Lamentations3-23

How I feel today!

2011-07-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Life in the Mid-West this week! 104*F today!

BLESSINGS

2011-06-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

SO this blog is supposed ot be about how God is blessing us, and bless us He has in 1000 different ways. I know I don't blog very much, but some days I just sit in sock and awe at how good and gracious He has been to us.
Unfortuntly that doesn't always mean the road is easy. Many things have happened this year to just make it a hard year, but here we are, standing on the brink of Caleb finishing Seminary, with the promise that even the things that break my heart, God will shine His goodness through, maybe not the way we hope/plan, but in His best way, in His best time.
Anyway I foudn this song the other night and the words just really resonated with me.

BLESSINGS
by Laura Story
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family
Protection while we sleep

We pray for healing
For prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

And all the while
You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

Cuz what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know you’re near
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness
We doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while
You hear each desperate plea
Lord, that we’d have faith to believe

Cuz what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know you’re near

What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not
This is not our home

Cuz what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know you’re near
What if trials of this life
Are Your mercies in disguise?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy?

And what if trials of this life
The rainThe storms
The hardest nights
are your mercies in disguise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mmgV6mPvb0&feature=player_embedded

Royal Wedding

2011-05-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

SO clearly I suck at keeping this blog up to date. God is blessing us immensly and continuously, but life is crayz, so SORRY.

Anyway I saw this pic and thought it was really funy, so just adding :)

The Story of Adam & Eve's Pets

2011-04-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

Adam and Eve said, 'Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with us every day. Now we do not see you any more. We are lonesome here, and it is difficult for us to remember how much you love us.' And God said, I will create a companion for you that will be with you. This creature will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves.' And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve. And it was a good animal and God was pleased. And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and he wagged his tail. And Adam said, 'Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.' And God said, 'I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG.' And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and was a companion to them and loved them. And they were comforted. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail. After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said, 'Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. They strut and preen like peacocks and they believe they are worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well.' And God said, I will create for them a companion who will be with them and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations, so they will know that they are not always worthy of adoration.' And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam and Eve. And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes, they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings. And Adam and Eve learned humility. And they were greatly improved. And God was pleased.. And Dog was happy. And the Cat . . . Pretty much couldn’t care less one way or the other.

I love!

2011-01-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

Part One Boards Done

2010-10-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

God is SO faithful!

I doubt so much though I mean not to, but he still loves me and picks me up and shows me he is faithful.

Sorry for the long blogging absence, it has been a crazy year, and a promise to post soon about the new church and all that God has been doing in our lives, but that will have to be a post for another day.

For now I just want to give God all the glory for seeing me through my Chiro board exams, I was very stressed out back when I took them at the beginning of September, and on Friday when I realised the grades were out I was physically ill all day, then when I finally checked them saw I had done great and had nothing to stress about in the end - God is so good to me, I could never have down it without his peace and presence!

New Bed :)

2010-02-18T18:19:00.001-08:00

So I know I am MAJORLY behind on updating this blog, and have about 5 half written posts in my "outbox" but who knows when I will get those done so just adding this now, or it will be added to the pile.

Such a blessing and a rather long (and probably boring to most of you) story, but through a series of miricles last weekend(cash, a delivary van and a good sale) Caleb and I are the new proud owners of 2 twin beds - making 1 lovely, King bed - wiht just a tiny gap between the mattrasses, we are able to sleep in "1" Bed again without my spastic leg keeping him awake all night!

YAY :) God really does care abotu ALL the tiny details of our lives!

Family Time

2009-09-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

I count myself blessed when it comes to in laws. Mine really are nice and treat me like a daughter, plus despite the fact we live on a different continent, I have seen them every year except for the first year we were officially dating (I don't count 2003 as it wasn't "official" yet :P)

2005 they came to SA,

2006 we went to NZ

2007 everyone made the trek to SA for the wedding

2008 they came to Chicago

2009 they gave us tickets to NZ for Michael's wedding (see below)

2010 they plan to come back to Chicago :)

So as mentioned above (in 2009) Caleb's little Brother Michael got married recently and his wonderful parents were super kind and generous and blessed us with tickets to NZ so we could be at the wedding. After having to miss my own brothers wedding earlier in the year (because it was during my trimester and I could not take time off), I was super excited that I didn't have to miss this one too! Michael and Sarah specifically put their wedding during the time slot where Caleb and I were both on break so that we would be able to come, and what a great time it was.

