Quick Update

Just wanted to post a quick follow up to my last post.

Today Chad's boss shared how he went home from work Wednesday night and shared with his family how he had made Jesus Lord of his life. He said his kids told him how they'd been praying their parents would take them to church. He has already invited other couples who are friends of their family to come to our first church service. (date, time and location to be announced)

Yesterday, after driving through "Apartment CIty", we finally found a complex with a three bedroom apartment available. Chad parked the car in front of the office and went in get a floor plan sheet. While I was waiting for him in the car I noticed a little girl sneaking around the corner and into the leasing office. I watched as she came and went from the office three times. Chad came back to the car and I asked him if he saw the little girl. He said they had a plate of cookies on the counter and she was sneaking one every time.

The manager told us there are 1,000 units and an estimated 4,000 residents! Once we get settled into our home we plan to introduce ourselves to them.

We're excited to share about what God is doing and will be sending out a newsletter at the end of February. If you or anyone you know would like to be on our mailing list please email your address to me at polkst2@me.com.

Finally, I'd like to thank all of you who have been reading my blogs. I wouldn't post it all except I feel compelled to share these difficult times. When the victories come you all can rejoice with us. We know many of you are also working through hard times right now and trusting in God to come though. I hope to also be an encouragement to you.

Now, I'm going to sleep. :) Good night.

Giving Away

“To godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Peter 1:7-8


This afternoon I had another job interview with a dry cleaning chain. I applied there weeks ago, and almost didn’t return the call for an interview, but I thought they might have some part time positions available.

My interview was at 3:30 so I left early and arrived at 3:20. The manager was handling phone calls and asked me politely to wait for her in the chairs in front of the counter.

While I waited I visited with the delivery drivers. They told me about how busy they have been recently. Clothes were going around the racks suspended from the ceiling and all the phone lines were ringing.

I heard the bell above the door ring beside me. Then a sharply dressed older gentleman walked in with a garment bag. The young man working behind the counter asked politely how he could help. The gentleman pulled out of the garment bag a camel colored wool coat lined with sheepskin “I have this coat. I’d like for you to go through- you see all these little loose stitches in the lining? I’d like to have them mended.” He said.

The boy accepted the coat looking inside at the small pulls in the lining. I thought, “Man! That must be a nice coat if he’s having it mended.” Usually, when I’m done with a coat I just give away or throw it away.

The older gentleman went on giving directions. “There is also a button missing right here, and I’d like to have it re-sewn.” Then he explained, “I’ll be donating this coat to Salvation Army. If you can just call me when you have it finished.”

The young man helping him looked a little confused and asked, “Sir, you know it costs extra to mend this lining.” “I know.” Said the gentleman. “Well . . . I just wanted you to know,” said the clerk “I mean, if you’re just giving it away.” The gentleman responded, “It doesn’t matter. It’s a nice coat. I’m giving it away, and I want the person who wears it to get more good out of it.” He went on to say again, “Temperatures are dropping below freezing this weekend, so if you can just call me when you get it ready. I’m sure someone will need this coat.”

As the man left the cleaners I almost stood up to give him a hug. It might’ve hurt my chances of getting the job. Even though I was interviewing for a “customer service” position, embracing the customers might be seen as over-the-top behavior.

This man was giving away his favorite coat and not just giving it away; he’s making sure it is in perfect condition. He’s not going to stick the dry cleaning bill in the pocket of the coat. He plans to pay, whatever the cost. All of this so a stranger in the cold can have a nice warm coat.

Answered Prayers

Monday Morning, I had a list of employment opportunities circled from the Sunday Classifieds. While Chad was driving I crossed off the places we had already been. I looked up and Chad was parked in front of The Tealridge Christian Retirement Community. "Why don't you go in here?" He said. It is a very nice looking facility on the outside, but I didn't quite "get" why he thought I should go in. There were no signs or advertisements that they were hiring. I took one of my resumes out of the folder and went in anyway.

I went to the front desk. The receptionist asked if I needed help. I told her if they had any positions available and asked if I could leave my resume. We visited for a minute about my previous work experience. She explained to me that a new assisted living facility was opening and she was losing some of her front office staff to the new office. I went ahead and filled out the application she gave me and left it with her.

Today I met her for an interview. We hit it off right away. She told me about the job. There are 180 residents and the front desk is the help desk for residents and reception desk for visitors. She stopped after I told her where I was from and said, "I just have to ask, why did you stop by here Monday?" When I told her she started to tear up and explained, "I have worked here for seven years. It is very difficult to find good staff who care about our residents and who are dependable. When management gave me the list of staff I would be losing I started to pray about how we would find people to replace them. . . then you just walked in!" We both had a good little praise session about how God hears our prayers and provides.

