Thanksgiving

What a great day it has been today. Thanksgiving. Giving thanks. Today could be described with five words: fun, family, food, football, and faith. We spent the day at Jennifer's mom and dad's house along with Jennifer's sister, Kimberly and her boyfriend Jo, along with my dad and my crew of six. There was the traditional turkey and dressing with all the trimmings as well as pumpkin and chocolate pies for dessert. There was also the traditional watching of football games galore today, including two resounding victories by the Cowboys and the Longhorns! There was also the non-traditional activities of riding go-carts & taking tractor rides around the yard as well as a four-inning family-friendly game of baseball. After an overcast start to the day, the sun came out and shone brightly (in answer to our prayers this morning) and splashed our game with its presence and warmth. This day started off right with Jennifer and I having our personal quiet time with God, including time praying together. It was during that time that God reminded us in a fresh way about the meaning and importance of gratitude. I'd like to share a couple of excerpts from a book I'm reading entitled Every Day Deserves A Chance by Max Lucado. From the chapter entitled "Gratitude for Ungrateful Days", here's some good food for thought on a day when you've probably had your fill of food. Chew on this:

"Gratitude is the firstborn child of grace, the appropriate response of the blessed." (We are the blessed indeed!).

"God notices the grateful heart. Why? Does he have an ego problem? No. But we do. Gratitude lifts our eyes off the things we lack so we might see the blessings we possess."

One final thought: Today is the one-year anniversary of the adoption of our youngest child, Bethany. She is a beautiful, wonderful blessing, as are Brandon, Bradley, & Brenna. Thank you God for Thanksgiving. I am overflowing with gratefulness. posted by John (and I'm sure there will be pictures added after we return home).

Quotes

Here's a couple of good quotes to chew on:



"It is never right to do wrong; it is never wrong to do right." - Ryan Dobson (son of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and found of Kor World Ministries) www.ryandobson.com



"What you think about God is the most important thing about you." - A.W. Tozer (as quoted by James McDonald on his show Walk in the Word). http://www.walkintheword.com/

posted by John

A Date with My Husband

I actually got to go on a date with my husband tonight. This is something we don't get to do very often, so when we do, it's a real treat! Someone in our church blessed John with 2 tickets to the Lady Longhorn basketball game. Now, I'm not a big sports fan unless I'm watching my boys play baseball, or my daughter play soccer. Then I get really excited! But, I do like to watch basketball. I don't care to watch it on TV, but to see it in person is fun. John took me to the game tonight and we had a really good time watching the game and munching on popcorn! The Lady Longhorns won the game, so that made the night even better. Thanks John for a great evening!

Aunt Janie, Uncle Darren and their kiddos happened to be here this weekend for some fun BMX bike racing. Brandon and Bradley got to hang out with them at the track this afternoon, while my friend Jennith watched our girls for us. Brandon even took his 1st spin around the track and actually did pretty well! He came away with a nice scrape on his ankle, but other than that, he was ready to go again! Thanks Uncle Darren and Aunt Janie for keeping the boys this afternoon and evening! I know they had a great time!

Jennith, a great big "Thank you" to you too for keeping Brenna and Bethany! We appreciate you guys very much!

Salvation

"Salvation is found in no else; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved." Acts 4:12

Conditions or Circumstances That Will Not Get You to Heaven (i.e. - save you):

1. Being Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, or any other denomination or label of religion.
2. Being Good Enough.
3. Going to church.
4. Reading the Bible.
5. Having parents or grandparents who are Christians
6. Being baptized
7. Praying
8. Giving enough money
9. Performance or ability
10. Achievements or merit of any kind (educational, religious, social, economical, political)

The Bible states the truth clearly in John 14:6. In that passage, Jesus said, "I am the (only) way, the (only) truth, and the (only) life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." italics mine

Nothing and no one can get you to heaven. Only a personal relationship with Jesus will lead to eternal life here and now and in heaven one day. Jesus is the only way. posted by John

It's A Girl!

That's right. I was witness to the birth of a child tonight. It was a girl! Congratulations Erni family. You've been doubly blessed. You're daughter, Christine, is just beautful; and now she's a part of God's forever family. Oh by the way - just in case your wondering - the birth I refer to that I witnessed tonight was a spiritual birth, not a physical one. Nine-year old Christine Erni came to my office before church late this afternoon to visit with me about becoming a Christian. After we went through God's plan of salvation from the Bible, Christine took God at His Word and trusted Him with her life as her personal Lord & Savior. Understanding that she was a sinner, she turned from her sin and turned to Jesus alone to save her. She did what Romans 10:9-10 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made, resulting in salvation." Way to go, Christine! I am proud of you. This is the most important decision anyone can make.
On a personal note, in 19 years of ministry, having the privilege of leading a child to faith in Jesus Christ never gets old. It is always an incredible experience. I'm humbled to be one whom God would choose to use to lead & help children on the great journey - the journey of faith with Jesus.
Christine - now it's time to grow! This is just the beginning of the journey. We serve an awesome God. There's nothing like a new birth - physical or spiritual! posted by John

