Author: Amy

The story of our big family... Neil and I met the summer of 2002. On the evening he asked me out on our first date, I found out my dad (my world) had pancreatic cancer. My immediate family flew off to Disney (because that’s what my dad wanted to do!), and our date was put on hold. Neil wasn’t scared or intimidated by my family circumstances though. Our first date was on my parent’s anniversary… August 18. My dad pursued various treatments. Neil and I spent every opportunity together. We knew early on this relationship was right. Neil got to interact some with my dad. Neil walked with me through the most difficult time of my life. My dad’s battle ended on September 27, 2002. Neil and I were engaged at the end of October. We KNEW. We were married on February 28, 2003. At the time, Neil worked for a physical therapy practice, and I was working at my family’s motorcycle business. Our family plan was to wait for a minute, and then get started with those babies (it turns out that having babies is easy for us). We thought four would be the perfect number for our family (both Neil and I have three siblings). Nolan came along in April of 2004, and Savana followed just 17 months later in September of 2005. We *thought* we would take a little break between children three and four… Our reality was that we welcomed Landon into our family just 16 months after Savana (January, 2007). So much for the break! Lucie entered our world in September of 2008. Four kids. Family complete. Actually, no, it turns out…. While neither Neil or I had done anything permanent to prevent children, we were in fact, trying not to have more kids… Surprise! Tessa was born in April, 2010 (that worked out to be 5 kids in 6 years). I think this was where we really realized that while we weren’t setting out to have a large family, each one of these little people is a GIFT. Two more little gifts have followed Tessa – Eli (on our anniversary) in 2014, and Titus came September, 2017. It’s hard to overestimate the changes and growth in Neil and I over these last 16 years together. Being married and having kids has a way of rooting out all kinds of junk you never knew you had. Having a large family has forced us to be creative with our resources, be intentional with both our money and our time, and increase our faith as we realize just how inadequate we are on our own. We’ve gotten comfortable with using the word “no” on a regular basis, and dealing with sadness on every level because of that answer. We’ve grown into lovers of adventure, quiet moments, and flexibility inside structure…. We’ve grown spiritually too…. From committed Christians, to more intent, followers of Jesus. Children have a way of humbling their parents. We simply could not do this job without the help of our Savior – the One who has all of the answers, wisdom, peace; the One who modelled perfectly unconditional love and to whose example we can look when we’re completely lost on how to get it right (often). About Amy: I’m in my early forties – although I’m told I look younger… or if not that, “I don’t look like have 7 kids.” – which I believe is a compliment… 😊 I’m a little bit of everything. I’m a 9, if you’re into Enneagrams – I’m indecisive because there’s too many good choices…. I love Jesus. I love doing crafts of all kinds. If Marie Kondo came to my house, craft supplies would have to be the last category we tackle, as I’m emotionally attached… craft supplies and coffee mugs….and books. I love relationship. I love my family, my friends, my church and school communities. I love serving. I have a hard time saying no to opportunities (not a problem to say no to my kids, so much – poor kids!). I never imagined my future would include being outnumbered by children to the extent that we are… I’m realizing the older I get, the more I have to learn. And also, I’m not in control. I’m glad for that, but also, it’s a little bit of a ride!
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Plans vs. Direction

Proverbs 16:9 ~

We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.

Like everyone, our plans have changed drastically for these last couple of months. In fact, right now, we should be ending our time in Turkey, preparing to travel to Salamanca, Spain. God has been SO GOOD though. While we were so disappointed to have our outreach plans change, outreach here at YWAM-Tyler has been amazing. 

So what have we been up to?

Our plan B outreach was called “Camp Arise and Shine”. The scheduled time frame was from March 26 – April 24. Before it started, we were given the option to stay for this local outreach, or leave. Normally, to receive a certificate of completion for a school you must complete an outreach, but because of the extenuating circumstances YWAM waived the requirement to complete outreach. We prayed and we felt 100% like we were supposed to stay.

Many students did leave, but there were several who stayed… And the outreach combined students from all of the schools that ran this winter (School of Evangelism, School of Worship, Discipleship Training School, Crossroads DTS). They ran the outreach like camp — we were grouped with 3 other families, and together formed Team Please and Plank You*; 6 adults and 13 kids made up our team, along with Leandro, our team leader.  We served together — weeding, mulching, fence cleaning, blogging; worshipped together {outside}, and participated in team competition. We worked hard together — Eli included!

Titus even got in on the fence washing action!

