a gift from amalia

Amalia presenting Jenn with a gift

 

We drove Amalia home after the graduation party last night and were surprised with a special gift.  Amalia had gotten some kind of crib/bassinet from a neighbor to give to us for the baby.  The bassinet has two hooks that hang it from a base and allow it to swing.  She told us in broken English and some Spanish how her neighbor was going to get rid of it and how she took it home and polished it all up for us.  It has an old huge floppy pillow for a mattress that doesn’t fit well.  I think Amalia may have made the blanket for us; it is crocheted on one side and wool on the other.  I’m not quite sure of the full story since we have trouble communicating anything more than just basic information.  🙂  Amalia told me if I don’t like the pillow I can sleep with it instead.  As I was listening to her as she got the crib ready from her garage, I tried to think of how I could refuse.  First of all, we already have a beautiful crib that was given to us.  In picking it out, I had been very careful about safety.  Secondly, a baby is supposed to sleep on a firm surface, which that pillow definitely is not.  Everything I have read over the past few months about cribs raced through my mind.  As Amalia told her story, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to say no.  I was touched by her thoughtfulness and hard work to clean the crib and get it ready for us.  It was a very sweet gesture.  I am also learning in the Hispanic culture, you cannot tell one of the older women no.  Not only would it be completely insulting, they would simply do it anyway no matter what you said.   So I thanked her profusely and accepted the gift.  And now we have another sleeping spot for Curly Bean.  Maybe it will go in our bedroom as a bassinet for the first few months.  As soon as Curly Bean starts moving though, I think it will be unsafe.  Or it may be a lovely decoration or a place to store stuffed animals.  I joked to Tim that I might have to put Barkley in there and swing him around for a bit to test it.  Perhaps a heavy watermelon will work also!  Don’t worry- I will figure something out!  🙂  Obviously someone’s baby slept there in the past and survived…

happy graduation!

Veronica and Mercy pose with their cakes

Happy Graduation to all graduates over the past month or two.  Two members of our congregation- Veronica and Mercy- graduated recently.  Mercy graduated as a pharmacy technician from Galveston College and Veronica graduated high school last week.  Saturday night, Primera had a graduation party to honor their achievements.  It was a fun time of everyone being together and eating (once again) some good Mexican food.  One thing that continues to amuse me is how the Hispanic churches take care of their pastor.  Several of the women are always trying to serve Tim at church functions.  They encourage him to be at the front of the food line; this pastor is certainly revered.  Even one of the graduates brought him a plate last night!  🙂  We are used to waiting until everyone else has their food and being last in line.  I would rather be humble and be last, but that is not an option here. 

Anyway, we pray that God will bless Mercy and Veronica as they figure out the path that lies ahead of them.  May they remain faithful and blessed in the future! 

Also, we wish the same to our friend Ashley Adkins, who also graduated from Ocean Springs High School in Mississippi in May.  Ashley and her family (our friend Dana is her mom) came for Thanksgiving and worked really hard to help Galveston recover while they were here.  She is an awesome young woman for whom I’m sure God has great plans in store.  Congratulations to Ashley too!

Mercy serves Tim

Graduation party

Mmmm- Mexican food

the word from pastor tim 6-13-10

Sermon: “Graduation Message”- using the gifts God has given you

Text: Matthew 26:6-13

To listen, click here:

To download, click here: Graduation Message 6-13-10

the brick testament

“The Brick Testament” is a website that is dedicated to telling Bible stories depicted using Legos.  I think it is pretty cool but also fairly bizarre.  Granted, it is simplistic, but it is a fresh way of looking at the Bible for those of you who like visual things.  Kind of fun.  If you get a chance, check it out!

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

back to work

Nursery with curtains

This past week has been a busy week for us as each day we have tried to move back toward work and ministry.  Here are some of the highlights.

