Summer Missions

We were greatly encouraged this past Sunday from a missionary who read to us 3 John 1:5-8.

"Beloved, it is a faithful thing that you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth."

This man came at a great time as the mission teams for FBCN have just been established and revealed. It has been so great to see how each summer, our connections and love for the world, and for those who do not know truth continues to grow. Our church is intentionally sending members back to the same countries in order to strengthen the relationships with the people there.

Brandon and I are so excited that we will be traveling back to the Philippines this summer!! This year we are leading the trip with about 9 other wonderful members from the church. We will be there for 3 weeks!

Last summer our time there was so short, but God really used that time to begin rooting our heart for the people and opportunities to serve there. We are especially excited that this year we will get to experience many new things there, as well as hopefully begin to grow some relationships with the nationals.

Please begin to pray for us and with us as we prepare ourselves and our team!

Some pictures from last summer:

This summer we will be spending more time in these areas, working and serving the people in the communities.

The view from Faith Academy. I hope that we can give some swim lessons at their pool!

Though this trip is not centered around a basketball ministry, Brandon, of course, hopes to play a little! ;)

Brandon's New Job!

We are so excited to begin the new year with a new job opportunity for Brandon! He is the new Riverside Christian Middle School Bible Teacher and we couldn't be more thrilled!

Here is why we are excited:

• Brandon was ready to move on from his old job (which we are so thankful for) and this is a position that will really move him forward with a career in ministry.
• We are working on the same campus!
• Brandon will have a great opportunity to widen his teaching range.
• This will probably open many more doors for him in the future!

Our prayer is that the Lord will use us in a unique way on this campus, that we would be a good example for our students and that He will open our eyes to their needs.

God had always been and will always be so faithful to provide perfectly to our needs, for He knows them and our desires more than us. We have faith that God has placed Brandon in this position for His purpose to spread His name and we are excited for this new challenge!

Here are some of Brandon's first day of school pictures! :)

He made a really cute PowerPoint to introduce himself to the kids.
He looked so handsome!

He had a really great first day and I am confident that he is going to rock these kids' socks off!!

He has such a beautiful heart for these kids to come to know and love the Lord, and I know they will respond well to him!

We are 2 very happy teachers!!

Thank you, Lord!

"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;

I will sing and praise to you name,

O Most High!"

Psalm 9:1,2

Dinner Party!

I was so excited to try our families special ronies and sauce this week since my mom gave me a new pot for Christmas to make it in! Since it takes all day to make, I decided to make a fun dinner party out of it! I never have time to do these things, so I was really excited to have fun with it! My mom is an amazing cook and host and I want to get some good practice in so I can be just like her and provide and serve for my family and friends.

Here was my table and little encouragement cards that I made for each guest.
The sauce!! Soo good!! It cooked all day and made our apartment smell amazing!
My beautiful guests!

My sister even came and joined us!

Twinkie friends!

It was a really enjoyable evening topped off with a great new cheescake I made as well! I love these girls and so many more that attend our church and was happy it all went well!

I hope we get to do it again soon!

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Happy, Happy Birthday to our dear sister Ashley!!

We are so sad that we could not be with you and your family to celebrate your birthday and Christmas, but we still wanted you to know how much we love you!

You are an amazing mother and it has been so neat watching you raise your beautiful boys. I (Andrea) learned so much from you this summer and I pray that a time will come in the future that we can raise our families together.

Love ya sis! Happy Birthday!! Miss ya a ton and wish we could be celebrating with ya! But I hope you got my message and I am really thankful for you! God really blessed me with a great big sis who always cared for me and taught me what it looked like to live out my faith in Christ! To that I thank you always!! Hope all is well with the fam! See ya soon, hopefully!

We always enjoy our times with just the 4 of us. Though these times and far and few these days, we pray the Lord's will on all our future ministries and we would be thrilled if He lead us to the same place someday!!

Your faithfulness as an older sister I've never had has meant more to me than you know. This is probably one of the biggest reasons I miss you so much. This is a selfish thought but you know that we wouldn't want you guys to be doing anything other than what you are doing now! But i do always look forward to our times together. I will never forget those time we had lunch at CBU and when you had me over for dinner so that you could get to know me more when Brandon and I were just dating. Your intentionality showed what a great sister you were (and are :)) and I am thankful for that time that drew us closer together. Thank you!

Now that Brandon will have the summer off we are praying that it will work out to come and spend time with you and your family this summer!

We hope you had a great day!

Love you!!

Brandon and Andrea

Don't you wonder . . .

. . . what your pets do while you're gone during the day?

Well last week when I was home for Thanksgiving break I got to see what our little Punkin does all day! Since it's been colder in the mornings, she has been cuddling up beside us underneath the covers! So cute!

Can you see the little bump? lol Well, since i got to sleep in that week, I got to see how long she stays underneath the covers! One morning I woke up around 10am, and she stayed under there until 2:30pm! And that was only after I realized that I hadn't seen her all morning! So I went and found her a took a picture. Then she finally got out!

What a silly kitty!
But such a cute one! She is always making us laugh, and I'm so glad we have her! :)

Psalm 36

"Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast you save, O Lord."

Psalm 36: 5,6

This verse brought me peace this morning. Our God is so great--he is above all things--he alone has the power to save. Thank you Lord, for taking all my wretched sin away. Thank you for cleansing me with your love and amazing undeserving grace.

The Giver

I have begun reading The Giver with my 7th graders. This is the first time I have taught this book but am really excited about it. We are taking it very slow because this group if students have not read through a class book like this and because it is filled with so many great things to discuss. Though we started reading it this last Monday, I already have a handful of students who finished the book! (This is very exciting to a teacher :) )

If you are not familiar with the novel, it is about a community that is totally controlled by a group of people and they have ridiculous rules that everyone must follow. My students and I have already had some great conversations as to what those rules and orders would look like in our communities and homes today. One of the rules is that each "family unit" must share their feelings of the day with one another. The family then calmly talked through each feeling and made their best effort to resolve issue and make that person feel better, or to encourage if things were going well that day. So, I encouraged my students to go home and try it.

I realized in order for them to attempt this "rule" that would mean their family would have to first, be sitting around the table having dinner together- herein the first issue. SO little of my students have this time with their families each night. I can't tell you how many students responded with- "we never eat dinner together," or "I have to get my own dinner every night," or "we never talk like that." Ouch! My heart sank. Even with the business that I grew up with, my mom did her best to sit us together for dinner. This is so not a priority in so many families today.

But, there were the small handful of students that do partake in family meals and decided to try the "rule," and those responses were great! One girl said when she asked her mom has she was feeling, that her mom talked for an hour! Another girl said that she felt it really drew her family closer that night and that the next morning, her and her sister were much friendlier and had fun in the car to school together. One girl is one of 8 children and she went down the line and told us what each sibling said- so sweet! Several students said they wanted to try it again.

I am so glad I challenged the students with this. I learned a lot from it, and it was so interesting to hear their responses. Though, I am continually saddened by how many broken families we have at out little "private Christian school." I realized this week, i can not assume any longer that their families are whole. This breaks my heart but also stirs me to continue to pray for these students.

Praying that God would restore families and that my students' hearts would be opened to the gospel and have the opportunity to see what God hopes for a healthy "family unit" centered around Him.