Preach it!!

Here stands my husband, preaching in the church of Kalingalinga , walking his calling!! When he was done preaching he asked me, "How did I do?" I simply said, "This is what you are called to. You are a natural. I have been praying for this for the last 6 years. Praise God for being sooo faithful and knowing that His timing is ALWAYS perfect." I was so proud of him.

The man standing next to Leon is Pastor Lazorous. This is his church and he is translating. He is one of the nicest people we met there in Zambia. You can see how the Holy Spirit just rests on him.

Please pray for him and his wife. They are newly married and while we were there we he told us that his wife was ill with malaria. Pls keep this man of God lifted up. Pray his wife would be healed completely by the Lord and be able to give Him all the glory!!

These are some of the children that were playing outside of the church. This church was precious. At the end of service we walked out and stood by the entrance way to greet everyone as they left. I thought it was just because we were guests but come to find out, this is what they do every Sunday. They begin to worship and as each one greets the pastor, they join the line. The continue to worship until everyone is out of the church. Everyone is greeted. I love this because sometimes in America, our church can get so big that there can be Sundays where nobody knows who you are or if you even attended.

We thank Pastor Lazarous again for allowing us to bring the teaching of Truth to his church!!

A day at the waterpark in Zambia...yes in Zambia!!!

Most of this post will be pics displaying large portions of fun that the children had. We were blessed to take them to a water park for the day and just ENJOY them. I know the kids had sooo much fun but I think Leon had a ton of fun too....just watch this video and you will see.

There were a lot of the littler kids that were afraid to go down the slide. The only way they would do it is if Leon went with them. True to who he is, he jumped right into the FRIGID water. This water was sooo cold that I didn't even want to play in the kiddie pool....

This video is of Lister and Leon going down the slide.

Katongo...

These were all the girls who wanted to go down but were scared..lol

This is Collins in the kiddie pool.

The kids were also able to enjoy an inside area that was like Chuck E. Cheese

I miss them already!!

So I just arrived home today and I think I have been awakee for about 48 hrs...or something like it....not sure...lol

I miss my children in Africa already!! It was sooo goood to grab hold of mine though, I tell you what!!

Other people that I am missing....Esnot and Hilda

Bishop Peter and Ted Lawler!! If God nad never given Ted the vision and Bishop Peter the heart to support Ted, Breath of Heaven wouldn't exist.

At the LAX airport

So far so good. We are waiting at the airport and our check in went very smoothly!! We have about a 3 1/2 wait and then we will be boarding our first flight. Uh oh...just checked our departure time and we are currenly delayed 50 min.
We just finished eating El Paseo mexican food. We are sitting next to some serious air-conditiong, wow. We are so excited. I hope to post some pics soon. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow a camera from a friend for our trip and I am still trying to figure it out.
Tata for now. I am saving our battery so Michaela can post too.

Isaiah 61 :1-3

Luv you all!!!

We leave tomorrow to Zambia!!!

So tomorrow night, just a bit over 24hrs away, we will be on British Airways Zambia bound. Wow...even now I am tearin up. The kids are packed up and ready to head off to stay with our dear friends and family. Oh man..I have been holdin it together for so long but I know tomorrow when we drop them off it will be hard. To leave my kids for 17 days, man. God grant me the strength. Grant me Your peace that passes understanding. It's only because I am confident that we have been called out that I can go.
I am super excited to go though. God has just been breakin my heart for these children that I haven't even met. There is no better place to be then smack dab in the middle of Gods will. My husband has been telling me the past few days that now all my dreams are coming true. See about 6 yrs ago, I started having dreams about bringing the gospel to the nations. God began to show me what we would be doing with the rest of our lives. See, we are the perfect example of His timing being perfect. It took about 6 yrs for this to be a reality. We have to be patient and wait on God for His divine timing. He made it very clear that He wanted us on this very trip with the kind of donations that came in. I have been to Mexico on a short weekend mission trip but this, this is the beginning of being in the center of Gods will. Hopefully we can organize another trip to Mexico in the fall. I will definitely be bringing the kids on that one!
I am going to try to post while we are in Zambia. I am bringing my laptop and will see what i can do. If nothing else I will be journaling and then post when we get back.
If you are a praying person, pls lift us up as you remember. We are going to need a wall of prayer around us while we are encountering the things of the enemy. We want to see people set free, healed, restored, and saved!! Our God is an awesome God who reigns from heaven!! There isn't anything that is too big for Him. Thanks for your support and we will chat again very soon, hopefully from Zambia, Africa!!!

