An Answer to Prayer

by: Brodie

Vamos a El Salvador! As some already know, We are going to El Salvador. Yes, the entire family plans to go because God answered our prayers.  At the beginning of the year, my wife and I desired to take our family on a mission trip this year.  We prayed for God to provide us a trip. A few months passed we didn’t see any opportunity for a family mission trip. So, we started to make plans to aid our friends with their church plant in South Carolina.  We figured the cheapest trip would be to stay in the US, and use airline miles for the tickets.  Plus we could see our friends! God’s thoughts are higher than ours and he enlightened us to his plan about 2 weeks ago through some sobering news of my Boss’ plans to change companies. After the announcement, he called me a side. He explained that his new job would not allow his daughter and him to go on a mission trip with our church. He thought it would be a good trip for our family. He explained that the trip is designed for families with a flexible schedule. The ministry activities seemed to match my wife’s and my giftings in serving God.  That day over the phone I conveyed this to my wife and said, “Let’s Go!” 

 My wife initially had some reservations and the week to come brought me to question our going.  In this week, we pursued the idea of travel while expecting a veto of our involvement from the trip leader, our church, or mission agency. All parties encouraged our participation.  At the conclusion of the week we both were struggling between our concerns and understanding of God’s direction. I had been out of town of business for one night during this week and returned home late. On the way home, I asked the Lord to guide us both to His path and his desires.   My wife and I discussed the trip and our concerns. At the end of the conversation we were in tension with our concerns and understanding of God’s provision.  My wife told me that she’d follow my decision.

 At work the next morning , my boss again encouraged me about the trip. He indicated that I knew several families that were going. In this time God brought to my memory our earlier prayers and that he was answering them through this trip. By lunch, I realized all our concerns were worldly and ones that God could overcome!  In my processing, I knew I needed to communicate this to my wife. I wasn’t sure whether to go home, call my wife or text her with the news of my change of heart.  While seated at lunch a text from her came, “Lets just do it and go to El Salvador. Out of the next 5 years of our life, this year would be the least stressful time to take the whole family on a trip! What do you think?” My response, “You’re Awesome.” The easiest time of our lives: a baby on the way, buying a house, and now add on a family mission trip.

Now with one month to go we are waiting on passports and preparing our hearts for sharing about our personal Savior in El Salvador. As a former teacher, Bri is excited about sharing Jesus in public schools as well as encouraging the children from our church to become mini-missionaries . S is anxious to get out of the DFW area, to learn some Spanish, and to use his big blue eyes as an open door to people's hearts. I’m expectant in what the Lord will teach us about cross cultural ministry and excited about encouraging believers. We will be there June 2nd-9th.

Please join with us in serving the Lord. Please pray for us, our team, and our hosts.  Contact one of us if you  wish to support the team in other ways. 

Check our blog for more updates on the trip!

Map of El Savador

A New Life

During the Easter season, everything around us is celebrating new life. The colorful eggs, baby bunnies, & baby chicks all reminds us of how God's creation always springs forth new life. And all these things should point us to the new life found in Jesus that we get to have because He came back to life. This Easter season, the Heflin family is celebrating the new life that God has given us living within my womb.

That's right, there is a new baby in my belly! God had blessed us with another life to care for.

Here's the info everyone has been asking us about:
* Due Date: November 5th
* S and Baby #2 will be 16 months apart
* The baby was planned by God-we didn't try to plan nor try to prevent conception
* Yes, we are moving out of our one bedroom condo very soon!
* Everything is healthy thus far, we got to hear the heartbeat this past week!
* I would love to have a little girl, but would be happy with a boy too because it would give Sam a  best friend :)