Shortly after the week got started, further restrictions were added by the government that no longer allowed us to worship together outside. Leadership made adjustments, and we shifted to small group gatherings in the evening of less than 10 people. It seemed like everyday there was a new restriction put in place. And we seemed to be the only YWAM base who still had students around. Leadership made the decision to end Camp Arise and Shine on April 3. We were really bummed! We were having such a good time working & worshipping together. But God had a plan in all of it…

Many of the students that were here are late teens/twenty-somethings, so they made their way back home. YWAM Tyler allowed us families to stay, and volunteer around base. What a gift! As things were getting crazier here, Michigan was really intensifying. That we’ve been able to shelter in place in warmer weather, with lots of access to outdoor space has been an amazing gift. YWAM Tyler made many modifications to the cafeteria style eating we do to accomodate regulations & guidelines. I’ve never had to shop for toilet paper! We’ve stayed healthy, as well as those with which we live in community. 

Our days post-outreach quickly took shape. Neil, Nolan and Landon got started right away working on Grounds and Maintenance teams. Nolan and Landon are proficient with weed whackers! And Neil has gotten to help out with a bathroom remodel and building a playset. The guys have all gotten some experience patching potholes around base, rebuilding fences, trash pickup, among other things…

My days have been full of potty training, and kindergarten teaching. I did not know when we would ever have time to potty train, but it turns out that sheltering in place is prime training time! Titus has been a champ — it’s a big change and he’s had a great attitude! Schooling Eli over the last year has been challenging with Neil and my own classes and schedule, as well as our travel schedule over the last 9 months. This shelter in place allowed us to really focus and catch up on some things that we just never seemed to get to. Eli loves to play handyman with dad whenever it’s safe for him to do so. 

The girls have connected with some of the women staff around base who have made it their job to take on all kinds of odd jobs! They’ve helped paint bunk beds, weed parking lots, weed volleyball courts, wash windows and doors, among other things… They’ve also been helpful extra eyes and hands during potty training 😉 

In addition to all of the work we’ve been able to do around here, maybe most important is the relationship building that’s been happening. We lived with a sweet family with 2 young boys. And even though we’d lived together for 3 months, we were busy with classes and our kids were in childcare… it’s a different story when you are really doing life together. The other family that lives in the Annex of our dorm is from Mongolia. They have a teenage boy and 2 girls — our girls especially have really grown in relationship with their girls. They too, are such a sweet family, and we’ve so enjoyed getting to know them these last few weeks.

So what’s next for us?

Back to the title of this post… we’re heading in a direction and holding all of the steps loosely. Our direction is to join staff here at YWAM-Tyler. We love it here and we feel called here. We will be helping staff the next Family DTS scheduled to start June 30. Neil and I are excited to together be part of discipling other families and walking with them through an amazing, life-changing process. 

This means that life as full-time missionaries officially starts for us! (Honestly, I could have never imagined that being a sentence I would type out! What??!!!) If you want to learn more specifically about our mission as a family, we would love to share that with you more personally. 

Amy 248-568-9007 (amygreb6@gmail.com)

Neil 586-567-0150 (neilgreb@yahoo.com) 

We are going to be making our way to Michigan the weekend of May 8/9. We are really hoping to connect with family and friends there!  We also need to get into our storage unit and get that packed up. Our tentative plan is to return to Texas mid-June. 

So yeah, back to that verse in Proverbs… The last month and a half hasn’t looked at all like what we thought it would, but it’s been GOOD. Thank you Lord. Thank you that You see further, and You use WELL all of the craziness in the world….

  • P.S. I wanted to share the story behind our team name, Please and Plank You….

One evening, our friend Siovhan shared that her friend did a 30 day planking challenge, and thus the Dorm 3 Plank Challenge was born! We planked most nights together for a couple of weeks — we all have stronger core muscles now 🙂 This challenge united our dorm of families! We were only in competition with ourselves — each person improving their own time was the sole goal.  Aaaaannnndddd, our team of parents & kids blew the Camp Arise and Shine team competition out of the water! No one could match our enthusiasm for camp & competition!

Victory tastes sweet (as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup!)!
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Outreach Update

From Every Moment Holy: A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information

“In a world so wired and interconnected,
Our anxious hearts are pummeled by
an endless barrage of troubling news.
We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord,
Than we can rightly consider,
…….
You have many children in many places
Around this globe. Move each of our hearts
To compassionately respond to those needs
That intersect our actual lives, that in all places
Your body might be actively addressing
The pain and brokenness of this world,
Each of us liberated and empowered by
Your spirit to fulfill the small part
Of your redemptive work assigned to us.

Give us discernment
In the face of troubling news reports.
Give us discernment
To know when to pray,
When to speak out,
When to act,
And when to simply
Shut off our screens
And our devices,
And to sit quietly
In Your presence,

Casting the burdens of this world
Upon the strong shoulders
Of the one who
Alone
Is able to bear them up.

Amen.”

Days like these last few can so quickly overwhelm. This is my heart cry for our community, state, nation, WORLD, friends, family: May we navigate these unchartered waters with our eyes fixed on the One who never changes, knows all of it, isn’t scared by any of it, and loves us more than we can ever comprehend.

