South America here we come!

Just wanted to give you guys an idea of what we will be doing when we get to Lima, Peru...


Lima, Peru Here we come! Wow! we are so excited that this time is finally here! We are thinking our time to go will be sometime in August/September and are moving forward with that time line, but are ever listening and praying. We really feel the Lord laying on our hearts that this will be a season of helping, blessing, encouraging, and doing whatever we can to help the ministry that is already taking place in Lima. We will be coming alongside Calvary Chapel Bible College Lima Peru, and Calvary Chapel Lima. For those of you who don't know their vision is:
*To establish a Spanish-speaking Bible College
*To establish a training center for missionaries
*To establish a center where students from both schools would serve and work together, forming teams to be sent out to plant churches.
*To receive visiting short-term missions teams to spearhead evangelistic outreaches throughout Latin America.

We want to move close to the bible college in Magdalena Del Mar... and start helping there in whatever ways they need, and learn the language... We believe this is a great starting point, and are looking forward to all the things God will call us to while we are there... We will be helping with park ministries for children while we are down there, we both want to get involved with Men's and Women's ministries. We know that God works when hearts are willing and obedient... so that's our heart to go where He sends us, and to be obedient to the things He calls us to.
Thanks so much...
Dios te bendiga! ( God Bless You!)

Beauty in simplicty

It has been a very very busy month for us... We are officially heading to Peru... we are just waiting for the finances.... Of course we would love the Lord to provide this overnight so we can just be there already.... we feel kind of lost starting fundraising.. but how else do we let people know about the opportunity to partner with us if we dont share and ask... so thats what were going to start doing.
The biggest back and forth struggle for me(Courtney) is our comforts, our stuff, our home, our cars, our home decor, most importantly our family, our friends, our church... can we leave it all and go to Peru? Some days I feel so strong and my answer is yes... without a doubt. How can we not? How can we hear the call from Jesus and say no? How can we see the need and leave it be? We can't...we won't.
But then I look into the faces sunday morning of all the friends and people we have grown to love and cherish, who have become family to us... and I don't want to go! I don't want to leave them all behind... if you are reading this and you love us, will you all just come with us??!! That is including all of our loved ones all over!
The Lord is so faithful to speak to us... He has been providing peace and joy through it all, and we realized that if heaven is our home, then this life is just a hotel room, we are only visiting, our time here is temporary... all though the hotel room is beautiful, it isn't meant to bring us all the comforts of home.... only heaven can do that.... where our Father waits for us...


Here is a song that a dear friend shared with me by Josh Wilson its called "I refuse" and this is our heart....

Sometimes I,
I just want to close my eyes
And act like everyone's alright
When I know they're not
This world needs God, but it's easier to stand and watch
I could pray a prayer and just move on
Like nothing's wrong...

But I refuse.

I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
I could choose not to move

But I refuse.

I can hear the least of these,
crying out so desperately...
And I know we are the hands and feed of You, Oh God
So if You say move, it's time for me to follow through
And do what I was made to do
And show them who You are

I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
I could choose not to move

But I refuse.

I refuse to stand and watch the weary and lost cry out for help
I refuse to turn my back and try and act like all is well
I refuse to stay unchanged, to wait another day to die myself
I refuse to make one more excuse

I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
I could choose not to move

But I refuse.

This is our heart, to love like Jesus loved, to see people through His eyes, to see their need, their hearts, to see them and love them... to point them to Jesus...everywhere we go...


Ok so you can't come....I get it.... will you send us? Pray about financially supporting us and God's work in Peru... (BJ and I joked that none of our family and friends would support us, because no one wants us to leave!) :) Of course we know that all of you will at least consider it in prayer...:)
If you go to Cheney Faith Center pray about being on the missions care /support team that is forming.
Please be praying for us in all of this... for God's provision through His people... for our hearts as we transition... and all that comes with it...
Love to all,
The Millers

Feb 2011

Here are the Miller kiddos...Brodin has a new mohawk, here it doesn't have any product in it, but he loves it!