Michael and Sarah make a fabulous couple and their wedding was absolutely gorgeous!

It was good to spend time with the family. I met them when we visited NZ in '06 and they were at our wedding but I only really saw them at the wedding so didn't get to chat to them much etc, so it was really good just to hang out with them all and get to know them a little better.

We also got to meet the newest member of the Smith Clan (other than Sarah who was added while we were there) Lydia Grace Smith b.11.04.2009 She is such a cutie pie and it was great to get to spend some Quality time with her as well as her mum and dad, Timothy and Deborah.

It was good to spend 2 days as an entire family with lots of laughing and happiness.

We were blessed to see some beautiful sights

Waiare Falls - we actually hiked it twice, the first time to the Look out point with Dad Smith and Aunty Shirley

and the second time to the top with a packet of TimTams We also spent a day in the Coromandel with Aunty Shirley and Mum Smith

Finally we did some milking - which I enjoyed since according to Caleb I am a "towney"

And got to hang out with some "old" friends Marcus and Alice and Baby Grace (who was just starting to Grow in Alice's tummy the last time we saw them.

God will feed me!

2009-08-13T12:17:00.001-07:00

Luke 12:24
Look at the ravens. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds!

I love Jewel!!!
Over the past week I have got TONS and TONS of free food from them :)
It started last week Wednesday when I went to Jewel and essentially paid 34c for $54's worth of groceries. Believe it or not, that was just the start!
So from Sunday before last, to yesterday Jewel was running a Buy $30 worth of groceries get $15 back. Well that sounds like a good deal to anyone as it is basically half price, but the key word in that sentence is worth. You see for those of you who are not familiar with Jewel Osco, they have a little card you can sign up for (for free) and when you use your preferred card, you get items at a better sale price. So the $30 was before scanning your preferred card, so if the item was already on a 50% off sale, then technically you could get that item for free!
Okay, so thanks to one of the blogs I follow (http://www.mummydeals.org/) I heard about some cool ways to actually make money off the deals.
2 of these Items were organic Pasta sauce, and Breyers ice-cream. I won't bore you with the details of how, but over the week I got 20 tubs of ice cream, and even with tax, I still earned $10 off the whole deal. Yes your eyes are not deceiving you, I got 20 tubs of ice cream and I was paid $10. Now I am sure you are thinking what do you do with 20 tubs of ice-cream?
Well those of you who know me I love to give to others. I am a gifts person, but with our limited budget that is one thing I am not able to do at the moment...but now I can :)
Who wouldn't love a tub of free ice-cream. We live in a building of students, all facing the same financial struggles as us, cutting corners where possible, so often those cuts include ice-cream so it has been fun to be able to share with them (and others too :))
The pasta sauces I didn't have any coupons for but they worked out because of the sale I could buy 7 for $14 and get $15 back (to use to buy the next set and now the sale is over, use to buy milk and banana's etc etc) so basically gaining a Dollar. Thus leading to quite a large accumulation of organic pasta sauce. We love organic stuff (with all the horrible hormones and pesticides polluting our foods these days) but it is normally WAY too expensive for our budget, but now we have tons, and plenty to share, especially at my health nut school where everyone loves organic.
Well it wasn't only pasta sauce and ice-cream on the sale, not everything worked out to be completely free, but pooling coupons I had I was able to get lots of baking goods, more Margarine (which we will need soon), Caleb's Favorite Deodorant and a bunch of other stuff with a total weeks spending of only about 7 or 8 dollars - pretty good I'd say! :)
A side note that I also got 2 coupons for free items with my orders along the way. One for a free bakery bread, and one for free bakery cookies, I got the 24 cookies today and they are super good, tomorrow is bread day :) so thanks Jewel, you are not only feeding me and helping afford this hectic journey, but also helping me to be good to others :)
Okay, one last point, Can't post about free stuff without including that I have gotten TONS of free school supplies and other items from CVS at the moment with their ECB system, we are totally sorted for the new semester plus for the operation Christmas Child boxes this year.
Obviously this isn't it all (18 ice creams, and lots of pasta sauce not here, plus other stuff already donated and Caleb's deo, cookie dough and probably other stuff I haven't realised yet I forgot.

God will clothe me!