In light of all of the rulings, shut-downs, states of emergency, etc., etc…. we wanted to check with y’all to share a little update on our planned outreaches– (all were set to begin on March 26.)

Original plans:
3/26: Help YWAM Tyler prepare for Arise & Shine Inspire Worship conference (4/1-4/5)
4/6: Travel to Istanbul, Turkey for 3 weeks (refugee ministry)
Around 4/27: Travel to Spain for 2 weeks (university campus evangelism)
5/13 (ish): return to YWAM Tyler for 1 week debrief
5/20: Graduate from YWAM Tyler School of Evangelism (SOE)

Current plans (as of 3/14):
Arise & Shine Inspire Worship conference has been cancelled
We will not be travelling to Spain as part of our outreach
We ARE still planning to travel to Turkey, and will extend our time there from 3 weeks to 5.

Please be praying for our school leaders and base leadership, as they process A LOT of information & make so many decisions. When it comes to travel arrangements, we feel confident that the Lord will guide our steps. If we’re supposed to go, those travel doors will remain open. If we’re not, the doors will close, and we will find alternative ways to share the love of Christ with people.

We’re praying for you, family and friends, as you’re all processing a lot of changes to daily life. I truly believe there’s so much opportunity in this. As much as technology can drive me crazy, it can be a really powerful tool for connecting with others, not in person.

Especially for my mom friends with kids home from school for an extended period of time…My friend Emilee LaVigne came up with this list of things to do in the vicinity of home, with all of the kids now home from school:

And here’s what I did to manage a houseful of kiddos through the summer:

My kids will tell you they “hate” my schedules — but they were life-giving to ME, and I’m convinced (because that’s true), they were life-giving to them, as well. They’ll thank me some day, right?

From East Texas, with so much love–

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OUTREACH!!!!!

Meet our Turkey/Spain outreach team! Our family will be going with four YWAM staffers and four fellow SOE (School of Evangelism) students. We’ve so enjoyed getting to know these dear ones over the last two months and are looking forward to what God is going to do in, and through us during our outreach.

YWAM Tyler outreaches usually involve both a stateside and foreign outreach. Our stateside outreach for this SOE is going to be serving and supporting staff here at YWAM Tyler as our base hosts an annual worship + missions conference (4/3 & 4/4), called Inspire. Inspire is preceded by 2 days of local outreach and evangelism (called Arise and Shine) in our backyard of East Texas. Right now, it’s hard for me to imagine the level of transformation that has to take place around this place to prepare to host 2000 people! But we’re excited to be a part of it!

After Inspire, we will be going to Turkey and Spain for our foreign outreach! We’ll be spending 3 weeks in Turkey followed by 2 weeks in Salamanca, Spain. There, we’ll be doing evangelism workshops with local churches as well as ministry at University of Salamanca. For more information on our foreign outreach follow the link below!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tmKT-_HtB4V6shnI5ozIR43iv4wowiEV/view?usp=sharing

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Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020

It’s hard to know where to start when it’s been so long… 

I feel like we need to go back before we go forward, though. We graduated from our Family DTS on 11/16. Our graduation evening is called Love Feast, and it’s a true celebration of what God had done in the previous 5 months. 

After Love Feast we traveled to Austin to be with my sister & her family for a few days. This is the first time since college that Stacie and I have lived this close together — we got to visit with them 4 times in 5 months! Such a happy record!

After a few days in Austin, we trekked up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to visit Neil’s brother Jason & his family. We got to spend the whole week there, which included pretzel making, checking out downtown & the Elk Reserve, kids playing in several inches of snow, lots of games…. It is truly a gorgeous part of the country, and it was a gift to spend time catching up with Jason & Rachel, Hayden, Mei & Kaite.

From Jackson Hole, we made our way back to Michigan. Our dear friends, Dale & Kristin Ermshler, allowed us to call their summer cottage our home for the month. It was one of those gifts that you can’t seem to say thank you enough for… 

While at YWAM, you live in community. Living in community is great — stretching, at times, but overall, so good. One of the challenges is making space for family time – that is just our family being together. Our time in Michigan in December allowed us to reconnect as a family; a time to exhale together; it was a place for just us. We truly felt like the Lord lavished all kinds of love on us through our friends. 

And while we loved our time together as a family, we really especially LOVED catching up with so many friends & family-

~ Church services & Roots Youth at AHCC

~ Dinners with family & friends

~ Lunches with family & friends

~ Coffees with family & friends

~ Detroit with Grammie

~ Christmas parties

~ Visiting MOPS

~ Opportunities to share about our first go round at YWAM with friends, family & church

Even though we feel like we made the most of our time in Michigan, we still did miss visiting with some… One thing was very clear: we love Michigan, and no matter where God calls us in our future steps, Michigan will ALWAYS be home.