•  We love spending time with other people and investing in their lives.  One of our ministries is taking people out for meals and checking in with them.  Since our time was pretty flexible this week, we were able to visit with Pastor Billy, Lucy and Dolores, and Ms. Katie.  Spending time with each of them was a lot of fun and also very life-giving to us.  (On a side note- Ms. Katie is going to be 92 in November; she is amazing!) 
• After much prayer and discussion, Tim and I have decided that I will return to work full-time as a physical therapist.  I start full-time hours on Monday.  I have been working part-time at the Transitional Learning Center (TLC), an inpatient and outpatient brain injury rehab in Galveston, since last August.  I originally worked only Thursdays, then this year added Mondays once we found out we were having a baby.  Prior to coming to Galveston, we had saved money to last us through the year, but, after awhile, we also needed additional income to meet our needs and also bless others.  There are a number of reasons why I feel moving into this full-time position is the right one.
  • God is providing for us through the position.  I just feel his providence and a sense of peace in it- that things have been working out so well.  TLC has been asking me to come on full-time for months now as they are short staffed.  They are the most incredible company and have been very flexible in allowing me to work as much as I want.  Now they have been an incredible blessing in allowing both Tim and I to get group health insurance as of July 1^st.  This will solve many of our healthcare concerns since Tim’s COBRA coverage expires in mid-July.  We need to have continual coverage to avoid any issues with getting his chemo and medical bills covered in the future.  So, there will still be some medical expenses I’m sure with new deductibles or co-pays, but it is comforting that at least his brain cancer will be covered and not written off as some pre-existing condition.  Also, the baby will have good insurance when the baby is born in September instead of just my small major medical policy that we have self-paid over the past year and a half.
  • I feel like we are getting ready to take another step in our lives, whether it is in 6 months or a year or whatever.  Who knows what God has in store?  I am confident he is preparing us for something new.  I do feel that we need to be prepared for whatever that looks like, and I recognize that having financial resources will make it easier to move if that is the plan. 
  • We will have financial resources to meet expenses beyond our weekly budget.  I think this will be another way to expand our ministry as well. 
  • I will still be able to volunteer somewhat with Disaster Recovery.  There are still opportunities on weekends and phone calls I can make during the week to help out, as well as other office type projects I can do from home.  I do feel some guilt about stopping doing this full-time because there are still so many needs in the community, but I also recognize that we are transitioning in our lives to a new stage.  I think this is part of a natural transition for me.  The reality is, I would have had to stop for maternity leave anyway when the baby is born, so I am just doing it earlier.  I have been blessed to serve for a year and a half as a full-time missionary, and I am so grateful for the experience.  It is my hope that, even though I am working full-time as a PT, I will still contribute to the recovery work and continue to serve others.     
  • There is a definite need for me to work at TLC.  Two people in our department left in the past month, so staffing to provide the best care is difficult.  There is much needed work for me there in helping people recover physically from brain injury.  It is another part of ministry that I really enjoy- and they will pay me to do it.  How about that?
• Baby stuff- We have been setting up the nursery more this week.  Tim moved all the furniture around and set the guest beds up as bunk beds to conserve space.  We will need them in the nursery during the summer since we are having company.  We bought green curtains, and Tim hung them on Thursday while I was at work.  I  have also been doing a lot of laundry this week- washing baby clothes, blankets, sheets, towels, etc and organizing them in the dresser.  It is so overwhelming to me how many new and specialized things there are for just one small baby!  More fun baby stuff came in the mail this week too.  Does anyone want to let us know they sent them?  We know Tim’s Grandpop and Aunt sent us a bunch of feeding, bath, and sleep stuff.  We also received a car seat base, and still no one has told us who sent the high chair.  My mom sent us a stroller that the infant car seat snaps onto, some other toys, and stroller netting to keep those pesky mosquitos away.  We are thankful for the many blessings we have received!  Curly Bean will be excited too, I’m sure!  Stopped at a yard sale this morning and picked up a few small infant toys that can hang off of the stroller and carseat for a quarter each.  I am really enjoying preparing for the baby- looking forward to Curly Bean being born!
• Tonight (Saturday) we have a graduation party for Veronica and Mercy to celebrate their graduations from high school and college respectively.  We are looking forward to it.  After talking with Lucy this week, it sounds like a whole different type of graduation party than we are used to.  We’ll fill you in later!

