Updates! (Part I)

Diligence and consistency: two things I know I need to pray for in referral to this blog; Life doesn’t slow down, thus, I better find a better way to find time for this rather than wait for more time!

I am going to try to update you by using a new tactic (hopefully its effectiveness will result in this posting being completed by Saturday night!) Instead of trying to pour out my life’s blessings and growths on one sit, I am going to break it up with time outside, chores, cooking, tending to my family, romancing my husband and playing with the dog! So, trusting the Lord to sustain me through this trial run, here we go:

Phase II beginnings

June 30th was the official first day of Phase II! And it’s a significant, and now historical, mark on Andrew and I’s military career: yes, that’s right…Andrew actually hit the flight-line and flew the T-6 for the first time, beginning at 8:09am! It was an exciting day! And everyday after that has been filled with excitement and anticipation for the flying stories Andrew has for me daily when his 12 hour day comes to an end. Yet, the exciting times are also met with the more challenging times: both academically/flying and on your relationship. Recent reflection on the attitude I came into this new stage of work with has humbled me tremendously. I have now taken off the rose-colored glasses and felt the pangs of reality seep in. As much as it sucks to realize that the “us” time you used to have with your husband has rapidly reduced and the demands of the job don’t go away once he comes home for the night/weekend, the gain you have from uncovering your secret trust in yourself is a greater joy as you begin to kill pride and entrust your heart where it should belong instead: In the work of the cross… and in Jesus Christ alone.

But God is faithful to provide for each season… and I have been thanking the Lord for the blessing He has given me for this year ahead. Through an unexpected job!


Presenting your new Columbus Air Force Base Student Spouse Representative! ME!

I have been praying for an opportunity to meet more of the spouses on the base and to share the truth of the gospel through alternative opportunities outside of church and bible studies. Yet I lacked a detailed vision for that desire. Good thing my trust is in the Lord! Because when you ask to be open to the Lord’s leading, He will be faithful to give you what He wants, especially if it aims at bringing Him more glory. His will was revealed in a bit more specific way for me this year during a dinner meeting we attended in Columbus, hosted by my husband’s partnership. The attendees included those associated with us in the community and on base, such as the Wing Commander and his wife Angie Reth. My husband encouraged me to go introduce myself to Angie while he went and talked with the wing commander. While we talked, Angie expressed a need for a willing girl to become a representative for the student spouses on base and for the Officer Spouses Club. Since I was pretty much the only one out of many of the girls I knew not given a strong desire to seek after a job or work outside the home, I agreed to help out and fill the opening as needed. Thrilled, Angie was very prompt on her promise to get me the information concerning the position and the contact data for the woman who had currently been managing it until further notice.

Thankfully, my job wasn’t an independent project, but came with a great surprise: help! Her name is Katie Rynbrandt and she has been one giant blessing to my life ever since I met her (To make it even better, she is a sister in Christ!). Forecasting bright sunshine with a certainty of smiles, Katie was most ready to help me take on this beast of a project and make it a blessing for both new and settled military spouses who really desired an outlet for meeting people that happen to be on the same page as far as lifestyle and pilot training goes (and honestly, with the demands of traditional pilot school, it is a sheer need for us creatures who are wired by God with a nature to be social!) The project has met some challenges, but with God’s help and a wonderful new friendship, it’s all joy from here! If you could, continue to pray that God helps me to be a faithful witness to him and a servant of Christ in the pursuit of the vision when originally agreeing to this opportunity. As the project unfolds daily, I will keep you updated so you may partake in God’s faithfulness throughout this journey!

Educational Struggles

Finishing up school has been a challenge thankfully met by God’s mercy. Struggling to even complete an assignment in distance learning, I felt defeated and helpless in my decision to take the class in a fashion of “go at your own speed”, with no accompanying teacher or students you could learn with. It seemed great at first, but quickly it turned for the worse. Tears streamed from my eyes as confessed the hidden struggle to my husband on the way back from our Saturday morning Bible study. It wasn’t long before I realized just how much I had put God in a box as far as giving Him my educational struggles ( I didn’t even consider asking God for his guidance, honestly!) Hopeless and very much desperate, I started praying for an alternative for taking these Spanish classes. Not long after, the Lord presented seemingly impossible doors to open and allowed UT to waive the hours to make it an option for me to finish at a community college with a UT degree! It was amazing…. And faithfulness from our Father that will reside in both Andrew and I’s heart for a very long time.

Sparrows never fall without the Lord’s knowledge… and He cares for sick puppies too!

