Thanksgiving means...

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Is it a turkey with all the trimmings? Is it all the autumn colors and smells? Or is it that you are THANKFUL for the many blessings the Lord has given you? For me it is many things...here are a few...

1. I am so thankful for my salvation in Christ Jesus, my Savior.

2. I am so thankful for my husband and children.

3. I am so thankful for the ministries Jesus has asked us to do for Him.

4. I am so thankful for my entire family.

5. I love the beauty of God's creation and am so thankful for that.

6. I love the sweet fragrances of autumn...cinnamon, orange spice, nutmeg, etc.

And of course....the list could go on and on.

I recently was in the mood to decorate... I bought some fall looking flowers at the local flower stand, I changed some things around and I got out the orange spice oil I bought several years ago and added it to some apple peelings and simmered it on the stove. I was completely enjoying my fragrant reminder of fall and all that goes with it.. all the time realizing that I am THE ONLY ONE IN THE HOUSE THAT LIKES THIS FRAGRANCE. Kenneth walks in the house, with a wrinkled up nose and says, "What is that smell?" LOL...not such a blessing to him, I guess.

This little story reminds me of the sweet fragrance of our Savior. While some of us love to bask in His presence and soak up all of His blessings, there are others who do not feel the same way. There are others who wrinkle their noses and want nothing more than to be rid of the one we call Savior. How sad it is, that to some, His blessed fragrance means nothing. Let's keep basking in the sweet fragrance of Jesus and soak up all that He has to offer!

Blessings,

Delight

Here we go again...

OK...I have typed this first line at least 5 different time now. I am not going to hit the backspace again... It is after midnight and my mind is beginning to feel like it has some cobwebs in it, but I wanted to share some thoughts with you, so here we goooo!

Do you know how sweet it is to trust in Jesus? I sure do. Since we have been in Uganda there have been two presidential elections. The first one we experienced was all new for us. We were in Tanzania for 4 years before coming to Uganda, but I don't remember if we experienced an election there. So we are in Uganda and there were demonstrations taking place and were quite heated. We pretty much stayed home under the advice of ones who had been living here longer and school was having emergency cancellations. This past February, was another presidential election. There were some demonstrations, but nothing like our first experience. For that we are so thankful, but we stayed close to home for this one too. The mayoral election was to take place a few days after the presidential election, but was postponed during the day with voting issues. Of course school was cancelled in case of disturbances.

It has been announced that tomorrow, March 14th, is the day for the mayoral elections. Once again, we will stick close to home and school has been cancelled, again. Please be in prayer for these elections. Pray for peace. Pray for patience at the voting sights. Pray for truth.

Now you may be wondering why I mentioned about how sweet it is to trust in Jesus. Well, in all the areas of my life, I think safety is one of the main areas where I struggle. I feel anxiety when safety for myself, my husband, my kids, my family and friends, becomes threatened. Do you ever feel that way? I have struggled with it often in my life, but I don't need to. When I feel that anxiety coming up and making my stomach do that undesired flipflop feeling, I am able to experience a calm because I trust my Jesus. The song that has been going through my head this time is 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus'. Just read the words of this song and let yourself worship and meditate on him.

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!
Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Psalm 37:2-4

Renewals!

Hello...Can you believe I am posting something on this blog? As you can see it has been a REALLY long time, but one thing that I have decided to do is to try to keep up with this. Blogging does not come naturally to me. I have never been able to keep up on a journal, a diary, or even a calendar, for that matter, but now that I am supposed to be mature...because I have reached the top of the hill, I need to step up and improve this part of myself. So here we gooooo!!!

A lot of has happened since 2009 and my last post. I won't even try to catch up on all that has taken place. One thing I really want to share is that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!

I have had a song running through my head for the last week or more. He's Still Working on Me. I sang this song as a young girl in church, at a contest for God and Country Days and many other places. It has more meaning to me now than it did then, though.

Chorus:

He's still workin on me

To make me what I ought to be

It took him just a week to make the moon and stars

the sun and the Earth and Jupiter and Mars

How loving and patient He must be

'cause He's still workin on me

Verse 1:

There really ought to be a sign upon my heart

Don't judge me yet there's an unfinished part

But I'll be perfect just according to His plan

Fashioned by the Master's loving hand

Repeat chorus:

Verse 2:

In the mirror of His word

Reflections that I see

Make me wonder why He never gave up on me

But He loves me as I am and He helps me when I pray

Remember He's the Potter; I'm the clay.