Ok so i have been faithful to keep updating the blog, but of course it's only blog #2 :D

What is new with the millers? We are sick! It started last thursday with Brodin waking up at midnight screaming for us, and we ran in his room to find puke in his hand.... all night long his gut wrenched until there was nothing left, and he still felt sick.... it hurt my heart to see him that sick! Since then Ella and London got head colds... and BJ and I woke up with what brodin had yesterday morning.... no fun... how come we cant have our mom's bring us saltines and 7up while we take the day off in bed? This being an adult thing is sometimes very hard! lol.

This too will pass.... I know His mercies are new every morning, we are praying it passes quickly!

Well we have been praying alot lately about when to go to Peru... our lease is up in september, and although that seems way too soon for me, it may be the most practical time to go... Now we are praying if what seems practical for us, is the right timing with the Lord... We have applied with shepherds staff an organization that will help us with our finances. They will bill our monthly supporters, and people who want to support us can go to their website and pay online to support us, or "go old school" and acctually mail a check in to the company. They in turn take taxes out, and give us a monthly check. They will give us a list of that months supporters.

We are going to take a step of faith and start fundraising. We are going to send out support letters, also if you think your church would like to partner with us, and support what God is calling us to, then let us know, we would be glad to fly wherever you are and speak at your church. :D Also if you haven't given us your address before, please send it now.. calledtogo@hotmail.com More important than finances is being covered in prayer, if you all could be praying for our next step with all of this, and be overall covering us in prayer that would be fantastic!

Ok for real this time...

Us at Christmas, apparently the kids were looking at something or someone to their right..lol

I am going to update once a month... for real this time.. lol its been since march!! Oh my has it been along time... but in all seriousness we want to keep our blog updated so I am going to put it on my calendar to update and remind me of my update....

So since then we have a new home, a new car, a new job for bj and a beautiful new baby girl!! London Emmarie Miller!!

I Guess we will start with an update on her... She was born on 10/20/2010, an afternoon baby that came very fast into this world... as i dialated from a 7 to a 10 in one contraction..She was born at 6lbs 1oz and 18.5 inches tall... She had lots of trouble gaining weight(As do all of our babies) And she was hospitalized for a week for failing to thrive... she did end up gaining the weight she needed to night, God showed up and miracles happened... she is sooo adorable, and we are so in love with her... she is 3 months old in two days, and she is almost 10 pounds... here she is all chunky and adorable now... Just last week she caught the flu and was hospitalized again because she was having trouble breathing through all her coughing... and her reflux...

She is ok now... there is a quote from bruce almighty that says God doesn't just give you patience, He gives you the opportunity to be patient... I think that rings true for alot of things... One of the hardest things we have to do as parents is trust God with our kids... The Lord has given us plenty of opportunities to trust Him with them... We do, It is still hard but we do... They are His, and He has given them to us to take care of, and to mold and teach... Our prayer is that we glorify God in our job as parents...

Onto the next child... Ella mae is our middle child who is now 16 months old!!!

Ella has just begun walking on a regular basis(Praise the Lord) It makes my life a little easier, when I don't have two babies to carry... I am pretty positive this makes her a big girl! She is definately on her own pace with everything... But then again i have to remind myself not to compare my children, because Brodin has always been ahead of the game and the norms.. She loves her new little sister, and tries to be loving, but most of the time ends up smacking London... Brodin and Ella have their own rooms and their own toys now, but spend most of the time playing together... normally they play well together... they are still working out sharing and realizing that their toys are only their toys if they are in their hand.. once you set it down its fair game! :) Ella is so very musical.. we can tell that this is a gift that the Lord has given her, we can already tell that she is singing with different tones, and rythyms... :) She is definately a daddies girl and will scream at BJ if he doesn't pick her up right when he walks in the door...

