JEHOVAH-JIREH...Jehovah will provide!

My mind is overwhelmed with many thoughts today. The  overcast sky reflects my thoughts in the disappointing results from yesterday's  presidential election. (And I'm sure that there are some who do not share my disappointment, but for me and my family it was and is a disappointment.) America has voiced her opinion and turned her back on God, but I'm thankful that God doesn't want me to place my confidence in man anyways. Truly I'm thankful today that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46:1) I would have loved to see a different man take over the oval office for the sake of my children and future generations, but I rejoice in knowing that nothing catches God by surprise, and He is NOT worried about the future or wondering what's going to happen next!

On a different note entirely, the Robertson family is continuing to move forward with plans for Alaska. My mind is constantly spinning with questions, packing details, and I constantly feel like I can't focus on the task at hand without my mind wondering off to something else! I'm excited, overwhelmed, and thankful that "...when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." (Psalm 61:2) God has provided for us this far and will continue to do so.

As many of you know, we have been searching for a vehicle for our trip to Alaska, and I'm happy to report that God has done just that...provided for us! We looked at Envoy's, Trailblazers, Explorer's, and Suburbans, and discovered that our options became extremely limited as a family of six! A family of five...no problem...but since I couldn't decide which child to leave behind (Just kidding!), we needed something bigger. We searched Craigslist more times than I can count, and compared prices with Kelley Blue Book until we needed to buy a membership to Kelley Blue Book to compare anything else! (I'm kidding!)  However, last Saturday, my husband made a phone call to a man offering a suburban for sale. The price was in our budget, and it would fit our family. Upon looking the vehicle over, we made an offer and the man accepted it! WHOO HOO! We are know the owners of a 2000 suburban! It is fully loaded with more options than I ever dreamed...heated seats (yay!), remote start (I'll let you know how that works in Alaska!), bucket seats in the middle row, and leather interior. The kids have been asking to drive everywhere in it, but I don't think they realize that by the time we reach Alaska, they will have had their fill of sitting in the truck! I'm excited to see that the Lord provided the right vehicle for us and not very excited about filling it up with gas! We are planning on leaving in 13 days, on November 21st, so time is flying by. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to move forward in our plans.

Another day, another run, another moment to praise the Lord!

My running shoes...minus the pair I can't find at the moment!

I had my annual physical this week, and I was once again reminded of how much I have to be thankful for in life. I am in good health, and have lost 13 pounds from last year. That may not seem like a whole lot, but I've been fighting to lose those pounds! I'm six pounds away from the weight I was when I got married, but I'm not sure I'll ever get there!

Also this week, I realized that it has been a year since I started tracking my miles. I didn't set a goal this past year of how many miles I was aiming to run, but I run mostly because I enjoy it. And running helps me keep my weight in check! Someone recently asked me to name one word that would describe my exercise and reason for running...one word= commitment. For me, that sums it up in a nutshell, oh, there are many other words that go along with that like dedication, perseverance, determination, etc. but that is the one I chose. Why? For me, exercise is like reading my Bible, I am committed to reading it every day just as I am committed to exercising every day. Now, I'd rather have my Bible read than exercise done, but I'm committed to fitting both in my day. It doesn't always happen, but just because I trip up, doesn't mean I should quit the race completely! Actually, reading my Bible often motivates me to exercise because I'll read about my body being the temple of the living God (II Corinthians 6:16), or run that we might obtain, (I Corinthians 9: 24) or controlling my appetite (Proverbs 23:2). Bottom line is that I try to be committed to seeing my body get daily exercise.

I'd encourage anyone to commit to exercise everyday. It provides oxygen for the body, refreshes the mind, produces endorphins, and helps keep the pounds in check...all good reasons to exercise the body and mind. I've found that running allows me to meditate on Scripture, pray for others, and listen to some awesome Gospel songs; therefore, all the more reason for me to do it.

 My greatest encourager and supporter in my husband, Roger. He doesn't necessarily enjoy running, but he encourages me to do it. He never complains about watching the kids while I run or exercise, and I am so thankful for him. God has blessed me beyond measure!

