Faces of Africa

Now that we are home, there are so many things going through my heart and mind after visiting West Africa. To be honest, I am still processing all I experienced.

I'd love to tell every detail of our trip. The highs and lows. It seems that it is just so hard to put it all into words. So for now, here are some of the faces I saw in Africa.

I'll also ask you to pray.

Don't only pray for their physical condition, but more importantly- their spiritual condition.

Pray for Mory, Fatima, and Penda. As they say the words over and over of the Jesus story, pray that they will sear their hearts and be drawn to the Father.

Pray for MC who believes. Pray for courage for him to step out and be public with it.

Pray for Herve who is so close to following the "Jesus road."

Pray for Daryl, Glenda, Rick, Jeanne, Matthew and Luke as they live their among the Manenka people and share the love of Christ.

Pray for Fadima, Fanta, Houwa,

Fatimata, Sidici, and Sudu who have heard the gospel.

Pray for Sudafa and his wife Peina who are the only believers in their village.

Pray for the village of Binkaro. They watched the Jesus film for the 3rd time with such intrigue.

Pray for West Africa. The people are so friendly, so hospitable, so loving, but most are without a Savior.

Off to Kankan

(photo taken in West Africa by Brad Bynum)

Kris and I leave today for Kankan, Guinea in West Africa. I would be so grateful for your prayers!

Please pray for us as we travel. We won't actually make it to our final destination until Sunday evening.

Pray for the safety of our kids while we are gone.

Pray for our team that we will be used by God for His glory.

Pray for the people of Kankan, for those who will be ready to follow Jesus.

Summer Days

About a month ago, the kids wanted to buy a small above ground pool. My husband told them that if they could come up with the money, they could have one.

Well, they put together about $7 in cash between the two of them and then found a bag of change their grandparents had given them. We took the change to cash it in and they ended up having over $30 in change. So they were only about $10 short of what they needed, but I took care of that. They have had so much fun in this little pool!

We've had to drain it and fill it up a couple times because the filter would kick off and then we didn't realize that we had to add chemicals to it to keep the water from getting green. Oops.

The filter died the other day, so we had to trash the pool. Oh well, they definitely got their money's worth!

Kids Perfoming

I have been a horrible blogger lately. I guess there are worst things to be though, right? : )

We have been so busy with end of school activities and then my hubby was sick. We've visited with family. Now we are gearing up for Adventure Week at church, so the craziness continues! Good craziness, though.

I wanted to share some pics from K's church musical- Cool in the Furnace.

Here he is on the big screen.

I also wanted to share some from E's preschool graduation.

They did a musical, Down by the Creek Bank

Here is her speaking part, which was prerecorded (GENIUS), shown on the big screen.

Here's E with one of her besties.

This is her whole graduating class. Do you see her on the back row? She's looking for me!

We were so proud of both of their performances!

The past few weeks...

We have played in the rain. I

I'm not sure what my son was doing here.

f you haven't heard, Nashville was heavily flooded 2 weeks ago. So many people lost their homes and belongings. Please keep them in your prayers.

I bought some cool stuff for the house to makeover. Here are a couple things..

My oldest had field day.

I played with my cricut and made some gifts.

My youngest unloaded the dishwasher>

I made some new pillows for the sofa. (Don't pay any attention to those aqua candle sconces. They are cream now.)

And, we had family pictures made.

LOVE THEM!!!

What did you do?

Why we must go

I've been working on getting my passport renewed, which is not a fun process, by the way. I've also been looking at a long list of immunizations and praying that I've had most of them so I can get stuck the least amount possible! Why? Because Kris and I are going to West Africa in July on a mission trip. Our team has just started meeting together weekly and I'm just so excited to be able to be a part of God's heart for the nations.

I'm posting a video from our last church campaign called the Sending Church. We are starting two international campuses this year and plan for more local and international ones in the future. Every time I see this video, I am reminded of why we must go and tell others about the hope they can find in Jesus.

11/29/2009 Bumper - The Sending Church Campaign Recap from Justin Crutchfield on Vimeo.

A bunch of plates

I bought these at Goodwill for 25 -50 cents a piece.

I've been wanting to do something over my kitchen cabinets, but didn't want it to be cluttery, so I decided to try some plates. I saw this post from the Nester before I went out and bought 13 $2 plate hangers. Thank you, Nester. So, I did this:

Yep, I hot-glued paper clips on the backs of the plates. There is a possibility that the paper clips won't hold, but if they don't and the plates fall and break, I've only lost a quarter!

I love the way it turned out. I like how you can see the plates peeking out above the cabinets.

I'm posting to Rhoda's party!