TOMORROW!!!

Andrew/Happy gets back from Guatemala in less than 16 hours. My sister left California less than 8 hours ago, saving me from a VERY long week, and has arrived safely home in Virginia. I'm so thankful for my sister!

The Guatemala team leaves for the airport tomorrow morning at 5:30AM, which is 4:30AM here, and will (Lord-willing) arrive around 12:30PM in California. I will be joining the caravan of vehicles heading to the airport to bring them back to church.

I hope I can sleep tonight!!! :-D

1.3 Miles from Church

Right now I'm so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to find and move to a nice (and relatively cheap) apartment that's 1.3 miles from our church. I say that because we've been here most of the day and there's a long night ahead for Happy & Nick as they finish the YUGO video for the Youth/YUGO service tomorrow. The entire service will be run by the youth and Happy will be preaching for the first time in front of our church. It's supposedly a 23 minute sermon, but most who've heard him preach know it will more than likely go a tad over :-) There's just so much to say! What a blessing to have a husband who loves God and His Word! The rest of the service will be filled with the video, music led by the youth and several testimonies from the students who went down to Mexico earlier this month. I'm really looking forward to it. Please pray for Happy and all the students involved tomorrow. Pray that it would go relatively smoothly and that the spark that God has lit in the youth will spread to the rest of our church. Pray that God would receive all the glory.

YUGO, I Go, Some of Us Go to YUGO

Hello faithful readers of this not-often-updated-anymore blog!

I'm writing to let you know that today I'm leaving on a week-long mission trip with several adults and a bunch of high schoolers and college students for Mexicali, Mexico. We are going with a mission organization called YUGO (Youth Unlimited Gospel Outreach). Our church has been to Mexico with this mission a bunch of times over the last two decades, so we have many veterans going on the trip. Amy won't be able to come, because of work, so as you pray for our team, please pray for Amy back here at home.

I'll come home with an update and hopefully some pictures. Hasta luego!

New Apartment!!!

Here is a very exciting tour of our new apartment. There are new pictures on the web album too, if you'd prefer to get some still ones... or if the video doesn't work :-) And yes, I'm crazy and unpacked in less than a week. I don't like living in chaos. My commute is a tiny bit longer but Happy's is much shorter, and we're a 3 or 4 minute drive to church--what a blessing! We've already taken advantage of the short drive several times.

In other news, the 30 Hour Famine went very well and we appreciate all those who partnered with us through prayer and financially. Fasting is a wonderful way for me to see the sinfulness of my heart, but I'm so thankful that the sin is already paid for!

I'm still working at the same company in the accounting department, running payroll each week. We've had many layoffs of the guys on the field and there will be many more to come. I've heard we're letting go of 100+ guys within a month! Makes me a little nervous, but I'm trusting in the Lord's provision--whether that's here or through another means. So, I try to remind myself to be thankful for my job, especially on the third day in a row that I've worked on ONE audit all day long.... I can say for sure that I'm thankful that my work day is only 8 hours long :-)

Also, please pray for Happy in Greek. I'm not sure he'll like me advertising this on the blog, but it's not an easy language! Pray that the Lord would grant him clarity and understanding as he studies. And pray for the upcoming YUGO trip to Mexico! There are many details involved in leading a mission trip, and it's that much harder since he's never been there.

That's all for now. I know it's been a long time since I've updated the blog, but my mom-in-law did request photos of the new apartment :-) You'll have to come visit soon!!

USS Boxer

You may or may not have noticed that I added a link to the sidebar for the USS Boxer. This is the ship that my younger brother, Tom, is currently on. He was deployed on Jan. 9th and today marks the 10th day of him officially being out at sea. The blog linked on the side is run by my older brother, Mike, and he's apparently been researching the USS Boxer and other related news as much as I've been thinking about Tom. Please pray for Tom as he's deployed. I think he's scheduled to return in August, and, Lord-willing, won't see much combat. Here's Tom and me this past summer when we went down for a visit...

Christmas Pictures!

I'm still alive--I promise! I know I haven't posted on the blog in well.... a long time.... Perhaps I've just been too busy with all that's going on, but the main reason.......... I forgot about our blog!!!!

Now that I've been graciously asked by my wonderful husband to post pictures on our blog, I thought it would be a good time to post more than just pictures. Yes, this will actually be an UPDATE by AMY.

Since..... my last post...... we've been getting more involved with church and loving it very much. We've had opportunities to get to know many of the students better and are beginning to build friendships with them that I pray the Lord will use for His glory. It's so exciting to use the gifts He's given us and see Him work!

Speaking of work, things at my job have been getting more and more busy. I've gotten many more responsibilities and have very little free time. I'm now entering about 80% of the invoices we receive and helping sort the invoices by vendor each month. I've been getting more "odd" jobs from many of the project managers as well, and am thoroughly enjoying being more of an asset to the company. My hours also changed so I now work 7am-3pm with a 15 minute lunch break. Wednesdays I work overtime for payroll, and have begun entering time cards (we have over 250 to enter each week). It also sounds as though there are some changes on the horizon, but we'll see how that goes.



For Christmas we were able to fly back to the East coast to visit my family. It was such a blessing to spend a more extended period of time with my family and enjoy the cold weather as well! Of course a lot more can be said about that--in particular about our flights there and back--but I think I'll save that for another post. However, I am supposed to post pictures, so here they are.

A WEEKEND POST?!?!

Yes, that's right, I'm posting on the weekend. The main reason for this being the prayer request that I have in mind. Tomorrow during Sunday school, Happy & I are sharing our testimonies in the high school class. We have about a half hour to take up between the two of us and would greatly appreciate prayers for clarity. Also, pray that God would receive the glory for the work He's done in our lives.

