I miss you!!!

This beautiful lion is dedicated to Katie because I miss her ever so much!!! And I miss Niklas and Jenny too! Was it just one year ago that we spent New Year's Eve ordering delicious desserts from Chili's? I had my molten chocolate lava cake (which I highly recommend by the way) and Katie, Niklas, and Jenny helped me with my frustration over financial issues! I never thought then that I would have paid my whole credit card off a year later! I think this is the first year ever that I haven't seen Katie at Christmas and I'm so very sad about that. :( I hope I can see all of you guys soon!

Merry Christmas!!!

Wow what an amazing Christmas! Our whole family reunited for dinner at Ragazzi's, so we got to see little Leland, our sister Cameron's baby. Our brothers Jacob and Ryan and his girlfriend Jessica came too. Jessica's having a baby in about 2 weeks. It was awesome because it was my mom's first time seeing her first grandson, Leland, and it was only Mike's third time seeing him. Leland was SO good. Cameron is so blessed to have an awesome son who will be entertained by people easily. For the entire 2 and a half hour dinner, he didn't cry at all. He just got passed around from person to person and never complained. What a great kid! He was so adorable too!

Christmas Day was with my mom, Mike, my granny, Kathryn, and me at home. We had a great time! I was particularly exhausted because I had been finishing presents that I was making for my mom and Kathryn until late on Christmas Eve, but the presents were totally worth it. Several months ago I had found a box full of 8mm video camera tapes that were of my family from when we were little. I had never seen the video on those tapes ever, and I knew that my sister and mom and had never seen them either. So I decided to edit the tapes, add music and effects to them, and create a movie for my sister for Christmas. It was absolutely hilarious and overwhelmingly emotional at the same time. It meant a lot to my sister and I especially because my sister has become very sad over the past year or so that she's forgotten what our dad's voice sounded like. In the movie, there are a bunch of times where my dad is talking and you can hear his voice so loud and clear. We were all crying, even Mike (who never even knew us during the times of the video), by the end of it.

Peter came over too and we played soccer, went out in kayaks on the pondlake, and sat around the table talking. It was such a great Christmas! Enjoy all the pictures of our Christmas! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

More awesomeness from Jesus!!!

Okay wow. So here's part 2 of the Miguel story, along with pictures of him being dressed up as a Christmas tree from the youth group Christmas party!

So on Monday, I told one other teacher about what happened last weekend and within 48 hours, the story had spread all over the school. The awesome thing was that everyone seemed to understand that I'm not the person who deserves the praise and glory. It's all Jesus. All week people were coming to me, telling me how it moved them to start believing again - that their faith had been renewed and they wanted to help in any way

they could. So over the past 5 days, people have given me 5 huge boxes of food for Miguel's family, 3 bags of ornaments and lights for their tree, blankets, curtains, clothes, $50 gift cards to Old Navy and Barnes and Noble, 5 kids DVDs with Spanish language tracks, 6 books in Spanish, and almost enough money to buy Miguel the skateboard that he wants! The kids in my class have been talking about it all week too! One little boy who also has a rough home life came up to me and said, "Miss Tice, my mom and dad said that they don't have any money to buy presents this year. Do you think if I ask God for a present, will he hear me?"

4 different people have said that because of this week, it's the best Christmas they've ever had. How awesome is that? It absolutely leaves me in awe of Jesus, wondering how one simple thing like answering a prayer for a Christmas tree could spread to that many people and influence their hearts, beliefs, and actions. What a beautiful savior we have!

There's even more that's happened this week besides that...like me and Malena becoming a prayer team, and me getting guidance and leadership from her...taking Miguel snowboarding on Wednesday...more prayer requests being answered by God! Unbelievable. ANDDDD...I memorized my first verse in Spanish this week! Well I already knew "porque para Dios no hay nada imposible" but that one's so short, it doesn't seem like it should count! Here's the one I know now by heart: Psalm 70:5

"Yo soy pobre y estoy necesitado.

Ven pronto a mi, oh Dios.

Tu eres mi socorro y mi libertador.

Ino te demores, Senor." Salmo 70:5

I hope you guys have had as great a week as me!!!!!

What a day. Gracias a Jesus. What a day.

You are never going to believe the day I've had. Let me preface it by saying that last night I had been listening to the Christmas carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and the last two verses of the song were really speaking to me. The third verse is about how the guy in the song was in despair because he looks around and all he sees is hate and cruelty. I have sort of felt like that lately...not completely hopeless, but just that I've been in this slow time of not really sensing God working in my life. But anyway the next verse of the song says, "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor does he sleep, the wrong will fail, the right prevail, with peace on Earth, good will to men." For some reason last night, I was really into that "God is not dead nor does he sleep" part. No matter what I might think, God IS working and he has NOT forgotten about me. And then today he gave me a beautiful, most-needed gift that showed me exactly how "WITH US" God is. Here's the story. It's long, but worth reading. Trust me.

