Christmas at our house

This year Christmas day was very low key. We attended our church Christmas Eve service and opened presents that night then we stayed up late playing with our goodies. Christmas day we spent the morning watching movies and playing candyland. Then we drove to College Station with Jose's family to visit Santas Wonderland. If you haven't heard of it is a huge drive through Christmas light village. At the end you have the option to go to Santas village where they have a Christmas movie playing and little shops to buy Texas themed Christmas stuff. (I was a bit underwhelmed by the village but the lights were well worth the drive) 

I just want to take a moment to thank all of our friends and family that are supportive of our ministry (in word, action, and spirit) You mean more to us than we can easily express and we thank God for you every day. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we are right now in the tedious part of preparing to go. Gathering financial support, working out details of accepting/receiving that support. Making out a written mission statement, plan. Also for me learning spanish. (If you live near me and you speak spanish harrass me about it. I need help staying motivated about my lessons)

I will leave you with Logans version of the Christmas story and some pictures of this past month.
"Once upon a time baby Jesus and his mommy and daddy went to the farm to live. But there was nowhere for them to live and nobody would let them live in their house so they slept in the hay with the animals. Then the bad Angel took all of baby Jesus' clothes. So his daddy killed the angel. Then the bad king killed all the baby's so Baby Jesus mommy put him in a basket in the water. The Princess found him and he was the King so all the other kings gave him presents."
(I am not making that up he told me that exact story)

Logan and his cousin Domenico

Logan and his cousin Sophia (He loves spending time with her)

Our silly little family

Logan and Daddy decorating the Christmas Tree

Logan hard at work

Timothy "helping"

If daddy gets out of the car Timothy jumps in the drivers seat a.s.a.p.

     

~ Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime! ~

I love Christmastime! Since I live in Houston (for now) I can't say anything about snow. ~although we did get some this year~ But I love the sounds and the smells. The Food. The baking. The gifting. The Food. The family time. The lights. The food. The picking out that special thing for that special someone. Did I mention the food? I could go on and on about everything I love about Christmas and the Holiday season. However there is something I'm not so fond of this time of year. Because we are Christians we love hearing the mention of Christ whenever we buy groceries and seeing little pictures and statues and inflatable front yard thingies of what artists (also known as Chinese factory workers) think Jesus looked like when he was a baby. But the last year or two I've seen a lot of taking Christ out of Christmas. Which is not cool. But I've also seen a lot of Christians stop acting like Christians because of it. So here is my plea to God fearing men and women this year. If someone says Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings or nothing to you today, instead of getting all red in the face and Screaming "Don't you know what this "SEASON" is?!?! It's about JESUS you Jerk!" Try a kinder, gentler approach. Smile act like someone the happy holidayer might actually want to talk to and say "Merry Christmas!" if it is a waiter or someone you traditionally tip give them a bigger tip than normal and if you feel like you can do it from the bottom of your heart throw in a "God bless you!"

I'm just saying. If you weren't a Christian which example would you be more likely to listen to and possibly learn from?

Unfinished Business

Yesterday my Pastors wife spoke about unfinished business. 2 years ago she ran in the New York City marathon and was injured on mile 9. She pressed on and limped over 17 miles to the finish line but she was disapointed with how it turned out. She didn't go in planning to just make it she wanted to be victorious. Last week she got a second chance. She ran the marathon for the second time. Only this time she made it all the way through without any injuries smiling the whole time.

When she was speaking it really struck a chord with me. In 2001 I went to Russia as a Missionary. But my time there was extremely dissatisfying. I didn't get to do any of the things I saw myself doing and my motives were misjudged by my authorities. Because of that my spirit was injured and while I finished that race I crossed the finish line "limping." It almost killed my vision. However my God is a God of second chances! I am in training for my second "race" and this time I am a part of a team. :) I refuse to fail. this race we will be victorious! 

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You're after one that's gold eternally. I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.


We have set a goal of 500 prayer partners. If you would like to be one of the 500 comment on this post and give me your email address. If your not comfortable leaving your email on the comment section you can email me at jklopez04@gmail.com

Blessings!
Kat~*

Team Lopez (minus Dad and Victor)

its a little difficult to get us all to look at the camera at the same time

Eternal Perspective

Have you ever walked into a place that you had never been to and felt that you had just come home?
That is how Peru felt for me. It's extraordinary really because I don't speak the language *yet* and I really haven't been in an environment like there before but it was just as comfortable for me to be there as walking into my church. *warm fuzzies*

This past Sunday Pastor Jack Hanes spoke at our church. He is a missionary to Australia. He spoke about the master key to abundant living. A life focused on serving others. The bible says that a day to God is like a thousand years to us. If we can expect to live about 70 years that calculates into about an hour in God's time. So in other words the life we live here is only about an hour of eternity. If that's true how can we expect to make an impact on eternity when we spend most of our "hour" focused on pleasing ourselves? As he was speaking I was thinking of things I have purchased for myself and how some of those things seemed so important for me to have but what good do they do me? What if I had helped someone in need pay a water bill instead of buying myself that new shirt? And now as Jose and I anticipate moving overseas we are talking about what is actually important enough to make the cut to take to Peru. It's amazing how that can change your thought process. It makes us think more about the eternal. What can we spend our money on that has an eternal purpose? What can we take with us when we move out of our earthly bodies and into heavenly ones?
Wow, I'm rebuked for my materialistic ways. Lord, help me never forget this lesson you are teaching me and always see things through an eternal perspective.

more pictures

I'm sorry it has taken so long to put more pictures up or for us to update this at all we are hoping to get internet set up in the next week or 2 but for now I do what I can when I can.

Peru was awesome. In some ways it was overwhelming just thinking of how quickly we will be living there. All of us loved it and are excited about going back. Jose and I are already getting ready to take a trip to Piura in April.

You are going to have to click on the bottom of this box to see the video because I can't figure out how to make it play automatically enjoy :)

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