We say thank you, thank you, thank you for welcoming us back home to the Mitten. Thank you for spending time with us, sharing meals, praying for and with us… 

So, where are we now?  

We came back to YWAM Tyler  in early January. Neil & I started the School of Evangelism (SOE) on January 6. Topics for this school include:

Bible Overview, Cost of Discipleship, Financial Seminar, Suffering, Ministry Development, Leadership, Strategic Frontiers, & World Religions.  Neil & I love being back in “school”. 

The kids are also in school – which looks a little different this go round… Nolan and Savana are homeschooling – we have a table set up for them in the back of our classroom. That’s where they spend the morning doing schoolwork. After lunch, they each have work duties (Savana does kitchen clean up after lunch, and Nolan works in the YWAM snack bar, called the Substation). They’ve also gotten to listen in on quite a few lectures in our classroom. We love having them around.

Landon, Lucie & Tessa are attending Christian Heritage School. It’s a school that is run by our YWAM base — their teachers are missionaries! The school challenges them academically, while keeping it’s focus mainly on discipleship. They are able to ride the bus to school. All three have adjusted so well — they’ve made friends and are doing very well in their new school!

Eli and Titus are back in their preschool/nursery classes. They both call their classes “school” and go happily each day. 

Ok – so we’re back to blogging! Our next posts will include stories, sharing some lessons learned and…. our next OUTREACH!!!!  We are so excited for what the Lord has in store for us in the months ahead!

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Weeks 10, 11, & 12: Birthdays & Evangelism & OUTREACH! It’s GO time…

The last 2 1/2 weeks have been so FULL! We’ve celebrated 3 birthdays — Neil (40-something), Lucie (11) & Titus (2) — and Savana will celebrate her 14th in Brazil! Neil’s parents also celebrate birthdays in September — it’s one big party month! 🙂

Neil’s sister Lisa, and her husband Dan visited us! All in one day, we checked out a cattle auction (amazing!), visited a splash pad because it’s still hot, hot, HOT here, and shared our favorite Texas BBQ with them (Rudy’s) — where Neil’s parents shocked us with a surprise visit on their way to Houston-area! We topped the evening off with frozen custard — it was kind of a dream day 🙂 The next day we went to a horse jumping competition (there are so many worlds I don’t know anything about)… Like the cattle auction, this is a world I know NOTHING about — I’m fascinated!

Neil’s parents made their way back this past weekend — we celebrated those birthdays I talked about, chased down some homemade fried pies from the Mercantile in Mineola, and spent quite a bit of time in their hotel pool. They also were able to attend class with us on Friday morning.

Our last couple of weeks of class focused on Evangelism — from some of the basics like listening, and living out our faith, to using worship to encourage (aka, evangelize), to understanding apologetics as a way to evangelize.

Onto OUTREACH… I would be lying if I told you packing up our dorm-home of the last 3 months, and packing to leave the country for a month is easy. It’s totally not!! (insert sobbing crying emoji!) BUT, our school leaders have been gracious & kind — they gave us time to pack while our kiddos are in classes, brought in a packing expert to demo packing minimally for outreach, and helping us know where in the world to start. We’re also so thankful for our mobile storage unit (aka our trailer) — it’s allowed us to bring the extra things (like bikes & strollers & books & a few toys & lots of bedding) that have been lifegiving and made this place home for us for the last 3 months.

So tomorrow, we spend the first half of the day cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Neil will be in the cafeteria kitchen, I’ll be working in the dorm, and our older kids also have cleaning assignments around base. After lunch, we clean up and pack up into a bus and a couple of vans, and make our way to Dallas. We’re spending the night there, as our flight leaves EARLY (6 am) on Friday. We fly from Dallas to Miami, then from Miami to Recife, Brazil. We arrive in Brazil at 9 pm, and from there take a 6 hour bus ride to Canapi. It’s kind of a daunting 24 hours of travel, but God is faithful! We’re praying peace over the littles, peace over the details of travel & customs, peace and purpose even in flight… We’re trusting Him for safe travels & divine appointments all along the way.

I don’t know much yet about the details of our schedule once in Canapi. I do know that our first day is a rest day — Hallelujah! Beyond that, we’re prepared with skits, testimonies, short messages, intercessory prayer, magic tricks, and cute babies to lead us into conversation with people who need to know Jesus. Brazil, there’s a little army a’comin’…so get ready! We’ll update here as often as we can… We love you all, and thank you so much for praying for us and we jump into the outreach phase of our YWAM adventure!

