For the Joy of All Nations

Und1vided

2009-12-30T16:57:00.003-06:00

"Jesus needs to learn how to share."

That's what my life has been saying. It is a ridiculous saying but the truth is I have been asking Him to share my heart with many things. I was challenged with this thought when I read this verse:

"Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." Psalm 86:11

David is saying here that though he knows God and longs for Him, there is a pull to other things or people and often he gave more attention to those than God. There was division in his heart.

Jesus addressed these issues during His time on earth. Confronting materialism and the love for money He said: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.You cannot serve both God and Money." Matthew 6:24

In giving us the Greatest Commandment He said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind." Matthew 22:37

It is scary to think I have expected the God of the universe, my Savior, to share the passion of my heart with temporal things. This psalm has challenged me to ask God to "give me an undivided heart." It is my desire in the coming year to have a singular passion: Jesus Christ. It is to be that passion that determines my actions, my thoughts, my words, my decisions, and my motives.

What about you? Do you see division in your heart? What have you asked Jesus to share your heart with?

Will you join me in striving to have an und1vided heart this year?

Italy Update

2009-12-29T15:28:00.009-06:00

After being scolded by a "friend" for not updating my blog I felt convicted to post about our recent trip to Italy. :)

We spent a week at the beginning of December in Rome with our partners, Jon and Becky Liles. We had several goals for this trip. We wanted to spend time with the Liles, meet the people who could potentially help us get our visas, get an idea of where to live, and bring along a friend who is praying about the possibility of short term ministry in Italy in her future.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Dannielle, our friend Stephanie, and Becky in Piazza Barberini

Becky hosted and the girls helped with a Christmas party for many of her friends in their town. Many of them do not know Christ. It was a successful evening of relationship building.

Dannielle and Cody in front of the Fontana di Trevi

A statue in the "Immaculate Conception Room" at the Vatican Museum. Just another reminder of Italy's need for truth.

We are more excited than ever about what God is going to do in Italy. Please continue to pray for us in raising our support and for fruit in Italy.

If you would like to see more pictures, please visit Cody's facebook page.

The Focused Life of Missions

2009-07-28T07:47:00.006-05:00

As I (Cody) was reading my devotions this morning, I was challenged by the commitment and focus of Paul. I thought I would share it with you.

Paul writes in Romans 15:20-21, "And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation, but as it is written: 'To whom He was not announced, they shall see; And those who have not heard shall understand.'”

Paul's life focus was to preach the gospel where Christ was not known. That goal consumed his life, which should be true of ours too. Paul was radically changed by this message and was eternally grateful for what God had done in His life and Paul also knew the responsibility he now bore of bringing that same message to the peoples of the world.

Our family has been called to take this same message that has changed us to the nations of the world. Our piece of this huge puzzle of world evangelization, is the nation of Italy. Though the Italian people know the name of Christ, they are largely void of knowing the true Christ, the One who died once for all and offers them the gift of salvation. The terrible reality is that there are 33,500 cities, towns, and village in Italy representing over 58 million people. Yet only 1,500 of them have any type of established evangelical witness. There is an immense task of seeing churches planted where Christ is virtually unknown.

Paul, after declaring his purpose in verse 20 and 21, then says in verse 22, "For this reason I also have been much hindered from coming to you."

Paul had a desire and longing to see the believers that were there in Rome, but because he had a job to do, it had to wait. This is the tough truth about our calling. There are things we may want, people we may want to be around, and other things we want to do, but we must remain focused on the task at hand, to preach Christ in Italy. We have an enormous responsibility, and privilege, to be good stewards of the gospel message. We must bring the story of grace and redemption to those who desperately need it.

Will you pray that we can remain focused and determined to follow in that calling? What about you, are you sharing in that same call, to all believers, to reach the people around you and around the world, which might mean having to give up some things?

Let's remain focused and driven to see Christ proclaimed and glorified among the nations. He deserves no less!

A Pink Tutu & A Purple One, Too!

2009-05-29T15:38:00.004-05:00

Thanks to our good friend, Katie, we have the cutest pictures ever of our two little girls... Aubrey Anna (pretty in pink) at 6 1/2 months old (now 3 years old) and Brylie Kate (pretty in purple) at 7 1/2 months old. Aren't they just the cutest little ballerinas ever!

My First Crawfish Boil

2009-04-28T13:47:00.003-05:00

We have been in some great churches this spring. One of those churches is Bible Baptist in DeQuincy, LA. We had a great time in their Missions Conference last week. The people are extremely friendly and have a huge heart for missions. This was my (Cody) first time to ever be in Louisiana and I was able to experience my first crawfish boil! I was unsure of it at first but I can say that it was pretty good. Thanks again to the people of Bible Baptist. We are excited to partner with you to reach Italy for Christ!

Pics of the Girls

2009-04-28T13:36:00.005-05:00

Our happy baby!

Aubrey loves it when we stop on our road trips!

Aubrey having fun outside of our apartment.

We Couldn't Have Said It Better Ourselves!