In the past year, I've run three 5k races, a half-marathon, and have logged just over 1,000 miles on my shoes! 600 of those were running miles, while the rest were composed of biking, walking, aerobic exercise, and elliptical. Running a half-marathon was hard work, and while I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment, I'm not sure I'll do it again. I'd like to do a triathlon, but we'll see what the new running year brings.


However, things are changing for our family with our upcoming adventure, and one of my biggest fears (my closest friends have already heard me say this!) is that I will gain 20 pounds in ten weeks due to lack of exercise. So, in the next few weeks, I'll probably be working more on self-discipline and telling the flesh "no" rather than my commitment to exercise.


 July 2012

My friend, Katie and myself
in September of 2011...
and she's very tiny, so she makes me
look fatter than I really am!





The Robertson Family

 

Short-term mission trip to Manley Hot Springs, Alaska



 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I: send me.”  Isaiah 6:8

Dear Family and Friends,

          As many of you know, this past March I was able to take a trip to Alaska. It was a short trip with Wings As Eagles ( a ministry out of our church, Wyldewood Baptist) geared toward evangelistic goals of reaching people with the gospel. There I strengthened a friendship with a missionary to the north, Earl Malpass. I was able to see his ministry, and God really gave me a burden to help this missionary friend. Not knowing what God had in mind, I returned home and my wife and I began to pray about what God would have us to do. We stayed in contact with Brother Malpass, and when he mentioned his desire to go on furlough, I felt God’s direction toward taking a short- term mission trip to help out his ministry while he and his family are away.

           My family and I are planning to head to Alaska at the end of November and return towards the beginning of February.  We will be staying in the village of Manley Hot Springs, which is about a five- hour drive from Fairbanks, Alaska.  Brother Malpass has established a small church family there, and we are looking forward to meeting the people of this community, working with them, encouraging them, and assisting in church services.  We are excited about this opportunity and are looking forward to seeing how God uses us. 

              We are in need of several things.  As we step out on this new experience, we need your help.  First of all, we ask that you pray for us. Pray for safety. Pray we will be a blessing to the people there. Pray that God would use our family for His glory. Pray that God would strengthen our family and give us clear direction for our future.  

Secondly, we are in need of a four-wheel -drive vehicle to use for our 10 week mission trip. It is costly to live in Alaska and in order to cut costs, we are planning on driving there.  We ask that you pray that God would allow us to find the right vehicle.

Thirdly, we are stepping out on faith, knowing that God will provide our needs. Would you be willing to consider giving a one-time monetary donation to help our family with the expenses of gas, a vehicle, and food? We would greatly appreciate anything that God leads you to give.  Any donations can be sent to our home church, Wyldewood Baptist Church. Please ear-tag it for the Roger Robertson family.

 Thank you for your prayers.  If you would like to receive updates and news about our trip, you can find it on our family blog… mudandmanners.blogspot.com. The updates will be sporadic as we will be able to update only when we can connect to the internet. Thank you and God bless. 

Roger, Sarah, Garett, Chandler, Wyatt, and Travis Robertson

 

This is the letter we sent out to family and friends to encourage them to pray for us as we step out on this new adventure. My heart is overwhelmed with the thought of this experience, and I am resting in God to take care of us, provide for us, and to change us more into His image for His glory through this trip.  I am excited about this opportunity, and as a family we are looking forward to this mission trip. The cabin we will be staying in is a dry cabin, which means it has electricity, but no running water! This will be a challenge for me...how badly do I need to go to the bathroom?! I have many questions about how it will all work out, but one thing is for certain...it will be interesting! Prayers are appreciated, and we love and care about you all.

Love, Sarah

Birthday, Birthdays, an anniversary and a wedding!

              Life doesn't offer a pause button, but if it did I'd be sure to use it at times! We've been busy with my baby turning two, and my oldest turning six...where oh where did time go??? We celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary in September, witnessed the wedding of Roger's younger brother, I helped with a Ladies Retreat at church, we had revival services with Tom Farrell, moved on to Missions conference, and started school with Garett somewhere in that list too!



Our anniversary weekend...same dress I wore for our honeymoon, seven years ago!

