Today my kids are doing self-directed school work in all their subjects but one. This means I can spend time getting things done that normally I don't have much time for. I'm very happy about this. And I'm enjoying watching them lead each other's lessons. Right now they are working on putting timeline cards in order, but before that they quizzed each other in phonograms and gave each other a spelling test. It's days like this when I realize how valuable homeschooling is. It builds family unity like no other activity we do in our home, at least between the two of them. They are still fussing about one being too fast and the other too silly, but they are together, working together, and learning together while I work at my ministry, making my home a haven. For all you who wonder about homeschooling, it isn't always such a pretty picture, but these moments make it all worth while!
Today also feels really good because we, again are under contract. It feels more solid than before and has more promise of actually closing. The mortgage guy is on top of things which will hopefully speed things alone. The set closing date is March 20Th. If you would, pray with me that we would close much sooner. thanks!
On the topic of adoption, God is still speaking to us so directly. If you happen to notice the comments on my last post, you may have noticed the comment from "dalli". This is a long time friend of Jeff and I from our youth. Well we don't see her much, unfortunately anymore, but back in the summer we were able to visit and Jeff gave her my blog address. I had no idea she was following it until that comment, which of course was about adoption. She is a mother of 2 adopted children! Jeff and I just chuckled as we read it.
In my heart I know our family has growing to do. I know God wants to use us as a refuge for the suffering. Jeff is trying to sort out what God wants specifically. I'm patiently waiting for Jeff's guidance as I know He is searching God on this matter, and I am in submission to him. Whatever God says I know He has so much in store for our family!
Monday starts a new chapter for us as my nephew, Brannon, joins our homeschooling program. I'm so excited, as are the kids! We are looking forward to having him with us so much and making him a part of our everyday lives. He is such a great kid, has endured so much and has really become a blessing to me personally. And well Cody thinks he is the greatest thing that ever walked the earth, besides Jesus. So I praise God for the opportunity to minister to my extended family in this way.
So, as you can see we have a lot of transitioning happening in our lives. This has just been the pattern for us since going into full time ministry. But, God is good and faithful and has given us quite a journey which we would not trade!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Getting Personal
God is very personal. I hope everyone who reads this has experienced God personally. He speaks to His children in a way that is undeniably Him. I'm so thankful that I have had the blinders removed from my eyes and have come to know the God that I serve. He is amazing and I pray that for anyone who is still in the dark, any unbelievers out there, that you will see the Light, that is Jesus. I pray that you will be transformed through the salvation that He offers.
God has been confirming my decision to go to Romania. He has already begun to provide financially for it. It's really cool when He does that.
He is also speaking to me very clearly about a situation that Jeff and I have been in with our previous renters in our SC home. Long story short, they made some decisions that led to us feeling very deceived and cheated. We have felt taken advantage of again and again by them and it has been a difficult situation for us. But, God. I stopped with that phrase because it is one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. When you read 'but, God' you need to be ready to get out of His way, because He is gonna take over. He told me to start attending Bible study on Sunday afternoons in spite of my incredibly busy life. I teach Sunday school in the morning, lead discipleship in the evening at my home and then lead a 3 hour homeschooling class on Monday mornings. Why would I possibly need to add another thing in on Sunday? Sounds like a really bad idea. Yet, God was leading so I followed and have been there three weeks now. Well, my 'but God' attitude about it has been dissolved completely as God has been talking to just me every week. I mean it is like it is just me and Jesus in that room. He has been showing me in His word what it means to experience grace and to show grace to others. When I hurt and cheat God with my life He responds with grace. When I am hurt and cheated by others, what is my response? And does my response give "praise to the glory of His grace"(Eph 1)? He has so specifically shown me what to do during this trying time and how to know Him more. Without the trials Jeff and I have been through, I wouldn't have the opportunity to praise God for His grace, b/c I wouldn't understand that part of Him. It is something to be thankful for when I am able to know God in a new way and when I discover another reason to praise Him. I encourage you to look at your hardships in terms of relationships in your life and ask, "is this about the relationship and the other person, or is that about me and God?" Remember, you will experience some things in life that make no sense, but that is just where God speaks the most, and you don't want to miss it!
Another way God has been very personal with me and Jeff lately is on the topic of #2. If you read my last post you know what I mean; adoption.
Now I don't know what God is doing except that He is having an awful lot of conversations with us about it. The word adoption is coming out everywhere. It's in blogs I read, its reality in my friends' lives, it's in emails, it's in the Ephesians study on Sundays, it's in concerts we've attended, and it's constantly on my mind. The one I'm most intrigued by lately is the way it is all through scripture. So, over the next coming days I'm gonna spend extra time studying what the Word has to say about it. The one thing I know is that I have more to give and my home has more to offer. I know there are children who have nothing, including no hope, and I know Hope. I know Provider. I know All Sufficient One. If fact, I know Him personally. It is in my heart heavy to bring at least one of those children to Him, and to rescue he/she out of the pit they are in. Jeff is searching God to see if He is leading us in this path. You can pray for us if you are led. God has poured out Himself on us and it is more than we can contain. I want the overflow to fall on orphaned children. I want the hope that I have to blanket one who is hopeless. I want God to reach through us, my family, straight to a child who has none and show Himself through us. This is such a deep desire in me. I know God is not done growing this Hudler crew.
Last thought, we are entering into another contract! It is with the same people. They got all their stuff straight for the loan and are trying again. Of course we have concerns about it falling through again, but it is a lot less likely now. So, please pray for it to go smoothly this time. We should close in March.
God has been confirming my decision to go to Romania. He has already begun to provide financially for it. It's really cool when He does that.
He is also speaking to me very clearly about a situation that Jeff and I have been in with our previous renters in our SC home. Long story short, they made some decisions that led to us feeling very deceived and cheated. We have felt taken advantage of again and again by them and it has been a difficult situation for us. But, God. I stopped with that phrase because it is one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. When you read 'but, God' you need to be ready to get out of His way, because He is gonna take over. He told me to start attending Bible study on Sunday afternoons in spite of my incredibly busy life. I teach Sunday school in the morning, lead discipleship in the evening at my home and then lead a 3 hour homeschooling class on Monday mornings. Why would I possibly need to add another thing in on Sunday? Sounds like a really bad idea. Yet, God was leading so I followed and have been there three weeks now. Well, my 'but God' attitude about it has been dissolved completely as God has been talking to just me every week. I mean it is like it is just me and Jesus in that room. He has been showing me in His word what it means to experience grace and to show grace to others. When I hurt and cheat God with my life He responds with grace. When I am hurt and cheated by others, what is my response? And does my response give "praise to the glory of His grace"(Eph 1)? He has so specifically shown me what to do during this trying time and how to know Him more. Without the trials Jeff and I have been through, I wouldn't have the opportunity to praise God for His grace, b/c I wouldn't understand that part of Him. It is something to be thankful for when I am able to know God in a new way and when I discover another reason to praise Him. I encourage you to look at your hardships in terms of relationships in your life and ask, "is this about the relationship and the other person, or is that about me and God?" Remember, you will experience some things in life that make no sense, but that is just where God speaks the most, and you don't want to miss it!
Another way God has been very personal with me and Jeff lately is on the topic of #2. If you read my last post you know what I mean; adoption.
Now I don't know what God is doing except that He is having an awful lot of conversations with us about it. The word adoption is coming out everywhere. It's in blogs I read, its reality in my friends' lives, it's in emails, it's in the Ephesians study on Sundays, it's in concerts we've attended, and it's constantly on my mind. The one I'm most intrigued by lately is the way it is all through scripture. So, over the next coming days I'm gonna spend extra time studying what the Word has to say about it. The one thing I know is that I have more to give and my home has more to offer. I know there are children who have nothing, including no hope, and I know Hope. I know Provider. I know All Sufficient One. If fact, I know Him personally. It is in my heart heavy to bring at least one of those children to Him, and to rescue he/she out of the pit they are in. Jeff is searching God to see if He is leading us in this path. You can pray for us if you are led. God has poured out Himself on us and it is more than we can contain. I want the overflow to fall on orphaned children. I want the hope that I have to blanket one who is hopeless. I want God to reach through us, my family, straight to a child who has none and show Himself through us. This is such a deep desire in me. I know God is not done growing this Hudler crew.
Last thought, we are entering into another contract! It is with the same people. They got all their stuff straight for the loan and are trying again. Of course we have concerns about it falling through again, but it is a lot less likely now. So, please pray for it to go smoothly this time. We should close in March.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Things on my heart
Have you ever been at a place in your soul where there is so much stirring in you that you just don't know what to do with any of it? That's where I'm at these days. I feel like God is working in me, teaching me, showing me new things, asking more of me, and revealing more to me than He ever has before. It's a little freaky as I don't know what to do with most of it. Here are just a few snippets of what I'm talking about.
I have been grieved for some time now over the financial and spiritual poverty of other people in other places. I have had a heart for missions for a couple of years now but it has grown more personal lately. It's like I've gone from knowing that people should help people to realizing that I should do something specific, something that affects my family more directly.
I believe that God is leading me in 2 directions: 1-an actual mission trip 2-international adoption.
On the topic of #1: I've always sorta fantasized about foreign missions. I've wondered what it's really like to be in other countries where life is unlike what I know and the name of Jesus is rarely mentioned. I've never seen other cultures being lived out, and I haven't experienced life as anything other than an American. This has become more of a burden for me recently as I come to understand more of God's word, and His instruction. My relationship with God is a result of many pouring their lives into mine. People like my parents and siblings, church leaders, teachers and mentors, and my dear friends. They have surrounded my life with goodness and have shown me God. And of course He has shown me Himself through His Holy Spirit that lives in me. But, how thankful I am to have had, and still have Godly influences around me. So, I feel, out of gratitude to do the same. That's partly why I teach Sunday school and lead discipleship. But, when I think of others in other countries and how much they don't have in terms of Godly influences I am compelled to make a difference. Jeff and I have discussed different opportunities for us to be involved in missions, individually and as a family. Nothing has ever quite fit right though until now. So, this summer will be my first foreign mission trip. I'm going to Romania!!
I'm very excited about it. This will be my first time overseas, in a country that does not speak my language or typically serve my God. There is a lot of unknown about going on a trip like this. The unknowns excite my nerves a little, but I know that will resolve. Now, I'm not a good flight passenger. I think that is at the top of the list of what scares me about the trip. The other thing is being so far from my family. These are minor things though in light of sharing Jesus with the lost and making an eternal difference in the far ends of the earth.
If you feel led, here's what you can do: pray for me to receive the finances from the Lord. Many of you know that we currently have 2 house payments since our SC house STILL has not sold. If you don't know, my husband is a minister. Minister and 2 house payments don't typically work well together. I feel that God is going to give me every dime for this trip outside of what we currently already receive from Him. I will be working on personal fundraising stuff and am praying now about what God would have me do. Anything I do, I want to be a blessing to someone else as well. I'm considering offering a total one time house cleaning for $100. I would clean as much as that a person would feel is fair in paying that amount. If I could just get 10 people to accept that offer I would have over half the $.
Please post a comment on what you think about that idea and if you have any other ideas for raising the $. Thanks in advance!
Now on the topic of #2, I will speak later. this is plenty for now!
I have been grieved for some time now over the financial and spiritual poverty of other people in other places. I have had a heart for missions for a couple of years now but it has grown more personal lately. It's like I've gone from knowing that people should help people to realizing that I should do something specific, something that affects my family more directly.
I believe that God is leading me in 2 directions: 1-an actual mission trip 2-international adoption.
On the topic of #1: I've always sorta fantasized about foreign missions. I've wondered what it's really like to be in other countries where life is unlike what I know and the name of Jesus is rarely mentioned. I've never seen other cultures being lived out, and I haven't experienced life as anything other than an American. This has become more of a burden for me recently as I come to understand more of God's word, and His instruction. My relationship with God is a result of many pouring their lives into mine. People like my parents and siblings, church leaders, teachers and mentors, and my dear friends. They have surrounded my life with goodness and have shown me God. And of course He has shown me Himself through His Holy Spirit that lives in me. But, how thankful I am to have had, and still have Godly influences around me. So, I feel, out of gratitude to do the same. That's partly why I teach Sunday school and lead discipleship. But, when I think of others in other countries and how much they don't have in terms of Godly influences I am compelled to make a difference. Jeff and I have discussed different opportunities for us to be involved in missions, individually and as a family. Nothing has ever quite fit right though until now. So, this summer will be my first foreign mission trip. I'm going to Romania!!
I'm very excited about it. This will be my first time overseas, in a country that does not speak my language or typically serve my God. There is a lot of unknown about going on a trip like this. The unknowns excite my nerves a little, but I know that will resolve. Now, I'm not a good flight passenger. I think that is at the top of the list of what scares me about the trip. The other thing is being so far from my family. These are minor things though in light of sharing Jesus with the lost and making an eternal difference in the far ends of the earth.
If you feel led, here's what you can do: pray for me to receive the finances from the Lord. Many of you know that we currently have 2 house payments since our SC house STILL has not sold. If you don't know, my husband is a minister. Minister and 2 house payments don't typically work well together. I feel that God is going to give me every dime for this trip outside of what we currently already receive from Him. I will be working on personal fundraising stuff and am praying now about what God would have me do. Anything I do, I want to be a blessing to someone else as well. I'm considering offering a total one time house cleaning for $100. I would clean as much as that a person would feel is fair in paying that amount. If I could just get 10 people to accept that offer I would have over half the $.
Please post a comment on what you think about that idea and if you have any other ideas for raising the $. Thanks in advance!
Now on the topic of #2, I will speak later. this is plenty for now!
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