and we're back....

hello!

I can't believe it has almost been a year since I fell off the blogging wagon.  It was a sudden stop mid Mexico trip update when life honestly just overwhelmed me.  We had a few bumps along the road last summer and I had to let something drop.  BUT, God is faithful.  He has continued to carry us through the bumps while bringing us closer to Him.  Now as He is calling us to step into one exciting summer we are gathering up our prayer warriors and rebooting the blog to relay prayer requests and trip updates (as well as some day to day moments.)

Here is a bit of an intro to what's ahead...

Dear Friends and Family, 

Summer is quickly approaching, and as we anticipate warmer days and a slower pace, we are also excited about upcoming mission opportunities. The purpose of this letter is to share with you our next steps in this journey.

As many of you know, last summer Mark, Sophie and I traveled with twenty-nine others from our church to partner with Back2Back ministries in Monterrey, Mexico. Many of you partnered with us in both prayer and support, and for that we are eternally grateful. Through this trip, we learned that Back2Back is an amazing ministry dedicated to serving orphans and their caregivers by showing them tangible examples of Christ’s love. Just a few of the many examples are how Back2Back (along with  strong partnership) provides psychologists and tutors for the  children to help them overcome some of the monumental deficits from their already tough circumstances.  Since bringing on the psychologist at the orphanage we visited, six children and their families have been reunited after months of working specifically to educate these parents on the importance of parental support and family structure.  They have helped these families shuffle work schedules and reach out to extended family for assistance to give these children the stability that family can provide.  (You can see more of what Back2Back is about by visiting Back2Back.org.)

This year, God is leading our family on numerous short-term mission trips. He is leading Mark and I to visit our longtime friends who are now long-term missionaries overseas with a population unreached by the gospel, He is leading Mark and Suzann (my mom) back to Barranquilla, Colombia with E3Partners- this year Sophie will be going alongside, also He is leading me back to Monterrey. However, this time I will have a new “traveling buddy.” Yes, Haleigh will have her first opportunity to serve God outside of the US. Our self-professed future missionary will have the opportunity to live out her favorite Bible verse, Acts 1:8, “… and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  

This year’s trip (June 13 - 19) to Back2Back looks incredibly different from last year’s.  First, Mark will not be going, and this alone puts me way out of my comfort zone.  Second, the close-knit women from our community group will also be staying home, so that their husbands can find out first hand what God is doing in Monterrey. We are eager to see how this further evolves our community group dynamic. And finally, our Back2Back trip is only one week after returning from our overseas trip.  SO, we need your prayers!!!

Please know that each of you are precious friends and family and we covet your prayers. In fact, as the trips draws closer, we would like to send you specific prayer requests. Also, we would like to commit to better partner with you by sharing our experiences of how God is using our feet on foreign ground with your prayers backing us to be part of His story. I will be restarting our family blog… neveradullmomentcall.blogspot.com to allow for timely prayer requests and updates.  Also you can send me an email if would would prefer email updates (call619@att.net.)

Finally, IF and only IF, you feel God’s leading you to help support this cause financially, you can send a check to Fellowship Greenville with “Call Back2Back” on the memo line to Fellowship Greenville, 3161 S Highway 14 Greenville, SC 29615-5906.

Thank you in advance for your prayers and love!  We look forward to updating you on the blessings you will be part of!!

the how and who of our trip

 At our church one Sunday morning last fall,  several "Go Journey Teams" had tables set up to let folks know about the different mission trips planned throughout the next year and to invite anyone interested to gather more information.  A dear friend of mine had been on a trip to Mexico with Back2Back Ministries and couldn't say enough great things about the organization.  Based on her and her husband's experiences the church had explored the option and decided to partner with Back2Back for an upcoming trip.  Mark and I were manning the Faith@Home Center just down the way from all the tables and I mentioned to Mark that we should consider going on this Mexico trip.  Perhaps scope it out and see if it would be a possible trip for us to embark on as a family.  All of the sudden he disappeared.  Then he was back, "Ok, we're signed up and I've requested the days off work."

"WAIT! WHAT?! We're signed up for what?"

In the conversations that followed I found out Mark had been praying for my next mission trip.  Our Cali, Colombia trip with E3 was several pages ago on the calendar at this point and he didn't want me to get too far away from the experience and forget the amazing way God uses, refreshes and renews when you step out of your comfort zone and go on mission with Him.  Over the next few months the team was shaped, information was given, funds were raised and needed items were gathered and packed.  We were off...

 Oh yea, when I said "we" were off,  that we included Sophie.  It turns out several kiddos were going on this trip.  So instead of a trip to see if this could be a step toward our "family on mission" dream, it was our first step into that dream.  Not the whole family yet, but one step closer for sure.

 The "we" also included 28 others.  Now that's a lot of folks to take a trip together.  Some in this group I honestly didn't get their names to stick in my brain until we were headed out of Greenville.  Many of these sweet faces I have had the privilege of living in community with for several years. Then there are the faces I knew, but  I didn't know the stories that went along with them.

So, that is the how we ended up on this trip and the who that made up the team.  That was the easy part.  What did I learn on this trip and experience?  That is a little harder to wrap up into one or two posts, but that is what I'll try to do...

So... What Have We Been UpTo Lately??

 Time is flying and I keep wondering what we've been doing that continues to allow my "to do list" to grow faster by the day without allowing me time to mark much off as being complete.  Here is a picture drop of my excuses.  

This one isn't really a good excuse because it was a Daddy date!  I skipped out on the excitement of Comicon to have a little me time (I did spend it sorting in the school room.)

 Next, came one of our favorite weekends of the year, Memorial Day!  I couldn't wish to spend this long weekend any other way.  Our community group set out for our second annual retreat:  waterfall hiking, kickball, gaga ball, lake time, smores, worship and really lots of sweet time together just being!!

(I hope to get an extended blog on that soon.  I have so many sweet pictures of this precious time.)

 After finishing The Secret Garden, one of our favorite books of the year, I couldn't take it any longer, we needed to get our hands in some dirt and plant some flowers.  Each of the girls claimed a "piece of earth" and their hearts could not have been more full!

 Simple Times Farm, was our last field trip of the school year.  Oh it was a fun day full of hayrides, candle making, washing laundry as they would have before our modern conveniences.  We even made our own butter, from the milk of the cow we actually got to milk.  (Perhaps another upcoming post.)

 Haleigh and Mackenzie each completed their first full Suzuki piano book.  They worked hard in preparation for their book recital where we had special guests of all the grandparents.  Both girls did an amazing job playing all their pieces and Sophie performed a beautiful piece on her violin.  Following the recital we all had a great dinner and precious time visiting together.

 The day after the big recital, Mackenzie and Haleigh headed to West Virginia with Grandma and Poppy. Two days after Mark, Sophie and I headed out on a big trip with this amazing group of folks from our church.  Where were we headed?  Monterrey, Mexico to partner with Back2Back Ministries.  To say the trip was amazing would be an understatement for sure!!

Since we all returned home we have had a full week of swimming lessons.  Sophie attended Artios Outpost camp with lots of sweet friends.

Mixed in with all that have been just regular summer moments, tackling summer projects when we can...

 and enjoying lots and lots of sweet sister time!!

Now that we are about a month out from our Mexico trip you would think I have settled in my mind all that was stirred by our trip.  Not. At. All!!  I am still processing lots, digging in to seek what I am supposed to do with so much new insight, and most of all this feeling that God is calling me, us, to more.  I hope the next posts of this blog will pop up within the next week as I sort through some of it.  Mostly I need to remember all God put in front of us throughout the week and all the challenges He is laying before us now that we are home...

Happy 4th!!

Hoping your 4th is dripping with fun, family and a heart full of thankfulness!

The Small Grab

Its funny how some random small thing can just grab your heart.  

As I was in our schoolroom I came across this page from one of the test prep books we used to prepare little minds to focus and little fingers to fill in bubbles.  I hadn't seen this page in detail until alone one evening sorting.  It grabbed my heart in such a way it brought tears to my eyes (much to my surprise!)  That our home is her school and that I have the privilege of being teacher and Mom, that reality pushed my heart toward gratitude and forced me to look back over the year.  We have learned things that are easy and tough.  We have struggled to push through hard learning days and hard life lessons.  We have cried when falling short of goals and celebrated victories when goals were not just reached but surpassed. 

