Prayer Requests

Friends and Family--

It's hard to believe that April is only a few days away! Tomorrow we'll load up the van and head off for our Closing Retreat with our NieuCommunities team. We'll return on Wed, have a few days to pack and say our final goodbyes to the rest of the apprentices, and then head back to the midwest to see many of you. In the midst of it all, our family has been hit with a nasty round of colds. Please pray for healing, strength, and energy to finish this apprenticeship well. Also, we wanted to pass along some more prayer requests to you. 

1. Travel--Bekah and the kids will be flying to Ohio on Sunday April 5. Please pray for safety and for cooperative kids. Beyond the flight, please pray that our kids will have a smooth 'reentry' back into the midwest. The next few months will have a lot of transition and travel for them. I (Drew) will be driving back and hope to join Bekah and the kids Tuesday or Wed of that week. Pray for safety on the road for me. 

2. Visa--We've mailed out our visa renewal packet, which will allow us to return to Canada. Applying for visas is always a tricky thing. Pray that our application finds its way to generous, considerate hands, and pray we receive our visas with no problems or delays. 

3. Support--One of our reasons for coming back to the midwest for April/May is to raise support. In order to come onto full time staff, we had to increase our annual budget by about 20%. We could really use some more monthly donors to invest in our mission here in Vancouver. If you'd like to talk with us individually, or if you know of anyone you think we should connect with while we're back in the states, please let us know. Pray that we'd be able to come back to Canada in June fully funded. Pray that God would use our letters (sent out nearly a month ago) to stir hearts to give. 

Also, people can give online (secure) by clicking on this link: HERE.

Thank you all for your support, your prayers, and your love. We can't wait to see you all! 

-- 
PEACE,

Drew Moser (and Bekah, Ben, Isa, and Sam too!)

[Donate to the Moser family's mission in Vancouver! Click HERE to give online.]

Drownies

A recurring conversation in our home when we have guests over goes something like this:

Me: Benjamin, can you go ask our company if they want a brownie?

Benjamin:  Sure.  [Runs to the living room] Do you want a drownie?

Guest: A what?

Benjamin: A drow-nie [saying it more slowly and thoughtfully]

Guest: [long pause]

Me: [yelling from the kitchen] A brownie!

Guest: Ooooh! Yes, I would love a brownie.  

Any of you who have spent any amount of time with our Benjamin the past few years know that he started off speaking his own language.  Over time, his words began to resemble English but were still unclear for most people other than us to figure out.  The past few months his speech has become more and more clear.  Because most of his words have become crystal clear, it has been easy for Drew and I to pick up a few patterns.  

He has no trouble making the B sound unless it is combined with an R.  He pronounces Benjamin and boy and baby beautifully but brown is drown, bread is dread, bridge is dridge, brother is drother, bring is dring, library is lidrary.  He also cannot pronounce the P sound if it is combined with an R--present is tresent, pretty is tritty, promise is tromise, pray is tray.  

We have worked with him a lot but I don't think he really hears it.  Any suggestions from my homeschooling/teacher blog readers?

You are all trecious to us and we tray you have a wonderful weekend.

Our Vision Statements

A significant part of our apprenticeship here with NieuCommunities was the "Life Compass," a thorough exercise in exploring our spiritual gifts, our natural abilities, our past experiences, our interests, and a whole host of self-discovery tools and assessments to hone in on a vision for the future. The outcome of the Life Compass process is a vision statement, a bathed-in-prayer, God-given vision statement designed for us to begin to move towards and live out. 

Since so many of you have invested so greatly in our training and ministry here, we thought it appropriate to share our vision statements with you.  These will be tweaked over time (especially Bekah's as the kids get older), but they're already proving to be good springboards as we enter the staff here at NieuCommunities. 

Quick sidenote: I'd highly recommend that everyone work on some sort of vision statement to help guide you through life on this earth. 

Drew:

Imagine a conductor the evening of an orchestra's debut concert. The crowd is hushed in anticipation. The musicians have their instruments ready. The conductor raises his baton, and for a brief second remembers all the hard work it took to get to this point. 

• He has studied,  diligently researching to be fully prepared to lead. 
• He has resourced; equipped his musicians with the best resources available. 
• He has arranged and composed, employing writing, communicative, and organizational gifts to help his team be more effective, more efficient, and more brilliant.
• He has trained, providing mentoring/teaching to empower individuals and smaller groups of musicians to live out their calling. 

Finally, with a wave of his baton, he orchestrates, bringing his group's collective gifts, talents, and hard work into one beautiful song. The conductor smiles, taking great delight in this moment, where the group outshines the individual, and together they accomplish what wasn't possible alone. 

I resolve, wherever God takes me, to conduct to the glory of God, in the way of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit. 

Bekah: 

As a wife, a mother, and a servant of Christ, my vision is to create a home for my family and a home for others.  

As a wife, I will faithfully stand by my husband, encouraging and praying for him to be the leader and man of God he was created to be.  My desire is for him to walk in the door and immediately feel loved, appreciated and refreshed.  My home will be a haven.

