock! I knew it was for me. I put it in our Memorial Box the day we got back home to remind us daily to lay down the things of this life and to live lives that point to the Light.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Matthew 5:16

Check out our adventure at Camp Eagle!

Memorial Box Monday - It is "well" with my soul!

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.

"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells theIsrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that every time they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays? aka We will remember..." post.

A few weeks ago, we logged into our blog e-mail account (we don’t get much mail so we don’t do it that often) and we had some mail!  It came from Pastor Fritz, our Uncle in Michigan.  He explained that he had given a sermon during Christmas time about bringing our gifts to Jesus and had mentioned what we were doing for clean water.  But much like blogging, people often come and go, and leave you wondering, hoping that what you've said meant something to someone.    

Well someone was listening to that sermon, but it would take 6 months to find out... Below is the email we found in our inbox. (It's a bit lenghty, but it's worth the read. :)

It is “well” with my soul!
Hey guys, I wanted to share with you a neat story from our church service yesterday. Back in December, for one of my Christmas sermons, I mentioned that you guys where partnering with an organization that provided clean water for those who have none. The sermon wasn't just about the water project, but more down the lines of "bring our gifts to Jesus". Afterwards, our mission treasurer decided to support you and that is where the gift from North Rome came from and for all practical purposes that is where I figured our churches involvement would end.
Move ahead to our service a week ago, and a "Grandma Westgate" came up to me and said her grandson had something he wanted to show me, but he wasn't able to come today, so he would bring it next week.  Fast forward again to yesterday.  I got the church ready to go and went down to get the mail. On my way back up, I was actually opening up your thank-you note, when grandma Westgate and a very smiley grandson turned the corner and said "Pastor Fritz, we saved up this money ($100.19) and it's for the kids who don't have any water"!!! How cool is that! (I always wonder if anyone is listening to my sermons and apparently at least one kid was!) Any how, I guess grandson was there that day in December and was quite moved by the fact that some kids have no water. He had gone home and discussed it with his grandma and she told him that if he tried hard to put a dollar a week in his bank (a converted orange juice bottle) by the end of the year he would have 52 dollars to send to the "well people". Grandma also promised that if he was faithful to it, she would contribute the difference to make a gift of 75 dollars. A week or so ago, Grandma saw grandson adding more change to the bottle and casually asked him how much he thought he had. Grandson is not an estimating kind of kid, so he dumped it out and started counting. When it was all said and done, He had already saved by himself, 75.19! Grandma was so impressed and excited that she gave him the other 25 dollars right on the spot!
And how cool is Gods timing that at the very moment I an opening your thank-you/update, he is coming with more! As a matter of fact I able to hand him the water drop thank-you and a copy of your newsletter so he would know the well is on the way! To cool! Anywho, just wanted you to know how far reaching God's will is, and that your work is not in vain!
Love ya!
Fritz 

It's great to know that something that God has already blessed way beyond what we had imagined is still continuing to glorify Him, but to top it off we had been pretty bad with sending out thank you notes to all of the people that helped us out (6 months late) but God still used it for part of His plan.

And if you don’t think that is cool enough, we have more...  We are here visiting family in Michigan and are going by some sort of scheduled/seat-of-our-pants itinerary.  So when we showed up unannounced at Fritz's church on Sunday he was just as surprised as we were when he shared with his church the same sweet story and also the exchange of e-mails and our newsletter that he had printed in the church bulletin that day! He also delivered a great sermon about offering to God what we have in our hands so that He can do something beautiful, and told the story of Ivan, his grandma, and the juice bottle of change.  Another God thing- putting us at the right place at the right time.  How cool is it that we could be there to hear the story right in the place that it happened? :)

What a beautiful, big-picture story of God's great plan and how perfect His timing is, even when we are waaay late.  To remind us of this, our King's blessings when we serve Him, and this faithful child of God, we will put in our memorial box a ribbon from North Rome Baptist Church's recent 150th Anniversary.
 

Memorial Box Monday ~ Iphamna

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.

"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells theIsrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that every time they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays? aka We will remember..." post.

Now about that little shoe...

Last weekend we watched the kids while Mom and Dad went to a graduation lunch with some friends. So like any other awesomely cool siblings we packed our bags and headed to Sea World! We watched shows, played at the water park, and rode a few rides. On the way out we hunted for a smashed penny machine to remember the day by, why did I bring my camera? While the kids were cranking I was waiting in the shade and happened to look down to find a dime. Lucky me! So I threw it in the stroller cup holder and shuffled out to the car.

