dec 1st

we are doing an advent calendar and learning about the real meaning for all this christmas stuff this year. it was getting out of hand talking about santa santa santa so hopefully we can change that a bit in the next 25 days......

day one......
add one piece to the manger scene-today the lamb was hiding in the stocking!!!

read "the crippled lamb" by max lucado

coloring page printed from disney website-christmas activities

december already???

wow our kiddos are growing so fast...we cannot believe it.

cail just had here 4th birthday with a pony cake to celebrate. she is really beginning to be a great help and fun friend.

averie is 2 and a half. she loves to be funny and is always trying to make us laugh. her lasted is singing the abc's and saying h i j k l m noodle p!!!!!!

tayt jebediah is now 4 and a half months old. he is rolling, smiling, laughing and growing out of his acid reflux he has struggled with since birth. he is a much happier baby now.

josh went to see an asthma specialist yesterday and it really seems as though they can help him get his life back by helping him breath. his big goal is to breath well enough that he can get back to the sports and activities that he loves so much.

i (becca) am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the great responsibility of molding and shaping the lives of three little ones. raising kids is so much more than the diapers, dishes and laundry. God has given me an awesome gift in the "job" of everyday life here at home.

our funds are now at about 65% and we are plugging away at trying to make new contacts. God has called us to minister to those who need a relationship with Jesus and we are doing that everyday. whether we are here in the u.s.a. or home in n.z. God has asked us to serve. so we are trying to be content in any circumstance, wait upon the Lord to renew our strength and be ready for whatever He has for us next.

thanks for all your prayers!!!!!

hello there

so....it's been awhile huh!!!!

well as you might know my dad passed away the first of oct. it was a year and a half of great time with him and a hard battle with cancer. six different kinds of cancer spreading through his body faster than the doctors could keep up with but a transformed man walking through it with dignity. thanks to all who were praying for us through all of this.

the pictures above are of cail and grandpa jerry playing dress-up, making silly faces and grandpa holding his grandson for the last time. this was the last day he was at our house. such a special memory of my dad and my kiddos.

God has been so good to us letting us be home in the states while this was happening.

our little man

Tayt Jebadiah Bowlin
July 10 2010
8 lbs 6 oz 20 1/2 in

the bowlin's today...

well not much going on here. we wish there were more. our due date is tomorrow and nothing happening yet with this little boy of ours on his way. i think he must be a bowlin child just like is sisters. he will have a mind of his own for sure huh!!!!

we got to share at chapel pike last night and eighth street wesleyan the other week. it has been great to have a few places near home so i can go as well.

our wonderful friend at eighth street wesleyan has been supporting us for about 5 years now and she took our challenge to introduce us to someone else you know so we can build up our support team. it was great to share at her small group and meet some of her friends.

it was great to be at chapel pike as well because they have watched josh grow up and sent us out on our way the first time. we haven't been there to worship much with them this year with all the travel but when we are there we feel like they just wrap us up and welcome us in like a great big bear hug. to see all who are so excited about what God is doing in n.z. was encouraging for us for sure.

well enough rambling for me today. i hope this find you all well and well blessed of the Lord. also i hope the next post here will be good news about a new member happy and healthy, newly arrived in our family.

thanks for your prayers

a new generation

the other day in the car i was making the girls listen to mommy's music instead of the usual kids songs (i can only take so many of them before insanity starts to set in). as the next song came on klove i realized it was one of the girls favorite songs. for some reason they love matt redman's "you never let go". i told them their song was coming on and when it was about to start the chorus i said "o.k. girls oh no you never let go" as i looked in the rear view mirror i saw one of the most awesome sights i have ever seen. here is my 3 year old, head tipped back, eyes closed, singing at the top of her lungs

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me


my eyes filled with tear without even a moments notice and my heart was so full of God's blessing. this new generation that josh and i are given the responsibility to train up is now beginning to see God. of course i am not sure how much of that song she really understands, and how much of her closed eyes head back comes from what she has seen at church. but......she is seeing it she is hearing it and she is experiencing God at the age of three. this really brings to mind the words in mark 10

13-16The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.

i hope today not to get so caught up in my daily worries to forget how loving God can be simple enough for my daughter to understand and handing over my life can be as easy as throwing my head back and singing at the top of my lungs. thanks God for the example my children set for me.

waiting

"when our plans are interrupted, His are not.
His plans are proceeding exactly on schedule,
moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable)
toward to goal of true maturity" (romans 12:2)

elisabeth elliot