Wednesday, August 26, 2009

under your nose


Do you ever have one of those moments when, say, you're teaching your kids and then you realize that the Lord probably prompted them to ask you that so that you'd hear your own words and, thus, teach yourself?! :)

Benjamin overheard me tell someone that it was "under her nose" the other day. "What's that mean?!" Well... I explained... "When someone's looking and looking for something and then they find it in an obvious place we say it was right under their nose. Obvious. In front of them." Sometimes we look so hard for an answer and it's right in front of us! Hummm, Lord...

One other time this week, I was helping one of my kids with a sore on the top of their hand. I was right in front of them and while I was busy trying to turn their hand down toward me to apply ointment, they were busy trying to pull it up so that they could see what I was doing (and if I was doing it right...) I told them in a motherly way... "Stop doing that! You don't need to see... I do! I'm taking care of you. Trust me." Hummmm, Lord.....

Keep your ears open! Next time you're teaching someone... the lesson might just be intended for you! :)

books/music

We love books and music. If you come to our house, someone will be doing one or both of those things. The kids read at night until it's too dark to see your hand in front of you (and by then it's time to be sleeping anyway!). Hannie is already telling me that she's read every one of the books we brought over! Benjamin has, too, I think, but he is a little more content to read and re-read! He also has his own little Walkman thingy - like an IPod. So he's got headphones on and a smile on his face half of the day! Right now some of our favorite artists are TobyMac and Phil Joel (and the Newsboys). The kids have liked PureNRG, a teen band. You know we have to listen to some Veggies and Boz, too! And of course, we're listening to our favorite Armenian band - the Rama band from our church! Kev's helped them record 4 or 5 songs and we love it. We're hoping to learn all the words to all those songs...

As far as books go, I've been reading some of the Mitford Series and some of Janatte Oke's series, Love Comes Softly. I read the Oke books forever ago and when we watched the first few movies, a friend of mine said that they weren't totally the same as the books... so now I'm re-reading the first few books to compare! My mom lent me some books from one of her favorite authors, Susan Meissner. We've also read some books from YWAM about the early missionaries. Good stuff. Benjamin loves the Civil War! He and Kevin, the history men! Hannie's been reading the Cul de sac kids books and Janette Oke has some cute kids books called Animal Friends. We're also reading the Life of Faith series about Elsie right now together at night. Just finished all the Narnia books a month or so ago. Ruth and Elijah love any book with pictures and will come if I start reading! We had a good discussion the other day about if you'd rather have a Noothbrush on your toothbrush or a Bofa on the sofa... all those different goofy guys from Dr Seuss.

There you have it! Stop on by and sit to hear a book or dance to TobyMac with us! We might even make you a tea or coffee to be a hospitable Armenian! :)

(okay, so Elijah really didn't fall aleep reading this book... but it was too cute to pass up. He took a nap on Daddy's side of the bed one day! Sweet.)

Typical MIssionary

There is no typical missionary. At least that's my opinion! Since we've been thrown into the M mix, we've seen so many different people working out here. And not just focused on different ministries or in different areas. Different kinds of people are here. If you've ever said, "I couldn't do that because..." I'm guessing that someone on the field has your same reason - but is here anyway.

We've met missionaries who are single, who are married with many kids. Older people, young people. People who have some medical problems or physical handicaps. One guy who's done missions for many years told us that he's a terrible traveler! As a missionary... you travel! Lots. And he does... it's just not fun. He even has to ride in front seat of the car to not get car sick! Some missionaries like fine things and live in nice homes, some try to get by on just a little bit and wear the same clothes for like 10-20 years. Some missionaries love to be outside camping and some love to do inside things like teaching or computer work. Some love classical music, some love rock... you get the idea!? :)

All missionaries do have one thing in common... they've left family and loved ones behind when they came overseas. I think everyone has someone back home with a health issue... aging parents, alcoholic relative, dying friend, birth of a friend's/family's baby... Missionaries miss their kids who are in college, nieces and nephews growing up, family/friends weddings...

While there are tons of different people out there... they're all missing someone back home! I think it's pretty safe to say that most missionaries are totally loving lots of people where they live now, too... there will always be someone to miss after you've lived overseas!

Now, while there are lots of different people ministering abroad... let me share one more thought about our journey! Most of the people we've meet have come to serve some specific people group or do some specific project. Kevin and I have found that we more just kinda followed the Lord's leading - and here we are! We kept taking baby steps and going through open doors. Totally cool... now you can pray that we keep close enough to Him to continue to follow that leading! We're trying to find our "thing" to focus on here. We've always loved orphans and hope to work with them some. Kev's doing some worship team training and we've both enjoyed that. Homeschooling starts in the next week or two and that will be a big ministry of mine! We are seeing doors open and are moving forward... just hoping to see really clearly.

My devotions today were focused on our family verse:

Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to Him who is able
to do above and beyond
all we can ask or imagine
according to His power
that is at work within us
To Him be the glory
in the church
and in Christ Jesus
and from generation to generation.

We're excited to see what He will do that's above what we can even think as He works in us!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

some of what we're up to here...


I just realized that you haven't really got to see a lot of what we're up to as far as ministries here! Of course we're just making friends and finding connections... Learning how to get around and shop... But we've done a few other things, too! (I try to stay on top of Facebook, if you wanna find me there: jilljohnsoncrawford -to see some daily updates!)

The thing we do almost everyday: language! We have a tutor come over four mornings a week now. It was five, but we switched to four in the hopes that we could have her come an extra month or so... We have three months of tutoring planned into our budget as Missionary Associates. So Nadela comes four times a week to teach us, along with Marine who comes to watch/teach the kiddos! Love those two friends!

Then, Kevin is helping a church here get a live worship band going. They sing live on Sundays now but just by a synthesized keyboard that has all the tracks on it. So now they're learning to have individual instruments and how to play as a team. About 8-10 people meet at our house every Tuesday and we love them! The kids look forward to their weekly practices, too! They band hopes to start leading on Sundays sometime this fall, maybe September. They're such a great bunch and are learning a lot. Kevin is enjoying his time working with them! One guy came for an extra bass practice this week, too. Another church is hoping to have Kev come help their worship team, too, so hopefully that will work out in the future.

The Fire Bible offices has devotions together every Monday morning and Kevin and I have had the opportunity to be a part of that since Nick and Olivia are back in the states with their brand new baby girl, Ava! The girls working up there are some really good friends and love the Lord. Usually the kids come along and watch a movie while we talk, but after that they usually get some snack or get to draw on their white board... good stuff! :)

When we first got here we went to a special needs orphanage and we are trying to get back up there. We'd heard it can be tough to get in to orphanages but since we've already been up there and been asked to come back, we thought it'd be pretty easy! Now the hard part for us has been to track down the address and phone number! Arg. We'll continue to see how we can serve orphans as the doors open...

Both Kev and I have been involved in outreaches, too. I spoke at a womens retreat in Hrazdon, a town north of here, and Kev sang a couple songs at an outreach in the city of Ararat, a town south of here!

We're trying to help Nick and Olivia as they prepare some conferences scheduled for this October. One for women, and one for church planters. Our friend, Marine, is really the one here doing tons of work for it... but we try to help her with whatever we can!

So. We have a few things that we've been up to! Some days we feel like we should be doing more, and some days we're just exhausted with what we are doing! They say that just living overseas can be exhausting... I guess you have to get out there and do it to know what they mean... Just driving and not being sure you're doing the right thing (Kev's been pulled over 6 times, and I got a parking ticket once!), trying to shop when you can't understand/can't speak, having simple things like a pipe fixed or a light replaced... all these little things can be a lot more stressful then in the states where we can at least speak and understand! Driving over pot holes all day alone could be stressful! Ha. With wild drivers whipping past! :)

We have learned more of the language which we're happy about... but still have a lot more to learn! It's easier to understand then to speak. Which is logical, I guess! We're glad we know the alphabet now and can read some. The kids are enjoying learning and seem to be doing well here. So that's huge! Our new year of homeschooling material should be on its way... whoo!

So here we are! This is what we're doing. We've been here 5 months already! You can pray for wide open doors for us and wisdom in what we should be involved in! Mostly, we need prayer just for keeping our eyes focused on Jesus, the whole reason we do anything!

-Oh, we also have family night on Fridays... and Kevin has successfully learned how to call and order pizza in Armenian now! He's become Kevin jan to the pizza guy, even! (Jan, pronounced like john, is a sweet term like "friend" or "dear"... something like that-there's no exact translation!) You know you're settling in when you're friends with the pizza guy, right?!