Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, OH MY!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Errr... Minus the tigers and bears...

Feb 28, 2009
This morning I was awoken by the sound of LIONS!!!  Now, I've heard a male lion roar at the Fort Worth Zoo a couple of times - it is fierce and shakes the entire zoo!  This was more like a bunch of little roars, or maybe "barks"...  well, little is relative...  

Quite disconcerting when the only thing "protecting" my family is a thin sheet of nylon!!!  Made me really reconsider this whole camping in a tent thing, and made me momentarily jealous of those in campers or cabins...  The tent thing is pretty adventurous for me  :)  Now while the Lions are quiet I feel pretty brave, but when they start up I'm frozen with fear...  the long walk to the bathroom is daunting to say the least...  

I can't imagine living in a mud and stick hut in a land where these beasts roam free!!!

This gives me a whole new respect for "The Ghost in the Darkness", which I already had a huge respect for... that movie totally freaks me out!!!  

March 22, 2009 (yes I'm finally getting around to blogging about our trip a month ago!)
I can't wait to go back in a couple of weeks! We had so much fun, full disclosure we weren't really roughing it... when you can leave your campsite and eat at Chipotle in less than 5 minutes, you are not truly roughing it!

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

My favorite project all year long is Samaritan's Purse's (Franklin Graham's ministry) Operation Christmas Child!!! I seriously think and plan for it literally all year long!

This picture captures the essence of what OCC is all about! These precious kiddos living in absolute squalor, who have never received a gift in their entire lives... are getting their very first gift! The fact that they have never received a gift makes these boxes full of what we perceive as dollar store junk, true treasures not only to the kids, but to their families as well! They are so amazed at getting not only one gift, but a box full of gifts, they often ask, "Who has sent this to me???" They are puzzled that complete strangers would give them, a seemingly "no body", their first and maybe only gift of their entire childhood! This confusion is the perfect opportunity the volunteers of OCC use to share with them the love of Christ. They also include a book in their language about the life of Christ.

The many accounts of new faith in Christ that come from this ministry are amazing, heart warming, goose-bumpy accounts of how a loving God reaches down to touch these very children and their families! One I just heard about this year is the story of Lejla Allison from Bosnia. I won't ruin it for you (although I will issue a tissue warning!), but go watch the video for yourself at:

http://static.samaritanspurse.org/broadcast/OCC_video/LejlaAllison.mov

Justus and Daddy

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Techies Camping

Saturday Morning Cartoons
A few weekends ago Caleb begged us to go camping... that is, set up the tent in the backyard... ;) We were really roughing it with two mattresses off the beds, two iphones, two macbook laptops, and a heater... all plugged into a heavy duty extension cord... yup, totally techie... ;D