God is so good to give us another Blessing. God is also good to give me confidence is the face of becoming a Mommy for two little ones. The week I took a positive pregnany test, worry and fear began to grip me. I began to doubt my capabilities of going through another pregnancy and childbirth and was fearful of having two kids under two. That same week, I was studying Mark 8 for my ladies Bible study and God gave me a lot of hope. In Mark 7, Jesus had miraculously fed 5,000 people. In Mark 8, there were 4,000 people hungry and again Jesus miraculously fed all of them. Soon thereafter, the 12 disciples were on a boat getting hungry and began worrying about what they would eat. And in Bri's paraphrase, Jesus says, "Hellooooooooooo!! Duh! Don't you remember how I fed all those thousands of people? How could you forget that!! I'll take care of you guys." It was like Jesus was saying to me, "Helloooooo! Duh! Don't you remember how I got you through a great pregnancy with #1? How I gave you a quick and uncomplicated birth? How much I helped you in those newborn days? How much love I gave you for your first baby? I'll take care of you this time too." And I know He will. :)

15 minutes of Fame

In recent news, S got to be on the April 2012 cover of FORT WORTH, TEXAS magazine!

We were taking S to the church nursery one Sunday, when the nursery coordinator handed us a business card for Fort Worth,TX magazine saying that they were looking for baby models. I thought this would be a cool opportunity for us, not to mention, the motto of Fort Worth,TX magazine to to "Honor God in all we do," so I had confidence in this company. After a few e-mails and photos sent to the owner of the magazine, he told me to bring S in for a photoshoot although" his hair might make him look too old." So we showed up one morning to their photo studio with 4 other babies whom were being photographed as well. They were hoping that out of 4 babies at least one would cooperate with the photographer! When he sat on the "Doctor's" lap, he was bouncy and wiggly and happy as can be. He was so wiggly the "Doctor" had a hard time holding onto him! And of course his Mommy helped to get that smile out of him by making faces and funny noises at him too. He did a great job, I was so proud of him! And Fort Worth, TX magazine must of loved him too, because they chose him for the cover! Guess his hair wasn't too much of a problem! Thank you God for giving me such a happy smiley boy and such a cool open opportunity!

It's still funny to think that my baby's face in sitting in Dr.'s offices, magazine racks, and coffee tables around the metroplex. Lots of people are asking me whether this the start of a big modeling career for Sam. I am looking into it, after all we do gotta start that college fund, but I'm trying not to get my head too much in the clouds about it.  I just think this was a pretty cool 15 minutes of fame for my sweet 8 month old boy!

Mars Needs Moms!

"Mars Needs Moms" is one of the best kids movies that I've seen in a looooong time. (Thanks to the Christmas gift of Netflix from my awesome bro-in-law!) It will make you laugh, make you cry, and make your heart beat in suspense. It is clean and fun. And best of all it has

A GREAT MORAL:
 Moms are an essential, crucial and a special part of making a society work well. There is no replacement for a Mom. In other words, MOmS RoCk!!!

You can see why I liked this movie!!!Duhh!

But the last scene got me. Such a sweet moment. I think I actually started tearing up in this animated movie. Watch for yourself, You'll see why:

As I watched, I realized how natural it is for a Mom to do anything in her power to protect the life of her child. How natural it is for a Mom to give up her life in order that her child can live. I realized that I would do the same thing in this situation. Of course I would give S my helmet so that he would live, even if that meant that I would die. Choosing to protect my life instead of his is not even an option to me. He is my precious child and I love him more than words can describe. He is worth giving up my own life in order that He may live.

Then it hit me....those are exactly the thoughts of our Great Father, God himself. WE are His precious children that He loves more then words can describe. We are worth it to God for Him to give up His life in order that we may live. JESUS, God in the Flesh, died a horrible death so that we didn't have to. We have eternal life with Him! I think it came natural to our Heavenly Father to make this sacrifice for us. We are his precious ones, how could He not? Like the sweet Mom in this movie, He gave us his "helmet," He gave us His life.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4
"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures"

A Pintresting Christmas

This Christmas, Brodie and I embarked on an ambitious quest to make some homemade Christmas presents. It was pretty time consuming and didn't really save us much money in the end, but it was fun and I think everyone enjoyed their personalized presents!

 Like many of you, we have been quite inspired by ideas found on Pintrest. It gave us great ideas for gifts, a yummy Christmas snack, and even a baby shower I helped put on in early December. Here are our creations: