This Month at Spokane Turbine Center...

It is hard to believe that it is already June and that another training cycle has begun.  For the next three weeks, 12 mechanics from 4 different mission organizations are here in Spokane for the maintenance specialist course.  This training cycle includes four courses: the PT-6 Comprehensive Overview, the Hot Section Inspection and Line Maintenance, the G1000 Line Maintenance, and the Kodiak Systems.

During this training cycle (June 7-28) , would you join us in prayer for all the missionaries who will be taking the course as well as for the STC staff?  Here are a few specific ways you can lift them up in prayer...

Mechanics:

• Safety for their families at home who are in various places all around the world.
• To retain as much information as they can.
• To apply the information learned during their training to their daily operations at their home bases.

STC Staff:

• To teach and communicate the material and course work clearly.
• To be an encouragement and a support to the mechanics as they learn a lot of new information.
• To continue to stay healthy.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

"For you formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well."  (Psalm 139:13-14)

Baby Toews is on the way!!  Jeremy and I are excited to meet our precious gift that God is entrusting to us around December 7, 2012!

Psalm 139 has long been one of my favorite chapters of scripture.  Over the past 14 weeks, it has taken on an even deeper meaning and significance for me.  Each week as we read about how our baby is developing, see ultrasounds of little Toews, and learn how the Lord created women to provide the nutrients to sustain this little life in the womb, we are in awe of our Creator!

So far, the pregnancy is going really well.  The doctor had some suspicions about a condition that I might have that often causes premature birth.  In order to confirm that, he and an ultrasound technician have had to do extra ultrasounds.  It turns out that the baby and I are healthy, and because of this whole process, we had multiple opportunities to see our baby!  So fun!  One can't explain seeing the heart beating, watching arms and legs moving around wildly, identifying facial features and bone structures, and witnessing the baby doing somersaults (inside me- crazy!).  We are already proud parents!  

13.5 weeks

One Year Anniversary!!

A little over two weeks ago, Jeremy and I celebrated our first anniversary!  It is so hard to believe that a year has already gone by.  It has been a fun and exciting year and every day just keeps getting better! We are grateful for the Lord's many blessings, and we look forward to many, many more anniversaries to come!

To celebrate our anniversary, we went to the San Juan Islands in western Washington. For our honeymoon, we had stayed on Orcas Island, so this time we decided to stay on San Juan Island at Friday Harbor.  We enjoyed driving around the island, going for walks/hikes/runs, reading, drinking coffee while watching the ferries come in and out of the harbor, and time just to be together, away from the business of everyday life.

Me and my handsome husband!

The view of the docks from our window

We watched many ferries come and go from our couch.

The town of Friday Harbor, WA

Leaving Friday Harbor to head home

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from where every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and i Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."


-Ephesians 3:14-21

Reading Out Loud

When you were a kid, did your parents read to you out loud?  I know that when I was growing up, I loved it when my mom would sit in the hall at night and read to us.  (The only problem was that I tended to fall asleep quickly and missed most of the reading.  I had to catch up on my own the next day.)  The Chronicles of Narnia and Caddie Woodlawn were just a couple of my favorites.

Just because I'm an adult now, doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading books out loud anymore.  I love it!  Fortunately, Jeremy feels the same way.  Whether we are in the car on a road trip, sipping a cup of tea in the evening, or are sitting in the car dealership waiting for one of the recall parts on my car to be checked (like yesterday), we love reading out loud together.  The latest book we read was The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  If you haven't read it and enjoy fun, exciting mysteries, we would recommend that you read it.  Hmmm....now we just have to decide what's next. 

A Lesson In Forgiveness

As many of you know, my backpack was stolen out of my brother-in-law's car when we were traveling near Christmas time. Though not fun, it was a good reminder not to hold things too closely. Well, last night Jeremy was going to grill hamburgers for dinner. When he went outside to start up the grill, he noticed that the propane take was not only stolen, but the thief cut the propane line. The grill sits right up next to our house, so this kind of worried me. Then I realized that it could have been much worse. Our spare key was kept partially underneath that propane tank. The thief could have easily found the key and gotten into our house and taken much more. (Needless to say, we are no longer keeping a key outside. Why we have a spare key outside is a long story in and of itself. Let's just say I don't want Jeremy to have to come home from work again during the middle of the day to rescue his wife who locked herself out.)

Through this whole process, the Lord had yet another lesson for me to learn. Lately, I have been struck by the fact that I pray, but that I don't pray without ceasing like it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. He has been teaching me to talk to Him all day about everything- praising Him for a beautiful day, thanking Him for a warm house when it is snowing outside, lifting up a friend who pops into my thoughts, telling Him about the needs and requests of family and friends, praising Him for who He is, asking Him for wisdom and help, and talking together about life...you get the point. One thing I have noticed is that it is often hard for me to pray for situations or people that frustrate me or have hurt me. When I do pray for those circumstances and people, the Lord loving changes my frustration to compassion as well as changes my perspective to His. A propane tank can be replaced, but there is someone out there in Spokane who is hurting and in need of a Savior.

Lord, draw this thief, whom you love dearly, to yourself. May he/she come to know the richness of your love and your precious gift of salvation.

Is there something or someone who frustrates you or who has hurt you? Instead of holding on to it, take it to the Lord in prayer.

Prayer for the Unsaved

Over the last couple of months, Jeremy and I have joined a small home fellowship at our church. It is a wonderful group of people from around our neighborhood, whom we enjoy a wonderful Bible study and prayer time together as well as fellowship. 

Before Christmas, one of our leader's neighbors (Sheena), who had been attending for quite some time, gave her life to the Lord! Because we were meeting every other Tuesday night, Sheena's husband wasn't able to come because his work had him scheduled every Tuesday night. After our leaders prayed about it, they felt led to change our group to Friday nights in order to open up the opportunity for Brandon to attend. Last Friday was our first time meeting together on a Friday, and Brandon came with their kids, even though Sheena was sick and had to stay home. 

2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing anyone to perish but for all to come to repentance." 

Would you join with us in praying for Brandon's salvation?

Jeremy's Culinary Masterpiece

For my birthday last week, Jeremy made me this beautiful chocolate marble cheesecake.  It tasted really good!!  (I had no doubt that it would.)  I just had to take a minute and brag about my husband.  He is quite skilled in the kitchen, and I was very blessed by his thoughtfulness to make this for me.   

Here is the link to the recipe: Chocolate Marble Cheesecake