Isaiah Stories….

The other day Daniel and I sat Isaiah on our laps to pray with him before bed as the routine goes.  Isaiah usually “prays” (babbles) while we are praying and ends with an emphatic “maymen!” whenever he hears Daniel say “in Jesus name…”  But the other day his babbling had more substance to it and he said “[babble]….Daddy, eh Dayduh, eh Mommy, [babble] eh Pa, eh Mama, eh Gak!”  Dayduh is Isaiah, Pa is Grandpa and Mama is Grandma, and Gak is Uncle Zac.   Without us ever demonstrating who to pray for, Isaiah somehow knew he was supposed to be talking about everyone special in his life.  Since then he has remembered to mention different special people every night.  Sometimes it is “Wonould” (Ronald), sometimes it is “Gunky” (monkey), and sometimes it is “Hi” (Kangaroo….don’t ask why that is his word for kangaroo, but his kangaroo is his most prized possession and that is what he calls it).

Isaiah has also started to understand about praying before a meal.  He gets the bow your head part, but it is so funny to watch because he keeps his head bowed as though he is fooling us, moves just his eyes to peek up at his food, slowly reaches for a bite, then pops it into his mouth as quick as he can for fear of being caught. He acts like he is sneaking, but we never told him not to eat during the prayer so there should be no reason for him to sneak about it.  I guess he just sensed he was doing something he shouldn’t!

And finally, this other thing happened on Wednesday: Isaiah likes to stand at the couch and drive his cars all over it and hide them behind the pillows.  The other day I was leaning on one of the pillows and he came up to me and matter of factly said while pushing me, “Mommy, off.”  I had no idea he knew how to say “off,” but I think I have my work cut out for me!

Wait a minute….didn’t you leave me?

For those of you who have asked, here is how Isaiah responded when we got home from the Philippines:

 

He had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson, but it was almost as though when we showed up he suddenly remembered “Oh yeah, you people left me.  I’m not too happy about that!”  He got over it in about a half hour and even though he was clearly confused and maybe a little mad, he never left our sides from the moment he saw us.

We still wouldn’t change the way we did it this time for a few reasons: 

1) You couldn’t put a price on the benefit of us getting to participate in this trip as a couple.  Our marriage and our ministry was helped tremendously by us going on this trip together.  We were given some crazy new categories to think in and that has really challenged us to walk with a lot more humility, and to not think we have things all figured out.  Not to mention that if I had stayed home, all the experiences in the Philippines would be Daniel’s alone and there would be no way to put them all into words.

2)We didn’t know what to expect on this trip so it was good not to have the added wild card of bringing a toddler with us.   We tossed the idea around for awhile, but in the end, Pastor Jose suggested we come by ourselves this time and scope it out to see if we would be comfortable bringing him next time.  It was a pretty rigorous trip, which would have been more difficult if we had a two year old in tow.  But that is not to say that we wouldn’t be okay with bringing him in the future.  What better way for us to teach our son that God’s Word is for everyone and that we are commanded to bring it to them?  But we will have to see what the Lord allows for next year.

So this time we were glad things were the way they were.  And really, Isaiah had the time of his life at “Pa’s.”  Grandpa watched Isaiah during the day while Grandma was at work and they lived it up!  They played all day and passed out at night.  I think the grandparents also thoroughly enjoyed the time they got to themselves with the little man.

The Lord’s Providence

Today I took my son out to run errands.  I had to go to the bank, Lowe’s and the drugstore…and maybe McDonald’s if the little one was good and wanted to have some play time with “Wonoud” (Ronald).  Since we have been home from the Philippines, we have noticed some strange noises coming from our car, but we just hadn’t slowed down enough to get them checked out.  When I got to town today, I decided on a whim that maybe I ought to take the car to get looked at first and then I could run my other errands.  I told the mechanic what the noise was and he took it for a spin.  He returned saying he thought maybe there was a rock lodged somewhere that was making the rattle.  So he put the car up on the rack to solve the problem and I told him “Why don’t you change the oil while you’re at it?”  He nodded and I settled into entertaining my son, proud of myself that I was helping my hubby out by getting the oil changed since he had been much too busy to do it lately.

Praise the Lord the mechanic decided to double check the brakes, because much to both of our surprise, there was no brake pad left on the right side!  The “rattling” sound had nothing to do with a rock, and everything to do with (hopefully I will explain this right) the fact that the caliper was rubbing on the piston, causing it to leak fluid (which would eventually lead to brake failure) and also causing the brake pad to wear completely to nothing!  Apparently the caliper had been rubbing for a long time and the problem had just finally snowballed to this.  The mechanic even said it may have been the reason my car was shaking on the freeway (something we had checked out repeatedly, changing tires etc. with no resolution).   It has been shaking long before we got it from Daniel’s parents and we were all beginning to think that was just normal for that car.  But in reality there was a serious problem underway and I would never have known my brakes were about to give out had the Lord not put it on my mind to get the car checked today BEFORE my errands.  So the mechanic replaced the calipers, rotors and pads and amazingly the car is not rattling or shaking anymore! 

Our trip to the Philippines reminded me of something I sometimes have a hard time remembering.  It is that the Lord has His hand on us every moment and He is our protector and the One who sustains us.  There were several times I was overwhelmed with fear when we were in the Philippines.  One time was in a van that had no defrost during a heavy rainstorm.  The driver could not see out his window, it was night, and he didn’t really seem to be bothered by it.  We went speeding down the road, clipping a pedestrian once and nearly running off the road another time.  I had to close my eyes and pray the whole time, fearing we would be in a wreck soon.  In that time and others during our trip, the Lord reminded me that He will decide when we are injured or worse, and only He will decide.  Until we are through with the work He has for us, He is going to protect our every step (including steps made onto potentially poisonous snakes—which also happened while we were there).

So today when I found out the condition of my brakes, my response was a bit different than it would have been before we went on our trip.  Before, I might have been upset about the cost of fixing the car or the inconvenience of having to wait over an hour with my restless 22 month old, but today I am simply rejoicing.  The Lord made me aware that He provided safety for my family by prompting me to take the car in, and by alerting the mechanic’s eyes to the real problem.  I praise God today for His providence.  I encourage you to look for the Lord’s providence today in your own life.  He is at work all the time, and shamefully we do not always notice or thank Him for His work.  What is He doing today to show His power and might  in your life?

We’re home!

This sign greeted us as we entered the airport to go home.  We’re glad they are Bird Flu free, but weren’t we supposed to be concerned about Swine Flu?  There was a lot of people wearing masks in every airport, but the funny thing was that it was all the Asian people…I guess the Americans just decided they didn’t mind sharing their Swine Flu with the rest of the world.

We are home and safe.  It was a wonderful trip and it was so good to see the Lord at work in the Philippines.  I will post some more pics later, but here are a few.

The inside of one of the churches Daniel preached at.  This was the bottom floor of someone’s house and underneath us was the sea!

Two young men who professed faith in Christ and expressed desire for baptism. 

The books we gave out at the conference just after they arrived from Manila.  Our church raised the money to supply 1200 books for the pastors and workers to help them in their ministry.  “What Is a Healthy Church” by Mark Dever, and “Writtten In Stone” by Philip Graham Rieken  (sp?).

Greetings in the Lord!

Last night we were in a house church and were blessed to worship with these Philippino believers.  Here is a link to a video  showing some of our evening.  Be encouraged!  The Lord has called people to Himself from every tribe, tongue and nation, and these are some of those He has called.  What a joy it was to be with these people and rejoice in the same salvation!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5j9XE7OR88

Hello from Southeast Asia!

We have been in the Philippines since Thursday and already so much has happened.  We are overwhelmed.  It is Sunday afternoon here and we have just wrapped up three days of a revival in a church here.  This evening we will go to a new church and do three days of services there also. 

 The church here is hungry for the Word.  We knew before we came that the Philippino church does not have the kind of resources the church in America has (by that I mean resources for teaching and studying the Word), but we had no idea how great the need really is.  We are only getting a taste of the situation here, but the truth is that the place is crawling with cults, and the church has no knowledge in how to interpret and understand the Word of God.  The one thing they do have, which we praise God for, is the Holy Spirit, who Jesus promised would guide us into all truth.  But on a very practical level, these churches have no training in understanding the Bible and there is so much hunger to know and understand the Word of God.  The pastors are pleading for help, for resources, for teaching, so they can teach their congregations the truth.  We visited the local seminary here and the situation is very poor.  They are lacking in professors and finances to operate sufficiently, and so they can only do a little for the men who are even able to attend.  We learned what the situation is with the pastor’s conference we are helping with at the end of next week.  There are some tribal pastors who will walk for 24 hours barefoot over rivers and through jungles to come to be encouraged in the Word, because they are so hungry for it.  Many of them do not even have Bibles.  Our church was able to raise enough money to help with the food for these pastors, but they are on their own getting here and many of them are very, very poor.  Vickie and I will encourage the pastor’s wives, but we are struggling to know how to encourage them, because we found out that every pastor’s wife must work all day, some of them in the fields, just to have enough food for their families because a pastor is not paid much at all.  Vickie and I are so greatly humbled by that because we are able to both stay home with our children and the church pays our husbands sufficient salaries. 

