New Year, New Excitment

I apologize it has been so long since we have updated our blog! These last two months have been a roller coaster ride. We got to go home to Washington and see our amazing family and friends, attended a week long biblical counseling conference, and are over half way done with our Lifeline basketball season.

I have been staying very busy running our sports program. Coaching basketball has been a blast. We have two full basketball teams with a great group of guys! Our Black team is 5-0 and our Blue team is 4-2. We are gunning for a MYSL championship and I believe we have the talent to do it! In the process I have been able to develop some good relationships with some of the players. Jeremy and Elijah (brothers) have been two of our most reliable players, always showing up at least 30min early to practice or games, so we get time to just hang out and talk, which has been fun. Junier Lopez is another guy I have spent a good amount of time with, if you can pray for him and his family. As I have gotten to know him, he has shared about his family situation. His dad was shot and killed about a year ago, which has left him as the man of the house with a younger brother and sister. And just this last week he told me his mom was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I can not imagine what they are going through. So pray we can minister to them in their time of need.

Elementary clubs have been going well. We are going through the Armor of God series and it has really led to some great discussion with our kids. I have been in a small group with three 4th grade boys and it has been great to be able to talk about who God is and what it looks like to follow him. All three of them just recently have told me that they do not have a Bible and want one that they can take to school with them and read during reading time. So it is really exciting to be able to get them their very own bibles! Please continue to pray that the gospel will penetrate the hearts of our students in a very real way.

Here is a video about some of the things that we do at Lifeline. It is one that is made specifically for the church of our director here at Lifeline, so it does not have us talking as much, but it is still a great picture of what we do. Hope you all are doing well we miss you and love you all!

http://vimeo.com/36422479   (The best way to view it is to copy and paste this link above.)

God Bless, Caleb Stanton

Lifeline Christmas Party

On December 19th, we celebrated a Lifeline Christmas! We took 43 kids to Dandinos restaurant to eat some good food and open Christmas presents. And let me say, it was an absolute blast! Many of the kids had no idea what to do with all the food, as they were given four courses and were used to one. Goofy, happy kids make fun times. Here are a few pictures highlighting the party :)

Jaquelyn and Maria

Joey and Travis

Juan is enjoying the mozzarella sticks a little too much!

And so is David

Two of the kids at my table, Amairiya and Thairek 

Caleb's table: David, Byron, and Juan

Byron and his moustache

5th and 6th grade girls awaiting presents

I have never seen anyone SO excited about Barbies

(I got really excited, This girl's name is Ainslee :D )

December? Already??

Here's the latest and greatest :)

We had a more than OK Thanksgiving with Caleb's extended family down in Oklahoma (get it? OK - Oklahoma. Gosh I love these jokes haha.) Thanks to God doing His thing, we were able to drive down for the whole weekend and spend the holiday with family. We got to spend some quality time with Mamaw, Caleb's grandma, and met his aunts and cousins, some for the first time.  They were so gracious to us and made us feel very welcome. Can't wait to do it again! Though we may wait til the snow leaves.

Lifeline is moving closer and closer to our Christmas party!! It is one of the highlights of the year for the kids. All the kids who attended club consistently receive a free Lifeline hoodie, which kids ask about constantly. On December 19th, they will receive their sweatshirts, as well as Christmas gifts. The gifts are part of the Adopt-a-Child program we do every year. Many families cannot afford Christmas gifts, especially in such a bad economy, so we bring some joy to the boys and girls of Lifeline and each child receives a gift. We had over 100 children adopted by churches, families, and organizations who are graciously willing to love on them. We will try and get some good pictures of the party so you can see some of the kids we work with.

Caleb and I have continued taking kids out to the Dollar Theater on Saturdays. It is such a great opportunity for the kids to connect and see that we love them. This past Saturday we took a boy named Byron and his brother to see The Smurfs. Byron has one of the biggest smile you'll ever see, but also struggles to stay out of trouble in school. His family includes at least ten kids in his home on a consistent basis, so he constantly has to fight for attention, and that fight flows into school and club. When it was just the four of us on Saturday, Caleb and I saw a completely different kid. He was very well-behaved, excited, and thankful to get to go to the movies with us. He said thank you four or five times. It will be fun to see how God uses us in his life, and he in ours, as we continue to pour out love and attention on him.

Caleb has started coaching basketball for Lifeline's sports league, and is learning how to view basketball from a new perspective. I am pretty pumped to go to the games. My job at the bookstore is going well, though it is hard to resist buying books everyday. Christmas break is rapidly approaching and we are headed home for two weeks!!! We're excited :) We will be in Washington December 21st through January 4th, so if you'd like to see us, let us know! We'd love to talk to you about how things are going, and hear how you have been.

Prayer Requests:
- That we can find a way to get to Seattle while we are home. We don' have the money to fly or rent a car, so be praying that we can find a way to get over there and see the Stantons!
- The Christmas party will go smoothly and we can enjoy the children and have fun, rather than have to spend the time keeping them in line.

Broken-Finger Blessings ;)

So if you have been following the saga that is Caleb's finger, you know it has been a  long process and involved lots of stress and screws haha. Caleb had surgery two weeks ago on his ring finger, left hand thankfully! The surgeon put in two screws and helped rotate his finger back into a normal position. Caleb was awake the whole time and even got to take a look inside the finger! Last Friday he went back to the doctor and found out it is healing well and has about a month of physical therapy to help his finger bend again.

