Three P's

I guess you could say this is sorta like a good ol' Southern Baptist Sermon -3 points all starting with the same letter and a dynamic story to draw it all together. (dr. holems would be proud, he was my preaching prof at SBU, yes, i took preaching)

Praise- Praise God, Vernon made it safely to Uganda. He is with Victor and a lot of doors have already opened for him to meet with Imams in the area! (Imams, the best i can describe them, are the Islamic equivalent to a Priest, they are the head of the Mosque and oversee all the leaders and pretty much their say goes.) We are so excited about this. During his last trip he built some great relationships with a lot of head Islamic leaders in Uganda.

Prayer-
For Vernon, Tomorrow, (so tonight around midnight) Vernon will be meeting with Muhammad, an Imam in Kampala. Pray for great conversations and Vernon would have many opportunities to present the Gospel and that Muhammad would understand.
For my Family in Missouri. They have been out of electricity for 24 hours and are not expected to have it back until the weekend. My brother has electricity but the roads to his house from my mom and sister's house is really hard to drive on in the ice. If they can all get to his house they will be great for the next couple of days. My sister has 3 boys and when i talked to her earlier, they were freezing in their house. They were all under blankets trying to stay warm.

Photos-
These are just some recent photos...thanks to sarah barnes...alot more to come.

Story
Last night my cousin Caroline came to stay with Titus and me. We had a great time. This morning after Titus woke, Titus and I were laying in my bed. Caroline came downstairs and jumped in bed with us. Titus looked up at her and said, "you know where my daddy is?" and she said, "where?" Titus replied, "oh, he is in Sudan teaching people about Jesus, isnt that cool?!" To which we both smiled and replied, "yah! that is awesome!"

London Tonight, Uganda Tomorrow

Here I am again, thinking of something to write to tell about Vernon heading to Sudan, but i think i said it best last time....

"One would think that Vernon's departure to Sudan would get easier with time but i would say it gets harder. I mean logistically it gets easier because we keep everything he takes to Sudan washed and together so all it takes is putting them in Ziploc bags and putting them in a back pack. But emotionally it is always hard. I think it is because we are growing so much closer together day by day and we are both so involved in the ministry in Sudan, that when he goes we are overwhelmed with emotions that usually do not exist simultaneously. Excitement, Sadness, Fear and Joy to name a few.... The embrace at the airport always seems to be longer and deeper., neither wanting to let go but knowing the work in Sudan and furthering the Gospel is worth it."

So that said, it has be a very productive night, I have started a Christmas present/project that will take Vernon's entire to trip to Sudan and back to pull off....but I cant release any information just in case Vernon reads my blog while he is in Sudan. But if you want to help or want to know.....just call or email! But i will say this...it involves building and organizing.

Please keep your eyes out for updates on the SUDAN BLOG. Vernon will try to post as much as possible. He will layover in London and then head to Uganda where he will visits the Mosque and some Islamic leaders. Please pray for favor.

Titus Plays Basketball

Today was Titus' first experience at being on a team....I can not believe he is old enough to be on a basketball team! I was the dorky mom taking pictures of practice!
He was not quite sure at first but the Coach was awesome and got them all in a line. Once they lined up she taught them all how to dribble and bounce pass, i could not believe these were both accomplished in one practice!And at the end they got to line up and do what they had all been wanting to do, dribble in and shoot....and Titus made a basket! He was SOO excited, and of course Vernon and I were too.He shoots, He scores!

***also an update on the SUDAN BLOG***

Shepherd's Pouches

I have also been asked how I made the Shepherd's Pouches so here goes.
I used:
Old fabric scraps
left over Christmas ribbon
Thread
A Sewing Machine (you can totally hand stich this if you dont have one)

1)Cut two identical rectangles out of fabrick. Size may very depending on what size you want them to be.

#2) Fold down a 1/2in on a short side of one of the rectangles. Sew a straight stitch acrossed. Repeat for other.

#3)Lay matching rectangles on top of eachother with the folded down side out and sew them together using a zigzag stitch (on my sewing machine it was a 3) along the three remaining sides, starting and stoping just past the stitching from step #2.

