Thursday, June 28, 2007

7/7/07

I most likely won't be blogging on 7/7/07. In addition to it being a monumental day in the body of Christ and the day that marks the end of our 40 day fast, it is also John and my SEVENteenth anniversary! And also worth mentioning is that it is these folks anniversary that day too!

Family Vacation

Tomorrow we take this little girl to meet the rest of my side of the family. We head out for our family vacation spot in Central Lake, Michigan. This has been the spot where my mother's side of the family has gathered each summer since my mother was in high school I think! I spent my first summer there just a few weeks old. John and I celebrated our first anniversary there in 1991. My son, Nicholas took his first steps there the summer of 1993. We've missed a few summers over the years but this one is special. We get to take this beautiful lady with us this summer!



Elia will meet several family members for the first time. She will get to sink her tiny toes in the sand that has been home to many little foot prints over the past 5 decades. Our older kids can hardly wait for this milestone with their sister!

We will be breaking the fast with family and celebrating the goodness of God together. We return July 9th. Pictures are sure to follow!

A Kiss from God

Today we received a huge kiss from God. Without getting into details, I will say that we had an enormous need for a miracle. Everything I tried in my human means to fix it failed. It was almost as if God wouldn't allow me to solve the problem myself. One of my solutions was dependent on the weather today. It rained. No actually it poured, for real it was the hardest rain we've had in awhile. The weather report said, "Light Showers", it lied! Even in the midst of the downpour, the report kept saying, "Light Showers!" Everything else I tried, was like running into a brick wall. God just said, "NO" to my feeble attempts over and over again.

I was praying mind you, but in between weakly uttered prayers, I went into Tracie Fix-It Mode. I finally called a few close friends/family to pray. Within minutes, a miraculous phone call announced the divine provision of God in a way far beyond anything we could have ever done on our own!

It was a few minutes later as we were praying together as a family, thanking God, and calling a few people to testify of God's LOVE, that Nick noticed, "Hey, the rain stopped." No kidding, the minute the provision came, the rain stopped!

I love God. I marvel at His ways. I'm far from being a woman of great faith, but today He kissed me and reminded me that it is safe to trust Him. Today He reminded me, that He is a good Father and that He cares about the little and the big issues of our hearts.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Update on Aunt Lois

Here is what I know from reports I have received in the past week or so!

Aunt Lois reports, "My doctor sent me home for a ten day break which was a joy. I was able to see my grandchildren, my black Cocker Spaniel "Max", and my sweet, little house which my daughter, Jamie, and family kept spic and span for me. That includes my yard which looks beautiful. The drive home was a little uncomfortable because of my back, but after I got settled in, it has been very comfortable here....Thanks again for your wonderful cards, e-mails, letters, scripture words of encouragement, music CDs, and your prayers which to me are such an amazing blessing." (Lois also noted that her daughter Jill is able to remain with her, caring for her until the end of July which is a huge blessing!)

My mother reported yesterday that Aunt Lois had returned to Little Rock and gone through a series of tests which indicate NO CANCER in her body at this time. They will begin now the process of putting her own stem cells/white blood cells back into her body. These had been harvested from her body prior to chemotherapy. As they return to her body the doctors tell them "Now do what you're supposed to do!" And this can be our prayer as well that the white blood cells would work as GOD designed them to do and fight off any bad cells that attempt to return to her body!

In addition we can all continue to pray for strength and life to Lois' bones. They have been weakened, but she is receiving medication to strengthen them, and in addition has received a treatment that should help with the pain and discomfort that has still been present.

We are believing God to complete this work of healing and strengthening! Thanks for joining with us!

Final Night in Colorado

On Thursday afternoon, we made the 2 hour drive out of camp and back into Pagosa Springs. Too late to start our adventure home, we spent the night at the Searle's lovely home on top of a mountain!
What a treat for the kids and for us!
Here are a few highlights!


John and I in our "Hammock Ride"... and YES it was scary, but we couldn't say no to the bunch of kids begging us to take our turn!




Playing King and Queen of the Mountain


Corn Hole, a bean bag game the occupied the teens for most of the evening!


In ground trampoline with zip line overhead strung between two tree forts was the hit of the evening!

Monday, June 25, 2007

New Found Fun in Kansas City

For all you locals! A new fun summer stop that is FREE. Yipee!
Loose Park has a water park now. It is located on the back side of the park near the Rose Garden and the new tennis courts. Hours 10AM-8PM! Lots of fun!





POINT OF INTEREST

I mentioned a Point of Interest that we stopped at en route to Colorado. I think this was Middle of Nowhere, Colorado. We were DESPERATE for a potty stop, and we couldn't even pull over and pee behind a tree or a bush, because there were NONE! Just FLAT open space going on for miles! FINALLY we saw an exit for "Business District", so the lead van pulls off. We note a sign saying "Point of Interest" and we headed in that direction.



This led to a "Museum" toting the claim "See 6 States". We pulled up to a very large "shack" with a look out tower. My one focus was using the bathroom. I walk up to the 80 year old man at the counter and ask "could I use your restroom?" He replies, "The museum is $1.00 for adults and $.50 for children." I respond, "I just need to use the restroom." He replies, "That's included in the price." I promptly paid my $3.50 so that my family could empty their bladders.