Hope you also had a good week and you enjoy the weekend too!  Grace and peace to you!

a sad day for my tomato plant

The last few months I have been trying to grow some vegetables- tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and cucumber- some herbs- basil, cilantro, and mint, and strawberries.  Things have been going pretty well.  I think I have yielded 12 strawberries or so, but everything else is still maturing.  However, when we got home Wednesday afternoon, my poor topsy turvey tomato plant had all its fruit destroyed by a huge caterpillar.  The caterpillar had to be about 5 inches long but took a bite of all 3 of the tomatoes.  It was a very sad day for the tomato plant after working so hard to grow them over the past few weeks.  I guess I will now see if the plant dies or puts its energy into growing more leaves, flowers, and eventually tomatoes!  I hope the caterpillar enjoyed my tomatoes!

first week of June

Here are some highlights from the first week of June:

• Tim returned to preaching at Primera Iglesia Bautista.  He also led the viewing, funeral, and graveside services for Olivia (Lucy and Dolores’ mother).  It is a blessing to see him back in ministry.  He is quite a gifted pastor.  It was amazing to me to see the family dynamics and the way they surrounded Olivia with love as they cared for her at home during her final days.  Family members drove or flew in from all over the country to be with her.  Sometimes there were over 20 people at Olivia’s house!  It was incredible to see how the family came together, supported one another, and grieved together.  What a priviledge it was to minister to this family during and after Olivia’s passing.
• We attended Verronica’s graduation from Santa Fe High School.  Verronica is Eunice’s daughter, and Eunice is the accompanist at Primera.  It was a very hot and very buggy evening.  We were really far out in the country, so I think there were 10 species of bugs that landed on me throughout the night!
• I had fun spending time with Harriet- taking her to pay bills and installing a shower curtain, liner, and bath mat.  I picked up the grab bars for her bathtub at Lowe’s.  Hopefully they will be installed this week.
• On Wednesday, Tim and the rest of the UMCOR staff attended the Texas Annual Conference, the annual meeting of Methodist Churches in Texas.  The Rita Recovery organization from Beaumont was honored for all their work since Hurricane Rita.  I think they completed around 735 homes over several years- wow!  Disaster Recovery from Hurricane Ike was also honored for completing 100 homes.  Everyone wore their official 100 homes shirts.  Tim was humbled that we received an almost standing ovation.  Tim went out to lunch with some of the UMCOR staff and the leader of the Russian team, Evgeni, who is here this week.  Of course, there were no pictures of this fine event since I wasn’t there, but maybe there will be some soon on the TAC website: http://www.txcumc.org/.
• I couldn’t go to the conference due to my OB appointment.  The doctor says the baby is doing well, and my stomach is the right size for being 28 weeks.  I heard the baby’s heartbeat, and everything sounds good.  I also had my 1 hour glucose test, anemia test, and Rhogam injection because my blood type is Rh negative and Tim’s is positive.  Apparently, it prevents my body from developing antibodies that would hurt an Rh positive fetus.  Unless any of the test results are an issue, I won’t hear anything back until my next month appointment.  I am feeling well except sometimes dizzy in the mornings, which could be any number of things.  It is a blessing to feel Curly Bean moving.  The baby is definitely getting bigger and so is my belly! 
• Attending the annual Sandcastle Competition on Saturday- see separate post below.
• Finding a nice “country cookin” restaurant off the island called Kelley’s for Sunday lunch.  One plate of chicken tenders is enough for 3 meals!  The portions were ridiculous, but we like leftovers.  The food was really good too, but it was incredibly countrified (which in my book means all the extra calories that come with goodness).  Definitely shouldn’t make weekly trips there.  🙂
• Cutting Barkley’s hair short again.  After taking Barkley to the seawall for a long walk early in the week and discovering a new doggie scent which Tim called “death sweat,” we decided it was time to shave the pooch.  He was so incredibly stinky it was unbelievable.  So, I spent an hour and a half with my stinky dog shut in the bathroom shaving off the hair (and the stink!).  After a nice bath, he smelled much better!  He is much more comfortable now during 9o some degree days in Galveston. 
• It was my sister Amber’s birthday on Wednesday too.  She is coming to visit for a month on June 22nd.  I am so looking forward to it!  🙂

