IHOP Missions Base

This is a picture of where we spend a good portion of our day. It is just an old strip mall- converted. Nothing fancy. We live a few blocks away in the neighborhood that surrounds it, and we can even walk there or ride a (Joseph Wolnski's ) bike.

The Armor of God

OK- this is just a thought for ya. Sometimes being in the prayer room is hard... that may sound odd, but think about it. if you spend time in the LORD's presence in an intentional way, He gets more amazing, full of glory, majesty, etc.... and our crap inevitably surfaces in contrast to his holiness. Some of my crap is that I look to men to be noticed or regarded instead of doing or being wholly unto the LORD. One night in particular I felt like a 2 year old, getting popped on the hand repeatedly, but then I recognized his grace in it and that he is not letting things fester but calling me on it in the moment... basicly disciplining "those he loves", specifically me.

Well, after a while I am still having a hard time focusing, so the armor of God comes to mind, so I turn to Ephesians 6, a passage I have prayed through for many years (lots of highlights there and notes- haha!). Anyway, I read it and am impressed that the LORD says... again, parke, and meditate on it. Well, here goes (just follow my thoughts)... "the belt of truth buckled around your waist"...hmmm, truth..."i am the way, the truth, and the life"...ok, Christ is the truth...ok, Christ around my waist...next, "the breastplate of righteousness in place"...righteousness...hmmm... it is not my righteousness, it is Christ's...so, Christ is my breastplate...next, "feet fitted with...gospel of peace"...hmmm...Christ is the gospel, and he brought peace to us...reconciliation...so, Christ on my feet..Ok, Lord, i am seeing a pattern!!..."shield of faith"... my faith is in him... Christ is my covering..."helmet of salvation".... he is my salvation...Christ on my head..."sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God"...hmmm..."in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning"... Christ is the Word....so...Christ is in my hand"...
WOW...CHRIST IS THE ARMOR OF GOD!!!!!
Christ around my waist
Christ my breastplate
Christ on my feet
Christ my shield (covering me)
Christ on my head
Christ in my hand (the sword)

He is first, preeminent, before all things, in all things, and He literally covers me from head to toe!!!!

KC sprayground

We went to a "sprayground" in our neighborhood. They have these spragrounds as part of KC's parks and recreation dept so it is free, and very fun!! The kids had a blast.

Thank you....thank you

This was a typical day for the first 2 weeks we where here, and part of an email we sent out.

Jeff gets up early and spends two hours in the prayer room, then I go for one and a half to two hours. Then, we have lunch all together and Jeff goes to class from 12-3. While he is away we have nap time and school or a field trip ( we have been to a bunch of amazing places already... i am racking up school days - haha!). Then, sometime between 3 and midnight, we each go for 2 hours, and usually some of that time is as a family. M-F we try to spend at least 1 hour as a family in the prayer room, but the older ones go a lil bit more than the twins.

It has been amazing- to have such a visual cloud of witnesses around us... they are usually not so visual on a day in day out basis. The prayer room always has some music being played/sung and most people who are not on a worship team are praying to themselves or reading their bibles. Sometimes I feel like I am just soaking or marinating as Jeff calls it. At those times, I am usually more passive, listening, being still, or just focusing on Christ. Other times, the LORD lays things, places, people, etc. on my heart to pray for/about. And other times I am agreeing with whatever they are praying or singing about. Some times it is very intense, actually. God has had Jeff and I both praying a lot for Shades Valley and Birmingham. We know that is what he has for us for our work for this season, so we think of home and our people often. My most recurring prayer is that we would just fall in love over and over with him- that we would know ALL dimensions of his love... width,length,height,depth...

Anyway, I could go on and on....

So, life is changing a bit now. Some people from Birmingham are here and we are getting to see some other aspects of ministry here in Kansas City. Tonight (actually a week ago now) Jeff went to a prayer room downtown called the Boiler Room, which is smaller but built more around community. We are going to be spending the next few weeks learning more about this ministry and about a ministry in Tampa that is also community based. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for us, that we would be able to glean whatever he has for us from what will be offered over the next few weeks (this is over what we already do at IHOP).

Anyway, more later. We love all of you and are incredibly humbled to be able to "come away" with the LORD in this way. I still can't believe it- it is such a good gift. But, of course... our Daddy does give good gifts... "every good and perfect gift" comes down from HIM!!

Pictures from fun in downtown KC

We had a few really fun-filled days with the Garrigans and the Armisteads. Beau, Jeff, and David went to Wakarusa and we stayed in KC and filled our time with 12 kids with lots of activities. These are from our day at Crown Center Plaza. We went to Kaleidoscope, Fritz cafe, and the fountain.

Welcome to KC pics

Here a few pictures from the house- the first one is through the front door, and the rest are some pics around the house (...and yes, we brought our neighbors with us, haha!).

A few pics

We had a great time at the arch, and then we went to the zoo the next day(sorry- the pics are backwards).

our new address

A few people have asked, so here is our address for the next 2 months.
4201 E. 115th Street
Kansas City, MO 64137

We Are Here!!!

Hooray! We made it. We spent our first night in our home away from home last night. We had a pretty good trip considering 5 kids. :)
We did not make it far on Friday because the twins would not go to sleep in the car. So, at 10:30 we stopped in Kentucky somewhere, then we where up and off for St. Louis the next morning. We went straight to the arch. It was amazing, and jeff and the older 3 went up to the top. Then, we spent the night in a fancy hotel at Union Station there. I seriously did not know what to do- it was so nice that I did not have a paradigm for it! But, it was great fun once we figured stuff out- it would have been a pretty comical reality show.
Sunday we went to the St. Louis Zoo which was sooo incredible. It was big, super nice, and free to the public. I will send pictures when I find the cord that goes from Jeff's camera to the computer. He took some good pictures in St. Louis.
Then, Sunday afternoon we headed here, and Jeff is in the prayer room right now. The kids are doing great in the new house, and we slept like logs last night.
More later... :) parke