*sigh*  My heart is sad at the moment.

Some of you have seen my conversation journal that I use as an evangelistic tool on campus.  I ask people "if they could write a note to God and He would read it, what would you write?"

It's been a great well to have spiritual conversations with people, to stretch myself beyond my comfort zone, and open doors to new relationships.

Today we bumped into Sam.  Here's what he wrote.

Phew.  Deep stuff.

I could see pain in his eyes as we talked briefly with him.  He's had six open-heart surgeries, and is currently on a waiting list for a heart transplant.  He doesn't go to church, but believes in God.  I offered to pray for him, and did.  Would you pray for him today, that God would grant him a new heart, and that if he doesn't have one now, a new spiritual heart?

Thanks.

Yours on campus,
-Noah

As you can tell by the title, I'm quite hesitant to mention anything, but I'm hopeful that Josie is figuring out how to move.  A friend told me that everyone needs to have two kids so that parents don't take too much credit for some things your kids do well nor do you put too much blame on yourself for something that doesn't go so well.  Like for us, if we would've just had Ellie we would've thought we were champs at sleep training children. Just call us experts and give us a 1-800 sleep training number.  But then we had Josie and realized Ellie is just a REALLY good sleeper!!

On the other hand, Ellie was none too motivated in the gross motor department.  The last month I've been wondering if Josie is going to be the same way. {and thus beginning to wonder what in the world I'm doing wrong!}  I know it very likely has nothing to do with me, but as a mom you worry about these sorts of things! When you see on facebook that a child the same age is crawling halfway up the stairs or taking their first steps. You start to think, "Where did I go wrong?" All that to say, yesterday Josie started trying to push backwards while on her tummy and she moved quite a bit! I'm hopeful that she's going to continue to explore and learn new things and I'm so very relieved!

I am at the stage where I need to write down practically everything Ellie says. She's hilarious! We're seeing the best of the best (she's adorable, learning so much, and loves her sister SOO much!) and the worst (she's convinced she ought to get what she wants all of the time, and gets easily frustrated when things don't go according to her plans.)  But you know what? I love that BOTH of these things are true about her!

Found this while working in the University Center on campus.  I think they're promoting this as good news.  But look at some of the percentages!

Seems like UWW students are thirsty, but haven't found the right place to drink.  John 4:13-15.


Pray that they would!


-Noah

Ellie found her snowman pajamas today and insisted on wearing them for her nap. I guess I can't complain. They are both still sound asleep at 4 PM:) I have two girls who love their Blankies and love sleeping on the stomachs. So adorable!!

We had a really long day yesterday so I wasn't planning to bring the girls to Nav night. But after supper Ellie was really missing her daddy and asking to go to Nav night so I couldn't resist :) She Love the music when daddy plays guitar and Nick plays the drums. :) We had a smaller group last night but all went really well. I think the Lord is bringing us a committed group of people.

Notice ellies finger sucking while she sings and dances :)

Our sweet, sweet girl is 9 months old (well, actually 9 1/2 months by the time I've gotten this posted!) The best word to describe Josie is SWEET! She is simply precious! She loves to do "so big" and loves to be with Ellie. She says mama and dada and I swear she's trying to say "nigh nigh" and "mamen" (Amen). She folds her hands when we pray, signs "more" (by clapping) and is maybe starting to sign all done. Her hair is long enough to put a tiny bit in a "sprout" on top of her head :) She loves standing and playing with toys or rolling around the room. But surprise, surprise, like her sister she's not any too motivated to move beyond that :) She's not crawling yet, but is pushing up quite a bit. We're trying to motivate her, but it looks like we have another super chill, content and laid back girl on our hands (I don't take any credit for that, meet their dad !) 

\We've always thought Ellie was a daddy's girl, but I wonder if Josie has a bit more of her mama in her! Whereas Ellie enjoys some time alone, Josie doesn't want to miss out on a thing! Nothing makes her more unhappy then when Ellie walks away from her :) Josie loves taking baths with Ellie and splashing in the tub, she loves when Ellie plays peek a boo with her, and she'll sit and read books with me for a LONG time! 

She's 28 3/4 in 85th percentile (1/2 in longer than Ellie was) 20 lbs 9 oz 80th percentile (1/2 lb bigger than Ellie was) and her head is 44.6 cm 69th percentle (2 cm smaller than Ellie was). Josie continues to sleep 12 hours at night and take 2 naps. She nurses 4x a day and eats all three meals with us. She loves finger foods, and has yet to make a face at ANY food we have ever fed her (until we gave her beef and chicken pureed with veggies). Even then, she didn't give a strong reaction and ate it all! Other than getting a double ear infection mid August, she's had a great month of learning and growing! And even when she was super sick, she slept through the night the entire time! Her favorite thing is her "Josie blanket" (she actually sucks on it when you put her to bed :/) and our favorite thing is when she gives kisses. We love you Josie Kate, you are so so sweet!

Please pray that we would connect with the right students today. We are especially looking to connect with Freshman men as we have many more women who have expressed interest then we do men.

Super quick recap of the first week of class at UWW!

The best part of the week was seeing Almighty God at work.  We made so many connections with students who are hungry for community and Christ.   Thirty came to our first NavNight.  The coolest part:  20ish were new!

We're already starting to see a community of faithful freshmen join us.  We designed new tshirts for our students this year, and five new people bought them.  They're already excited to identify with the UWW Navs, and that's an exciting thing!  We're working hard, but can see clearly that the Spirit of God is enabling these connections to actually happen.  He's bringing the people around!

Go go go!  The week was pretty much non-stop.  We're planting a lot of seeds, and not sure which will grow.  It's easy to get emotionally wrapped up in the process, with high points of excitement and encouragement and low points of fear and discouragement.  In both, we've encouraged each other to turn to the Lord in prayer.  Those moments have been some of the sweetest of the week.

FF!  Faithful freshmen.

Ask the Lord on our behalf to bring a class of faithful freshmen to our ministry.  We're eager to get started in helping them to grow in Christ.  We just don't know yet who will stay around.  Tonight's our first freshmen-only Freshmen Connection meeting.  We're trusting the Lord will bring several freshmen to come.

We long for a generational movement of the gospel to continue here.  In order for that to happen, we need "faithful men" (and women) to join us.

Thanks for praying that they will!

-Noah