Another blessing. . . I will be working at night and on Saturday, so I get take David to school and pick him up, and take care of Ruby and Sean during the day. As bad as I need to work right now, I didn't want to take a job where I can't see our kids. I can also take another part time temporary job a couple days a week if I need to.

Since I quit working a Citychurch I have learned how true the call of God is on my life. I belong to Him and don't presume to tell Him how to use me. I am thankful to serve in a way I've never served before and hopefully I'll learn something I don't already know!

Thank you all for praying.

.

Asking, Seeking, Knocking

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7-11

Chad and I have lived in Oklahoma now for almost three weeks. We have both enjoyed spending time with Chad’s mom and dad. The boys love having free reign over Grandma Jennifer’s farm. They have quickly learned the perimeters. Don’t go in the horse pen, no firearms in the house and leave your boots and hats at the back door. Ruby runs right along with them, but mostly she sits and looks at Grandma’s horse, Katrina. Chad and I seem to take turns encouraging one another depending on who needs it most. Still, in this bleak time God lets a little light shine through.

The time of year has off-set a lot of progress with job hunting. It seems like every time we get some momentum, a long weekend comes along leaving us to hold fast until Monday; then hope we haven’t been forgotten in the mean time.

We had a wonderful meeting with the director of church planting just before Christmas. After our meeting Chad and I decided to take the first step we could take and survey the surrounding areas to see where a church might be needed.

We started in the area of town he had directed us to. It was in a part of town we had considered middle class, but right on the other side of the highway is half a square mile of “Section 8” housing. It’s all apartment complexes. Rows, and rows, and rows of apartments. It’s pretty much an entire city of people.

I did some research on the Section 8 housing program in Oklahoma City. The residents of those apartments can receive rental assistance for five years if they are working or getting an education. They also provide family reunification services for families who are working to get their children back from CPS.

Chad and I drove a little farther into a neighborhood known as the Village. While we were driving around I asked Chad to drive to The Village Baptist Church. I wanted to show Chad the house we stayed in during the waiting period for Dad’s transplant.

Wandering through the surrounding neighborhoods, we came across a great big High School in the middle of a sea of small houses. The houses reminded me of the San Jacinto neighborhood in Amarillo but it is a much larger area.

We drove around the High School and noticed it is was abandoned. The facilities looked to be in pretty good shape. We could see the two athletic gyms, an auditorium and greenhouse from the outside. Sitting in the parking lot of this School we started daydreaming, or (mid-afternoon dreaming) about all the ways the John Marshall High school building could be used to reach the neighborhoods.

All the way home we talked about it and stayed up late researching the building. Who owns it? What kind of shape is it in? We came to one site that only made matters worse, because there were pictures of the inside. www.abandonedok.com/john-marshall-high-school/
Now we were really dreaming and way out ahead of ourselves.

I passed a church sign the other day and it said, “Know the strategies of the Devil”. One of the lies he has been telling me constantly is that we have nothing to offer anyone else, so we need to just take care of our own business and leave the ministry to someone else. I agree, we don’t look like much right now, but we are working to take care of our family. He wants to discourage us with this lie is so we will give up entirely. If we give up, we’ll never realize what God can do when we offer up to Him our obedience. There are souls in need of Salvation who need to be reached. Our Heavenly Father has called us to serve Him and He will be faithful to help us put the other pieces of life back together.

As we continued to read about this building and why it was closed we came across an article in The Daily Oklahoman from last summer. It had a list of school buildings auctioned off; among them was the John Marshall building. We read the name of the man and there was a quote from the pastor/rancher saying, “I want to use this building to help troubled kids and give people jobs.” I should mention the title before this mans name indicated he was a Christian pastor. Chad and I looked at each other. "Sounds like something we can help him accomplish!" Digging a little further we found the way to reach him and called the next day. This was right before Christmas.

Today Chad and I were particularly discouraged. Another long weekend is coming up. He is just now starting to get opportunities to drive for LTI, but is an on call driver for right now until he gets his “Class A” license next week. All the kids woke up this morning with fever and we had to take my car to get the transmission fixed (more thievery aftermath). We got alone and just prayed together.

All we can do right now is wait on God, but we’ve got to keep “asking, seeking and knocking.” “Try to call him one more time.” I suggested to Chad. I went into Walgreens to pick up some children’s Advil. I came back to the car and Chad had a smile on his face. “He wants to meet us and told me to send him our resumes.” He needs help! We had resumes at the ready, and prayed over them as we put them in the mailbox.

