Wii Fun!

Much to my sister-in-law's surprise, yes, I played a Wii for the FIRST time on December 23rd. We were at my best friend, Laura's house and we played it and had an awesome time. I loved it. I always figured I would enjoy the Wii more than traditional video game consoles, because of the more "involved and active" nature of the games and the controller technology. Well I was right. I played it and I was hooked. So the next day...on Christmas Eve, Mike and I are out looking for a Wii. Now, we are sensible people and realized that we would probably not find one, and we didn't, but it was worth a try.

Last night, we had our Christmas gathering with my dad and family in Madison. We got our Christmas gift from my dad, which is money, and the thought is that when we can find it, we will get the Wii. On the way home we decided to stop in the Walmart in Scottsburg, and I went straight for the electronics area. I see what I think is a Wii console but I figure it can't be, it must be the Wii fitness or something like that. There was a Walmart worker standing there so I ask, is that a Wii? He says ya..."we just found it. We told someone a little while ago we were sold out and then we found this one back there. We just put it in the case 5 minutes ago." Of course I quickly say I want it and we got our other things to go along with it and made our purchase.

I have already throughly enjoyed my new toy. Mike and I stayed up too late last night playing, knowing that we would be getting up early for church, but it was worth it! And yes, we did get up and go to church! Then after lunch today, "our boys" came over and we had hours of Wii fun playing.

So that is one of my Christmas fun stories. I know we are not to relish material things, and I can say I am one who does not do that, and I think most who know me would agree to that. But, I do think that God allows us to have fun things and He enjoys seeing His children have fun, and I can't help but wonder....were we prompted to leave Madison just at the right time, and prompted to stop at that Walmart just in time to find that Wii? Hmm....makes you wonder. I know for sure that my God works in the big things in my life AND the little things....

Guatemala Bed Frenzie!

My last post was about how I am on a mission to get beds for families in the ghetto of Guatemala city who are very very poor. Read the previous post for more information on that. Well I am so pleased and thankful to God to say that I have already sent $150.00 to Ashley, my friend and contact in Guatemala, and she bought 5 twin beds with that money. Those beds were a huge blessing to some families there. I also have already gotten $600 more that was donated by other people to send down there to purchase more beds!! The families in the ghetto of Guatemala are going to be so blessed by the people here in Indiana who have been so gracious as to donate to them.

I can say that this has me aching to be able to go down there myself and help buy, deliver, and set up the beds, but I don't think that is going to happen......however, I don't ever put limits on God! If He wants it to happen, it will happen. But, if it does not, I will be sure to ask Ashley to take bunches of pictures for me of the "bed frenzie" in the ghetto and send them to me so I can enjoy and share them.

A big shout out of thanks to Mom, Chastity, the Hornung family and the Cook family!! You shall be blessed by God for your generosity!

Ever since I have been back from Guatemala this last time I have been working on another mission that I came up while I was down there. As we hosted families into Ashley's house and fed them dinner, we were able to get to know the familes and their situations. This family was our first guests the very first night I was there. I learned that they do not have a bed. Many famlies here in la Limonada have a bed but there will be many who sleep in that one bed. Yet, some don't have even one bed. This family lives in a tin shack of a house, that has a dirt floor. They have no beds at all so they sleep on blankets on the floor. During the raining season, the water comes into the house and the floor where they sleep becomes mud. I felt a strong pull to be sure this family would receive a bed. I talked to Ashley about it and she got some things worked out in her end and found out that we can buy a set of bunk beds for $150 each. I had already been saving up money for this express purpose, so I have already sent the check to buy this family this set of bunk beds. Below you will see pictures of this family. They make tortillas in their home to sell to try to make money. doing this day in and day out makes their walls stained from the smoke and soot of the fire. This is their reality, their life, everyday of every week of every month. I am praying that when they get this bed given to them that they will see love and I pray that the love they see is the love of Jesus Christ. I want them to embrace His love.

Look at these pictures. Look at the situation they are living in right now. Then come back later and see them again with their new bunk beds in their home. See the excitement that will be in their eyes.

Once Ashley gets the beds and they get them in this family's house, she will get us some more pictures to see how it looks. Then the next step is to see who else we can help. Ashley already has two more familes in mind who are in similiar situations, and who need beds. If anyone of you out there reading this would like to join in with this mission, please please contact me at my email amym1130@aol.com I would love to have others join in this mission with me. You will be so blessed if you do.