Those are all the highlights of the week that I can think of.  It was a good but hot week.  I can’t  believe it’s the first week of June already!  Where is the time going?  Hope you had a good week too!

Galveston prayer update from 6-2-10

Here is a copy of the prayer update we sent out recently via email to those on our list:

Hi all!

It’s been awhile since we emailed a prayer update.  We have mostly been posting things on our blogs.  We are looking forward to sharing more of our ministry and lives with you once again!  We are so so so grateful for the way you all have lifted us up in prayer recently.  We have felt your prayers and desperately needed them!  Thank you for blessing us with your constant love and support. 

If you want to check more frequently for updates, here are the blog addresses:
–https://timandjenn.wordpress.com

–http://meandmybraintumor.wordpress.com

We will be blogging about Tim’s recovery specifically on the brain tumor blog, while our other blog will continue to share updates about ministry, life, and other fun stuff in Galveston. 

Here are some ways you can be praying for us:

• Disaster Recovery- Please continue to pray for UMCOR and their work here.  Pray for missionaries Susan and Monty as they travel home and take a 3 month break.  Please pray for future direction for their ministry also.  Pray for the new staff members arriving from Beaumont in the next few weeks.  Pray for our friend and construction manager Sandy, who had suffered a minor stroke and heart attack.  Doctors are still monitoring him and trying to figure out what’s wrong while he returns to work light duty.
• Primera Iglesia- Now that Tim is recovered from the surgery, he is back officially working at Primera.  He preached this Sunday, which was a blessing.  We ask that you also pray for our friends Lucy and Dolores, whose 97 year old mother had a heart attack a week ago and went home to be with Jesus on Saturday.  The entire congregation knew and loved this founding member of the church.  Please pray that in the future months, the congregation would be available to the Holy Spirit and ministering to the community. 
• Other friends who need our prayers-
  • Friends at University Baptist Church- especially Ruth who is struggling with blood clots with an unknown caus
  • Billy and Dawn- used to pastor UBC and still don’t have jobs.  Billy is finishing a temporary job and Dawn is providing childcare for their son who lost his wife at the beginning of April.  Please pray for discernment and peace for their family
  • Dawn’s brother Keith who had a stroke that has left him blind in one eye
• Healing for Tim- It has been an incredible journey for us over the past few months, both with Tim’s surgery and recovery and with carrying and preparing for the arrival of our baby in September.  Tim has successfully made it through the first week of chemo, so we are grateful for that.  Please pray that the chemo would shrink the tumor and that Tim would remain healthy and strong throughout taking it.  Tim is taking the chemo 5 days, then has 23 days off.  In this monthly cycle, they will be monitoring his blood work and MRIs to see if the tumor is shrinking.  We pray that God would continue to write his story in our lives and develop a testimony of his goodness!  (which he already has and is!)
• Discernment- We are at another stage of our lives and work in disaster relief.  After taking a few months break to deal with health issues, we are trying to figure out what we should be doing.  There are also many complicated decisions to make in the next few months regarding details such as insurance, work, and ministry options.  Please pray that we would remain available and aware of what God wants to do through us.  We expect to be in Galveston at least through the end of the year, but we are also waiting on God to provide the next step.  Who knows?  It may be staying here in Galveston for longer than we anticipate.   
• Curly Bean-  We are excited about the birth of our baby in September.  Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and delivery.  🙂  We are starting childbirth classes this month and are preparing the nursery for our little one. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you.  May the Lord turn his face toward you and grant you his peace!
Blessings!