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Weeks 8 & 9: Relationships & Lordship

You guys! We’re leaving for outreach in 2 weeks! GULP. It’s getting real, y’all. Last week we had an outreach veteran come and share her packing tips with us. I think her presentation can be summed up in 3 words: Less is More. And therein lies the challenge! If you think of it, please pray for us in these next couple of weeks as we begin the packing process… We need to be focused, think clearly, and prioritize well.

Also, we’ve found out a little more about our travel details — basically, we’ll be travelling for about 24 hours (flight leaves at 6 am on 9/20), this includes 2 planes and one 6-hour bus ride. Please pray for PEACE! There are 12 adults and 24 kids in our group. We were reminded today that God cares for details — and I’m holding onto that, as there are an overwhelming number of details in transporting this many people, this far.

Now, on to what we’ve been learning….

Relationship highlights:

  • Good relationships are possible because God IS relationship (order, unity, diversity).
  • Good relationships are possible because Jesus came to RESTORE relationship.
  • We are to relate to others in ways that reflect how God relates to us (parents, think about your relationships with your kids).
  • Every, EVERY, every human has value because they are made in God’s image & should be treated with respect & kindness.
  • Sin affects relationships — it’s important to evaluate areas of our life that may not be in line with who God is — we need to be honest about those areas, make things right & seek forgiveness to restore healthy relationships.

Lordship highlights:

  • Slow the heck down! Think about what your thinking!!!
  • What in our life are we holding back from the Lord, for the sake of convenience or comfort?
  • Lordship is giving up MY right to _______________________ (fill in the blank) to the Lord and what HE wants to do in our life.
  • The American Dream: A Mere “I Can” Dream (When it takes first place in our lives)– that needs to go!

To all of our friends and family starting school — we love you! We miss being there with y’all! We hope this school year is AWESOME! On our school front, the kids are loving school of a different kind this year. They are busy doing math and reading, and learning typing and Porteguese, the youngers are doing spelling & handwriting. Also, we just found out the kids have spent over 300 hours in their FamilySync classroom! In there they’ve been learning about God, and hearing from God; they’ve had weekly workshops learning everything from magic tricks, art, photography, dance, miming & drama; each week they have “Heart for the Nations”, when someone from another country comes to share about their culture & country (Germany, Brazil, Canada, South Sudan, India, South Korea, Ireland). We’ve spent hours in interecession together. They’ve also participated in outreaches to nursing homes — where they sang & entertained & prayed for residents, they cleaned up a local park, and prayer-walked our YWAM base. They have daily Quiet Time with the Lord (something I’d always wanted to be part of their day, but had a hard time executing). They are truly getting an education of a different kind, and loving it!

To my MOPS/M2M people: I love you! I love you! I love you! I miss you so much! I am praying for all of you — I not-so-secretly stalk the MOPS Steering team through GroupMe & I am so excited for your upcoming year. The leadership team is strong and gifted and talented, and loves y’all so much…. I actually have felt a bit lost, in a way, being outside of these ministries… I know this is right where we’re supposed to be, but man, I wish I could be there too… I can’t wait for recap emails and hearing about the good things God is going to do in your lives this year! I’m going to try to work out a visit in December — I would love to pop in for some coffee & breakfast & fellowship with MY PEOPLE!

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Week 6: Plumbline

Plumbline: noun. “A plumb line is a weight suspended from a string used as a vertical reference line to ensure a structure is centered” (definition from Commentary: Biblical Plumbline Still a Relevant Biblical Allegory, in The Daily Pilot, by Lauren Keane)

Amos 7:7-8

7 Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”

I answered, “A plumb line.”

And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins.”

A friend of mine described this week as “heart surgery” — I cannot come up with a better description. I knew heading into this week the topic was “plumbline”, but it didn’t really mean anything to me; I had no idea what was in store! And it was good — so good — but oh-so-hard. One of the things we repeatedly tell our kids is how valuable it is to “do hard things.” And as parents, we do hard things all the time… But I have to say, there was a depth to the hard things last week…

One of our exercises last week was to write a letter to God our Father — that was our simple assignment (ha!). The Lord took me back to a season of my life where I needed to make some things right with Him and a couple of other close people in my life. There’s that old saying “let bygones be bygones”, but I don’t think the Lord likes things left undone in our lives. He wants to redeem our mistakes and brokenness. But if we just tuck those things away, and never set things right, we bind up His ability to use our story — really the story of His redemption. Redemption is for broken people. And I’m going to tell you now, I’m broken. I have made some big mistakes; there’s literally a season of my life that I’d like a redo, please. But that is not how it works. No redos. Just honesty and confession and repentance, and healing!

And there was a second half of the assignment… that was to let the Lord speak into what was written to Him, and write a letter back to ourselves. I do want to share with you what the Lord spoke to me.

