Kristi, Xtra Tuffs, Grandpa, and Bubbles

Kristi in her wedding dress with her Xtra Tuffs!

I love this picture of my beautiful daughter. It's a reminder to me that while Kristi's wedding was amazing, life is tough and sometimes marriage is tough! It takes work. As a Mom, I think the best thing I can do for Kristi and my new son in law is to pray for them dilligently and serve the Lord faithfully! So, while I can't always help in material ways I will always love and pray for my little girl and her familly.

The other picture is my honey with our grandaughter Mayleigh. Even though life can be tough, it's so important to laugh together. Work hard but take time to play! Appreciate the simple things like bubbles, raindrops, sunshine, laughter, and sleep (which is what I need now). Goodnight friends.

Iowa for Kristi's Wedding

I have pictures of Kristi's bridal shower with Justin's side of the family, and of a day we spent at Camp Dodge's Gold Star museum. Good pictures, and I wanted to put them on my blog this week BUT I can't find my camera right now. We have been staying with Kristi for a few days. Now we're at my mother in laws so other people can stay in Kristi's apartment as they come into town for the wedding. Maybe I left the camera at Kristi's house.

Hope you all will pray for Kristi and Justin this week. Their wedding is at 2:00 on Saturday. Our van is full of stuff they rented to decorate the church with :) Also pray for Kristi's little girl Mayleigh. I am enjoying every minute I can get with her. Please pray as they become a family that they will seek to please the Lord, and live for Him.

I was thinking tonight about just how quickly time flys. I will try harder to make every day count! Hope you all have a great rest of the week and weekend and I'll plan on being back next week with pictures.

God's sense of humor!

When I was a kid and went to church with my Grandma, missionaries would come to church with the best stories. They would be all dressed up and I thought their lives, while difficult, must be pretty near perfect :) I thought wow, those missionary kids and yep pastors kids too, have perfect parents who love the Lord and do just about everything right. Now that I am a parent to MK,s I realize how wrong my perception was. Don't get me wrong I love being a missionary and can't wait to make it out to Dutch Harbor but I'm just a normal person, one of God's kids, dependent daily on His love and graciousness. I'm also a person very prone to clumsiness, and embarassing moments. Up until yesterday my most embarassing moment was when I wore two shoes that didn't match, a black one and a blue one, to church. One of the kids I was teaching let me know during the middle of our singing time.


Well yesterday's embarassing moment beats that one by a long shot. I've been teaching the 6th - 8th grade class in our sending church since our Pastor had surgery in June. Yesterday I had 7 kids, 3 boys and 4 girls. As I was teaching I noticed my capris that I was wearing were a little lose. That happens since my surgery, with the changes in my medication. My weight varies quite a bit. Anyway, I didn't think it was a big deal. They didn't seem that bad. As I stood up and took a couple of steps, yep you guesed it they fell down!! I caught them pretty quickly but not before the kids saw what was happening. Now the old, shy Jody wanted to crawl in a hole, and never come out. But God, in His love gave me the ability to laugh at myself. The kids and I laughed together for several minutes and then I had the opportunity to tell them how I felt, that I dreaded facing their parents and people who would hear about what had happened but that working through those embarassing times is part of serving the Lord. After my day yesterday I am so thankful that my God has a sense of humor and knows that I'm far from perfect but that I love Him and want to serve Him with my life. What an honor that God would use an imperfect, accident prone person like me to reach people for Him.

We will be leaving Thursday to go spend some time in Iowa before Kristi's wedding. Please pray that shortly after that we will get to Dutch Harbor Alaska. Also please pray for our sending church, Wellington Baptist Temple, that people will step up to fill in the gaps that will be left when we leave. After all, while God wants us to do our best I don't believe He values perfection as much as He values love for Him and a willing heart.

Rain

It's Saturday. John and Jonathan are busy moving old appliances. I'm HOME ALONE and could get so much done but my back hurts really bad. Guess I'll blog, but about what? My thoughts are jumbled!! Oh well, here goes! It's been a good week overall. We got some much needed rain here in Kansas and I think we may get more today. I love it! People here tend to get tired of it but it reminds me of the song my cousin Joe sang at Mom's funeral, JESUS BRING THE RAIN. Mom requested it before she died. Here's the lyrics...

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty

Artist - Mercy Me

I love those lyrics. I'm not always thankful for the rain and have not always reacted to rain the way I should, but God always uses it if I look to HIM.