It all started this morning at church when Pastor Pete was teaching about salvation. I was translating as much as I could for Miguel who of course was with me. At the end, we were singing the song "Majesty" and I noticed that Miguel wasn't standing up with us. I looked over to see what he was doing and he was writing something on a piece of paper. This is what he wrote:

"Muchas gracias, Jesus, por todo." Thank you, Jesus, for everything. He smiled at me and I leaned over and added, "y por salvarme" which means "and for saving me." He immediately crossed out "me" on the end of salvar and wrote "nos" to make it "salvarnos" which means for saving US. He smiled at me again and we went back to singing.

After church, we were invited to lunch by a woman from Peru who speaks spanish. She just loves Miguel and calls him Miguelito. Her name is Malena. She is a small grandmotherly type woman who is just so kind and loving. So we went to her house for lunch. At her house she had a big Christmas tree and about 10 presents under it. Miguel told me, sadly, that his family can't get a Christmas tree this year because it's too expensive. He kept touching her tree and whispering "Que bonito, que bonito" meaning like "how beautiful, how beautiful". Then he said to me, "Look at all her presents! There's lots of presents!" I said, "Yes, and you're going to get lots of presents for Christmas too." (Because I know he is!) And then he looked down sadly at the floor and shook his head saying, "No I'm not. I don't have a tree. Santa Claus won't come without a tree." Well I went to tell Malena what he said and it broke her heart as much as it broke mine. She said (without him knowing), "Let's pray for a tree for him." So we did. And at the end she clapped her hands together and said, "Okay he's getting a tree!" I was like, "Hahaha yeah right. I wish it always worked like that." She said, "No, he is. We asked, and God will come through." I just kind of shrugged and smiled.

So THEN...after lunch...Malena came with us over to Miguel's house to meet Miguel's mom. They talked for about 15 minutes and then Malena asked her about her relationship with Christ. Then she started telling her the gospel, all about the glory and promises of God and tears started falling down Miguel's mom's face. Finally Malena asked her if she wanted to accept Jesus into her heart right then. She nodded yes and we all prayed together, including Miguel. She repeated a prayer to accept Jesus and then gave us big hugs, thanking us for everything we're doing for her family.

There was a Christmas party for the youth group tonight at church so Miguel and I asked if he could go to it. He was SO excited. He kept saying, "It's going to be so much fun! We're going to play games and open presents and have fun!!!" At the party they played a fun game where there were 4 teams and the teams had to decorate one kid on the team like a Christmas tree. It was hilarious. Miguel's team picked Miguel to be the tree! I took pictures, which I'll add later! Well one of the youth leaders thought Miguel was definitely the cutest tree of all of them and I laughed saying, "You know I think this means a lot to him that he got to be the tree for his team," and then I proceeded to tell her about what he said about not having a Christmas tree and Santa Claus not coming. I had not told ANYONE else but Malena that he said this. Well the woman said, "Really??? I have a Christmas tree at my house that I don't need and I've been trying to give it to somebody but nobody needs one." I stared at her. "What kind of a Christmas tree?" I said quietly. She pointed at the church Christmas tree, "Like that one. A normal Christmas tree. Do you think he wants it?" And I'm sure Malena would have said to me at that point, "Why are you surprised? I told you God would give him a tree!"

SO THEN....no the story's not over yet. If you're not crying yet, just wait...So then after the party we had to go BACK to Malena's house to pick up a box of stuff for Miguel's family that she was getting together. So we did. There, we told Malena about the Christmas tree and she was so happy for Miguel! He sat down on the sofa and she asked him if he understood what happened with his mom this afternoon. He said he thought so. She talked to him a little about it and then asked him if had Jesus in his heart too. He said yes and she asked him to tell her about it, like when did he accept Christ, where was he, all the juicy details that make testimonies so great. He said, "Today. At the end of church I believed, and then I prayed with you at our house." Malena looked at me and I at her. We both looked at him and said, "REALLY?????" at the same time. He smiled and we gave him a big hug and told him how happy we were. Then she talked to him about Jesus and what believing in him means and what it doesn't mean. She told him that Jesus doesn't promise that he'll never have problems and difficulties, but he promises to never leave him and to help him through anything. For about 20 minutes Malena talked and Miguel just sat on the sofa, never taking his eyes off her, smiling with the biggest, most content smile you've ever seen.

So Miguel and his mom accepted Christ today AND God threw in the Christmas tree, just because he could.

Porque para Dios no hay nada imposible! Lucas 1:37

Moosey Christmas Tree!

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!! I put my Christmas tree up!!! Kathryn helped me! And my Calabaza cat was very confused. He kept trying to eat the tree. Then he tried to eat the presents. Then he went for the ornaments. We were like, "CALABAZA!!!" DON'T EAT THE TREE!!!" About half of the decorations are up in my house, but my tree is now completely done!! It's covered in mooses! Last year I had the tree up and decorated by the first week of November. I was a little late this year, but at least it's still 13 days until Christmas! Here are pictures of my beautiful Moose Christmas Tree!

