items for prayer

I asked a friend to pray for my upcoming Ireland trip, and he requested some specifics. so here they are:

-Pray for Jesus to be glorified in me and through me in this. That I will know him and his agenda. For faith and vision.
-Pray that the funds will come in (so far so good, by the way)
-I know it’s a bit general, but pray for the work that World Harvest is doing in Dublin, and for the people there, that they would know Jesus.
-Pray that my time there with Cal and Susan will be helpful to them and our relationship.
-Pray for our church that we’ll be more missions-focused and outward-focused. I hope that this trip can be a part of that.
-Pray that God will show me His will through this trip. I feel like He’s starting to break me out of my usual self-focus. Michelle and I really excited to support Jim and Laura as they work to go to Ireland, so I’m hoping that this experience will be a good way to see their needs and be able to support them more effectively. Beyond that, I really dont know what God is up to in all this, but I’m pretty amazed that He’s taken me this far this quickly. He really knocked down my fears and anxieties about this trip, and soon as I opened myself up just a little it all rushed in. I’ve been feeling for a while “there’s got to be more than this” kinda feelings. I feel like God is doing something and wanting me to respond. So I feel like this is a step, and I’m eager to see what’s next. I really am amazed at what’s happened once I laid down my fears. Pray that I’ll keep doing that.
-Pray too for Michelle. She wont be going. It’s funny b/c we both prayed a bit about it and agreed that it’s not the right time for her. Not sure why, since she “objectively” would love to go, but we trust God’s leading her to stay as much as me to go right now. She will be in Vermont with my parents and the kids while I’m gone, so that’s nice in a big way, but also will have its challenges. I’ll be in Vermont for a week with just Michelle and the kids when I get back, so that should be very nice. Pray that all these crazy travels would go well.

Ireland trip support letter

Dear family and friends,        
 
I hope this letter finds you doing well. I’d like to share with you what God has been doing in my life lately, the opportunity He’s given me, and how you can help. Yes, this is a “support letter” because I do indeed need lots of support.
 
I am planning on going to Dublin, Ireland this summer (July 14-20) for a prayer conference (or missions trip, if you prefer) with World Harvest Mission. Lots of folks say something like “Wow, Ireland! Not a bad choice for a mission field…” but modern Ireland is in great need of the gospel. Yet the Spirit is moving and the opportunities are many. There is an especially exciting work starting up involving an arts and music ministry, which our friends Jim and Laura Pettit are working toward joining.
 
How did I come to decide to go to Dublin? In some ways I’m not sure myself, other than to say that I know that God is leading me. When I first heard about this opportunity earlier this year, I was very interested, but all my usual fears cropped up: too expensive; interferes with other plans; what good could I do over there? But God’s Spirit, through the counsel of a wise friend, showed me that allowing my fears to dominate my heart is not a faithful response. So I tried to give God my fears, and told Him I was willing to follow where He led. Almost immediately I felt led to go participate in this trip. So Michelle and I prayed and discussed and asked God to show us if this is really His will, and He continues to open doors. God has recently shown me my selfish heart and that my focus is usually on myself and my comforts. I have been richly blessed with so many good things, and I feel that God would have me use these blessings to bless others, and not be inward-focused. So I feel this is the Spirit prompting me to take a step out in that direction.
 
Another big factor for my desire to go is our friends Jim and Laura Pettit, who are planning on going to Dublin full-time, as I mentioned previously. We have a strong desire to support their work there. So this will hopefully be a good opportunity to learn firsthand what they will be doing and how God is working there, and what our role might be in supporting them. They are in need of long-term support, so if you feel the Lord leading you to assist in their ministry, please visit www.jimandlaura.org.
 
Speaking of support, the cost of my trip and flight total about $1800. This includes all of my expenses while I’m there (except for things such as a cool hat – sadly I lost my last Irish-made hat years ago). Not long ago this amount of money was overwhelming for me, but as a good friend and missionary says, “God has all the money.” So I trust that He will provide however He chooses. Perhaps that’s through you? Would you consider being used by God to provide for my trip? I would certainly be honored and humbled to receive your support.
 
If you do feel led to support this trip financially, please make out a check to my church: St. Elmo Presbyterian Church (or SEPC) and be sure to put a memo of  “Bob Wiegers Ireland Trip.” Please send it to my address (1610 W. 51st St, Chattanooga TN 37409) and I will submit them all at once. Your support will be tax-deductible. The deadline for sending the funds to World Harvest is fast approaching so please send your support by May 21 (that’s less than a month!). So far over 25% has already come in, for which I’m very thankful.
 
I hope it goes without saying that I need your prayers. Will you please pray for me? The people of Dublin need our prayers. The Irish pastors and Christians, as well as those working with them at World Harvest Mission need our prayers. That is really why I’m going: to pray, to learn, to seek and to do God’s will.
 
Many thanks!

Bob Wiegers

For more information on the trip, please visit: www.whm.org/go/vision-trips/dublin
To catch up with the family and such, visit: www.wiegersfamily.com

pics by Caleb

here’s a slideshow of all the pictures Caleb took yesterday afternoon.

after naptime yesterday, Caleb wanted to go out to the front yard to play with Darby, his stuffed-animal dog. he likes throwing him up in the air, usually saying “weee….ouch”. good fun. then he got the idea of putting him up in the dogwood tree, which happens to be in gloriously full bloom. so we put him up in the tree and I got Caleb a long stick to get him down. at some point Caleb wanted to take Darby’s picture, so I got the camera and let him have fun. he already knew which button to push to review the picture he just took, and I showed him how to zoom in and out. over the next hour or so he took pictures of all kinds of stuff in the front yard, including of course Darby in the tree. it was super cute to see him take it so seriously, and he certainly enjoyed himself.

Dublin

In a rather quick turn of events, I am planning on going to Dublin, Ireland this summer for a prayer conference/missions trip with World Harvest Mission. I’ll have more details later, as well as a full support letter out hopefully soon. meanwhile, I’m very excited.

I need your prayers. pray that the support-raising aspect would go well. would you consider supporting me? if so, I’ll have more about that soon.

more importantly, pray for the people of Dublin that they would know the gospel, as well as for the few evangelical Christians that are there, and those that are in the mission field there. this includes our friends Jim and Laura who are currently raising support to go there long term to be part of a really exciting music and arts ministry.

more to come…

10 years ago we fell in love

10 years ago (last night) Michelle and I had our first “real” date, at the Spring Banquet held at Rock City. we always say that was the night we fell in love “lauging and dancing in spinning embrace”. I wrote a poem about it back in the day for creative writing class, which I then turned into a song.

so to celebrate I (completely) surprised Michelle with a special night out. we were actually scheduled to go to the Indelible Grace concert. even though I was looking forward to that, this easily trumped it, and provided a great excuse to get a babysitter without arousing suspicions.

I got her some flowers at St. Elmo’s florist, Making Arrangements (next to Coptix). they do awesome work, so I highly recommend checking them out.

the main event was a return to Rock City to remember that special evening. we had a leisurely stroll through the grounds, enjoying a simply beautiful evening and all the flowers and trees they’ve got there. if you would have asked me if I thought Rock City was a good place for a date in general, I probably would have said no, but it really was a nice place to go to be together, and of course the memories made it even more special. we came to the place where the dancing was and took a few turns for old times sake. we’re still bad dancers, but still had a good time with it. I did an updated version of the poem/song too, which I read to her.

after that we were off to the Canyon Grill for some fine dining, which was of course very good. on the way back we were passing the hangglider bluff right as the sun was going down, so we took in the view for a while, remembering some of the other times we’ve been there over the years. then Michelle had the idea to stop at Covenant to stroll around the campus to relive some of those memories. wow, it’s changed a lot up there, but we found the place where I put our initials in the concrete by our dorm. it was nice remembering those lovely days of falling in love and doing the college thing.

to wrap things up we stopped by the Starbucks at Rock City and delved into yet more memories. I recently stumbled across a few folders with all of our letters and notes and cards we’ve given eachother over the years, including some printouts of old emails and all the letters we wrote eachother when we were first dating and Michelle was in Peru. it was really cool seeing all this stuff and rediscovering some poems and hand-made cards. we wrote some LONG letters that summer. maybe some day we’ll type some of that up so it’ll be brought into the digital age. Michelle figured we may be the last generation to have done long hand-written letters :-) looking at all that stuff and remembering the path that we’ve come down, the biggest thought I had in my mind was that it was completely worth it. the only thing I would change is getting married sooner (although we were married pretty much as soon as was practically possible).

there was a couple of collge kids in the starbucks studying together, and they looked like they were probably dating. I wanted to tell them “it is SO worth it. fall in love! enjoy eachother!” we’ve been so blessed to still be madly in love 10 years after it all started.

curly-heads

today the kids took eachother by the hand and had a grand tour around the yard. mama tried to keep up, chasing them with the camera and got some pics of the cuteness:

oh we just love our little curly-heads more and more (even the days when they’re little basket cases). and we’re all loving the time spent in the yard and on the porch in this glorious spring weather.

