Thanksgiving........................

Shhhh I am supposed to be cleaning my house, finishing laundry, and packing- but I snuck in here to blog. I just wanted to tell you all Happy Thanksgiving. We are headed in the AM to St. Louis to be with my Mom, Dad, and my niece Kaylin (otherwise known as the stairwell girl). I will attach her video so you can see how amazing she is. She is the one playing the guitar. She will be embarrassed and hit me later. When we were at Youth Congress this guy walked up to her and said- Wow- you're the stairwell girl. Thus the new name :)

I can't wait. I have been going and going and going- and I really know that I need this time to rest, not do anything and just have fun. Plus I was told by my husband and few choice friends that I am not allowed to work while I am there. Johns words were something to the point of he would leave me if I did. He of course was kidding- don't go running to call your friend and tell them John is leaving Cylinda. Never happening.

I had a whole list of things that I could do while I was there- get some articles done on the ride up there and then things to do while I was there. I stopped myself and said NO- you are not working this vacation. I know this sounds really silly if you are not a workaholic you won't understand the constant mental battle. If you are you are like I am with you sister friend.

TO YOU-

I say- Happy Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for my family, friends, blogging friends and loved ones. You all have made my life so much richer. Every time you comment I just tingle. I appreciate your words, laughs, concerns, and just can't imagine why you keep coming back- but glad that you do!

Don't eat too much turkey- and remember to hug your family!

Love ya-

Cylinda

Elvis IS in the building

This weekend my family was privileged to help with Hopes Closet- It is a ministry of New Life Church, Cabot, Ar. This year the schools donated 13,000 cans of food, 400 turkeys were donated, and people gathered to create boxes of hope for 200 families or 800-1000 people of the community. Thanksgiving dinners will abound.

Friday night we helped sort cans of food, make boxes, and get them ready for the big day- Saturday. Early Saturday morning I was fortunate enough to work in the Nexus youth center. It was transformed into a used close area which provided coats and warm clothing for families of the community.

Families upon families gathered to get a coat. I will never forget the look on the face of the brown eyed 6 year old as she found the perfect turquoise jacket. I asked her if she liked ballerinas and she told me in a whisper tone- those are my favorite. I had a special treat for her- a hat and glove ensemble which had ballet slippers and flowers. She was so excited it took her Mom's insistence to get her to take it off as they left in the 70 degree weather.

I marveled at the gracious people that came through the doors. I loved helping them find just right right coat for their children. The smiles on their face and sometimes the glimmer of a tear in their eye was payment enough for my 10 hour day.

One lady stopped, hugged me and said- thanks for looking at me in my eyes when you talk to me. What a gift you have given me today. I quickly turned around hoping she did not catch the tear that quickly flowed down my cheek.

Suddenly the room was a buzz with the sound of four small Spanish boys. Their Mom wearily followed them into the room. She looked at me and asked me if I spoke Spanish. I told her it was limited but I could understand a whole lot more than I could speak. The worst thing is that about 15 years ago I was proficient enough to translate during services- my Spanish had fled my mind due to lack of practice.

She told me that they needed coats and jeans for their children. She told me that her name was Reyna. I later was introduced to her husband Elvis. Elvis had a lot of gold teeth and a huge smile. He told me that he was from Guatemala. As you can imagine the conversation grew from there as I lived there for three months.

Later I tried to steer the conversation to God. He next told me a remarkable story. He told me that he was raised in a particular religion. This religion is prominent in his country. He never really had a personal relationship with God- religion was just a part of his life. He said that one day while going to work he felt like God was telling him that he wanted to have a relationship with him. That all Elvis had to do was to talk to him that HE would hear him. Elvis said that he thought he was loosing his mind. But there was such a feeling that came over him while he heard those words he knew that he was not making it up.

He said that days later his son became gravely ill and died. He was fearful. As soon as his firstborn son died- he heard that same voice again. The Lord told him- pray to me- and I will raise up your son. He prayed to God and asked him to heal his son and raise him up. His son was restored to life. The very boy that was running around in the room.

He said that he started reading his Bible and really wanted to know more of the words of God. He wanted an experience. He told me that when he walked into the church that he felt the same way he did when God was speaking to him. We talked some more, exchanged phone numbers and promised to get in contact with each other after the holidays.

I prayed for Elvis and Reyna this morning. I know that God has great things in store for them.