Our third and oldest child is Brodin who is 2 and a half years old now!! Where has the time gone?!

He daily makes me smile, as do all of my children... He tells me things like "Mommy I love you to the moon!" and.. "Mommy your a beautiful Hunk!" How can I resist, I kiss those cute little cheeks every chance I get... He often gets mistaken for a 4 year old because he's so tall and his speech is that of a child that is way older... I love him, I pretty much count myself blessed to have 3 of the best kids ever... and cutest might I add! :) Brodins number one accomplishment this month is that he is officially totally potty trained! And he stands up like a man to pee... lol I love it.. saves us about 50 bucks in diapers every month! He was sooo easy to potty train.. He just got it.. and now doesn't wear pullups at night... hoping that he doesn't regress at all..

Onto BJ and I... BJ works for Horizon Airlines right now 20 hours a week at night to keep our flight benefits, and during the day works for West Corporation as a call center representative...40 hours a week... needless to say he is busy working hard for our family, and we appreciate it! On top of that we recently took over leading a life team at our church... we are humbled when God wants to use us for his plans! We have a great group, and love seeing God work in and through them already... Jesus is so neat in the way He brings people together...all for His purpose and plan! I am of course a busy stay at home mama... which has its daily challenges but I also am serving the Lord by serving on the womens ministry leadership team... I know God has so much to teach me through this, and when I feel incapable, He reminds me that He is my strength... It has been hard for me to be late to almost everything, we still haven't gotten in a groove.... does that happen?? I sure hope so.. LOL!! We are submitting our application to Shepherds Staff Missions Facilitators... if we are accepted they will be taking care of all of our finances while we are on the mission field, and we are going to start fundraising... we know and trust God completely that He has called us to Lima, Peru, and so he will provide for us... Ok so this has got to be cut off but we will post more next month.... For real this time :)

March UPDATE

Havent posted for at least 5 months... im terrible at this.. or just really busy! Our greatest new news.... We're PREGNANT! again! yes we were just pregnant 7 months ago.. and had our beautiful ella mae.. we figured if we kept going we could get our own TLC show! Just Kidding! lol We were definately not trying for this little miracle but none the less are stoked as God is bringing us a HUGE gift.. we cant wait to have this one in our family...:)

We have been keeping really busy.. BJ has been working at the airport as a ground service agent and is loving it, and we are loving the perks! Cant beat free airfare... huge blessing... I have been loving being a stay at home mom, the kids and I have a little park to walk to and Brody is becoming master of the slides... and even went on the swing today, which before today he was terrified of! :) Baby steps...:) Ella is getting so big, we just started her on rice cereal to which she isnt a fan of.. she is working on her third tooth and is starting to babble "dada dada da da daaaa" of course BJ always gets the joy of hearing his name first..hehe.. Other than that we are preparing to go to Peru we are leaving April 5th... which leads me to the newsletter info... (i have to figure out how to attach it here...:) post another update soon (no really i will) lol. love to all.

Overdue for an Update!

This is the Miller Family at the harvest festival… Our little pumpkin Brodin had a great time, He wasn’t so much interested in the games, he preferred to run up and down the hallways of the church. Our sweet little pea pod Ella slept through the whole festival… They were both very cute.

So I realized that I haven’t updated since my birthday… anyone with more than one child would understand.. I haven’t even had the chance to update Ella’s baby book, and by the time I had time to send out announcements I figured since it had been 3 months people probably know she’s born! hehe

