Hail Storm

Tonight as the kids and I were eating, I heard thunder. I went and turned on the tv to see what the weather was like and saw that a huge storm was about to hit us. They said hail was coming and possibly tornadoes. I am in the process of changing the garage around so we can put the van in the garage, but no cars can fit in now. I went out and started moving stuff out of the way so I could get the car in, but it started hailing before I could get out there. They were coming down larger than golf balls. I finally got things out of the way and ran out with an umbrella to protect my head and moved the car in. Now I think that since I moved it in, it has just enough damage to not meet the deductible. I should have left it out and let it get pummeled. Oh well. At least the windows weren't knocked out like some other cars I saw tonight.

I called our insurance on the roof to have them check it out. Our plants have that "shredded" look now, but they will recover. The kids were very excited about the "snow" though they couldn't understand why I was freaking out over it. :-)

Here are some pictures after it let up a bit. You can see how big some of them were and how much of it fell.


My poor trees and cana lillys look like they were beat with bats.


I grabbed one hail stone and put it in the freezer. Then all the kids wanted to do was go out and collect more. "Can we make a snowman?" was Zach's question.

Sharing Christ with an i-Pod

Yesterday I received this story via email that a student had sent in after spending her Spring Break in Panama City at the Campus Crusade conference there. I thought I would share it here. In case you don´t know, "Soularium" is a tool made up of lots of pictures that can be used to to talk about life and the Gospel. "La Búsqueda" is a film that my team made in Spain a few years back.

Here is her letter:

After our morning evangelism training, I grabbed an i-Pod that was available for showing the short film, La Búsqueda. My friend Stacy and I headed out to the beach to talk with people. The first girl we approached with the Soularium photos. She was very open, we eventually explained the Gospel, and she received Christ!

The next girl we invited to watch the film La Búsqueda. Her name was Katelyn, she loved the film, & she was really agitated that the prodigal daughter in the story did not get off the bus to be reunited with her father! Later on in the conversation we explained the Gospel, and she wasn’t quite ready to respond. She did, however, ask us to show the film to her boyfriend Calvin.

After Katelyn pointed him out, we approached Calvin and his friend Aaron. Even though some other friends were hounding them to get involved in a game they were playing, Calvin and Aaron watched the entire film and talked about it extensively afterward. We explained the gospel to them both, and it turned out that Aaron was already a Christian, but Calvin was not. Just when Calvin was going to invite Christ into his life, Katelyn walked up and asked what we were doing. Calvin said, “We’re getting ready to pray.” Katelyn responded, “Can I pray too?”

So, there on the beach, Calvin and Katelyn became followers of Jesus! Lindsey passed on the contact information of these new believers to staff back on their campuses. Pray these and all the other new believers will get connected with other Christians when they get back home.

Leaf jumping

First, for those of you who don't live around "live oak" trees, you may be wondering why I'm just getting to raking leaves. Live oaks keep their leaves through the winter, then shed them in the spring, then again later in the year. They don't give in the peer pressure and keep their leaves when all the others are dropping theirs.

So, yesterday we spent a couple of hours blowing and raking all the leaves that had fallen in our yard from our neighbor's tree (grrrr.) Isabella has been wanting to jump in a leaf pile ever since she watched Charlie Brown, so yesterday we finally made one she could jump in. She was SO excited and so was Zach. You can see that she was thinking "safety first" and decided to put on her helmet. Probably a good idea in light of our recent accident prone household...


The would run and jump, climb out and do it again. Over and over. Every once in a while I'd stop them and rake them back in to a big pile. This set below is a fun one, showing them as they land on the pile. This is what I call pure joy.

Visit to Grandma's in Kansas

Last Saturday morning at 7am (or possibly 7:15) we loaded up in the van and headed for Southwest Kansas. My older sister and her two girls and my younger sister and her two girls came along too. We had 6 in the van and then my younger sister, Kelli, was in her car with 2 more. We drove for about 12 and a half hours with plenty of stops for potty and eating, but we made it. That night my aunt and uncle came over to my grandma's house with their two dogs Bo and Baxter (see the next story down for more on the dogs...)

Indy and Baxter are nose to nose here with Bo close by. They had fun chasing around and burning some energy. My dad also joined us from Oklahoma, so we had a full house and really enjoyed spending time with all of us together. My grandmother isn't able to live in her house any longer, so we had to drive to the next town about 17 miles away to visit with her at the Care Center. She was glad to see all of us and we had a good time visiting with her. At 92, she is not real talkative, but we could tell that it meant a lot to her for us all to visit.

When we were not in Elkhart visiting, we were back in Rolla for naps and having fun at Grandma's house. It's very nostalgic for me because I spent so much time there when I was growing up. It's fun to see my kids playing with the same toys and doing some of the same things I did as a kid.
Zach loves sticks and found plenty to play with in the backyard. Here he looks like he is fishing, but he was really spying the dog next door who lives in a huge kennel.

One thing for sure about Rolla, it is windy there. The tumble weeds blow like crazy and the kids discovered a huge pile of them against the south side of the house and just had to go check them out. Isabella thought they were cool, but Zach was afraid to get within about 2 feet of them thinking they would poke him. When I was a kid we used to get huge piles of them against our house as well. We would borrow in to them and make a huge club house. If I tried that now I'm sure I'd have the mother of all allergy attacks. :-)


After taking pictures in front of the tumble weed pile, we managed to wrangle the kids together for a group picture. They are Emmalie, Isabella, Zach, Taylor, Naomi, and Hannah.

