Family Night -"Family"

When I am asked about the reason behind family night my answer is simple- Intentional Time Together. I recently had a conversation with Hubby about the amount of time we have, or we don't have. We talked about the hectic pace our family is running at right now. (And I have to say....It is a fun pace!) We love all that is going on around us right now. We love all that is happening at church and in our lives. God is so good. And He is SO faithful. All that we prayed for a year ago and so much more has now been dumped on our heads. :-) Great friends, great church, great small group, great ministries, etc, etc and if we aren't careful and intentional we are going to blink and we will have missed so much. One thing that I REFUSE to "miss" is family time. I can't control the freak speed of things that are going on around our lives, but I can control the speed in my house.

This family night was about FAMILY.

We painted family pictures with finger paint. (ok parents when was the last time YOU painted with finger paint?)

And then the big girls, me, and Hubby all sat down for the second part of the night. We sent the little guys to bed and then big people in the family (which now includes B and S :-O ) sat down for some goal setting. We thought that if we are REALLY going to be intentional then we need some goals. So we set out on a mission to set some personal goals and family goals. Hubby and I did it right along with the girls. My goals included anything from getting volunteering locally to giving up Mt. Dew :-(. BUT.....

I won't lie. Setting goals was VERY difficult for the girls. I don't know if it was because we have never done it before, because they are 12 and full of emotion, if PMS was visiting, heck it could have been because something I did a month ago. I don't know???? But after a bit of struggle, a couple of shed tears, some stomping off, and growling at me......we accomplished the task at hand. We have family goals set for anything from a day trip to DC to organizing family devotion time.


All in all it was a great night. Next step will be for hubby and I to talk through all of the goals and prioritize them. We may even cut a couple, considering one of them included getting a dog.
But one thing is for sure we will be working together to accomplish things as a family. God gave us our family and we intend to use it to point to him. Forgetting, neglecting, ignoring each other will NOT accomplish that.

God we pray that our goals always match your plans for our lives. We pray that you will guide us and give us wisdom as we live for you and guide our family to do the same. Thank you for the gift of family that you have given us. I pray that we NEVER take it for granted.

Jeremiah 29:11-12

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² In those days when you pray, I will listen.

L

Turkey Day5

Today it finally all caught up to us. We are all exhausted......but.......IT's MOVIE NIGHT!!!! We intentionally set this up so that we could have a break. Break for the kids from us and a break from the norm. The older kids are watching one movie and the little ones are watching another.

Not much to write because I am to exhausted to think!

Good night!
L

Turkey Day4

Short Day today. (As far as with the kids) We spent the morning at the conference and then the afternoon was out sightseeing.

One of my favorites for the morning was little Maggie Prayed," Dear God, thank you for EVERYTHING! Thank you that I'm gonna get bigger and go in the big class (AKA:where the adults/parents were) and I don't have to be in the little class anymore. Amen."

~What am I supposed to say to that.....apparently we have a way with children.~
After lunch and a couple of downloads from the guys (sorry for the bathroom humor)..... We headed off to Ankara to enjoy an afternoon out. We drove into town....well actually... Nat drove, honked, flashed lights and waved at people, all the way to into downtown. I must say that my prayer life was refreshed after that little adventure. We went to a mosque. It was huge. Compare it to the National Cathedral. The huge, beautiful building with amazing architecture, paintings, hand made rugs, chandelier made of gold, etc. etc. It is in the capitol city of Ankara, at the center of the city. It was obvious that it was a land mark that the city was very proud of. A symbol of the culture and sadly a symbol of the heart of the city. Big, beautiful, and empty.

We went into a mall/market to SHOP!! YAY!!! I love to shop. We wondered around and got some neat little things and then Ame had to pee....AGAIN.....
*side note* Ame has a bladder the size of a pea. (no pun intended) She has to pee every 10-15 minutes (slightly exaggerated....she has to pee every 16-20 minutes) She definitely could have made good use of a "go- girl". In fact a "go- girl" was a constant joke while we were there. My only regret is that we didn't buy any. Next time....Next time.

