A moment of clarity

It's really easy to affirm right theology when you are sitting around reading about it. Actually living it day to day, as we all know, is quite a bit harder.

As I write this, I'm sitting on the front porch of a small country home in Petersburg, Kentucky. The kids are all occupied so I have a few minutes to think about what we have just embarked on. The craziness of the last few weeks, well, months has not allowed me time to fully process how our life is changing right now. But here, in the quiet, I'm thinking about it a little bit.

It started when I went to the church right across the street for church this morning. It's a quaint little country church, charming inside and out. But inside, it was dead. I listened to a man who claimed to be a preacher talk about himself for 45 minutes with little mention of the Bible or Jesus Christ. I'm not trying to be picky here, but dude, you just wasted everyone's time in this room. No one grew in their knowledge of God. No one learned how to love others as God so faithfully loves us. It was empty. Dead. Meaningless.
It made me long for my home church, Beacon of Hope, where the Word of God is faithfully preached and the saints there are equipped for the work God has prepared for them! I have purposely not dwelled on the fact that I won't be back there for a bit. It's hard, sad, painful, heartbreaking to think about. I love my family there as much as I could imagine loving a group of people. They are so very dear to me and I can't hardly bear the thought of not being there every week with them anymore.

Yet, I really am excited to be a part of our church in Virginia. God made our path so clear and unmistakable that we would have been fools not to go. It seems to me that God has really prepared the church for us and us to serve at the church. I am getting a tiny taste of what faithful missionaries all around the world have gone through as they have left the ones they have loved to follow the call of Christ. What's really amazing is that God shows His goodness in so many ways when we choose to  listen and follow Him! I am amazed at the way that he has provided for us in this journey. He has provided people on both ends that have helped make the transition easier. He has given us such a love for the people that we are going to serve with while sweetening the love we already have for our dear family at Beacon of Hope.

So, in the midst of all of this, I could be tempted to ask God why He would ask us to leave a place that we were loved so much and had so much love for others. I could question why we had to leave Minnesota when there is still so much work to be done in the city of St. Paul! But, you know what? God knows that! He will lead us where He wants us to serve and give us the tools we need to do the works He has prepared for us. He will bring the workers that He has prepared to the places that need them. We are commanded to trust Him as we follow, and in this situation He has been so gracious to let us see many of the ways that He is working through our move to help us lean more on Him and become more like Christ in the process. I am humbled and amazed.

My purpose in writing this is to remind myself--and whoever happens to read this-- that God knows best, and He will give you joy if you trust in His plan for you, rather than trying to take the reins yourself. He is GOOD and withholds no good thing from us if we pray that His will be done. I pray for a willingness to listen, obey and step out in wisdom and faith to serve the body where He chooses. Even if it may not be where we had planned on being.

I will miss Minnesota terribly--our family, our friends, the snow-- but I am confident that the God we serve will give us joy, as He promised, as we serve Him in Virginia. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where what I say that I believe can strengthen and equip me to serve if I trust God in these things. I pray that we will continue to trust in God's goodness and providence and we make this big transition. I pray that you all will, too! The goodness and mercy of God are evident in so many ways--look for them in the big and the small things, and He will give you joy!

Quiet. Stillness. Peace.

Quiet. Stillness. Peace.

These are things that do not come easily, or often to a mother of three living in the city. Schooling, shepherding, diapering, feeding, moving, ministering... the list is good, but it is lengthy. I often crave a trip to the country somewhere, where we could all be outdoors (my favorite place to be) together and just BE. Not have to plan a slough of activities and figure out how to make them fit into the budget. Not having to keep the kids still or in one place for too long. I'm pretty sure they'd love my country dream trip as much as I would!

I'm reading Edith Schaeffer's book The Hidden Art of Homemaking. She is a lovely, godly woman, and I have been privileged to read several of her writings. I read a chapter today that she titled "Creative Recreation". Before today, I hadn't quite understood my cravings for some quiet time in the country, as I really do love the city.  But lately I have felt so hurried with all that I have to do, so rushed and overloaded that I scarcely have time to think.  Even the basic things seem like a burden sometimes because there are just so many of them! But of course, Edith brought me some good words today that are helping me think through this season of life and how to navigate it a little more joyfully. She says that God designed nature to stimulate our creativity, and when we are always in the hustle and bustle of the city, in the midst of it's concrete, engines, unnatural noises, smells, etc. that it can become hard to think creatively. In my case I'm having a hard time thinking at all sometimes! Her words have helped me make sense of why I have been craving the quiet, stillness, and openness of the country.

