Alright, Folks. I’ll try to recap 2 months of busyness in a few posts. Sit back and enjoy the show…

While we were missing Joe as he traveled around Europe with GoodSeed, we had our own adventures at my parents’ house. Joe had the camera, so I had to get these photos from others. (Thanks H & T)!

The first weekend was packed full of lots of family. There are so many pictures that I think it’s worthy of its own post. I can’t possibly list everyone who was there and explain who they are while keeping it short and still making sense, but suffice it to say that a good time was had by all!

Here are the youngest of the family:

As you probably know, I am a twin, and my oldest sister has twins, and that weekend was the first time for us all to be together. Twins meeting twins:

These are my sisters. I am not in the photo because only weird people were allowed

These are my cousins with E, who could not remember every one’s names. He really took to the boys, and resorted to referring to them by shirt colors. For example, when E woke up from his nap, he said, “I wanna see the boy with the yellow shirt and the necklace on the neck.”:

And this is my Aunt T with the babies, who got a lot of cuddles and attention.

It was so fun to see everyone. I’m so blessed with a fun family!

To the few people who are still holding out on the chance that we might actually post on this blog - today is your day!

We returned on Saturday after being gone for about 2 months! We heard that spring here has been very cool and rainy, but we arrived just in time for some gorgeous sunny weather. When we got back on Saturday, the high was about 53 degrees. You know I turned on the HEATER when we got home! Yes, the HEATER! In JUNE! It was so strange to leave Canada while there was still snow on the ground and return during a different season.

I have a lot to tell you. I still need to look through photos, so for now I’ll leave you with some pictures of flowers from around our front yard.

Check back soon for part I of our TX update.

Hi, friends! As you probably know, we’ve been traveling around TX. We’re having a blast, and we’ll be back here soon with lots of stories and pictures.

So far, we’ve all stayed well, with the exception of Evan’s short bout with pink eye. We were able to get a prescription for him quickly, and he’s as good as new! We were a little concerned how much it would set us back, but we were so thankful to pay only $4.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement. We feel so humbled that you all want to hear about our lives and ministry. We’ll see you here soon!

Sorry for our absence here, friends. We’ll be back soon with updates. Don’t give up on us yet! In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to, and it might explain a little why we haven’t been blogging!

Dear Family and Friends,

I’m sitting in a church in Stockwell, a neighborhood in southern London. The church was opened by Charles Spurgeon, and is now a church of about 240 Londoners led by a great pastor who is teaching the light of the Word of God in the midst of a dark city. Many of the church members are originally from Nigeria or Ghana, a number from Jamaica, and a few from right here in England. Eighty percent of the women in the church are single mothers. Some of the people are young, yet some are very old. The dynamic is quite different than what I’m used to seeing in North America. Among other things, the greatest thing we have in common is our identity in Christ. They have a great love and fervor for the Lord Jesus. Some of them drive over an hour each time they come to the church, and in England, that’s an expensive trip (the lowest price I’ve seen for gasoline is 1.10/liter, which calculates to $11.43/gallon!). And these aren’t rich people. But, it’s clear that they are indeed rich in grace and in their walks with the Lord.

Teaching in London
Our time here has been rich, and we have been truly blessed by the graciousness of the people and the friendships we’ve made. Our three-day seminar, which is now complete, has gone very well. Twenty-one of our attendees are from the local church here, while another 21 are missionaries with OM (Operation Mobilization). There are various others (approximately five) from other places in England and two from Germany. Among our students are believers from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America, and North America. It has been a joy to walk through the Scriptures with them over the last three days. What an amazing God we have through the Person of Christ our Savior!

Ireland, Europe, and Texas
Please pray that my voice will hold up, as I have another three days of teaching next week in Ireland. Then, after a few days in Luxembourg and Germany, I’ll be traveling to Texas to meet back up with Suzanne, Evan, and Maren to visit a few churches, family, and friends. Suzanne and the kids are currently in Fort Worth with family, and I miss them dearly.

