update from cassidy!

well, nothing can say it better than their own words! this is an email from cassidy and samantha about their honduras experience, so far. one of cassidy's biggest fears was that she would be so homesick. well, i think this email confirms that she definitely is not so homesick! haha. this particular email was sent to several of the girls' supporters, so i feel comfomfortable sharing it with you all. especially since i know some of you have specifically told me you are excited for and are praying for them.


Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well and the preparation for the trip is coming along. We are already feeling this is our home. Bill and Mary are two of the most amazing people we have ever met. What a privilege to be living in their home. I can tell that throughout these seven weeks the Lord is going to teach us many things through them and the boys. Mary is our best friend and Bill is our protective father. How awesome it is to work along side these two on a daily basis serving the Lord.

Immediately when we arrived, the younger boys flocked to us. They are so cute. However, the middle aged boys took a couple of days to see what we were all about. Some of the older ones are still “observing”. Overall we are already extremely close with all the boys and can’t imagine leaving them.

Thursday morning we and Mary were driving to the project and we got in a small car accident. It was not Mary’s fault but they tried to blame it on her. She remained calm but it scared her a bit because it was her first wreck. Later that day, a man from the group here from Florida fixed her car. Praise the Lord they did not have to put it in the shop. That is only one of the examples of how Satan tries to discourage us. One of our main desires to come here for seven weeks was to see the ins and outs of the lives of missionaries.

A typical day is to get up and leave around nine. We go with Mary to run tons of errands every morning. At 11:00 o’clock we pick up Michael and head to the project. Usually the boys have already eaten lunch so we grab a plate and eat quickly. The rest of the afternoon is spent with the boys playing, having their devotional, working on homework, or helping Mary out with anything she might need. We eat dinner with the boys pretty much every night. It consists of beans, rice, eggs, bread, and sometimes some meat. We say our goodbyes and leave around 6:00 to come home. The first thing we want to do is jump in the shower because we smell like sweaty children. :) Many nights we spend with Bill and Mary on their bed eating dinner and watching TV or hanging out with some people our own age that we have met. Overall, our days are long and tiring but so rewarding. Like we said earlier, we can not even imagine coming home.

Some prayer requests we have are:

~Financial support for Bill and Mary and for the project. They fully rely on the Lord but right now this is a huge struggle.

~Safety in everything. We take a lot of taxis and walk places and for those of you who have been here know how "interesting" they drive.

~The older boys have a hard time trusting us from day to day. It is like we have to win them over everyday and make them know that we love them and still care about them. We completely understand why because of their past and because of groups coming in and leaving as soon as they begin to get attached. Anyway, pray that the boys would be 100% sure that we love them every single day and that we are here for them.

~Please pray that in everything we do and everything we say, we are representing the Lord the way He should be. Let us have the light of Christ wherever we go.

~That the Lord would give us strength and endurance.

We love you all dearly,

Cassidy and Samantha

green cottage designs

check out my latest venture:

green cottage designs

give me a "j"!

j! i got your j, i got your j.

give me an "e"!
e! i got your e, i got your e.

give me an "s"!
s! i got your s, i got your s.

give me a "u"!
u! i got your u, i got your u.

give me an "s"!
s! i got your s, i got your s.

what's that spell?
Jesus!

King of Kings!
Jesus!

Lord of Lords!
Jesus!

he's coming back!
Jesus!

whew! another year, another vbs. ah, how i love vbs. it's such a wild, crazy, exhausting, wild, fun, encouraging (and did i mention wild?) week. but, it's worth every exhausting minute. we had a tough curriculum this year for our story hours, but we had an amazing story teacher that practically rewrote it so that our 5th and 6th grade girls (my age group) could get the most from it. i really loved how she presented the gospel every day to the girls. typically, wednesday is salvation day at vbs. while we (obviously) make that our goal for the whole week, wednesday was typically the day we hit the gospel hard. but, this year, the girls heard it every day.

i've taught vbs for several years now and this year i felt my age! i came home everyday just beat. i really don't know what it is. i mean, vbs is only from 9 - 12:30. but, i am more tired after a morning of vbs than i am from teaching 7 full class periods during the school year. but, like i said, it was worth it.

