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Some may trust in Presidents (or politics), some may trust in vaccines, but we will trust in the name of the LORD.

My husband and I have seven kids — 7. Yup, we’re crazy.

I won’t bore you with too much detail, but baby #1 came via c-section, and babies #2-#6 came more naturally. But when you’ve had a c-section to kick things off, natural childbirth brings risks & strategies. I had an amazing doctor who knew me and understood me… we had a system that worked, people. 

Fast forward to expecting baby #7. My favorite, number one, ONLY doctor who knew me and knew how my body delivered babies was no longer in the business. Me: SOBBING. For real. What was I going to do? Could a baby of mine come into the world without Dr. Zaidan?

The answer is yes.

I felt early in that pregnancy the Lord saying quite clearly, “you do not put your trust in a doctor; you.trust.me.” 

And even when I didn’t feel it, I would remind myself of those words: “You, Amy, trust me, Jesus.” Okay…. 

Fast forward again… Not one of babies #1-6 came out by themselves — they ALL had to be evicted. I think I came to believe that if my babies weren’t forced out by Dr. Zaidan, I would just be pregnant forever. It would be fine…

My due date for sweet Titus was September 17th. I didn’t mention that there was just one date off the calendar for me for possible delivery dates — it was September 12th, a Tuesday. Tuesdays were my MOPS (Mother’s of Preschooler) days. I loved this group, and September 12th was our first meeting of the year. I did NOT want to miss this gathering.

Don’t you know that in the wee hours of the morning on 9/12, my water broke. It turns out that my body would actually eject a baby when my time came!! Amazing! And I missed my meeting! None of the normal protocols were in place! No epidural, no pitocin, no Dr. Zaidan. Healthy baby. Healthy mama. <3

And the Lord reminded me that He is trustworthy BEYOND what I can even imagine.

As I’ve reviewed 2020 and taken in even the events of today, I see how easy it can be to get caught up in the latest news, the latest crisis, the latest solution, the latest news… and I think sometimes we don’t even realize how much of our hope we’ve actually pinned on something — or someone — other than God.

That was true for me with my doctor. I didn’t mean to elevate him to an object of which I put my trust… but when I faced the reality of his absence, I realized how much hope I had in him, and in our methods. 

God is bigger than ALL of the crazy 2020 has held. He’s bigger than COVID-19; He’s bigger than our racial conflicts and injustices, He’s bigger than the U.S. Election; He’s bigger than Trump, He’s bigger than Biden; He’s bigger than a vaccine. He never shelters in place. He doesn’t shy away from sick people, from crisis, from storms, from conflict, from little people or big people. 

I am not advocating sticking our heads in the sand (tempting, but not the right move). We’re called to engage — but not in political debate or arguments that divide. We’re called to engage others with the LOVE of Jesus. 

That probably looks like listening WAY more than talking. 

It looks like loving my neighbor next door….. and, may I suggest, even my Facebook neighbor (we’ve learned a few things about our Facebook friends, have we not?)…  

It looks like listening more to God than the news…or talk radio…or podcasts. 

It looks like loving God and loving others, in action, not just words. (But your words ARE powerful, people, so let’s check them before they leave our brains…SPEAK LIFE)

It’s crazy out there, y’all. Head-spinning cray-cray. Be thoughtful. God gave us minds — for heaven’s sake, use them! Seek TRUTH. Start with the Bible. Measure every bit of news you take in against the Truth of His Word. Use your mind. Listen to the Holy Spirit. 

Love God. Love others. 

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21 Cities, 9 States and 2 Countries later…

Our family recently completed our move to Texas.  By “completed” I mean we’ve spent most of the last year in Texas attending two missionary training schools at YWAM-Tyler.  But following God’s call to join the staff at YWAM-Tyler, our official move to Texas just happened a couple of months ago.  Our lives as we knew them were packed up into a 8’ x 16’ storage container and at 5’ x 10’ cargo trailer, just waiting to be unpacked into our new reality.  As we arrived at our rental house we quickly got to work unloading boxes and bins, toys and tools, furniture and mattresses.

