You, my dear friend, are not that powerful.

   The other day I saw this little saying and had an ah-ha moment. I've never shared this on my blog, (let's be honest, I haven't blogged in years), but I know now that I'm not the only one dealing with heartache. 

   Our oldest son has problems , no has made some bad decisions, no the truth is (it's really hard to say and even harder seeing in print) is an addict. There it is, I've said it. My son is an addict. He's a saved man but in the deep grasp of sin.

   I deal with a lot of pain concerning him and then I push it down just long enough to live. Being totally honest here. I have given him to the Lord long ago and i'm good with whatever the Lord decides but still sometimes, thoughts overtake me and I must push them down until they pass.  

   When I saw this little saying I saw something I hadn't seen before. 

 If you think you've blown God's will for your life,

  Rest in this: You, my dear friend, are not that powerful.

   Thinking about my son, and how he's a child of God, I know God has a direct will for his life. I have decided to rest in the fact that my son, as a child of God, isn't powerful enough to ruin God's will for his life. I'm aware that God's will for his life may be not be what I think it should be but I am sure that whatever happens God will be sure to get glory from it and that's really what matters.
I will faithfully wait to see what God does in our son's life and pray all along that God will be glorified and lifted up.

Found, one blog!

Do you have any idea how long it's been since I last posted on my blog? It has been so long that I actually had to go back and look at my last post. It's been 5 full months since I even visited my blog much last posted. I'm sure many of you thought I abandoned my beloved Home Away From Home but I didn't. Okay, so maybe it could be considered short-term abandonment but I'm back!!! I've come back to stake my claim to what is rightly mine and begin a new relationship with my blog and earn back some of the lost months.

what happened to my baby?

It seems like yesterday our firstborn son was born. It wasn't yesterday, no, it was 21 years ago today. Cody has been a joy to parent. He's loves the Lord and his family very much. We miss him tremendously especially on days like this. These days are the hardest to endure as a missionary but I know he has many loving relatives and a wonderful church family to spend his birthday with. He's training to be a missionary and will one day be coming home to Croatia to serve these wonderful people. Can't wait!

We love you Cody, with all our hearts. 

Happy 21st birthday!! Thank you for making me a mom. 

Gypsy Christmas in Croatia and Stuff

We were so blessed to get to spend some time with our good friends, the Madonna Family in Sterling Heights, this past month. 

We love these folks and Mrs. Madonna is one of my all-time favorite preacher's wives. She's one of the sweetest ladies I know. 

Anyhow, Covenant Baptist Church in Sterling Heights participated in the Gypsy Christmas and loaded us down with filled shoe boxes.  

Many of our Gypsy children have never received a Christmas present before and the one we give out will be the only present they get for Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year. I love those children and I delight in seeing their smiles as they open the small gifts. 

  

Josh and Hannah were in charge of fitting them all in our little trailer. Luckily they all fit. 

We are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas this year. We're taking a container back filled with Bibles and other things. We're so happy to have some room in the container to bring some personal items and lots of stuff for our Gypsy Christmas project. 

We have a great group from Bible Baptist Church in Rendon, TX, who decided to knit scarves and hats for our Gypsies. They along with several other churches have knit, as of right now:

37 pairs of gloves

1 shawl

1 poncho

1 pair of socks

31 headbands or earmuffs

10 blankets

854 hats

1,560 scarves

They call their project, Wrap Croatia for Christ. Pretty awesome! I'm so glad that the ladies at Bible Baptist had the vision to make a difference for little children they have never seen. It gets very cold in Croatia and many times the Gypsy children aren't dressed warmly. I'm gonna have so much fun wrapping those little children for all the ladies who took the time to make a difference. 

On a side note, we're almost finished with our 3 month trip. I'm tickled because a week from Thursday we head back to Texas and guess who I get to see...CODY!!! I have never been away from our oldest son Cody for more than a few days and he has been in Texas at Bible college while we've been on the road. 

As we travel and people find out that our son is staying behind for Bible college I hear all sorts of reports. From, "oh no, it'll be the worst time of your life." to " I cried every day and I still cry after all these years." 

Very seldom do I meet a mother that is okay with her children being gone. I can understand for sure, I love my kids way too much but I'm a realist. I know for them to serve the Lord and do His will they have to eventually get out. I'm happy Cody is in Bible college and doing well, it's the Lord's will that boys become men and that's how it happens. 

Sometimes I feel a little guilty that I am doing so well without him but them I realize that it's probably God's grace being poured out more abundantly in my time of need. I'm okay with it, thank the LORD!

On a second side note (he he) we are getting ready to pack up and head home. We will be back in Texas around the 15th and then pack up our container on the 1st of Nov. and then we'll be flying home on November 29th. I'm so excited! I can't even tell you how I'm looking forward to going home. Not only going home but we get to see all of our Croatian church family and friends.  Anyhow, God sure is good to let us serve Him in Croatia, we're privileged. 

Does HE care? Oh yea HE does!!!

   Sometimes we forget all the wonderful things God does for us. I mean He answers prayers and we praise Him at the moment but we soon forget. I'm so guilty of this. In general I tend to have quite a bit of faith but I still forget sometimes how good He is. 

   Lately we've been really going through a life change with Cody (our oldest) graduating from high school and now working his first job as a medical courier.  We were so worried about this whole change in life when we really should have remembered all the great things He has done so far. Wow, as a family we have always been blessed beyond measure, and yea I know that's a phrase but that's our phrase. God has met every need and took care of lots of desires along the way. 