#4)Fold in side out and thread with whatever kind of ribbion you want. I used ribbion for some and made a ribbon out of old fabric for another.


These are REALLY basic for picture taking purposes but for fun you can add a liner or decorate them with buttons and/or beads.
Happy Sewing!

Instructions for Ornaments

I have had a lot of inquiries on how i made the Jesus Tree ornaments. So here goes.
I used:

5 Gold Velum sheets
5 Silver Velum sheets
1 black sharpie
1 spool of gold, silver and maroon ribbon
I got them laminated at a teacher store down the road!
1 hole punch

I sat out to do 100 so i could give away some to family so we could all do them together so you will probably only need 1/4th of the materials above if you are just doing 25.

I first found several sources to pull from that listed names of Jesus and the References. Here are some 100 names for Jesus, 145 titles/offices of Jesus and Names of Jesus

Next I picked 100 that stuck out to me and wrote them on the velum (including the scripture reference) with the black sharpie in two columns nicely spaced. Once I was finished I cut each one in a rectangle according to its size. I took them and laminated them at the teacher store. Once laminated I cut them out, punched two holes in each one and threaded desired ribbon through to hang them. I tied two knots so the ribbon would stay and they were ready to be hung or given away!
Be Creative and if you make some a different way PLEASE PLEASE tell me I would love to hear!

Traditions! Traditions! Traditions!

As most of you know, I am a sucker for traditions, so Christmas is no exception. I especially love starting new traditions and seeing them through. So when Vernon and I got married we had so much fun thinking of what we wanted our new family traditions to be! Some are old ones with a twist, some out of our own little minds and still others are spin-offs of things we've heard others do. (2 years ago i blogged on this same thing!)
So lets all share what our traditions are and maybe it will encourage creativity in each other!!!!

Here are some of ours. (and some pictures for visual) I tried to keep them simple so we can do them if we are in the States or in Sudan.

*The first year we were married I made ornaments that have the names of Jesus on them. We have a separate tree that we call The Jesus Tree. Each day, starting on December 1st, we pull an ornament out of the advent box and read the corresponding scripture, talk about Jesus and hang the ornament. Also, as people send Christmas Cards, we hang their pictures on the tree and pray for them after we read the scripture and hanging the ornament.

*On December 1st each family member gets a "shepherd's pouch." (this idea came from Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in our Traditions, its an amazing book I revisit each year) It is just a little piece of fabric I have sown into a little coin purse. All month each person put money in it. On Christmas Eve, everyone lays them at The Jesus Tree. In the morning when the children wake, they can come and see what the money has turned into. ( we calculate a head of time what we will give as a family to random places and ministries around the world, most often we buy something from the World Vision Catalog, like a goat to feed a family) This takes the focus off of getting and onto giving. We talk about where the money went, by using the map and globe and pictures. Last year, our money went to Sudan, because we were there, but we hope to spread it out all over so that our children will know much more of the world than the US and Sudan.
*We have Advent Candles. This is something I especially love. It is a very old church ritual to bring about anticipation of the coming King. Each week we light a candle and read some liturgy. It builds the anticipation as the children await for the "Jesus Candle" to be lit. (in the past we have kept the Jesus Candle in a specific place and lit as much as possible. Then during lent bring special attention to it so that the Thursday before Easter is the last day they see it lit until Easter morning)

here are some random pics of some things i through together this year from decor....just dorky fun stuff from around the house to add to the cheer...
.

Soooo.....please oh please, do share your traditions! What do you do for Christmas?

A House Divided

not really, but on this particular night we have to agree to disagree! I was raised to cheer for KU and Vernon was raised to cheer for MU.....so if you are online and not watching the game, turn on ABC and cheer away!

VS

***update*** so as you have heard, KU lost. But to all you MU fans....i will be cheering loud and proud for MU next week against OU! MIZZOU RAH!!!!!!!

