Hello friends.....

Good Morning Bloggy Friends!! I hope you haven’t given up on me and decided that I must have totally abandoned this blog due to the recent inactivity! HAHA! It’s been crazy busy but more than anything- I’ve been so overwhelmed by all the lessons that God is teaching me that sitting down and sharing has seemed like an impossibly big task for my short times on the computer! There are so many things going on that Ill back-track a little and try to catch you up on the happenings of Team Newsom!

I’ll start with Orphan Sunday on November 8……the kiddos and I made the 12 hour drive to East Texas again a few weeks ago to visit family. The Lord had lots more in mind for our time there and He worked out all the details so that Agitu, the director of Better Future Adoption Services was able to come visit our family and also speak to our church congregation about the orphan crisis in Ethiopia-- on Orphan Sunday! We were very blessed by her visit and look forward to watching God unite BFAS and Fruitful Harvest efforts to take a medical mission team to share the love of Christ to Ethiopia in the coming months!! AMAZING!!!

Joel flew there for the special weekend and I was also able to share our adoption testimony at our church on Orphan Sunday! I was very nervous about speaking in front of a crowd, but the Lord was good to me and HE provided the words. My prayer was that our testimony planted a seed for just ONE family to sponsor, pray for, or adopt just ONE child in obedience to God’s calling for the body of Christ to care for orphans! If only ONE orphan would find another family to show some of Christ’s love to them--- it was worth it all! I was reminded by scripture in the days before Orphan Sunday that it is important for believers to SHARE what God has done for us with one another! God can use the smallest testimony for HIS GLORY and to fulfill His purposes! I'm thankful for God's grace.....

While we were in East TX, we also attended a dinner with the folks who are working hard to raise support and awareness for orphans in our home community through a new adoption ministry called Compassion for the Fatherless…….check out their website at www.compassionforthefatherless.org . God is so good and is doing such good stuff here!! It was an amazing time of fellowship and time with truly inspiring and REAL people that have a passion to do God’s work for orphans!! We were so blessed that night! I was inspired to DO MORE. GIVE MORE. SHARE MORE. LOVE MORE.

Our little Halleuleia Halloween Project was a huge success!! A big shout out to my kiddos, the Pearce kiddos, Aunt Vickie, and also KATY and ALL the 3rd graders at Como-Pickton Elementary School for an awesome collection of CANDY! Over 60 pounds of candy was collected in the days following Halloween and is now on its way to soldiers in rural Afghanistan to share with the children living in primitive villages on the borders of some very volatile countries. WOW!! What a SWEET joy it will be for our soldiers to GIVE this candy out! What a SWEET message to these children in Afghanistan to RECEIVE this candy!! Very cool!! Thanks guys for the sweet support to our soldiers!!

More recently, we were blessed to meet and visit with a sweet missionary family here in El Paso! What a treasure they are to God’s kingdom! Team Newsom has teamed up with the VH Homeschool Ministry to help support this missionary family ( and 3 others!) that are here sharing the Gospel to orphans and poverty stricken families living in Juarez, Mexico. We’ll be collecting donations of blankets, clothing, shoes, food, and Christmas goodies for the needy children in Juarez in my garage!! Yes, IN MY GARAGE!! Then we’ll give it all to these missionaries so that they can SERVE MORE, DO MORE, SHARE MORE, LOVE MORE!

Now, for those of you who know me well know that this donation collecting thing is a pretty big deal for me since I am such an OCD-kind-of-girl and being disorganized makes me crazy! Well folks, here is the good news-- God is not done working on me yet and and those 8 trash bags full of donations sitting in the middle of my now disheveled garage have actually made me CRAZY EXCITED to be helping orphans across the border! What a joy it is to GIVE!! God is good!!

Please pray for us this weekend as we are travelling....we’re really excited about going to visit Joel’s family and spending some special time together in Lubbock, TX! It will be a treat for us all to have some quality time with everyone!!

This trip and my sweet kiddos reminded me a few days ago that dealing with LIFE has so much to do with our perspective and a gratiful attitude!! This conversation made me laugh but also was a good reminder that I need to count EVERY blessing.....here's how it went: ”Mom, how long is the drive to Lubbock going to be?” I replied, ”It is a 6 hour drive.” Hannah then said, “Wow—this is going to be a great trip. That’s a really short drive.” HAHA!! I guess if you are used to doing long 12 hour drives and all the sudden, it’s only a 6 hour drive—that does seem like a SHORT trip and yes, Hannah is right---it will be a GREAT trip too!

Super thankful for the small things today.

Many Blessings to You and Yours,
AMY

PS—Nahome is doing GREAT!!! What a blessing and a real sweetheart!! He is so fluent now that most people that meet us don’t even know or realize that English is his second language!! Wow!! AMAZING!

Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, "Take my yolk upon you , and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls."