Light in Darkness

Eric smiling about his new found love for sushi!

I found out recently I really enjoy sushi! Sorry Dad! Especially the California rolls with crab, avacado, cucumber, and teriyaki sauce. And now onto the GAP front:

Last weekend was a difficult and stressful time at Splash 2. I was sick, had two babies to take care of and was my first time doing respite at this house. My wife and I went to bed crying on one night and not happy on another night. We were crying out to God to get us through to our next break. But in the middle of this I got to talk to one of the teenage boys. As soon as I came over this teenage boy brought me into his room to show me where he had stashed some condoms and talked to me about how he wants to be a gangster. God provided for me the opportunity to share with him about how sex, girls, drugs, and selfish living is empty... but Jesus Christ is the one who truly gives life. By the look on his face it seemed he heard what I was saying.

Then the next day we had a check in while my wife took some kids to the football game because I was sick. While they were gone I got to share the gospel with the new girl. She ended up looking up videos on YouTube about God changing peoples lives, people being raised from the dead, and Jesus Christ's forgiveness of sin. After each video she would say, "Wow, that is cool." She has continued to have some good conversations with the hosue parents. While I was sharing with her another girl who was home at the time said, "You are not a Christian? I love Jesus!" I can only imagine this is God working through the house parents. My wife also got to share the gospel with the two other boys.

I want to end with this verse from Colossians 1:6. "All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth."

Prayers: We need God to give us His perspective again and again to go through trials to build His kingdom and reach out to these rough kids! Otherwise we will not make the sacrifices. This job can be very hard.

Praises: God provided chances to share about Him and the gospel this week. And my wife was led by the Holy Spirit to share as well! Pray for God to open the eyes of these kids to the truth.

Pork Chop Bloopers

Eric and I have enjoyed a very relaxing 4 days in between respites. It has been a great chance to recover and be together while we prepare for our upcoming schedule. It seems like it's been a while since we were just able to hang out together every day and not have a million errands and things we're trying to get done. We did a little apartment decorating, ate ice cream, watched movies, and I finished part of my scrapbook while Eric played video games. If only the weather would cool off more so we could go enjoy some outdoor activities. That will come later.....

One of my favorite things to do for Eric when we are home is make yummy dinners for him and make the table look nice like at a restaurant. I had not done this for a while so on Saturday night we got some pork chops out of the freezer and I looked up a Rachel Ray recipe under the "Romantic Dinners" heading to find something that sounded adventerous and yummy. The people that had just stayed in our apartment left us some strawberries and asparagus so I was hoping to find something that would put these components to use. Sure enough! There was a recipe for pork chops with strawberries and I could just make the asparagus on the side. We agreed that it sounded unique and possibly tasty. The following picture shows the result of our meal of "Columbus Pork Chops", asparagus, and bread.

Eric was very pleased with this meal! We thought it was very yummy. I will post the recipe on our recipe blog if anyone is interested. It's very easy to make!

Unfortunately, we had one little blooper with the pork chops. After dinner when we were cleaning up I started cooking the last two pork chops so we could have them for left overs the next day. You start the process by searing them in the skillet and then putting the whole skillet in the oven for 10 minutes. I put them in the oven and forgot to set a timer! We started watching a movie and then just went to bed. I woke up the next morning to a funny smell and realized that I never took the pork chops out of the oven! The following picture shows the result:

Fortunately, my nice big skillet is not ruined and nothing caught on fire! Thank you, Jesus!

Praises: We have had a great couple days off and we have had a much easier month so far than September was. We are also coming up on a big break and the Adler parents are visiting which is very exciting for us! We have also been able to see how God has used us to bless the people we are working for and with. We are thankful to be working with awesome co-workers! One couple even bought us a Coldstone gift card to show their appreciation for us.

Prayers: We are about to spend 5 days at the toughest house in GAP. The parents are new to us this summer and all of the kids are new to us this summer as well. All of the kids are struggling with behaviors and this house is frequently visited by the cops. There is also a set of twin 1 year old girls who will be keeping us on our toes and possibly prolonging our desires for our own children. (Well....possibly.)

Please also pray for a set of house parents who just said good-bye to two little boys who have been in their care for 3 years. They were adopted into a permanent home leaving behind their long relationship with these parents as well as their 13 year old sister who is up for separate adoption. It is a bitter sweet time for them.

We miss and love you all!