Harrell's trips to Viet Nam and Philippines

It has been 1 week since Harrell and Brother Woody Godbey of the Trinity Baptist Temple Church in Fort Worth, Texas began their journey to the Far East! Harrell has reported in each day and made me the happiest woman around! He has shared with me all the places he has gone and the experiences he has had ans I will try to relay them to you.

The guys arrived in Ho Chi Mihn City (formally Saigon) at 11:45 pm and were met by a national pastor we had made contact with through e-mail. They got settled into a motel and tried to get a few hours of rest. Then the adventure began. Harrell relayed that the city is a beautiful mix of the old and new. It reminded him of a mix of Romania and Honduras. The old worn buildings and a feel of the ancient yet dripping sweat from the oppressing heat! I am so proud of him, too! He actually went shopping all by himself! He was able to find and pick up some hand painted silk fans for some friends in Virginia.

As far as the food goes...if you know anything about Brother Harrell you know that he is a basic meat and potato kind of guy. So his experience with the food has been an adventure for sure. He has been eating Spring Rolls and Fried Rice mainly. (Those are the only things he said he recognized what they were!) He and Brother Woody did find a little cafe downtown that served Hamburgers and onion rings. He said to was the best food he had ever eaten, he didn't care how much it cost him!!!

brother Woody served in the military during the war there so it was an opportunity for him to revisit a lot of the area he had been in back in the 70's. Harrell said the visited the Cu Che tunnels and he even when into them. Now for those of you who don't know it, he has Claustrophobia. He said by the time they made it out of the tunnels he was physically ill!!!
They also had the chance to go to one of the underground church services. It was a Teen and College age service and the guys really enjoyed it. It was hard for Harrell to stay awake though because he was so tired and the room was so small and warm.

They checked out of their hotel and rode a bus for 4 hours up to the village where this pastor lives and serves. It was here that God moved and opened the hearts of both men. Harrell told me of one day how they drove in a car they had rented until they couldn't go any farther and then began trekking through the jungle. he said he kept expecting to run into George of the Jungle it was so over grown. Then they came out into a clearing and there stood a small shack made of bamboo pole. You could see straight through the walls. Inside they found a small widow woman living here all alone. She lives on a hand full of rice a day and has no one to care for her. Harrell said the pastor took them to 10 such women living in remote sections of this jungle area.

With God's help we will take on these dear women and try to help them in their last days. Our main goal will be to lead them to salvation if they do not already know Jesus as their Lord. At the Sunday morning service God blessed them with seeing an 80 year old woman accepting Christ as her Savior. So there is much to do for our Lord no matter where we find our selves at.

The guys left Viet Nam this morning and flew over to Cebu, Philippines and I will report back to you as I hear form my precious husband. He is already excited about God expanding our ministries and what God has planned for our future. Please pray for them as they minister that God will go before them and prepare the hearts of the people. Pray also that God will give both men health and rest as they work for him. When you get extremely tire your immune defences are let down and you are susceptible to sickness. So please help me hold them up before the Lord that they will come back healthy and okay.

Check back here in a couple of days and I will have some more adventures ready for you. Once Harrell gets back I can then down load some pictures and tell you even more.
God bless,
Jeannie

I'M BACK.........

Well, as you can tell I have been in hiding....not really! The summer has flown by with us hanging on the tail of the winds. Our summer was one of uncertainty but full of trust in the Lord. We began July with not one meeting booked because Harrell had been called up for Jury Duty in Fort Worth, Texas. I am so excited to tell you God supplied all of our needs and even a few of my wants! Harrell was excused from serving and God took care of all our bills.

I had the opportunity to see my 3 sisters and 2 brothers on a spur of the moment family reunion in Sulpher, Oklahoma. We ended up with over 50 people there! I was blessed to see 2 of my aunts, several cousins and my favorite uncle of all, Uncle SL. Many of these family members I haven't seen in close to 40 years. It was a great time of reconnecting and renewing family ties. Don't take family for granted. It felt so good to be with my sisters and to know we love one another no matter what.

We were in Romania in August to get the kids ready for school this year. The little ones were so excited to get back to playing and learning. The older kids weren't as excited! We want to thank the Lisbon Baptist Temple of Lisbon, Ohio for sending their Vacation Bible School offering for us to use on the school supplies. You thought buying for 2-8 kids was a hassle, try doing it for 28 children from Kindergarten up to High School! Boy, was Brother Harrell worn out when we finished! We would go into a store and ask for a specific item and just buy all they had! Most stores only carry a few things on their shelves! Boy could I have used a good old Wal-Marts!!! Well, the kids are all doing good in school and God has kept everyone healthy.