   I'm so glad to see that God is now doing the same amazing things for our son Cody. When we first came to the states we were really looking for a car for Cody but we were very careful not to get in front of God. Anyhow, one day after a long trip visiting churches Johnny took our van to a full service car wash for a detailed cleaning. As he was sitting in the waiting room he overheard a conversation between an elderly lady and one of the workers. She stated that she needed her car detailed since she was selling it. Curious, Johnny went over and inquired about the car. She hadn't even put the car up for sale yet. She was moving to Hawaii and didn't need the car. Johnny went out and looked at the car and it was almost brand new. It was exactly what Cody needed and since she was a Christian she gave us a great price. God dropped that car into our laps and at such a great price. 

   So the car was all taken care of and then the next step was a job. Cody decided long ago that he was going to honor God and not work on Wednesdays or Sundays. He put in tons of applications and surprisingly to me the only one who called out of dozens of applications was a pizza place and after a interview Cody decided it wasn't for him. He told the manager that he couldn't work on Sundays and before the interview was finished the manager tried to trick him into coming in on Sundays. 

   Anyhow, we told Cody to wait on God and that He would bless his putting God first. Well, as usual, the Lord came through and he was hired on the spot as a medical courier. He delivers medical supplies and pharmaceutics. Cody is allowed to come in at anytime of the morning and he can deliver all morning and then start his route at 1:00. The job is perfect, couldn't be better for a college student.  This job almost seems too good to be true unless you remember God, the one who created the stars, shut Noah up in the Ark and preserved his family and made a way for dirty sinners to be washed clean and inherit a heavenly home. Wow, and this God isn't big enough to supply a job for a young man who loves Him and honors Him. Oh yea He is, He cares, He hears and He answers prayers. 

   What a great blessing for me to see the God that has supplied for our family and taking care of us now caring and supplying for Cody.  DOES HE CARE? OH YEA HE DOES!!!

UPDATE: Okay so the job didn't work out. They were liars and totally changed the agreement. Act Fast Couriers is a joke and they treat their employees like garbage. Yes, this is a rant but it's justified. 
I still believe that the Lord is good and that in His time Cody will get the job that he needs. We'll just have to wait a bit longer. Anyhow, just wanted to update 'cha. 

It's DONE! CONGRATS CODY!!!

This whole furlough has brought many changes and last night was another milestone in our family. Our oldest son Cody graduated from high school.  I'm amazed that he or we are old enough to be graduated. But it's true, he and we are. 

He walked the isle with one other graduate.

His Daddy proudly presented him with his high school diploma from our Croatia Baptist Academy home school. 

Cody with our pastor Dr. Todd Lasseter. 

Presentation of the two high school graduates and the kindergarten graduates also. 

Cody and his very proud Dad. 

Proud Papaw and Mammy (Johnny's parents)

Josh with the graduate. It's not long till we do the same with him. He's a 2013 graduate but he'll wait until May 2014 to actually go through the ceremony. He can't wait. 

Proud parents. I look like death because I did a little crying. It hit me so hard that this was so permanent and in a few short months we would be leaving our young man in America. I'm expecting to have to use some of that grace that God offers so freely. 

Cody will be planning Bible college in the fall and majoring in missions. His will be returning to Croatia as a missionary unless God changes his direction. We have told him that we would rather have him in Africa in God's will than in Croatia out of His will. We are praying that HIS will is for Cody to come to Croatia but we'll be happy as long as he is in God's will regardless where he is. 

  The graduates: Cody and Paul

 Cody with his display at the reception. 

 Congrats to both Cody and Paul. Now the fun begins!!

 

Super Busy!

I remember being a child and complaining to my mother about being bored. I can remember waiting for the long long day to finally end. What happened to those days? Why is it that the days now seem like a minuet fraction of what they used to be. Now that we have so much more to accomplish in a days time we have shorter days. I know you don't believe that they are shorter but I swear they are.

Anyhoo, I would kill for a few of those long days of childhood. This past week Bro. Bill Smith from Southwest Baptist was here and he preached a missionary seminar in the morning, and every evening he preached an end times revival. It was great! Bro. Smith preached during the missionary seminar on Behold His Glory. He has been with us for four years now and every year it gets better.

Here are just a few photos of our week, and boy was it busy!

Bro. Scott played the guitar and Cody sang a special for the church. He really loves to sing, I'm glad Bro. Scott came to kinda push him into using his talent for God.

We had pretty good attendance for most of the meetings. The singing was awesome, there was so much life in the church and it was such a blessing. 

Bro. Sam Ward arrived on the 27th of March and is now working as a partner in the ministry here in Croatia. He is from our home church and we're tickled to have him here with us.

Also during the conference Bro. Pranger came down from Budapest, Hungary and we were so glad he did.

B

On Sunday morning Bro. Smith preached in Varaždin and Jasmina was saved. Praise the Lord! We have actually had a lot of souls saved over the last several weeks and God has blessed us with several Baptisms too. Here are some photos of just a few.

Bro. Krešo was saved a few weeks ago and followed the Lord in believers baptism.

The son of one of our Gypsy men was saved a couple weeks ago and also was baptized.

The Danijel and Nina came to church and they both got saved, praise the Lord. They have both been faithful and we're praying that God would really get a hold of their hearts and they would begin to change for Him.

On last photo to leave you with, Spring has sprung here in Croatia and the Magnolias are gorgeous!
Have a great Thursday Y'all!

Just a little winter fun!

Saturday morning after soul-winning we stopped by the Old Town in Varazdin, the city where the new church plant is. Anyhow, this really old castle is surrounded by huge hills all around it. These hills make the perfect place to sled during the snowy months of winter.

Anyhow, I took some videos and I have to say, they are hilarious. There are 4 because Joshua is so funny I put two of him on.

Oh yea and listen to the dialog between Dad and the kids, way too funny!!
Enjoy the laugh.

Make sure to listen to Dad in this one, way too funny!!