What's really important?

" It's not important who does the planting or the watering. What is important is that God makes the seed."

   -1 Corinthians 3:7

I stand at the top of my street where I can see the city of Auckland below. I stand here and pray. I pray for ways I can be used to make a difference and reach those in need. Then it hits me. How can, I, with all of my imperfections and mistakes, possibly show Jesus to those who need it? Being so broken, myself, how is it possible to change the World when it seems I need the most changing?

GRACE.
God has been so gracious to me through each and every one of my mistakes.
God has shown me grace during my moments of weakness and self pity.
God has given me grace, in pure form from my husband, my wonderful husband simply as LOVE.

" And the greatest of these is LOVE."

Jesus was able to live in the world full of dispair, sadness and pain and show pure LOVE. He LOVED the UNLOVEABLE. He loved them even when they rejected them. He loved the haters. It's all about Jesus, folks, not us. When it comes down to it, it's about how we LOVE.

It is NOT about...
how perfect we are.
how many awards we receive.
how many degrees we have.
how much experience we have.
how big our house is.
us.

It IS about how we LOVE those around us. Yep, even the people who have hurt us, rejected us and hated us. HE steps in! We can't possibly do it alone.

So.... now when I stand at the top of the street, and pray, I think about how I can LOVE the people around me. I think about what LOVE looks like to them. I stand there and humbly ask how I can meet the needs of those He has brought into my life. I understand I may not always be able to be exactly what they need. I realize I may not be able to change their circumstances, but I can LOVE them.

I CAN...
 hold the hand of the woman who faces the fear of loosing her child every night to a chronic illness.
 be a kind face to the stressed out checker who deals with an overbearing boss and rude customers daily.
 hang out with the kids in the neighborhood who may not have enough parent interaction or influence.
 share what HE has done in my life.
 go where HE sends me.


How can you share the THE LOVE today?

Our Amazing Father ...



I follow Louie Giglio and love the inspirational things he puts out there. I was taken back as I listened to this and think you will be too! 


This made me stop and think about all of the things around me that seem unconnected. Sometimes in life we can feel like we operate in circles independent of one another, seemingly to never intersect. We are wrong. Everything is connected! Everything. We just can't always see it.


What would happen if we lived like everything was connected and that what we do each second matters? 
Would you:
 ...love more? 
...be more attentive to your children?
...help the stranger in line who is struggling with their bag? 
...stop and help someone stranded on the side of the road?
...make that call you've been putting off?
...write that important letter?
I am guilty of being so focused on MY schedule and what comes next I forget about what an impact my next choice could have on those around me. In my quiet time, God has been reminding me to slow down and take notice. 


" Behave yourself wisely in your relations with those in the outside world, making the very most of  the time and seizing the opportunity." Colossians 4:5


He places things infront of each and everyone of us. It is our choice to act or not.
I hope you can stand in awe at the works He has done and is doing in your life. 

Life as an American-Kiwi

Where should I start? We have been adapting to new living arrangements, new friends, new money, new food, new customs and endless other NEW things! God is certainly blessing us here. We are thankful for all of our 'new' challenges, but are really missing our old ones. Let me catch you up on where we've been and how God has been keeping us busy.

We have been blessed in ways we were not expecting. I think the easiest way to get you caught up is by sharing a "week in the life". Here is the low down on what a week in the Sanders' House looks like.

Sunday: Church. Many times we trek up to North Shore Church of Christ in the morning, and hurry back home to have lunch and rest up before evening services at Discover Church. John and I are very blessed with all of the ways we have been able to serve at Discover. One of those most unexpected blessing has come with the family we have found here.

Monday: Mondays are usually a day that sets the week for us. John begins his work week and enjoys a scheduled lunch date with a friend, Hayden is off to school and I visit our local Market for the week's meals. Mondays are precious to me because it allows me some longed-for alone time with my little cuddle bug, Hudson. Once we complete our morning routine of shuffling Hayden out the door, we get our time. Hudson's favorite morning activity at the moment is to feed the ducks that greet us at our front window each day. He has even named them Percy and Petunia!

