Let Your Attitude BE our Attitude!

We finished memorizing our fall verses a couple weeks ago... but just got them recorded this week.  While we're memorizing verses, they usually make it into our prayers during the day, too...  With the Hebrews 11 (12) verses, I ended up praying, "Help us Fix our eyes on You the author and perfecter of our faith..." every night.  It just kinda came out, it wasn't really planned.  But that's what happens when you're studying/memorizing His Word.  It just kinda sticks in there and comes out!  Heh!  :)  Now that we've been studying Matthew 5:1-12, about the Beatitudes, the part that's found it's way into our prayers each day is that our attitude would be His attitude!  Let us be like You, Lord!  You are so good.  So merciful, and pure, and compassionate...  We wanna be like you!  :)  Blessed and happy!  The meaning of "Beatitude" is blessed or happy!  Good stuff!

And now, here they are, the fabulous Crawford kids!  :)

We did two takes... I kind of liked the first one better; they all liked the second one better!  :)  So this is the second one for you to see!  This was taken in our kitchen area, by the girls bedroom door.  We have our morning opening here every, well, morning!  :)  Heh.  (Notice our music studio, or living room, in the back right?!  Sweet...)  The younger two were a little distracted by the cards that I made while we were learning it.  I thought if I let Lijah be in charge of them it might keep him in place a little better...?!  They all know them anyway.  And we had fun learning.  Whoot.  The Beatitudes, the Beatitudes!

Ezekiel

Kevin is Ezekiel.  The Rhema church called us up after the band led worship and said that Kevin was like Ezekiel.  He taught people that hadn't played before how to play instruments and be a worship band that could lead others to praise the Lord kind of like Ezekiel when he brought the dead bones together, and breath came into them, and they were a vast army!  (Ezekiel 37)  Wow.  What a powerful comparison!  

This is the Rhema band that played this November.  Narek is main worship leader and one of our best friends here.  He is in England right now at missions school!  It's a three month program so Zara and Armen have been keeping things going while he's been gone.

Zara just learned to drum this year and this is her first time drumming live with the band!  Whoo!  Armen is on the bass.  He can play any instrument, I think.  Talented guy.  Kevin is, of course, on the guitar.  (I think you can tell which one is Kevin?)  The worship leader is Mariam.  This is the first time I've heard her lead but she may have lead in the past.  Her husband, Artur, does the sound and is one of the guys that was in the band last year.  He learned to play the bass even though his finger was injured at work a while back!  (They're expecting their first baby this winter.  A girl!)  :)  You can't see the keyboard player because she wanted to sit down by the sound system...  but she's there, too!  I don't know the back up singers as well, since they don't come to our house to practice as often as the band!  But they did a fine job, too, huh?!  :)

Narek will be back in December just after we leave!  (Boo!)  And hopefully he'll slide right back in there and the band will be off and running!  (Until he goes to do missions work somewhere?  You can pray for him and his family as they seek the Lord's direction!)

So!  There's the band.  We love these guys.  They like to joke with Kev because as he's taught them he's always said, "Hesht a!"  which means, "It's easy!"  Try it out.  Start small.  Step by step.  Little by little.  It's easy!  Next thing you know, you're playing in a worship team!  My Ezekiel.  :)  Bringing a band together to be an army!  It's easy!

*Special, huge thanks to Ron, who donated money for this worship ministry in Armenia!!

So Little=So Much

We organized the kids toys this week.  They each have to fit all their things into one or two boxes for us to take back to the states.  After going through and weeding out the broken or missing toys, Lijah came out with most of his toys (besides stuffed animals) fitting into two ziplock baggies!  Wow.  Crazy.  So being the American mom that I am, I'm looking and kinda thinking, "Oh poor kid...  giving up so much...  missing out on so many things..."  Then I look at him.  He's busy working on folding and cutting paper into different shapes and adding things together to create a type of store for me to come and play with him.  He is so creative!  The other kids are singing and dancing and making up a Christmas play in the other room...  Hum, maybe having so little is actually not a bad thing?

Then in the next day or two while Lijah and Ruth are dumping out his two plastic bags of toys I hear someone say, "Wow!  Look at all your nice toys, Elijah!"  Heh.  Interesting.  They see themselves as having so many nice toys when I see so little.  Again, last night as I tucked the girls into bed, I threw a couple stuffed bunnies up to Hannah's pillow...  She hugged her favorite and said, "I have so many bunnies!"  My kids see how much they have when I had just seen the same thing and thought it was so little.

Have you noticed how the Bible talks about riches?

Colossians 3:16
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you Richly...


Timothy 6:17

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who Richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Romans 11:33

Oh, the depth of the Riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

You get the idea!  What am I looking at to see how much (or how little) I have?