If you are reading this blog I’ll ask you to pray with us.

• Pray for God to make a way for us to serve Him and reach these neighborhoods. We can see His hand moving and are thankful for the hope!
• Pray for our house in Amarillo, Texas to sell.
• Pray for continued provision for our family.
• Pray that the boys have a good first week at school.
• Pray we will be able to put the pieces of our life back together.

Thank you for praying. I can’t wait to share more about what is happening!

Growing Boys

Tonight Chad and I put the boys to bed, but they didn't go to sleep. Instead they stayed up being rowdy.

We heard them laughing and jumping from the living room. We told them at least five times to settle down and go to sleep.

Then it happened. The busted nose, the laughs turned to screaming and the blame and blood was flying.

First Sean said David punched him in the nose. David claimed Sean hit his nose on the back of his head.

Now, Daddy and I are both involved. I'm dealing with the nose bleed and Chad was trying to find out what really happened. We wanted the truth.

Neither boy would tell us the truth so they both got in trouble for rough housing instead of being asleep, for lying and bodily injury.

After spankings and time to think with ice packs in their room, we came in to have a talk.

Finally, Sean admitted to lying. David apologized for keeping Sean awake and busting his nose. Chad and I took turns expressing to the boys how important it is for them to obey us and tell the truth. "None of this would have happened if you had been doing what you were supposed to." (anyone heard that before?)

About midway through the discussion, Sean fell asleep with a bag of frozen peas on his face. David kept asking us questions.

We were done talking and as I kissed the boys goodnight, David looked at me and said, "I think God wants me to be a pastor someday."

He was very serious. Chad and I prayed for David and challenged him to keep listening to God's voice.

Tonight, I realized how important parenting can be to The Kingdom of God. When the tender hearts of our children are lead to The Truth, encouraged to trust and admonished to obey.

I am thankful tonight for the grace and understanding of my Heavenly Father who sees we are learning these lessons and growing in faith right along with our children.

"The Lord cares for His people, just as shepherds care for their flocks. He carries the lambs in His arms while gently leading the mother sheep." Isaiah 40: 11

We've Come This Far By Faith

Three weeks ago, as Chad and I pulled away from Amarillo my heart was broken. There is a particular kind of hurt when leaving a place of ministry. I struggled with feeling like we had done something wrong, like we had sinned against God and were being punished. Or maybe I was never really called to serve in full time mission work in the first place. Maybe we were both just doing what came naturally and easily to us.

In my disgust I declared to the dash board how I'd never put my life in the hands of another church, pastor, congregation or ministry. After all, we had served for seven years with our whole heart. Even while I was in college I was putting in time in Tulia ministering to children. It was my time to live a normal life!

So, even before our feet hit the red Oklahoma dirt, Chad and I were both lined out with job interviews and prospects. Some of the jobs sounded more fun than others, all of them pay in American money. Honest work is good enough for me!

We took turns descending on the town with resumes in hand. Responding to adds and applying online. Chad found work quickly and leaving me resigned to take a less fulfilling job just to make up the extra income.

With the Sunday classifieds in hand I started out driving all the way across town to a school who was hiring pre-school teachers. I have no concept of where things are in relation to where we are living. When I mapped this school it looked like it was just a few minutes away.

Thirty minutes later I ended up at this run down looking day care center located right in front of the highway. The back playground equipment was encircled with yellow caution tape. All three of our children were with me and I almost didn't go in. However, the gas was spent to get here and I felt obligated to at least leave a resume. Ruby had fallen asleep, so I parked the car right in front of the door where I could keep my eyes on them.

The lady at the front desk wanted to interview me on the spot. She gave me an application so I took it to the car to fill it out. By then, Ruby was awake and I decided since I'm applying for a child care job it's not a good idea to leave my own children in the car by themselves. That meant taking all three children in with me for the job interview.

They behaved nicely and the lady was really kind. The last question she asked me was, "Who's going to take care of your children while you are working?" My immediate thought was, "Good question!" But, before I could answer, her phone rang. She took the call, hung up the phone, looked at me and said, "We'll give you a call."

I thanked her for her time and asked for her name. "Foshaun (sic?)" she said. I honestly could not repeat it back to her and was not going to ask her to repeat it. There was an awkward silent moment. She then said, "And my bosses name is Lateeshia. So. . . that might be a problem." I am assuming the problem she was referring to was my inability to pronounce their names. I was also thinking I'd have more of a problem telling small children not to tamper with evidence in the crime scene taped off on the playground.

As the Ladies Man would say, "Guess it's on to the next one."

I took another look at the classifieds. There was an add for a nursing home hiring nurses.