     Amy and I finally went to bed in what will be our house for the next year.  So I quickly drifted off to sleep, right?  Not so much.  As I laid there my mind began recollecting and calculating.  I was pretty sure it had been one year to the night we had last slept in our bed!  Pondering this revelation set me on a tangent where I recalled all of the different places I had slept in the previous year.  So I began counting.  Assuming I hadn’t forgotten any, I came up with 26.  On average, that’s a different bed approximately every two weeks for a year.  Here’s a summary that might help put it in perspective:

  • Most nights were spent in two different beds at Dorm #3 at YWAM-Tyler
  • 9 different hotel beds (Little Rock-twice, Tyler-TX, Dallas, Colorado Springs, North Platte-NE, Davenport-IA, Dearborn, Searcy-AR)
  • 9 different host homes (Thank you family and friends!)
  • 2 Bunk Beds (YWAM-Tyler cabin, YWAM-New Orleans)
  • Several nights on cots
  • 2 sofa beds
  • One night on a bus in Brazil
  • One night on an airplane back from Brazil
  • Beds in 21 different cities, 9 states, and 2 countries

     Of all of the beds in which we’ve slept during the last year, one probably stands out the most.  When our family arrived in Canapi, Brazil last September, we were shown to what would be our home for the next month.  Our family occupied roughly 600 square feet of upstairs space in a small house that included an open landing, two small bedrooms, and a bathroom.  

     So, what about the bed?  I’m sure our nearly 24 hours of travel and the exhaustion that ensued skewed my initial opinion about how comfortable the bed was.  Let me just say it was a bit firm.  Actually, really firm…like no mattress I had ever slept on before.  I like a firm mattress.  I hated this one.  It sat beneath a window (without screens) that, due to the mid 90 to low 100 degree temperatures most days, needed to be open at night (that’s right, no air conditioning).  It turns out that crickets in Brazil are of the flying variety.  It seems like they spend at least as much time in the air as on their legs.  So, open window + flying crickets = discovering crickets in bed occasionally.

     By the way, I didn’t mention that the bathroom could only be accessed through the bedroom shared by me, Amy, Titus (who had a pack ‘n play squeezed into the corner), and our board…I mean mattress.  And if you haven’t traveled to many places outside the United States, let me explain a couple of things about bathrooms.  Toilets are only supposed to get flushed when they receive solid waste (to conserve water), and toilet paper doesn’t get flushed, it gets thrown in the trash (don’t get me started on foreign plumbing).   The result is the occasional wafts that result emanating from the bathroom while we lie on our bamboo mattress and try to sleep.

     You might be wondering why I’d be (seemingly) wasting your time to tell you about beds.  Why do I feel like it’s important for me to share about sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress in a sometimes smelly room that may or may not have crickets?  Let me share something I’ve learned in the last year or so:  Living smack dab in the middle of God’s will for our lives and for His purposes has a way of transforming even the most unfortunate circumstances and uncomfortable surroundings into something so beautiful and so fulfilling.  While the sleeping accommodations were less than ideal in many of the places we’ve stayed in the last year, they in no way influence the fondness of our memories from those places.  In fact, our experiences in these places make our memories or our sleeping arrangements seem more fond. 

     Smelly cricket-room: so what…ministry in Brazil was life-changing.  Squeezing our family of nine into a small hotel room: no problem…our life on the road is full of opportunity to share the love of Jesus.  Sleeping on cots in a basement: whatever…we’ve had such sweet, sweet times of fellowship with family and friends.  Bunk beds in a cabin: bring it on…so many amazing relationships were built living in community with others.  Our lives are so full and we feel so blessed to be living our lives of ministry, it has a way of making every circumstance and memory a precious one.  Even sleeping on bamboo, or a couch, or a plane, or a bus…

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New Orleans, Here We Come!

It’s high time for an update, is it not?

For the last three months, Neil and I have been helping staff the combined DTS, Crossroads DTS, and Family DTS — it’s been a full and awesome season! We’ve helped facilitate small groups, participated in weekly one on ones (We love you, Josh & Meg!), helped in hospitality in the classroom, watched over school finances, among other things… Part of staffing the school also includes sitting in on any classes our schedule allows — we continue to be challenged spiritually… I think the more we learn, the more we realize how much more we have to learn.

Six of the kids started school at the YWAM school — Christian Heritage. We are so thankful for this school. While challenging them academically, this school loves and focuses on discipleship. Our kids have done a significant amount of adjusting and transitioning in the last year+ — this transition has been stretching, particularly for our older kids. We’re convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the right thing is often the hard thing. So while it’s been challenging for a couple of the kids, we’re trusting that He’s using this for good in their (and our) lives.

Lecture phase of the DTS has officially ended. Tomorrow begins outreach prep. Neil and I will be leading a team of families, alongside a couple of other YWAM staff to New Orleans. Our original plan was to go to Puerto Rico for 4 weeks following New Orleans. But due to Covid restrictions, we made the decision not to go.

