Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

My pal stretch

Aside from the glee received by my children, this little lady is why I LOVE the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC.  I have always loved Giraffes.  Anyone who knows me can share how I love animals and want my kids to respect them as God’s gorgeous creations.  So it isn’t a surprise that I love the zoo.  Ben and Sam are at the age where they want to know all about each animal. Where it lives, what it eats, and most importantly…how fast each of them are and who could win in a race.  Aside from a race track, Riverbanks has everything that answers all of these questions in a very stimulating and up close way for them.  Animals in cages are never a undisputed issue, but for my kids and for myself it is very educational in how to take care of them for the future.  Plus, I have been behind the scenes of this very zoo and have seen the care given to these animals and can say-it is a good life.  Every time coming home from a zoo or aquarium we will talk about how wonderful it was, but mostly about who made best friends with which animal.  Mine…definitely the Giraffe.  If I could have one, I would…but we all know how that would turn out.  Luckily my mother bought a ‘grandparent’ pass to Riverbanks so whenever we have a free day we can shimmy up there for free!! I love free!  If you get there between 10:30 am and 1:00 pm you can buy a handful of lettuce to feed to these long-necked amazingly gentle friends of mine!

Posted on

All together now

So the daunting fact that I haven’t written in 3 weeks isn’t helping me write this blog.  The thoughts of catching up on just 3 days worth of life is crazy enough let alone 3 weeks!!  So much bloggable material happens every day of our lives!! It does get overwhelming at times.  My mind trying to make sense of what day it is and what is to get done on that day.  It has really tested the skills of multitasking, with results sometimes under what I would prefer.  This type of life has got me really leaning on the Lord.  When we are weak, He is strong!  I am so thankful to serve a God who cares for us!! So for a quick recap of the latest…. All together now:  Summerville’s campus of Kinetic youth is on a break for the summer, but Summer camps are in full force.  Our newest project, Momentum, a young adult ministry is up and running and has turned out to be an amazing blessing to the attendees and to us!  We have been reunited with many past Kinetic graduates and it makes our hearts happy! Personally our family has been loving the summer vacation! Our 3 boys turn into fish when they hit the pool, beach time, games are played all day, and craft time litters our tack boards and recently the 4th of July festivities and a trip to Columbia to see family and go to the zoo.  We started ‘back to school’ time last week with the letter A making anthills and ants (with fingerprints), apple collages, and added the memorization of a scripture that starts with that letter: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Romans 3:23.  They are so proud of their school time.  This week…with the holiday, a lunch appointment and our trip out of town, the letter B consisted of making last minute birthday cards (that didn’t get given to anyone because they ended up wanting to keep their creations) for B is for Birthday.  Our scripture for this week is one that is very timely with the subject matter of this “catch up” blog- “Be still and know that I am God” Psalms 46:10.  Looking at this slideshow, I can’t help but know that HE is God and I am blessed! Here are some pictures of the recent activities:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted on

“they’re so real”

Another amazing day here in El Salvador.  Wonderful day in the heat. All are hanging in there…a little heat exhaustion, but nothing a great nights sleep won’t help. The students were amazing again today. We took a trip back out to Los Heroes for a children’s sunday school program and to see our roofs from yesterday…all 7 families had a dry night’s sleep for the first time.

 Then to Los Angeles II to pray for a church plant and it’s pastors. Pastor Alba and her husband have given up their homes to live in the Los Angeles community to be there for the church.  They reach mostly children showing them love and compassion that they don’t receive at home.  This was such an amazing couple.  Then to El Retorno up a mountain-beautiful scenery, to have a service with Pastor Daniel there. He has been faithful in service reaching all that would come.  This community was mostly catholic or witches and so his Christian congregation was averaging about 60.  Today 200+ people showed up and raised this pastor’s spirits.  He and his family were so grateful, with tears in their eyes they asked when Kenton would be back so they could give him a chicken.  Never had this community been so attentive to a church service before.  We had all for corners of an intersection full of people and had to split our team to do the program on all sides…God showed up and many were prayed for for healing and 4 (that we know of) prayed the sinners prayer and have given their lives to Jesus!  We distributed seeds and rice at the end along with shoes for the Dads for Father’s day…very big win for this community.
I’m overcome with the changes of heart that I have seen in our young people.  We talked tonight in our debriefing devotion on how ‘real’ these people are.  Johnnie, one of our students had been talking-using the figure of speech- ie: “They just bite into that mango cause they are so real” or “Oscar, our bus driver, can make it up a winding mountain road because he is so real”.  Funny, but it got us thinking about how authentic these people really are.  They have no luxuries to hide behind, or material things to place in front of things they are dealing with.  They are real.  And God’s joy is real in them.  May we carry this realness with us…be truly genuinely in love with our creator…the same creator that created these ‘real’ people.  Continue to pray, tomorrow will be a challenging day of ministry.  We are going out to many schools in the heat.  Pray for continued protection over us and for God’s joy to keep pushing us over the threshold of weariness! 🙂
Posted on