Eli is healed! It seems like forever out poor little pup has been sick… and nobody knew what he had. For four months, it seemed Eli has had continual diarrhea. Our doctor exhausted every possible resource on Eli and on the last visit, closed the case as ‘unsolvable’, handed us Eli’s file, and told us to try somewhere off base instead. But only after a consecutive, all-nighter weekend with hourly bathroom runs for our caged puppy did I decide that it was time to get some help (and only thanks to mom! I couldn’t even think straight enough that day to come up with that resolution myself!) But again, God’s grace showered down on us as I was able to get an appointment at the ‘local’ university (Mississippi State University) that day! And, even better, the doctors figured out what was wrong with him! It was a bacterium too deep for our original doctor on base to diagnose. But hallelujah, with the university’s technological advances, they were able to take a step further to bring relief to our Eli! It was the most joyful news we had heard all week long—and the whole two hour total drive was totally filled with smiles and praise! Thank you God!! Eli is now on the road to recovery and feeling great! He is like a whole new dog—and has improved enormously!

But a bigger battle was won through this season: the battle of self-control! The nights Andrew and I would have to get up for the unexpected-middle-of-the-night bathroom yelp, Eli was shown anything from us except grace and love. To my shame, he was met with profanity, yelling, jerking and ungentle behavior. Looking back at myself in those times, it brings me to tears and shame. There was no love towards our beloved pet, the creature we thanked God daily for before this horrible sickness hit him. We did not care for our pup with affection and patience. Instead of loving patience towards his condition, he was met with our sin. It wasn’t until conviction and God’s work revealed the condition of my heart did I plea for God’s forgiveness and a change of heart! And sure enough, the all-nighter weekend rolled around. It was a test I believe God used to try my heart in its new found faith for God’s providence and grace as needed for the time at hand. The result: Christ’s victory over my sin! I was able, through Jesus’ strength--- the peace He placed in my heart--, to greet Eli when with the love and affection, no matter how drowsy and tired I felt. It was good to be reminded that we are our strongest only when we trust in God to strengthen us. After all, we can do all things through Him alone (Phil 3:14).

Knoxville Blessed Visits

Speaking of Eli, he has gotten bigger and has loved everyday here at the lake! We have been in Knoxville for a good, solid week—and it has been a refreshing from the tiring week before (Andrew had the 4:30 shift) and, best of all, a drink of cold and living water for my weary soul. As I have been in town, I have attended a beautiful wedding (Blake and Caroline Herron) which was saturated in gospel truth, I have been given the opportunity to ‘nurse’ (or rather just be there to encourage, serve and pray) both my dad and my youngest brother after their surgeries, and I have been able to meet up with some super spiritual towers that I cherish and have missed dearly (like Eva, Suzanne, Bonnie, Jenna, Grammy, mom, dad, etc). It has been a great visit and God has really blessed it—but I will be ready to get back to my hubbie! Being the end of the week now, I am starting to miss him so very much…

Fellowship has been awesome and my friends and family’s wisdom about the Lord has really been a huge encouragement for me. The first Saturday I was in was my favorite so far--- I caught up with a couple of good friends while at the wedding and hearing how God’s faithfulness covers all! The night was filled with lessons given to me from the Lord to show mercy before judging someone you knew from the past (funny: I am always so surprised when I meet people that have dramatically had their life truly turned around and spun upside down! I fail to remember that I have done the same thing myself because of God’s mercy on my life). It’s such a blessing to be able to share that joy with someone else that has experienced the same grace as was extended to you…. And it’s extremely encouraging to again be reminded of the fact that, when the Lord is involved, people really do change. So listen to Christ before you judge! It will be worth every effort to guard against!

As the night progressed, it just got better! Driving to and from my Grammy’s house was so encouraging as I anticipated from the time I got there our conversation and left in praise and thankfulness for her wisdom and love for the Lord! Something in particular we discussed was gifts and how they can sometimes be an inherited blessing from the Lord, given through family emphasis. Like, people that are business minded emphasizing financial budgeting, management, leadership, and other business-like traits. Comparatively, families that have music talent emphasize singing, being involved in the arts, getting involved in the choir, etc. If families are being lead in the Lord, these gifts can be detected and emphasized for the Lord’s glory! I am still trying to figure out how our family is gifted… I feel as if my family is a bunch of gifted-mutts! Ha! Something to think about anyways.