Gaddis Family Extravaganza

Here are some pics from today at the Burger home. Thanksgiving was so great! ALL of my Gaddis cousins and aunts and uncles came. We had a great meal and LOTs of laughs. We were 22 in all. (my sis and bro, their fams and mom and dad were not able to come). We even had our very own in house concert. We played MANY rounds of catch phrase music edition. And shared lots of great stories. AND IT SNOWED...briefly but it did in fact move from sleet to snowflakes....who knew.
Picture #1: the Dessert Table, can you handle this 6 pies, 2 cakes, homemade Christmas candy, puppy chow, Christmas Crunch, apple snicker salad, lemon bars, oatmeal raspberry cookies and all kinds of other little snacks! AMAZING.

Picture #2 : the fam, minus some who left early.
Picture #3 : Rob and Ann Lowe, my sweet little cousins. They are like siblings to me. I love them dearly.
Picture #4: Rob Lowe of Balmorhea (we got our own little concert!)
Picture #5 : Micheal Muller of Balmorhea (seriously check them out buy there stuff)
So if you can check out Ann's Jewlery Design sight you will not be sad. And Micheal is also a photographer check out his stuff here. ENJOY!

2 years of blogging

i wish i had something great to say,
something clever to add.
but little will come to this mind of mine,
i am sorry this poem is so bad.
But thanks to all who have read through the years
of my joys, my rantings and my stories.
Some entries were pleasant and some were just rude
and others were, lets face it, just boring.
You have seen our son grow from a baby to a boy
and heard of our Sudanese adventures
And who knows at this rate if i keep up the work
I'll be blogging the day I get dentures.
Two years of this rambling,
Two years today
with Xanga I started
with Blogger I'll stay.

Titus Time

These are some pics of Titus taken by our friend Sarah Barnes. Titus LOVES to go to "Reerah's" house to play. She is the Best! As you will see, Titus is WAY into soccer right now...and thanks to New Balance's line of children's 'wide' shoes, Titus will now gladly wear his shoes...amen.

A Sell-Out of Sorts

Well folks tonight i deemed myself a sell-out. Now, that is not to say things will remain this way, but for tonight....a sell-out am I. It all started Friday morning when I rolled over in my cozy warm bed and heard the recycle truck picking up the recycle bin. I thought to myself, "Oh no! i forgot to take the trash and recycle to the curb last night!" So i threw on my robe and rushed out hoping what I had heard was the truck down the street. Well, as the day went on i found out that, yes, it was indeed our Recycle Truck that woke me that morning. All this to say, now, Tuesday evening, our Recycle Bin is filled to over flowing. We have two recycle bags full in the garage waiting for next week. So tonight i was faced with having to throw away cardboard, two cans, a plastic container and a glass jar. It was dreadful, just dreadful. To make it worse I noticed how simply throwing those away eliminated having to rinse them and discard the labels and made dish doing a little less. WHAT AM I THINKING....i will not let these thoughts win!
If you come to our home much, there are a couple things you know well. One, i love the fact that you can freely and easily recycle in Fort Worth. Two, i am obsessed with baking, so a homemade dessert of sorts is always awaiting. Well folks sell-out number two happened within minutes of the aforementioned selling-out. I have this thing, I can not get my self to make cookies from those little bags of pre-made-just-add-butter-and-a-egg bags...i just cant do it. But Monday at the store i was feeling the exhaustion of pregnancy and was in the baking isle buying my usual baking goods. In said isle, i happened upon the bag-o-cookies section. I thought to myself, I would really like to make some cookies but i have no energy, this is just the trick. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME! So tonight while i was busy ruining the environment by not recycling, i made cookies FROM THE BAG....what is happening to my life?
the worst part....the cookies were really good.

Sudan Update

I just thought I would let yall know that we updated some video footage on our Sudan blog. Robin and Megan are back from Kenya where Isaac had his surgry. Isaac is back in Sudan and doing great! amen! Robin also went back to Sudan with Isaac and got to attend the opening celebration of Sunday School at the church in Yei. They have never had a children's ministry until now! Some of the Video are of the children enjoying their first Sunday School meeting! There are also photos (like this one) of the children working on and painting the building where they will be meeting! enjoy!

**we got word this week that a bad storm came through our Morobo Orphanage and damaged the orphanage building. No children or workers were hurt...amen! You can read more on the blog as well**

And Now, The Costume You've All Been Waiting For.....