“Dear Amy, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Nothing changes that. And I see you. I’ve always seen. You are forgiven. You are free. You’re not wierd. I’ve been gracious and compassionate. And I continue to be. Always ask me first what my thoughts are about…everything.

Keep talking to me… and listening to me. I have things I want to show you. And I want you to be reminded often of my great love for you, no matter what you may feel from others. I love you.” {Insert sobbing emoji}

Y’all. God loves you so much. I’m totally undone by that truth…

A note on outreach — in my excitement to announce our foreign outreach, I failed to mention another aspect. After we return from Brazil, we will be spending another two weeks on a stateside outreach — likely Houston, but not set in stone….yet. After those two weeks, we have a week of debriefing here on base, and then we graduate (11/16)!

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Week 5 and OUTREACH location!!!

I’ll go out of order from my post title… let’s talk about Outreach first…

We’re going to BRAZIL!! We will be in Canapi, in the Alagoas region. We leave somewhere around September 20, and will be there for right around a month. Let the Porteguese language training begin! We’re working weekly on outreach prep, which at this point is learning skits that we will be performing HUNDREDS of times in those 4 weeks! There’s more to outreach prep, that we will find out as the weeks go on… Just as when we came here (we didn’t know too many details ahead of time) we take outreach prep one step at a time.

I need to stop here for a moment and reveal something so awesome I have learned about my husband in the last couple of weeks….

Many of you are familiar with my kids interest in drama. Nolan, Savana & Landon have all participated in the Assemblies of God Fine Arts Competition through our church; Savana, Landon, Lucie and Tessa have been involved in our community theater. Until very recently I believed that their talent was a kind of out-of-the-blue gift… I’m not really into to drama, and neither is Neil…. wait a minute…

It turns out that Neil has quite a gift for drama — he’s volunteered to act in some of the skits we’re learning, and I’m dying! He’s AMAZING!

Last week our topic was Spiritual Warfare. Neil and my week was a little more experiential… After doing a good bit of explaining about the Trinity and the role of the 3 persons of the Trinity — especially the Holy Spirit, whom we have with us — he led us through two powerful sessions of prayer. I felt like we experienced spiritual warfare as much as we learned about it. The kids tackled the same topic in their class, but they focused more on the Armor of God and doing spiritual warfare in the “opposite spirit” (which is basically repaying evil with good — see I Peter 3:9).

Also significant this week, we looked together as a family at the Five Love Languages (Acts of Service, Quality Time, Gifts, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch) and identified each member of our family’s top two love languages. THEN, we brainstormed ideas of how we could show love to each other in the other’s love languages. This is not a brand new idea to me, but I have never followed through with the exercise of actually identifying the languages in my kids. We then took it to the next level by identifying practical ways to show love to each other. It was such a life-giving exercise for our family.

Our week ended with a visit from my sister Stacie, her husband Mike, and their girls. Stacie and I are loving living ONLY 4 hours apart… Weekend visits have been impossible for the last 20 years with out involving an airplane…. until now 🙂

*As of today, week 6 is in the books! I’m trying to stay on top of my updates, but time ALWAYS FLIES! Hopefully you’ll see another post about this week very soon… We’ll see 🙂

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A Day in Our Life… YWAM Tyler

Absolutely cannot believe we’ve been here 3, check that, 4 weeks! Here’s a glimpse into our schedule & life here… Each week has a theme/lesson plan for the week. The kids class (Family Sync) is learning the same lessons that Neil & I are learning in our class. Mornings begin with prayer, worship, and/or intercession. Eli & Titus get dropped off right around 8:45, and the older 5 head to the Family Sync classroom. We’re all in class until 12:15. We collect our kids and have lunch at 12:30. Classes resume around 1:25. We finish at 3:15, get to work (the kids get a snack & play; the older kids usually help with Titus & Eli too); dinner is at 5:15. We usually hit the pool as a family once or twice during the week, in the evening. Thursdays are laundromat days — we alternate the boys/girls going, and it has evolved to include ice cream 🙂 We are HAPPY to do laundry! (And also, I don’t think I’ve ever given laundromat laundry a fair shot — it is a legitimately awesome alternative! We get four washers going at once, followed by 4 dryers, and all of our laundry is done for the week, in the span of about 2 hours.)

Week one: Orientation; we learned more about the history of YWAMTyler — which is completely fascinating (check out the book “Is that Really You, God?” to read about the history of this movement called YWAM, written by the founder, Loren Cunningham)! The founder of this Tyler base is Loren Cunningham’s cousin. He and his wife spent a couple of mornings in our classroom, sharing amazing GOD stories from over the years. We learned about work duty. We’re each responsible for a work duty M-F — Neil works in the kitchen on dinner prep, and I, along with a couple of dorm-mates ,do housekeeping in our dorm each day. Kids over 13 also have work duty, so Nolan and Savana help tidy up the cafeteria space each day after lunch. Kids under 13 have work duty keeping their classroom (Family Sync room) clean. We talked about critters & creatures to watch out for in East Texas, like fire ants, chiggers, scorpions, and copperhead snakes (mercifully not poisenous…)… We spent some time breaking the ice & getting to know fellow classmates (there are 12 families in our DTS). We learned about the do’s & don’t’s of life in Dorm 3….

