Visiting St.Louis

I've just arrived to St.Louis and will be here until Saturday evening. It started snowing on my way into town and continues to snow as I'm writing this so hopefully I will wake to a beautiful layer of snow on everything. Recently it seems that I bring winter with me every time I come to St. Louis....two visits ago in November it became bitterly cold for which I was completely unprepared, then my last visit just a few weeks ago involved an ice storm the night that I arrived, and now its snowing upon my arrival. Oh well....I can't say that I love winter, but it is a beautiful time of year when everything is coated in white. Anyway... I am here because my lovely friend Sarah Bishop is due to have a baby in February and there is a baby shower for her in Saturday...and of course I'll take any excuse to come down and visit the lovely Tiemeier Family :). It should be a fabulous time. I hope to get lots of pictures of miss Cora so check back sometime next week when I can get them posted.

Wales...Here I Come!

So it's official....I'm going to Wales!! I finally bought my tickets on Friday and I'll be going from March 25th through April 2nd. By that point it will have been 8 months since graduating from School of the Word and then leaving. Sometimes I feel like time has flown by and I can't believe it's been that long, but other times it feels like it's been forever since I've seen everyone. I am incredibly excited to see everyone though. If anyone has requests for those wonderful American things that you love just let me know. It's not a problem at all to bring extra's along since I'll be leaving with extras :). Can't wait to see all of you in Wales!!

Proverbs 2:1-11 "My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord give wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a sheild to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and he preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; Discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you..."

Matthew 7 speaks to us about seeking God and finding Him. The verse above spoke to me as a continuation of that. Because we seek Him and desire to know Him more, He will also bless us with protection by being our sheild and through that protection God blesses us even more by giving us understanding, discernment, wisdom and knowledge. What an awesome God we serve!He who loves us so much continually wants to pour out more and more blessings as we desire to know Him more. Knowing this there should now be an expectation that as you are praying, worshipping or meditating on the Word that God will continue to bless you more and more with wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God and His Kingdom.

Draw Near to God

Last week New Life Church in St.Charles had the wonderful priviledge of having Andrew Caughey for a visit. I first met Andrew and his wife Carolyn when I went to Wales for School of the Word. Andrew is a prophet at the church in Cardiff and it was an awesome priviledge to sit under his teaching throughout the year that I was there. It was great to see both Andrew and Carolyn during the short time they were here. Andrew brought an excellent word to the church and his excitement was almost overwhelming. It was wonderful to see the body join in his excitement and to be captured once again in all that God is doing through his people. Although Andrew had 8 points for us to take he only got through the first point which was drawing near to God (Hebrews 10:22). He kept on pushing the point that you must bury things (such as dreams and desires that have not yet been fulfilled for a long time) in order to bring an end to them...then, and only then, if God wants to resurect them then He will. I realized that this was very apparent in my life with certain desires and the moment I laid them down before God there was a freedom I hadn't known for a while. I thank God for His faithfulness in our lives as we continue to advance His Kingdom through everything that we do.

Happy New Year (a week late)

I hope you all are having a wonderfully blessed beginning to the new year. I brought in the entire new year weekend by working a ridiculous amount of hours, but it was quiet at the hospital which gave me a good opportunity to continue to get to know some of the other ladies that I'm working with. I had a fabulous Christmas with my family and was incredibly blessed with all the wonderful presents. I think the best part was having everyone together a few days after Christmas when Amy, Brian & Cora were able to celebrate with us. Here are some pictures of our fabulous time together.

Jeremy, me, Kristin, & Peter

Jeremy & me having a great time

Grandpa, Cora, & Grandma

Cora cuddling with mommy (& baby)

I love this expression....Holy Cow!!

Cora laughing.

As you can see Cora is growing up incredibly fast and her personality changes so much every time I see her. She broke my heart the last morning they were here because I was needing to go to bed after coming home from work, but she would cry every time I tried to leave the room. Who can resist that? So I sacrificed an hour of sleep so I could play with her while mommy and daddy slept. When Brian and Amy came we recieved the wonderful news that Amy will be having a baby next August!!

This ultrasound was done at 7 weeks, but Amy is now over 9 weeks pregnant. Please pray for restored strength and health for Amy since she has been pretty sick. We are definitely excited that Cora will soon have a baby brother or sister, although it will be adding to their already crazy lives!

I would love to hear how your new year has started. Know that I am praying for blessings upon each of your lives as you move forward in all that God has for you. Be blessed!!