God of This City

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head? Usually when that happens to me, it drives me crazy. Often it is some bizarre song that I don’t even really like. In the last few weeks I have had the song “God of This City” by Chris Tomlin suck in my head. This time, it is driving Will crazy. You see there aren’t too many words to this song and I tend to sing the same 3 lines over and over. On the other hand, I have liked having this song playing over and over in my brain. The Lord has really used it as a great reminder of why we are serving in the Philippines. As we struggle to raise enough support to return to the Philippines, it helps me remember that He isn’t done with Manila yet regardless of what our future holds. There is Hope among the poor and hopeless of Manila. Please pray with us that we will be able to return to the Philippines in late July and share His Love, Grace and Mercy there.

Below are the lyrics to this song along with some pictures of things that flash through my mind as I hear it. You can hear this song at http://www.last.fm/music/Chris+Tomlin/_/God+Of+This+City?autostart It will start playing automatically.

God of this City

by Chris Tomlin You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these People
You’re the Lord of this Nation
You Are

You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You Are
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For Greater things have yet to come
and greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
We believe, we believe in you God

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

SNOW!

Since December the kids have hoped and prayed for some of that white stuff and yesterday those prayers were answered. The heavy rains began changing over to snow around 3pm and it snowed constantly until almost midnight. We received 6.5"! (Ok for those of you in places like Chicago, I realize that is almost nothing, but for South Carolina it's a big deal) The kids are thrilled and so thankful to be able to trek back in forth through the woods to their cousins'. We lost power about 11:30 last night, but it was restored about 4am. My brother is still without so everyone converged upon our house for lunch. The afternoon temps are expected to reach 40 so the kids are busy trying to get their fill of snowball fights, sledding, and snowmen before then. Here are a few pictures we took this morning. Some of them were taken in the woods behind our house. We headed out for a walk back there around 8:30 this morning. It was so beautiful and we loved trudging through the deep untouched snow. Thankfully the kids have some old snow pants to wear so they aren't too wet or cold and can stay out all day. I've never taken a snow day in homeschooling before, but sometimes you got to stop and throw a snowball or 2.

Pelting Dad with snowballs

Yesterday around 5pm

Today around 9:30am

We took a gorgeous walk through these woods this morning

A Bridge down in the woods behind our house

Will's 12th Birthday!

On January 17th, Will turned 12. We celebrated by spending a day at the lake. Will wanted to have a party with just his cousins. They are all a little obsessed with the movie Prince Caspian. They often play Narnia in the woods behind our house. Last fall they all made swords with scraps of wood from my brother's house. We upgraded everyone with new nerf swords. It was the coldest day in the past 3 or 4 years, but the kids braved the biting wind for a little while. Afterwards, they came in and warmed up with hot chocolate and video games on my parents big screen tv.

The King and Queens of Narnia

Chasing down Dad

Video time!

Uncle Tray's Birthday

We recently celebrated my brother's birthday at a Japanese steakhouse. It's always a fun time. The kids hadn't been to one since they were 3 and 5 so this was really a new experience. If you know Emily at all, you can imagine how thrilled and excited she was. She really loves life.

A few Final Christmas shots

I know, I know.... Christmas was over a month ago and I have been pretty slack at blogging recently. I just downloaded these pics from my camera and thought I would share a few before moving on to other topics.

Christmas Morning at Mimi and Pop's

What every teenage girl needs...make-up

"Thanks for the new Casting Crowns CD, Will"

The kids with their cousins in Birmingham.

I can't believe how old they all are

Allan's parent and Grandmother with the kids

Christmas Season

Well, Christmas is officially over :( We had such a good if not a busy one. I told someone recently that I was trying to fit 8 years worth of American Christmases into one. (I figure it has been 3 years since the last Christmas in the states and will be at least 4 more before we have another) We crammed the month of December with trips to see holiday lights, church musicals, drive through Nativities, the Christmas Parade, other holiday items of interest and tons of eating! The one place I never made it to was the mall! Oh well, I get enough of that in the Philippines. Here are a few pictures from some of our activities. I didn't take too many pictures over the holidays. We were too busy just enjoying being with our family and friends. The ones I did take tended to be of the kids' backs since they were always looking at whatever was going on.

Emily and Laura at the church Middle School Christmas Party

Holiday Lights at Roper Mountain Science Center

Simpsonville Christmas Parade

Hollywild Animal Park

This was actually one of the highlights of the Christmas season. We hadn't been able to fit this in and so my brother and I decided to go one rainy night the week of Christmas. Unfortunately Allan was working and missed out. We arrived and began what we thought was a typical drive through of lights. It was nice, but we didn't think it was worth the entry fee. Then we passed through some gates and entered into the "Reindeer Forest". It was basically a big open field you could drive through with deer and Zebra running around everywhere. We opened the sliding doors to the van and hung out the sides in the rain trying to pet the animals.


