Free Books!

I was searching for some audio books for Nathaniel to listen to while we are traveling in the next few weeks. I had hoped to find some free resources, and I was thrilled when I found this great website! There are thousands of books for kids and adults and it seems pretty easy to download and legitimate. I look forward to listening to some good books in the near future!

And what was said to the rose...

I have been blessed by the colors and smells of Spring. It brings great joy to me to think of the way God makes all things new. I am struggling with selfish emotions and a dislike for disciplining my children. (Being a stay-at-home Mom is hard work!) But, I am often praying and singing out there in the garden. God is working on my sinful heart. I think the garden is a place of renewal, showing me God's ever faithful plan for my heart and for His creation. God is speaking to my innermost thoughts and bringing my sin and selfishness out into the light. So much like He does to the flowers - from seeds to plant to harvest.

It reminds of the song "Here is Our King" by David Crowder with these lyrics:
From wherever spring arrives to heal the ground, From where ever searching comes to look itself
And what was said to the rose to make it unfold, Was said to me, here in my chest
A trace of what we're looking for, so be quiet now, and wait

We've been enjoying the spring temperature climb over the last couple of weeks. We spend most of our days outside, even meals (yeah! less sweeping and mopping the kitchen). The boys love bikes and trikes and ride them all over the yard all day. We've been doing a lot of gardening. Nathaniel has been a cheerful helper with all things concerning dirt. He picked out the seeds for the beets from the grocery store, since he was curious about beets. He wrote his own label for them and planted in them in rows. He even made me a "special plant mixture" containing mud, sand, water, and random pieces of wood and rocks he's found in the yard. He stirred and stirred his mixture to get it just right for the "plants to be healthy" so he says...

Our garden in the back has mostly vegetables - carrots, peas, onions, tomatoes, Nathaniel's beets, lettuce of various kinds, basil, watercress, and parsley. I planted seeds of most plants, but a few lettuce and tomato seedlings. Today we harvested lettuce for our dinner salad! I gave Nathaniel a scissors and some directions, and he became the proud "harvester!" In the front, we have pots of herbs, shrubs, beautiful lilacs, 2 clematis (on my homemade trellis like this), and I have holes waiting to be filled with flowers (they are free to us from our army-self-help store) when they are available. The soil here is light and easy to dig. It seems pretty fertile, since there are plants and trees of all kinds sprouting everywhere around us. I am so thrilled! We are going to be gone for most of May and maybe in July...but I will try to enlist the help of my neighbor and a timer-sprinkler to keep things going. If you live nearby, please come over and enjoy the plants and eventually the harvest =)!

I've included pictures of our gardening process, from start to present state. I had to put up a little fence to keep Josiah from trampling the new little sprouts with his tricycle, but otherwise everything is pretty natural. I used branches and fishing line for the peas to climb; it looks a bit like a spider web, but I think it will be efficient. My hope is that the garden will be pretty minimal expense and minimalist in appearance, but maximum harvest and maximum display of God's creation!

Enjoy spring and be blessed. I am sure God is at work on your heart, too, so keep in touch.

...but you don't have to take my word for it!

I have just read two SUPER books. They are totally unrelated, and it took me a couple months to read them little by little, but both books are well-worth anyone's time.

The first one, Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman, was a great resource of ideas and scripture to help with Godly parenting. I love this lady and her truthful, insightful, love of God's word and love for children. I really think all parents and "pre-parents" should read this book!

The second one, I Dared to Call Him Father, by Bilquis Sheikh, is the autobiography of a Muslim woman who became a Christian, even at the risk of her life and her family's well-being. She is so amazing and in love with Jesus Christ. It was very encouraging, engaging, and pretty simple quick reading.

These books have been my companions and encouragement during a dry lonely spell in life here. Odd, I sound like I am on Reading Rainbow, come on now, everybody say it..."but you don't have to take my word for it!"

Prayer Requests for our Africa Trip!

Perhaps some of you have not even heard that we (all 4 of us) will be traveling to South Africa this May. For 1 week we will visit friends who we met while living in New England who are missionaries in the Johannesburg area and for 2 weeks we will be ministering and working in Capetown.

We have often wondered how come God continues to place South Africans on our life path. We are still pondering, but following along that path down to South Africa again with a group gathered from several churches here. I (Sara) went on a missions trip to Zambia in 1998; later Tom and I together traveled while Tom worked at a hospital in South Africa in 2004 and I volunteered with a local church ministry. We continue to befriend those lovely South Africans - at our churches, at our workplaces, and even here while stationed in Germany!

I ask for your prayers- now as we prepare - and during the last 3 weeks of May while we are in South Africa. Since we did not need money donations we did not send out any letters, but we greatly desire your prayer support. These pictures I've collected are not mine, but are very reminiscent of our journeys to Africa. I hope that the images will stick in your mind and help to remind you of the great needs for prayer, some of which I have listed below:

1. for kindness and unity to flow from our group so as to be wonderful fragrance of Christ where ever we go together
2. for our little boys and for me, when they encounter new people, places, foods, and transitions. (There is a lady there who has volunteered to care for them while we are busy, but I am an anxious Mommy about putting my babies in someone else's care!)
3. for many to see and know Christ Jesus and become His children through our evangelism and outreach
4. for Tom & I to see and know if God wants to stay, live, or give support to South African ministry