One step at a time...

And step by step you'll lead me and I will follow you all of my days... 

The new year has brought an amazingly fun and busy month. January 2015 where have you been all my life... oh yeah my whole life has been preparing for you :). So the month started with a race to get my Visa for Cameroon in order, all the forms have been sent and now I wait eagerly for the good news that I am able to go and go legally :). Then came a wonderful little oasis in the busyness, a trip to Austin to see friends. It was great to have a weekend with the Sieks and a great gift to have David G. there as well (one of the MKs from Thailand trips past). He's the one sporting a very nice Cowboy snuggy! We went down with my cousin Sami and his wonderful family. Below are his daughter my daughter and the Sieks grandson. 

We had our own Cowboy watching party on Sunday, it was mostly friendly territory as you can see, and I brought down most of my stuff to help decorate, jerseys, snuggy's, and good company, but it wasn't enough and the Cowboys fell to the Packers. It was a sad loss for me but, God works his healing in the darkest of times :), I'm just grateful for the season they had. 

Well we got back from Austin around 6 pm, just in time for me to race over to my Learning that Lasts meet and greet. It was so nice to slide in and indulge in some Pappa Johns and other goodies after a 3 hour car ride. I was the youngest in the bunch, there was someone a year older but after that it wasn't even close. That was an amazing thing to me, it was great being in there and feeling very much a part of the class, I didn't feel out of place at all! It was so good, I was very skeptical at first. I know this is something that my parents are really in to. I didn't know how respected my Mom was in this area though, that was a highlight for me! She was called 'a jedi master' of learning that lasts. Wow, that was awesome! 

I feel like I really grew from the class and will take things away that will help make my teaching way more impact full. I'm still figuring it out, but thankfully I teach at least twice a week so I have lots of time to practice :). Bellow are some pictures from my class :). 

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The class ended on Friday and Saturday I was back out there with the MKs serving at Dallas Life, a local homeless shelter. It was so great to serve with the wonderful MKs, I really enjoy my job so very much! 

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Sunday came and it was a great opportunity to teach my class at church in my new found teaching style. It was great. Then Monday arrived and I had another crack at it with the MKs. I think that I'm getting there, I just need to adjust how much content I give people to wrestle with. The style of teaching gives the learner a lot more input meaning there is less time and need for content. The learner provides a lot of the content them self, that is one of the reasons it lasts. 

After class I enjoyed finding this... 

 

Those wonderful college MKs, I feel the love, really I feel the love... now where are you parked? Anyway that was fun. Well, Monday had been a holiday for my family (Thanks Martin Luther King) and we took the time to finally take down all our Christmas stuff. Yeah we are those people who leave it up til almost February... 

Tuesday found my poor wife feeling too sick to go to work. Thanks for your prayers, she is much better now and so is Mark who was also fighting the flu most of the weekend. Our prayer is that it ends with them... we are using essential oils and knocking this stuff out! It is truly amazing how well they work! 

And here I am writing this on Wednesday. I need your prayers! I realized on Monday that I got my tickets to Cameroon arriving one day later than I need them. I need to change the flight and I need that to not impact my Visa. It is the waiting game for me now, waiting for the Visa to come back and then waiting to change my flights. God is giving me peace, probably because so many of you are praying! 

Pray

1. Health in the family! 

2. All the loose ends get tied up before I leave (packing, getting supplies)

3. I get my Visa and Passport etc... back soon! 

4. I can change my flight! 

5. My lessons are from the Lord and make the right impact! 

Thanks so much for partnering with me! I am so grateful for you and all you do and how you involve yourself! Your prayers and support are so powerful and so meaningful! I am blessed to have you on my team! 

Big problems? God is BIGGER!  

Blessings, 

Caleb 

p.s. I have a wonderful mission trip to Cameroon coming up which will cost $2300 (after I change the arrival date). Thanks for your prayers and financial support! It is wonderful to have peace buying the tickets knowing that God will use you to get me there and back again :).

If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis (for a mission trip to Cameroon perhaps :) or on a recurring basis, click on the tab "Supporting the Work" at the top of the page. Diane is my beautiful wife and the mother of my precious children Creed 7, Asher 5, Liam 3, Echo already in heaven and Bella, getting bigger all the time.  

The Holidaze? Yeah I'm that guy...

Where to begin? Well I have no idea, so much has happened and I don't think that even I want to read a detailed telling of all of it... so here are some pictures that I hope tell a great story for you all :). 

Okay that might be a little lazy of me... the goal here is brevity right? I mean brevity and cleanliness are next to godliness :)... 

The first couple of pictures are from our amazing MK Christmas party... you see these wonderful ladies have decorated some great gingerbread men... that was a wonderful and busy night. During the party was also my boys Christmas play, so I rushed off after decorating the room to see them perform and then rushed back just after hearing Creed say his speaking solo :). It was a blessing to be able to be at both. This year we did an MK talent show and it was very fun! I'm already looking forward to next years!  

The next fun event we did with the MKs was ice skating. It was great getting to see them enjoying the ice rink and it was good visiting at the snack shop. They are so goofy! 

Another Fun thing we do with the MKs is go to Bethlehem Revisited... the pictures below are from that wonderful time... Creed and Asher had a blast and except for losing Asher at the end we did too. Glad we found him again :). 

It was wonderful having my sister and her husband over for some Christmas cheer this year. We had the joy of doing family photos and then the kids opened presents. It was nice to celebrate with them! And I like the way the pictures turned out! 

Now for some video!!! This is a clip from Marks concert! He is so gifted and it's fun being able to see him in action! 

And I guess to go along with that, here is a crazy picture from my kids performance at Church. 

