Prayer Request

This is a picture of my brother, Andy and my sister-in-law, Jan. They'll be celebrating their sixth anniversary in just a few days. However, that celebration will be under the shadow of some medical issues that my sister in law is battling. Last week while suffering from a horrible migraine she went to the doctor seeking some relief. They did some blood work and found her iron level to be dangerously low, and after a few other tests determined she is bleeding somewhere. She's had a CT scan that came back clear. They started iron infusions on Wednesday and today during her 2nd infusion she had a horrible allergic reaction. Her primary Dr. had called earlier today to say that the urgent colonoscopy and endoscopy that needed to be done had been scheduled for SEPT. 5.....that's five weeks away.

So, after the horrible scare of today my brother and mother will be on the phone with drs. in the morning, trying to get things moving faster. Did I mention Andy and Jan have an 19 month old daughter? 

So you can imagine that our hearts and minds are heavy with the unknown. Thankfully Jan has a close relationship with the ultimate Healer. As a family we know God is in control. We're asking our friends to pray for peace for Andy and Jan and for all of us who love them....and yes, kinda selfishly, we'd like everything to be ok.

Will you pray?

Prayer for Lilly Part 2

Last week I asked you to please remember sweet little 3yo Lilly in your prayers as she went for her first appointment at Texas Children's Hospital. Well, that appointment resulted in an MRI appointment for Monday (today) at noon. Would you please lift her up to the Lord? I know her family would appreciate it. I will update as I know something. Thanks!

Prayer for Lilly---UPDATE

Friends of ours are making a trip to Texas Children's Hospital today with their three year old daughter, Lilly. She has a tumor in her leg and they will be meeting with an oncologist. Would you please say a prayer for God to be glorified and this sweet family to be strengthened? I will update you as I know something. Thank You!

*** UPDATE: From Lilly's Parents:
Lilly update - Just got out of the dr office. They re-did her X-rays & did blood work. Orthopedic, radiologist & oncologist couldn't diagnose. MRI Monday. Another appointment on Tuesday with    Oncologist.

Stand in the Gap

The unknown can be scary. You remember don't you? When you were smaller and you would run and jump into your bed, not just because it was fun, but because you didn't want the boogie man to grab your ankles? ---okay...maybe that was just me, but you get the picture. More recently my big scaredy cat moments have been financial issues, health concerns for my mother in law and my cousin, a young person who I have come to love who wandered from the Lord, a suspicious spot on my arm....you get the picture. Not knowing what's going to happen, who will be affected and how it is all going to pan out can get us all worked up. Yet as a Christian, I am abundantly blessed to be learning about the glory of walking in HIS (Christ Jesus') presence.

Walking with Christ does not mean the way will not be uneventful. Every person in the Bible who had any sort of walk with God had a story. It is part of the reason we find such a connection with them...Job, Moses, Paul, Peter. We connect with them, we identify, we raise our hand and say "I've felt that way...I've walked that road". The great thing about these characters is that right or wrong, their stories make it easier for us. We see their faithfulness, or not, and learn valuable lessons about the character of our Lord. His faithfulness, His holiness, His Constancy. We learn that walking with Him doesn't mean life will be boring...instead we are given lots of different exercises to prove our faith, to rest in Him, and practice His presence.

My friend KAT is entering a season of unknown in her own life. Her husband has been laid off. What I love about KAT is that she's immediately turned to her spiritual family and sent out a prayer SOS. She knows about the presence of God. Read about her story here. Leave her a comment and let her know you'll be praying...and then do it. In this family it's a blessing to get to share in the burden bearing.

Anish

Anish is my cousin's husband. They've been married....for a while. He's forty-ish. Last week, after a series of what the drs. thought were unrelated illnesses, the drs found something terribly wrong. After a blood test at the office, Anish got a call 2 hours later to admit to the hospital in Fort Worth. After a few more tests it was determined that his kidneys were functioning at only 18%. Then they found a blood clot on his lung. Then his vitals started deteriorating. Seems the drs have determined he has a terrible auto-immune disease. There is treatment....only problem is, it has been known to also cause bladder cancer.

Things look bad to be honest. His breathing is labored and we are waiting to hear about whether or not he had to be placed on a ventilator. On Friday the drs. started the process of removing all the plasma from his blood and the putting the blood back in his body. He also started chemotherapy.

Please pray for Anish and for my cousin, Raven. They are such a sweet couple. Also be in prayer for Raven's daughter.  Most of all, I am praying for them to know that God loves them, He is in control and that He wants a relationship with them. My Aunt Sue and Uncle Steve (Raven's mom and step dad) could use your prayers to. Anish's family is from India and plans were being made over the weekend for them to come to America. Thing is...there is a huge language barrier...and so communication will be difficult.

Thanks for praying!

