Multitude of Thoughts: Our Hearts Desire

So thankful that the Lord is granting the desires of our hearts. We have prayed over the 2 zipcodes were we both work with a real desire to truly see light shine here. We have waited. We have wondered.... and then last week happened....

Last week God opened our hearts to help and opened doors to pave the way for the Light to shine... Gene was having meetings and with a fun Christmas Carol theme, we thought it would be a great way to reach out to our communities... despite the large mile gap in locations from Hall to PGM and my work...
PGM was able to provide vehicles so Matt could transport guys to meetings. Then I was able to reach out to a couple special families to treat them to a supper out ( Thanks Mom!), and to join in one of my fave childhood traditions of Christmas light looking, before meeting. (The kiddos had never done that before, and it is something I ADORE doing with our own famjam, and was THRILLED to share this with them)
And PGM is able to provide food to my classroom, so in I walked today with 3 large boxes stuffed with frozen meats, dried goods, canned goods, junk food, you name it- it's here and the blessing of PGM's generosity will shine the Light in 27 families. It's not Christmas dinner at all- but its a nice bag of snacks and food for a decent free supper :)
The biggest blessing was an answer to prayer about reaching my Principal. He is amazing. He is a visionary. He has poured his heart into this community, and Matt & I truly have been blessed by his positive leadership. Because he loves this school he literally never leaves it.... except for basketball... So.... The Bulls called PGM Thursday, offering 4 front row seats, valued at $260 a pop! Matt's boss and wife were to attend, and Matt and I were to attend, but I knew that an 830pm game was so crazy late for this old lady, and that even for Harrison it would be too late, and I wanted Hannah at the meetings, soooo Matt offered the ticket to Dr Shabazz. Boom. He accepted. He wasn't able to attend church in a building, but he got church at the Bulls game. Pastor Green ( Matt's boss) and he hit it off, and the conversation about gospel preaching & the blood of Jesus came up apparently... yes... even at a Bulls game... at 11pm at night... gospel bells rang... and so we pray that the Holy Spirit's power will work.... Prayers appreciated...

So thankful that we were blessed with free tickets to go up north to see the Bethlehem Tower musical. You know that Third Day song, it feels like I'm born again? Yeah- watching the reenactment of the Lord's birth til the ascension, it felt like Salvation's day again...so beautiful...

So here we sit.. Mid day Monday... after the news that our dear friend Betty went Home ( totally let my brain go crazy with the idea that angels announced her welcome into Heaven, and as Jesus hugged her, she could peek over His shoulder and see my dad there, and they both smiled to be Home :):):))... after a family weekend of recovering from a full week last week, wondering when our coughs and runny noses will ever go away ....enjoying the pretty white stuff on the ground and excited with the joy from knowing we are doing what God has laid on our hearts... even if it seems crazy to others... I hope you are doing what God has laid on your hearts, as scary or outta the box it may be... if God has called you to do it, He will help you through it, in EVERY single detail. Every. Single. One.

Photo Dump :

How Saturday morning got started.

Thankful that my mom bought our kiddos boots, and was kind enough to give them to them early so they could enjoy the snow storm the next day!!

Making the trek to see Bethlehem Tower

parts of the show ... from the story telling, to the amazing actors and singers, to flying angels and real animals... the 90 minutes flew by and want to go again!!
( Here is the church's link : http://qrbbc.org/home.html)

After the show ... ready for the predicted snow to start falling!!!

Hooray for snow! Hooray for new boots just in time! Hooray for my mom storing every piece of our winter gear for years! It was like shopping for free in stuff we forgot about, as last year we had a snow-less ( for the most part if we remembered right) Winter!

Haha love that action shot- totally about to fall off that sled!

Ohhh (below picture) was SUCH a fun time!!! Matt got some rope and attached the sled to the 4 wheeler... and hooray for amazing neighbors that didn't complain ... like last attempt near my moms!

(Totally outta order, sorry! This was Food Friday: Reindeer Nutella Style!)

What happens on Friday, after a WHIRL wind week and no cereal and milk, hooray McD's!

Love this bed head!

here was a my posse who my mom so kindly bought supper for, we chose Culvers, as I was super against McDs... and thats all they wanted... I told them Culvers ice cream trumps McDs, which is true, and they agreed and loved it :) karla ( the ittiest bittiest one) is in my class. She is one of 7. Her mom is in jail, her auntie does a super job trying her best to raise 7 kids, along with her own 3, but these kiddos need attention in ways that is not humanly possible to provide... they are misunderstood and always in trouble... It made my heart just burst when Gene came up to them after and was like "the best listening award goes to this row". And it surely should have. They were glued to him. Praying they get glued to Him! Shantrail ( in hot pink) is on the Cross Country team here and is super fast and super funny.