Heroes of the Faith Nursery

So when I was prego with little Wesley I had a pretty rad download. I was praying for my unborn son and thinking about what God might have planned for him and my mind went to Jeremiah 1:5-7

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew[a] you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

6 “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.

I had it in my brain that I wanted to build a "heroes of the faith" nursery, but I couldn't find any ideas or "kits" anywhere...so I figured it was a farely rare nursery theme?

So we decided to build this little man's nursery around Jeremiah 1:5-7 and do it ourselves.

So the corner of his room starts with the anticipation as he was being "set apart" while still in my belly. Pictures of his sisters kissing him even before they met him. His father blessing him even before he could cry.

Then over his bed we put pictures of our heroes of our faith. Men who have shaped our Christian journey of expecting the Kingdom of God to break into our daily lives! But in the frames and next to their quotes are their baby pictures...because all heroes start as babies. (vs. 7) On the wall are men like Oral Roberts, St. Patrick, William Wilberforce, St. Francis, C.S. Lewis, Jack Stepp, Phil Strout, Johm Wimber and of course his daddy Shawn Stepp. Some of the baby pictures I was able to get from biographies, others we found baby pics in antique stores and did a little pretending.

On the walls around the room we have trains, plane, boats, trucks and cars...anything that can be used to "be sent" so that this little one will be free to go where ever God wants to send him and say whatever God wants him to say!


Sometimes when I walk into the room I get chills with expectancy. What does God want to do in and through Wesley? What does He have for his generation?

Vs "8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

A picture says the updates better than any words...

2010

Days may go by slow...but years fly

it's a little silly, and somewhat scary to me that this blog still exists. It's one thing to have a journal that hides away in your underwear drawer or on your bookshelf for years at a time, letting time shift, realities shift, challenges shift...then all of a sudden you are inspired to pick it up again knowing it's been behaving quite properly awaiting your return. Maybe tragedy, or joy, maybe by bordom or fear...something makes you pick that back up and want to express again. The weird thing about finding this blog again was that it was here that whole time...sitting out here in cyber-space, ignored for the great wide world to document, still telling joyous stories of previous seasons as if they were still our today. Weird.

And what makes me take enough time out of my busy mommy day to actually see if it was still hovering in the www vacuum? What makes me want to type these thoughts into publicity? Has there been tragedy? Has there been joy, bordom or fear? Duh! If there has been life, then the answer must be yes. Except maybe the bordom part...who has time to be bored? really. Sometimes I do pray for a few moments of it actually.

So...it feels like a waste to do a big "since my last post" rundown...so let us just begin again as if we never left each other, eh?

Cheers to my ramblings of a new season, with the same sexy husband, 3 great kids and a life that is more than any dream.

Overdo Update

So, it's amazing how fast a year can fly by and you realize you have not updated your blog...geesh.

A brief recap: Shawn graduates as a Physician Assistant May 9th! No job officially yet, but we are looking. His last year has been spent changing from various rotations across Maine in hospitals, private practices, etc. He did one rotation in Alabama for infectious disease. He loved working with the AIDS patients and the DRs their, but we missed him terribly as we didn't see him for 4 weeks. I'm not so great at the solo mom thing. But, I do have a new respect for the job that single mom's have every day. Wow!

Marie and Ellie are the cutest kids on the planet! Just celebrated their 5th and 3rd birthdays and I have officially registered both of them at the Vineyard Christian School in Lewiston. I can't believe my little Ellie is in pre-k. Maybe it's time for another?? :)

I am working as the youth pastor for an amazing group of young people at the Vineyard in Lewiston. Loving our Sunday night "RIOT" youth that gathers 7-12th graders from across the area. We have some amazing young adults that help us lead this crew...way too much fun!

This summer I am taking them to the DR again. Last year was a great trip and I am so excited to be going back to the same community again!

I am also helping with the Vineyard East youth mission trip called Surge. you can check it out at www.vineyardyoutheast.org (They even let me write the training for it...which was a lot of fun. It's amazing how many trips Shawn and I have lead at this point. Funny how time passes and all of a sudden you realize you have learned something along the way! Go figure!)