Tuesday: Bible in Schools! Each Tuesday morning I have the pleasure of teaching Bible to a class at Hayden's school! Yes! I get to go into a PUBLIC SCHOOL and teach Bible! I never imagined the blessings that would flow from this ministry. If you would like to find out more about Hayden's school, click here. In the afternoons, Hudson is off to Kindy! This week marks his 4th week at Hobsonville Kindy and he absolutely loves it! We are thankful for the opportunities he is surrounded with. They have their own garden, they are free to choose any activity they wish with a 30 minute mat time at the end of the day AND he can build anything he can imagine out of wood! Yes ... they actually have work benches, hammers, nails and SAWS! His first day there he built a an airplane with very little help. :-)

Wednesday: Toddler Rock. This is the day Hudson and I travel up to the Shore and make a visit to North Shore Church of Christ. A few months ago I was asked to help with this wonderful ministry and have absolutely fallen in love! Since I have been leading TR, the team has decided to transition to Mainly Music, a well known Music Ministry that will help us increase our numbers. Later in the afternoon I have the privilege of sharing a book with a wonderful group of girls. We have a bit of a book club going on and it has been so good! We are currently reading "Twelve Extraordinary Women of the Bible" by John MacArthur. If you haven't read it, you should! At night we have "Super Duper Totally Awesome Family Devo Night" (so named by the kiddos). Each week we choose a different member of the family to lead the night in a bible story and activity. The latest was on Jesus calming the storm. SO much fun! We are really getting into these precious nights together.

Thursday: Home days. Thursdays are reserved for what ever might come. This is usually the day of the week I find time to take Hudson to the park on the rare sunny day or just sit at home tying up loose ends. Thursdays are lovely!

Fridays: Bible Study. These days, Fridays hold a wonderful mix of bible study and time with my lovely kiwi friends. We are currently studying This. I love her and am so thankful for my sweet friends that explore The Word with me, through Daniel. Friday nights are " Family Movie Nights". Lately we have planned well enough to catch the movies on sale at the local video store which is $1 a video for a week instead of $5! On these cold, NZ nights you will find the Sanders' clan snuggled up in the living room, under several blankets, surrounded by pillows and bottomless popcorn and giggles.

Saturdays: Exploring. After such a full on week, we are all ready to get out and see things we haven't seen before and experience all what this wonderful, green land has to offer. Saturdays are the days for family. We rarely schedule anything that keeps us from spending the entire day together. We love going to the Farmer's market, driving up north just to see some sheep, and stopping by the nearest volcano merely for the view. These are the days we are able to reflect on the wonderful blessings He has bestowed on us and meld as a family. These are the days we savor. Family, Fun, and Our Father.

     

I hope this gives you an peek into our world and perhaps a good idea what our lives are like each week. Keep checking in and you may be surprised at what you find! We are thankful you are here and look forward to sharing our Journey with you. Pictures to come! :-) 

Hello Again.

I am back in the blogosphere! We have been so busy lately, I haven't been able to decipher which way is up! So much has happened since the last time we posted, let me catch you up.

We sent our visas off in November, only to have them returned to us 3 days later! Even though we dotted every "I" and crossed every "T", the embassy wanted more. It took us about 3 weeks to get the list completed and we were able to send it in again! Thinking we were looking at a long wait for a reply, we were stunned to receive another package from the embassy 4 days later. This time the Visas were approved! Normal process for visas can be up to 6-8 weeks. This is just another example of our amazing Father at work, again! His timing is perfect.

Not long after the visas came, we packed all of the belongings we plan to take to NZ in the container on January 4th,. Phew! What a feat. We had only 2 hours to pack the container and send it off! After 2 weeks of packing, purging and packing more, we were exhausted. We couldn't have done it with out the help of our sweet friends the Partlows who graciously shared the container with us; "Energizer Bunny" Melanie who helped with childcare, packing, and cheer leading until it was completed; and all of the guys who came out to help fill it up in two hours; thanks Gene, Chase, and Jared! Packing a four member family to move across the world was not easy; multiplying that by 2 is pretty crazy! After all of the moving, inventories, packing, re-packing, and "Tetris style" shifting , we finished, on time!

Our garage became GRAND CENTRAL STATION for the packing and filling of the container. (Our house, well, it was less than glorious, thus I am not sharing pictures of that.)

 

 Hudson was on patrol; making sure everything was done right!

On January 8th, our sweet friend and Comedian, Bob Smiley, helped us raise one-time funds for our move. What an amazing time! We enjoyed lots of laughs with friends and were so thankful for each an every person there to support us! Thank you all! We were able to raise about $ 800 ! We were humbled and thankful by the number of people who came out to show support and help us get closer to meeting our needs for our one-time support. We are so thankful for our generous church family and all the help we had putting it together. Thank you Paul and Rebecca D., Erin, Robert, James, Melanie, Liz, Ty, Britni, Ryan, Bekka, and Bob Smiley and his sweet family, for making this happen. ( If I forgot your name here and you helped, please know we are thankful for your support and sacrifice of time too!) We are truly grateful and excited to see how your efforts will be used for His Glory!

