Nemeth Notes

Especially when you have a baby! Ok, so I still have 2 kids in diapers. But there's other change going on too. So much change that it's been almost a year since I last posted! Oops!

This past year (since the last post) has been amazing, hard, good. Like most years, I suppose, but a notch up on each level of intensity.

We finished our work at Gladstone last October. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to a place we loved so much, but the Lord was moving us on. Ever since we were married Jeff has wanted to obtain more formal training in the Bible, and finally he felt led to get his masters in marriage and family counselling. He is taking one year to study full-time, and towards the end of this year we feel that God will make it plain where we are to go. We expect it to be to a reserve, with the Blackfoot people would be our expectation, since we already have relationships here (and we just plain like 'em, too).

November brought our highlight of the year, a beautiful, sweet baby girl we named Esther Justice. She was born at home, like all our babies, and God was my help and strength.

December brought our greatest sorrow. To back up, on Nov. 2 Jeff's mom was diagnosed with cancer. On Dec. 1 we were told she would only have 4-6 months; at that time we started planning to come in January. A few days later, on Dec. 6, we got the call to "come now"; Jeff was able to tell her he loved her over the phone. We packed that night and left the next morning. That night we made it to eastern Montana, and called. She had passed away that afternoon. We were gone a total of 7 weeks, for the funeral, clearing out her house, sharing the holidays with family unexpectedly, Jeff "flipping" her house completely in 12 days, and stopping at my folks' place on the way home. We were home by the end of January, and finally had our Christmas on Valentine's Day!

Now we are in a strange dual routine. Jeff goes away to class once or twice a month, for a week at time, and the rest of the time he is home 24/7. God is growing and shaping our vision, and for that we are thankful. I feel once again the "am I crazy?" peace that is willing to pick up and leave my nest, if that is what my Master wants. I've not always been good with change.

Now I'm really good at it...changing diapers, that is. And here's hoping we're still young enough to accept whatever is next on God's agenda, too.

We need prayer, as always. Thanks.

Well, today is May 1, and Jeff is back at Gladstone!

When we were on furlough, and found the policy had changed, that we had to be at full support before we could return, we thought one thing: only God can do this.

Well, He is a mighty worker of miracles. Jeff is "back at the ranch", so glad to be in work boots and Carhartts again!

Please pray that he will be able to catch up like he needs to. Please pray that all of us staff will have the strength and energy to keep up with the exciting pace of the summer schedule. Our first team arrives in 4 days!

And praise the Lord with us that He has once again made it crystal clear that He wants us here.

Only He could have done that.

Ok, I thought raising $600+ (monthly) was hard. Then tonight I read that Hillary has raised a sweet $26 million in the first 3 months of this year. Hmmm. I guess there's lots of folks out there that think she'll change the world for the better.

I'm rather glad that the kind of support we raise usually comes tied to a bunch of prayer. That's the kind of support that changes the world...where it counts. Please keep praying. It matters.

I was just telling Jeff's testimony to a friend today. That he was on the verge of suicide when a buddy from high school stood up in church and asked for prayer for him. Somebody prayed.

Somebody listened.

...tell Him what you want...

That's how the old song goes; don't forget the heavy twang. Yes, we twang a lot here in Alberta. It's not the only way to sing, but sometimes it's right.

This is the story of someone who got a call from God. Literally.

Monica was a single mom of a sweet little girl, and they had just moved back to her home state. She didn't have support. She had transportation trouble. She had financial trouble. She had lots of trouble. She had cried out to God in desperation one night, "God, if you're there, please help me!" Nothing happened, then.

But she did have a friend who called, and they were chatting and her friend was telling her about this special program they were going to have at her church. She wasn't sure she was interested, and to make matters worse, there was a little person who kept interrupting... her daughter was at her play kitchen, holding her play phone, and saying, "Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY!" Finally Monica said goodbye to her friend, and in exasperation said to her daughter, "WHAT?!" Mikaela said, with complete and sincere urgency, "The phone's for you. It's God."

Monica froze. She cried. Why would God want to talk to her?

Then her friend called back. "I just found out they're having a special service, but we have to leave in 10 minutes."

"We're going!" Monica said.

That night she heard Good News like she had never heard before. She accepted Jesus, and 10 years later she still cries as she tells the story.

...and I'm a gonna make it home tonight...

Well, technically it's 4 months on the road, and I'll make it home 5 nights from now, but it's looking close.

We've been on a whirlwind missionary tour across the United States (well, half of them) since October 18. I had every intention of blogging here and there along the way. Did I forget I'd be in a car with 3 children all that time?

We have been busier than I could have imagined. We have always been the adventurous types, but I think we are more tired of traveling than we've ever been (it'll be over 10,000 miles by the time we get home).

But our hearts are full, and we feel so blessed to be called to this wacky way of life. We are so blessed to get to travel SO many places, and see the face of God in SO many people, and hear of His work in SO many ways. We have an amazing God; today I was amazed at how He created such a diverse state as Arizona. From south of Phoenix, where the hills of the Sonoran desert intersperse with flatlands and the sun shines warm, to Flagstaff, where there was snow on the ground, evergreens, and elk warning signs, to Page, where it is nothing but intensely beautiful red rock formations and wide vistas of almost-nothingness.

But His greatest beauty by FAR is what He has done in people's lives. There is nothing more satisfying than gazing into the face of someone who begins to cry as they tell you their testimony, as they tell you of how the Lord Jesus took them from death to life. The landscape of the redeemed is ever-varied, ever-radiant!

So thanks, Lord, for letting us have a little look-see into some of your workings we hadn't known about before. You are definitely the most awesome Creator, of this world, but more so of your Kingdom.