2009-07-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

Matthew 6:28-30
“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
In the last few weeks I have really seen God provide for me in so many ways, clothing is no exception. When we came to America I really tried to cut down my wardrobe down to the nicer, newer, more needed clothes and passed the rest on. And thus I began our journey in the US with a smaller wardrobe (not that I was really lacking in the clothing department.
A few months back one of my friends at my university told me how she was praying the "wilderness prayer" while she was at school (is that her clothes would not wear out, like the Israelites clothes didn't wear out while they were in the desert.) I thought this was a great idea especially since you can't dry your clothes in the sun/outside, and the dryers are lethal on your clothes. So I began this approach.
Every time we see little holes appearing in our clothes, Caleb teases me that I am not praying hard enough, but it seems that God is just answering my prayers in His way, not mine :)
In the last few weeks I have received 3 bags of "unwanted" clothes from ladies at our church. Now both ladies are over 60 so obviously there was quite a bit of stuff that really wasn't my style (read: that my hubby wouldn't be seen with me wearing) that I was able to donate to others in need, but there were some great, seemingly brand new stuff in there for me.
I got some great 3/4's a few really nice shirts (including a red, white & blue one like I had been wanting since 4th-of-July) and some great jerseys and cardigans.
I was really thrilled and pretty much sorted on the clothes front except for one item. My beige shorts I got in SA a few years ago I accidentally bought a bit big and they have stretched over the years so every time I wear them they tend to want to slide down. So 2 days ago when getting dressed I was marveling over God's great provision, and thinking how that is the one thing I am going to need to look for.
Amazingly that very same day, my friend Angela gave me a pair of beige knee length shorts! She had bought them over a year ago on an end of season sale and decide they weren't right for her. Just what I had been thinking that morning I needed.
God is SO good and has supplied with with many more clothes than I need, I am so blessed, over and over again, it just floors me.

Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

2009-07-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

So today is a year since Caleb decided to make the (to many people scandalous) move from Trinity to Northern.
I have to be 100% honest and say in the beginning I was a bit nervous about the move. We had moved 1/2 way across the world, so that Caleb could be at Trinity, with it's good name etc and now, just 6 months later, he was wanting to change schools.
I grilled him for ages, playing devils advocate, to be sure he was making the decision for the right reasons and not just for convenience not have to commute vs commuting 30miles - that day (07/14/08) it took us 2hrs to get home due to Tollway construction, but he was sure it was what God wanted for him, and that he did not care about the prestigious name of Trinity etc etc.
So he went ahead with the transfer and a year later I can honestly say it is one of the best things that ever happened for us. Not only are we able to spend more time together due to the decrease commute (we already lived at Northern, so now he is really just walking a few 100 yards to class) but being at a smaller school with a more pastoral focus, I have just seen him blossom and grow.
Now before I get any Hate mail from possible Trinity readers, I am not trying to say Trinity is a bad school. Trinity is a great school with a wonderful reputation, Northern is Just better suited to my husband and his future ministry.
Northern is a family, and I love being involved with the pot-lucks every week where students and staff have dinner together and fellowship together. At what other school can you spend an hour chatting to the President over pancakes and bacon :)
We are truly blessed to be at Northern and see how God changed circumstances out of our control, to bring us to live here that Caleb would find out about the school and end up transferring here. Northern has great academics, an impressive Alumni listing as well and a huge heart.
We are blessed to be Part of the Northern Family!