The Typhoon is coming

As you may have seen, another Typhoon is headed our way. So this is the last update until our power returns. It has been an eventful week as Shawn is nursing wounds from a fall on the motorcycle, Marie fought off a 24 hour bug with fever and vomit and Ellie got another tooth!! On top of that we were able to help with the construction of a new church for the Manyan tribe. Cool story, we'll share more about it soon.
We are excited to get home and continue on this justice adventure! There is so much more that we want to do...ok losing electrisity...bye bye

Ellie is on the move!

Ellie has taken off. She has a new tooth (lower left) and more on the way! She is on all fours and moving forward. She is becoming much more opinionated about where she wants to be and what she wants to be doing!
Marie is very much 2 and exploring life in every area. It truly is a non-stop question of "who is in charge?"...keeps me on my toes! She is so good with Ellie and loves to sing.

Hello, my friends

It's rockin' good to be back with people we know here in Puerto Galera (on the island of Mindoro) and continue to work on Tagalog, chilling with our neighbors, and helping those doing healing in the tribes around. It's heart wrenching to look at the rest of our time here and know that we truly only have a few weeks left to love and be loved in this season in the Philippines. As Jenna mentioned, we went to two tribes on Sunday. Pastor Toto (whose real name is something like Alfena) grew up in one of the tribes and has begun an awesome church there. He would like to establish contact with some of those who have not yet heard much of Jesus. We are considering helping him and the other Philippinas do a medical outreach in the area. However, we really covet your prayers on this. It's not as simple as it seems. The needs of the people are massive...malnutrition, despair, lack of opportunity, lots of infection...doing a medical clinic that even just includes white people could enforce their sense of inferiority and hopelessness by only being a drop of balm on a gapping wound...a reminder of what they do not have access to tomorrow. So, we are attempting to train the church leaders to do what we do...differentiate serious illness from basic and become masters of prevention and education (which is by far the most important aspect of health for the whole person...behavior change...real connection with the healing God and the resources He has given us). Instead of doing a medical clinic, we want to do house visits/family check-ups and prayer in which the Philippinas play the major role; and then doing a few funny, educational skits for the whole villiage that includes Philippinos as actors. Then, we want to leave as many resources (books, medications, prayer, relationship) as possible with the church leaders. We are not sure if this is the right aproach or even a good one...but this is what we came here to be...healers part of a healing community. May God cover and infuse every interaction with heaps of grace and tastes of true transformation; and may the effects of our "Americaness" shrivel to nothing.

The return to urgency...

Upon our return to Puerto Galera we could feel a shift in the air. Not only had the tempature dropped a good 10 degrees (yes, it's now more like 85 instead of 95!)but the official tourist time is kicking in, so new businesses have sprouted along the streets, prices have increased and the volume of people have increased. We also learned that one of the prostitutes from the red light district we had been praying through had been brutally murdered by a group of tourists. It was so sobering to think that it might have been one of the young dancers that we visited with just a few weeks ago. I found a new sense of urgency in reaching out to these women. We will be praying there again tonight and we invite you to join us!

Yesterday Shawn and I trekked up into the tribes with Marie and Ellie and assisted with prenatal visits and did some medical checkups. I love being able to do breastfeeding classes and chatting with the new moms. It's amazing how much formula is pushed here. It might require 1/2 of the families monthly income to buy a jar of formula, so they end up watering it down, or worse, they give the baby sugar water. This of course leads to malnurishment. I am told that it is very powerful for them to see a "white woman" breastfeeding as most assume all rich foreigners give formula. Yesterday I had one woman say "I thought all Americans gave formula?" I was happy to shatter that rumor and maybe help these moms give their kids a little more nourishment!!

We are so happy to be back in Puerto and not travel for a few weeks. Ellie has a new hamock bed and we are trying to teach her to sleep through the night. Marie is the sweetest little girl and loving everything but the spiders! Both girls are well and I am so grateful for all your continued prayers for their health! Shawn's eye is much better and he is back to wearing contacts:)