REALLY missed you guys!

Hey guys. Well, Mandate was...indescribable. We were really wishing that all of you could have been there! Jim Yost spoke Friday p.m. (missionary in Indonesia for the past 30 years). His basic message was that we need to run to danger - it's where the gospel will spread (this guy wants "he didn't play it safe" written on his tombstone). Embrace suffering because it's absolutely necessary, etc. After that light and fluffy message, George Otis, Jr. (the Transformations video guy) spoke on Saturday a.m. Basically, he and his team are monitoring 350 communities all over the world that have been miraculously transformed by the power of God and his stories were amazing (and almost unbelievable)! Then Jimmy Siebert spoke last night. He has never been one of the main speakers, so we were excited - we just love him and it was encouraging. He gets a little bit excited about Christ and the Church and church-planting (understatement, in case you didn't catch that). The worship was phenomenal - God had really been preparing us all week to enter in quickly. And we went to Ty Denney's break out session on the poor. It was convicting, enlightening, and actually encouraging to me this year. This session did not get recorded (I really was excited about sending a copy to everyone), which actually did not surprise us. It's interesting, but we've noticed that messages about ministry to the poor often have some problem getting recorded. Hmmm...maybe the enemy has a problem with the truth about the poor being preached! Anyway, I think RB sent a copy of Jimmy's message with my mom to give to Cary, so you can hit him up for the CD if you want to hear it. This a.m. Heather Mercer spoke at Christ Fellowship to kind of end World Mandate here in Ft Worth. That too was awesome. Can you tell it was a great weekend? I could write for hours about all the stories, lessons learned, and the excruciatingly painful, but wonderful things that God is doing in our hearts through this weekend, but we'll talk later. No one wants to read that much. Let's just say that for me, this was the best year ever. World Mandate has always been stretching for me in my capacity - in worship, caring about the nations, loving people, and letting the heart of Christ be formed in me. I could tell that my capacity was greater this year and that was really exciting. The Lord is incredibly merciful and gracious. Jesus is so beautiful and He is absolutely worth our lives. Almost couldn't contain the joy yesterday!

My sweet parents had quite an adventurous weekend. Moriah started getting sick on Thursday night with a fever. By the time I left on Friday afternoon, she had had a couple of diarrhea episodes, and my mom called me at 6:30 p.m. in Waco to let me know that she had just thrown up everywhere. She needed to know what to feed her. Oh yeah, Luke also pooped a little in his pants, which my dad got to clean up in the midst of many hilarious and very Lukey-like comments. I felt so sorry for them, but they handled things beautifully and had a great time with our kids in spite of a sick baby. Sweet Moriah is sicker than I've ever seen her. We've now concluded that she has rotavirus and a cold on top of that, so she's not feeling so good. But she's still very sweet most of the time. We're getting in a lot of good cuddle time. Just pray that she gets better soon!! This virus can last as long as 2 weeks!

I've thought and prayed about the campaign a couple of times today. Let us know what happens! My parents were excited to see what God would do!

Have a blessed week. May you be blessed to have the eyes and heart of Jesus for the people around you. Don't forget we're on a mission!

Love,
Anda