That night we drove to Devine with the kids because the next morning we would be helping out with a garage sale. We all got a good nights rest (NOT!) and woke up bright and early to get things ready, load up the car, and place the still pajamaed children in their car seats for the drive. After we set up and got breakfast our next goal was to find something to keep the kids busy and so I employed them. I offered to match a nickel for every high-five they sold. Sounded like a great idea! Except for the fact that high-fives seem to be out of season. Brogan still helped me sell a few glasses of lemonade so I gave him the dime I found the day earlier.

We found a nice indoor sale that had enough junk to really poke around for something good in, and Teddi and Brogan sure did poke. Teddi now has the ability to smell like Cotton Candy any time she wants to for the mere price of 10 cents! And Brogan bought us something! :) He walked out smiling with his 10 cent purchase- a baby bottle! "This is for your baby!" he proudly exclaimed as he handed it to us. We were grateful but assured him that that time wouldn't come for awhile...

Fast foward to Sunday after church. We were scheduled for a meeting that got cancelled and by the time we decided to invite someone to lunch everyone had left. So we thought lunch together would also be nice and headed down the street to eat. We also found our way to Target, Home Depot, and Family Christian. We were just stepping into the last place to grab a CD with Taylor's birthday money, or so we thought. As soon as we walked in we were confronted with a tower of smiling faces. Each one was 3"x4", came with a name, where they were from, and the opportunity to change a life. World Vision was doing a campaign and we were well over due... We had always talked about sponsoring a child but couldn't seem to fit it into our budget... but now with no budget at all it just seemed right for some reason. (God is so funny.) Sorta resetting our budget with priorities in place. ;)

So after looking through so many photos and once again being overwhelmed at the number of children needing sponsored and the difficulty of just choosing one, a nice cashier comes over and shows us a sweet little boy who's birthday is coming up! "He's still a baby!" she says, and her excitement is almost enough to sign us up on the spot. But we tucked him behind a couple others and do our shopping before reaching a decision. We grabbed our CDs and decided that we just couldn't leave that little guy behind! It's his birthday next month AND he is wearing our number on his shirt! So we brought his smiling little face home. :) Ummm... Where did we put that baby bottle? And does Brogan also pick lotto numbers cause I now have a kid to feed...

Here are photos of the delivery of our new baby. ;)

(The Doctor errrr.... I mean cashier who helped us pick)

And, announcing the arrival of sweet baby Iphamna!

(Well I guess he arrived about a year ago, but now he has a special place in our hearts and in our lives!)

Into our Memorial Box will go this baby bottle, given to us at just the right time, to remind us that even though situations may not be perfect, there is never a wrong time to follow God's plan!

(Especially when you've been putting it off long enough to get beat by your little brother! ;) Proud of you Brady for making a difference with your love for Christ! Now we have little sponsor cousins! ;)

To find out more about sponsoring children through World Vision go here!

Memorial Box Monday ~ Blessed by Boxes

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.

"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells the Isrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that every time they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays? aka We will remember..." post.

If you'll remember back to our MBM post about Sweet Tea and Chocolate, you'll remember that making a decision to move back to San Antonio was kinda a big deal for us. Lots and lots of prayer was involved as well as petitioning for wisdom from elders, ending in a prayer that we could find peace and confidence in our decision. Well God certainly heard that prayer and sealed it with Sweet Tea and Chocolate, but he continues to comfort us and bring certainty to our decision.

Now that the moving process has begun, we have looked at things with a new lens, realizing how much work it really is to relocate from a third story apartment to a single bedroom 300 some miles away. Yet through these times even, God has been with us...

A friend of Frankie's boss had been moving and as he unpacked, Frankie's boss brought car load after car load, day after day, of [expensive] moving boxes (and tons of bubble wrap) to the office for us to use! We didn't realize what God had provided until we stepped back and looked...

and stacked...

(there are many more flattened boxes behind these) We had about 30 quality moving boxes sitting in our living room the week we were ready to start packing! Not three weeks before, not two weeks later, and of no charge to us! We were blessed!

To add to it, when we finally got around to calling UHaul to figure out how to rent a trailer, there were only two of three options left- the two options we hadn't decided on after much thought and wrestling with a decision. We had decided to go for the medium size and figure out what to do with anything that didn't fit the next week. So when we called, and all that was left was the small and the large, we opted for the larger knowing that the small would have been way to small. We weren't planning on paying that much but God knew just what we needed- we loaded that baby full and it towed just fine! Needless stress removed from the coming weekend!