Please pray for all of us, Daniel, me, Greg and Vickie, that we would know what to share with these pastors and workers and their wives and families that would encourage them.  Please pray for the pastors who are traveling, some of them from hostile muslim areas in order to be encouraged.  Pray that the Lord would provide a way for them to come.  Pray for our team to be well in health as it is very hot here and it is easy to become dehydrated.  We do not ask prayer for our health because we want to be comfortable, but because if we are ill, the work we came to do cannot go forward.  Praise God all are well up to this point!

Will try to write more later.  Here are a few pictures.

Standing in the middle of a hanging bride over water.  You can’t see it in the picture, but people below are digging in the water for small rocks and pebbles to sell them to landscapers to make money for their families.

Our room.  We are staying with one of the denominational leaders who is the one organizing the conference.  (Don’t be fooled by the TV in the corner….it doesn’t work, it is just in there for some reason.) 

Some houses in the village near the hanging bridge.  We were visiting church members in their homes.

And we’re off!

Just a quick note to let everybody know that Daniel is in the air at this exact moment somewhere between Atlanta and Seoul.  I leave in the morning with Greg and Vickie.  Please please keep us in your prayers!  The Lord is at work already, and we are joyful to be joining Him in the Philippines.

Specifically, please pray that the believers in the Philippines would be built up by our trip.  We are unworthy vessels, but the one thing we have that makes us adequate is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are going to encourage the church, and the gospel is just the sort of thing that will do that.  What a joy it will be to rejoice with Philippino believers over this great salvation the Lord has brought us!  Even though you will not be with us in body, rejoice with us and the Philippino believers over the salvation that the Lord is bringing to the ends of the earth. 

This was Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus.  Pray this prayer for the church today, that is made up of so many of these “families (or peoples) of the earth.”  Pay special attention to the last paragraph.   Hopefully you will hear from us soon! 

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”  Ephesians 3:14-21

Our rockin, techno savvy almost-two-year-old

Lately, Isaiah’s thing is to run towards the camera whenever he sees us trying to take a picture so he can see “Daydah” (Isaiah).  Digital cameras have ruined it for us!  I can hardly get a good picture anymore.  He is not quite 21 months old and he has all the technology figured out, or at least, he knows what it should be doing for him.  Anything with a screen should produce a “doovie” (movie) for him to watch, or at the very least, a picture of himself.  He thinks that every cell phone should have a picture of him since both grandparents, Mom, Dad and Uncle Zac all have Isaiah in their phones.  If he finds a phone without his picture he asks “eh Daydah?” (where’s Isaiah?).   He even knows what button to push on Dad’s phone to make the screen return to “Daydah.”  He knows how to get the drum sounds to come out of Grandma’s piano and his own toy keyboard.

Speaking of drums…this kid can rock it!  He is allowed to play the “dats” (drums) at church after it is over and he knows just what to do.  He absolutely loves the drums and will even recognize when he hears drums in a song on the radio by saying “dats! dats!”  If you ask him what drums “say” he’ll attempt to beat box for you and tap his foot on the ground.  He pretty much just loves music and I have caught him on occasion dancing in his carseat to the radio in the car.  I have a video of his dance moves, but unfortunately I do not know how to upload it.  Does anyone know if I have to upgrade my WordPress account to be able to post videos? (speaking of techno savvy almost two year olds!—his mama is no good!)

This is the Wilson Family’s blog, so I guess I better post on the Wilson Family!

Hello everyone,

I figured that some of you might be tired of the whole cloth diaper thing and are ready to see some Wilson family updates.  We have been busy busy.  Daniel is working hard to finish up his semester early so we can take off for the Philippines before the semester ends (we bought our plane tickets last week!)  I have obviously been busy sewing, but having a great time with our now almost 20 month old Isaiah.  He is such a clown these days.  Just today I caught him walking around the house, trying to jump (he can’t quite get off the ground so it is pretty funny).  He didn’t know I was watching him, but I started giggling and he knew immediately what he was doing to make me laugh so he did it more and got more silly about it.  He loves it when we think he is funny.  I can only imagine how it is going to be when he can use his words to make us laugh!   Here are a few photos of late:

Feeding the ducks in Southern California.  We went for a visit in the end of January.