i know we had a couple girls in our age group that accepted Christ this week. quite possibly one or two we don't know about, just because they can be shy about it sometimes. and of course, many little seeds were planted. we had a lot of kids not from tbc attend. we usually do. the church is in a part of tomball that really lets kids and parents see what's going on everyday and see the signs leading up to the week. that right there is advertising. plus, well, we're just known for the best vbs in town! it's true. we work really, really hard to make our skits and music entertaining, engaging, and full of truth. sometimes that means rewriting the skits (or at least "tweaking") and finding our own music. but, our drama and music teams are up to it. and they do an amazing job. the proof is in the numbers -- we had 315 kids on our lowest day and 345 on our biggest day. plus, we hear it in the community. after vbs each day, many of our volunteers head out to lunch or run errands in their t-shirts. many come back the next day with a story of how they saw someone that stopped them and said, "i went to a tomball bible vbs when i was a kid! that was the best week ever!" i swear i'm not making this up, in fact i'm "one of those." i literally remember sitting in a darkly lit room memorizing the books of the bible at a certain church for vbs. when i experienced vbs at tomball bible (granted it was from the volunteer perspective), i was blown away at the time, thought, blood, sweat, and tears that goes into vbs week. and the result of all that work was simply an awesome week of good fun for the kids. we even have grown men take vacation time to be group leaders for the 5th and 6th grade boys!

so, that's what i've been up to this week. i think it may take me a week to recover! ;)

what a lady...

ruth bell graham dies at age 87:

http://www.bgea.org/RBG_Default.asp

the angels are dancing in heaven for her arrival this evening. what a welcome she must be receiving.

random dreams...

someday, i want--

to own an used bookstore/coffee shop.
to open a wedding/party planning business.
to travel europe -- as many parts of it as i can.
to visit australia.
to return to russia.

--among many other things.

please pray with me!

well, this morning my little sister, cassidy, went off on a plane to honduras for 7 weeks. she and a friend, samantha, were given an amazing opportunity to live in the home of orphanage directors (bill and mary) for the next 5-6 weeks. the orphanage is home to about 22 boys ranging in age from toddler to 17 years old. cass and sam will be helping around the orphanage mainly in school type lessons. english and math especially. they also took a bunch of craft supplies with them to share with the boys. at the end of that time, our church missions team will arrive. cass and sam will join the team at the point and participate in the scheduled mission trip. which will be more interaction with the boys in the orphanage as well as more community outreach in the village.

cassidy has been so excited about the opportunity for several months. but, 7 weeks is a long time to be away from family and friends. not to mention the fact that she is giving up a big portion of her summer to do this. and the comforts at home -- like air conditioning, food they are used to, english, their own rooms (among other things). on the other hand, they will gain so much more than they are giving up for this experience.

please pray for cassidy and samantha throughout these 7 weeks for:
~safety
~staying healthy
~bonding with the boys and other children in the village
~their time with mary -- she is so excited to have girls come stay with her! she is surrounded by boys and hungers for "girl-time."
~comfort while being away from their families, especially -- and also their friends.

and you can also pray for their families here at home. i know i am going to miss cass terribly. and i can imagine it's going to be tough for scott and viv, too. and for sam's family. while we are excited for them, we are also selfishly missing them! :)

my creations

every once and awhile i feel crafty. i get inspired by so many things around me. i love to pick up a new "crafty" magazine or walk through hobby lobby or jo ann's crafts and come up with new projects. of course, i'm a bit ADD when it comes to this stuff. i get impatient halfway through a project and sometimes i don't follow through with the materials that i bought. i attribute part of that to the fact that i don't have a "craft room." someday, in my dream home, i will have a designated "craft room." with a huge table on which i can create my projects and tons of storage to store my huge supply of craft "stuff." hey, i can dream, right? ;)

anyhow, i thought i would share some of my crafty creations over the past couple years. sadly, i don't have photographs of everything i have made and given away. i am sorely tempted to take photos of every single project from handmade note cards to the larger things like jamie's bulletin board. but, it seems slightly prideful and i refrain many times. i also have buried photos before the time of digital cameras somewhere that i haven't included here.

my creations