Kirsten lost her first tooth around a year ago. Then in a week she lost three, two of them in one day. Her two front teeth are now missing. I wanted to show you how adorable she looks. We love to hear her talk. 
I am a little late in writing this, but I wanted to share it with everyone. Last Tuesday, we had “American Day.” This is a very exciting day for us. It is when we receive a package from family, that contains lots of “American goodies.” Peyton’s favorite thing was Juicy Fruit gum, and Funyuns. Kirsten’s favorite was beef Ramen Noodles. They have Ramen noodles here, but not plain beef. Simeon’s favorite was Funyuns, and a toy truck to go with his “Cars” collection. Riley’s favorite was a can of jalapeno almonds. My favorite was beef soup base and shortening. All of us were so glad to get microwave popcorn. They have it over here, but it cost around $6.00 US dollars for a package of three. Peyton & Kirsten also loved the Pet Shop pets that they received for their collection.
I know this sounds like ordinary things, but when you can’t get them, they become very special. It is amazing how great something taste when you haven’t had it for a long time.
We would like to thank Paw-Paw & Maw-Maw March, Aunt Eleisha, Uncle Lynn, and Aunt Becky for going together and shipping us this package. I know it is expense to ship these items to us, but we really appreciate it. I would also like to thank my Dad & Mom for past packages they have shipped. The kids were on cloud nine, when they received the package from Paw-Paw & Mee-Mee, that contained Little Debbie cakes, and Mt. Dews.
Hello, to everyone. I have not posted a blog in a long time, so Riley thought it was my turn. I am so grateful to everyone who has been reading these. We are always so excited to see where every one is coming from. Some of the times we have no idea who you are. Please let us get to know you, by contacting us.
Many different things have been happening in our lives. We have now been in Ireland almost four months. At times it seems to have flown by, and at other times it feels like it has been so long.
As you know, we are now involved in two different churches. We travel three hours and almost two hundred miles every Sunday. Fortunately, we get to sleep in on Monday. Sunday we had two awesome services. Riley ministered in the service at Gilford. He talked about us being “God’s aftershocks.” How we need to go out and let the world feel us, by witnessing, and shaking up the Spiritual world. We had a great move of God in the altar service. I believe unseen things were taking place, and that we will be reaping the harvest soon.
We then were very privileged to have Bro. Roland Baker, from Pontiac Michigan, minister to us. Now, I have heard Bro. Baker at West Point, and knew we were in for an awesome message. I was not disappointed. He talked about “Looking to the hills, where our help cometh from.” Psalms 121:1-3.
I was thinking about that today. I started remembering things that God has done in our lives. Fifteen years ago God called us to the mission field, and here we are today. Prophesies have been made over Riley and I. We are now starting to see them fulfilled.
A great woman in our home church, had a dream that I was holding an Asian baby. The work in Dublin has many precious “Filipino babies.” I had a dream that someone gave us money, and it has happened. God has proved over and over that this is His will for our lives. I can not understand an Atheist. How can someone not believe that there is a God? He not only cares, but has our best interest at heart. I am reminded of the scripture found in Psalms 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by God.” Does that mean that everything will always be grand and go our way? No, but God does have it all in control. When we go through storms, and we will, He will either speak to the storm to stop, or He will speak peace to our soul.
God had promised me things, that as of yet have not come to fulfillment. I do know that they will in His perfect time. Do I ever wonder or get down because they haven’t? I am human, so yes, I have. I will however, hold on to those promises and know that He is faithful to fulfill them.
This year I want to be closer to God than I ever have. I want to be totally in His will. He died for my sins. How could I not give him my best?
On a funnier note: Simeon is such a clown. He can say some of the funniest things. The other day I was in the kitchen. He came in and grabbed a towel and put it in front of him. He said, “Look, I’m the mom.” I said, “Good, now you can cook, clean and do laundry.” He then said, “No, I’m the dad.” I said, “What does the dad do?” He immediately said, “He checks on his computer.” Out of the mouths of babes!!!
I also have to stop sending my husband on errands alone over here. Since we have been here different woman have flirted with him. Even though he is wearing his wedding ring. The other day I asked him to go to Tesco for some cheese. When he came home he told me that I have to stop sending him out by himself. He was standing in line behind a woman and her twelve or thirteen year old daughter. The woman had placed her groceries on the conveyor belt, but got his attention and said he could go first. He thanked her and moved ahead. The cashier looked at him funny, so he said that these nice ladies said he could go first. The woman then said, “With that accent you can do anything.” Riley said he didn’t know what to say, so he just told them to have a nice day.
The McFarland’s and I have laughed and laughed about this. Poor Riley, the burden he has to bear.
Can you believe another year has come and gone? 2008 was probably the biggest year of change the March Gang has seen ever. I am sure I can go back and find a few other moments that stand out as well, but as a whole ’08 was a big one. We decided to follow God’s call and leave all the things that were comfortable and dear to us and embark on a adventure of a life time. There have been days that I think I kind of know what Abraham must have felt like when he began his journey to the promise land. We are not sure where we are going to end up, but are excited to be on the journey. We miss home and miss it a lot, but what we are doing right now has been worth it. I want to thank all of you who are supporting us with your prayers and finances. Both are invaluable to us and seriously we couldn’t be doing what we are doing without either of them. Thank you!
We had two awesome services this past week. It started off at our home base in Gilford and ended in Dublin. Bro. Mac preached a wonderful and provoking message in both services. Bro. Mac preached on “Continuing Steadfastly”. Took his text from the book of Acts on what the Apostles did after they received the Holy Ghost. During his message he made the statement that “It is time to draw the line…in ’09″. We are serving the enemy notice that we are on the move and nothing he can do will stop us. We are tired of his tricks and tired of all the things he uses to bring us down. We are drawing the line and saying “NO MORE”. God is about to do some amazing things in this country. We started this week off with two weeks of focused prayer and collective fasting. We know good things are going to come of this. They always do.
During our service in Dublin we had two men come down the stairs and sit in front of the front doors to take a smoke break. However they were smoking a little more than just a Marlboro. Peyton told Tara that those guys cigarettes smelled really funny. The enemy was trying to distract us on the outside, but God moved on the inside. Like I said we had a wonderful move of God in each of our services. Please keep both of our churches in your prayers. (Greater Life in Gilford and New Life in Dublin)
Simeon got a really bad “boo boo” the other night. He was trying to get into Peyton’s room while she was getting ready for bed and ended up getting one of his fingers smashed in the door. I truly believe that if it had been his “pinky” finger it would have cut it off. It was his third finger and by the next morning was completly purple and twice its size. (we will spare you the photographs) The poor guy was crying and the whole time he was just laying in our bed saying “Jesus, Jesus, I need you”. I am going to be honest here it just about made me cry. I hated to see him hurting. We went ahead and took him to the doctor the next morning and they found no broken bones and said it was just bruised really bad. By the end of the day he barely even acted like it was hurt. He has healed up very quickly and for that we are very thankful.
We hope all of you had a fantastic Christmas and a Happy New Year. We pray that God blesses you all.
Here are a few pictures of the services in Dublin:
