A New Christian!!!

Shaughn working at the hangar

Scott giving a tour at MMS during the holidays.


Matthew working at the hangar.



Greetings and Happy New Year!

You may have received an email stating a new blog update earlier this week, sorry, I just got my OUTLOOK to work again and there was an old email waiting to be sent in the out box that I didn't catch before it went out. My bad!

I know it has been a while since I have updated, we have had the revolving door of visitors during the holiday season. No "down" time but lots of "fun" time. :-)

My family came then left and then Ed and Steph (Scott's mom) came. It has been great memories and visiting.

We (Scott and I) are on a date!! Laugher and papa are with the younger two and the older two are at a youth lock in for New Years. We are at a Christian Cafe where two gentleman from our church go and disciple on Sunday nights. One of the gentleman, Robby, is a born again Amish guy who is 21 and is becoming very close to our family. He came over the other night for dinner and hung out until 10:30p.m. playing chess with Shaughn and talking to Scott and I. He loves talking about his background and about the Amish ways. He says it helps him to process the whole thing. He loves Jesus and has chosen not to go back to the Amish tradition and join their church. Many of the folks who come to this Cafe are born again Amish. Very cool. Scott and I feel very honored to have friends like this. We had been praying about how cool it would be "if only" and God has provided in that area. Please keep Robby in your prayers as he continues to grow and seek God in a deeper way.

We have some GREAT news....Jeremiah asked Jesus into his heart on Thursday, Dec. 27th. It was very cool!! He prompted it and we discussed it with him and asked him if he wanted to say the prayer after us and at first he was hesitant but soon agreed to verbally say it out loud after daddy, as long as mommy said it with him too. I immediately agreed. (DAHHHH) :-)

Our holidays have been very blessed and we feel very honored to be here in Ohio doing God's work. We were totally blown away by all of the Christmas cards we received, especially from BCC. That was one part of our favorite moments this Christmas. The kids and all participated in the opening of all of those cards. Thank you all!! We were able to send out over 450 newsletters in Dec. and that generated a few more cards from folks we normally don't hear from. That was fun too.

I really missed having Christmas in my Brighton home but we made new memories here and had a green Christmas. The weather here is much nicer than Brighton. It has been in the 40's here and nice. The boys would like some more snow days, they have only had about 3 since we moved here. :-)

I received a call last night from Trisha, they are leaving Jan. 3rd for MI and stopping by our place on the way back to TX. We are very excited to see them. Look for them at church on Jan. 6th and say hi. :-)

We not only had our family here for the holidays but we had another MMS family over for Christmas dinner who had no family around here and couldn't go home for Christmas. That was very fun and exciting to share the season with them. We also had our landlords over for dinner as their children only come for Thanksgiving and not for Christmas. Amazing how many people are alone on this Glorious Holiday. I loved being able to have them over and spend some time with them. I don't remember being able to do that at home. It seemed like everyone had someone. I love being in a position that we can share with others. Please pray for more of these opportunities to arise as I love connecting with others.

We have found a church that we are calling home away from home. Stu and Heather has been able to visit it with us during their visit and today Ed and Steph were able to go. It reminds us of BCC a lot and is extremely friendly. They have the boys plugged in already into the worship band and are starting Matthew on the AV Team. Nathaniel and Jeremiah received Christmas gifts from their new teachers and that made them feel so included along with the other kids. Very cool. God has answered your prayers for us in this area. Thank you all!! We still miss home but know you are a great support for us.

We look forward to hearing from you more and hope to connect more often now that that holidays are coming to an end. God bless each one of you during 2008 and Happy New Year!!!

Lela and boyz~