wrecked

The day started with a heart wrenching walk through a community called Los Heroes.  As we walked through the mud (it’s rainy season) in the streets we could hear infants crying through the plastic walls of their homes.  Little mud covered kids would walk out to grin and look at the gringos!  We walked through one home that the Moody team has built for a family of 5.  It is a wooden home lifted off of the ground so that the rain waters can go under the house instead of through it like most of these plastic sheeted homes have occur every night.  This family was cared for by their 10 year old sister while the single mother was out working…making on the average $2/day.  We ‘toured’ their old home that was now a ‘kitchen’…5 people had once slept in a 5′ x 3′ tin enclosure.  This was only the beginning.  The people started coming out when they saw this compassion filled over 6’ tall man come through the streets….Kenton and Lorin were greeted with huge hugs and inquiries whether or not their house would get a roof today.  I wish we could have done them all!
We saw a 13 year old girl who had been granted a scholarship to attend the assembly of God funded primary school here.  She was in the 3rd grade.  She was proudly holding and showing us her grade card full of A’s, B’s, and C’s.  Kenton informed us that without education by next year she would most likely be pregnant by someone who would take advantage of her.
We also had 2 short kids programs at the school in this community.  The kids interacted well with your students and many bonds were made.
I’m completely wrecked by these people.  I couldn’t hold back the tears as we walked.  I found joy in their joy over and above their circumstances.  What selfish people are we are…
Today we head back to Los Angeles 1 to join in the Sunday School program they have there and then to a church in the mountains where we will distribute seed packets and do a service.  I know this is only the beginning of what God is doing in me and in the students we have brought.  Looking forward to seeing a lot of prayer and fasting come to fruition!
Posted on

3 years

Yesterday made 3 years since we have lost an amazing woman.  Tania, Jason’s mom, was killed in a car accident just 50 yards from her driveway June 10, 2008.  The fact that I have to state that date and what happened is crazy to me.  It was like the shot heard around the world when it happened, but as life goes on, many we come in contact with today do not know of the details, or never even had the privilege of even knowing her.  I’m truly sorry if you are one of the ones who didn’t know her.  You have missed out.  No worries though-Heaven is possibly more fun with her addition :).  We miss her so much.  Jack was only 3 months old when she died.  She would have been just spoiling him rotten in his strong willed 3 year old personality right now!!! And Ben and Sam…they were so smitten by their maw maw.  They start kindergarten in the fall…miss her at all their milestones.  Right now I am typing this from a hotel in Santa Ana, El Salvador.  We are here with a team of 16 students serving the local missionaries in community service and with kids programs.  She loved misions! So I can’t think of a better place to be as we remember her.  She is in that cloud of witnesses, cheering us on and interceding on our behalf!!

Posted on

El Salvador

We have the privilege to be leaving tomorrow headed to San Salvador, El Salvador for 8 days. Jas and I will be taking a crew of 16 students and 3 additional chaperones to help the Moody’s, missionaries to the poor in this area.  We are excited about what God is going to do in the community of San Salvador, in our students, and our lives.  Going to miss my 3 munchkins so much…hope to blog while we are out, but will have LOTS to fill in on when we get back if I can’t.  Adios until then!

Posted on

‘Everybody OK?”