There was a scare back in March when two of our little girls were diagnosed with heart problems. Timea was found to have a very small hole in her heart. The doctors are just watching her right now to see if it will heal itself. Dana is a very skinny little girl whose chest cavity is just too small for her heart and lungs. They have her doing some exercises to expand her chest bones. So please pray for my little girls that God will touch them. Both girls are 7 years old and we have had them since they were 8 months old.

We also had one of our little 5 year old boys, Alex, set to be adopted this fall. All of the paper work was done and the potential parents came out to the home to see him for the first time...when they saw he was 5 years old they turned him down! They thought they were getting a baby! It broke my heart but I was also very glad that we still have him under our loving care.

The Gypsy churches are doing good also. We are close to having the church in Bertin completed. Here in the U.S. it would have been completed in less than 3 months, in Romania in has been close to a year!!! The people are ready for it to be finished and opened for services! So are we!

I thank God that HE has placed such a wonderful man over the Feeding Center in La Ceiba, Honduras. Aldo is so conscientious towards doing right and being accountable to us and the Lord that we don't have to worry too much about that work. We are still trying to get a national pastor to start a church there and work with these people. We would love to be able to move the whole neighborhood to a new location. The area is being built up with new homes all around them. The locals solution to this barrio is to build a wall on either side of the street and close them in. All this does is close off what fresh air they can get and puts the children in danger from the workers on these new houses!


We have a great need for your prayers in October. Harrell will be flying to Viet Nam and then over to Cebu, Philippines for 2 weeks to see about starting some ministries over there. We have met a Vietnamese pastor through mutual friends and on the internet. We are so excited to see where God is going to take us. We promised the Lord we'd go anywhere HE leads, so pray with us that Harrell will know without a doubt what God would have him do while in these new countries. Our hearts desire is that God would allow us to have a working ministry for HIM on every continent on the Earth.

Well, I promise not to be so long in publishing a blog next time! Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all I need to do and kind of go into a shut down mode!!!! So til next time keep those prayers coming our way and remember that without your prayers to shield us from Satan's fiery darts we are wide open to attacks. I really am a coward too, so don't stop praying for me, I mean us, them...well God knows!!

Happy Father's Day...

Today is Father’s Day and I want to encourage you to call or go see your daddy if you can. It’s so true that you don’t miss what you have until you don’t have it anymore…
I never knew my father very well but God blessed me with the absolute greatest father-in-law around! I think God looked around and said, ‘Okay, The Girls gonna need someone like him to help her out.” and gave me his sweet son, AKA; the Big Guy, so I could have a daddy.

Truthfully, when I first met my husband’s father I thought they were all really weird! I mean, they told each other they loved each other and even hugged!!!! I’d never seen this and it was a real eye opener to me. Then I watched Big Daddy as he lived a Christian life before me, showing me what a real father was like. He became a reflection of what God is to me as HIS child. Then when The Big Guy and I began our family I was so proud that he was just like his daddy. It’s like they say, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

I do believe that for some people the way we view our earthly father has a lot to do on how we view our Heavenly Father. Some people can only see God as a vengeful, hateful and controlling God that’s out to get them, which makes them small, bitter, fearful and lonely Christian. While others see a God who loves and cherishes them and wants to see them grow into strong, useful, helpful Christians. I’ve seen both sides and I prefer to see God as a Father who loves me and yet corrects me when I do bad so I can become a better person and Christian to lead others to HIM.

So go call your daddy and tell him you love him. If you can see him, even better, hug his neck and thank him for being your father and teaching you all you know.

That's "our" dad without the hat. Love ya, Big Daddy.

Revival at the Samaritan Baptist Church

We had such a great time with Brother Danny Smith and the Samaritan Baptist Church last week. Brother Smith has been the pastor there since 1981 and the church will celebrate its 50th anniversary this October. We love going there and so far they haven’t gotten too tired of us! We started holding revivals for Samaritan Baptist Church around 1989 and have been going there almost every year since then. Brother Danny has been going through a battle with his health lately and we all are praying that God will work a miracle in him. He is the most upbeat pastor I know of. If you’re ever feeling down or just need a lift, all you have to do is talk to Preacher Smith and you will go away feeling better.