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Benjamin told me that when he gets rich, he's still going to live in a little house.  He'll donate money to people who need it instead of spending it on a big house!  "I don't need a big house anyway!"  That kid.  Good thinking...  then we talked about the verse:


Matthew 6:19-21

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moths and vermin destroy, 

and where thieves break in and steal. 

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where moths and vermin do not destroy, 

and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

For where your treasure is, 

there your heart will be also.

Where is our treasure?  Where is our heart...

Happy Halloween!

We've had a few people ask us about Halloween this year.  Armenians and Americans.  Do we celebrate?  What do we celebrate?  What is Halloween all about?  Hum.

So what is Halloween all about?  Going way back, fear, maybe?  Spirits and trying to please the dead so they wouldn't come to haunt you?  Hum.  Well, we don't believe that anyway.  So I guess we won't celebrate that but that is what you see in the stores in the US.  Ghosts and goblins.  Icky, bloody stuff.  Uff da.  And right around Hannie's birthday!  Comon.  Heh.

We always have celebrated fall harvest type of parties at our church and/or at the kids' school back in Grand Forks.  We let them dress up and eat candy and be with friends.  I don't think they've ever actually gone trick or treating, though.

They started out as a cat and a dog...
but got kinda silly after that!  :)

I read a book a while back called Redeeming Halloween.  It's pretty good, from what I remember... if you're interested.  Gives some history and some ideas of how to celebrate it in the light of the Lord.

We love to celebrate it as All Hallows Eve...  ahem.  The eve before All Saints Day.  All Saints Day is a day to remember the martyrs and Christian heroes of the faith.  Awesome, huh?  What a fun thing to celebrate.  We've read some biographies, like Hudson Taylor.  And we've talked about Stephen, of course, the first Christian martyr.  We decided a couple years ago that we'd use this holiday to prepare a small package for missionaries around the world who are serving today.  (If you send it the beginning of November, they'll probably get it between Thanksgiving and Christmas when they're missing family back home...)  I love to talk about how God says over and over in the Bible - FEAR NOT and Don't be Afraid!  He is with us!  He cares for us.  Good topic for the season.

Hannie decorated both of us in
Mt Ararat!  :)

Well, this year it kinda surprised me a little bit.  In Armenia there is no Halloween!  So, oh, here it is!  Right.  We did have some candy and we did some face painting but where was all the hero/faith stuff I usually plan?!  Oops.  Then I thought - all last year we planned for this Halloween!

Last year the kids memorized the whole chapter of Hebrews 11.  It's the Bible's Hall of Faith!  Heroes galore!  All these people lived by faith and served the Lord.  Awesome.  Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph...  So we had a pre-made lesson set up for us.  I read through it while they had breakfast and we talked some about it.  But this time I read a little farther:

Hebrews 12:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. 

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 

fixing our eyes on Jesus, 

the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 

For the joy set before him he endured the cross, 

scorning its shame, 

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, 

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Jesus.  The ultimate Hero of our Faith.  The "perfecter of our faith".  Fix your eyes on Him.  Consider Him.  Throw off sin.  Run with perseverance.  Don't grow weary and lose heart.  Since we have these witnesses who went before us...  be encouraged!  Talk about a pep talk right to us!  Just squirt some gatorade in  my face and let me get back out there!

I always tell the kids that we should think of ending the "by faith" chapter by thinking of ourselves...  How will our story sound?  What will come next?  By faith...  [Jill...]  We're next in line.

Happy Halloween!

Ten Years Old!

birthday flowers from Hakob

Hannah Christine Crawford is TEN years old!  October 30th at 11:00AM.  So here that time was actually 9PM!  We sang happy birthday to her at nine o' clock while we watched the Yerevan fountain show downtown!  Sweet.

playing at the park

Last year Hannie wanted a big party and had made plans at least a month a head of time.  She knew what she wanted to do, what the cake should look like, how to decorate...  This year she was still excited about her birthday but was more laid back about it.  We just had a family birthday together and did everything she wanted us to do together.  We started off by putting balloons all over her floor while she was sleeping!  Of course we made her favorite meals (noodles and chicken with cream of mushroom soup and later grilled cheese).  We went to a park since it was a lovely fall day and we went shopping but we did not find the dress that she wanted (boo).  We made her traditional pumpkin bars for birthday cake.  She got an MP3 player from the US and a new Go Fish album.  And to top it off we went to the fountains to watch the light/music show.  Sounds like a pretty good day!?  But at the end of the day she wondered...  maybe I should have had a big party!?!  Well, it was still a pretty good day.  

She made the cake and decorated it...
it says Ani in Armenian!

We have a lot to celebrate.  Hannie is growing into a lovely, mature young girl.  She is graceful and kind.  She thinks things through and knows God's word.  She tries hard and does her best.  She loves babies and children.  She is creative and includes others.  We are blessed.  So glad God gave us our Hannie girl.  What a treasure.

Happy 10th Birthday Hannah!
-downtown Yerevan