Its been a year, like every other, with unexpected curves but we got to take them together and for that my heart is so incredibly thankful!!

The Production ... on and off stage!

Drama has pulsed through this beautiful girl since the day she was born.

This school year we decided it was the perfect time for Sophie to step off the only co-op path she has ever known (Classical Conversations) to give her drama an arena to pour into.  We found just the place as Sophie attended Artios Outpost summer camp and then Artios Co-op.   As the school year started our Mondays began to look a little differently than they have the past several years.  Instead of all heading to the same spot for the day, we piled in the van and headed to drop Sophie off across town and then head back to our CC co-op.  Every Monday evening when I picked Sophie up we would roll through each of her classes asking how it went and what she had learned.  This was our routine until a few weeks ago when all routine went right out the window.  This routine went right out the window because play week was at hand. 

I was hesitant as this week approached not knowing what to fully expect.  But honestly it was a pretty sweet week that taught us (I do mean us!) a lot.  The hours were long, there were many last minute decision that changed timing and expectations, there was a tired young lady arriving late in the evenings exhausted and there were sisters hanging on for the ride.  (One sister may have cried on Thursday when we again dropped Sophie off for another long day away simply because she missed her.)  But there were also many sweet discoveries throughout the week.

 I had been asked to make available a few meals during the end of the week for the cast and crew.  To be honest I dreaded this position as it approached, but in the end it was such a blessing.  This spot I had been asked to fill gave me an opportunity to get to know many of these kids I had known of only by name and stories Sophie had filled me in on.  I can honestly say each person I served a meal to was so polite, appreciative and kind it made this position I dreaded a real joy. 

Finally it was play time! 

 Let The Little Mermaid Jr. begin...

There are really not many words to describe the swirl of emotions I had as I watched Sophie and so many talented students (who I felt I now knew) put on an amazing production. There was so much more than the production that happened on the stage when the lights were shining brightly those two days. 

There was the production of dealing with the emotion of disappointment when parts were given differently than one was wanting to accept.  The production of the reality that a root of jealousy had taken hold and how you can deal with that in a way that reflects Christ, and how being honest about that can be such a freeing thing that it can actually lead to a production of a friendship.  It was the production of emotions from seeing your "little girl" appear on stage looking not so much like a little girl at all (her Daddy may have shed a tear or two each time she appeared on stage.) 

And mostly it was the production of so many sweet friendships of these young people who were encouraging each other, praying with each other and genuinely cheering each other on.  It was a beautiful production on and off the stage!!

What an absolute blast to watch you shine on stage and off!!

Teen Pact

 A few Fridays ago Sophie, Haleigh and I dropped Mackenzie off at her buddy's house, way too early, and headed down the road to Columbia for an adventure.  We arrived at TeenPact excited for our day, but really not too sure what was ahead of us. 

We were proud of ourselves for finding our way to the exact spot in the Capitol complex and being on time!!  At the start of the day we were introduced to the staff and given the overview of the schedule ahead.  It was a privilege to kick it all off with praise and worship.  After learning a bit about the branches of government and their purposes we headed out on a prayer walk.

 What a blessing to hear the sweet voices of children 8 - 12 years old praying for service men and women, their representatives and our governor. 

 After a quick lunch we headed out on a scavenger hunt.  We gathered so much information about our state and its capitol.  One of the most fun facts we learned was why there are six stars placed randomly on the capitol building .

Each star marks a spot where a Union cannon struck the capitol building during the Civil War.

 As we reconvened from lunch and the scavenger hunt there was a great lecture on public speaking and an interactive discussion about speaking distractions. 

 Next were some great skits to demonstrate how bills are passed backed and forth between the House and Senate then failed or made into a bill.  Prior to this fun day each of the girls had written their own "bill."  Each student was given a "first read" and their bills were sent to committees for further discussion. 

We broke up into committees and discussed the bill just as they would in the house committees.  Having the kids fully participate really cemented in the process.  After passing some bills in committee we again convened as the "full house." Then closed the day after great discussion and demonstration of all the kids learned.

It was a great day!!!  Already planning to go back next year.