He points us to the back of the building. I head around and see this!



We use the "facilities". I have no words to further comment on the experience.

We then proceeded to tour the museum, which took us over an hour and was well worth the $3.50! Here are a few highlights!




Saturday, June 23, 2007

Isabelle Takes a Trail Ride





The last day of camp after all the campers went home, some of our Kansas City crew went on a hour long trail ride! Isabelle was in heaven!

Circle K Ranch-Colorado




We're HOME!

I'll try to get a photo expo posted soon. Maybe tonight, we'll see how I hold up here!
The trip to Colorado Signs and Wonders was terrific! We traveled 19 hours across the country in 2 vans holding 21 passengers total, 7 of those adults. We added and hour or so to the trip out with a lovely stop at a POINT OF INTEREST in Colorado (more to come on that).

The camp was a little more than 2 hours outside of Pagosa Springs, CO. We spend the night Saturday in Pagosa and ministered at Restoration Fellowship on Sunday morning. Took a lovely walk with the kids, all 14 of them, down by the River Walk on Sunday evening, and even got to stick our feet in some natural hot springs!

Elevation in Pagosa Springs was nearly 7,000 feet above sea level. Altitude adjustment issues kick in! We travel UP an additional 2,000 feet into the mountains to camp on Monday morning! We were all stunned by the beauty and majesty of the Lord's creation!

Four days of camp followed with the Holy Spirit showing up in Power and Love to minister to nearly 200 campers, many of the campers were from Hopi or Navajo reservations. They were precious children who captured our hearts in so many ways.

The Holy Spirit directed the focus of our teaching sessions on the Father Heart of God and The Spirit of Adoption.

This post is seeming rather rambling and not super coherent! I'm tired! So much for an update.
I'll post some pictures and call it a night!

Friday, June 15, 2007

And We're Off....

Signs and Wonders Take Two! We're off tomorrow at 5:45AM. We will pile into two very large vans with 7 adults and 15 children under the age of 15 and head to Colorado. I'm thinking we've got 15+ hours of driving ahead of us!

Pray for grace and much Dramamine!

No seriously pray for the Spirit of God to show up and pour out His love on the children that we will be ministering too, many from reservations in Arizona and Colorado. Pray for breakthrough and deliverance!

There will most likely be little to no blogging in the next week- pretty sure there's no WiFi in Middle-of-Nowhere, Coloroado! But please don't forget to pray for us!

21 days

There are 21 days left in the 40 day fast. One of the leaders here at IHOP was talking to us about breaking old patterns and mindsets during this season. She reminded us that "it takes 21 days to form a habit". She then encouraged us to take communion daily for 21 days as we believe for God to break generational curses and destroy old mindsets!

I encourage you to take the remaining 21 days of this fast and partake of communion daily receiving the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus in your life and celebrating the freedom that has come to you through the love of Christ on the cross!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

OH and John was there too....

Let the Games Begin





Though the majority of our camp activity involves worship, prayer, and teaching. There is time for GAMES! The game Lenny and his daughter Andrea are playing is called "SPEW" it involved putting an Alkaseltzer tab in your mouth, followed by a slug of Sprite and holding it as long as possible, without swallowing of course! Andrea was the champ of all champs! The M&M game involved having your face coated in a thick layer of peanut butter and smashed (by Lenny) into a paper plate full of M&M's. The person with the most M&M's stuck to their face wins.

Ministry Time at Signs and Wonders





The center photo is me, or at least the top of my head!
The bottom photo is Isabelle receiving prayer from Taylor and Giamo.
The Holy Spirit really met Isabelle during the service that night.

Our Kids at Signs and Wonders




Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Calling Mrs. I

Mrs. I,
I hear that you are at IHOP and I really really really want to meet you and have you meet our family!
Please find me! I'll be at IHOP most of the afternoon tomorrow, around and about, perhaps in the MPR (ask Lauren for the acronym interpretation!)
Find us!
Love,
Tracie

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Signs and Wonders: Monday Afternoon


Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of teaching the afternoon workshop on the "POWER: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit". These kids are so ripe and eager to receive more revelation from God!
We had at least 15-20 kids filled with Holy Spirit yesterday afternoon! One young boy comes up to me every time he sees me now just beaming from ear to ear and gives me a big hug!

We broke up into small groups at the end of our session after praying and asking God to fill us with GOOD GIFTS! The kids put the word of God to practice and laid hands on each other believing for Healing, delivering words of encouragement, prophesying, and praying in tongues together!

Monday, June 11, 2007

DAY TWO: I'm Nearly Speechless

Tonight I witnessed these precious kids weeping before the Lord in worship. I'm serious, weeping before the Lord, crying out for more of Him.
I don't have words. I have no pictures. But God showed up and touched there hearts in an amazing way. Just trust me!
Keep us in prayer!

Signs and Wonders Camp: DAY ONE


300 Kids give or take a few pouring their hearts out to the Lord!
Crying out, "Jesus tell me who I am to you, Jesus tell me who I really am to you. Here is my heart nothing is hidden. Here is my heart nothing is hidden. And when you speak to me, it will be like oil flowing down from heaven to deep inside of me" (Carol Hall)


"... Your sons and daughters will prophesy"

"a generation that seeks His Face"