Flowers and Crazy Hair

Alot has happened this week. Alot happens every week in the Woods' house, but this week I thought I would post about 2 things. The first pictures I have posted are of my children on "Crazy Hair Night" at Awana. We have "Crazy Hair Night" every year in Awana and they never grow tired of it. They love wearing their hair in some kind of crazy way out of the norm. So, enjoy the crazy hair pics below.

Here, Brandon is giving his Dad the side view of his wacky hairdo!

Would you look at that mohawk? It's amazing what a hand filled of hair goop will do!!

My four darlings with their crazy do's!

You might be wondering why I've posted a picture of these beautiful flowers. My husband brought these home to the kids and I Monday evening after work. We were very surprised and immediately got a vase with water for them. He wanted to let us know how much he loved us by saying, "These roses will die, but my love for you will never die!" What an awesome picture to show myself as well as our children. John, you are an awesome husband and father and I love you very much! Thank you for giving of yourself for our family. Thank you for working so hard each day to provide for us. We notice all you do and we appreciate you! We love you! I love you! And, I thank God for you!

The Good News

Did you know that Taiwan is a country where 97% of the people are Buddhist? That means if they died today, they would do so without a relationship with Jesus Christ and would spend eternity separated from God. Franklin Graham, son of world-renown evangelist Billy Graham, has just finished preaching a festival in Taipei, Taiwan over a four-day period. In that time, 183,000 persons heard the Good News of Jesus Christ proclaimed to them by Graham. Of those people, nearly 10,000 made a commitment of their life to Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. WOW! The Gospel is still the best news available, and people responding to it is Good News indeed! You can read and see more about the Taipei Franklin Graham Festival at www.billygraham.org posted by John

Trunk Or Treat

Last night, we had a terrific opportunity to reach out to our community, to share the love of Jesus and let them know that we love and care about them. Our church did our 1st Trunk or Treat. We had many families participate by decorating their trunks, helping with set-up and clean-up, providing candy, etc. Thank you to our great church family for making this event a huge success. We handed out many gospel tracts, booklets about knowing Jesus as your personal Savior, and candy packets with the gospel message printed on them. We also got to speak to many people who do not attend our church or any church, with words of love and encouragement. John, you did an awesome job organizing this event! Way to go, Honey!!! Also, John's secretary, Jo, was an awesome help getting all the details in order. Thank you Jo!

Our family decorated our trunk with Veggie Tales. We've always been a huge fan of Veggie Tales, and since John was showing a Veggie Tale video at the end of Trunk or Treat ("Where is God when I'm Scared?"), I thought it would be a great idea to decorate our trunk with the characters. So, I traced them on cardboard and the boys helped me color them. The kids had a blast going around to the different trunks and playing their games. Bethany had to stay close to our van so I could keep an eye on her, so she really enjoyed putting candy in other kids sacks. She was very generous too, giving out lots of candy to each child.

Papa John even came along and handed out candy to the kids.

Here is Sweet Brenna. She got the most candy of all. I don't know how many times she went around to all the trunks, but it was alot! She would say, "Mommy, I'm going around again!" I finally had to tell her she had enough when her bag was so heavy that she could barely carry it. Too funny!!

One of our trunks was actually 3 trunks put together, and they had Karioke (sp?) set up for kids to come by and sing their favorite song. Here is a cute picture of Bethany and Brandon singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Bethany and Bradley are chillin' in the back of our van enjoying a piece of their candy!

Here are my BMW's smiling one more time for their Mommy! Aren't they cute???

We pray that God will take this event, and every tract, booklet, piece of candy, etc. that was handed out last night, and use it to bring many people to know Him. Thank you Lord for allowing us to participate in this ministry.

Visit With A Dear Friend

Last Tuesday, our dear friend Kristi, from Paris, had to come to Austin for training related to her job! Lucky us, because we got to see her for a few hours. She even got to go to Brandon & Bradley's baseball game. What fun!!! We had a little bit of fun taking some pictures after the game too. You can see one of them below with our Hook'em Horns signs. Anyway, what a treat to get to spend some time with our sweet friend whom we don't get to see very often. We thank the Lord for the few hours we got to visit, laugh, and catch up on things we've missed. Friends are such treasures from the Lord. We love you Kristi and want to say "Thank You" for coming to see us! Meredith, we wish you could've come too!!! We love and miss you guys very much!