This is my husband’s favorite question to ask a congregation.  He asks this question sometimes to make certain that the congregation is getting the great word that he has been given to present, other times it is just the personality that was genetically passed down from his mother Tania.  She had the gift of compassion and of hospitality.  The two go hand in hand.  She cared for everyone, usually with providing a listening ear, an insightful word, and the Burgbacher favorite: FOOD.  Jason has definitely inherited this trait from her.  He is a feeder!  When dad is home our kids are being offered things to eat all day.  I have to hide the candy-not so we won’t eat it…but because he will give it out to our adorable boys.  Any student that visits our house WILL eat, regardless of whether or not they just had dinner with their family.  He loves to feed.  This could not be any more evident than it was this morning at the Summerville Campus of Faith Assembly of God.  As well as being the youth pastor and now the pastor over our new young adult ministry: Momentum,  he is on the preaching team.  He was able to bring the message today for the 11:00 service while his dad, the senior pastor, fed the Remount Campus for their service.  I have to say, he is my favorite!  Not many women can have what I do, a husband that is a godly priest of his home and has a passion for feeding the church.  I know first hand that he is what he preaches.  What you see is what he is.  Even when I am acting out of my flesh (which is too often) he is counseling me in the ways of the word.  I have been guilty of just asking him to be Jason instead of Pastor Jason so that I can wallow in my self pity at times.  But the truth is they are one in the same.  So many times he is speaking right to me, I can see the anointing on his life, I always leave one of his messages totally full of what God is doing.  He is always willing to do whatever the Lord asks him to.  I have a lot to learn from my wonderful partner in this Kingdom work.  Our boys have the BEST example of how to live for the Lord-I can’t wait to see what beautiful woman of God they will bless many, many, many years down the road! 🙂

Posted on

Party Marathon!!

Wowza! What a day!! From the turn of the tassles to pulling Ben and Sam out of the pool at the last party it equaled around 10 hours of Celebrations for some wonderful young ladies of the class of 2011.  Jack (driven by my mom) is visiting my sister and his favorite stateside cousin-Tiegan.  They are, I’m assured by picture texts, having a blast.  So it was just the four of us today (really strange).  Adam, Laura and sweet Baby Ruth joined us on our journey through the lowcountry.  Food was great at every location, yet still I find myself snacking on a small cheese tray left over from last night.

There were similarities in all of these parties….joy and pride.  All of these girls love the Lord with all their heart.  I just know that we will see great things from them.  They are ready and willing to do whatever God has for them.  We ourselves were beaming with pride.  And there are so many more that either didn’t have a party or we just couldn’t get there today.  We still have a few students awaiting their big monumental day.  We have really been blessed with an amazing student body at Kinetic.  We wish them all the best!

Posted on

99° and climbing

Gotta love May in South Carolina.  We are officially in Summer with heat indexes of 100+, while my father in law had snow in Colorado this week while he was away for a family wedding. (Congrats Timmy and Tina-amazing couple).  I am not complaining by any means.  It is what it is, we just have to be prepared with kids in this heat.  Water, sunscreen, seek shade! This is only the beginning of the scorching heat.  I love to look for neat easy snacks to make for our afternoons.  Today we got our idea from a yogurt commercial: easy yogurt pops.  You just put a kids spoon right through the top of a yogurt cup, (I took this pic AFTER freezing and taking off the foil top)place in the freezer and viola, the next afternoon, you have a lovely cold treat!

Today we enjoyed some time in the sun and sprinkler while I got to lounge on the chaise reading (Jack Stack was napping).  Soaking up the little bit of down time that this week has for us!!

Posted on

DIY

So I love projects…I see my future as someone who will have a craft room and an etsy account.  I love browsing through all the lovely craft blogs.  Some of my favorites right now are Little Birdie Secrets and Plaid kids crafts Right now my life isn’t so conducive to this dream lifestyle…but every now and then I can sneak a DIY craft in.  This time I chose to refinish a table.  Jason and I have had this solid wood round kitchenette table our entire marriage.

Before
Before

We had many card nights and game nights on this table in our child-less years-Mike Denny and his ‘forearms’ meant the demise of the glass overlay at one said dominoes game night…Our children had their first meals at this table, made their first cookies at this table and finger painted at this table.

We with being a family of 5, have now outgrown this table as a frequently sat at table.  It is very hard to fit 5 chairs around a round table and have everyone happy.  But with that kind of sentimental value it couldn’t be put on craig’s list or donated….I was shocked that Jason was the biggest fan of this piece of furniture.  So I decided to make it our new playroom table-since our growing boys had outgrown their little square table that they used for coloring, homework and crafts.  But the black/brown did not go with the decor upstairs.  We have a bunch of the ikea white (which isn’t a real bright white) up there and blacks and reds.  So I decided to strip the table and paint it white…I think it will fit in the playroom nicely! What do you think??

after

Now all that is needed is to get more chairs for our new ikea stainless steel table in the dinette so I can move 4 of the current chairs up to accompany it!!

Posted on

our family is growing!