For those of you who didn’t know Ella Mae Miller was born on July 31st at noon exactly, I delivered all natural and it was the most amazing experience of my life.. She weighed 6lbs 4oz and was 19.5 inches long.. The Labor was hard but BJ and I literally slow danced through the contractions and it was so fast that I made the nurses and doctor run! 2 pushes is all it took.  Ella had a really hard time gaining weight… she dropped down to 5.12lbs and didn’t gain much over the first 6 weeks… We started pleading to others to start praying to find a solution… after 3 pediatricians, we finally found one and he is an amazing man of God… he said if she were his grand daughter he would have her admitted to the hospital for further testing.. so we admitted her.. after 4 days she gained 12oz and 5oz just overnight… (the norm is 1oz a day) God heard the prayers of His people… we tried several pumps, devices, and formulas to help her to gain weight…. in the end we finally found the problem.. she is allergic to casein which is the protein in milk.. in breast milk and milk based formulas… so now we have her on a formula called alimentum… its super expensive but it is doing the trick.. in just six weeks she has gained over 4lbs! and as of Halloween she weighed 10.6lbs. Amen! :)

BJ is now working for Horizon/Alaska Airlines in Spokane… He likes it, but works crazy hours… lots of split shifts and 12 hour days make it rough on the family, but we know that this is just a season.. and we are paying off the last of our debt with the extra income which is a huge blessing! We are so close to being debt free.. it is a very exciting thing! (Also a must before you go on the mission field)

We have been getting more sleep now, Ella is sleeping through the night (although both of them have decided that 5am is the hour to rise after the time change).  I feel like a new woman with 6hours of sleep under my belt… I truly enjoy my children, and they are a blessing from the Lord.  I am blessed to be able to stay home with them, and to see them grow..

Brodin recently started singing and dancing a lot… He sings in the back seat of the car to “Praise Baby”  and says  “halleluiah Jesus halleluiah” melts my heart every time! I love that he sings praises to the Lord! He says “happy feet” and starts dancing… kind of looks like toddler river dancing.. ha-ha.  Ella enjoys her swing, and her front pack with mommy during the day. She is enjoying tummy time and lifting her head a lot.

We are in a season of praying and preparing to go to Lima, Peru.  We are waiting to hear from the pastor in Lima, John and are so excited that shortly we will be serving there.   We have had amazing times in the word as a couple, and really heard from the Lord on specific things to better our family… As with most young married couples with children, we are trying to figure out this whole parenting thing, especially since Brodin is already pushing his boundaries and testing us. We want to not just be our children’s parents, we want to minister to them and be examples.. We want to correct our children’s hearts not just their actions.. and guide them toward a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Parenting definitely sends us to our knees… asking our Father how we should lovingly correct our children.  God is faithful and blessed us with tons of wisdom and understanding. For that we are grateful!

We will be updating monthly now.. its amazing what sleep does! :)

Until all have heard,

BJ, Courtney, Brodin, & Ella

Getting started...

April 18, 2009

We are healthy! Praise the Lord After a small hospital visit for Me and Baby Ella our family is healthy... We all got the stomach flu right after Easter, and I couldn't keep anything down which was a ticket to Labor and Delivery when I started contracting(scary) because of dehydration... After the 5th time trying to start my IV they finally got it and labeled me severely dehydrated and admitted me into the hospital.. after 6 bags of fluid my contractions stopped and I was able to hold stuff down! I feel great today (two days later). BJ and Brodin have recovered well too..
Things have been going good, we feel God has us pressing forward toward Lima, Peru... we talked to our Pastor and shared our vision with him a month or so ago, he pointed us in the right direction with how to proceed, and is behind us supporting us. We really love our new church, it feels as if we have truly found a place of love, prayer, and amazing people.. They really share our vision for missions as well. We have contacted the district missions director and let them know our vision and are waiting to hear how they would like us to proceed. We have also contacted John Bonner from CCBC Lima Peru, where I went to school, as we feel like God is leading us toward this ministry, they are supporting us and praying for us as well as we continue to seek God and His direction. We never want to be ahead of God, but walking right behind Him and following His will for our lives. If it were up to us we would have left yesterday lol.. our excitement for what God will do in and through us is overwhelming! :) We are in a season of preparation so we ask that you would continue to pray for us as we seek God. More to come.. :)