After driving through another section of light displays we arrived at "Santa's Village". Should we get out??? It was pretty nasty, but since we had packed rain boots for just such an occasion, we braved the muck and the mud to go to what was essentially a petting zoo. The kids loved it! We saw some great animals. One of my favorites was the big Texas longhorns. I'd never seen them in person before. The kids fed bottles to baby goats, crackers to horses and reindeer, and were spit on by a camel. It was so fun!

I took this picture just seconds before the camel spitting incident.
I guess he doesn't like his picture taken.

Remember those serving Christ in foreign lands

My Aunt Linda sent me the following poem today. It really hit home with our last 3 Christmases. We were always so grateful to those who remembered us by sending their Christmas cards and letters. I want to encourage those of you who personally know others serving overseas, please send them a Christmas hello. It only costs about 80 cents and helps makes the holidays a little warmer to be remembered by friends back home.

Missionary Christmas

Christmas was special when he was a child,
food and presents and carols and smiles.

Tree decorating was great family fun,
and cold nights by the fire watching old reruns.

But then one day God spoke to his heart,
and he gave up his culture to make a new start.

Now taking the Gospel to far off lands,
his Christmas is different than what he had planned.

The weather is sticky, with stench in the air,
the needs that surround him are terrible to bear.

Instead of carols and Christmas bells,
he hears chanting and the casting of spells.

The childhood dream of Christmas in the snow,
was left at the altar when he decided to go.

If only the ones who he left behind,
would remember his face during this special time.

And send him a note, or a word of thanks
or maybe even something he could put in the bank.

Then Christmas would not be so tough this year
and even for the missionary it would be ‘good cheer.’

©Wayne Dillard 2004 (Missionary to Thailand)

Gingerbread Houses

One year at Thanksgiving, when the kids were about 5 and 3, my Mom decided we were going to make Gingerbread houses. It became an annual tradition and each year sometime around Thanksgiving or the first of December, my whole family got together to help the kids make Gingerbread houses. The kids would chose a different adult partner to be there helper while one of the ladies (usually my Mom) was in charge of keeping the icing coming. I have to be honest and admit that I really didn't like this fun family project. While I was glad the kids got to do it, for some reason I dreaded it. I am not really sure why. Maybe it was the sticky mess or trying to get the house to stand up or just all the noise and confusion, but each year I really wanted to groan on Gingerbread house day. So of all the traditions we gave up when we moved to the Philippines, this is not one I have morned.

Here's Will in 2000 with the finished product

If you remember from previous blogs, my children are really wanting to walk down memory lane during our year in the states. We have to do all the things we used to do. Of course this includes Gingerbread houses. My Sister-in-law assured me that times have changed and it is actually a fun experience. The main reason....they do it all themselves. So last Friday my sister-in-law and I got the kids together to build a house, actually 4 houses. Chris, my sis-in-law, made the icing, while I was in charge of buying the candy. She was right, we had fun! The kids did their own with little to no help while Chris and I just watched, talked and laughed with them. Afterwards, my brother came home from work and Allan came over and we ate pizza and then out to see Christmas lights. It was such a great evening

Will in 2008--he's gotten so old!

Emily in the building process

Beth spread a little icing on

Laura puts the finishing touches on the board

Laura and Beth's final product

Emily and Will's Gingerbread Drive!

"Oh There's no place like Home for the Holidays....

...no matter how far away you roam.

When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze.

For the Holidays you can't beat Home Sweet Home!"

A combined Miller/Gilmer Thanksgiving at my brother's house

The kids table

A Little Bit of White

I was pushing the cart through the grocery store, just picking up a few things, when the call came. Half expecting it, I still wasn't prepared for the piercing scream coming from the other end. "Mom! Guess what? Guess What? Guess What?" I knew the answer, but I played along asking "What?" "It's SNOWING!!" I had seen a few flurries while out doing some Christmas shopping and had hoped the kids would see them too. They were currently out in the yard dancing with glee. The first ones were spotted while driving home in the car with Allan and hands and heads were hung out the window touch it. Of course, the flurries lasted only a short while, but hopefully it is a taste of weather to come. There are 2 kids (OK maybe 2 adults as well) who are dreaming of a white Christmas. "Let it Snow!"