Q&A2: Devotions, Holidays, and Top 5's

Sandra asks: What do you do for family devotions? How overt will your Christmas celebration be where you are? Are you aware of any needs there that we could support? How can we best support you?... Understanding that service is at a cost is important -- what are the five things that each of you miss most? ...The five most unexpected pleasures at your new home?

FAMILY DEVOTIONS
Nearly every night, we have "family time", where we read and talk about the Bible, sing songs, and spend some time in prayer. Right now, we're going through a book together called, "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds", that has pre-made short devotional ideas that teach doctrinal and biblical truth. Ethan really enjoys the teaching time as we discuss questions and concerns he has along the way, and Baxter is more interested in the singing aspects of it. But it's a short time that our family takes to focus on our Maker and to regularly teach our children the most important things in life.

CHRISTMAS
We are currently thinking about how we will celebrate Christmas. We have a few books and a nativity set that will draw the eyes of people who come to our home. We are considering having our own party for friends, just as they did for us last week (see "Fasting and Feasting"). We can share our customs and beliefs with friends in that way.

NEEDS
As far as needs go, we personally have no immediate needs, but we will address an overarching need in our next e-mail update (we'll send that out in the next couple of days). The very best support is by regularly lifting us up. There have been SO MANY times over the last 8 months that we have been discouraged, physically ill and injured but we are VERY confident that it is the kneebends of our friends and family that has kept us here and thriving, despite the difficulties.

FIVE THINGS WE MISS MOST:
1. PEOPLE- family , friends, Brothers & Sisters
2. FOOD- familiar and comforting foods from home
3. BOOKSTORES- we are BIG readers, so it's hard not to be able to take a quick trip to Half- Price Books or LifeWay for some new things to read! (We had a hard time deciding if this was #2 or #3, if that gives you an idea of how much we love reading.)
4. CONVERSATIONAL EASE & DEPTH- the ability to easily have a conversation about real-life things without having to explain what a word means, explain analogies, try to communicate cultural differences, etc.
5. TEXAS THINGS- the State Fair, the Dallas skyline, Cowboys and Rangers games, the big Texas sky with beautiful sunsets, Mexican food, pictures in bluebonnets, things like that. (Sorry to all you non-Texans, but it's the truth--we miss it!) :)

FIVE UNEXPECTED PLEASURES:
1. PEOPLE- I thought it would be annoying to be constantly stared at, but it is actually generally very fun. The kids make a great entrance for us to talk with people, and we have many more opportunities to smile and connect with people because of the "celebrity" factor.
2. FOOD- We are pretty spoiled, I think. The food here is delicious and generally cheap. While there are some disadvantages, they have really great food here. It's not home-food, but it's good. I'm actually going to do a big post sometime soon discussing food.
3. SCENERY- The mountains, greenery, and environment are beautiful. But I even like the differences in city landscape-- buildings, signs... it's all so different and there's something really wonderful about it. Though we don't "fit in" here, we somehow feel like we fit.
4. INEXPENSIVENESS OF LIFE- We knew it would be somewhat cheaper to live here, but we had no idea. Big Ozarka-sized bottles of purified water cost about .60 cents each. When we were furnishing our apartment, Jess bought three large pieces of used furniture (a hutch, a cabinet kind of like a sideboard, and a small dresser) and had them all delivered for a total of about $40. And it's so inexpensive to go out to eat. Saturday night we went out to eat (just the two of us) and a very filling and tasty dinner for both of us cost us $1.75.
5. WEATHER- We were told it was very cold here, and it was when we arrived in March, and it has been getting more and more cold in the past few weeks, but we had about 6 months of really nice, comfortable weather-- almost never getting over 80 degrees.

Thanks to Sandra for her questions! If YOU have questions, please CLICK HERE and leave a comment with your question(s) and we'll take time to answer yours.