One thing I've had some frustration with this week and it's not a big frustration but I'm looking for the right cardiologist for when we head out to Unalaska. Found good Adult Congenital Cardiologist's in Seattle but would like to find a cardiologist in Anchorage who could do my yearly check up and communicate with the ones in Seattle if need be. I have been researching Tetralogy of Fallot through the Adult Congenital Heart Disease website. It's new. I'm amazed at all the new advancements in knowledge about adults with congenital heart defects like mine just in the past several years. I called a heart Institute in Anchorage but have not yet received a call back. Will call again next week. Please pray that God will help me to find the right cardiologist. It took a while to find Dr. Beck here in Kansas. He's good, and was an answer to my prayers several years ago! :) Not all Cariologists know a lot about Tetralogy of Fallot. I know that there's someone in Anchorage just as good as him though!

Well, this blog will get way to long if I keep going so I guess today I'll end by saying THANK YOU for your prayers and I'll try to blog again next weekend!

Jody

Praise

God is amazing! Serve Him no matter what. Sometimes we don't know the next step. John, Jonathan, and I have a huge desire to get to Unalaska and share Christ with the people there. I have struggled with health issues but am doing much better. We've become grandparents to a beautiful little girl, who is now a year old and so precious. We are getting used to my daughter and grandaughter living away from us after having them in our home for a year. To me that's kinda tough. Such a quiet house. I guess what I want to say is that no matter what God allows in our life He is stil God and He is in control. We have lots of stuff coming up the next several months. Jonathan will be working on catching up on his schooling and I'll be working with him. I'll be speaking at a mother/daughter banquet in April. We will be going to Junior camp with the kids in our sending church and planning a VBS at our sending church. John will be calling churches and visiting churches trying to raise more support. Our hope is to move to Unalaska in August! Your prayers are very much appreciated.
Jonathan just got up, got his cereal, and came and sat next to me on the couch. He's 12 now and doesn't want to cuddle much these days so when he does I love it. He had a growing pain this morning and told me that he usually gets them a few months after his birthday! Come to think of it I think I have had some growing pains lately. The kind I get when God is growing and stretching me, reminding me that my strength is found in Him and that I am not my own.
OK... Jonathan is needing my help with his Bible quiz, working on learning the 10 commandments. Guess I'll post this and hope you all have a great day.

Prayer Letter April/May

As I have been traveling to visit churches while on furlough I have been repeatedly reminded of the importance of your prayers. While traveling from one missions conference to another the last several months I have encountered many snow storms, rain storms, high winds, and road raged drivers. It is great to know that many of you are praying for us. Your faithfulness reminds me of the many prayer partners the Apostle Paul had while on his missionary journeys. It is interesting that the Lord allowed Paul to give us the names of some of his prayer partners in his Epistles. At the end of most of his Epistles, Paul has a “hugs and howdys section”. In this part of his letters, he mentioned specific names of eople in the churches he was thankful for or particular ones who had helped him. Some of these people we wouldn’t know anything about if he hadn’t put a little “hello” to them in his ritings. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:9 that we are laborers together with God. Just as Paul needed faithful men and women to pray to God on his behalf, we too need your prayers. Without the prayers of many hristians, and the financial support of many churches we couldn’t continue doing what God has called us to do.
The last couple of months 6 more churches have started to financially partner with us and many of you faithfully pray for us. I wish I had the space to hank each of you personally but the list would fill too many pages. So once again I say a very heartfelt “THANK YOU” for praying for our family as we prepare to take the Gospel to the people living on the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.

We are still needing to raise around $1,000 a month dditional support before we can leave for the Dutch Harbor/Unalaska area. The last ferry of the year leaves for Dutch Harbor/Unalaska in September. If we don’t have enough support to leave by then we will have to wait until next May. Please pray that we will be able to raise the additional funds necessary so that we will be able to reach the Unreached of Unalaska!

John and Jody Warrick

Waiting..... in Iowa

We are in Iowa now, waiting for our grandaughter to make her grand entrance into the world. Kristi's baby is due February 23rd and I can't wait to hold her. Kristi is planning to come home with us after the baby arrives. I am very happy about this decision. I'm so thankful for a nice big house to live in while John travels to raise more support. Also thankful for a supportive sending church that's waiting to welcome Kristi home. I will try to post soon with pictures :0)