Thanks for taking time to read this and if you want to read more about my last trip to Guatemala, click on the link below. It will take you to the page where I blogged and put up pictures after I returned from my trip.

http://amysbeat.blogspot.com/2008/09/guatemala-my-second-home.html

visit

A month ago I met a new friend, who happens to be a pastor. He pastors a small church off highway 135, between New Salisbury and Corydon. I told him that we would come visit him sometime soon, and today was the day. Mike and I went to his church this morning. It was a very nice visit. Their church is small, only around 50-55 in attendence. It was really nice, everyone was very friendly and it seemed like a family. It is a Methodist church, so they only take communion each month there is a 5th Sunday, so today was a special communion service. I really enjoyed how we all went forward to partake in the communion meal. It makes it a very active participation in the communion ceremony. I liked that. I am sure I will be around there for more visits soon.

After church Mike and I went out with my friend and his wife for lunch and had a really good time. It was nice to be able to sit down and just chat with some good friends. Then this evening Mike and I went to my parents house. Today is my birthday, so my mom made my favorite meal and a birthday cake for me, and we enjoyed visiting with them and my brother and his family.

It was a very nice day all around. A good day for a birthday.

Emmaus Walk

It has been a week now since the ending of the women's Emmaus Walk that I worked. I planned to blog about it as soon as I got home but for some reason I just did not feel like I had the words to say at that time.

For those who don't know, I was playing drums on the music team for the walk. And for those of you who don't know what an Emmaus Walk is, I will just say that it is a 72 hour experience that is open to all Christians to attend, and it is designed to help you focus on your walk with the Lord, strengthen your walk, and help you become a better servent for our God. If you have never been on one and want to go, let Mike or myself know and we'd love to talk to you about it and if you feel it is for you, we'd sponsor you to go.

This walk was the first one that I had worked. I worked on an REC, which is the same kind of experience but for those who are incarcerated. I loved working that REC. I know that I blogged about it a while back when I did it. This was different, and I really did not know what to expect, but it was great. I saw many women open themselves up to the working of the Holy Spirit, and because of that many lives were changed..for the better!! Since I was playing drums and not working as closely with the women, I did not get to know a lot of them, but I did have a few who I talked to and one who I am keeping in contact with. She grew a lot on the walk but still has a lot of stuff to deal with and I want to continue to talk to her and get to know her and hopefully God will help me to help her. I also came home with a new good friend, which I did not expect to do. He was actually working the walk also. He is a pastor and a great man of God! We got the chance to talk and get to know one another and build the start of a new friendship that I hope continues.

I do have to say that God intervened in a great way on this walk, on many occasions. The most personal and close to home for me was the band. We had a tough time getting things together and did not feel (at least I did not feel) that we were ready, but I think that God worked through us and the women seemed to really have a great time worshiping God through the music. That is the whole reason that we are there, to lead them in praising and worshipping God, so....mission accomplished. Yet another time when God came through and made things happen.......God is Good!

One more note, I was asked by someone who I saw this past weekend to put together a music team for a middle school event in January. I am pretty excited about this. I have already started working on it, and am looking forward to rocking it out with a bunch of middle schoolers, and hopefully bringing some of them to Christ!!

Update

I have posted on here a few times about a potential situation where Mike and I might get to adopt a set of twins due in April. Well I had just recently posted that I had not gotten any news lately about the situation. My contact person, Lindsey, has moved away from where the birth mother, Autumn, lives, so she has not talked to her much lately. Tonight I was surprised to have a message from Lindsay when I got off of work. She was upset though, and asked me to call her. I did, and I got some very sad news. Autumn had found out that the babies are a boy and a girl, which is what we were hoping for. However, the baby boy just died. It was due to a genetic disorder that is inherited, and apparently runs in Autumn's family. Lindsay was not really clear on all of the details, but it has something to do with extra fluid building up. It is something that usually goes away as the baby develops, but in some cases, as in this one, there is hemoraging, and the baby died. As far as they know the baby girl is OK and continuing to develop well.

Autumn and Lee, her husband, are pretty torn up about this, as I am sure anyone would be. I am pretty upset about it myself, even though these were not my babies and there was not a final decision yet about an adoption. Please pray for all involved, and continue to pray for the decision that they need to make as far as actually choosing adoption or not.

Stuggles

I want to write to ask for continued prayer for Autumn, her husband Lee, the babies, Lindsey, and myself. Things have pretty much stopped as far as the potential adoption. Basically, I am getting no communication from anyone. Lindsey, from what I understand, is getting back with old friends........you know, the kind who get you into trouble, you end up in rehab, and then get yourself clean, and vow never to go back to them, but you do anyway? So, I have tried and tried to get in touch with her, but she is not answering and not returning calls. I have heard about her getting back with her old friends, and back into drugs from her brother, who asked for me to pray for her. She has also pretty much moved back to this area, which is where those friends are, so she is no longer around Autumn. So, my prayer for her is that she wakes up to what she is doing and gets out before she completly brings herself down again.