Good for Bad

2009-07-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

So the post I had planned for 07/14 was all about how a year ago Caleb decided to move to Northern, and what a blessing that has been, but something happened today that just blew me away and I couldn't decide weather to blog the 2 things together or apart but decided on apart so please read both :)
So yesterday was a sad day for me, as you will see if you look post before last I had a lovely red bike that I got last year that I loved dearly and used every day. Well yesterday morning when I came to ride my lovely bike to school for the day I found the lock had been cut and the bike was gone :( I was heartbroken, as not only do I use the bike everyday during the week, but the bike was also a symbol for me of God's love for me and his awesome provision (see the blog about the bike at: http://http//lamentations3-23.blogspot.com/2009/07/bike-for-my-birthday.html).
So I was very sad they someone could have gotten into the storage area and stolen it. For most of yesterday I was rather depressed, then a little angry, after I saw there had been 6 unlocked bikes but my lock had been cut and bike stolen. Anyway I was trying to focus on the positive and started to look at options for how I may go about finding a new bike.
My Pathology lecture was canceled today (1pm-3pm) so during lunch I decided to come home and get a few things done. I borrowed my friend Angela's bike and biked home.
As I walked through the front door of our apartment, there in front of me was a beautiful, brand new bike! Around the cross bar was a card, which read: "We love you, love your Northern Family!" I did not know what to say or do, all I wanted to do was cry - I was so blown away at this act of love and kindness.
Before moving to the USA, we were encouraged by the scripture in Mark 10 where Jesus says: " “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution." For me, leaving SA was very hard because I love my family and hate to be so far from them, however we needed to obey God's call and trust him to provide new/more family for us and that He has! What a blessing it is to be part of the Northern family. I have since learnt that a few staff members decided to try and collect some money towards getting me a new bike, and within an hour so many of the staff had come forward to help that they had more than sufficient to buy me a new bike! What a great out pouring of love and a tremendous reminder of God using others to bless and encourage us.
These people truly embrace the spirit of Ephesians 2: 19-22 for me where it says: So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. This is How they have made me feel - I am no longer a stranger in this land, but part of a loving family of God who loves, accepts and wants the best for me.
So in the end God took something bad (my bike being stolen) and turned it into something beautiful, and every time I ride my new bike, I will be reminded both of the love of those who so selflessly gave, and of the Love of my great God who put those people in my life!
<---My Bike as it stood in my passage when I got home.

My Biggest Blessing

2009-07-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

My Biggest Blessing's name is Caleb...and 2 years ago today I became his wife.
For many years I thought of and prayed for the man I would one day marry. I could never have pictured how it would all turn out, and that God has chosen someone who wasn't even from the same continent as me to one day be my husband.
Obviously our story begins long before 07-07-07 but that is a rather lengthy story so will have to be for another day, but I guess it is surfice to say, God planned us for one another, lead us to one another, gave us the strength and tenacity to do our 3 1/2 years of long distance dating before, and then blessed us with a perfect wedding day.
I think our wedding vows sum up, both what we were feeling then, and pretty much the story of our lives.
I Caleb/Janine, in faith, honesty and love, take you, Janine/Caleb, to be my wedded husband/wife, to share with you God's plan for our lives together united in Christ. And with God's help, to strengthen and guide me as we grow together Throughout life, no matter what may lie ahead of us for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, in joys and in sorrows, until death do we part. I give you all that I have, myself and my love.
With this ring I seal my vow of love to you, and pray I may fulfill God's place in our home, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
<- 2 years later
There is no way I could picture my life without him and he is without a doubt my hugest blessing and I love him with all my heart.

A bike for my Birthday.

2009-07-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm pretty much a year behind (or more) with blogging abotu stuff, so since today is my Birthday '09, I thought I would blog the story of my Birthday '08 :)

The week before my birthday last year, my husband (Caleb) was going on about what he was going to get me, I knew he already had cool Eeyore slippers in the cupboard and told him those were perfect, he didn't need to worry about getting me other stuff. He likes to spoil, and this is the first B-day we have been married but it is also my first B-day when he does not have a fancy job supporting him. It is also my first B-day away from my family/friends so he wanted me to feel special/spoilt but we just brushed the whole topic aside in the end, knowing we do not have the money at the moment for fancy birthday presents....

Then Friday the week before my Birthday, Faith Acres (a friends non-profit food pantry) received a bike from Cosco, they do not return "damaged" goods to their suppliers if they are returned by a customer or found not to be in perfect order, and these items are donated to Faith Acres. So anyway last Friday they received a bike as it had a loose seat. Jeff the husband was able to tighten the seat in 1 min flat so now they had a perfect bike to give away. Jodie began to pray that God would show her who he had sent the bike in for and then e-mailed me to tell me God had laid me on her heart and do I need a bike to get to uni, which I really do! They had no idea it was my birthday that week, but we were able to fetch it on the Sunday after church and now I have a brand new bike!!!

My husband thinks I am crazy but I see is as my Birthday present from God, he wanted to make me happy as much as my husband did, but he had greater resources and provided wonderfully (PS my Husband got me a helmut and bike chain for my B-day :) so now I am all set :))

Milk anyone?

2009-06-29T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning before church we used up the last bit of milk on breakfast and added buying milk to our to-do-list for the day. Now we are in a place where we can afford milk, but milk is still expensive so what a blessing when after church the kitchen ladies came to us with 1 almost full 1/2 gallon and one un-opened 1/2 gallon and asked if we would like them. They were left over and would not last until next Sunday. This is not the first time we have received milk from the church, but again such a reminder of Gods blessing and provision in our lives :)

Our own place

2009-06-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well Today is 1 year since we moved to Northern and what an amazing year!