I am so grateful that my family could help out this weekend. Was I tired? Absolutely. Was it hard to get out of bed on Sunday- you had better believe it. But nothing can take away the memories that my girls had this weekend from helping others. Every can that they sorted, every turkey that they gave away, every smile that they showed on their face was a reflection of God's love to others.

I am thankful that Elvis was in the building, and that the Lord entrusted me with his families friendship.

May my children always demonstrate Acts 20:35 (King James Version):

I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Links of the week....

So Since I have had some pretty serious thoughts going through my head this week - I will share more later-

I wanted to share some great websites with you-

The first is a website that my friend Alan shared with me. It is just a community project of people sharing pictures of their parents. It is fun to look at! Some you will find yourself saying- Really? Are they qualified to be parents? It will make you feel a lot better about yourself!

The second website is great if you do classroom decoration. The prices are not too bad- and if nothing else- you can get great ideas from it. I just ordered the 8 foot giraffe, the three monkeys, the lion cutout and some other stuff for our new ZOOPLOSION kids church coming up! Woot Woot!

The third is Steven Curtis Chapman's new CD. It is great. The feature song is Heaven is the face. It gives you goosebumps the first time you hear it. The cover of the CD has the last drawing from Maria their 5 year old daughter that went to heaven. The name of the CD is Beauty will Rise. The I is dotted with the last thing she drew- a flower.

I heard an interview with him this week and it was amazing. He will also be on Larry King's Thanksgiving show about heroes this year. Tune in- sounds like it will be great. One of the neatest parts of the interview that will stay with me was about a card he received. He said that so many sent notes, and thoughts, and shared after the loss of their daughter. He said that the only one that stood out to him was a man that said- Your future will be more filled with her than you past ever was. I thought wow- what great wisdom. I think people get so bumbly ( I know that is not a word) and just don't have the words to say during times of loss. I usually flat out say- Look I don't have any words to say that will make it better. But his statement actually makes sense.
Anyway- buy his CD- Or upload it on I-Tunes the whole CD is amazing.

Okay Fourth website that I love is twopeasinabucket.com. I love love love them. If you are interested in becoming a better photographer, a scrapper, or a wanna-be-scrapper (me), or a digital scrapper, this is the website for you. It is filled with hours of beauty. Really. You can spend the day there- look up and say- WOW- Did I really just spend the day on this website?

The final one for day is a blog that I have followed forever. The pioneer woman- whom I call Ree is actually the person that inspired me to blog. She was my daily guilty pleasure with her recipes, her stories, her photography, her home projects, her animals. Now Ree has made a cookbook. I had someone tell me the other day- there is this really cool website about this lady that is married to a cowboy and cooks. I wanted to slap her and say- don't be soo silly Ree and I are best friends. In actuality we are not- in my head we are! One day I will grow up and cook like her. But for now- I just want her cookbook for Christmas. Anyone that reads my blog that loves me enough to buy me a prize- you now know my one true tiny Christmas request this year~ outside of world peace~ but that is a given!

Love you all-

CMN

Today's Project..... Zooplosion

Dave Thompson did an amazing job helping with the puppets on this- John was the camera man! We are playing this on Sunday to promote the New Kids Church Curriculum which starts next Sunday.

Hope you all had a great Saturday!!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

Some of the best things about the Christmas season are the smells that go with it. At home it was that earthly cinnamon orange smell of Mom's concoctions in the kitchen. I remember the smell of a new doll, the smell of a new Bible, the smell of the Turkey in the oven, the smell of the pizza in the oven on Christmas Eve. Christmas also comes with the smell of the ocean to me. When I got to be a teenager- my friend JoAnn and I would go to the beach on Christmas day. There are so many smells that run through my head this time of the year.

This next one is probably not the "normal" smell. But how many of your remember what the Sears catalog and JC Penney catalog smelled like when you got them? I remember waiting daily at the post office box in anticipation of getting that years "Dream Book". With quivering fingers I would look page by page at all of the treasures that were out there. I would have to look through it all first, dream a little about it, and then finally make a list of the things that I was interested in. The list did not come easy. It was always done in pencil, erased, and sometimes even warranted a new piece of paper just to make sure that everything could be ready correctly by the adults in my life.