And to end it, we had not found a storage place yet...yes, we are slackers. (But, maybe out of ignorance, we are not worriers!) Frankie had taken a quick peek around the area to find out average prices and Mom looked, too. All were pretty steep. So Saturday morning, while unloading the UHaul at the Winder's house, we began to take out the items that were staying in our one room. Then we were going to take the rest...ummm...who knows were...and try to find a storage place not too far away. But in that big old house (with tiny bedrooms) God allowed Mom and Dad to bless us with abundant space for ALL of our belongings! All of their stuff they had moved two weeks prior fit nicely into the garage, leaving empty a room off the back of the garage twice the size of a typical storage facility! These lovely parents delegated us space in this room for the cheap price of being part-time summer school teachers! ;)

It's been a lot of work, but seeing God through every detail of our move is simply joyful. Into our Memorial Box will go this [adorable] miniature moving box to remind us that God is truly taking care of us and is definitely a God who "cares right down to the last detail." James 5:11 MSG

Memorial Box Monday - TOMS

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.

"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells the Isrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that everytime they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays? aka We will remember..." post.

We didn't hear about TOMS until a few years ago... I think Taylor's brother Brady, was the first to have them of the people we knew. But when we heard about them and the movement that they created, we had to have a pair of our own! So for Christmas we got giftcards for TOMS from Taylor's grandparents and were so excited to pick out our first pair! We each bought our shoes and (with a coupon code of course) even had some change left over on the cards.

After we we had them awhile Frankie's sister, Kathy, wanted a pair so we gave here a left over giftcard to help with part of the shipping costs.  Well she ended up buying them in a store and didn't use it, which left us with a couple of floating around giftcards with a couple of dollars each. We kinda forgot about them until the time came for our blogger birthday and 100th post! That day we wanted to thank everyone who had been reading and encouraging us throughout the year so we did giveaways all day- books from Max Lucado and Chris Seay, a CHF T-shirt and bracelet, tickets to the ALS benefit, and of course a pair of TOMS! It was a busy day and we mailed prizes everywhere from San Antonio to Canada!

The lucky winner of the TOMS was a sweet blogger family-friend from San Antonio, Lexie (She and her Mom blog here!). She was so excited to win those shoes, and we were so excited that she did, too! We exchanged emails and ordered her shoes of choice.  As we were checking out online we called Kathy to get that card number to cover part of the cost. We entered it in and checked the total... $8.61...

 
 

Wait a minute!... WHAT? How is that possible? We spent those giftcards on our own TOMS, but somehow it was reading $50.00! All we had to pay was the shipping... and after a day of giveaways the blessing was very much appreciated! :) So in our Memorial Box we will place our TOMS giftcard to remind us that sometimes when you bless others you find that you are the ones being blessed! (And also to double check our giftcards!)

To go along with our Memorial Box Monday post we also have a date to share with you... April 5, 2011. Yep, it's tomorrow!

April, 5th is TOMS's "A Day Without Shoes". And if you don't know what that is we will explain....it is a day when you don't wear shoes... ;) to bring awareness to children that don't have shoes. We will be going to work/school without shoes and invite you to join us for the day or just part of the day. We also invite you to read why shoes matter to people who have none!

So don't forget tomorrow to trim and paint your nails because tomorrow we will bare our soles!

Memorial Box Monday ~ Sweet Tea and Chocolate

Linny at A Place Called Simplicity started Memorial Box Mondays.


"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells the Isrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that everytime they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays? aka We will remember..." post.

We are excited to share with you our story about the very first few objects that will go into our memorial box! But first, we need to give you a little background... Once upon a time, about seven years ago, a boy met a girl in a small town. They grew in love with each other. They had family and friends and great fun. But after a few years, he went away to college and she to Florida. The two remained together but in different states. Finally the day came when the two would live in the same state once again- no more long trips and no more missing birthdays and other special events. They were soon engaged, married, and looking for a place to live… and this is where the real story begins.

Deciding where we would live after we got married was a big decision for us. Taylor had a job with the church and was going to school. Frankie had just got a raise and that promised them a more stable lifestyle. We both had family in San Antonio. But, we decided on Houston as a way to be a little more independent and to start our own lives. That was decision number one.

After a while in Houston, and months and months of driving back to San Antonio for the weekends and birthdays and benefits and such, we started to miss what we had. We grew at Journey and started to get involved with CHF. These were things that we were having a hard time doing in Houston. We found a church in Houston, and we love Ecclesia, but it didn’t feel like home. We joined a small group too, but even that felt like it was missing something. So after one and a half years we thought and prayed about moving back to San Antonio. We talked to elders and parents and God… and after talking to our apartment complex (because we would have to end our lease early) we felt like it wasn’t the right time. Decision number two.