Heading Home and Prayer Request

I'll be heading to ATL, GA first thing in the morning. I'll be walking on Peach State soil shortly after noon. I don't know how much I will be posting over the next week since I will be affectionately consumed with the beautifulest (yes, you read right) new member of our family, my niece, Miss Sydney. She's about 6 weeks old now and ready for some new scenery...so I must go. She needs her GG. While I am away I really NEED you to do something for me...will you?

A friend of ours at church, who also happens to lead our student ministry right now, had emergency surgery last Thursday to remove his appendix and other affected areas where a large tumor was discovered. The prognosis was not looking good. It will take two weeks to get the full pathology report. However, Saturday, they were given a glimmer of hope regarding Brian's condition. It's a glimmer, but we know with God that HE can do ANYTHING.

Will you take time to lift up this precious family with me? Brian has a sweet wife and two young daughters. Thankfully they know Jesus. In fact Brian's wife has on her facebook "God is Good" even now during this time.

Thanks for praying.

Calling the blogging prayersphere!

Our house in Gunter is showing today between 3:45 and 4:45pm. Prayers are appreciated.

BUSY!

I don't like busy. In the early years of my marriage and our ministry busy seem to take a front seat. In fact, if we didn't have something going on, I felt sort of guilty. Not anymore.

Once I realized the rat race that I was involved in, I decided that I'd rather do just about anything than be busy. I know...doesn't sound quite right. Being busy doesn't mean you're doing something worthwhile. It just means you're doing something. It doesn't mean you're contributing anything to your family or society or the kingdom of God. It just means you're filling time. That's why I don't like being busy. I want my time to mean something....to add up to something worthwhile.

But, this week...I'm feeling busy...you know, the stressy feeling of way more on your to-do list than hours in a day feeling? That's me.

So, I am giving my time to the Lord. He can make so much more of it than I can anyway.

Father, I'm climbing up in your lap for a comforting hug and a whisper from you. Quiet my heart, my week and my thoughts and help me look for ways you are showing up all around me. I'm giving you my to-do list, my calendar, my agenda and anything else that keeps me too busy to hear from you. It's yours. Help me honor you with every minute you give me. In your precious name....Amen.

Prayer Journal Idea

At the Moms of Central Meeting at church Felicia (our fearless leader) and Sonya (another mom) both talked about prayer journaling. Seems these ladies had learned before about a journaling process that keeps you praying all week long. For some of you this might not be anything new. This way of journaling was new to me so I will share it here.

1. Buy a three ring binder...you choose the size.

2. By page dividers, label them Sunday- Saturday

3. Insert paper between the page dividers.

4. Each day focus on one person or group of people

Some examples might be:

Husband/Marriage

Children

Church

National Leadership

Extended Family

Unsaved

Health Concerns

Finances

Needs

What makes this unique is, by not stressing out over praying about these issues everyday, you are able to be more specific in your daily prayers. You keep track of the specific requests in the notebook and also keep track of how God answers them.

You can get really creative by scrapbooking pages according to your categories. For example, I might have picture of Bruce and me together for the marriage section of my book. You can get as creative as you want to be.

I think this is a great idea. Maybe you can use it too!

Prayers that Avail Much

My new blogging friend from Luvin This Life tagged me to be part of a prayer chain. I've added one request to the prayer chain and you can do the same. Just copy and paste this list into your blog and add one or more requests to the end. Then link back up to Luvin This Life so we can pray and rejoice together at how God works everything out for His own purpose. Use first names only please! And hey...if you don't have a blog or the time to do this activity, then just say a prayer as you read each name...then leave me a comment so I can pass it on. I can't wait to hear all the good reports!


Lisa~ pregnancy

Sherri and Todd~ waiting for Emma

Debby~ broken ankle; travel

Steve~ Medical Concerns

Cameron~ Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Valerie~ Medical Concerns

Joy S~ Pedi Open Heart Surgery

Valerie~ Unspoken

Heather~ Unspoken

Doug~ Salvation

Heather R~ Medical Concerns

Christina~ School & USAFR Decisions

Krista T~ Cancer

Nell~ Cancer

Nika~ Missions in Russia

Anonymous~ Fertility Concerns

Heather S~ Medical Concerns

Elijah~ Cystic Fibrosis

Merle and June~ Missions

JK~deployed

Duane~Medical Concerns

Natalie- 2 year old with health issues

Home Sweet Home

This past week Savannah (7) said, "Mom, we don't have a home do we?"

I guess she's finally realized that after 2 months of living in the RV in Sulphur Springs we aren't going back to our traditional brick home in Gunter. Her statement kind of caught me by surprise. My eyes welled up a little and I found it hard to swallow momentarily. I quickly glanced at Bruce and he had that deer in the headlights look so I knew he wasn't going to be his especially helpful self with this one.