9 days til Zambia

So we leave in 9 days. We are so excited. To be right in the middle of Gods will for our lives is pretty freakin amazing. God has been preparing me for the last 2 months on things that I will be doing while I am there. I hope to accomplish many things through Him and for His glory. Pls pray as the last few days approach, all goes well. I have to not only prepare all luggage for my husband and I but for our children as well. They will be staying behind with some of our dearest friends and family. Pray that they will have comfort with both parents being away.
So much more I want to post but dinner calls.....

All I can really say is WOHOOO!!!!! :0)

Car Wash Success!!!

So we had our last fundraiser yesterday and it was a success, despite what the weatherman said. Isnt God the one in control anyway....lol

So we ended up raising $258. Yay!! We will still get a small check from Chik-fil-A from everyone who came and ate. We arent sure how much but everything helps! We forgot to bring a camera so I snapped a few pics with my phone. For some reason I didnt save some of the pics properly, bummer. But here are 2 that did make it!

We had lots of little hands to make the work lighter :0)

I love anything where the kids can help.

And then there was Jaimey, Michaelas sister, being silly when all was said and done...

28 Days!!!!

We have exactly 28 days left til our departure from LAX to Zambia, Africa!!!!!! The excitement is building moment by moment, sometimes. I still have a slew of things to accomplish before we go. I still need one shot,need to get paperwork in order for the kids, need to figure out how the whole situation will go with the kids....phew!! At least school has come to a close so I can now focus on the pending trip. I was talking with my 8 yr old son 2 days ago and asked him what he thought about the whole trip and mommy and daddy being gone. This is what he said, " I dont think I can be w/o you mom for 17 days. " Then I asked him what he thought about the work we would be doing in Zambia and he said,"You and dad need to go huh mom. They need your help. I think we will be ok because we know why you are going." What a big boy he is becoming. He understands the need there and is willing to sacrifice his time with us so that the Zambian children can come to know the Lord even more.
Anyhow....pls pray for us still. We have one last fundraiser on Sat. We are doing a car wash, so pray that the Lord will bring us tons of cars and plenty of generous people. We still need about $400.
I will be posting again soon on this topic and soon from Zambia!!

A gift

So I feel like the Lord led me to this very verse this morning to minister to a dear friend but also to minster to me about my own children and the children we will be serving when we go to Zambia.
Psalm 127:3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Regarding my own family and my children, sometimes as mothers we get caught up in the things that "Need to be Done" around the house. I can get just as busy as the next one and put a movie on for the kids or have them go outside and play,not that either of those are bad options for kids.
In Luke 10:38-42 the bible gives us the ex of Mary and Martha. Jesus is coming to see them and upon His arrival, Martha almost frantically begins to prepare the feast. She gets so caught up in the things that "Need to be Done" that she misses the blessing of sitting at His feet. Mary sat at his feet soaking in all Jesus could teach her. Why do we get so caught up sometimes? Its a trap that the enemy sets for us. We completely miss out on the blessing. Let's not do that anymore.

So if children are a gift from God(psalm 127:3) then we really shouldn't pass up one minute that we could spend learning from them and teaching them.We should not be telling our kids "no" when we could say "yes."
How exciting is it to be able to tell the Orphans in Zambia that they are a "Gift." They aren't trash to be easily discarded or a book to be put on a shelf. They are the very tool that will shape our future!! They are not to be seen as a nuisance or distraction but they are to be regarded as a most precious gift from the Father, who makes no mistakes! The author of Creation itself.
Lord, help us to be more nurturing to ALL children. To our own and to others. Help us to not be selfish and say "Not right now" or "No" when we can say "Yes!" Put in us a passion to teach the Truth of your word and to nurture their spirit! Help us to love on them even more then we do now. Lord here our prayers. Help us to mold them and shape them into the very soldiers that will fight in Your army for righteousness!!
~~L~~

Fast Approaching

So our trip to Zambia is fast approaching. We are exactly 7 weeks and 5 days from our departure date, July 2nd.
We are trying to tie up the bit of our fundraising events in order to purchase the last bit of needed supplies. Not to mention I still need to get my Typhoid shot, ouch!! Thanks to the Lord that our tickets are paid but there are still things that are needing to have funds raised for. We are still raising or the following....
~School Supplies
~VBS materials~~ Michaela and I are writing the curriculum ourselves to avoid extra cost
~Bibles
~Medical items such as my shots, all the rx's we ahve to take with us to make sure we don't get Malaria, Leons epi pin and other meds that go along with him getting stung by a bee, etc.
~balls, toys and other things we can bring over for the kids.
~ oh and money for food, theres always that, lol

So anyway, we are having a fundraising dinner at our house and then we are doing a car wash in June. Pls join us in prayer that we raise all needed funds in these last 2 events!!!
The kids know we are coming and from what I hear, they are super excited!!!!
We cant wait to get there....I miss Bishop Peter and cant wait to meet all the kids.
Thanks for all your prayers in advance. We know that God is in control and He will provide!!!