Now- I KNOW I am NOT a nurse, but I thought if this nursing home was hiring they may have regular jobs for the night shift. At this point I would humbly accept ANY job with a grateful heart. I walked in and there was a crowd of applicants. Smiling, and in my own personable way I approached the lady behind the window.

"Hello!" I said "I saw your add and read you are in need of LPN's. I am not a CNA or an LPN but I. . ." she cut me off and with a confused look she asked, "You are NOT and LPN?" "No ma'am." "And you DO NOT have your CNA?" she asked "NO, but I. . ." she cut me off again and began laughing in my face along with the 16 year old girl answering phones. "Honey, We will NOT and CANNOT hire you as a nurse. You HAVE to have a license!"

I refused to just walk away with her thinking I was trying to cheat the system , "I was wondering if you have any regular jobs available. That is the work I'm interested in." I explained. She turned to her receptionist and while she was still laughing at me she said, "HAhah, go ahead and give her one of the applications for a REGULAR job!" she then walked to her office where she and the director stood behind a window and both continued to laugh.

My first instinct was to walk away with my tail between my legs. Instead I took my seat right in front of her window and filled out the application. I filled it out completely and then came to the last question it asked, "Do you have any questions for us?"

About that time a current employee strutted in wearing tattered sweat pants and a hooded sweatshirt. He was jamming through the hall to the tunes on his ipod. He apparently knew my fellow applicant. Thowing up a gang sign to her he hollered, "WEST SYDE!" She responded with a giggle and a smile. The lady who had been so rude to me called this young lady back to her office saying, "I'm ready to interview you now since you ARE a nurse!"

I looked down at their last question again, "Do you have any questions for us?" By this time I'm pretty sure they're not going to give me a job. So I answered, "Thank you for asking. Do you always humiliate and laugh in the face of job applicants instead of providing helpful direction?"

I could barely make it out to the car before I broke down in tears. I don't want to say I was feeling sorry for myself, but I was feeling sorry for myself. Apparently this was not my scene. It was time for me to give up on having it my way and ask my Heavenly Father, "GOD WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR ME TO DO?"

Last Christmas I had the opportunity to speak to a congregation two days before my father passed away. My heart was particularly tender and I was thinking about what I would share. It my Bible I had marked the passage Luke 1:37-38 "The angel replied to Mary. . . For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said to the angel, "I am the Lord's slave, may it be done to me according to your word. Then the angel left her."

I can feel the Holy Spirit at work in my life. He has called me to serve Him with my life and has promised to do the impossible for us and through us if we will obey. It's time for me to forget the way I think things should be and to trust and obey.

Last weekend while Chad was out of town. While researching to find out what type of ministry opportunities there are here in Oklahoma City, I came across a website with information about church planting. There were some pretty interesting statistics on this website about how Oklahoma is growing and how much of the population is unchurched.

I called Chad and talked to him about it; then sent our resumes along with a note from Chad to the email on the site. A couple of days later we received an email from a man named Greg Penna. He said he and his wife would like to meet us.

Today Chad and I met them for lunch. Plans were made for us to go to work as home missionaries through the North American Mission Board. Greg wants to use us to help some other missionaries who have just started new works, but are having a had time getting traction. Then in the spring Chad and I will start a new work.

As we finished up our lunch Greg and his wife invited us to attend church with them on Sunday. He looked at us both and after relating all the many different times in their lives God has redirected their steps he said, "Just know that God is not through with you guys yet."

My heart is starting to sing again and I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who is long suffering with us. It will be exciting to God's big picture for our lives unfold.

Christmas

Our circumstances kind of depressed me today. Driving around in a new town, unavoidable Christmas music and getting lost. I thought about how I'd rather be Christmas shopping than job hunting.

After dinner I remembered a craft bucket packed away with the toys. We got out the beads and pipe cleaners to make ornaments. This project is inspired by my mother who made the same style ornaments with us one year. Probably under similar circumstances. :)

On his own, Sean took extra pipe cleaners and gold beads. He made one heart and really liked it, so he made one for each of us ". . .in his family" he said.

After we picked up from Ruby's not so organized crafting, it was time to for the kids to brush their teeth. They ignored me and brought me a book to read in attempt to avoid bedtime. It was a Golden Book - "The Christmas Story".

I laid down with them next to their night light and read the story of Jesus. Both of their eyes lit up. Sean said, "that's a GOOD story!" David asked why God named himself Jesus. (good question!)

Last year is kind of a blur. I remember rushing through a bunch of festivities with a broken heart after losing my dad; However I think l'll always remember tonight. This Christmas, I may have no choice but to get it right.