So, gently I tried to explain to Savannah what home is all about. Tell me if you agree.

Home isn't a place. It's a feeling of security offered by people who love you. It's wherever the people you call family are. For us right now, it's an RV, but it could just as easily be a brick home or an apartment. The presence of the people we love is what makes us feel loved, secure, capable and transparent. It's not the stuff you have. It's no the amount of space. It's not the modern conveniences you have or don't. It's not the price of your mortgage. For us, it's wherever we can all be together.
After I talked to Savannah about all this, Tucker, who was listening in on it all, appropriately announced "RV sweet RV".....we all had a good chuckle. That kid cracks me up.

I wouldn't give this experience up for anything. God knew just what the Stinson family needed. In His wisdom He knew we needed a time of adventure. He knew we needed to have some fun. He knew we needed to be together..I mean REALLY together. He knew we needed to build up some trust in His provisions.

It's with all that thankfulness that I am so excited to announce we are buying a great house in Sulphur Springs. We haven't sold our Gunter home (please keep this at the top of your prayer list) but God has made it possible for us to move forward with the move into a beautiful home around the first part of October. It's a charming older brick home with a large, beautifully landscape yard..with 2 goldfish ponds to boot, a covered patio, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, formal living, cute kitchen, large den...and the most appealing factor of all....the same paint color scheme in my Gunter house so I won't have to lift a paint brush (can you believe it?) God is so good!

I'll post pictures as soon as we get the house...before and after move in...because I know you are sitting on pins and needles waiting to see

I'm severely addicted to HGTV on a normal day...but now even more. I get so excited about decorating and fixin' up! ...and how great that we are moving during my favorite season of the year.

Thank you Lord for the home you've given us over the last 2 months...and for the one we will have in October....and the one you are preparing for me in heaven....the ultimate home sweet home.

Take it to the Lord in Prayer

Every couple of days since our house has been on the market, I deep clean...dust, clean mirrors, sweep, vacuum, mop, pick up, throw away, you get the idea. I even have the kids in the habit or helping me...those Clorox wipes are awesome to give to kids to wipe things down.

With Tucker and Bruce already in Sulphur Springs for the week, Savannah and I set out on our cleaning expedition on Tuesday morning. As I was cleaning, I just kept thinking how I wished someone would at least come and see the house. It's been 3 weeks since the last showing. Anyway, I guess the Holy Spirit finally got through my thick skull and I realized....I need to pray about this. So, I called Savannah in and said, "Let's pray that someone wants to come look at our house while we are in Sulphur Springs this week". She agreed and asked if she could be the one to pray. So she prayed a prayer that included these details:

1. Please help someone drive by our house really slow.
2. Please help them pick up a flyer about our house.
3. Please help them like our house.

Can I tell you that not 10 minutes later someone in an SUV slowly pulled up to our house, turned around and came back and got a flyer. And guess who got to see it all....that's right...Savannah saw the power of prayer in action!

So, comically I said, maybe we need to ask God to send someone to the inside of the house. And guess what...within 12 hours we had a house showing!!! I know some people wouldn't think twice about all this, but God is most assuredly keeping me encouraged by these messages of answered prayer. Too often I just hope and wish and don't take the time to really pray specifically about things. Well....duh! I need to be wopped upside the head next time I do that. It's obvious God cares about these details in my life.

So, I am motivated to take things to the Lord in prayer in a big time way. I am thrilled that Savannah, at her age, got to see how quick and specifically God can answer prayer.

Now....I am off to pray about someone actually buying the house!!!

I Need a Clone!

I knew it was coming. I figured it would be weeks away, when I had much time to prepare and ready myself, and my house. But last week the call came. While I was in Atlanta. Someone wants to see the house.

So, now I have been home a few days and am looking around at all that needs to be done and have decided I need a clone. This is the list of things the clone would be in charge of:

1. Cleaning out fridge and freezer

2. Wiping down baseboards

3. Cleaning bathrooms

4. Cleaning the bird poo off the back porch (have I told you how mad I am at birds?)

5. Pulling a few weeds in the flowerbed...and if the yard guy doesn't get here..she will need to mow too.

I will take care of other chores...I would never just sit and watch her. Here's what I will take care of:

1. Browsing through old magazines to see which ones I want to ditch.

2. Put finishing touches on the staging that has begun

3. Baking cookies...to appeal to the senses of course

4. Set the DVR to record all the shows I like, but will miss due to all this cleaning

5. Vacuum (I have wood floors- 3 rugs)

I say all this in jest...but boy wouldn't it be nice to have a clone to call in for weeks like this one!

Truly I am thankful someone is coming to our house to see if it's a fit. Please say a prayer that if this is the place for them, they will know it.

See ya....I've got cleaning to do ya'll!