Christmas on the Way

So as is normal tradition for my family the day after Thanksgiving we haul out the Christmas decorations and put up the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music. Our Christmas decorations include a fake tree I was able to buy at a yard sale when someone was leaving Mozambique, a few ornaments I brought from home, a few ornaments that people have sent to us in packages and a few we have managed to find around town. I also brought a mini train (from the Dollar Store at home), to keep our tradition alive of having a train around our Christmas tree, mini stockings to hang, and a wooden nativity from Malawi. All in all it is looking like Christmas around our house and even smelling like it since someone sent us some lovely pine scented candles. I can't really say it is "feeling" like Christmas since it's been in the 90's the last few days but Christmas is a celebration of the heart not just certain circumstances, right? Hope you enjoy the photos of how things look around our African house at preparing for Christmas.

This is Nate trying to cool off in our backyard. He is in a cement well cover that has a puddle of water in it and playing with his boats (tupperware and milk cartons).

Memories from our Thanksgiving in Moz

Worshippers

We all WORSHIP. The question is not IF we worship but WHAT we worship. I have been leading, I would rather say participating since I am getting so much out of it, in a ladies Bible study by Beth Moore called "Living Free." That woman always seems to get right to the heart of matters. She ushers me into some serious heart searching and re-evaluation of my walk /relationship with Him. In a good way.

We have been looking at strongholds, how to have freedom from them and what things in our life hinder us from walking truly free. To me the study is proving to be a deep, valuable wealth of God's word applied practically. To begin with we spent sometime learning what a stronghold in our lives would be. For me this was an amazing measure to weigh things against. I would encourage you to do the same.

TO IDENTIFY A STRONGHOLD would be to ask yourself is there anything that:

1. Steals our focus
2. Causes us to feel overpowered, controlled or mastered.
3. Consumes so much of our emotional and mental energy that is strangles our abundant life.
4. Leaves our callings unfullfilled.
5. Makes our lives of belief ineffective.
   

Many things can hinder us but I find in my own life more often than not I have put something in the place where the one true GOD belongs (allowed a stronghold) and am serving a thing. Often in the end it serves to give me the self-seeking glory I am after. What is being so magnified  in our lives, in our spiritual eyes that we allow it to take God's position? My prayer is that each of us would walk in the true liberty that Christ has died for us to have and no longer give position to anything other than God alone in our lives.

Pretty sure I will blog more about what deep treasures I am finding in this study. Hope that someone else will benefit from it as much as I have. 

Let Thanksgiving Week Begin!

I know, I know I am getting ahead of myself saying "Let Thanksgiving begin." But I can't help it, I am excited. After all it does take more time to prepare here then in the States so I have an excuse of why I am thinking of it early.

On Friday the boys and I had some fellow American home schooling friends over to work on a craft for Thanksgiving Day. We came up with this cute craft using mostly recycled items. They are Turkey napkin rings that will be on the table Thanksgiving Day. To make the ring we used left over aluminum foil rolls or toilet paper rolls and cut them into sections. Then we used the inside of cereal boxes to trace turkey cookie cutter shapes (I brought one from the States), cut them out and glued them to the rings. Next was cutting out construction paper feathers and glueing them on. The final touch was to write each persons name and put on a glitter dot for the eye. I think the kids did an awesome job and they actually came out pretty cute.

So far there is one turkey butchered and in the freezer. This weekend our friend Manuel has gone out into the bush to try to capture two more of our turkey's so we can butcher those and freeze them as well. All this work yet the other day at the grocery store here in town I saw they had a shipment of turkeys in from Brazil of all places. Although I did also hear that someone bought one last year and when they got it home it was green. Now that is not green as in environmentally friendly that is green as in a rotten meat color kind of way. Anyway, we will stick with our home grown turkeys for a couple of reasons. Not because we are so organically conscious but first they are free because we already own them and secondly because I really don't want to end up not having turkey because it turned out to be green when I tried to cook it.

Today, I baked two home made pumpkin pies, I don't have pie plates so just ignore the non-pie shapes. It was fun and a challenge. Let's just say it took more work then MY normal "American" preparation. I had to prepare the pumpkin by cooking it and mashing it instead of buying it in a can and make the pie crust rather then buying it pre-made. I am thinking living in Mozambique and having to cook from scratch is going to turn me into a cooking and baking queen one of these days. So I can check the pumpkin pies of my to do list as well.

