Prayer

People will often ask how they can help be a part of Mattaw.  What is the immediate need?  For reals:  praying.  That would be my first response, not trying to sound super spiritual here but for reals. I've seen it move some pretty big obstacles out of our way or help give us endurance to jump the obstacles... or give grace and restoration to help get up from tripping over an obstacle.  Whichever it may be, I've seen over and over again the power of prayer.

Now, prayer can often turn into a list of rules and become a duty.  But I have learned that it must always come from a love for God.  It must be out of a desire to know and love God.  That's the point of everything we do as believers in Jesus, out of a passionate heart to know and love him.  Otherwise it becomes lifeless and just another check off the list.  Like the passage that talks about people doing all these great miracles and casting demons out of people and God says "depart from me, I knew you not". (Matt 7:23)  The point is not to stop believing in miracles or casting out demons but that point is to know the Lord.  He didn't create us to be robots but for us to make a choice to know Him and love Him with everything within us.  The miracles, signs and wonders flow out of that relationship with Jesus.  I grew up thinking what a boring life to sit and pray for hours.  I had in my mind that people called "prayer warriors" are for one, very patient, which they are.  And for two, very boring and not very happy.  I've discovered that God can grow you in patience when your heart is aligned with His, seeing as patience is one of the fruits of the spirit.  And that prayer does not have to be boring or a to do list.  It can actually be something you look forward to, that your heart aches to draw away for.

A scripture I grew up hearing time and time again was from Phillipian 4:6-7.  

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

And also from 1 Thesselonians 5:16
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

"in everything by prayer" and "pray without ceasing" used to make me feel like I had a chore to do as a christian and that was sit and pray for so long everyday or I wouldn't be a good enough christian.  But when your goal in life is to know the Lord and be known by him, spending time with Him is not a chore at all!

Off the top of my head, here's an example.  The week before coming back to Kenya, I had an ever growing list of things to get done.  There was one day that at the last minute my friend Lauren and I rescheduled our plans we had so we could meet for lunch, just the two of us, one last time.  Leading up to it that day I had so many things going on I didn't have time to look forward to our time together and had thought maybe I shouldn't be meeting for lunch with so many things to do.  But as soon as we met and sat down, I was SO glad we did and could have sat at that table with her for hours and hours.  And that's what its often like with the Lord.  We have so many things racing through our head to do but once we get to that quiet place to sit with Him, when you can find the place of aligning your heart and thoughts with His, your heart can be fully satisfied and desire to stay there for hours upon hours.

I like what Beni Johnson defines an intercessor as: "capturing the heartbeat of Heaven and declaring or praying that into my world.  It's true agreement with Heaven".   There's actually A LOT I'm learning from her book that I could almost just quote the whole book on here.  But instead will recommend it :). It's called The Happy Intercessor by Benni Johnson.  Of course our theology shouldnt be based out of someones book but out from Jesus himself, the bible.  We learn from others that have spent years receiving revelation from Holy Spirit though.  Yes, test everything!  Do not be deiced!  But oh how we can learn from our brothers and sisters the revelation they carry.  In worship at Mattaw yesterday I received a simple picture to share corporately.  It was fresh bread.  But that we must receive the fresh bread straight from Heaven and not just from a teacher.  How gross to eat what someone else has chewed on.  Just like the word of GOd is fresh bread but only if we receive it straight from Holy Spirit breathing life on it and not just as words on a page that someone else gave us.  We can not live on what your pastor is giving you, you must live on the very words spoken into your heart from the Lord Himself.

Now I'm getting on a roll here.  Got my preachy pants on this morning :).  All this to say that yes, please pray, intercede.  But do it agreeing with God's agenda, not your own.  And not praying out of fear but from the offensive side that we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ and He always leads us in triumph in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

Here's some fresh bread from Happy Intercessor.  But let Holy Spirit bring it to you and eat up :).

John 7:38  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” The word innermost being come from the word, koilia, which means "womb".  In our intercessions, we are creating and birthing the things of Heaven.  We carry the life of the Kingdom within us (luke 17:21).  

Christ in us, the hope of Glory!  Colossians 1:27

Baby Food

The title is exactly what this post is about. Baby food. Nothing about ministry here. Just a little post to bring some mommies of babies a recommendation. I'm on my third baby and still learning new things. A sweet friend gave me the cookbook "Weelicious" by Catherine McCord. I love it!  I used it once in Texas but since being back in Kenya have used it a lot. I love her variety of healthy and simple recipes. And kid friendly. But not kid friendly like you might think, it's fun and healthy. If there is such a thing. Which there is!  I believe with sickness it can be due to spiritual attack, living in a fallen world or you just flat out need to be eating better. (There might be more reasons but those are the three major ones to me). So being back here, I have been focusing in on what options I put in front of my six kids.  Anywho, I could really go on and on. What I like about her though is she isnt over the top for me and totally works living here. Super health nuts might not like that some of her recipes use sugar or flour but overall its good for ya.  The first recipes she shares in her book is on baby food. And the very first recipe is brown rice cereal.  Well duh. Why didn't I think of this. Before I have bought the baby rice cereal in a box here which is super expensive or had people bring it over. Not anymore!  All you do is get brown rice. Soak it (because there's a lot of reasons why it's good to soak your rice, and especially beans). Then finely grind it in food processor. (Store in container in fridge or a cool dark place). 