If you’d like to get together with us while we’re in the area, please email us and we’ll try to work something out. Here is our Texas schudule (driving days marked in red):

May 21-May 27: Austin/Fredericksburg, TX
May 28-June 3: Paris, TX
June 4-June 10: Lubbock, TX
June 11-June 14: Fort Worth, TX

Please Pray
Please pray for us in the following ways:

• Safety for Travel. Pray that the Lord would protect me and our team as we travel in and around England, Ireland, and Continental Europe over the next two weeks.
• Wisdom and Words. Pray that I would rely on God’s Word to speak to our students as I teach over the coming two weeks. Please pray that I would communicate the message of the Bible clearly. Our students are Christians (there may be some exceptions, though), so we are training them how to teach others (esp. unbelievers) the message of the Bible from Creation to Christ’s ascension.
• Hearts to Hear. Pray that our students would be ready and willing to let God’s Word speak into their lives and, in so doing, would respond to the Lord by seeking to know and serve Him.
• Patience while Apart. Pray that the Lord’s goodness would satisfy Suzanne and me while we are apart for these weeks (As they say, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” and I’m sensing that!). Also, pray that Evan and Maren would be especially obedient while Daddy is away.

Thank you for your prayers. We look forward to seeing some of you in the coming weeks!

I love spring. The melting of snow. The warmth of the sun. The awakening of plants and trees from their dormancy. The grass turning green. The newness of life.

The thing is, we’re still waiting for those things here in the Great White North! I shouldn’t be surprised. The last week or so brought some snow. And winds. Together. I’m not sure how much snow we got, but enough for our car to get stuck in it. Twice. In two days. That is a first for us, after 2 winters here in Canada. And, I had to trudge through a foot or more of snow in our back yard to take this picture:

The plants are getting ready to look alive! I took this one from our front window on the first day of snow because it was too cold and crazy to go outside:

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but over a foot of snow built up on our railing. Funny, yes?

Spring will come. Or at least summer will come. In the meantime, we’re just trying to enjoy the pretty white stuff a little longer. And, we’ll be traveling around TX this spring, so I’ll get to wear my flip-flops soon enough!

I think this video (link below) is going around through email, but when I come across a good thing, I feel like I gotta’ share it. Here it is if you haven’t seen it. We all know how much I love to hear kids sing!

It took us nearly 16 months to make it to this momentous occasion - our 100th blog post! I have thought a bit about what topic would be worthy of the big 100. I want to blog a recipe, maybe a movie review, and some other random blatherings, but for these purposes, I decided it might be fun to include you behind the scenes of our little spot here on the web.

I don’t pay to much attention to our blog stats, but I did a little digging to find out what you readers found most intriguing. (These stats are based on the number of people that actually click on that post).

The prize for the most often viewed post goes to this one. It got the most comments (29) and the most views (250).

The prize for 2nd most-oft viewed post is a three-way tie and goes to this one, this one, and this one.

The prize for 2nd most worthy of your comments goes to this post.

Our blog has been viewed nearly 16,000 times. And with around 500 total comments, that means we have a lot of lurkers. So let us know you’re here already! I can’t believe we are that interesting, but we do have sweet families and friends that try to keep up with us while we live far away. Thanks for coming back. We’ll do our best to keep you posted!

Most people tell us that little E looks like Joe and little M looks like me. They don’t look a lot alike!  Here they are at about 3 months:

What do you think?

Life is full of little blessings. I try to notice them.

Remember them. Enjoy them. Thank the Lord for them.

This week has been especially full of sweet things.

Fellowship. Friends. Laughter. Prayers. Hugs. Chocolate.

I made a cake and some cupcakes for a party:

A friend brought us some tulips:

Maren turned 3 Months old:

And Evan asks to hold her all the time. These two are really beginning to “play” together, and it makes me happy:

I say it often, but we are so blessed.

By now, you have probably heard about the hype surrounding Oprah and her statements regarding spirituality. I can’t say that I’m too surprised - she has been treachorously misguided for a long time now, but the video (below) is truly alarming. The sway that she has over people all across the globe is terrifying when it comes to matters such as these. What makes it difficult for many people to second-guess Oprah is that everything else she does seems to be “good.” She advocates love, kindness, goodness and peace. While these are principles found in the Bible, we must be on guard for anything that does not point us to Christ. (1 John 4:1-6):

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

Fellow believers, if ever there was a time to study God’s Word and be on our knees, it is now.