A year ago I was super excited about having a place I could actually call home and somewhere where I could relax without constantly being watched, criticised and asked to do things.

At the same time however, we owned 1 pillow, a duvet (aka comforter) and had recently been given a desk, and were now moving to an unfurnished place.

Well, God is SO good and now, as year later, we are giving stuff to others in need as we have been blessed with so much stuff.

When we made the decision to move here (as opposed to trying to live with others in furnished accommodation) we thought ‘oh well, we can get some plastic plates and sleep on the floor etc till we find stuff on FreeCycle etc’ (a USA freebie website).
The very night we made that decision, I came through to my computer and there was an e-mail from my Trinity wives bible study leader to say that her in-laws were getting rid of a small couch and a TV and could we possibly use them!!!
The next day, Caleb got an email from a lady who had previously advertised furniture on the Trinity website, he had contacted her before and she had written back to say it had been promised to someone already. Anyway she e-mailed to say the other people never showed so we went over there and were able to get a lamp (something we wouldn't have thought of but will really find useful) and a rug adding colour and really make our new place feel more like a home.
She had a couch too but we had already been offered the small couch and her couch was a big for our "little" new place.
On that Friday Caleb's Mum and Dad (who were here at the time from New Zealand) called us aside and said they had noticed there was no microwave and could they give us the money for one as part of our birthday presents??

We were feeling SO blessed then Saturday I spoke to my parents on Skype and they were asking about our needs etc then they sent us money to buy a dinner service (my mom has a thing about dinner services and wanted us to get a nice one) plus some extra for other things we found we needed. Since then another lady said to us to save the cash for the microwave for
rent and that she would give us one.

Come Sunday and before church a lady I have spoken on the phone too but never met, calls me aside and says 'hey I heard you are moving and I was wondering if you could use a bed, I have a
wooden base set and also have the mattress around somewhere!' We were just praising God for His provision when after the service another lady we know came up to me and said ‘my son-in-law asked me to give this to you’ (he is also from South Africa and we had met him (a seeming non- Christian) 2 weeks before when he had come to church especially to meet us). After he
met us two weeks before, he told his mother-in-law that God had just laid on his heart that
he needed to give some money to us (we had not spoken about need etc) and had given her an envelope with $150 (R1200) in it. We were away the next Sunday in Niagara Falls with Caleb’s parents so that Sunday was the first time she had seen us to give it to us, just when we had been
praying for God to provide, yes, we would have appreciated it 2 weeks before, but that week we really had a need which he met (totally unknowingly!).

Believe it or not this provision story continues that Sunday night at dinner Caleb's parents told us how the dairy market in NZ had a very good year, much better than they expected and because of this they would like to bless us with other provisions to help us establish. Monday, we visited Trinity's International rep and we were able to visit the Furniture room where people donate household goods and furniture for International students arriving with nothing (this is where we got our desk from before) and we were able to get glasses, cutlery, small cutting board, mugs, glass "pot", small rubbish bin, iron, egg separator, whisk, bed side table, coffee table, kettle etc. Basically in less than a week God had furnished our un-furnished flat!

And the story doesn't end there....

The day after we moved in I had to go back up to Deerfield to do a final babysitting commitment, I was chatting to the couple after they got home and they have us 2 pillows (nice down ones after Caleb had been jealous of my one) cutlery, sheets, a skillet etc.

People from our church also opened up their arms to us. We were asked for a list of needs supposedly in case anyone asked if we needed anything, the next week this list was posted on the notice board and people were asked to cross off items at they could provide Many people donated things from home or went out and bought stuff we needed for our new home. My wonderful family in California also sent glassses and baking itens (for me who loves to bake :)) which was such a blessing.

Needless to say despite our worry about having enough to pay for accommodation, our great God is continually faithful.