Needless to say, surgery costs alot of money. And sadly Caleb's insurance is not the best in the world, with a deductible of $3,000 and the surgery still $2,500 after insurance kicked in, not to mention all the x-rays and doctor visits. We got our first batch of bills on Wednesday for about $300, which sent me into a panic. I am a huge worry-wart about money, and struggle trusting that God will provide. We had to continually pray for trust and provision. We knew that God would provide for the medical bills, whether we had to pay all ourselves, if we could get the clinic to let us do payments, or if miraculously someone would help us pay. Well, God decided to be miraculous!!

We don't have to pay a dime of our medical bills!!! A very good friend of Caleb's called us and told us they were sending a $700 check to us to help out, my aunt sent some money in a get-well card, and the big kicker came when we went to Lifegroup on Thursday. Ironically, we were talking about tithing. After prayer request time, when we asked for prayer for financial provision, our leaders came up to us and told us that our bills were covered. That they all pitched in to help us get through this. That they were glad we were here and are thankful we are in their small group. HOW COOL IS GOD?!?!?!  And how cool is our Lifegroup!?!?! We are still blown away and not sure how to properly thank them for a gift of this magnitude. God is clearly showing us that He has us exactly where He wants us, broken finger and all. Thank you to all who were praying with and for us. We appreciate those prayers so much and love you all dearly. THANK YOU!!

It's Carnival Time!!

Here are some photos from our Halloween Carnival! We had several carnival games, including bobbing for apples, which was a HUGE hit! Over 100 people came from the community! Tons of kids and parents got to see what we are doing at Lifeline: loving on kids! By only God's provision, we didn't even run out of candy or food for dinner. Awesome :) Enjoy some of the cute kids we see all the time!

The cutest four-year-old bobbing for apples :)

Barbara and Sayra, two of our 6th graders

Our own personal Spiderman! Amarie is a 3rd grader who just started coming to club.

Neil in the orange sweatshirt, Joey in the blue, and Daivon showin' us what's up!

Us :) 

We love you guys!! Thank you for your constant support and prayers!

And the Doctor Says...

So it looks like it's going to be surgery, folks. We have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday (they didn't tell Caleb the time, which was odd.) His finger is off about 23-24 degrees, so when he closes his fist, his ring finger bends over his middle finger. It was either hope that the finger heals a little more straight, but find out after the opportunity for surgery passes, or get surgery now and correct the direction of his finger for sure. So we decided that surgery would be the best option. The doctor will be moving the bottom of the finger about 10 degrees, which will move the top of the finger more than that. They will insert a metal plate to keep it straight. Luckily it is outpatient surgery so Caleb will be out only a few days.

SO! It goes without saying that we need some serious prayer! Pray that the surgery will go well, the doctors will make the best choices and have steady hands, and that the healing will go smoothly. Also if you could be praying about the expenses that come with surgery, which we don't really have the resources to afford. So be praying for the Lord's provision that we can pay the bills. Thank you so much for your constant support. Love you guys!

A Little Lifeline Love :)

These were some of the sweet notes given to us by a couple of our Lifeline girls last Monday :) Hopefully I will get pictures of the other notes given to him this Monday. They are pretty cute! 

For those of you who hadn't heard, the Stantons had a rather interesting week last week! While at tailgating party through our church two Sundays ago, Caleb dislocated his ring finger playing flag football. We went to the store, bought a splint, and prayed about what to do and where to go in case the finger was broken. We woke up the next morning and his finger still wasn't bending straight. Off to the doctor we went! After some x-rays and an impressed doctor told Caleb "Have you seen this?? This is crazy!!" after seeing the x-rays, it turned out that Caleb broke his finger in two places, tore tendons, and ruptured cartilage. Joy :) They sent us straight to an orthopedic specialist, who took more x-rays, put his hand in a partial cast, and we find out tomorrow whether Caleb needs surgery or not. 

The concerned kids are absolutely adorable. At Club on Monday, four or five girls wrote him "get better" letters. This is a great example of how the relationships with the kids are going. The elementary girls are crazy about Caleb! They always want his attention. The boys obviously show their like for Caleb in different ways, playing games with him and thriving under the attention. We have seen fruit come from Caleb's visits from Mary Beck Elementary, as a boy named Daniel came to Club after being invited by Caleb. I am officially a mother of three, possibly more. Totianna, Amairiya, and Ashanti have taken to calling me "Mama," which just makes my day :) Seeing how the kids cling to you and are so excited to see you every week warms our hearts. It definitely makes what we do at Clubs worth it. 

For those of you who aren't aware of what the upcoming Monday brings, it's Halloween! The city of Elkhart has a scheduled date and time of trick-or-treating, and this year it's on the 31st from 6-8pm. Lifeline is having a carnival to celebrate! We are inviting the River Run Apartments (government housing where a large portion of our kids live) as well as Mary Beck Elementary. Face painting, corn hole, bowling, and balloon animals are only a few of the booths. We are excited for the opportunity for the community to come together in our building and to meet parents who come with their children. So pray that we have enough volunteers and candy to make it through the event! 

Prayer Requests: 

- We find out tomorrow whether Caleb will need surgery or not. If you could pray that his finger heals straight and that there is no other damage to the finger, we would greatly appreciate it. 

- Another request is a prayer for financial provision. Caleb has insurance, just insurance with a $3,000 deductible. So please pray that God will provide a way to pay for the medical bills. 

- That God will be present during our carnival on Monday, and that we can meet and reach our community for Christ.