         We had a family get-together for Travis' birthday, and then Garett had a party with a few families over with their children. Garett asked for tacos for his birthday dinner, and he was SO excited to pick out his own birthday cake from Wal-mart. I did an interview with Garett and asked him a few questions. I saved the questions and hope to repeat them in future years to see how his responses mature and change.





Here are his responses:
 1) What is your favorite thing to do? "maybe....play outside"
 2) What is your favorite food? vegetables
 3) Who is your best friend? "uh...I don't know"
 4) What would be the best birthday present ever? "maybe this" (pointing to the airplane, he had just opened for his birthday)
 5) What is one new thing you learned this year? "maybe...school"
 6) What would you like to be when you grow up? "maybe..I don't know"
 7) If someone was to give you money for a birthday present, what would be the perfect amount? "maybe..twenty dollars".


My four little men...six, four, three and two!

I enjoyed listening to his responses, and I look forward too doing an interview with my other children on their upcoming birthdays as well.

          While life has been just a tad overwhelming these past few weeks, I 've been challenged to manage my time better and blogging hasn't been a priority. However, we have some big changes coming up for our family in the next few weeks and months, and I have been reminded by a friend that I need to get back at this. Stay tuned for new adventures within our family!

Family wedding...Roger's brother, Mark and wife, Allison

       

Excuses, Excuses...but, yes, It's true!

         I have a whole list of reasons why I haven't been blogging lately, but suffice it to say...the computer is fixed (that's a major one), the summer is slowing down, my phone camera is overloaded with pictures, school starts in a few weeks, and on and on it goes!

         The summer has been OVERLOADED with fun memories, lots of trips to see extended family,
swimming, biking, and much, much more. It would be impossible to recap all that has happened in the last few weeks, but since this is my blog, and I can write about whatever I wish...I'm going to try! :)

       The week following Vacation Bible School, my sister, myself and my boys took off on a 17 hour car ride to North Carolina. We were DELIGHTED to reach our destination! The boys spent the next 12 days enjoying swimming (every day), jet skiing, water tubing, a visit to the ocean, a visit to the mountains, and lots of sun and fresh air. It was a special treat to visit Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where we spent 3 days wallowing in the ocean, and loving the five pools at the resort we stayed at. My biggest drawback to the trip, was not having my husband along. I missed him desperately, and I was reminded again of all his work with our children. I did enjoy catching up on visiting with my sisters, and visiting with my mom's extended family.

     While visiting the ocean, Chandler asked me, "How do they fill this up every night?" It took me a minute to figure out that he was talking about the ocean water and figured it to be a large pool that someone filled up every night! It was a great opportunity to talk about how God made the ocean and that God "filled" it up.

    While children are a challenge at times, and I feel overwhelmed most of the time, I know that I am one very wealthy woman. Not in money, but in raising four boys for His glory. I treasure the memories that were created, and thank God for each child that He has blessed us with.

Beach Buds

Hot tub at resort

My four and their cousin, Jeremiah

Wyatt and Aunt Jenn

Mom and boys tubing

Loving the pool time

Mom and the boys

Vacation Bible School, a busy week, and an amazing gift!

What a week! We started off the week with Vacation Bible School’s opening night on Monday. I taught the 3 and 4 years olds and felt extremely overwhelmed most of the week. We had fun, but I’m not sure what they learned! We painted, made several crafts, played outside, participated in the penny offering, and I taught the two lessons, over and over. I wanted our focus to be on obedience to parents, that we are all sinners, and that Jesus loves us and died for us. It was an amazing week, with over 200 kids coming through the doors of the church to hear about Jesus! There were several professions of faith in Jesus Christ, and many, many visitors. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to help out, and I’m also thankful that I have 365 days to recover before it comes again!

                                                                                                                  


My children spent time this week visiting neighbors, asking me to call friends and relatives, looking for visitors to come to Vacation Bible School. Chandler was especially diligent and asked me daily, “Who can I invite today?”. But all their hard work paid off…Garett placed 5th in the bring the most visitors contest, Wyatt placed 3rd, and Chandler placed 1st! They were ecstatic about the gifts they received, and they were up early this morning to play with the new toys!