Fluffy socks and other blessings

2009-05-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Exactly a week after arriving in the USA, we received a Welcome to America box from my Aunt, Uncle and cousins/their husbands in California, I think the 3 girls went shopping together and bought all things they thought we may need.
It had a throw, a pair of warm PJ's each, 3 pairs of socks each, a sponge, lovely smelling handsoap, hand cream, soap, 2 files, paper, a card making set, scissors, post-it notes, pens, sticky tape, a backpack etc
It was so kind and thought out by them and they had clearly put a lot of thought into what items to choose. It really encouraged us as another example of Gods awesome provision for us as we are here.
The silliest thing which excited me the most was the socks for me. When we went to NZ I saw these lovely fluffy warm socks and decided I really wanted a pair, it was at a shop where Caleb's Aunty Shirley works at one in the same chain so I decided to wait and buy them at her shop. Anyway they didn't have any and then later I bought other anklet socks on a sale and decided I shouldn't waste my money on more socks so never ended up with any.
I had completely forgotten about them till we got here and they have the same type at all the shops (since it is so clod here) but I wouldn't let Caleb buy them as I have plenty of socks so don't really need them, I just like them. When we received the gift from my family, it was 3 lovely pairs of these same fluffy warm socks that they sent for me so it was even more of a blessing and delight for me! What an awesome God - he even cares about my warm toes!

Friends

2009-05-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

So as some of you know the first few months here were rather tough at stages as I am used to having friends and hanging out with people and now I was all alone. Caleb had to go off to class and I was stuck at home, being a slave to a grumpy 80 year old man. Okay so it wasn't all bad, I loved Kay the lady we lived with and there were a few highlights in that early time, but in general I really struggled and was reminded of the value of the friends I already had in South Africa and missed them greatly.

Anyway in Mid-Feb I received a great blessing from God...her name is Bethany and she was my first real friend in Chicago. Her husband Eric was (well he still is) also a M.Div student at Trinity and they have a (then) 1year old son Gareth.

<---[Bethany and Gareth.]
Bethany and I were both adjusting to the whole new seminray wife life (hee hee that rhyms) and we very quickly became great friends. I went over their often to visit adn play with Gareth and Caleb and I go to have the priveledge of babysitting Gareth a few times (it was fun fro us but Gareth is SOOOO cute it made Caleb want one so that wasn't a good thing but we survived ;)). It was so good to finally have a friend I could chat to abotu anything and I will always be grateful to God for bringing Bethany into my life when he did.

So after I finally got accepted into National and started there. God blessed me with a few more friends :)
The closest of these is Angela. Angela is a fellow Chiro student.
[Angela and Jayme]--->
Her husband and 3 yr old daughter Jayme live 5hrs away (and that is with Angela driving so probably 6 1/2 for the rest of us :)) in Michigan. She is very brave living so far from them and I am very proud of her.

Angela has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know and is extremely giving (in many ways) - thought that is not the reason we are friends ;) She is always feeding me (she lives on campus and every time I pop in there I get lunch, a snack or just chocolate :)). I am teaching her about God, as well as how to use coupons, get deals and saving money so I think we make a great team! I am so happy to have her as my friend.

In June we moved to Northern and in September we moved across from Memory Hall to Lindner Tower (another story for another day). When we moved, Rachel became my neighbor and what a great thing that is :)
<--[Rachel & I @ our floor Christmas Party]
Rachel is now starting 10th Tri at National so the end is finally in sight for her. She has traveled the long national road and has thus been a great source of encouragement to me.

Rachel runs the FOCUS (fellowship of Christian University Students) at National so knowing her ment I finally got involved in this group I wanted to join during the summer but being part time and commuting I just never persevered and found them.

Although we haven't been so good at finding times that work for us both the past few months as we have both been so busy, Rachel and I became prayer partners and where possible meet once a week to catch up and to pray for each other, our families, our friends and other prayer items. I love these times and feel blessed to count Rachel as one of my friends!

Okay so this post has gotten rather long (for one I am not copying and pasting from stories written last year) but before I end I need to add our cell group to this post on friends.

We have been blessed as a couple to be part of this group of Godly young couples who meet once a week to study marriage topics rooted in God's principles. There are 4 couples in our group, Mick and Roni host and lead it and have been married since mid August last year they are both Northern graduates and Roni works here. Phillip and Stephanie were married at the end of May last year and are both Northern students. Joey and Amanda were married at the beginning of June last year. Amanda is a Northern grad and Joey works at a local church.

This is such a great group of people and we love having this little family here at Northern. We spent Christmas with them (minus Joey and Amanda plus a bunch of other couples on campus). Our group grew by 1 in February when Stephanie and Phillip had precious baby Gabrielle - who the rest of us have all adopted as "our" baby till we are finished studying/it is God's timing for us to have a baby.
<--- [Precious baby Gabby at 5 days old.]