Repeat chorus:

I want to be a mirror of His word so that people will see His reflection in and through me. WOW..that is so powerful.

Ok...so I am a little rusty...:)

Wow...where to start. It has been a long time since I updated! How could I have let this go for so long? How could I not tell you all what has been going on in my world. Well, sit back, this could take a while.... HEHEHE

The last several months have been full of some amazing events!!! God is so good.

My husband's Print Shop equipment came. What an answer to prayer this was!!! He prayed for 16 years to have a Print Shop in Africa and now it is finally here!

It was a rainy day, but that didn't stop the guys from unloading all that equipment! I was cringing as each piece came out of the container into this truck. Before it was over, the truck was full.

Things are in place and mostly ready to begin operation...but one glitch...the chemicals for some of the equipment cannot be found in this country. Kenneth has been able to use the cutter, folder, electric stapler and several other things, though. What a blessing Jesus has given him!

The kids are growing up so fast. Kaleb's voice is lowering, he is growing and is learning to play the base guitar. Austin's curly hair makes him look taller and is still my cuddle bear. He is learning the guitar. Emilee is always the social bug of the family. She absolutely loves it when our VIA girls, Jean and Christina come over to hang out. I am telling you, craziness runs wild in our house, but we love it and we love these young ladies!!!

Just look at those cute kids...whose kids are those, anyway...? OH WAIT...they are mine! hehehe The Lord has really blessed me with some great children. They have all asked Jesus to be their Savior. They love Uganda, love people and are always thrilled to have guests in our home. I love these kiddos of mine!!

I think that seems like a great place to end this update. I hope you have enjoyed the journey through what has been going on in the Hopson household. We love you all!

Hmmmm Where to Start.

I Have Been Blessed by Some Pretty Fabulous People!

Ok since my last post, a lot of people have come and gone through my life and have touched me in some really amazing ways. We have had visitors stay in our home. We have had volunteers who have allowed us to love on them and really get to know their hearts. We are so blessed.

We had some really neat Volunteers in Action people fill our lives and our hearts over the last several months. Let me tell you about them...

Lacey Mackey - totally and completely meshed with our family. Emilee absolutely loved her. She has gone home now and had joined the Peace Core...let me tell you the PC has gained a very valuable gal.

We welcomed Hannah Johnson next and was blessed by her loving ways. She loved baking and made some mean brownies on one occasion.

Emily Hawk joined us for the summer and was such a blessing to everyone she met. She is a teacher and has such a heart for missions. We hope to see her back some day.

Nick Strong, the only male volunteer, often feels overwhelmed by all the females around him. He is fun to be around, though, and has a great sense of God's call on his life. He is staying until next summer and we are enjoying having him here.

One of our greatest joys over the last few months was that our niece Heather Wallace came to Uganda. Heather spent 8 weeks with us and we throughly enjoyed her! We loved having her here with us. She was very actively involved in tuturoing several Korean children to improve their English. The parents and the children loved her! We miss her terribly, but are so happy that we got to spend some really special weeks with her. WE LOVE YOU HEATHER!!

Well, I think that about does it for this time. I tried to upload a picture of Hannah, Emily, Nick and Heather all together, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe next time.

I will try to update you on what the family is doing and how much the kids have grown. Once again, I am blessed beyond what I could ever dream of.

Delight

My Jesus is Simply Amazing!!

I realized I had not posted anything since December, so I thought I would try to fill you in on some things. Christmas was absolutely wonderful! The kids made cut out cookies and had such a blast with it all.

Wow, since December, I have turned 3?...UGH. My oldest son turned 13...I am getting old! I have a teenager in the house. "Jesus, Please help me to be the mom that you want me to be. Help me to be strong, yet loving and understanding of my son's teenage mind and heart."

He's a handsome thing isn't he?!

The print shop has finished yet another phase. The painting is finished and the screen door was put in so that there is a nice breeze that can come in to keep the room cooler. Kenneth has been using keeping it in full use a lot lately and has stolen my hot pads form the kitchen to keep his piles of lessons from blowing all over the shop. The breeze is nice, but too much at times. The Lord is providing the funds for some of the equipment, so we are looking at ordering a press in the near future. PRAISE JESUS!!!So as you can see God is at work in Uganda. He is working on me, my family and in our ministries. Thank you for your prayers. We love you all.

Blessings, Delight