As a mother, I will foster my children's knowledge and love of Jesus Christ and the word of God.  I will help my children discover their talents and spiritual gifts.  I will intercede for my children, entrusting them to the Lord so that I will not stand in the way of how He wants to use them to further His kingdom on this earth.  My home will be a place of discovery and joy.

As a servant of Christ, I will create a home for others who need to know the love of Christ.  I see young mothers and their children coming over for coffee and encouragement.  I see my children's friends coming to our home to be fed and loved on and built up.  My home will be a refuge.

Every person was made to have a home.  My vision is to create and foster home for the sake of Christ's kingdom; not to separate ourselves from a broken world, but to invite broken people to join us on our journey to faith, peace, and hope in God, and ultimately our heavenly Home. 

[Donate to the Moser family's mission in Vancouver! Click HERE to give online.]

Last One Standing

What's worse than all of your children being sick and cranky?  All of your children AND your husband being sick and cranky.  Heehee.  Drew is not going to laugh when he sees this.  But seriously, if you think of us, please pray for healing from colds, coughs and ear infections and for my body to remain healthy so I can care for all 4 of my babes.  I'll get some new pictures up when the kids' faces aren't covered with snot.  You're welcome.  

Sidenote:  Benjamin asked me yesterday, "Mama, you know who I'm going to marry?"  I asked him who and he just grinned and pointed at me, "You, mama."  Oh that he would always think I'm so fantastic. :)

Birthday Boy

Saturday: Here are a couple of pictures of Samuel on his birthday.  We didn't plan on making a cake until his little party tonight but Benjamin was very distraught about that so we ended up making a chocolate cake for him on his actual birthday.  

He didn't get very into it.  Just a few little pokes at the frosting and then he was done.

Sunday: Samuel spent his first day in nursery.  Here he is enjoying a fish cracker snack after his big morning.  

Monday: Tonight we had friends over to help celebrate Samuel.  These hats and glasses lasted about 2 minutes.

Sort of a blurry picture but it shows Sam's introversion.  He was so quiet and withdrawn this evening until everyone left and then he came out of his shell and was all smiles. 

That candle looks like fun.

Sam didn't want anything to do with presents.  He just kept turning into me and hugging my neck.

"I don't want this triangle.  You put it where it needs to go!"

Benjamin was in charge of two party games. One we helped him think of and the other he came up with all by himself.  You figure out which was which.  They were both a hit.  First game: He drew this dinosaur and then we played "Stick the Nose on the Dinosaur".
Benjamin stood there for each person shouting and pointing out where they should put their sticker.  He was so confused as to why the blind-folded person would not just put the darn sticker where he was pointing.  He and Isa went last and didn't want to be blind-folded so they just spun around and went straight to the nose to put their sticker on it while shouting, "We won!"
And the second game we played was "Put the Towel Over Your Eyes Spin Around and Eat the Carrot".  Tim was such a good sport pretending that he couldn't find his mouth because his eyes were covered.  First the carrot went in his eye and then he tried to push it through his cheek...
...and then he found his mouth!  Benjamin was so excited that he did it that he declared, "You won!" and no one else got to play.  

Happy Birthday to our Little Man!

Our community lovingly refers to hugs and smiles from Samuel as 'Samshine'. It is a perfect description for the effect that he has on this family. He just melts us. We have been told we should put an ad in the paper: Are you having a grey day? Get yourself a little 'Samshine'. :)

Samuel, you are a joy and a blessing that we thank God for over and over throughout each day. How are you already turning 1? Though a part of me wants you to stay my baby forever, we love seeing your little personality come out. You love to flirt with all the ladies you meet and we get stopped everywhere we go so that people can 'oooh and ahhh' over your mohawk (when will the sides of your head begin to grow hair I wonder?). Your new things are clapping and pointing and waving which just thrills your brother and sister. Happy Birthday, Samuel Jacob. We love you so much little man.

Little for a Little While from drewandbekah on Vimeo.

One Year Home

Oh sweet Eloisa, what a year it has been.  You came home a scared, grieving, way-too-overstimulated little girl.  It's hard for us to think about what was going on inside of you emotionally that you couldn't tell us in words and you could only express with tears and screams.  You have slowly learned to trust us and we have all learned to open our hearts more and more to eachother.  On this day, a year since you joined our family, we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that the Lord picked us to be yours and you to be ours.  You are beautiful, hilarious, and full of fire.  We pray, sweet daughter, that you would use all that fire within you to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.  How incredibly blessed are we that you would call us 'mama' and 'daddy'.  Happy first Forever Family Day, Baby.  And just like you say to us, we love you 'really' much.


Eloisa's Forever Family Day Slideshow from drewandbekah on Vimeo.

Celebrating with a Cocktail

One year ago today, Drew was reunited with Eloisa after almost a year of being apart.  Though we recognize her Forever Family day as March 8th since that is the day she stepped (or was carried) off the plane and into our family, we celebrated as a family tonight because Drew is leaving town this weekend for some training.  We went out for some delicious pizza (she actually tasted pizza for the first time a year ago tonight with her Daddy, Papa and Uncle Matt) and then gelato.  I kept watching her during dinner and smiling on the inside and out.  What a precious gift.

Here she is with her water cocktail.  She is becoming quite the urban socialite.