Bum Weekend

What was supposed to be an awesome, fun-filled weekend ended up being a total bum. Remember how Miguel and I were going snowboarding on Saturday? Yeah that didn't happen. Why, you ask? Because I woke up on Saturday with a sharp electrical pain shooting through my neck. It was so bad I couldn't move for nearly the entire day. I just laid in bed with ice on my neck crying out in pain and wondering if I should go to the hospital. It wasn't like having a stiff neck, like you just slept on it wrong or something. It was more like receiving an electric shock directly into your nerves. I was highly annoyed. I mean, the thought crossed my mind that maybe it happened to keep me from taking Miguel up to Wintergreen that day...like maybe something bad was going to happen if we went (like he'd break his wrist or something)...so I was really okay with not going. I feel bad even saying this but I was kind of annoyed at God (although I got over it very quickly). I was annoyed because if God was trying to protect us then I'm okay with that. But I was still the one who had to tell Miguel that we couldn't go and his little face was so sad. He understood, for sure, but he was so disappointed. Fortunately, in his brilliance, God made kids resilient and he immediately cheered up when I asked him if he wanted to still go to church on Sunday. So it's all good now.

Today has been a little better. Miguel and I went to church and Pastor Pete's message was fantastic. It was all about the first chapter of Luke and the purposes of putting the announcements of John the Baptist's and Jesus' births in there. It was cool because he focused on the verse that says "for nothing is impossible with God". He was talking about how Zacarias (I've been reading the bible in Spanish for so long now, I can't remember how to spell his name in English) and Mary were both using excuses for why God couldn't use them (Zacarias said he and his wife were too old, Mary said she was too young and for obvious reasons). It's just like we make excuses for why God can't use us. It's the very thing that disqualifies us that makes us a candidate for God's power. While I was attempting to translate for Miguel the comparisons the pastor was making, Miguel found similarities of his own. He said, "Look Miss Tice, it says they were both scared at first but the angel said, 'Don't be afraid.'" Finally, the pastor ended with a really cool observation. He said that many times we read that passage where it says that God found special favor with Mary and we think there was something special that Mary had that we don't have. THAT'S why God used her and not us. But then he pointed out a verse in Ephesians 1 that uses the exact same Greek word as "found favor". It's the word used for "freely given". It's the same original word. So there was nothing special about Mary. It was God, freely giving her favor. So once again, we can never think that Mary had any special characteristic that qualified her for special favor, but not us. I thought that was cool.

After church, I talked to Miguel's mom for about an hour and a half outside their house. She wants to learn English so she can communicate with other people here so she asked me to help her. She wants to come to the Christmas Eve service at my church, if she doesn't have to work. And her oldest son, Ivan, wants to play indoor soccer this winter with SOCA. I contacted SOCA to request financial assistance, because I don't think scholarships are available for indoor soccer. If you could, please pray for Miguel's family - that his mom would be able to learn English without too much difficulty, that SOCA would allow Ivan to play with at least some financial assistance, and that all three of them would go to sleep at night knowing there's a God who cares about them and who is looking out for their needs.

Okay, fine so I guess the weekend wasn't completely wasted. In fact I guess it was kind of nice doing nothing and just laying in bed the whole time. Fine, fine, fine, God. I suppose I've learned, once again, that your plan's better than my plan. Why do I have to be such a stubborn learner?

It's SNOWING!!!

IT'S SNOWING!!! YAY FOR SNOW!!! We didn't get out of school early. The snow didn't stick. There wasn't enough of it to do anything with it. BUT IT SNOWED!!! It's the first day of snow!!! Here's a picture that my little friend, Miguel, made me. He's learning English more and more every day, but still can only communicate in Spanish. He absolutely loves going anywhere that I'll take him so we go to church every Sunday and last Sunday evening he went to the youth group for the first time! We also go to the skatepark because he really likes riding bikes and skateboards on the ramps. He loves, and I mean LOVES, my cat Calabaza. He draws pictures of him and asks about him all the time! He gave me another picture of Calabaza with wings so that he could fly! That's Calabaza in this picture too! See him? Miguel's never seen snow before so today was his first day seeing it! He really wants to go snowboarding so I'm going to take him up to Wintergreen on Saturday for Opening Day!

Check this out: So that I don't have to pay for rentals at Wintergreen (VERY expensive), I wanted to get kids' snowboard equipment that the kids can use so that I can take them without having to pay. (I know what you're thinking...WASTE OF MONEY! DON'T DO IT BETH! YOU'RE TRYING TO STOP SPENDING MONEY, REMEMBER????) So I was like...hmmm, I really don't have the money to buy kids' snowboard equipment. So how can I get it for free? And I made a plan. When my plan was complete, GUESS WHAT! I got a really nice snowboard, snowboard bindings, snowboard boots, AND a kids' snowboard jacket all for 72 CENTS!

HAHAHAHAHA I was so happy! So take that all of you "no, beth, don't spend more money, beth" people! It's onward to Wintergreen on Saturday for Miguel's first experience in snow!