January 14-16 we found ourselves at Buckingham Road Church of Christ for our Family and Friends weekend. What an amazing weekend, full of His blessing. On Friday, our family was there to support us and we were represented by our Aunt , Mary Ethel, and niece, Kaci. Thank you for taking the time out to encourage us, listen to our stories and support us. We came away from this weekend full and blessed.
* (1.19.2011)Clarification -Unfortunately I didn't complete this post. On Friday night, we were represented by our Aunt and niece, on Saturday, we had the wonderful Babcocks and Ms. Liz Nichols there to show their love and support. We are so thankful for your endless encouragement and loving support! Thank you for taking time out to show us how much you care. Love you all! *

Jay begining the workshop.

John and I sharing our story.

 

MRN, Us, The Partlows and The Morrows

                            The Boys even had their share of fun:

Hudson, perched on Daddy's shoulders, (his favorite place to be)

So, apparently we have a bunch of cone heads.

Who knew?

WHOA! Hudson kept this up for almost 15 minutes.

We are thankful and blessed by all of your sweet words of encouragement and support. Thank you for taking the time out to love on a missionary. Most of all, we appreciate your prayers!

Next on the list; Garage sale and buy Plane tickets!

... Aaaand They're Off!

We did it! We finally did it! After months of preparations, doctor visits, tracking down papers I didn't know existed, taking passport sized photos of the entire family, waiting in line for another piece of paper I didn't know existed, background checks and rechecking oh...... about 150 pages of applications... WE DID IT! We were able to put the Visa's in the mail!
We are so happy this process is over ( at least our part ). After talking with the NZ Embassy, we found out  the applications are taking about two weeks to process right now. The rush is coming, so pray that ours go through without a hitch. Oh and the policies will change on November 29th which would require a hefty new fee for processing. Praise God, we were able to complete this process today.
I must say after all the intense work that went into completing this process, it was a bit hard to hand over the packet of passports and almost a whole ream of paper to the FEDEX guy. Don't get me wrong, I am so so so very glad they are gone, on their way, sayonara, buh bye....BUT I had a case of the "What If's".

What if ..... I missed a question?

What if ..... THEY loose the packet?

What if ..... the NZ immigration finds something they don't agree with?

Then, again, I was reminded.... it's in HIS hands. He is covering this entire process and it has been evident all along.

The kid's passports arrived in record time.

Our doctor squeeezed us in for an appointment together for John and I.

The pediatrician opened up her office the day after Thanksgiving just to get the forms correct! ( love, love, love, luuuuvvvvv her!)

Important documents that usually take months to get, arrived in the mail yesterday.

A required letter totally disappeared and showed up in a place that was checked 50 times.

All this came together at the last minute.... Ahem... the VERY last minute. :-)

God is good and his timing is perfect!

Where have YOU seen his perfect timing?

 "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."
-Romans 8:28

Staying Content

Contentment goes hand in hand with being THANKFUL. In honor of Thanksgiving, I am focusing on contentment/thankfulness this week.

What does true contentment look like?

How do we achieve contentment?

con·tent·ment

[kuhn-tent-muhnt]

–noun

1. the state of being contented; satisfaction; ease of mind
–adj
1. mentally or emotionally satisfied with things as they are.


2. assenting to or willing to accept circumstances, a proposed course of action, etc.


3. peace of mind; mental or emotional satisfaction.


[C14: from Old French, from contentus  contented, that is, having restrained desires, from continēre  to restrain]