~Sorry back to my story~
So Ame had to pee again and Abbi graciously showed her the restrooms (Granted we could smell them a mile away) and then she showed her where to pay! Yep. You had to pay. Now this good ole southern girl has never had to pay to go pee. But if I did pay to pee I would expect some grand and glorious experience. Like someone to powder and fluff my butt afterwards. Or gold plated seats that are sprinkled with pixie dust. But NO these were squatty potties. No glory. Nothing grand. Just squat.
Thank God I held my pee! :-)

After that we went to a castle. Talk about a room with a view! It was amazing. While we were on top the call to prayer went out. It was amazing to stand up there looking out over this incredible city and hear this. It is a sound I will never forget (I pray). A sound to remind us to pray...for the Turkish people.
After leaving there we walked down and did more shopping :-) Bags,socks, and scarves. It was fantastic!
From there we went to eat some dinner. We had the best Kebobs. (not to be confused with Kabobs. Kabobs are Americans bad attempt to create something that tastes as good as a Kebob :-)
Then Abbi had to pick up some that was "just down a hill" from the restaurant. I think (even though she speaks English) "just down the hill" means something different in
Turkey :-). In our search we had some great conversation (ok in between huffing and puffing but it was still great conversation) Today I saw real life in Turkey. I also learned that Abby definitely fits my profile of a lifelong friend:
-Out of town
-Funny
-Someone who "gets me"
(My lifelong friends are a short list of people that God has placed at different points in my life at just the right time. I guess we have moved enough that all of those friends now are out of town. :-)

After many laughs, some ice cream and a prayerful ride home (thanks Nat)...It is bedtime.


İyi uykular

There is no lion in the street, you are LAZY!

I love when I open my devotion and bible to read something completely unexpected. I am thankful today for God giving my soemthing to put in my "thought bank" that I will cash in on later. :-)

My devotion today was on Proverbs 22:13 It was about 2 different things.
#1 Was about laziness.
#2 Was about tricks our mind can play on us.

Proverbs talk about the Lazy man and how he "thinks" he sees a lion outside. But the truth is that his mind has played a trick on him. "The truth is held hostage by the unrighteous commitments of the heart. The unrighteous heart then employs the mind to distract and deceive."~ Piper

John 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the Light.

Piper goes on to say "Doing the evil we love makes us hostile to the light of truth which will expose the evil and rob us of its fleeting pleasures. In this condition the mind becomes a factory of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries,evasions and lies." (Deep)

Do Evil that we love.
Become hostile toward truth that would have exposed evil.
Then our mind begins its tricks.
We lie to ourselves.
We lie to others.
We probably try to lie to God.

All of this because you were lazy! You sat in your sin and enjoyed it. You became content with it. The truth that there is NOT a lion outside has been held hostage in you mind. Because of your were doing evil and have now become hostile towards the Light and truth.
And now you think there is a lion outside. Fear has set in. And you are in bondage.

________
As I read and write this morning so much has gone through my head. I have such a strong emotion when it comes to dishonesty. I HATE IT!
But I feel like God has placed a scrolling sign in my mind that keeps saying, "The truth is held hostage by the unrighteous commitments of the heart."

God please help me to be compassionate. When I don't understand, help me to look only to you. God thank you for stretching me this morning. God help me to not be Lazy!

Rain

Today my devotion was about Job. Now anytime I read Job I always come away feeling pretty silly. I am always humbled at the picture of suffering that is painted. My trials and troubles are NOTHING in comparison. So as I read it I just shake my head in amazement. But today was a little different I read only a little bit of Job, Job 5:8-10 and then I readout of my devotion book: Taste and See~ Piper It spoke of how amazing the RAIN is. The sheer miracle that is preformed every time a single drop hits the Earth. You can read it here.

All I can say is WOW! I think that all to often we miss God because we are so distracted by the seemingly mundane. Too often I have woke in the morning and said," Aww. It's raining today." or "Yuck it is a nasty rainy day today."

God, Thank you for the rain. For the miracle that is preformed in each drop that waters your Earth. Thank you for Job and the new lesson I have learned today. Thank you for opening my eyes through your word.

Turkey Day3

Today has been a neat day. Full of building new relationships. Some of the High Schoolers (Sara and Tim) were teaching some of our guys (Mike and Chunky) some Turkish. Mike wanted to know how to say good morning. So they graciously (note the sarcasm) gave him a lesson. Except the words that they taught him meant "My feet stink". It was great for a laugh.

Mike and Chucky have been so neat about wanting to embrace the culture. Every time we go to order food somewhere Chucky always says ,"I want whatever is the most Turkish." Now some might call this brave, others might call it stupid. But one thing I can say is he is willing. Examples of things he ate/drank: Ayran ~ şalgam ~ and our FAVORITE Pide

Tonight we has an amazing conversation with a worker here. He shared his story over a cup of Turkish coffee. We were told there is a saying,"A single cup of Turkish coffee will be remembered for 40 years." There were many amazing things that he said (too many to ever write out). The one that stands out the most to me is: What are you willing to do for the cause of Christ? What would you be willing to do to win 1 person to Jesus?

I think it is easy to say, "Of course I would do ANYTHING." But we all know that isn't true. But Jesus was willing to do anything.

Tonight we have been challenged in a way that I pray I never forget. I pray that I never loose sight of Brad's passion and love for his country, his family, and God.

Tonight I also got to talk to all 4 of my babies. I miss them so much. My heart sighed relief when I got to talk to them. But being here makes me see how engulfed in MY life I am. God please keep moving and changing my heart. Stretching me so that I see no boundaries and no walls.

Good Night Turkey.

~L

Turkey Day2

Day 2

Feeling a little better today. Not near as tired as yesterday. I slept like a baby last night (thanks to exhaustion and Ambian :-) After eating lunch together as a team we geared up to meet our kids.
PDF (Pastor Daniel Floyd) and I are working with birth-6year olds. We have been told that there is a "children's" room. Anything will be better than a lobby, a the edge of a pool, a hotel room, etc. So I was a little excited! We discovered that our room is WAY down stairs, around a corner, through locker rooms, down a dark hallway, and TA-DA there sat kids room. Though a little out of the way it was perfect. (Maybe the Turkish people have something figured out about putting kids that far away from everyone else.)

After meeting our kids, we dove right into playing games.

We even resorted to placing stickers on our heads. We called them "Happy" stickers because they make you HAPPY when you put them on.



See how it made this child happy :-)

After lots of fun and lots of stickers we headed outside to play and do our story time. PDF sat and told a bible story about Jesus healing. One theme of the week was "I believe that Jesus can do anything." It was incredible to see the kids really latch on to the theme. I pray that God will use this week to build a foundation of faith in these little people lives.
Funny Moments for the day
*PDF played a game outside with the kids called the "see who blinks first game" the looser had to stand on his head.

Turkish custom is TEA. And it is everywhere. They drink tea before dinner and after dinner. I am not a huge Tea fan. In fact I don't like it. I decided that if it would be rude to NOT drink tea then I would drink tea (after all...when in Turkey). But we discovered that Chucky, loves tea. I am not sure if he loves tea in general or Turkish tea. I think that by the end of the day he has had at least 15+ cups.

The other funny moment of the day was a Turkish hotel employee was crazy about a dog puppet I have. It looks like a sheep dog, and to the unknowing it kind of looks real. He ended up coming to me and "trying" to ask if he could take it to scare a fellow employee. The FUNNY part was me (The Tennessean that I am) trying to communicate back and forth to a non-English speaking Turk about the puppet.
_____
A great day! The kids are incredible. But I have found that they are just like ours (I am not sure what I expected though). They love to play, love to laugh, and love to sing. The only difference is that sometimes they get there English and Turkish mixed up.
The families that we have the honor of working with are amazing. In different ways some of them give a unique taste of home. It is amazing to hear the different stories and roads that they have travel to get to Turkey. I can't wait to hear others.

Until tomorrow.