Pls also keep us in prayer regarding the Spiritual Warfare we are being faced with. As we step out in faith in the way that we are, the attacks can be somewhat severe at times. We are really trying to keep our focus on the Whole Armor of God( Eph. 6:11-17) to get us through this time. In case you don't really know what Spiritual Warfare is I will explain. See when you take a step for the Lord, the Evil one attacks. Satan is not a fan of us dedicated our lives to Christ. So things that would normally not get to you become a very big deal, an explosion possibly. So pls pray that the Lord would help to keep us focused and united!!

Anonymous

Oh my dear readers....I do hope you are sitting down for this. Just in case you aren't, I will wait..............Ok..



So when my husband went to Oregon this last month he was able to acquire a pretty fancy guitar. He likens it to the one BB King plays, with the metal front. He knew that it was a steal for $300. It probably is valued at $800-1000. So he is thinking that he is either going to keep this new found treasure for himself or he is going to sell it to help pay for our trip to Zambia in July.



He decides on the latter and here is why I asked you if you were sitting down.

So my husband leaves with the intention of selling this guitar. He gets to the guitar shop and starts to speak with the owner of the shop. I get this text from him that says.. "Can we cancel our dinner plans? I think the owner wants to sponsor us on our trip?" I respond with a swift "NO. Denise has been cooking all day and the food is already prepared. I am not going to call her, 20 min. before they are to come, and cancel." So I then proceed to tell my husband that he has about 45 more min before he needed to leave to get home for our dinner plans and to close the deal..lol. "If you can get him to commit to donate, then I will follow up with him." So my husband says "OK." Donations are awesome and I love that people want to help but you must understand that our friend who prepared the most delicious Puerto Rican food, is also Puerto Rican and I didn't want to mess with that feisty fire she has..I mean she just had a baby too....lol (Love you girl!!)
Now, while he was telling the owner about Zambia and his past trip in July, he has tears welling up in his eyes. You see, he is very passionate about the orphans there and trying to share Jesus with them. To let them know there is hope. To build a relationship with them is our goal.
Well as he was speaking he gets a tap on his shoulder. He looks back and acknowledges the woman who was trying to get his attention. She simply says, "I would like to help you." Standing there shocked that a woman that had simply overheard their conversation, was touched, he began a conversation with her.
This is how it went....
Husband: Um, ok. How would you like to help?
Woman: Well would you mind following me to my shop in Del Mar?
Husband: Um ok. (He says Um, Ok a lot) He was a little bit unsure. He was in Oceanside but thought that Del Mar sounded promising. So he agreed to go not knowing how she wanted to help.
So they pull into her shop and she buzzes them to let her in. Turns out to be a very high end jewelry shop. I mean how many shops do you have to get "buzzed" into?? Looking good so far, right.
He then follows her back to the counter where she opens a drawer and pulls out a check book. She writes him a check and hands it to him with one condition, that she remain anonymous. She was very clear....She didn't want anyone to know about this donation. She wants no recognition at all. She then says that he can walk across the street to cash it. He agrees and then says thank you very much and walks out.
Its not till he gets back into his car that he looks to see what the amount was on the check.
He opens it up and glances down to find the check was written for,get this, $6,000!!!! Phew!! I am out of breath and excited all over again!!
Are you freakin kidding me!!!! Who writes a check for $6k to a complete stranger. Praise God!! This is truly only something He can do.
Needless to say our tickets to Zambia for July are now COMPLETELY PAID FOR!!!
And get this....My husband didn't even have to sell his guitar. God can use anything to get you to where you need to be so that He can bless you. I love it when His mighty hand is in our lives.
God is still in the biz of miracles and this is the proof!!
I am asking you all to pray that this "Anonymous" woman would have her socks blessed off!!

We can know raise money for the Breath of Heaven ministry now that our trip is just about paid for. The money that we raise now will go toward the construction of the homes and filling them with the needed items to function.

This also reaffirms to us that the verse we received from God for our trip is "We live by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
Not one of us could've predicted this to happen. We couldn't see it but we have faith that God will provide. Amen!!
~~L~~

Wow!!