We thank God for group of people who never fail to make us laugh and who, when we are so far from ours, have really become a family to us :)

I thank God for these and many more friends he has blessed me with in the USA, as well as for the many friend we have in SA whose love adn friendship made it both difficult (as it made me miss them SO much) but at the same time got me through the move :) Our God is good!

Healthy Bread

2009-05-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, so there are a few stories between the gift card adn the bread, including getting a great deal on our car, and suriving the first few months (truly a God thing). But I decided to do thsi one next as there is so much to write I am nto sure what people are really interested in.
So this was written in April last year and I decided to not edit it just leave it as it was written as then it really captures the feelings at the time:
A few weeks ago while I was making lunch, my husband was studying the bread packet nutritional information and moaning about the poor fiber levels and general healthiness of the bread. Recently having moved to the US from South Africa, we are on a limited budget and have to settle for buying the cheapest brown/whole wheat bread we can get. We discussed how there is too much of a price difference to get better bread and had to put the issue to rest.

About 4 days later at our Trinity International wives meeting, Jodie (a friend of the ISHA director who rund Faith Acres a food pantry outreach o needy families) arrived with food for us all and shared how they at Faith Acres (FAF) prayed for a double portion of healthy food to feed the international families and asked God for organic/seed bread and how he had provided it, and had lots of loaves outside in her car for us. I was just blown away by Gods provision. He knew what we wanted, even though it was not a absolute need (could survive on "normal" bread) he not only provided our needs, but also the desires of your hearts (the ability to eat good healthy food).

Since we have been in America we have been given a whole new meaning to the prayer...Give us today our daily bread, as God has done just that!! Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!"God's goodness overwhelms me to tears (if that is possible :-)) - even the silliest things, such as organic food, which I have always had a preference for, he constantly provides." Keep wellGod bless

When I was looking for my copy of this, I came across the Story of the day they brought the food that Jodie had sent out to the FAF family:
Two months back we prayed and asked God for extra food to come into "Food Source" so that we could share it with the International families that are going to school here at the Christian College. We had found out that many of these families are struggling just to buy food, because only the person enrolled in the college can work and have a job while in the states. Two different mothers told us that their children asking them, "Why the Church in America doesn't care about them and can they go back home to their own countries?" It broke our hearts; we had to do something, to help these families. God was faithful and provided twice the amount of food in (all of it free from different stores), we were all so excited! We had no idea how we were going to distribute the food, do we take it in put it on tables, do we make up boxes, what do we do? On Friday the day before we needed to deliver it, we had Moody radio on in the kitchen. Now this was crazy because Fridays at Faith Acres is busy, people in and out, not much time to be listening to the radio. Yet there was a quiet moment and this woman on the radio spoke of how in the early days of their ministry she delivered things in her van. She would just park on a side street, open the doors and people took as they needed it right out of her van. That was it; God was so faithful to show us how to do it, right out of the van. I had been invited to enjoy some fellowship with the international woman and then told them we had a van full of food and goodies. I had told them how we prayed at Faith Acres and asked God for a double delivery so we could cover the families who come to Faith Acres as well as each of their families. “Someone must be praying for "Organic Wheat Bread" because we have a few boxes of it in the van. Also there must be some little girls who want "Princess Parties" because we have everything you need for birthday parties and lots more stuff from donations that came to Faith Acres from the Hallmark store.” A South African woman raised her hand and said, “Could I tell you something?” She told all the ladies that she and her husband had been discussing the lack of nutrition in the bread and wanted to buy better wheat bread just 4 days before, but because of the currency exchange, they just can't afford the better wheat bread. Then a Chinese woman pulled me a side and said, "Two days back I asked my daughter what kind of birthday cake she wanted, sure enough a Princess cake, but never could we afford decorations." We had fruit, veggies and lot's more goodies to share in the van. It was beautiful, God had sent his Angels to do some grocery shopping and it was just what each needed and even desired. Everyone took what they needed and we still had left overs. Everything has to go, is there another family we can give the rest to? Annie who works with the international families said, "Yes, one family by my house with older children we can take it to them." The next day at church Annie came up to me and said “That last, that last box we packed for the family with the older children. The woman opened the door and told me they had no food, she told her children she wouldn’t cook today because they had no food." We stood there in awe, what a sobering moment, no food! The story on the radio telling us how to deliver the food, the wheat bread for the South African family, the princess party decorations for the little girl and now a family getting the last box had no food. How can anyone deny that this was anything less then a GOD THING? This not show us what a GREAT God we have! The God who created the heavens & the earth cares about YOU!!!!