In the place I am right now, I have to fight for quiet, stillness and peace. These things will allows me to listen to God more than I'm listening to the demands of the world, which are overwhelming because they are never-ending!

God meets us in the stillness of our hearts. We can't meet him when we are frenzied, running around doing a million things at a time, not stopping to speak with Him or hear His voice through the pages of scripture.  In reading Colossians 3 today, I was reminded of the necessity of setting my mind on things above, rather than things on earth. Listening to and trying to meet the world's demands all of the time is exhausting, and I am thankful for that--because when I am tired and overwhelmed, I am reminded that my focus has probably shifted to the world, off of the things of God, things that don't shout as loud but are much more important.

So, today I am thankful for quiet, stillness, and peace, even though they seem so hard to come by. I am thankful that despite preoccupation with the things of this world, God is gracious to bring His children back to where we need to be, gently and kindly, through the words of scripture and of thoughtful, dedicated prayer. I'm thankful that my children are reading quietly by themselves in another room so that I can have this time to think, pray, and process. Be encouraged, friend--God is there, and He is good. He listens when we cry out to Him, and provides what we need to be faithful in the way that we love Him and love others.

I'm praying today for more quiet, stillness, and peace that will help me to love God more and love the people He has put in my life more. If you're reading this, you can pray for me, too, as I try to be a faithful servant of God, wife, mother, and friend during this crazy season of our lives. God gives me what I need to live life well and I need to remember that and thank Him for it! And I need to get out to the country. Never thought I'd say that! :)

Yes, we are still alive... (an oldie)

(This is an old would-be post from 2012. I was puzzled to find it sitting in blogger, unpublished, yesterday. I hadn't even remembered that I wrote it. Tonight, I remembered why I wrote it and didn't publish it. The end of the post had a little announcement about another Tromburg joining the family. It was the little Tromburg that God decided to take to heaven before we met them. It happened right as I was trying to complete this post. That season was one of the most painful ones that God has taken me through, but God was so faithful in it and even the little mercies like blogger saving this post are so amazing. I should write more about that later. But, for now, I'm going to go look at the cute, old pictures of my babies that pepper the post below :)
*****

Hello, friends! We apologize for how long it took to get this little update out to you, but MAN, have we been busy!!! We have had a great couple of months driving back to Minnesota, being back at our home church, and moving back into our house. All of those things have kept us so busy that we have not been good about internet updates. We've been terrible, in fact. But, anyways, we miss and love all of you, and wanted to give you a brief update of what we have been up to the last few months. I've broken it up into a few sections in case you don't have a few hours to read this, ha ha :-) Road trip back to Minnesota: We took a few weeks to drive from California to Minnesota. We figured as long as we had to pay for the gas back to MN, we might as well have some fun and see some new things on the way home! Our first stop was Mesa, Arizona, where we stayed with Marie’s great uncle Wyn, a godly man who just retired from preaching God’s word at 91 years old. It was a blessing especially for Jake to learn from a man who had been faithful in ministry for so many years! The kids loved him, too.

Our next major stop was the Grand Canyon. Wowie, have you been there? We were SO struck by the grandeur of God’s creation! Even little Aviyah got it: she wandered around saying, “Ooooooh, wowwwww!” It was a great reminder to us what a mighty and wonderfully creative God we serve! We were able to camp there and also take a bike ride around the rim of the canyon. It was unforgettable! We did have to put a kid leash on Aviyah… those are some crazy high cliffs!

Next, we headed towards Colorado to visit friends. We stopped along the way to visit Four Corners (cheesy, but we just had to!) and miraculously snapped this photo of a Tromburg in each state.

On to Colorado! First, we took the kids to Rocky Mountain National Park, a place that is very special to Marie, as she went there every year growing up. We drove up to 11,796 feet above sea level, and the boys stopped at a snowfield for a snowball fight. After a few days there, we headed to Fort Collins to visit Marie’s old stomping grounds (she went to college at Colorado State University there). Jude was very excited about their mascot, the Ram, and picked up a souvenir football that he tells people about almost every day. Next, we stayed with a good friend near Denver, who was one of Marie’s bridesmaids. We were also privileged to visit the church of a Master’s Seminary grad, and enjoyed some very sweet fellowship there!