Week two: “Knowing God” Our speakers came from YWAM Kona and shared so much wisdom — We dug into the Creation story, and together started gaining a better understanding of just how lovingly our Father created us… I think for me, one of the biggest lessons was understanding that we get to know God best when we experience Him; do the things He does, and we’ll know Him better. I was also humbled this week — I have spent time in the Word — I even took Old and New Testament classes in college, but when I was reading, what was I actually doing???! There is so much depth in this Book, y’all! And I’ve been challenged this week to read a little more slowly and ask a lot more questions, so I can understand more fully what it’s saying.

Week three: “Hearing the Voice of God” Okay, so this week was st-ret-ch-ing, to say the least. My church background had the voice of God pretty limited to the Bible. And while in the last several years I have come to embrace the Holy Spirit and His role in my life (I’ve even been blessed by words & pictures given to others in our church), I have kind of sidelined myself, saying something like “God doesn’t speak to ME in that way.” WRONG. I have a listening problem. Our speakers gave us such practical wisdom, such as slowing down and looking for God in the ordinary; they encouraged us to pay attention to, and listen to that ‘still small voice’ — and act on it. Be ready with a preemptive ‘yes’ when asking God to move in your life, and move through you. He’s probably not going to reveal much to one who is set on a predetermined ‘no’ to His ideas. Each week includes time with our kids in Family Sync. We play games together — this week focusing on the art of listening & teamwork — we have intercessory prayer together, and at the end of each week, we process what we’ve learned throughout the week. I think it was game playing with the kids that stretched me most. There was a particular game that REALLY stretched me… but I think I’ll save that story for another post…

Week four: The Cross. Y’all. I felt like I was in college all over again, but this aging, mom of 7 brain was a little overwhelmed! The work of the cross is flat-out amazing. At the basic level, and in a word, the cross means salvation for anyone who believes. But really, it’s more complex — the Cross means pardon (looking to my past; the cross offers forgiveness), purity (looking within; only God can break the power of cancelled sin), peace (looking up; no God, no peace – know God, know peace), power (looking around; the message of the Cross is powerful!), and promise (looking forward; “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Romans 8:32 NLT). Do you know Jesus & the cross? We’re happy to share more… just reach out to us!

Before I go, I just want to share a little more on our weekly schedule… Every Tuesday afternoon is Intercession with the kids in Family Sync; Wednesday is Outreach prep time with the kids; Thursdays, the 5 older kids go with their class on either an outreach or a field trip for the day. Also, for us adults on Thursdays, we have our weekly small group gatherings in the morning (Iron Groups), and the afternoon is time for one of three things: date, large group discussion, parenting class (seriously, I never get enough parenting tips!). Fridays, we have family connect in the afternoon. We are so thankful for our leaders’ attention to all of the details. They’ve been intentional, helping us connect as a class, connect as a family, connect as a married couple, and most importantly, helping us connect with God.

One final note — writing letters and cards is something we do weekly… We’d love to hear from you too! You can send mail to PO Box 3000, Garden Valley, TX 75771

I promise at least one of us will write back! 🙂

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YWAM Stories… How in the world did we get here?

So it occured to me today… I really skipped over some of the biggest details in getting to YWAM. We must go back!

Shortly after Titus was born (almost 2 years ago), both Neil and felt the Lord nudging us to hold the details of our life loosely. I think up until late 2017, I had our family living at 86 Ottawa for the foreseeable future; our kids all graduating from Oakdale Academy (our favorite little Classical Christian School); my mom & Neil’s parents lived close; we LOVE our church, Auburn Hills Christian Center, not to mention our incredible & awesome community of friends who are family….

We continued to live life — fully. And prayed faithfully over what we heard, asking the Lord for wisdom and direction. Fast forward to January, 2019. Neil and I took a couple of days and escaped to Grand Rapids. One of the goals for our time together was to spend time together evaluating the previous year, and praying about this year.

I’m not positive, but I think it was Christmas, 2016, when I first heard about my friend Megan going to YWAM with her family when she was 10 or 11. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but a seed was planted in me then. YWAM (Youth with a Mission), is a movement that was started in the late 1960’s by Loren Cunningham. Loren had a vision of waves of young people flooding the nations with the good news of Jesus. The entry-level “class” is Discipleship Training School, which consists of 3 months of classroom & outreach training, followed by a 2 month outreach. I was so intrigued by Megan’s family stepping away from life, and into a short-ish term mission. The word “dreamy” came to mind when I thought of the idea of doing something like YWAM. But really, how in the world could this possible work for our family? The two ginormous hurdles of time and money had me mentally sidelining this dream.