Wishing for Fall

Being from Missouri leaves much to be desired out of Fall and lets just say, North Texas is not cutting it! This weekend we decided it was time to stop denying that this, in fact, was north Texas's version of fall so we packed up the fam and went to the Pumpkin Patch. In honor of the occasion and the supposed "cold front" we decided to all dress in long sleeves just in case. We had to cut our trip to the patch short because we were all SWELTERING! It was really hot but all in all we had a great time and Titus loved it. He was way into the tractors, more so than the pumpkins or scarecrows this year.

Here are some pics and somethings to note as you look: 1) we have a dilemma, Titus is to skinny for anything bigger than 2T but too tall for anything shorter than 3T, this is not a problem in the summer with shorts, in fact the shorts he wore to church today were 18 months! But when he is wearing jeans...its an issue! 2) Vernon is wearing cowboy boots. 3) Titus really wanted a yard ornament scarecrow instead of a pumpkin and since it was only 2 bucks verses the crazy prices of pumpkins we caved. 4) We believe Titus has the gift of praise dancing. He often breaks out in dance when he hears music, only it almost always includes waving something in the air, in this case, the scarecrow acted as his praise banner. Give Him Praise!

Information Overload

Three of the last four weekends have been spent at "retreats." First a personal/family retreat to the DG conference. Second, my church's Women's retreat and Third, Stonegate Fellowship Girls Retreat. Granted the last two I was part of the leadership by worship through music, but all the same a lot of great Truths were received by my heart.
It is funny when Truths you learned as a youth keep rearing their head as an adult. It is like the enemy uses the same old tricks just disguised as something different. The Truth that seems to be overwhelmingly repetitive through out the last 4 weeks is. "what goes in is what comes out" or also said, "Garbage in, Garbage out, Truth in Truth out." It seems this is a life lesson that can never be taught enough in our day and age, where information about any and everything is a click away. It also seems that this lesson, in certain Christian circles, has become, "old school," as if to say it doesn't apply. For example, if a certain speaker got up and spoke about music or whatever it is that is filling your mind, and suggested that you pay attention to what is going in to your mind and getting rid of what doesn't glorify God, these certain said Christian circles would blow them off as teaching WWJD or something of the like. When all the while, we all, especially me, need to be reminded to observe what we are taking in so that we can take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.
Along with attending these conferences I have 'happened' upon two great articles on Un-pluging and Fasting from Information. I highly suggest you read them and pass them on to others. (they are both real short so dont worry)

CELL SIN

INFO-TECHNO SABBATH

As I was at the DG conference I loved the fact that I had NO Internet and i used my phone to communicate only with the ones we were at the conferences with (besides the phone call to Vonda to let her enjoy some of the conference). Then at the ladies retreat, my phone had no battery and i had no Internet. I got to enjoy a great jog through the trail around the lake and take in much missed silence. And again at the SGF retreat, my phone had little to know service and no Internet....great rest and focus. And through it all i was actually able to put my finger on areas in my life that were being affected negatively by subconscious thought from cultural noise. AMEN.
Enjoy the articles. And Enjoy GOD.

99 Balloons

please take a minute and watch this video. warning: to all mothers, grab a tissue, there will probably be some tears, but they are worth it.

99 Balloons Video

Here's a brief description from the website:

Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body. However, that could not stop the living God from proclaiming Himself through this boy who never uttered a word.

In the midst of heartbreaking tragedy, the Mooney family found the presence of God strengthening, comforting, and guiding them. Their story reminds us to seek God and endure our struggles rather than blame Him for our hardships.

For more on Eliot visit www.ninetynineballoons.com

BEARCATS FOR LIFE

yes folks, today is SBU Homecoming, and not just any Homecoming, but my five year reunion Homecoming. Am I going? you ask, that would be a big NO. But of all the 2002 graduates I would guess that my desire to go is in the top 10%. I loved everyday of my SBU career. It was a place of spiritual growth, physical growth (haha) and of course Academic growth for me. I honestly cant think of any other place, except maybe Houston, where God molded me in every way. Not to mention all the friends and all the pranks! good times!
Now all you who are SBU Alumni in the DFW area, I expect to see you at the upcoming DFW SBU Alumni Picnic Saturday November 3 from 10-2! Andrea and Sarah I am talking to you!