the word from pastor tim 6-6-10

Now it’s time for a sermon in English!  🙂  Tim preached at Primera today, but no one translated.  It was an opportunity for him to develop some rhythm while preaching because he didn’t have to pause every sentence for translation.  In the sermon, Tim talks about what it would be like if Jesus came to Galveston, but, basically, you could remove the word Galveston and insert your own town and the message would apply to you!  Be blessed!

Sermon: “Galveston Jesus”

Text: Luke 7:11-23

To listen, click here:

To download, click here: Galveston Jesus 6-6-10

Sandcastle Competition

Galveston Idol

Tap that App

A Throne for my Castles

Rock music

Saturday afternoon we attended the AIA Sandcastle Competition on the East Beach of Galveston, which is the most eastern point on the island, a few miles out from the ferry.  It was a beautiful day for some fun in the sun- if you like Galveston heat.  I think it was about 92 degrees when we decided to go around 2:30pm in the afternoon, which was around the time of judging.  We wanted to see the sculptures in their final form, although so did everyone else- hugely crowded.  I think we may have picked the worst time to go.  We parked for free and tried to take a free shuttle from Stewart Beach to East Beach- a few miles away.  By the time we found the shuttle, there was a long line.  I was not too impressed at waiting 45 minutes in the blazing heat, especially since I am pregnant.  I did bring a huge bottle of water with me and lathered on the sunscreen so all was well to start out.  I was grateful for the wonderful breeze coming from the gulf.  Thank God the shuttle was air conditioned, which helped prepare my body for the next part of the journey.  East Beach was packed full of tourists and kids playing in the gulf.  There was about a mile long stretch of sand castle sculptures which we walked through and then walked back along the gulf to keep our feet in the water.  Of course the wait for the shuttle back was over an hour, and we were two dehydrated monkeys by the end of the day! (It didn’t help too much that we took a four mile walk on the seawall on Friday; my legs were already tired!)  In reality, I don’t think there would have been a better way to get to this remote point on the island; if we drove ourselves, we would have sat in traffic for hours anyway.  Then again, the car would have at least been air conditioned.  🙂 

The sand sculptures were quite amazing.  Themes ranged from Alice in Wonderland (sand) to legos, to sea life, to all kinds of crazy things.  It is obvious how much planning goes into each one and how talented the people are who make them.  A lot of them had themes that played on commericals or movies.  My favorites were the Space Invaders one (lots of detail and geometry) and how to train a dragon.  I think Tim’s was the throne for the castles one with a big toilet… just kidding.  He liked the octopus one the best.  I have posted a bunch of pictures of the ones I thought were really good for those of you who have never seen this type of art.  There are many pictures, but there were many more creations.  I had never been to a sandcastle competition before, so I was very impressed at everyone’s creativity!  There was a sand version of the Stanley Cup there.  N0 worries- we claimed it for the Philadelphia Flyers- so even if they don’t win the real one, they will have this one instead!

Overall it was a fun event worth going to, but I think I might plan a little differently next year so we wouldn’t spend hours sweltering in the heat!  

Legos

20,000 Legos Under the C

More legos

Sandville- lots of turtles

Now famous volcano

Texas focused entry

i byte

Droid

Alice in Wondersand

Another Alice exhibit

Alice in Galvestonland

Wonders of the world

Train Your Dragon

How we Train our Dragon

Seuss in Sand Made by Hand

Building one block at a time

Etch a sketch

Snow in Texas?

Bone Appetite

Buckyball

Car crashed into castle

Tim claiming the stanley cup for the Flyers

Space Invaders

Huge state of Texas

Heat Survivors