Other things that fellowship has revealed by God’s kindness is thought patterns we push aside as harmless, but then are abruptly revealed as deeply embedded habits that glorify self or an idol rather the Holy God Almighty. It’s really humbling, but through a friend’s personal conviction, I saw my own habitual idols revealed. However, I am thankful for the wisdom and great tips to apply for fighting this sick and twisted sin-pattern in the name of Jesus, accompanied by the Holy Spirit’s help! How excited I am to fight this for God’s glory!!! In fact, I believe this is the first time I have really been encouraged after being shown my long-term sinfulness…. For I have been given peace through the knowledge that the work of the battle has been finished the day Christ hung on the cross and hope is now possible because of His resurrection! AMEN, PRAISE THE LORD!

Through this trial, I don’t want to just ‘get it over with’, but grow in my faith because of it. Daily, God has strengthened my faith and I trust He is using all things to make me stronger in this area! Please be praying for me as I pursue holiness in the light of a loving God…

Thus, this concludes Part I of II ends of the story (Yes, my goal was not exactly met... but man! I got close!)Because I will be attending another wedding tonight (and I am already looking forward to writing about it!) and traveling for the next two days, I cannot update you thoroughly. However, I do want to extend hope for the rest of the story by entitling this post as Part I!! Be looking for the next post very soon. Until then, I encourage you to keep your eyes fixed on the Lord and His statutes. If you never let your eyes stray, you will never miss what our loving Father is leading you to do. But we should be reminded that we are not perfect and all human—that’s why God provided grace! And who knows: He could simply be leading you to read the next blog =)

Finally, the new house pictures

This was the first view we had of the house together... and this will be the only you view you get until you come see us yourself! Haha!

Thus, as you can tell, I DO have the photos of the house ready to be posted-- sorry about the videos, but it seems like they don't function well on this site. O well-- anywho, here we GO!
First, we will start in Andrew's office ...then we move out the door to the left to the guest bathroom
It's very nice and hospitible for visitors! (HINT HINT)
You will then go straight down the hall, passed the stairs on your left and enter the bedroom, seeing Eli's crate first
and then turning right to see our bed At the foot of the bed, there is door that leads to our bathroom which has two sinks and a separate room for the tub/shower/toliet . We also have a large walk in closet which in a huge blessing for both of us! We have never had one of these luxuries before! Haha.

Once you leave the bedroom, you will go down the other side of the hall turning right, and entering the guest room Only one person has stayed in it yet, but we feel so blessed that it has been used!


Now, we will travel downstairs...


When you get down stairs, you will find a large den area It's a great place for a lot of people! Then there is a slight separater wall between the den and the dining room.

Next to the dining room, you will find the kitchen
and from the kitchen you will see the laundry/mud room on the left,
then the downstairs half bath, and finally the garage-- where we can FIT BOTH OF OUR CARS IN THE GARAGE!!! And when you do alot of pranking, its a Big deal-- trust me! (But I didn't post any pictures of those... please forgive me)

Sooo, Yup-- and that's our house! I hope you have enjoyed it!! Thanks for your patience and God bless your day!

Abundance in the Lord has found us in both the intangible and then the very tangible ways lately! And it’s only because grace alone…

This week has been full of fun and exciting events, God’s grace on fellowship in relationships and friendships, new information concerning our future, new adventures and new challenges. Yet there is no other way to walk it other than by the way Christ called us to: by his example and his character.

(Plus, BONNIE CAME TO SEE US!!!)We were very blessed to have her as our first visitor and very thankful for her as well! Thanks Bonnie-- it was a joy to have you here! We love and miss you!!



Last Saturday, we were invited to Career day (which I mentioned in the last blog) and we were flooded with more thoughts, paths and ideas about career paths through the military. There was at least one pilot who talked about his aircraft and its mission, deployment pattern and the many locations you could possibly be stationed at if you chose that particular route. After being flooded with options and information for two to three hours, we were given the opportunity to go tour each plane out on the flight line. We toured everything from a F-15 and an A-10 to a C-21 and a C-130. It was a lot of fun, but definitely wore us out! (Yet it didn’t stop us from agreeing to a spontaneous camping trip that evening!)





























For the next few days, it just seemed I started letting my plans for each career route rule the way I thought about our future in the Air Force. Instead of being in the previous mind set of trusting the Lord for whatever route we would be led to, my thoughts pertaining to each path started to manipulate where I my hope was set… and it went from the Lord to the perceived aircraft I would encourage my husband towards for my plan’s sake. The thought of him flying anything outside of what I pictured to be “ideal” was filled with resistance. However, praise be to God that he did not allow this twisted and detrimental thought process to continue for long! I was convicted of my heart’s motives while reading Hebrews 13. In verse 4, Paul encourages the Hebrew people to look to God for their security, not the things they currently had hope in (such as their financial security and wealth: things that seem to be theirs to control and wield as they wished). Yet in a broken world, this can never be—no exceptions. Just like if I trust in fleeting plans and schedules, I will always be failed by it. The only thing to trust in this life is Jesus Christ; the only real hope outside this broken world. Our hope is Him, and promises: “I will never leave you nor forsake you”( Joshua 1:5)… thus, why should we fear what is not in our future or what is not in sight? So “what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will be not also with him graciously give us all things?”(Rom 8:31,32). Put your hope where it will not be eaten by the moths of disappointment our world is full of.

The Lord graciously showed me in all love and kindness where I had steered wrong and now it was time for me to get my heart right with Him. Lord, make me a clean heart! My heart was once again satisfied in the Lord and my desire longed for the things of Him alone. At this time, we were also preparing to move into our ‘new’ house. My heart had become satisfied with that too—even though it was nothing to match up to our old house, it was still a gift to be given a place to live and have the chance to be hospitable with it. Thus, that Thursday of last week, I showed up to sign the lease…. And the Lord in his kindness gave me more than I deserved once again! It just so happened that the day I showed up it was announced that students could now move into the new houses in Magnolia. Magnolia was a base neighborhood only higher ranking individuals got to live in. NOW Andrew and I, only 2nd LT if you will, were being offered a house in the neighborhood we never thought we’d ever live in! When I showed up at the new houses, I just cried in thankfulness to the Lord. I was overwhelmed! God, we don’t deserve this gift! You are good to us—please help my heart to be generous with what you have given us to be responsible with. I think the best part was surprising my husband with our 2-story “mansion”, with 3 bedrooms upstairs and an extended den! Andrew was truly clueless at first, but when he saw it, he had the same reaction as I as he walked through it: Thank you God! We stood there and just thanked God together within each other’s arms. Use this God, allow us to be faithful with you generosity! This is God’s house and we have been made a manager of His good graces. Have us honor you in all we do in and with this house. It is our desire to worship you in this way. Thank you God for your everlasting love and help as we walk out your will.

(I will post pictures of the house once the internet starts picking up. It's really slow right now!)

Yes, we have been blessed… and I give thanks to God for graciously taking care of us in all manners, for it all exult His mighty name! As soon as I get pictures of our house downloaded, I will post them here. To sum it all up, from the last couple of weeks, I have realized its best when you follow the Lord where He takes you, its best when you do as He commands you and you are most satisfied in life when you are most satisfied in Him. Fear nothing that life brings you, only continue to fear the Lord, who has graciously given us all things!

Also, here are some really cool pictures of a C-747 taking off with the space shuttle at our base last week! Really neat. I will post the video later too!







I will post pictures of Andrew in his altitude chamber and that whole experience when the net starts RUNNING! Haha-- until then, enjoy your week!!

IT'S ALREADY THE END OF MAY!!!! AHH!!!

Yes: life has gotten super busy lately and I just haven’t had the time to blog. However, we are going to stop this trend right now and I am going to saturate this page with all the wonderful things God has blessed our lives with in the last month! So, ready or not, here we go!!

One of the most blessed things the Lord has broadened my horizons about is Himself. How little did I realize that I put God in a box… but, O how I did! I am ye of little faith and surely if I had been put in a rockin’ boat with Jesus, He would have directed that statement specifically to me instead of his shaking disciples. Ironically, he put me on a big boat (being our cruise ship) and began to show me what little faith I really did have and how very small my view of God really was. Yet the grace and mercy of our Jesus Christ never ceased to overflow in my life. Christ keeps showing himself to be more faithful, increasingly growing me in my faith more and more with blessings which appear out of no where! Besides all of the things our family and friends have given to us so generously (to which I have grown increasingly grateful for daily!), there are things on my heart I have only come to the Lord about and shared with no one else: like the puppy I prayed my husband would have a peace about (and we now own!) and the couch we desired and now have from someone who generously gave it to us as we were on a casual evening walk through our neighborhood.

