Times Have Changed

Have you ever been strolling down the street in the summer sun, enjoying the breeze blowing through your hair, numbed by the beauty of the moment when suddenly, the skies open and rain sweeps upon you in a torrential downpour. Moment ruined, you scramble to find your keys and forget where your parked, and a beautiful day turns into a tragedy. You walk back into your house, clothes soaked, and wonder, how have things changed so quickly?
This is what has happened to me. Just weeks after that post I lost my mom to the Dunge Fever and we moved back to the states. Things have been turned upside down, switched over, and my heart has been shattered into a million pieces. For every good moment there have been a hundred moments of complete abandonment. Abandonment of my faith, my family, my morals, and even my self worth. I've asked God "why" at least a million times.
Asked him "what now" a million more.
What now ?
I read this book by Donald Miller the week after the funeral that talks about how we're all living in our own story. New characters and sub plots are brought in everyday, some influencing us, others making no impact. Just adding to the depth of the story. Some stories are like the boring non-fiction books you have to read in 7th grade that seem only interesting only to the person who wrote them. Some are stories of great heroism, while the others are just about bad guys always losing in the game, hiding behind their mask. We all have major plot twist and turns that shape the story. For me the plot has been turned completely around and my job is to now let the author lead where he wants me to go.
That's where I am, living for the now, investing in those I have, living this story that God is writing for me. This whole change has definitely been a wake up call to say the least. A wake up call to the fact that life is not eternal. That its not about what I've lost, more what I still have.
I challenge you to wake up too. Breathe in the air and love someone today. Besides, you don't want to be just that person they had a short encounter that meant nothing in anybody's story.

Love, Grayson

Lots of talk!

Wow, soooooo much has happened since I wrote to you that morning when we had no idea of where we were going! God did provide an apartment to stay at. We spent three more beautiful, peaceful weeks there, in which I had the flu, our car almost exploded on the side of the road, my great-grandmother (Big Mama as we have always called her) passed into the waiting arms of Jesus, we moved, and tons of other things that I couldn't write down if I had five blogs! But as it is I'm am taking life one day at a time so that is how I'm going to operate my blog. Yes? Good? Smiles all around? Good! ~Willy Wanka- love that movie with passion!
Anywho, lets get back to the here and now shall we?
Right now we have two (besides my own of course, so really we have four... oh well) two of the most incredible, inspiring, down to earth, cool parents here staying with us in our humble abode in the Dominican. Mr. David and Mrs Kelly are the parents and their family is, well, a whole other blog post really. :)
They are here to help us, encourage us, and bless us - well, I'm not sure if that's what they're here for, but its what they are doing!
Another great thing that is happening is that today is my first time teaching English classes to some of the village girls here where we live!!! I am so excited! How did this get started? Let me tell you!
Last week I was babysitting all of my little siblings while my parents went to IKEA (yes, we spend a lot of time there) and while we here all hanging out in the front yard some girls showed up. So we hung out with them for the rest of the day and invited them to dinner. We got to talking and I asked Patricia (one of the girls) if she knew English and she said she didn't but would like to. So we kept on talking and before I knew it I had five to seven girls planning on coming over on Saturday! I didn't think about it then but later that night I realized I hadn't asked my parents at all and had just invited them over while we have company. So I stressed out about it and finally the next day threw the question into a totally different conversation so maybe I could down play the weight of it. But of course, she caught it, and was all over the idea! Thank you Jesus! That might have gone way different without his help :)
So I have to go to go finish preparing for my students but I'll take pictures and be sure to post them soon! And I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, I'm in the middle of switching around computers and cameras and can't seem to work it out. Plus, I'm not really one of those people who just loves to sit in front of the computer and work things out. Used to be, not anymore! Anywho- God bless you this week, may the grace of God go with you!

Love,

Grayson

Say what, God?

Well as we approach the new year, boxes are scattered across our den once more, as we prepare to move again. Of course, this move shouldn't be that stressful (so we thought) because, luckily, we're only moving up one level in the apartment complex (or so we thought). Have you guessed what has happened yet? Well let me tell you!

The craziest thing happened last night. Are you sitting down? You should. I know I should have when dad told me!
Last night dad pulled me out to the porch to tell me some news. The people who we are supposed to rent from starting the first (tomorrow) have all of the sudden decided not to rent to us. Oh, well that's fine, we'll just stay in the same apartment and all will be well right? Nooooo, this apartment is already rented until Febuary 15th.
Do you understand what this means dear friends? As of this minute, the Evans family is currently in a country they have only lived in for two months with eight boxes and eight suitcases and no idea where they are going to sleep tomorrow night.