Now, Autumn and Lee do have my phone number and have called me once. However, I tried to call them, left a message and they never called me back. I therefore cannot call them again because that would be like I was pushing them to talk to me, and I will not do that. My prayer is that they continue to think about the well being of the babies, and continue to keep Mike and me in mind as far as adopting.

I ask for prayer for the babies, that they grow, develop, and are born healthy when the right time comes.

The prayers that I ask for myself are that I will have peace for this whole situation. When the lack of communication first started, I did not handle it well. I started having anxiety attacks, and was so upset trying to figure out what I could do to make this happen. Then I finally prayed about it, and gave it BACK to God, and asked him to help me deal with this, and to give me peace. So far, I have done pretty well since then. I still have had no communication but I am doing a better job of allowing God to handle things.

Please pray for these things. I do appreciate all of the prayers that I know have gone up on behalf of this situation, and also the words of encouragement.

Fun Times!!

Last Saturday evening was our Bonfire/Costume Party, and from what I can tell, it was a sucess. We had a pretty large group of people from around 3 years old up to............well I am not sure, but there was a large, diverse group, and everyone seemed to have a great time. A lot of people dressed up and I was so glad and thankful for those who dressed up. We had a contest and here are the results. Best overall costume was won by a landslide by Sam Fanning. He was dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and his costume was awesome. For the most creative the winner was Thomas Fanning, who dressed up as Elton John. Mike ran away with the votes for the funniest, but since Mike and I did not want to take our own prizes, we checked on second place, which was Thomas Fanning once again. He already got a prize so third place was tied between Patrick Fanning, my brother Doug, and myself. We decided that the prize would go to Patrick, who dressed up as the Middle Man...it is a TV show character.

All in all, I think that things went well. We had a "sit-in" movie theatre set up on the side of the house where we showed Cars, and the classic Frankenstein, we had a Guitar Hero area on the other side of the house, game area, pumpkin carving area and the bonfire. We had some great pumpkins carved, as you can see in the pictures below.

Thanks to all of you who came out and spent the evening with us. We just might have to do this again next year for those of you who missed out, and for those of you who came to come again and have fun.

The hotdog and hamburger cook of the day!
And here he is again, with his alter ego coming out!

Sam used his creative side to help make the signs for the party.
Patrick used his knife and hatchet skills to make stakes for me.

Mary Popins meets Captain Jack Sparrow meets.......um girly man!




My Aunt Marci and her friend Rusella. They are from Madison/Hanover.

The two cutest pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.


The "road" and the bunny. Pumpkin carving cowboy.

Lynn concetrated on this pumpkin for a long time! Hers is the tree that is supposed to say Happy Halloween on it.
Michael enjoyed watching Cars. I knew that it was one of his favorites, which is why I chose to show it.
Wow........brother and sister love.
My parents.......I think Pop is scared by the lion, although he was dressed as lion tamer and had his whip and chair along with him.


I am not exactly what to title this one but I was glad that Ash came and brought along her friend and that they dressed up.

Captain Jack Sparrow and his buddy Will Turner. I guess this must have been when Jack switched sides. You never really can tell who's side Jack is on!
Strike a pose!
Guitar Hero is always a hit, even among pirates.
How sweet. My brother, the road, along with his daughters Hannah the cat and Faith the pumpkin.

Here kitty kitty kitty...........
Cheyla was dressed up as a man-woman, and Carly was dressed up as Sam Fanning. Notice the bracelets on the arms.
It might be hard to figure this one out, but Evan was a gangster. His pants were sagging....and his hat was on crooked but it was making his cross eyed so he straightened it up!

Miss Mary Poppins was lovely. She also brought her date, Dick Van Dyke who you can see below. He did not bring his chimney sweep with him though.

Here he is....the love of Mary Poppins life!

Mr. Middle Man.........you will have to watch the TV show to learn more about his. It is still a bit of a mystery to me. I have seen clips though.............a funny, crime fighting guy. Mr. Elton John is in the yard! Complete with the leopard print shirt, the red leather pants and the crazy sunglasses!
The scarecrow from OZ.........

Pumpkins that were carved at the party.........and a few the night before the party.

This is my pumpkin....