Dear Friends, Amy turned 10 years old last Monday! I can’t believe she reached double digits! She asked for an orange chocolate cake, and while I love baking (and I bake several times a week for a decade now), I’ve never made orange chocolate cake before. Well, I loved it so much, I already made a second one since then, …
Camp Registration
Dear Friends, This year I, Lili, will be responsible for camp registration. We have 7 weeks of camps planned, from June to August. Registration started on January 19, and we have a 100 registered campers by now (Feb 1). Praise God! We hope to have around 1000 campers this summer. Please pray for many campers to come to our camps, …
Changes
Dear Friends, After a long winter break, the girls are back in school. They both missed their friends and teachers and are glad they can be back in school, but they did not miss having to wake up early to go to school. 🙂 The boys and I sure miss them very much!Amy and Haley are both doing very well …
Blessed New Year!
Dear Friends, Happy New Year! One thing we kept reminding ourselves about last year was God’s faithfulness. The more we meditated on who He is, the less scary the days were. We are reading Psalms in our Quiet Time these days and it helps tremendously to reflect on God’s characteristics. We often read in these passages about His love, His …
Ready for Christmas Break
Dear Friends, Christmas is almost here! I cannot wait to have Chris home for a couple of weeks and celebrate our Savior’s birth together. Joshua turned 3 at the end of last month, so now we have a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 9-year-old, and I am turning 33 the end of this month. Lots of multiples of 3 …
Blessed Season
Dear Friends, Can you believe it’s the last month of the year? As we wrap up this calendar year, we look back with so much gratefulness. We couldn’t have imagined what this year has in store for us, but God knew exactly every moment of it, and we rest in the knowledge that God is in control today as much …
Fall Break
Dear Friends, The girls had their fall break late October. It was so nice to have them home and just relax and spend time together. I love weekends for the same reason. 🙂 Amy lost another tooth (#11) recently. She is very excited. 😀 She still loves playing on the piano and helps teach Haley and Josh as well. I …
God’s Provision, and Hope in Christ
We are so thankful for your prayer support and financial support during these times. God listens to prayers! In the 5 weeks we have had students and staff arrive from 13 countries, to an otherwise closed country. Our multiple waves of internationals have gone through quarantine after they arrived, and now as we start our 5th week of classes, there is only 1 …
Another Walker in the Family
Dear Friends, Months are going by so fast these days. We have a 13 months old little guy, who started walking. 🙂 Other than Amy (who was 10 months old when she started walking) all the other kids started walking at 13 months. It’s so fun to see him walk and he knows it’s a big thing, because you can …
Another School Year, Here We Come!
Have you ever had a time in your life when you just couldn’t believe how mightily God answered your prayers? In these instances I often think of Acts 12. The believers who were likely praying for Peter’s deliverance couldn’t believe that he was actually there at their gate.While we were praying for the students to be able to come this …
Getting Used to a New Schedule
Dear Friends, Chris had some time off the end of August, so we went to several places with the kids to enjoy some family time together. It was really nice to be together after a very busy summer (and anticipating an even busier fall). September 1st, our girls started a new school year. It was Haley’s first day of school …
Certainty in the Midst of Uncertainty
Dear Friends, Certainty in the Midst of Uncertainty is the title of many sermons since March 2020. COVID19 sure has changed this year, and the years to come. But it didn’t change who God is, His power, His faithfulness, and His goodness. With Him, in Him, we have peace despite our circumstances. We praise Him for this fantastic, unfathomable gift! …
1, 6, 32
Dear Friends, It’s that month again, when half of the family celebrates their birthday. 😀 Jonathan is going to be 1 at the end of August, Haley is turning 6 tomorrow and Chris will be 32 in less than a week. Lots happened to the James family this past month. We completely redid the upstairs, we got a used car …
Camp Update 2020
Dear Friends, We are about to start Week 5 at our camps! So far we had almost 440 campers, we expect another 330 during the next 3 weeks of camps. Over 90 campers made a decision to trust Jesus as their personal Savior and 75 made a decision to dedicate their lives to Him so far. Praise God! Please pray …
Home, Sweet Home
Dear Friends, The girls are home from camp, they had a wonderful week. I am so grateful they can go to camp and spend time with their friends. The boys are very glad to have their sisters home, and I am so happy to have all of the kids home. We spend a lot of time in our yard, working …
Jungle Fun
Dear Friends, Camp starts this Sunday and both of our girls are going to be campers the first week of camp. We are very excited and so are they! The camp’s theme this year is Jungle, I cannot wait to see all the decoration! I am sure it will be a lot of fun! We weren’t sure if camps will …
9 and 9
Dear Friends, We had a wonderful month! We finally saw some friends, had some people over (in our yard), and even had the pleasure of having a Bible School student over for a while. Jonathan turned 9 months old, so now we have a 9-year-old and a 9 months old. 🙂 Jonathan loves to eat and his favorite spot in …
Endings and Beginnings
Dear Friends, Another BI year has ended. We miss the students terribly, but are so proud of them and how well they’ve done in this unprecedented time. The courses are done, summer ministry is all that is left. Our hope and prayer is that they continue to be a light wherever they are, and that they remember all that they …
Investing in Our Kids
Dear Friends, We hope you are all well! We are enjoying the weather, spending a lot of time together. I know I mention this a lot, but I am so thankful for this special time we have with our kids. It’s wonderful to get to know them better and spend all day with them. In April we started memorizing verses. …
Keeping in Touch
Dear Friends, We are so grateful that we have internet! While I am sure we would make do without it, I can’t imagine how we would keep in touch with all the students if we didn’t have internet. Chris has been busy making sure the Bible School runs smoothly, as you can imagine, we are facing new challenges, but so …
Thankful for My Family
Dear Friends, It’s been a month since the kids and I left our gate, and while we miss our family, our church family, our friends, and walking outside, it’s been really nice and we can’t complain. The only downside to living like this is the lack of face-to-face conversations. But we are so grateful for technology and for the opportunity …
Living and Serving Even in Uncertain Days
Are things as crazy and uncertain in your neck of the woods as they are here? It’s good to rest in the knowledge that God is bigger than all this! We really have quite the opportunity to show our trust in Him, when people are faced with uncertainty all around them. When Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586, Jeremiah …
Together
Dear Friends, Starting tomorrow, our “normal” will change a bit, since Hungary closed schools for a period of time due to the coronavirus. Amy will continue school online, and Haley will be able to stay home with her siblings as well. Since I stay home with the boys anyway, I don’t expect this to drastically change our everyday lives, and …
Q&A
Dear Friends, We arrived over 2 and a half years ago to serve here at Word of Life Hungary. Chris’ position changed each year, and we had two kids meanwhile. Life is not boring! 🙂 I thought it was time to have a Q&A again. We did one before we left for Hungary, but now that we are here, maybe …
9 Years Old!
Dear Friends, Our sweet Amy turned 9 this month and our cute little Jonathan will be 6 months old in 10 days! Amy asked for a burger for her birthday lunch and we knew just the place to order it from. 🙂 A block from our house is a street food restaurant where they serve HUGE burgers. It was her …