In the Storm

Who is with you in the midst of a storm?

I've had to ask myself this quite frequently lately.
My whole life, I think I've been pretty self-sufficient. I'm a "pull myself up by my own bootstraps" kind-of-gal.
I've taken "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" out of context in those gut-wrentching conditioning sessions (or any unpleasant moment) by motivating myself to suck it up.
I am also a person who can depend on people and things to satisfy me. Only to be left thirsty for another latte, or more words of affirmation, or sometimes even left with a broken heart because of unfulfilled expectations.

I am learning.
I have a long way to go, but I think for the first time I have began to experience what God means when He tells us over, and OVER, and OVER again that HE IS OUR ROCK our REFUGE our HELP. He will NEVER leave me or forsake me.

I have experienced these no-where-else-to-turn moments the past couple of weeks.... No family here and literally a couple of friends that I can communicate with that understand. But where did that leave me? Saw this quote from Mr. Spurgeon that nailed it.

There is no getting at God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends, but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has no where else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms and is blessedly clasped therein! -Charles Spurgeon.

This is exactly what had happened and I'm speechless over the kind of God we have that loves us like this.

So the past couple of weeks: Yes, I have been lonely, I think for the first time ever. This has humbled me a great deal. (always a good thing) I was desperate for prayer and truth. I couldn't even really think straight amidst Zander being sick, and the nasty weather that kept me inside looking at my breath. (not saying this for you to say.. "oh poor lisa", but to illustrate how my circumstances where effecting me so I was struggling with the "We are serving here, why doesn't God just fix our circumstances" garbage. So because those were the lies I was believing....Where did I turn??? My friends! :) Seems funny huh. I asked them for Prayer and for Truth from the Word. A faithful group of ladies that want nothing more than for God to be glorified! What a beautiful picture of "the church".

So yes, it's best to have both in the storm. I'm sure God would have used another way to bring me closer to himself. But he choose to use God-fearing women to point me to Himself this time.

Next time, that might not be the case. But I'm learning that it is GOD who will never leave me or forsake me. It is God who is constantly with me. Who holds my hand and guides me. Who allows me to dwell in His presence. Who is never too busy, too selfish, or uncompassionate.

I am still learning.

This verse pretty much sums it up.

Psalm 73:23-28

I am continually with you! You hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel and receive me to Glory...

Who have I in heaven but you? There is NOTHING on earth I desire besides you.

My flesh and heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever....

For me it is good to be near God, I have made the Lord God my REFUGE, that I may TELL of ALL your works!

*** I share this, not only for me to remember myself what the He has shown me, but to also encourage you if you are going through hard times on where you can turn during this storm that will not disappoint.

TELL of His Works!

Life in IraqiKurdistan.Birthdays

Many of you always ask about how things are different here and many asked this last week "What did you do to celebrate Andy's Birthday?" In the states we would take the week to celebrate, one date night, spend weekend with family, one or two nights celebrating with friends etc. We make it a pretty big deal. So although it wasn't a week long celebration it was one, fun-packed day.

Here's a day in the life of the Birthday Boy!

*Slept-in while I made 2 cakes, and some cupcakes for a surprise at school. (1/2 of which I did in almost-dark.)

*Woke-up to eggs-in-the-hole. Have you heard of these delicious goodnesses? Andy's fave breakfast here. Had coffee, chilled, and read about the bears victory the night before.

*Opened gifts- I tried to find him a "Track Suit" He wore sweatpants to play basketball a couple weeks ago, and to Kurds, that's like wearing your pj's. Not cool! But since Andy is the tallest man in the whole city, they haven't been easy to find. Thought I may have found a pair, but.... still too short. Zander got him "Meastro" which is the Turkish version of a Snicker bar. Look Zander is actually sharing them!

Went for a walk to try to find him a new Bday present since the Track suit didn't work. He ended up with a new belt. :)

Like he brought up, this was the NICEST day he has ever had on his birthday. (as far as weather goes.) Normally it's 20 below or something crazy! It was a gorgeous day. Somewhere in the upper 50's! Which is about the temp. of our house when city power isn't on!

We got to have lunch at MFC (Marina Fried Chicken) Something we find ourselves wanting around special holidays is ANYTHING that resembles "Home" and a change-up from the normal stuff. Not a lot of variety here. So MFC chicken and fries was his choice!

He went to school. Little did he know that I was going to surprise him, because Zander took his afternoon nap at a friends house, while I took cake to school and shared it with the students.

You have no idea how hard it was to get these students in for this picture. They acted like they have never done it before. Maybe they haven't- I don't know. This is the best we could do and... it's still blurry!

Duhok has a place called "Dream City" You pay less than $2 to get in and it has a beautiful play area, roller coaster, ferris well, and arcade area. Andy has been asking to go bowling for awhile so thought we would go to the only place you can bowl here (although to us it's amazing they even have something like this!) It was super fun, although he pretty much took control of the game!

After the game, we went and picked up Zander and I fed him supper, and asked Andy to check the email. He didn't know that I asked everyone to send him an Happy Birthday message. He was reading emails for a couple of days. He loved it! So thank you all of you who wished him happy birthday!

Then our teammates came over after Zander went to bed. So Andy and I walked to one of the nicest restaurants in Duhok. It was great. Onion rings, lamb chops, Moutabal, and a Heiniken. Yummo! Hard to believe you can eat the nicest meal in town for $30! We ended the night eating cake with our team.

It was an amazing day! We got to spend a ton of quality time together, enjoy the luxuries in the city, and I know my hubby enjoyed his fun packed day so it was worth it and he deserved some pampering! We were both exhausted, but moved right back into the swing of things the next day! Phew!

2010 with No Regrets

Reflecting on 2010...

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is only the Lord's purpose that prevails (Proverbs 19:21).

It wasn't just any kind of year. It wasn't what we were expecting. It was exactly what God had planned for us though as we seen Him answer prayers left and right, (or for all you Garth Brooks fans, "Sometimes I thank God (boom boom) for unanswered prayers..."

Either way His hand and purpose was so clearly guiding us.

I just read this post and wow how I can relate to much of what this family has experienced this past year. I'm sure many of you can to, it doesn't mean you need to move overseas to feel like God took you down a path you weren't expecting. If you got a second: read this,

http://allthingshendrick.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-year-of-what.html

If not, here's a quote that sums up how we feel about last year and the coming year.

"God already has a plan for this new year. He had a plan for last year too. His plan for 2010 was way better than mine...and not because it was easier or more comfortable than what I was busy planning. It was better for reasons that words can't describe. Just cries and groans and smiles can speak to the struggles and strength God handed our family this year."

So whatever 2011 brings for our family or yours, we can trust that God works ALL things for the good, who have been called according to HIS PURPOSE!

Resolutions? ummm, not sure what I think about those, but I know you need to be motivated. (Don't know if I'm motivated enough to lose those extra 5 lbs.)

But what we will we try to *accomplish* this year?

glorify God, enjoy Him, and love others.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be GLORY forever. Amen. Romans 11:36

The angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people. Luke 2:10

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37-39

Life in IraqiKurdistan.Christmas

Of course celebrating Christmas looks MUCH different here. For lots of reasons. For example:

• Our first Christmas where we haven't had a "White Christmas".
• No Grandma Shileny Kolaches or Grandma Kriener Chocolate Chip cookies.
• No never-ending game nights with family. Enjoying a beer or two to go along with it!
• No falling asleep to Christmas movies on our family's couch.
• No sitting next to the warm fire, enjoying Mama Bishop's Christmas table cloth. Or Mama Kriener's "Christmas city".
• No seeing family that you haven't seen for awhile (besides on Skype :0)
• Not being surrounded by things that make you think of the season from everywhere you go and things you see (The mall, homes decorated in christmas lights, Christmas trees in the windows, etc)

However, just because we are living in a country where the majority doesn't celebrate CHRISTmas, we have tried to not forget and to make this a memorable Christmas for us even though it was much different!

We tried to make our home a little more like-back-home.

It's really incredible some of the things we found here. There's a place called Holland Market, that's about the size of a convenience store, that we go to get almost all of our groceries. They had a FULL isle that was loaded with Christmas trees, ornaments, stockings, wrapping paper, other knick-nacks too! Can you believe it! ... it was pretty sweet!

Cute little stockings, huh!? Our candle on the top was our "fireplace". Try to look around all of our books (I should have at least straightened them up before this picture but you know what, this is what it normally looks like so you get the real effect! No picture posing here!)

Crafts: We even got a chance to make some handmade cards, and send a couple things back to our family for Christmas with our teammates who were going back to America. Andy and I always make each other cards. This year we also made Zander's gift. Thanks to our previous tennants old baby gate and my oh-so-creative husband. We got to give Zander this for Christmas!

a ramp that came with a handmade car by Andy, and some cool balls for Zander to roll down!

Gifts: SGI came at the beginning of the month and brought back a few gifts from them, and from one of our sending churches. We know it's not all about gifts, but it was really nice to each be able to open a gift this Christmas.

Big thanks to Cornerstone (Sabino's connection Group), Goodriches, and Fishers!