Caleb’s dreams

well nightmares, actually. yesterday morning he woke up a little bit early, crying pretty loudly. it wasnt just the usual morning crankiness kind of whining, but more like he was really upset. so I calmed him down and he snapped out of it relatively quickly, but as usual he didnt say why he was upset.

last night we were on the way home from the store and he was chatting away about all kinds of things. he said something like “tonight I will stay in bed all night” (he’s had problems getting up a lot recently) and then “this morning I woke up before my music” (we do a reverse-alarm for him…no getting out of bed before you hear the music). so we were talking about that, and I asked him why he was upset, not really expecting much from him. but then he launched into something like this:

“there was a scary lobster, a scary crab and a scary skunk.” he began
“a skunk?”
“yeah, a scary skunk. and I went to mama and daddy’s room and I was running.”
“were they chasing you?”
“yeah I was running. and there were scary rocks and a building, and the building fell on me. and there was a scary monster…”

and he repeated and elaborated a little bit. who knows where he got this stuff, but it’s pretty wild to think he’s got all of this in his head. I tried to explain what dreams are, and reminded him that Jesus is taking care of him even when he’s scared and we should pray when we’re scared. not sure how much of that sunk in. but after his initial crying that morning, he doesnt seem to be otherwise too bothered by such things.

 

 

father/son roadtrip

we didnt plan on having just me and Caleb go to NC, but Alice got sick at the last minute, so mama had to stay home with her. we were all a little sad being apart, but it was nice to have some extra time with the boy.

we enjoyed our time at grandma and pop-pop’s house, catching up with family and friends and celebrating baby Hannah’s arrival. Caleb was especially chipper all weekend, which was nice since he’s had a rough time lately since he was recently sick. but he really loved playing with the lincoln logs and “big boy legos” that grandma had for him, and after his usual warm up time was happily getting along with all our old friends in town for the shower.

the baby shower was very nice, and Michelle’s quilt was of course a hit. she made a nice bunny quilt for baby Hannah, which I’m sure she’ll post about soon. I also sang a song for her that Michelle and I wrote, and I’ll post that somewhere soon too. Caleb especially enjoyed the cake, and the stuffed animals that grandma let him take home.

we were planning on staying longer but since we were all apart we left Sunday after lunch. we like taking the mountain route home, which follows the Nantahala and Ocoee river valleys. I was trying to point out to Caleb how nice the river looked, but he was too busy watching the ever-present videos. so I found a nice place to pull over, and we had a blast throwing rocks into the river together. it really was one of the best times we’ve had. I didnt want to get home too late so we werent able to enjoy it for as long as either of us would have liked, but it was a good time. meanwhile, Mama and Alice were back home doing girly stuff like painting nails and enjoying the spring weather together, and that was apparently a blast for them.

one more notable event for the weekend: Caleb learned how to pee while standing up! he followed me into the bathroom at church and saw me use the stand-up potty, and right then decided he needed to try that. so he did it, and from then on insisted on standing up for the rest of the weekend. he’s pretty proud of himself, and I tried to instill in him that its one of the privileges of being a guy.

we missed Mama and Alice, but it was nice to have a special time together too. we’re going to try to figure out a way to do such things on a semi-regular basis.

a new career

well I’ve given my best shot at working for “The Man” and frankly it’s not for me. sure, The Man pays pretty well at times, but really, how can you put a price on happiness?

so I’ve decided to pursue my dream and become a full-time musician and writer. I’ve started with my own self-produced album and I’ve been writing quite a few songs lately, so I’m pretty excited about it. 

I’m not exactly sure where to go from here, but even so, this should be fun!

UPDATE: not really! (see comments)

un-American

with the car out of commission, I’ve been riding the bus, as so far so good. it does feel decidedly un-American however. I NEED more control than the bus affords. not to mention getting impatient when it’s not on time. so a little of my controlling nature is dying each trip, and that’s a good thing I think. it’s nice to be able to read a book on the commute too, and really it couldnt be more convenient (bus stop 1/2 block from my house, the other end just 2 blocks from work). so we’re thinking I’ll do the bus thing so we can save some funds for a better family car (van) if/when we outgrow the current family car. and while it’s not Greyhound, it’s still fun to say that I’m “riding the puppy” as Dave B. used to say…