To make one servin for a 4-6 month old, in small saucepan bring half a cup of water to a boil and sprinkle in two tablespoons of the rice powder. Whisk thirty seconds straight then whisk occasionally for 4-5 min until its creamy to prevent lumps. I mashed about a third of banana to mix in with but she also recommends breast milk, formula, molasses, rice milk or almond milk, or applesauce. 

Simple as that!  And its packed with iron, magnesium, and other vitamins and minerals. No more nutritionally stripped white cereal or spending way too much on pretty packaging and advertisement for this momma!  

Second night to feed Ezra this and he is now eating like a boss. Which means he's sleeping longer at night. Which means I'm just that much more pleasant to be around :). 

Happy weekend to you all. I'm looking forward to fellowshipping with our mattaw family in the morning!  It's always a rockin Jesus party :). 

Blessing and Claire

Hey yall,

I know, its been awhile :).  I can say we've gotten back into life here in Kenya now.  Trying to adjust to "Kenyan time", meaning how slow things take, but really I dont think we'll ever be adjusted to that!  Maybe adjusting to having a good attitude about it is what we can do :).  Like how long it takes people to fix your internet only to have it fixed and it take until Christmas to get anything downloaded or posted.  Ha.  Yes, attitude adjustment coming right up!  I just discovered an app for this bligity blog of ours so I believe more updates are in order.  The phone internet is much more reliable, just slow too.  And then there's kids... last night was trying to download on my phone and my daughter in her sassy pants was trying to do a princess dance for me and says "mama! put your phone down!".  So I did :).  Speaking of the little princess.  This morning I hung out with her and all the littlest kiddos at Mattaw.  I managed to snap this pic of Claire and Blessing.  TOO CUTE!  I remember putting our Lucy lu in the dress Blessing has on when we first got Lucy.  

We are trying to get back into a good routine before teams come.  Our first one shows up in a few weeks.  Looking forward to a good summer.  I can say on a personal note that having a baby and having teams around will be much better than being pregnant and having teams around!  At least I can pass the baby around :).

Better go get to dinner cookin since there's no drive throughs or call for pizza.... or our parents feeding us :).  Got my bread machine back out, dusted the dirt off and it's working daily again!

Going to start updating the blog on the Mattaw website more now so head on over to see the most recent....  www.mattawchildren.com.

Precious and Blessing

Home at Mattaw

Hey y'all,

Haven't had a chance to update from here on the ground in our home in Kitale. From power outages to settling in, it's been busy! So good though. And then ended up in the hospital with Ezra for two nights. Praise Jesus who healed my baby though. We went on a Friday with pnumonia and out we came Sunday healthy and happy. I went in sad, mad and frustrated but God was sure to turn it all for good. More on that later but we are all back home now :). Before he was sick, we had a wonderful welcome back out with our Mattaw family. We all expressed how much the time apart just made us all love each other more. We are incredibly thankful for all The Lord has done and going to do in our midst. He is so so faithful. We have seen our mattaw family grow and unite even more. And I was so thrilled to meet our newest boy at Mattaw, Isaac. What a sweet little boy. Odd to come back and see a child I hadn't met yet so at home and obviously very much part of the family now. Our house parents are awesome! I'll be short and let the pictures tell you how happy our kids are to be back. The one of the kids in a circle is our mattaw children singing and welcoming us back.

Tumefika!

Tumefika means "we have arrived" in swahili.  Our family has arrived in Kenya!  What an overwhelming feeling of peace and joy to plant our feet on Kenyan soil.  

Bud is out doing business with our safari company and we praise God for the open doors and provision!  I'm at the guesthouse we usually stay at getting to just be mom for the day.  So good.  The kids did amazingly well on the flights and slept and stayed awake right on the schedule we were aiming for.  We stopped in London to stay the night two nights and we can not stop patting ourselves on the back for making such a great decision.  What a difference it made in travel for this family with three small children.  After each flight we had several comment how great the kids did.  If only they knew the epic fails we've had in the past with traveling!  Ha.  Do all you long term readers remember?  It involved a lot of poop.  Blek!  So we are just grateful for all the goodness and mercy that has followed us this trip.  SO much of God's grace.  So now the kids are downstairs in the playroom, Ezra is napping, and I'm sitting here with some yummy Texan coffee (no good coffee here, they export the good stuff) getting a chance to blog.  And I'm about to jump off the roof in excitement to hug my Kimbilio girls and Mattaw kiddos!  And all our staff/mattaw family!  Tomorrow!

But for now, I thought I'd post a few pics of one little boy that isn't so little anymore....