Here we are three months later. The end of our lease is coming up, Taylor is about to finish her spring semester, and we find ourselves asking the same question. Can we go home? We’ve prayed and prayed and prayed. Our parents prayed. We went to meet with elders at Journey to pray. Where were we supposed to be? What is God calling us to do? We met with schools about transferring; we met with bosses about leaving. Neither provided a quick and easy answer, but only more options to consider. Houston is so good to us- one year left of school and a job that again offered another raise to stay- an easy choice from most people’s point of view. But, we really felt like our hearts and all of our time and efforts were being invested in San Antonio and a move there would be a leap of faith, with a change of degree plan, finding a new job, and a place to stay. This would come to be decision number three.

We finally felt like we were ready to commit to a decision and then a few ideas made us unsettled. So back and forth and back and forth and finally we decided to fast until we found an answer, a clear sign. So we prayed and fasted (along with Taylor’s mom) for the morning. For lunch we met up at a museum that we like to visit for a walk and some talk and to see how we were feeling. When we arrived we were tempted by a street vendor selling tacos…but we continued to fast… We started in a new exhibit, then walked to a small chapel, then to another. Lots of talk and quite a bit of frustration later, we were walking back to the car pretty sure knowing the decision we were going to make but still feeling a bit uneasy. With our decision made, we feasted! And those were seriously the best tacos ever!

So here we were scared and excited (not at the same time, one of us was actually scared and the other was so excited) and we had to part ways, digesting all that had just happened (and those delicious tacos!). This is where our Memorial Box Monday objects come in… We prayed on our way back to the office for God to confirm that this was the right decision. (Others were also praying that we would be confident in our decision once it was made and have peace once we decided.) We shared a Coke with our tacos although Taylor drank most of it, since Frankie knew he had some sweet tea at the office. So once he got there he popped open a bottle and smiled. God knows exactly what we need to see and when we need to see it. On the inside of his tea cap was a unique quote just like every other bottle of Granny’s Sweet Tea, but this one spoke directly to his heart- “Spend more time on what makes you happy”. That was it. The sign that he had been waiting for, a confirmation. But HE doesn’t just stop there because that same afternoon as Taylor was enjoying a little piece of chocolate, she also received a little confirmation on the inside of her wrapper. Dove wrappers seem to always have something witty to say as well, but this one spoke straight to her heart- “Go where your heart takes you”. Just what we each needed to see when we need to see it.

So decision number three has been made, and if it wasn’t worth telling you about we wouldn’t be posting this. Can you guess where we will be living by the end of April? San Antonio here we come and we are excited to see how God will use us in our new/old home town! There is so much more to this God story, little bits and pieces that we will hold dear to our hearts, but for now we will place our tea cap and Dove wrapper in our memorial box to remind us of how God always hears us and provides in His perfect timing.

"Spend more time on what makes you happy."

"Go where you hear takes you."

Memorial Box Monday

Welcome to our first ever Memorial Box Monday post!  Because our year of eating off $10 a week is now done along with Menu Mondays, we have moved on to join other blogs that feature Memorial Box Monday!  Taylor's mom, Tina, at One Blessed Nest was the first to introduce us to this feature and she started when she won a memorial box in a giveaway from Linny at A Place Called Simplicity who started Memorial Box Mondays.  We would like to announce that we now have our own little box to house small reminders of different times in our lives when God has blessed us!

"In Joshua 4 Almighty God tells the Isrealites to collect stones and set them as a Memorial to remind them of God's power and provision. He then tells the Isrealites to use those stones as a memorial; that everytime they see them to tell their children and their children's children the stories over and over again, continually reminding them of God's faithfulness."

To read the full idea and an introduction to Memorial Box Mondays go here and read Linny's "How about Memorial Box Mondays?  aka We will remember..." post. 

The story of how we found our box isn't much different then how everyone seems to find theirs.  We were at the thrift store on base in the tools and outdoors corner and just happened to see this hunter green frame with wood sections and a small door.  We had been thinking of looking for one so we were excited at the possibilities of this green box!  We were trying to keep it a bit of a secret from Taylor's mom, who we were shopping with, so we could announce it on our blog, but she caught us at the check out and knew what it was for as soon as she saw it.  She also said that she had been looking for one to get us and so she paid  for it... about $8.  :)  Next step was to get the green paint off, then the red below it, then the blue below that.  So I sent a message to Grandpa to see if he could maybe strip the box of paint for Christmas and add a back board.  He agreed and what was underneath the paint was not expected...beautiful wood!  This box looked like it had been sitting in someone's workshop for years, rusted with layers of paint.  Now it looked like we just had it made!  So we decided not to stain it as originally planned for now.  Take a look and let us know what you think!  Keep an eye out for our new Memorial Box Mondays and watch as we fill it with reminders of how awesome our Great Big God is! :) We are excited and hope you are too!  Maybe you will want to start your own Memorial Box with your family!!  Thanks Mom for the box and thanks Grandpa for the hard work!