I am again reminded of how perfect Gods timing is. No matter how much we plan and schedule we really aren't in control.
I was reminded of this on Saturday. See we are still raising money for our trip to Zambia in July. We planned a garage sale for Feb 7th in hopes to bring in some more money. We announced it at church and plenty of families contributed to cleaning out their closets to help us out. So we collected for a few weeks and then we prepared for Feb 7th by sorting and arranging things. Well, we were rained out on the 7th and then the 14th. Well during the 2 week postponement, more people were able to bring in their donations for the garage sale. So we again prepare for another Sat., yesterday, and are so grateful that we will finally have good weather.
Well Michaela and I arrive at our pastors house to set everything up and it appears that the donations have doubled!! Can you believe it?
So we had to quickly sort and get things out so that Kim could put out the signs....it was so funny when so did. With in minutes, I am serious, like someone let flood gates open, people started rushing the sale!! In fact, we were still setting up. You garge sale hunters are a little bit crazy....haha..I'm joking but seriously....You get up early!
There was a time when Michaela told me to look back, because I was at the bottom of the driveway taking everyones money,to see the sea of people. I am not kidding we were so unbelievably out numbered. There could've been a hostile take over. There must have been 50 people there at one time! There was only 4 of us at most.
Anyhow, it proved to be extremely successful!! I have no idea what we sold to raise the money we did but we did.
Gods timing is so perfect!! We were able to raise $894!!! God is so good!! We just needed to have the faith to see it through. We were getting a little discouraged, well a lot to be honest. We were like, "Gosh are we doing what we are supposed to do?" It sure didn't seem like it. Every time we wanted to do something simple, like a garage sale, we were rained out. Not to mention that it would be sunny all week to only rain on SAT!!
It just proves to me that it is all in Gods timing!! His timing is not ours. We are grateful to not be in control.
Hebrews 11:1 says....Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Thanks for being in control because we would mess it up every time.
~~L~~

Tickets

So that my friends is our confirmation that we have been booked on a flight with British Airways to Zambia~~~ YAY~~~

We were very fortunate and found a missionary travel agency who was able to get our tickets for only $1607. When my husband went last July his ticket was $2553. So we were pretty happy with this figure. :0)
We are still praying about funds though. We haven't raised enough money for our trip yet. We were able to secure our tickets with a deposit and are making payments on them. We are stepping out in faith knowing, that in this economy, that God will still provide the money to advance His Kingdom. God is bigger then the economic situation at hand. Our goal is to raise $10,000. This will cover our trip and allow us to give a generous donation to the ministry that we have partnered with, Breath of Heaven.
We are in prayer for funds and have been fortunate to raise some but we are still short of our goal. It seems thought that every time we plan a fundraiser, it gets rained out. I am convinced that God is telling us that is will be by His hand that we go and not our own.
So pls keep us in prayer. It is our heart to serve the Zambian orphans and bring them hope. The need is so great there. There are so many children that are left behind due to disease and poverty.
In the US if something happened to our parents we would be taken in by our extended family members. That is just not the case in Zambia. Family members look at is a burden, a very heavy burden, to take on another mouth to feed and shelter. Some of the children are beaten by their extended family because of the burden. They need the promise and hope that only Jesus can bring.
So if you would pray for the children and for our upcoming trip in July it would be greatly appreciated!!
God Bless...
~~L~~

Zambia

This is Loveness

This is Nora

This is Rabino

These are just 3 of the orphans that will be moving into the Orphanage in June.

There will be 4 houses completed when we go out in July. We are soooo excited!!

We bought our tickets and received an AMAZING deal on them.

They were about $2500 when my husband went in July and we were able to find them for only $1600!! Praise the Lord. What a blessing.

We are still in need of funding as our trip will still be costly. Since we are both going this time, we have to raise enough funds to get us both there.

Our goal is 10,000. That will cover our cost to go and allow us to give a big donation to the ministry to further the construction of the orphanage.

Here are some more pics for your enjoyment...

This is my husband standing next to the brick press..they, the Zambians, use this machine to make their bricks to build their buildings..

This is their well where they retrieve their water... Pls, let this be a reminder not to take running water for granted!! Imagine if you had to do this a few times a day.

These are our friends who are going with us. They went in July also. So this will be their 2nd trip also. They were getting ready to go in and preach at a Zambian church!!

We have other goals regarding Zambia and if you are interested, hit me up.

Look for future posts about Zambia. It seems this is where the Lord would have our time focused.

~~L~~