And the even crazier thing? I am totally at peace with it! Laughing actually! Of course maybe at sometime today I'm going to realize that I don't know where I'm sleeping tomorrow night and freakout but right now I am perfectly happy.

I play this game friends that I don't know why I'm at peace though, when truly I do. You see,  I can look back through the years and see all the times that I have been upset, confused, hurt, and angry, and see clearly how God was there.

SO. I don't know where you are in life, what you are facing tommorow, or what challenges or joys the new year is bringing you, but I hope that you have the peace that I have found in the Fathers hands there with you.

Here's to a new year!!

The Broken and Abused

Break my heart for what breaks yours... we've all heard these words sung in the beautiful song 'Hosanna' by Hillsong, and tonight I come to you truly broken.
Tonight in talking to my parents about the children over in the Middle East who are treated so appallingly, it brings tears to my eyes, I vowed that tonight I would begin to advocate for these children who can not speak for themselves. Have you heard of their story? Have you seen how unfairly- no, down right shamefully- treated? Have you heard the cries from their cribs? Or their silence rather, as they have been drugged to the point that they cannot utter a word? These are the ones whom God called us to reach out to in James 1:27. These are the ones who break the loving Fathers heart. Yet, these dear children are the very ones we ignore day in and day out. Even I ignore them at times.
I encourage you dear friends to read the blog No Greater Joy Mom, or Dear Little Girl of Mine. The later is more on down syndrome, a terrible problem in the Middle East and all across the world really. Oh how I wish I knew more on these subjects so that I can have a more factual argument to bring you. But I can promise you that I will soon! New ideas are forming in my head as I type.

All I can ask you right now is to pray for these precious children right now! Pray for the families who are on their way to adopt these orphans. Pray for the children who have been put out on the street because they are to old. Pray for the ones who have been put in an asylum, which is more a death sentence.

Please pray brothers and sisters in Christ.
And this Christmas, think of the ones who are forced to stay in cribs, even into their teens and have never known the joy of opening a present or having hot coco.
Lastly, please pray for me as I begin on this journey to find what God wants me to do for these children.

Merry Christmas to all! And a happy New Year!!

Love,
Grayson

Life in the Dominican Republic

 Today I want to share a little more about my family and my life. As you can tell by the posts' title, I live in the Dominican Republic. Was I born here? No, I grew up in North Georgia amongst the pine trees and have loved fried anything since birth. However, when I was about 13, my parents felt God's call on their life to be missionaries and to spread His love amongst the nations. What does it mean to be called by God you ask? Well, in truth, God has called us all since the very beginning of time. But some people have a very specific thing they can feel God leading them to. Such as pastoring, evangelizing, loving on children, writing, singing... there are so many ways to share the love of God.

Back to the story though. :) My parents felt that God was leading them to Latin America to love on people. And so we sold all we had, packed our little bags, and moved to Guatemala. We spent three of the most challenging, growing, amazing years there in Guatemala before God moved us on to a new country. Enter the Dominican Republic. We have only been in this bright country for about two months and can already tell that even though it is tough, it's going to be another grand adventure. The people here are kind hearted, caring, and (seemingly) honest. I say seemingly because so far I have not been in a situation where they could lie... at least I don't think so :p haha

So here are some pictures of our life here!

Feeding sweet Naomi

Pinning... a LOT haha :)

Doing a little painting

Coffee dates with just the girls

RE-organizing the shelf

Sewing

Reading Skippy John Jones

It may not seem like we are doing very much hands on ministry, and to be honest we're not right now. We are working through many changes with our new addition (Naomi) and fervently seeking the Lord on where He wants us to live and how he wants our ministry to play out there. We are taking every day one step at a time and expecting God to move in big ways in the future before us! 

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!!

Love,

Grayson

Welcome!

Hey there!

Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy your time here and that the thoughts I share with you encourage you! First off, I'll share a little about who I am.

Hi! This is me (Grayson) :)

And these are the wonderful, Jesus loving, easy going parents who raised me!

And these are  my brothers (sigh) 

Yep. That's them.
haha

This is the oldest's beautiful wife, Erin (to the left)

And this is Naomi Rose, more on that later :)

And this is Sarah. Silly Sarah :)

And THIS is Rodrigo. The sweetest fluffiest cat ever.

And this is my family.

Love,

Grayson