Angels

We had some angels at our house today!  Seriously, you guys!  We are feeling so very blessed!  I mentioned before that our furnace went out on Thursday. Well, there was a wonderful serviceman that heard about our situation and offered to give his services for free!  Then, a marvelous man brought us a furnace for free.  Did you hear me?  For free!!!  These are not moments that we take lightly!  We got all the kids together right away to thank God for taking care of us.  The timing of this has been amazing.  Last weekend we had family visiting, and this weekend we will be gone for an MK retreat.  The furnace went out when we were home.  And yesterday and today it was warm enough that we didn't have to have the fire going all the time.  We had people offer to give us more firewood if we needed it.  And a beautiful soul that gave us money to help pay for all the rest of the expenses that came up.

Thursday morning when we noticed the furnace was out, our initial response was “Oh no!”  But we refused to stay in the place of worry.  As a family we gathered and took the whole matter to the Lord.  Sometimes He answers our prayers swiftly and completely like He did here.  Other times, it is more about waiting, and not losing faith while you wait.  We have been in both boats. And either way, we know that God is good all the time.

Thank you for praying for us.

Rachel 

He Is Present

Jehovah Jireh!  The Lord My Provider.  I have always loved that name of God.  As a family we have seen God provide for us over and over again in such personal ways that we know without a shadow of a doubt that with Him, we are never forgotten. 
In the last few days, a new name of God has become very real to us:  Jehovah Shammah- The Lord is Present!  You can find it in the Bible in Ezekiel 48:35 when the Lord is dividing up the land as an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel.  After He divides it up He says: "And the name of the city from that time on will be:  THE LORD IS THERE."  Jehovah Shammah.  It is also in the verse Matthew 28: 20 "And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."Let me tell you how this became very real to us.  As you may know on Thursday morning we woke up to no heat. Garth and my Dad tried to figure it out and fix the problem, but to no avail.  So on Friday we had a guy come over to check things out.  He realized that the furnace is shot.  He went downstairs with his carbon monoxide tester.  He said that if the level is over 400 he is required to shut down the furnace.  He checked ours and it was over 2000.  A level that could have easily done some serious damage here to all of us in the house. SERIOUS DAMAGE or death.  And yet, all we had was some bad headaches.  Isn't He so super cool?  We know that He protected us in a great way. He knew eight years ago when we were building the house that we were going to need this fireplace to get through the cold days of January when we would have no heat. He sees us.  We are never out of His care.

We moved the kids upstairs, got all of the blankets and quilts we have and got everyone tucked in and snug.  The kids have all pitched in to keep the fire going.  If they wake up and see that it is dwindling down they stoke it back up.  We are not sure exactly when we will get a new furnace, and not sure how long this firewood will last, but we trust that God is in control and will continue to reveal Himself to us in the gracious way He always has.  Jesus Christ is not just a far away Person who started the universe and then left us all on our own.  He is here, always close and near to each of us. 

Jehovah Shammah- He is Present.  And we are so very thankful for His hand of protection!
Love  you
Rachel

Filth

Garth and Emma are back from their weekend at a District Youth conference in Green Bay where there were over 3,600 kids from all over Wisconsin coming together to praise and worship the God they love.  It was an amazing time for Emma as a first time student and for Garth as his eleventh time as a leader.  God showed up in many ways and really spoke to Emma.  She wants to appreciate more the things that she just takes for granted.  And she has been spending time thinking about questions, like:  What is it that God might want me to start?  Stop?  How much of my free time am I giving to God?  How obedient am I being to Him?  There were 25 that went from our church and I know that they came back changed.  Thanks for all the prayers for their safety and willingness to let God move.

I always think of strange illustrations that help me understand God's truths, yet I never know if you read these while you are eating breakfast or not.  That thought makes me a little hesitant to share what came into my head this morning, but I ran it by the kids and they seemed to think it would be ok.  The other day when I had finished picking up dog poop in our yard, I imagined if some random person came over and looked it would appear that the yard was clean.  On the surface, all "items" had been removed and all that was visible was the white snow.  Yet, I knew that there was much more under the snow that could not be seen at the moment.  I knew the "dirt and filth" that was hidden.  We are the same way.  It is easy to look good on the outside, to look "clean" and sound "clean",  and yet we know that there is dirt underneath.  We know the secret things that we keep hidden from others.  If the snow melted and you walked through my yard, I would be embarrassed.  In the same way, if my inner thoughts and motives were laid out for you to see, it would be even more embarrassing.  Do you know what the beautiful thing about all of this is?  It is beautiful that God sees that filth, He knows it is there, and He still loves me.  He completely loves me-dirt and all.  That is a reason to smile.