I was reminded of this ritual as my girls made their "Christmas List" on Tuesday night. They had to send their list to their aunt and uncle in the Dominican Republic, their aunt and uncle in Charlotte, and my parents in St. Louis. It was giggling, scribbling, and erasing for all.

This past year my sister-in-law made the girls knitted monkeys. The girls still sleep with them nightly. This year they each requested a second monkey. Here is what they requested:

Emma:



Seanna:



I finally reminded them that they were over due on their bed time. They then took their American Doll catalog and begin circling in different colors their dream list for Mom and Dad. While they were doing this I could still feel that anticipation that I felt as a child - circling items like crazy and praying that you would get at least one of them.

How about you? Did you love the Dream Books at Christmas time? What is your favorite smell of the season? What memories are you going to create this year with your family?

Things that have been rumbling around in my head lately....

SO I have been told that since I moved to Arkansas I:

1. Don't keep in touch anymore.
2. I have become an introvert.
3. I am not funny anymore.
4. I don't call, write, or blog as much.

Hmmm

I might have ignored this if it came from only one source but it has come from quite a few. So while I have been pondering why this is I saw a mental picture of my life-

I saw two plants and two little seedlings. They were being pulled up out of the dirt and being re-planted to another field. The field was equally rich, watered, and tended to in both areas; it was just time for the plant to move. The farmer knows best and has plans for his harvest.

During this process the two plants were pausing to make sure the seedlings were doing okay. They themselves were re-rooting, getting established, and digging deep. Some days they drooped, other days they flourished- but they came first in the plants life.

Fall is approaching and roots have to be secure. Time, shade, nutrients, shelter, care, prayer, and extra nurishment have had to be given to the seedlings so that they would be steady during the time of the transplant. There has been an audible exhale from the two plants as the two seedlings have taken root and are beginning to flourish.

In the past few weeks I have felt my own roots attach to the earth again. I have felt the ease, the lifting of the load as I have sensed my path. I look over at my fellow taller, stronger plant and am equally amazed at how the Lord is using him in such a great way. He has had his hand over him in the past 5 months. He is now the only one from his department that has a job. All of the others are gone. God has continued to provide for our needs. We daily pray for favor on his job.

So you see- I have not forgotten you, fallen out of love with you, don't find you equally intoxicating- I have just been..... I guess in process. I still get goose bumps when someone leaves a comment, or just likes a blog post. I still check my counter daily to see if anyone is reading, and I still get a crooked smile when you do!

This past week I went to go see my Mom in St. Louis. The girls and I just drove up on Thursday and back on Saturday. It was a great girls outing. John had a project at work and could not leave. We celebrated Mom's birthday, went to Red Robin, and even squeezed in some quick shopping. I got all of the MK Christmas gifts together from MK Ministries. One hundred forty gifts have been labled and are ready to go out. I also worked on giving names of MKs to the 150 people who are donating a second gift for our MKs. I was overwelmed by the love of God's people.

Last night while making pancakes for dinner I had a call from an MK going through some things. After we talked I put the phone down on the counter and said a quick prayer for him. During that time the powder from my pancake batter got all over my phone. This morning while taking Emma to school she handed me my phone. Mom- she said- your head is coming off and getting all over your phone. I thought- Hmm maybe that is why I can't return phone calls. It was actually the powder from the pancakes still waiting for me to rinse it off. Hey my blackberry needs to eat too people.

So I don't know where you are in your journey today. Maybe you are getting some leaves pruned, maybe you are being transplanted, maybe you are re-establishing yourself in the richness of his soil. Know this- the master planter is always near. He hears your every sigh, knows the weights, the worries that you carry, and even knows when you need to rest; bask in his goodness and just breathe. He is tending to your daily needs and is carrying you!

My Secret Powers

I am getting ready to hit the road and got up to St. Louis for two days- I should be on the road right now. I wanted to share two secret powers I have with you. One- I can read my own mind. Two- I can walk even if I have tights on - in-side-out. Don't be jealous...

I am sure you have secret powers of your own- What are they??

CMN

MK Christmas Gifts

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas- well it is at your local Target!

This year why not send a Christmas gift to a Missionary Kid? We need your help! If you are interested in doing this please leave me a comment with your email address or you can email me at Cylindanickel@gmail.com.

Make the difference in the life of someone else this year. What a great family project!

Thanks for reaching out!

CMN