After a great time in our second favorite state, we started towards home. The stretch of road between Colorado and Minnesota was pretty boring compared to the majestic mountains and beautiful deserts that we had gotten used to passing through, but it was so exciting to be so close to home that we didn’t mind much. We arrived in Minnesota at the end of June after a few weeks of traveling. Marie’s parents were kind enough to let us share their home for a few weeks while we waited for our renters to vacate our home. The kids had a great time playing and reconnecting with grandma and grandpa and getting to see them every day. Marie’s mom was especially helpful in watching the kids so that we could work on our house before we moved in to it. We were also able to spend some time with Marie’s grandma in northern Minnesota and the kids enjoyed swimming in the lake for days on end! They are turning back into Minnesotans already! :-)

Home! Finally, we were back in the homeland! God was gracious to transition us in the summer so that we would not shrivel up and die from the cold... Not right away, anyways. We'll keep you updated on that, ha ha. No, but seriously, we were able to move back into our home, which is a HUGE blessing! Having a yard for the kids to play in, a washer and dryer, and a garage makes us feel so spoiled after apartment living! Jake even has his own office~ in California, his office was in the middle of our living room! :-)

The boxes are not all unpacked, but we figure we have a lonnnnng winter to do that, right? We are getting outside and enjoying the cool fall weather right now and the brilliant changing of the leaves. More importantly, God was SO good to us in allowing us to return to our home church, Beacon of Hope, St. Paul. We helped plant the church before we moved to California for seminary and were not sure that we would get to go back. But God was gracious in not only allowing us to return home, but also to Beacon of Hope! Jake is currently a ministerial intern and is focusing on getting a college and career aged ministry started up. It is such a wonderful church- so much like Grace in so many ways! People really love to meet together to study God's word and to serve each other there. Our pastor and his wife are wonderful servants of God who diligently and faithfully shepherd us. Jake did get to preach once already, and a lot of our family came to hear him. It was so neat to have so many of them at our church!

The latest So, what are we doing now? Well, we are well into the swing of things at our church. Jake teaches the college and career-aged Sunday school and helps lead worship for the class Sunday mornings. He also helps lead worship for our Sunday evening service, which he enjoys, because the format is a lot like Sojourners was, singing hymns together.
Marie is learning how to homeschool Jude this year. We weren't sure if we would do any sort of formal school this year, but he loved it so much last year that he begged us to keep doing school. We are a part of a Classical Conversations group in our area, and are often caught singing nerdy (but helpful!) songs about ancient history, prepositions and Latin word endings. We are having a blast :-) Here are a few pics of the kiddos:

Marie also has the opportunity to help lead a bible study group for our bi-weekly women's study, Every Woman's Hope (yep, it is modeled after Every Woman's Grace!). It has been a blessing to study God's word deeply with a small group of women and be able to knit our hearts together through prayer.

If you made it to the end of all of that, you get to read what is really the latest news, hot off the presses... We are expecting another little Tromburg to join us next May/June, Lord willing! Jude is particularly excited and talks about who he hopes will be his new brother constantly. He loves to watch fetal development videos, and likes when I explain to him that God is knitting together the baby in mommy's womb. It is such a joy to be able to explain God's hand in all of this on a daily basis~ he asks every day! So precious.
So, what are you all up to? We miss our California friends so much, we would love to hear how you are doing!

Healthier chocolate :)

My mom came up with this basic recipe that we both use to ward off cravings for unhealthy food or for a little blood sugar pick-me-up. It’s easy to make, has the healthy kind of fat, and it’s sooooo delicious! If you don’t like the first batch, play around with it, you can easily alter the taste. Give it a try, if you don’t like it, I’m sure someone you know will eat it. My kids beg me for it! I wish I could show you a picture, but I may or may not have just finished off the last pieces in my fridge... crisis!!! :)

Healthier chocolate!

1 c organic coconut oil (I get mine at Costco)
1 c organic cocoa powder (I buy it on Amazon)
2T sweetener (or to taste)- I use maple syrup (the real stuff, of course!)
2t pure vanilla extract
2 pinches Himalayan sea salt (or to taste)

Add ins: orange zest (my favorite!), nuts, shredded coconut

Prep: Line a 8x8 glass pan with wax paper. You can also use silicon molds but I find it quickest and easiest to make one big bar of chocolate and cut it up.

Melt coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat. Mix in cocoa powder slowly. Once mixed well, add other ingredients, including add ins. Taste to test sweetness, add more sweetener if desired. Pour mixture slowly into pan. Freeze or refrigerate until hardened. Chop into pieces. Put in a jar in the fridge for when you crave the worse kind of sugar or need a little snack :) I usually make a huge batch and then eat it for a few weeks.  Mmmmmmmm :)