2009-04-20T19:07:00.002-05:00

Mmm... DONUTS!

2009-04-08T22:54:00.007-05:00

So Cody, very lovingly, told me that our blog needed to be updated, but when I asked him what he wanted me to blog about he just said, "I don't know... anything." So here goes...

I can honestly say that I believe that donuts are the world's most perfect food. Sprinkled or glazed... frosted or sweet cream filled... holes or old-fashioned... I love them all! I mean, who in their right mind wouldn't appreciate a good donut? This is a passion of mine that I am honored to pass down to my girls... way to make Mommy proud, Aubrey! (Speaking of mothers... I hope my mom never reads this post... she would be thoroughly embarrassed!) Let's see if Cody ever lets me blog about just "anything" ever again?

Missing Home, Missing Friends...

2009-02-22T21:55:00.007-06:00

I'm writing this from our hotel room in Savannah, Georgia. We just finished a very busy weekend in a missions conference at Bible Baptist, where we had a wonderful time. It has definitely been a blessing for us to be able to share our burden for Italy week after week, gaining prayer support (hopefully some financial support, too) and building relationships along the way but... having said that... I miss home terribly. I miss my friends (you all know who you are). I miss squeezing into the tiny play area at Chick-fil-A with all the girls and trying to talk over our screaming children at Mom's Club. I miss hanging out, watching The Office, and staying up way too late getting slap-happy with friends (love you Taylor & Jess). I miss sharing prayer requests on Wednesday nights with the ladies at Friendship. As weird as this sounds, I miss always having a nursing buddy (love you Kina). And, oh, how I miss Mom's Night Out! I hate not being with my girl friends to share in new babies being born (love you Annie & Katie), in big news (love you Mandi), in buying a new house and moving back to O-town (love you Noelle). I miss my own bed... and bathroom. I hate it that Aubrey and Brylie spend so much time strapped in the car, but at least we have a portable DVD player... that helps. I know that Aubrey misses her friends back home... just today she asked if she could go to Ella's house, so I told her when we get back we'll take a present over and sneak a peak at baby Brock. I guess what I'm trying to say in a weird, round-about way is this... I am so thankful for home, for Friendship, and for the wonderful girlfriends that I have back home. Lord-willing, we'll get home this coming Friday night... and I can't wait!

Disney World

2009-02-05T15:11:00.006-06:00

We have spent the last week in Florida visiting churches. Sunday was Aubrey's and Dannielle's birthday. There was a man at the church Sunday who worked at Disney and got us all in for FREE! What a blessing for our family! Here are a few pictures of the great day!

A Great Conference

2009-01-27T13:24:00.003-06:00

We had the privilege of being in Broadway Baptist's Missions Conference in Sweetwater, TX the last weekend of January. The church there totally loved on us and caught our vision for ministry in Italy. We had a great time! We are especially thankful that they decided to partner with us in both prayer and giving. We can't do it without generous people like them!

Golfing in West Texas

2009-01-27T13:21:00.001-06:00

Tennessee Trip

2009-01-16T20:53:00.007-06:00

We spent the first two Sundays of 2009 visiting some churches in Tennessee. We had a great time! Here are a few pictures of our time there.

New prayer card

2009-01-15T13:59:00.005-06:00

We finally got new family pictures. Here is our new prayer card.

Christmas Princesses!

2008-12-14T23:01:00.004-06:00

So, Aubrey absolutely loves her christmas dress. In fact, she calls it her princess dress and she was super excited to wear it the other day for our christmas card pictures. She was even excited to see that her baby sister had a princess dress too. I only wish she was as excited to get her picture taken as she was to wear her dress...oh well! At least Katie is a patient photographer, because I was totally stressed out. Can anyone tell me at what age getting pictures taken gets easier...and why is it that the weather is always super windy on picture day? If only they could have both just slept through their pictures! Despite the lack of cooperation and the wind blown hair, we somehow managed to get a couple of cute ones...it must be because my girls are stinkin' adorable!

Sweet Baby Girl

2008-12-12T13:50:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures of Brylie at 2 weeks old. Thanks Mandi! It is great to have photographers as friends!

Our daughter the Superhero

2008-12-09T15:04:00.003-06:00

The other day after church, Aubrey came running down the hall saying she was a "superhero!" She took stickers from her lesson that day and made a mask. It was really cute, until we had to peel the sticker off!

Brylie Kate is here!

2008-10-05T11:20:00.001-05:00

We are happy to announce the arrival of our second little girl! Brylie Kate was born on Thursday, October 2nd at 2:15 in the afternoon. She was 6 pounds 14 ounces and 18.5" long. Praise the Lord she is healthy despite being 15 days early. Mommy is recovering well after 12 hours of labor and an emergency C-section. Thank you to everyone who prayed for Dannielle and Brylie during this pregnancy and delivery! one of our biggest prayers over the last month was that Cody would be there for the birth since his schedule has been pretty full. He was supposed to leave later that day for a missions conference but Brylie decided to come before he left! Aubrey is now a proud big sister and we are a family of four!