—Synonyms 1. See happiness. Ok. That's what Dictionary.com says. So that's all fine and good, but how to you achieve contentment?
Hmmm. Happiness, Satisfaction, Ease of mind. I don't know about you, but it seems like during the holidays, especially, our minds aren't at ease, satisfaction is hard to achieve, and happiness revolves around things, gifts and the "next best thing." I am just as guilty as the next guy when it comes to wanting the latest gadget or new "something", but when I let go of that and enjoy the gifts He brings, I am much more settled.
Scripture says: {Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. } - Philippians 4:11-12 ESV
I am so thankful for His Word to guide me and lead me down the path He has created for me. I am still very much a work in progress. At times I feel as if I have a long way to go. But isn't it wonderful that we have a Savior there to hold our hand and draw us near in encouragement to achieve contentment. I am realizing contentment is a choice. A choice we are presented with, daily. I know that before we are truly content, we must turn our eyes and hearts toward Him. We must give Him our everything and let go of ourselves. I am thankful... I AM thankful.... I am THANKFUL! #1 I am thankful for a Father that allowed his son to die for my sins so that I may live. # 2. I am thankful for the joy and laugther from our little ones. #3 I am thankful that His mercies are new EVERY morning. #4 I am thankful for my family and the love that surrounds our little home.                          #5 I am thankful for my wonderful husband and his determined spirit to live beyond himself. So those are my top 5 reasons to be thankful today. There are way more than that, but let's start there. During this time of year, especially, we need to give a little extra thought to what we are thankful for and what we appreciate about life. It's easy to let the world tell us how much we need, what we should be wearing, how we should be behaving.... you name it.  It isn't until we look full into the face of God that we find utter and complete contentment. Dig deep into The Word and find YOUR contentment. It's there, waiting for you.  So, the question is.... What are YOU thankful for? I would love to hear your comments! {a little side note in contenment. :-) As I was working on this post... The Lord was working on me. Today I was challenged technically and artistcally with the appearance here. See, I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things such as this and lets just say ... well.... this is the best I could do today.... I am content .... (err... trying to be content with this for now. :-)) {pardon my spacing issues}}

What Shall I Do?

This is a question that has been my daily focus for over a year now.

 "What shall I do?" It is a common question we ask when we are in trouble or searching for help. Too often do I cry out in pain to be helped this way..... but this time it was a little different. This past year has been devoted to seeking what to do in response to something much greater than me.

What about asking the question, "What shall I do?" in an attempt to help? During my search for finding more, more in life, more in relationships, living more beyond myself, I discovered what I already knew. We, as believers, are called into action...

Ok. I thought I had been living a life in action for Christ. Yes, I have been, but God was working in me in a way still don't fully understand, but rather see. I can see where my purpose lies and before me and it can only be made reality through Him. Only He can make the path clear and allow it to come to fruition.

I have fallen in love with the Word in a whole new way. I simply can't live the average life I have been living. Don't get me wrong, it was a great life, but it was a life with too much me and not enough "He". It was a life focused on the next extracurricular activity or the next play date instead of discovering the complete purpose He had created me for, I was merely living the best life I knew how.

So during my journey, I have been inundated with The Word, commentators to the Word, Books, E-books and amazing, wonderful, testimonies. It is in these places where I "dive in" as one person and come out just a bit different. You could say more Radical. Which brings me to my latest favorite author, David Platt.

In his book, Radical, he makes you just want to drop everything and go! He says wonderfully, yummy things like:

"So the challenge for us is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for the power that only God can provide." David Platt

AND

 " While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God."

AND

(in reference to the fall of the wall of Jericho .... he notes how the trumpeters did not get the accolades, instead...) "This is how God works. He puts His people in positions where they are desperate for his power, and then he shows his provisions in ways that display his greatness."

AND

" I could not help but think that somewhere along the way we had missed what is radical about our faith and replaced it with what is comfortable. We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves  when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves."

See... Good stuff! It's been moving me to a new place during this journey. A new place that is wonderful, amazing, and altogether crazy. This has been a journey of stretching to our limits and then stretching a bit more. The day begins and ends without a moment of rest! This is such a great place to be. A place where I am attempting to use every minute of every day to further His kingdom. The pace is fast and furious, but so rewarding. So What Shall I Do?

In the morning, I will rise and pray that each step I take is made towards furthering His kingdom. I will listen when He calls and I will do what I can to live the life He's called me to live. This all sounds good, but what does that look like on a daily basis? How do we really do this?

It's not as simple as it sounds, but I found it is much easier if we let go of ourselves. It is answering the door when someone is in need, it's listening to a friend, family member or even a stranger when their heart is breaking and all you have is a hug to give. It's feeding the family next door that has lived without their dad for the last month because he has been deployed to Iraq. It's holding the hand of a child that longs for the care his mother can't give him because she is in the hospital. He is in the simple things; things we all can do, if we just watch for the doors to open and take the step through.

I am overwhelmed with the amount of amazing blessings He has bestowed on our family, especially in these past few months and I am equally amazed at how He has laid the path before us so clearly. He is an amazing, loving, Father who wants the best for you. So.....What Shall You Do with the life He has given you?

Be blessed today and bless someone else!