At the end of our time in Texas we were able to squeeze in half a season of Upward Soccer.  Elisha's first time to play on an organized sports team.  Bonus that he plays ALL the time in Kenya.  Little did we know he would be a star on his team.  In Kenya, up against his friends, not so much :).  So it boosted his confidence some.  He had a great coach and teammates.  Sweet group of kiddos.

Going from age four to five for this boy has been fabulous!  And especially for us.  He's much more teachable.  He's more easily able to look up at us in the eyes and talk to us rather than constantly on the go running, chasing something, or wrestling with someone.  Although he still does all that, just an easier kid now.   I like this whole maturing thing.  It only gets better!  We were proud of the accomplishments he did this trip back to Texas.  Some big things being riding a bike with no training wheels, swimming and overcoming night terrors. 

Also being a good team mate.  Still some lessons to learn but we were thankful to see him not throw a massive fit if someone else had the ball or scored.  And as great as it was to be a soccer mom, I'm gladly trading it to be a momma to kids running bare foot, playing on the red dirt soccer field.  

It was so hilarious to watch a bunch of four and five year olds figure out the game for the first time.  Elisha was almost more pumped about a uniform than actually playing.  But he sure showed his excitement during the game.  We notice he sticks his tongue out to touch his nose when dribbling the ball down the field.  Opposite of Micael Jordan, ha.  And he also likes to get all geared up and his head in the game.  Or act like a bird and flap his wings...  ya know, whatever works.  I sometimes dont get how a five year old boys mind works and dont think i ever will!

And our little E is doing great.  He was the best little traveler.  We had our points of exhaustion but overall it went great with him on the plane.  He is the only one that is sleeping through the nights right now too!  

But we are still reminiscing of the friends we said goodbye too.  (had to blur out "T"'s face, he's being adopted by our friends)

And lo and behold, we finally got a picture with ALL of both of our families.  Here's our friends we love dearly as family.  One of those relationships you can't put a label on... they're our friends/mentors/parents/sister/brother... its supernatural and held together by the love of Jesus.  Thank you Caldwell's... again... for how much you've loved us and been such an amazing example of how to live as Jesus says to.

Next post will be of reuniting with our lovely Kenyan fam!

And here's a song for ya.  Holy Spirit will often give songs for the day or week or season.  Zephaniah 3:17.  And this song definitely came around again but in a new way.  I had to download a new flash player to get it to work so in case yours doesn't work the main part of the song for us is...

It's always like spring time with you, making all things new
your light is breaking through the dark
this love is sweeter than wine
bringing joy bringing life
your hope is rising like the dawn

this is what you do, this is what you do
you make me come to LIFE

It's like i'm living for the first time
finally living for the first time

And this song is actually the one our church ended up praying for us in the middle of to give us a big bang sending off.  It wasnt planned like that but Holy Spirit is so creative :).  And we DANCED with joy, praise God for all he has done and going to do.

Put a smile on...

In less than a week we get to go back to the place we now call home.  Praise God, yesterday we had our follow up appointment for Ezra with the heart Dr. and everything is just perfect!  He is healthy and whole.  Prayers answered.  Thank you all that have prayed and stood with us believing.  

There's a lot of excitement in our family as we daily talk about all the things we've missed and look forward to.  The simplicity, chapati and chai, Mattaw, safaris, our home, our friends, and the list goes on.  I thought I'd share a few faces we are thrilled to get back to that'll surely put a smile on your face too...

Sharon

Sheila, one of Caleb's sisters.  Her and their other sister Bilah just started high school this past January!  So it'll be great to go back and visit them at their new school. 

Bilah

Isaac.  Who is a new child at Mattaw and I haven't gotten to meet yet! 

And these two!  Can't wait to see how much they've grown!  

And our newest son that we had just brought in right before coming back to Texas.  This is Joseph, our son Ian's brother.  I hear he eats as much as Ian did when we first brought him into our home.  I'm excited to get back to my kitchen, gotta get back to the mindset of cooking for three teenage boys again!

And then there's the 80 other children and 30 staff that we can't wait to be back with!  Family-we're coming quick!   

Then there's the sad part of us going back to Kenya.  And that's saying bye to our family and friends here.  This will definitely be one of the hardest times going back.  We've grown so close to our Garden church family and will SO miss them.  What a mighty group of laid down lovers of Jesus!  What a blessing to have this support/foundation/covering.  Thank you Jesus!  And then the grandparents.  Oh how I've loved having the kids grandparents here.  What a sweet time its been for our kids to grow close to them.  And then there's them Caldwells... nope... not even going to go there yet or the tears just might not stop!  

This trip here wasn't what we thought it'd be.  A few tough trials to go through you could say huh?  But Jesus turned it all for good.  We've grown closer as a family and praise God for all he has done.  There were MANY I had hoped to see and hang out with more and that just didn't happen!  God knows.  We love y'all.  Now off to packing and soaking up the last days with those we love...