So, we have been a family of 5.  Jason, myself, our 3 adorable kids Sam, Ben and Jack, a family of 7 if you include our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel ‘Marla’ and our curly tailed domestic short-haired feline ‘James’.  Most would think that is a big enough family.  We are already beyond the the average ‘ideal’ family situation of one boy, one girl, one dog and a white picket fence.  We just love adventure here in the Burgbacher house.  We like to go above and beyond the norm.  So since we do include our furry four-legged pets as part of the family, I thought it necessary to network our newest addition!  Welcome Hubert Burgbacher to the clan!! Born October 14th 2010, he is a new bouncing baby boy Bloodhound.  He weighs in at 20.8 lbs at his young age of 14 weeks.  He is Red with black on his muzzle.  His ears are ridiculously long and his hound eyes will melt your heart.  All 3 of our boys are smitten with him and call him their best friend.  Jack is right at nose nipping height for now and so he tends to get bossy with the sit command when Hubert tromps up.   We questioned whether or not the time was right for another big dog.  Marla is so low maintenance with the fact that she would rather sit on the couch and watch the boys play then ever dream of getting up to chase a toy.  After pet sitting for a few friends for a couple consecutive weekends, we (I) knew we needed to do some research.  That is when Hubert’s sister happened to be adopted by a facebook friend.  Her picture was posted and after some social networking dialog we were on our way to Huger (pronounced hugee) SC to meet Hubert. Now at his new home for 2 weeks, he has taught us a bunch.  We were definitely ready for some more adventure here!! Some think I’m crazy, but that is ok.  Some don’t have a love for dogs, and that is ok too.  As for us in this house, we love us some Hubert, and that is all that matters. He loves visitors and can’t wait to meet all our amazing friends.  But beware, he doesn’t understand those who don’t love dogs…he will love you regardless!

Posted on

‘Tis the season…

I sit here with my peppermint mocha in a very quiet house aside from Christmas music on Pandora a room away.  I sit with the awareness of my complete unworth to the blessings that have been given to me.  It is in this time of quiet peace, (that is few and far between) that I put aside my list of ‘things to do when I get a free moment’, and I remember advice that has been given to me by numerous wise women in my life…I rest.  Jack is nestled in his bed for his afternoon nap and Jason is out with Sam and Ben at the stores, no doubt buying ‘mommy’ something else I don’t deserve. So much I can get caught up in the “what I need to be doing” when there is silence.  Planning the next meeting, getting some students together so I can ‘speak into their lives’, run a quick inventory to make sure we are doing all we can do, make a checklist for the New Year, etc… So instead in this rest I am aware of my sovereign God.  So wonderful to me.  In control of our time, minute, hours, days.  I look around and think if I cannot be content in THIS, what is to become of me.  So I am thankful.  SO thankful. For what Christ has entrusted me with today.  I want to treasure it and cultivate it, so that He can trust me with His plan and purpose.  My ‘season’ that I am in.  I want to relish it! A wife and a mommy of little men.  I look around my home…Christmas is my ultimate favorite time of year.  My husband will second that as he had to pull out all of my Christmas decor…which had grown in lieu of the Christmas sale of 2009.  In the front room is a beautiful Christmas tree decked out with blue and gold ribbons, gold poinsettias and blue, red and antiqued glass balls.  It ties together all that is in these two front rooms with all the trimmings on everything possible…kinda formal like…and in my opinion, humbly stunning.  But I sit in the heart of our home.  The site where games of candy land and treasure hunts take place.  Here stands a Christmas tree with handmade ornaments, snowflakes and candy canes.  This spruce’s needles decorate the floor underneath it due to the ornaments being shifted daily by little hands.  “My snowman ornament looks like it’s eating this candy cane mommy!!” The hearth is jovial with red bell garland and all looks ‘festive comfortable’.  The recipe for rolled sugar cookie dough is on the next tab on my MacBook as I am preparing for the boys to fill the house with noise again.  Yes, this is my favorite time of year, but I’m realizing that THIS is my favorite season of life!  As I know it that is!  Days of lunching with friends and quiet dinner parties will be in my future, but for now I love the times of floured faced 2 and 5 year olds.  I love the pitter patter and sometimes stomping of little feet through the house.  I love the disputes over toys and turns on a favorite chair.  Because THIS is what He has blessed me with.  And I want to treasure it and cultivate it.  He has trusted these beautiful little men to me….and ‘Tis the season for these blessings to have all I have to give!