Do you believe?

There are so many thoughts going through my head right now,
and honestly, I am not sure how to even start this post. Do I use humor, do I use song? Honestly, nothing seems adequate enough, so
all I can say is
PRAISE BE TO GOD!

This post is about miracles! You read it right, miracles! Rhesa and I have always said that God
specializes in the impossible, or what we think is impossible. This was one of those times. One thing we learned in Central Asia, was
that God was still alive and well, and still doing miracles today. Now, they might not be raise the dead kind of
miracles, but miracles none the less. We
Americans seem to specialize in explaining everything away, rather than seeing
things for what they are, God’s hand moving in our daily lives!
Okay, now to the miracle.
When we moved and Rhesa started her job at the children’s hospital, we
assumed that it was going to be a normal 30 day waiting period for insurance to
kick in. WRONG! Rhesa was informed that
it would be 90 days before any of us was covered by insurance. We began to pray and ask the Lord for
protection for the kids and us, as to avoid getting sick or needing to be
hospitalized. It would have been an out
of pocket expense that we could not have afforded. Everything was going okay, until the school
nurse called about Josiah’s Epi Pen. See
Josiah has an anaphylaxis reaction to fire ants. Being in Texas again, they are everywhere,
and as the doctor informed us in TN, he has 15 seconds to administer the
Epi. This of coarse meant that Josiah
had to carry his Epi on him, especially if he would be outside. Now we had Dr’s permission in TN, but TX
requires a TX practitioner to sign off on it.
See the problem? No insurance
meant a huge bill. We prayed and prayed,
and one Tuesday during one of our team meetings, we asked them to pray for the
situation, and they did. We trusted that
God would supply our needs somehow. Well,
that Friday, I got something interesting in the mail. There were five large envelopes, one for each
of us in our family. We were not
expecting anything, and honestly I was confused. As I opened the first, I realized that what I
was holding in my hands, were in fact medical insurance cards. I thought it strange that they would send the
cards so far in advance of the effective date, and decided to check the date on
the card. The card read, Effective date:
4/1/12! What, was this an April fools
joke? I immediately texted Rhesa who was
at work and let her know. She asked me
to check the date again, cause it must have been a mistake! No mistake, the date was the same on all the
cards! I sat outside on the ledge of our
wall in the drive way, as the kids played, and was overwhelmed by God’s hand in
our lives! PRAISE THE LORD!
Well, we were able to make appointments for the kids to see
a DR on good Friday, and he signed off on not only Josiah’s epi, but his
inhaler too! While we were there, Ruthy
needed to see the DR for a refill on her reflux meds. He asked about her history and what tests the
previous Dr’s had done. He scheduled her
for a stat endoscopy, and to our surprise, it was the very next Monday, the day
after easter. This in itself is a
miracle! Having a procedure like this
scheduled so quickly, is almost unheard of, but God was in charge here! We got
Ruthy in yesterday, and they in fact have shown she has severe reflux, but
nothing else, no ulcers or tumors, just the reflux. Now we know exactly what we are dealing
with!
So you can choose to read this post and think we are crazy
and a little off our rockers, or you can choose to give God the glory for the
miracles that he did! As for us, we will
not diminish what God has done, and we choose to call them what they are,
MIRACLES!

OKC W&W team

W&W team from New Braunfels TX

Our Nazarene Border Initiative El PasoTeam

So it has been almost 2 months now since we moved to El Paso Texas. What have we been doing? Well I'm glad you asked.
Month 1 was filled with adjusting to a new place, new climate (desert), new culture for our kids, new school for our kids, and finding our way around our community. We are currently living in the main house. We have two bedrooms and a bathroom that are private. We share the kitchen and living room whenever we are hosting work and witness teams. It has been somewhat of a challenge, especially with the whole gluten intolerance issue, but for the most part, things have gone very well. Once the new house is finished ( it will be done whenever we get more work and witness teams who can do construction and who will finish the house), we will have a seperate three bedroom house with kitchen, living room, 2 1/2 baths, and a balcony on the 2nd floor.

Month 2 was a little more exciting. We hosted our first two work and witness teams back to back! Craziness ensued! Our first team was from New Braunfels Texas. They worked on our house, and with a local spanish church. They were a great group, and brought some much needed encouragement to the pastor, his family, and their small congregation. A side note here, one of the team members had Celiac Disease or was also gluten intolerant, and I got to cook and share food with her. Those of you who do not have dietary restrictions may not fully understand how exciting this was. She said that she had planned just to eat protein bars all week,but when she found out that Josiah and I were also gluten intolerant, she was excited. She said she went to her sunday school class and shared the news as a praise! The class was a little confused on why she would praise God that these two people where gluten intolerant? It was beacasue she knew that whe would be okay, and that God had provided for her meals too! Seems like such a minor and insignificant detail, but another example of God taking care of the details. I was blessed to be used of God in this manner. I had made breakfast all week, along with the help of a ROAM volunteer ( Rv's On A Mission), and the last day, sat. I was sick with food poisoning. Luckily, Rhesa was not working and was able to fill in. I lay in bed as they ate then left. I got up and tried to help with clean up and preparing for the next group that literally would arrive in a few hours!
The second group arrived and they were from OKC, a group of about 23 college and carreer young adults, they were great too! They worked with the First Naz Church. They conducted an afterschool program where they provided a snack, homework help, lots of singing, games, and most important, the gospel message. Our kids really enjoyed reading to, playing with, and listening to these young adults. The exciting news was that the sunday after their program, first church had 10 new kids who had attended the program! God moved! Thanks to that group for being faithful to God's calling on their lives. It is not everyday that you encounter young adults who have such a strong desire to not only live passionately for Christ, but who also serve passionately. As they left, our kids commented that they would be very sad to see they go and that they would miss them. Thanks to that group for loving on our kids! They will never really know the impact they have had not only on the lives of the kids who are now attending church, but also on the lives of our own kids.
Okay, So enough writing! I will attach some pictures later so that you can see something!

Jehova Jireh

God is our provider. Since moving to El Paso, we knew that we would not have insurance for 30 days, the customary waiting period for new insurance to start at a new job. Well, since being here, Ruthy has had strep throat. In looking through all of our meds, we found some that a Dr prescribed before we left the country to go to Central Asia, almost 3 yrs ago. The funny part was that it expired next month. Interesting????!!! Ruthy was covered and we were good. Then last night, Mikayla woke up with a fever and was complaining about her throat. We were sure that it was strep throat also, but we had not meds, and no insurance. Well, Rhesa went to her ribbon cutting ceremony at the new hospital today, and mentioned that Mikayla was sick, to someone, and they found us a Dr. that saw us for free and sent us to walmart for $4 meds. We honestly did not know what we were going to do, but HE provided for our needs. We know we are in His will, and He has directed us to El Paso, but sometimes, satan tries hard to bring us down. It is in those moments that God reminds us that He is incharge! We trust that He has and will provide!
We just had to share!!

Ribbon cutting day El Paso Children's

Josiah learning to ride his bike