From Haiti to Home

Yet another wonderful ZOE moment this past Thursday! Our wonderful executive director, whom many of your know, Eric Noah-Wilson and his wife Natalie returned from Haiti with their newly- adopted children, Patrick, Nadege, and Miklene.

This has been a long journey for them, and I know that they were so relieved to have them set foot on American soil at long-last.

God has been actively involved in the whole process, and they could tell you story after story of how He has worked.... but, just one from this final trip:
When they arrived at Embassy and needed to have the kids processed, the consular told them that they should leave and come back later because it took the computers a long time to process, etc. Eric and Natalie told them that that they were praying and believed in miracles, so they would just wait. The man shrugged his shoulders and left. Ten minutes later, the man returned bewildered, saying, “I cannot believe this, we have the results. We will have your visas ready in about thirty minutes.” Eric and Natalie told him, “God is in charge!” The consular then replied, “I wish He would show up more often.”

So, several of us from the ZOE family were over-joyed to be standing in the airport when the Noah-Wilsons arrived Thursday afternoon! It was just another example of God's faithfulness, and it was such a blessing to celebrate together.

Please keep Eric, Natalie, Nadege, Patrick, Miklene, Tristan, Lainey, and Elijah in your prayers as they adjust to their new life together.

Beneath the Cleansing Flood

Yet another glorious ZOE Family moment tonight! Karin's son, Jackson, was baptized!

It was a beautiful event-- Karin and Blake spoke, the other children read Bible verses. What an absolutely perfect way to celebrate the ultimate "birthday." All of ZOE was there to be witness to the important event. When we started, Jackson was such a baby! Now he has grown into such a terrific man of God, who has just begun his journey.

When I was baptized back in December 1983, it was quite a different situation. Our youth group had taken a long road trip from Mayfield, KY, to Jonesboro, Arkansas for a youth weekend-- I think it was called Uplift or something like that.... pretty new and progressive for the day--when churches were just starting to hire "youth ministers." Anyway, Jeff Walling was speaking-- (I still kid him about it to this day-- how funny that we ended up working together in ZOE these many years later)-- and this was back when he used to sing 100 verses of "Just As I Am" with short, moving dialougues between each stanza. Well, needless to say-- my best friend, Stacie, and I just couldn't resist after the 52nd verse. We both hit the aisle with at least 200 other deeply convicted pre-teens. It was a mass baptism that night-- one after another! I have a photo of it somewhere, but I sometimes regret that my parents only had a photo as evidence. They never once acted like they were disappointed that they weren't a part of it-- things were just different then, I suppose. I think I would be crushed if I missed Luke or Caroline's one day.

So, I tend to like the more planned, thought out baptisms of today. I think it is a blessing to everyone involved.

Thanks, Jackson, for letting us share such a special time with you and your family! God bless you and guide you always!

Blessings and Boot Camp

Monday night, we were blessed to celebrate another ZOE Family moment-- a baby blessing for Melissa and Baby Kyle who is due to arrive in August. Above are all of the ZOE Girls-- singers and/or wives of singers!

It was such a special time-- full of lots of laughter and tears! Everyone went around the room and shared special thoughts, prayers, memories, scriptures.... Sheryl, Karin, and I sang over Melissa. We knelt down around her and laid our hands on her along with the others gathered. We ended up choosing "He Will Rejoice Over You" based on Zephaniah 3, which seemed to be appropriate for the occasion:

The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.

We finished our 11th ZOE project last night!! This year's theme is Overflow and it is sort of a look back on the various themes and highlights of the last 10 conferences.

I think all of us really feel like there are some solid songs on this CD. I can't wait to hear the final mixes on them. We have an original song by Randy on this one that is powerful. We also scooped a song by a very popular Christian group-- thanks to Jason-- that is great! They haven't released it yet-- so our CD must come out after theirs-- which is funny, because it's not like we are really competition for them! :)

Next week is my last week of boot camp. It has been an AMAZING experience, and I am SO much stronger and fit as a result. I didn't really lose weight the first month-- I think it was more of putting on muscle and re-contouring everything. But, this month I have lost 6 or 7 pounds which is GREAT! :) I plan to keep it up by going at least 2-3 times a week from here on out. I am so addicted now!

Mid-Life Moment

At the tender age of 33, I think my dear husband is a tad young for his mid-life crisis, but-- he still ended up with a sports car!

It's not as exciting as it sounds... His 1994 Jeep was his reliable ride and would have remained so, but the mechanic told us over the weekend that it had some pretty serious issues that needed to be fixed to keep it safe and road-worthy. Conveniently?!-- one of Scott's best friends ended up with a Porsche to sell at the same time. In an odd turn of events-- his friend owns some real estate and the tenant got behind in his payments, so he gave him his car. He wanted the money over the car, so he gave Scott a good deal, and the rest is history.

Scott's not sure if he'll keep it, or just have fun with it for the summer. My sister and Scott's Dad are already lined up to buy it!

We had a great fourth! Hope you all did, too!

I'll post more photos soon. Already busy working on the sale.