My next Thanksgiving adventure is to make homemade stuffing. Yep, there is such a thing. Crazy huh, who knew? Just kidding. So although I have never been one to make it homemade before this is my year. So today I bought four loaves of bread (that part is not going to be homemade-come on now don't push it) and because of the lovely internet I was able to download a recipe that is supposed to taste just like Stovetop. We will see since I have to wait to make that Thanksgiving Day.

So that is about all for now on the Thanksgiving prepartions. The rest has to wait until the day or so before. I'll let you know how it all goes. Hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

What are Your Pineapples?

Tonight we attended our bi-monthly missionary fellowship. Getting together with the other missionaries in town is very important to us and an important part of our support team. We enjoy the fellowship, the worship, the common bond of understanding, the spiritual encouragement (oh, and the yummy food). Each time it is hosted at a different missionary's house and that person shares a message. For this evenings message we were read "The Pineapple Story" in Portuguese which was then translated into English. Many may have heard it but for those that haven't it is a story about a missionary in Papua New Guinea that struggles with the natives stealing "his" pineapples until he finally realizes that everything he has belongs to God including his pineapples. What an appropriate story and lesson for a group of missionaries. I was challenged. We all have many things in our lives that we consider our "rights". Things we are owed; respect, gratitude, conveniences of life, love, acceptance, safety, fun, things for our children. For each of us the list of what we think we deserve would be different. Yet for each of us the real truth is that Jesus came and emptied Himself of all that He deserved so we could have abundant life. What are we willing to give to God? What are we willing to empty ourselves of for the sake of others seeing the love of God displayed in our lives? What are our pineapples that we have demanded are ours that need to be given back to God? If everyone was willing to lay down their "rights" how would it change those in our communities? My prayer tonight is that I don't hold onto one single pineapple and call it my own but instead lay them all at Jesus' feet and ask Him what He would have me do with His pineapples.

"LOVE" from Home

You know that expression "When it rains, it pours?" Well that was how we felt this week. Not in a bad way, in a very good way. Some boxes were being shipped from the States by my mother and our old cell group at Grace Capital Church. We were excitedly awaiting their arrival. I should say we were waiting and checking, waiting and checking, waiting and checking. These things always seem to take longer than they should but finally on Wednesday they arrived and all on the same day. FOUR boxes on one day. It was like Christmas. We each opened one while the rest of the family looked on. It was so exciting! Here are a few of my favorite things that arrived with love from home this week:

• Ziplock bags - I was just dreaming of these the other day.
• Shoes for Micah - We've been praying for these as his other shoes have literal holes in them.
• A Charlie Brown Singing Christmas Card - I miss watching those TV Specials with the boys this year.
• Christmas decorations - We may have a decent looking tree after all.
• Candy - M&M's, Skittles, and Nerds-yummy!
• Dunkin  Donuts Coffee - Ahhh, delicious. Amazing what therapy a good cup of coffee.
• School Supplies - Great for us and for ministry.
• Seeds - Pretty flowers and veggies like Broccoli, Cauliflower, etc.
• A Christmas Gift for the boys - There isn't much to buy here so this is great.
• Books - I can't get enough to read plus I can pass them along for others to enjoy.
• Spice Packets - Great to have a taste of home.

Well there were about a million other things as well and I have forgotten important ones I'm sure. But the most important thing that came with those boxes was the knowing we are loved, prayed for and thought about. Now that is special! Thanks to all those that give of themselves so we can feel so LOVED.

My Kids Worldview

I am realizing that my kids have a very different world view than probably most kids their age. Just simply by living in a third world country they are exposed to different sights, sounds, ideas then even when I was growing up. Today as we were sitting in the car in town while Marc ran into the place we take our case of coke bottles to be filled a woman was walking down the road with her baby tied to her back and a live chicken hanging from her left hand by its feet. I said to the boys "Do you see that?" "See what?" was their response. "The lady with the chicken," I said. "Yeah, what's the big deal?" they responded. "The woman is carrying a live chicken down the road." "And??" the boys said as they stared back at me like what is the big deal mom. I said, "You know guys this would not be a normal sight in America!" "Oh, yeah I guess," came their response.

Today I also noticed that Micah was trying to remember things from the States. He couldn't remember the names of the places he is most familiar with like Walmart and restaurants. Funny how you get used to something pretty quick. Not that I mind because personally I don't think it's a bad thing for our boys to be exposed to a different way of life. I say it widens their horizons. Of course my boys can also hold a conversation with you about Mugabe and the damage his politics have done to Zimbabwe but that is for another day or maybe not.