Isaiah also got his first taste of the beach on our trip to Cali.

This one is a little older (like from November), but hey, nobody’s seen it since I’m so behind anyway.  Daniel and I were raking the yard (we have 5 trees with a million times as many leaves) and Isaiah insisted on having his own rake.  We only had two, so I went into the house and got the dust pan and he spent most of the time using it to “help.”  So cute!

Troubleshooting Cloth

Here are some tips to help anyone who is running into trouble with their cloth diapers.  Let me know if you don’t see the answer to your question here.

Problem:  Stinky diapers even after washing.

Solution:  There are several possible causes to this.  One is that you aren’t using enough water in your wash and while you could just not be using enough soap, it is likely that you are getting a detergent and/or diaper rash ointment build up.  If you have a front loader, which are highly efficient in terms of water usuage, you may consider running an additional wash or even just an additional rinse cycle in all of your diaper loads to help get the soap suds out.  Detergent build up is caused by not enough rinsing, too much or the wrong kind of detergent used.  Check the ingredient label on your detergent bottle.  It should not have any brighteners, or softeners.  You also should not be using any fabric softener or dryer sheets.  It is also ideal if there are no colorants or fragrances, but I have used soaps with these and had no severe problems as a result.  My personal bad experience was with “All Free and Clear,” which has brighteners.  After awhile my diapers started leaking and smelling and I learned that brighteners are designed to stick to fabric to reflect light, so they had built up over time and begun to hold odors and interfere with absorbency.   Diaper rash ointment is really not recommended for cloth diapers because it also builds up over time.  If you really need to use ointment, try to find one that doesn’t have fish oils in it, which can be the culprit for icky smells.  Better yet, give that tiny bum a coating of breast milk and see how fast it works to heal that rash! 

If you have a detergent build up problem, you will need to strip your diapers.  The most basic way of doing this is by running a hot wash with no soap and rinsing until there are no suds left in the rinse water.   You can also add a tablespoon of plain Dawn dish detergent to your first wash to help loosen up the buildup or you can put your clean diapers in the bath tub and scrub them individually in sudsy water with Dawn, then run them through the washer until all suds are gone.  When I had to strip my diapers I used the tub method, because I also had diaper rash ointment buildup (I was new to cloth and didn’t know not to use it) and wanted to make sure they really came clean.  After the stripping, they were softer than ever, smelled great and absorbed much better.  There are many other suggestions found online for stripping your diapers, I suggest trying what I have listed above first before getting more complicated.  If the problem is still not solved, then you can venture into the more complicated suggestions you find elsewhere online.
 
Problem:  Leaks!

Solution: First, ask how often you are changing your baby.  If it is less than every 2-3 hours, this may be the problem.  If you are getting leaks within a reasonable amount of time, you may have a detergent buildup (see above), or the diaper is just too new and needs to go through a few more washes to reach maximum absorbency.  Hemp, bamboo, and unbleached cotton tend to take a little longer to reach full absorbency because of the natural oils found in the fabrics.  If you are trying out a new diaper, and it leaks, always assume you have either been washing it incorrectly or haven’t washed it enough before you decide it is worthless, especially if you find other reviews online that rave about the diaper’s absorbency. 

Problem:  Strong urine smell in the morning or any other time your child wets the diaper.

Solution:  This is likely a detergent build up problem.  See above.  You also could try using less vinegar if you are using it in your wash or rinse, or adding/removing use of baking soda.  Experiment!  Different babies have different diets and their urine may have differing levels of acidity, so you may just have to fiddle with your wash routine until you get it right.  Another thing you could try would be to switch to all natural fabrics if you are using microfiber and microfleece (both made from polyester).

Problem: Diaper rash that just won’t go away. 

Solution:  This could also be, you guessed it, a detergent build up problem.  See the above.  But the other thing I have discovered to solve a rash problem is to throw a couple of capfuls of bleach in the wash, making sure to rinse really well.  Some argue that bleach on your diapers can be dangerous and shouldn’t be done, but I argue that I bleach my socks and underwear with no problem, so if the diapers are not coming clean and causing diaper rash, then a little bleach will do some good.  Just keep in mind that some manufacturers will not honor their warranty if bleach has been used.

Problem: Stains.

Solution:  Try laying your diapers out in the sun for awhile.  The sun usually does the trick for me.