And the biggest one just recently was a fence. I have been praying for one quite a while since pup loves to go outside, but I hate putting him on a rope and if I unleash him, he will run and attack other dogs/owners in all his wagging love as they walk by. I had been searching the spouse Yahoo group for sometime, but as fast as the post went up about the available fence, it was taken down (and if you live on Columbus Air Force base and own a dog, you know how popular these things are and how expensive they get if you were to purchase a new one! It’s a definite challenge). But that’s where God gets the glory for this gift. A girl and her dog were taking a walk by our house and, of course, Eli had to go check them out. I raced after him and apologized, but the girl (who I had never met before) said she and her husband had just gotten PSCed elsewhere and were moving soon. She stated she was coming to knock on my door and ask me if I was interested in her fence. I was shocked! Immediately, my heart was overjoyed with how God takes care of even the most minor desires of our heart. I just thanked her over and over again for her kindness, sharing how God has blessed me by her offer and her arrival! It was just one of those moments where you realize just how much God takes care of your needs in the most miraculous ways! The Lord has strengthened my faith for whatever our crazy future might bring us because I know He hears even the smallest things set on my heart…. How much more is He taking care of the bigger things in my life! Thus, my faith for the future has grown tremendously and my trust in God (which I had been greatly praying about) has increased so much more! Philippians 4: 4-7.

Another aspect of being in the military is constant adjusting, many changes and sudden notices of things that could affect your life even outside the work world… like the notice you get in the mail about your house being demolished in 90 days. Haha…. Actually, I just find it funny more than annoying because its just like the Air Force to tell you ‘Hey, I know you just moved in, but we have decided your house needs to be demolished… and soon. But never fear, we will make you feel right at home as we give you a replica of the house you’re in now, but just a bit smaller and closer to the neighborhood entrance’. We actually went to visit the house the day they told us they had one ready for us… and it was pleasant. And you know what? It’s a house. We still have a roof over our head, the government is paying us for our move, we are used to moving all over the states anyways, and most importantly we have each other, so... why not? Bring it on Pinnacle Housing! The Lord has made our hearts glad in Him alone—for what should we be ungrateful for? Philippians 4:11-13.
God has brought it to my heart to fast every Thursday (of course, I have to do a liquid fast because of how I am constantly on the go) for my marriage, my calling (my husband’s calling), the people on my heart and in our life, sin I struggle with (either consciously or unconsciously), my heart, my faith, our future and my view of him. After the two weeks I have been doing it, I can see how God is greatly blessing it and it’s been extremely fruitful. This is actually the first time I have done a fast like this, and I am grateful to God that I can actually do this now with a pure heart and right motives. Being anorexic once in my life and not really understanding how this fasting thing really worked (since I literally did it all the time), I never understood how to really fast correctly in order to bring glory to God. But when your heart is fixed on Christ, the cross and truly trust the Lord to be your source of strength for the day, doing it right makes all the difference in the world for your soul! So, if you could, would you pray that God continues to work on my heart to reveal things He wants me to grow in and sins He wants me to humbly bring before Him so I might better walk with a clean heart in His sight?? It would bring great glory to the Lord and bring pleasure to my husband that this would happen for Christ’s name alone.

An update on the pup: He has parasites =(. Poor thing. We spent two hours at vet trying to figure out all that’s wrong with him. However, the good news about parasites is they are curable. He is doing great right now, just loving his special diet of rice and chicken 3 times a day (…. Spoiled rotten, I tell you), and handling two different medications a day wonderfully. He is so good about taking his medicine and being obedient to come to me even when I make him take the most painful pill of all: it’s a pill the size of a quarter he has to swallow—poor pup! But such a great pup! God is good to us to have given us him.

Tomorrow we have career day. Air Force Career Day is where you go to seminars and tour different kinds of aircrafts to get a feel for what you might want to pursue in your flying career. It will be a long day (8:00am-3:30pm), however, with my knowledge being so limited about our options and different paths, I am pretty excited to get a better handle for this new world in which we are now immersed in and learn more on how to make the best decision together for our future. Thus, after the event, we will post pictures so you can get a little taste of our life here on base and Air Force events!

May God bless you this week as you go out on your own life journey! What a joy to remember Christ now lives within us; live in that truth daily! That brings Him glory.

The Eastern Carribean, April 2009 (YAHOO!)

OK! So I finally figured out how to post pictures on this thing!! YEY! This was Andrew and I's amazing belated honeymoon. We enjoyed it so much-- enjoy the pictures!! (By the way, if you want to view our trip in chronological order.... start from the bottom... I couldn't figure out how to rearrange them.. still learning here, guys. Have patience with me!)

HERE THEY ARE!!!!