Gift Card from Gods angel

2009-05-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I haven't been to good at this for the past while, but trying to pick up where I left off with Gods provisions for us since we have come to america - so I'm still in January 2008 the first week we were here, but here goes, I copied it from an e-mail I sent at the time so it would be more authentic- I wish I could change the post date and go back and post them at the time they happened but anyway here goes:

God has truly blessed us since we have been here. As you know this is a HUGE financial thing for us with great cost involved, both being students with no income, paying everything in dollars etc, but we took the leap cause we felt it was Gods will and he promised he will provide and has, with scholarships for Caleb etc, but it is still a financial worry (though we try not too as we know we need to trust God). So anyway, the first Saturday we were here we went to do a bit of grocery shopping, we were in the frozen foods isle choosing cheap frozen meals as there were some with meat, veg, potato etc on sale for $1 (R7) and Caleb made some comment bout how expensive this trip was going to be as we were getting quite a lot of canned stuff (soups etc) too and I said the more we get at once, the less often we have to go to the shops and the less we spend, there was a man at there who heard this last comment and laughed at my supposed good sense and we got chatting, he goes to a church in the area and knows some of the people from Caleb's uni etc so we chatted a bit then said goodbye and finished our shopping...

When we were at the check out paying, the same man came over (he had just finished paying I think) with a $50 gift card for the super,market we were at and said welcome to America, God bless you!!!! what a blessing, our God is AWESOME and blows me away daily at the moment. This has been a scary move and so much still scares me, but at the same time it has been so spiritually uplifting already and we have only been gone days as we have seen Gods amazing provision in so many situations.

Shrinking Luggage

2009-03-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

When Caleb and I left South Africa on the 31st of December 2007 to come to the USA to study, we had a tough time trying to fit all our stuff into the stringent weight allowances of the airlines. We were trying to fit our whole lives into 40kgs, and it wasn't easy. We ended up with 52kgs of luggage and not much we could do about it. Our first airline (LTU Airlines) are quite flexible so we didn't have much trouble checking in our 19 and 32kg bags when leaving Cape Town. We were very worried what would happen in Germany though, as our second airline was much more fussy. I suggested we pray the scale malfunctions but Caleb said this was dishonest and God would not do that so we should rather pray that the person is nice and over looks our extra luggage weight.

When we reached Dusseldorf, we found that to get your baggage and check in you have to go through customs and I did not have a visa as we were only in transit and transit people were not supposed to need a visa (this however is only if you are in transit with the same airline and don't need to get baggage and check in etc though we had not known this). Thus Caleb (who didn't need a visa as he is on a NZ passport and it is just South Africans they don't like) went though to get our bags and check us in while I was escorted (with all the over sized hand baggage so once again it was not weighed) by a German Policeman through the back of Dusseldorf Airport to the flight gate where I was left to wait for Caleb. I was very scared that he would not find me or they wouldn't let him check in for me etc, plus I knew our baggage had to be checked in and was overweight so sat there and prayed earnestly for about 20 min...

In the mean time Caleb got our baggage, found the check in point and weighted in line. He was in the line of a sweet sounding assistant while the assistant in the line next to his was complaining to a passenger about their bag being over weight and making them repack. When he got to the front of his line however the lady informed him she did not know how to put us through with both flights (Germany-Dublin and Dublin-Chicago) so passed him across to the "grumpy lady" who had just made someone repack. There went our hopes of getting someone who would overlook our overweight luggage. Then Caleb put the 1st bag on the scale... 19kgs...similar to what it weighed in CT, then the heavy one.... wait, was 32kgs...now only 24kgs....!!!

We serve an awesome God who can even shrink baggage weight for us when we need it :) This is just the first of many stories of how God has intervened for us and provided for us in amazing ways on this journey of ours.

Lamentations 3:23

2009-03-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

Why Lamentations 3:23???

Well really it should be 22-23 but that was a bit confusing so kept it to Lamentations 3:23, So this passage states:
22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

And this blog is really about how amazing God is and his GREAT faithfulness to us. Our Whole lives, but especialy since we have been in Amreica we have seen God's hand of provision over an over again and I wanted to share these stories of Gods blessing and provision.