Our team includes 5 other families (9 parents and 12 kids). We leave on Friday morning! Our plans include homeless ministry, serving at a food bank, kids ministry, encouraging police and firefighters in the area, among other things. Also, Hurricane Sally is headed toward New Orleans, landfall is expected on Tuesday. Pray for New Orleans! And we’re holding all our plans loosely… I think our primary ministry will be the ministry of availability: however we can help, encourage, love on the people of New Orleans is what we’ll be doing.

After two weeks in New Orleans, we’ll say goodbye to the team of families who will be moving on to ministry in Denver, Colorado for a couple of weeks. And from there, they will minister for another two weeks at a reservation in Bemidgi, Minnesota. Our family will stay in New Orleans for a few more days, where we’ll continue to do outreach as a family.

We will be in New Orleans for about 2.5 weeks. We are so thankful for your prayers for us and for our mission! We’re praying we have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with many!

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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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Canapi, Brazil Outreach: Travels and Week 1

After almost three months of DTS school and many weeks of prayer for our outreach in Brazil, we finally made it! The Grebs are on the ground in Canapi!


For those of you who may be a bit geographically challenged, it turns out Brazil is pretty far away, even from the southern United States. It’s not exactly a close neighbor to the south (and actually quite a bit east). Our adventure began on the afternoon of September 19th as we left YWAM-Tyler on a bus destined for Dallas. We stayed the night in a hotel near the airport so we could more easily make our 6 a.m. flight on the 20th! Imagine the helter-skelter atmosphere of waking up at 2:45 a.m. and trying to get 12 adults and 24 kids to the airport, their boarding passes, bags checked, through security, to the gate, and on the plane before 6 a.m.! All things considered, everyone did an amazing job and believe it or not, with little drama. We had just enough time to land in Miami, deplane, and catch our connecting flight to Recife, Brazil. This was approximately a 9 hour flight which landed in Brazil at 10 p.m. local time. Everyone boarded a tour bus for the six hour ride to Canapi, where we arrived just about 5 in the morning. I mentioned the thing about 24 kids, right? God gave us much grace, and a little more, and then some more. He is SO GOOD!


So…Canapi. Nestled in what is considered the Brazilian desert in northeast part of the country, they’re just entering spring and I hear there are two seasons: rainy season (winter), and hot and dry season (which includes now). Mid 90s and dry almost every day. It’s a town of about 7,000-8,000 people. Mostly poor people. Beautifully kind and welcoming people. This is an area of Brazil that is largely overlooked, the after-thoughts, which largely explains a conversation I had with a local boy the other day. EVERYONE in town is noticing and talking about the visitors from the United States. “Why is that?”, I asked. Because no one comes and visits Canapi. No tourists here…ever. It’s not the kind of place tourists would visit.


It’s a place where religion is deeply rooted (almost everyone talks openly about things like God, Jesus, and prayer), yet very few seem to know or even understand relationship with God. Our hosts and leaders of YWAM-Canapi, Elianderson and Kate Nacacio, are AMAZING people. They actually gave their emphatic “yes” to the offer for us to come knowing they were likely to deliver a baby while we were here. They had a baby boy…Joshua. Elianderson (a native Brazilian) and Kate (a native New Zealander) actually sought out the most needy places in Brazil to determine where they would plant their ministry. By almost every measure, Canapi was the neediest, so here is where they came.


Ministry here has varied. As a team we have done services in a variety of settings including a children’s street church, the local baptist church, the YWAM base in Canapi, local homes, and in local villages. A typical service usually consists of praise and worship, a skit, games (when it’s children), personal testimonies and a message. Truthfully these are not settings that have opened up due to our presence here, but have arisen from several years of groundwork laid by our hosts.


Along with these services our ministry has focused on sharing the love of Jesus with the people of Canapi. They love story-telling here. It’s amazing how just a conversation on someone’s porch, in the market, in a bakery, anywhere to be honest, can open up opportunities for ministry and prayer. And practically everyone here is open to it. We are learning so much about the value of slowing down, and taking time to just BE with people. It really seems so counter-productive. But opportunities come. Doors open. Aren’t we usually too quick to move on to the next porch, the next market, the next bakery, the next anywhere? Or not looking closely enough (or at all) for an open door?


All along the way we remember, each and every one of them is made in the image of God and is therefore lovable, so we love them. We share with them as much as we can, sometimes with no interpreter or no Google Translate (thank goodness for it), that they are special. They are worthwhile. They can live in relationship with their Creator and their Savior.
They are not after-thoughts.
They are not forgotten.

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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!