We had 2 sweet ladies from this church go with us to Romania on our 2007 Christmas trip. They have become my “Buddies”, my “Shopping Compadres”, and my prayer partners. Brenda and Michelle proved to be two of the best “shoppers and wrappers” I have had the pleasure of spending money with!! They are planning on going back this year and bringing 4 other ladies from the church also!! Whoopee, look out stores in Romania! I’m bringing an army this time!! The best mental picture I can give you of the time there is The Big Guy totin’ shopping bags and trying to keep a gaggle of women out of trouble!! Now you know how to pray for the Christmas Trip!!!

This church also has a large number of people who sponsor our children from the orphanage. So you can see the tight connection we have been blessed with at the Samaritan Baptist Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina. If your ever driving through there you need to stop in and the members will make you feel so at home you’ll almost kick your shoes off and stay a while! Thank you Brother Danny and all of the dear members who make us feel so loved but so unworthy of it also!

Shopping American Style...

I went shopping on Monday with two dear friends who have been over to Romania with us and I had such a wonderful time. We bought all kinds of clothes for our kids at the orphanage. It was so much fun picking out little dresses for "my girls" and overalls for the boys. I even found some outfits for my grand babies! The kids in Romania will enjoy the clothes but they'll enjoy the water balloons, freezer pops and Kool-Aid even more. These are things that you never see over there and they just love water balloons!

I'm always overwhelmed at just how much we as Americans have at our disposal. From grocery stores to clothing departments to fast food and even book stores, we have to only look to the left or right of us and there is everything we need! I always wonder what the reaction of my teen aged girls in Romania would be if they were brought to one of our Malls? I'm sure they would think it was real close to being in Heaven!

I heard a story of a man from a very small island off of the Philippines who walked into a Super Wal-Mart and just started crying...when asked why he cried he replied that it was more food than his whole island would see in all of their life times together! It shouldn't make us feel bad or guilty that we have so much, but I do think that we should take time to thank God that he has blessed us so greatly. Believe me when I say that there is no place I love more than America. It may not be perfect and we may have some problems but it's MY country and I am very proud to be an American.

Back to work again...

Well, I'm back to blogging after a wonderful week with our 3 grand children in Florida. The Big Guy and I spent all of our time playing, holding, loving and spoiling our three precious jewels. JB is a lively, entertaining little boy who in my eyes in a genius. Dia, our drama queen, is so much fun to be around cause you never know what she is going to do. Then there's our Flowersy Girl who at 3 months is the light of her Pappy's life. I'm only going to post 3 pictures, I promise, and

then we'll move on..(okay 4)

.

Well, was I right in saying these babies are too, too sweet! God has blessed us so richly.

Now on to what's happening in the life and trials of the Noble's; We have been back in the states for a week and are looking forward to beginning revival services in Winston-Salem, NC at the Samaritan Baptist Church where Brother Danny Smith is the pastor. We have been going to this church for over 20 years now and hope the Lord will continue to use us. We always have a great time with the church members, most of them we've known for so many years. It's like a home coming for us to be there. We've seen children grow into adults and now have families of thier own. We've seen the "home going" of husbands and of wives and how God has lifted up those left behind. I'm so glad God has let us be a part of this church family for so many years.

I'll send out news on the revival later so stay in touch.

Newest Church Established...

We had a wonderful time in Romania and God blessed us greatly. We formally established the Ineu De Cris Baptist Church at our children's homes. This will be for serveral reasons, mainly this wioll provide a church for our children to go to. When we go into the village we take over the small churches there. This will also solve our transportation problems of getting everyone to a church, now they just walk to it! This will also give us an opportunity to be a lighthouse to our village. We already have a few people who come to our services we hold at the homes. The cost to build a church on our property will be approximately $15,000-$18,000. So please pray with us that God will supply this need.

I had meant to write while I was there but I couldn't find a spare minute do it. When I had the time the Internet was down. It rained every single day we were there. Our children are counting down the days until school is out and they can have a little time off. I have found kids are the same no matter where they live!!! We have one of our older girls, Timea, graduating on June the 6th. She will be our 4th child to graduate from high school. It's so sad and yet exciting at the same time to see these children grow up and going out on their own. We only have five of our "original" children we started out with almost 10 years ago. God has blessed us so much.

On a sadder note; two of our older girls, who had recently moved out, faced a real trajety in their lives while we were there. Dorina and Ana Maria's mother whom they had just resently made contact with again died of cancer. We went to the funeral and it was so very sad to see the faces of the people there. Most have no hope beyond what today brings and the only way they knew how to deal with this death was to be stone drunk. It greived my heart for the girls sake and made me so glad that we were able to have them in our home for almost