The "GHOP", Partnership with God and a broke down car

First off, Asher is doing well. I couldn't see him today because of meetings and not having a baby sitter for Joel...but Erika's dad did get a chance to stop by and pray for him. Later in the day, my dear friend/spiritual mother stopped by to pray over him and read the word in his room. Lorraine even got a chance to hold him. She called us later and said she just wanted to keep him and hold him forever ;) Sorry Lorraine we already have dibs, you can be "Auntie Lorraine" though ;) We love you!!

He is still acting alert and well, all except for a few instances of vomiting. They are running him in for an upper GI x-ray on Monday just to make sure everything is working alright. The nurse told me the other day that some of the drugs he is on can cause nausea as a side effect. I'm hoping that is all that is bothering him. Jesus, please touch Asher's stomach and soothe it like you soothed the stormy sea!

GHOP

We will have more space once our landlady is able to come pick up her furniture and storage bins.

GHOP stand for Garage House of Prayer. We recently arranged the GHOP in our garage and it has been amazing! We set it up so that the IHOP prayer room is streaming into our garage 24/7. It's a cool little sacred space for us to go to when we need to get away with God for a bit. And, it has been such a blessing because it makes the house of prayer atmosphere available to us in our home and around our crazy schedule. I really dig it. It's pretty awesome!

The second reason we set up the GHOP is so that we can start having house church'ish things in there and really use it to reach out to people who don't know Jesus... through bible studies and other stuff. It's in the garage so we don't have to worry about making too much noise and waking the babies at night. It is a huge blessing and I highly recommend that all of you try it. Try setting aside a place in your house specifically for worship and prayer and then stick to praying there with your family and alone. It is awesome and definitely worth checking out.

Partnership with God

So Erika and I were in the GHOP last night, worshiping God, and I got this awesome idea for stage lighting (I do some sound at OHOP) that would glorify God in a practical way, so I started to write it down. As I was doing this, I started getting excited about this 3 day worship event we are planning in downtown Mt. Dora and began writing a prayer starting with the words "God help...", when I got a revelation and scratched out the words "God help....", and wrote, "Dad lets do this together, me and you. Lets draw people into your presence during this worship event" (or something like that) and suddenly I heard God explaining to me what He wants from us. It is partnership! He wants us to do awesome things together with Him.

When we pray, usually we are asking God to do something FOR US. Whereas, God is looking for partnership and relationship WITH US throughout this whole thing. He wants to know our ideas and to share His ideas with us (His are always right on of course) .

Anyway that was a pretty sweet revelation that I could better describe if I weren't so tired. But I am going to move onto the next piece of news in our life.

A Broke Down Car (Erika taking over...Matt fell asleep)

Tonight, on the way to a meeting out in Mt. Dora, our car began to sputter and then minutes later it just konked out dead on the side of the street. Good thing the Gonzalez's weren't far away and could come pick us up! Everyone I talk to seems to think it's the alternator but I don't know what is wrong for sure. I do know the electrical wires are all old and crossed which can make interesting things happen at times. Thank God we didn't break down with Joel in the car, that would have been a nightmare! So, tomorrow begins the fun task of calling our roadside assistance and seeing if they can tow the car to our family mechanic. But, that still leaves us short a vehicle to see Asher with, hopefully only for just a few days. Interesting side note here...my aunt sent us a check a few weeks ago with a vague note about feeling the money was to go to rent, but not a house rent. We sat on that one because we didn't know what else we were suppose to rent......until now. I'm going to check out Enterprise and see how much it is to rent a car for a few days. I love how God sets us up WAY before the event...but he does it in such a mysterious way that you could never figure out what He is referring to until it happens. I'm just waiting for him to provide a new family vehicle since this one is having so many problems. I don't feel confident driving the boys around in it anymore. It has been a great blessing since it was given to us a year and a half ago, but this old nag is quickly turning to glue and another needs to take it's place. Please join us in prayer for my family to be able to get a new family car. I would love a nice Toyota / Honda / Nissan mini van or Toyota Forerunner, Subaru Forrester type car. Something great on gas and dependable with cold air for the babies. God is good...and in HIS perfect timing, all things happen. My hope is in Him!

Enough about cars and garages...it's SOOo late and I have to get to sleep.
Blessings Sweet People!
~Erika~