Our Family likes to open gifts on Epiphany, do stockings on Christmas and reflect on our relationship with God on Christmas eve. We re-dedicate our lives to Christ as a family, we talk about the year and then we light our candle from the center (Christ) candle. It is a good tradition and the kids like playing with fire... so do I actually. It was really precious this year to explain in more detail what salvation means to Asher. He is asking great questions and is taking his faith more seriously! 

Okay now for some random cuteness... Kids off of school for so long... lots of fun time playing at home and being silly and fun and then finally Dad needed to get out of the house so we had an adventure or two out and about, didn't matter how cold it was. 

Okay so there is the cacophony of photos from our break! The good times kept on rolling. Christmas was relaxing and very fun. Jessica and Joel Satre joined us and it was great spending time with them. We did a Netflix Christmas movie marathon! It was really fun! Then New Years broke upon us in a cloud of damp drizzle, promising snow that never came. The weather ended up canceling my wife's plans to see her Grandmother for her 80th birthday, which while very sad and disappointing, did give us some extra time together with family, which was nice. Kelsey and Patrick were going to drive to Albuquerque with Diane and David and ended up staying with us instead for a few days.

The picture below cracks me up. We had just gotten back from an outing and Charlie climbed up on the sunroof of Diane's car and just... well... you can see. 

 

This final picture captures what we are all feeling now after the Holidays, a little tired, but refueled and ready for a new year and for the kids to get back to school... I mean for our schedules to get back to normal. 

Thankfully no health issues to report and things are looking good, if not overly busy, this next month or so. I am really enjoying the Cowboys playoff run so far and I'm hoping it continues (random sentence but it needed to be in here somewhere). This weekend I'm off to Austin to visit with my friends the Sieks. I'm already thinking about Thailand this summer but have two more mission trips before that one. Cameroon is right around the corner and I would appreciate your prayers as I wrap up all my loose ends before I leave. I also start class next week and I'm looking forward to it. It's a week long course called Learning that Lasts. 

Our lives are busy but we are enjoying them! 

Blessings to you and yours and thanks for being a part of the wonder and joy in my life! 

Caleb

p.s. I have a wonderful mission trip to Cameroon coming up which will cost $1800. Thanks for your prayers and financial support! It is wonderful to have peace buying the tickets knowing that God will use you to get me there and back again :).

If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis (for a mission trip to Cameroon perhaps :) or on a recurring basis, click on the tab "Supporting the Work" at the top of the page. Diane is my beautiful wife and the mother of my precious children Creed 7, Asher 5, Liam 3, Echo already in heaven and Bella, getting bigger all the time.  

Thanksgiving to Christmas the great race has begun!

So I'm older... it happened again this year... I got older... birthdays are the best, and below is the picture taken closest to that great shift from 31 to 32. Braided beard in a Denny's with my good friend Micah. We were somewhere between Dallas and Granada Colorado on the way to my friend Justice's wedding. Left Thursday at 6:30 pm got there in the wee hours of my birthday morning and then left during the reception around 7 pm the next day... so I was a little tired on Saturday when I got home. Micah was in the wedding and it was nice to be able to drive out there with him! 

Below is a very bad picture of Mark singing at church during offering. So proud of that guy, sharing his talents with the world. He has a great voice! He deserves a better picture... but it's all I got.

So Thanksgiving is a great time for celebrating gratitude and our endless supply of reasons to be grateful. God is so good! It also seems to be the time where kids get to dress up in construction paper outfits and eat at school. Diane made Asher a pilgrim hat for his class (it took so long, it was so funny to jokingly tell her I had crushed it... no really it was funny :), I guess Liam was a Native American... I'm glad my family could represent all the people groups at the first Thanksgiving. 

We enjoyed a small Thanksgiving at home with Joel and Jessica Satre. There were only ten of us :). It was good to have David back from college for half a week. We relaxed enjoyed good food and bad football (poor Cowboys got creamed). The whole weekend was very relaxing and a great break from routine. 

The day after Thanksgiving we enjoyed getting the house ready for Christmas! We all enjoyed wearing Christmas hats and watching Christmas movies (Muppet Christmas Carol is a winner!) and making our house very cozy. We have a huge tree and again contemplated just decorating one of our plants that is also quite big... the kids won out and Diane lost out and again this year we have a beautiful tree. Good stuff! Diane does such a great job on the tree!

That video makes me so happy! Just an example of the fun times to be had during a relaxed weekend. It's great to have time to just hang out and be silly... which is I guess, almost every day for me :). 

Last night we made our gifts to deliver to the retirement home here on the Wycliffe Center. It is filled with the great cloud of witnesses who have left us a legacy to be proud of and to rejoice in being a part of. I love going to the Cowan Apartments and singing carols and hearing their stories! This year our gifts are much better due to Michal joining the team... last year we had a ziploc bag with some stuff in it and this year we have a wonderfully decorated mug with goodies in it. 

After the decorating was over I shared a Christmas story from my youth. The story of the armed robbery, where God showed up and protected our family in an incredible way. This time of year is so great but I've lived through 31 Christmases and it's hard to always get in the Christmas spirit. This year I'm focusing on the wonder of redemption, and the incredible gift of relationship with Jesus, there is so much to be grateful for and my heart is full! 

Thanks so much for being  a part of my adventure! I am a blessed man to have you in my life! 

God is working and it is a privilege to be a part of what he is doing! 

Blessings, 

Caleb

p.s. I have a wonderful mission trip to Cameroon coming up which will cost $1800. Thanks for your prayers and financial support! It is wonderful to have peace buying the tickets knowing that God will use you to get me there and back again :).

If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis (for a mission trip to Cameroon perhaps :) or on a recurring basis, click on the tab "Supporting the Work" at the top of the page. Diane is my beautiful wife and the mother of my precious children Creed 7, Asher 5, Liam 3, Echo already in heaven and Bella, getting bigger all the time.