Love you

Rachel

New Year's Eve

How are you enjoying the New Year?    I always think that every opportunity to go around a new corner is exciting!  We are eagerly anticipating what this year will bring!  The Erickson clan had a blast bringing in the new year.  Our holidays were spent with those we love.  We had an MK named Ben stay with us for awhile, along with Garth's niece home from Spain and her friend, some missionary families from Papua, and our own family.  It was so fun to reconnect with all of them.

In church New Year's Sunday Pastor told us to put out our hands in front of us.  Imagine one hand is the year 2012 and all that happened during those 365 days.  What were the most significant moments, how did you make a difference, what things did God teach you...the other hand is the new year 2013-what is in store for you in these next 365 days, how will you make a difference, what will God teach you...It can be daunting, or scary not to know what lies ahead.  But the answer to that lies in putting those two hands together-prayer.  The future may be unclear, but we know WHO holds that future.  Look at the excitement that holds!  May your days be filled with ways to make every minute count.

Love you-

Rachel

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve to all of you!  Our past week has been full of so many memory making events!!  We had one of the kids that lived with us in Indo come and stay with us for the week.  It was refreshing for our souls to spend time with him.  He hadn't seen snow since he was ten, (now he is 18).  Once that snow storm hit we were all thanking The Lord.  We had a blast sledding and snowboarding out at the Delavan hill.  We all went to Pewaukee to the drive thru Christmas lights display at Country Christmas, played in the snow, made gingerbread houses, played lots of soccer, went to Emma's Christmas concert, played in the snow, and walked around Grand Geneva.  Ben grabbed Wyatt and decided to do something that had been on his bucket list:  a polar bear swim!  They went down to the beach and went in!  Crazy kids!
Here are some pictures of our fun time:


Ben surrounded by Sophie's 5th grade classmates.  He was popular.


Ben and Cale having lunch at school.










Ben made a snow angel.  I think it was a little cold.





We are so thankful this Holiday season for all of you that have followed our journey.  Thank you.  God has been so good to us!  May your Christmas be a time of blessing and fun filled memories!
Love you

Chicago

Praise the Lord for half days!  We had so much fun yesterday.  The kids were out of school at lunch so we took our annual trip to Chicago to see the Christmas festivities.  It was made more enjoyable by the fact that the weather was so beautiful!!  The tradition is that we walk along some of the main downtown streets, go over to Macy's and check out their storefronts displays, go through Santa's workshop, look at the amazing booths at ChristkindleMarket, split some hot pretzels, watch the street performers, try to get on TV at the channel 2 studio, and enjoy whatever other things catch our eye.  The kids always change into comfy jammies and "sleep" on the way home.  What a treat to live so near such an interesting city.  This year we did a few new things-we visited the Trump Hotel (Wow!), we went into the Hard Rock Cafe to see their huge gingerbread house, (as a family we had gone to the Hard Rock in Bali before we left Indo, so we thought it would be cool to see the one in Chicago), and we watched a protest about Rahm Emanuel.  (Notice Garth taking a snooze while the kids did their letters.  Haha)

Cale turned in his letter to Santa at Macy's.  I took a picture of what he wrote because it touched my heart.  In case you can't read it, he used the letter as an opportunity to tell Santa about Jesus.  Another thing that always touches my heart is the Nativity that is set up downtown.  There is so much hubbub going on and yet, people stop to look at that display.  Some people just glance, but others stop and stare or maybe ponder.  I overheard families telling their children, "Look, it's baby Jesus" as they lift them up to see.  What are they really thinking about at that moment?  What do the kids know about who baby Jesus really is?  I love to watch people that are there looking.  Sometimes you can see on their faces what they feel when they stare at that little baby.  The little baby that changed my life forever.  This holiday is about Him.  

May your CHRISTmas holiday be full of reminders of the Truth that Jesus truly is the reason for this season.

Love you all-

Rachel