Isabella was a bit scared to touch grandma on the first day we visited, but she warmed up to her the next morning. She went over and gave her a kiss unprompted. Grandma was thrilled.

Here we are next to her bed. The kids were more interested in going to see the birds, or playing in the wardrobe or coloring, but I still managed to get them to sit for a while and sing and talk to Grandma.
Zach found a green bowl in the closet and decided that it would look like turtle shell. Kelli tied it on for him and he ran around saying the he was Franklin the turtle.

We stayed for Sunday and Monday and then headed back to Austin on Tuesday morning at 6:30. We loaded the kids up right out of bed, so we stopped at the first town to get some hotcakes for the kids at McDonald's. It's an easy thing for them to eat in the car and they really like them. So, Kim split them up- one and a half for each, and gave one the top of the little plate they come in and one the bottom. About 10 min later, Zach said, "I want my pancakes." We looked back and saw that his plate was on the floor right under Indie's nose. She looked very happy as she had just polished off a tasty treat.

After that the trip went pretty well. We got home at 6:30pm, exactly 12 hours later, so we were pretty happy with how fast we were able to make the trip.

Zach and the things he says...

Last weekend we went to Kansas to visit my grandmother. There were a few times that Zach said something so funny, I thought I just had to write it down. The first was as we were crossing from Texas to Oklahoma right at the top of the Texas panhandle. I said, "Hey kids, we're in Oklahoma!" His eyes got wide and he leaned forward, looking out all the windows, and said, "Where's Barack Obama?!?"

Later that night my aunt and uncle came over to visit with their two dogs, Bo and Baxter. They are both schnauzers and we took Indie along, so the kids were very excited for her to meet her "dog cousins." They were running around playing and doing the introductory sniffing and Zach said, "Hey Baster! Hey Baster! Come here little Baster!" What he was trying to say and what it sounded like... well, we all had a very good laugh.

Finally, one night, after visiting our grandma at the care center, we were getting in to the car and Zach said to my sister Kim, "Come on Tata, vama nos!" It was very appropriate since it means, "Let go." I said, "Zach, do you know what vama nos means?" And he replied, "Yeah... it means some words in Spanish."

It's a happy day

The kids are in Houston this week, but Kelli sent me this video today of Zach and Isabella singing a new song they made up. They said it was from a game, but Kelli didn't know which one. I'm just glad they are having a good time! We are missing them, but also having a little vacation. Liza slept until 9:30 yesterday for the first time in almost 5 years. :-)

Giant squirrels?

New Cast

Liza got her new cast today. They took off the old one and took out the stitches, then put on this new red one. They had to add a lot of extra padding so her arm has room to swell when she is flying this weekend to Greece. :-)


Indie isn't sure what to think... I said she won't have any trouble flagging down a taxi in Athens!

Story about us on K-LOVE

If you have K-LOVE, the national Christian radio station, in your area, you may have heard the interview today on the air about the Jesus Film and Global Short Film Network. My team plays a key role in the Global Short Film Network. Someone in Indianapolis heard it this morning and sent us and email letting us know. Here is a link to the text from what was said: http://www.mnnonline.org/article/12346

I thought is was pretty cool.

Using films in ministry

Many of you know that I direct a media/film making team for Campus Crusade for Christ. We make short films that students (or churches, small groups, etc) can use to start conversations that can lead to talking about the gospel. Right now we are working on 2 new DVDs that package several films together and make it easier to use them with a group.

This morning, we got this email from a student who decided to use the films on her campus to try to open up conversations about Jesus. Here is the letter she sent:

God was so good last Thursday--we spent the first 40 minutes talking about
"In Time"...good conversation about priorities/life purpose/schedules (I
barely had to say anything because people were so into it)! We then
realized what time it was and watched "Machine" (only had a few minutes to
talk after that), but when we finished, someone said, "I would definitely
come to this again!" So we're hoping to host another one after Spring break
(in a week).

Thanks so much for your help--these films are so great at sparking
conversation!

~Kristen
Alpha Chi
Butler University

This is the first film she was talking about:



If you'd like to see more of the films or use them yourself, you can get them from www.globalshortfilmnetwork.com

Recovering

Liza has been getting quite a bit better over the last two days. On Saturday, she felt really bad but it has gotten better on Sunday and Monday. I thought I'd post some pictures from the last couple of days.

First up is Liza sporting the "carter pillow" which looks like purple swiss cheese. The kids can barely stand to not play with it. It took some stern words, more than once, to get them to leave it alone. It's main purpose, other then acting as a toy for children or a giant mouse, is to keep the arm elevated.
Liza has been spending all her sleeping time in the recliner in the living room. Yesterday she was taking a morning nap and both Zach and Indie decided to join her. I told her it gave a new meaning to "dog pile." Zach likes to sit with her while watching TV and I'm pretty sure that the dog was just cold.
Liza will go back to the doctor in a week. They will take the current cast off and remove the stitches, then give her a stylish colorful fiberglass cast (she still hasn't decided on a color yet.) Then, just 6 days later, she will fly to Greece. I'm praying she will get a window seat on the left side of the plane.