Back to January, 2019… we were getting more confirmation that change for our family was growing closer. We continued to pray, but we also started asking/dreaming/thinking of what was next. This time included me making an email inquiry, followed by a phone call with the director of the Family DTS at YWAM Tyler. I asked the questions I could think to ask. Chad shared his family’s story of their journey to YWAM, and encouraged us to pray about coming. His story encouraged me that if this is what God wants for our family, it’s absolutely possible!

More praying, more conversations, more research, more dreaming, followed by more praying, more…. you get it.

April rolled around, and we still weren’t sure what God had in store for us. Until the 6th. That day, Neil and I had a scheduled conference call with Chad & Crystal Freeman (Family DTS directors). We were able to ask questions together; hear Chad & Crystal’s hearts for YWAM & families; talk about more practical details about YWAM, and the possibility of coming. What became clear over the last few months was that doing something missional and significant before our kids start graduating had made it’s way to the top of our priority list. That evening Neil & I made the decision to go for it! We really felt if we didn’t say yes to this opportunity, this year, that day… we may not ever actually go. (Neil said it was our “Bob Goff moment” — have you ever read “Love Does”? If not, you should! This guy says yes to all kinds of crazy things that scream God’s radical love for us.)

So the issue regarding time was answered. Our first act of open-handedness after saying yes to YWAM was to let go of Oakdale. For the kids, for Neil, for me. Hard. The next big hurdle was the money piece. If our house sold, we would be able to afford YWAM. Our next task was to get our house listed & on the market, ASAP. I started selling “extra” things — furniture, toys, etc… just overall purging our house to get it ready to sell. Finally, everything was in place. We officially listed on April 30.

Our house listed on April 30, and our house sold on April 30.

Full asking price, the projected timing was perfect, and the icing on the cake- our buyers are Christians. 86 Ottawa continues to be a light shining in our neighborhood. Our buyers have dreams of prayer rooms, and a growing family; hosting game nights, and family gatherings. The Lord gave us these perfect buyers who made saying goodbye to our home a thousand times easier.

As soon as we had a signed purchase agreement, this idea of YWAM quickly became our reality. We were no longer saying “if the house sells, then YWAM.” Now, we were saying, “our family is going to YWAM!!!!”

The following weeks were so full — the kids & Neil were still in school; Neil was coaching golf, Nolan was playing golf, Savana played soccer….. and packing & purging continued. (The home inspection went well — there were a couple of minor things, but nothing major, and the appraisal came back just right — Praise God!) The school year ended the weekend before Memorial Day…. and drivers ed started the Tuesday after… And packing & purging shifted into a higher gear with Neil & the kids home. We travelled to South Carolina in June for Neil’s nephew’s wedding, Lucie graduated as an Honor Star from her Stars class at church. We closed on the house on June 11.

Our buyers had given us 10 days occupancy after closing, and we needed every single one of them. The last 10 days held countless trips to our storage unit & Salvation Army. Our older 3 kids were able to participate in REACH 248 (Roots youth group weeklong service around town), and everyone except Titus either attended or served at Mega Sports Camp (basically our church’s version of vbs) in the evenings. We were so thankful for the kids to get good time in with their precious church friends before we left town. Neil and I were also so blessed by breakfasts with friends, dinners with friends, ice cream with family…. lots of good connecting with people we LOVE, before we left (though there were so many more I wish we could’ve spent time with before leaving…).

June 21 (Friday) we pulled out of the driveway. All of our belongings either in a 10 x 20 storage unit, or in our 5 x 10 trailer (or in the van)… We were filled to the gills! There are so many last minute things y’all!!!

Our friends Jason & Megan graciously and generously opened their home to us for the weekend. We went from our now “old” house to a fundraiser for a precious family from church — a park picnic with friends. Then we made our way to the Hover Home for some rest & regrouping (i.e. repacking). Saturday was Breakfast with the Bredows, and open house for my cousin’s son, and ice cream at Cooks with Grammie, a late night visit with our temporary neighbors, the Reids. Sunday we said goodbye first to our AHCC family and then later, at Erma’s, over frozen custard, we said goodbye to family.

We left Michigan very early on Monday, with Knapps Donuts, and hearts full of an outpouring of love from family & friends as we said goodbye.

I’m writing this in hindsight, so I can tell you now that we’re 3 weeks into it, being here is nothing short of the best present ever! We are learning & growing, and being stretched, and recalibrating as a family, and living life in community with a bunch of other awesome families & YWAMers…