We also visited the strawberry patch this week! My children had a great time, and I’m thankful that I didn’t need a whole lot of strawberries as they quickly lost interest! I had a hard time convincing Travis that I wanted to keep the strawberries in the box! We were able to go with my sister and a friend with her two boys, so it was a strawberry party in the field…with lots of little boys!

Busy Boys!

My helping hands

What fun memories we created! The boys had a great time, and I’m so thankful for each one of them!

Boys, Boys, Boys!

Travis

Strawberry Hands

                                                                                           


And now for the most exciting news of all! I received a wonderful gift this week as the result of lots of prayers, faithful teachers, a wonderful church family, and a special little boy. This week Garett asked Jesus to come into his heart! He woke up on Wednesday morning, June 13, 2012, and the first thing he told me was, “Mom, I got saved last night!”. I asked him if he had asked Jesus to come into his heart at Vacation Bible School, and he replied, “No, but they talked about it, and when I came home and got in my bed, I asked Jesus to come into my heart and take away my sin”. I asked him if he knew what it meant to ask Jesus to come into his heart. He gave a very clear response in replying that he knew he was a sinner, Jesus had died for him, Jesus lives in heaven, and when Garett dies he’s going to Heaven to be with Jesus! How I’ve prayed for this day, and it is with great rejoicing that I give glory to God.

Catching up in a nutshell!

I never seem to have the time to write on here like I'd like to, but I consider this blog like my online journal of my family life. Hence, I am playing catch-up! The summer is officially here, with Garett finishing his year of 4K, a family camping trip over Memorial day weekend, plus a canoe trip with friends, running a 5K, and Chandler's surgery (tonsils and adenoids removed). All that to say, I've been very, very busy! And next week starts Vacation Bible School at our church. I'll be teaching the 3-4 year olds, and I definitely feel out of my comfort zone here! I have my own children in this age group and know how much time and effort is required to help them grow, so I'm a little overwhelmed. I do not want to waste 2 1/2 hours every night for five nights, I really want this group of little people to learn something!

My awesome husband and Travis

On May 19th, I ran a 5K in our local town. It was a very warm day, about 90 degrees, and the race was at 11:30am. Another friend from our church, Jared, ran as well. My husband walked around with the kids and cheered me on. I placed 6 out of 215 women and third in my age group. I ran a time of 23:54, which in college, would have been awful for me, but 7 years out of college...I'm very happy with that! 

The friend that also ran in the race... he's lost over 100 lbs.!

Also, on May 19th, we took a canoe trip with some close friends of ours, the Longsines and the Schuberts, and a family from my dad's church. It was the perfect length for children as the water was high and moved along quickly. All of our kids went and seemed to have a great time!

The final week in May wrapped up school for Garett, followed by a camping trip with other families from our church. We went to a little campground in the Dells, and we had a great time! Saturday was a little rough as it rained off and on, and the mosquitoes were terrible! But, Sunday was beautiful! After church, we went down to the water and played water games. The mosquitoes were not nearly as bad making the day much, much better!

Getting ready to go swimming!

Loved the water

Travis has lots of little mothers!

Following the camping trip, Chandler had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids. I was really dreading the whole affair...not necessarily the surgery, but the aftermath of the sore throat and a possible very whining child! He came through the surgery with flying colors. He had the surgery at 8am, and we were home by noon. That was with a stop to Wal-mart to get Popsicles and ice cream, and McDonald's for french fries...yes, he ate french fries the day of his surgery! We are now on day five following the surgery and other than acting a little more tired and asking for extra fluids, my boy is the same! We are supposed to try to get him to rest and relax, but also let him take the lead in activities...so he's been riding his bike, climbing trees, and eating more Popsicles...I think he'll be fine!

Before surgery...he didn't want to wear the gown, "It's a dress!"

After surgery...resting, cuddling, and drinking

Already the summer is looking full with lots of fun family times planned. First is Vacation Bible School, then I'm taking the kids to North Carolina to see my sister and other extended family. Followed by one of my best friends from college coming to visit for a few days, then special meetings at our church. After that the family reunion with all of my husbands side, plus a few camping trips, canoe outings, and whatever else we find to do in the summer! I'm looking forward to the future, and all that God has in store for us. I know that the summer will be busy and full, but I treasure these moments with my family and the memories we are creating for a lifetime!