Happy is at a friend's house this morning as he needs to build something for the P.E. class he's been taking. I'm home alone this morning and hoping to be productive by cleaning and exercising! So, even though I'm pretty sure no one really checks our blog on the weekends (perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we've almost never posted on the weekend), I wanted to share the prayer request in hopes that some would be praying for us tomorrow! Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

We're going to Mexico!!!!

Tomorrow morning at 5:30 am, we'll meet the group and head over to LAX for our 9:55 am flight to Mexico City. From there we'll take a slow bus to Bernal, which apparently is about 3 hours (by slow bus) north of Mexico City. I thought this would be a GREAT opportunity to share some prayer requests because I know many of you are praying for us as we serve the Lord alongside the Kulls (missionaries our church supports). These are in no particular order:

1. Pray for unity in the team. So far the Lord has greatly blessed us in knitting our group together, but there is still so much more we can do to grow in this area.

2. Pray for focus for the team. This is a HUGE one because it's so easy to get distracted with other things. And we all know the attention span of high school-aged boys, even though they are great guys! :-)

3. Pray for the team to be unaffected by the elevation (i.e. elevation sickness). This is, specifically, a concern of mine. Pray that even if anyone does experience it, they are still able to participate in the ministry with a good attitude.

4. Pray for the people we will meet.

5. Pray for clarity in sharing the gospel.

6. Pray for our interpreters. Some of them are a little rusty with their Spanish, but they are all working hard at it.

7. Pray for the Kulls and their on-going ministry.

8. Pray for the various aspects of our ministry. We may or may not be helping build their church and house, participate in sports ministries and children's programs, perform dramas (mimes) and who knows what else!

9. Pray for our leaders. They are doing an excellent job, but it's always easier to lead people who are willing to be led.

10. Pray for flexibility! If you haven't figured this out yet, we need to be ready and willing to serve in any way. That's why Mexico's nickname is Flexico.


Now that it's been approximately two hours since I started this post, I'll leave the prayer requests at ten. We will be back pretty late Saturday night (I believe our flight lands around 7 pm). Thank you so much for all your prayers! Have a wonderful week!

A Moment to Breathe

I know it's been 10 days since our last post, but rather than point out all the things we were busy doing--such as attending three weddings (one of which I was in) in two weekends, going to a baby shower (which was actually more like a party so it was co-ed) and attending our very first business meeting at our new church--I'll just say, I'm glad things have calmed down!

This weekend is the Strawberry Festival in Garden Grove, right near where we live. I'm not really sure what that entails, but I think we're planning to check it out at some point over the weekend. Sunday there will be a house-warming party at Steven & Emily's new home! I'm excited :-)

It occurred to me that many of the readers of our blog might be unaware that my younger brother, Tom, (he's 21) joined the Marines. He is currently in boot camp in San Diego, which happens to be less than an hour away from me. Despite his close proximity, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to see him until his graduation from boot camp on July 20th, when he will officially be a Marine. He'll be specializing in Aviation Mechanics, which means he'll be in school for approximately 1 year and 3 months after all his regular Marine training. Meanwhile, he's still in boot camp and I believe most, if not all, of our family is writing him on a regular basis to keep his spirits up. As he said in his letter to me, "This place breeds homesickness." He had an injury (runner's knee--tendinitis in the tendon that connects his thigh and knee) but said that he's been doing physical therapy, which is helping, and it isn't causing much of a problem anymore. Praise the Lord for that! I can only imagine that boot camp is hard enough without being injured. So, please keep him in your prayers.

In other news, I'm pregnant. No, I'm really not. Did anyone freak out at that? Sorry, it's been a slow day at work. There's really not much else going on. Tomorrow the office closes at 3 pm. I'm REALLY looking forward to the long weekend and am hoping to spend some time by the pool or at the beach. Then again, I'm sure just about EVERYone is thinking the same thing. We'll see what actually happens. And on that note, back to my invoices!

Tea & A Bagel

Breakfast yesterday and today. Yum. Yesterday I sat sipping my tea and eating my bagel during a long lull in phone calls. It was wonderful. As I did, I thanked God for tea and bagels. It seems a silly thing, but I really enjoyed the quiet moment with my tea and bagel. God is such a gracious God!

Also yesterday I received a phone call (I'll keep it anonymous just in case) about a family with a 3 year old daughter who just passed away after complications with heart surgery. I was asked to pray for this family and have done so several times since I heard. In the conversation I heard of questions that the family was asking: "Why would God let this happen? Is God punishing me? How can anything good come from this?" And I'm sure many more. I too started wondering these questions and my pondering continued on my ride home in rush hour. I tried to put myself in their shoes. The parents only had this one daughter and she was their pride and joy. Sure, she was a bit weak, but they had faith that the Lord would heal her. But He didn't. Instead, He brought the little girl home to be with Him.

I don't envy the difficult time they are facing and I will continue to pray for this family. Still, I find myself wondering how I would handle such a turn of events if God brought them my way. Would I be like Job, who lost all of his children and everything he owned and even his own health; yet "through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God" (Job 1:22). I can't even pretend to imagine what sort of feelings he felt. How alone? How desperate? How lost? If I were in his shoes, would I still say God is good? Would I still believe He is sovereign? Would I remember that He never gives me more than I can handle?

I will continue to pray for this family that God will comfort them and strengthen their faith and trust in Him. I will pray that when God allows tragedy in my life (because it's only a matter of time), I will be like Job and "fall to the ground and worship" saying "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:20-21).