Worship: Here's a picture of our gathering of other believers. We had a great Christmas eve service that was full of songs, Nativity Play put on by the kids, Advent candle, and of course fellowship afterwards with yummy cookies. :) Look at my cute little sheep!

We even had our version of "shoveling" here on Christmas Eve!

Zander making some Birthday cake for Jesus!

Neighbors: Christmas morning we were still in our jammies (I in my glasses, too) drinking some coffee and we had a visit from our good friends/neighbors with Christmas gifts in hand. A little awkward in this culture for people to be seeing each other in their Pj's (sweatpants style for the bishop's) but we were thankful for them and their friendship! They also came over later that day and partook in the Birthday cake. The next day, I made the "Shileny Christmas favorite" (Chili) and they came over to enjoy that with us too.

God has really been doing some sweet things here. Being able to sing Christmas songs IN SCHOOL! Seriously, in Iraq? PRAISE THE LORD!

So yeah... it was a GREAT CHRISTMAS... and a MEMORABLE CHRISTMAS...one we felt like we were able to invite people in and also being invited into celebration with those who are in our spiritual family in this city.

God does show his blessings through our small sacrifices and celebrating this Christmas was definitely an example of that.

ek Sal oo neef (1 and a half years old)

Z-man will actually be 19 months in a few days, but I always got so confused when I wasn't a mom on why moms always told their kids age in months. Confusing and so much thinking if you aren't a mom! At least I thought so and honestly can even get confusing if you ARE a mom! Anyway... here's some year and a half tid-bits!

• Don't have any 18 months stats, but we are pretty sure he's in the "normal" range :)
• Does a good job at following directions for example "Go get your sippy cup" however -if you can believe it- sometimes he doesn't want to follow directions, he says "Naaawwwwhhhh" (a stretched out and whinny NO) with his nose scrunched!
• likes to play "On your marks, get set, GO"
• loves to read books and turn the pages.
• is getting better at copying some words and expanding his vocab. It's not just ball, and dog now.
• Loves to watch baby einstein. (don't judge, sometimes a mamas got to do what a mama's got to do)
• Hates it when I'm cooking! I can't wait until he understands that I'm doing THAT for him too, not just ignoring him!
• Still taking 2 naps most days. Tried to move to one, but he's just way happier with 2.
• Has 14 teeth (Opa we try to brush nightly, don't worry!)

And a glimpse at what our sweet boy is up to!

Daddy's little helper- Andy is building Zander's Christmas gift for him out of an old baby gate that was broken (surprise surprise) It is so precious to see Zander pretend like he's building it too! We haven't showed Zander what this contraption is yet and won't see it painted until Christmas!

Really anything that we do he likes to copy! When city water is on, most people clean their *driveways* with a hose and squiggy. He's imagining the water being there.

Kurdish Dancing- We went to our first Kurdish engagement party a couple weeks ago. It was a little overwhelming with the music so loud it would put most college clubs to shame and everyone grabbing us wanting to take their pictures with us. Anyway, he has always liked to dance but it will take some time to get this fancy footwork down

Scootin': This hippo was left here by the last tennants but until a couple weeks ago, he didn't want anything to do with it. His feet can touch now and can finally push himself along which is pretty precious to see him do! A new favorite toy for this little guy.

Christmas Decorating: It's quite amazing the things we can get in here. With a little effort we can find a Christmas tree, ornaments, lights, and wrapping paper! It's amazing how much having a tree lit up makes a difference around here to brighten up our Christmas season. Zander was more of a help this year than last, but still doesn't quite get it. Whenever he sees these ornaments he says "BAWWLLLLLLLL"

Roughin' it: Somedays this culture doesn't appreciate the "American nap schedule" So we are out and about during one of Z's normal nap times. This means he takes naps in some weird places!

Friends- Zander is not hurting for friends that's for sure! All the neighbor kids adore him and his long "yellow" curly hair. He's trying to get used to their affection though as they pick him up and kiss him like crazy. Sometimes he just needs a little space. Most times after playing with Kurdish friends he's ready for some quiet time in his room.

He also has grown quite fond of another family's kids from London (2 girls and a boy between ages 2 and 6) We try to have play dates every week and they get to spend time together at "Sunday School" too! Here's Jonny and Zander!

The Healer: Praises to God, who has been healing Zander's molescum on his back. Look how much better they look! They aren't raised anymore, just a few spots!

Coloring: Zander loves to color. Or at least he loves to play with his crayons. We can already tell he is going to be a "Man of Order" he likes to put them in piles, back in the box one by one, or lately he seems to like to compartmentalize them in his shirt sleeve!

Typical moments?!?: This is what happens after 5 mins. of allowing Zander to have FREE REIGN in the house.

We LOVE YOU through it all ELLIOT ALEXANDER!