The Lees in the Land of the Lost

Pics from our family "vacation" to Glen Rose.

Tess and Joys First Cartwheels

Six Flags 08

Six Flags 08

Six Flags 08

Six Flags 08

Our Three Monkeys

For Sale

Tess thought that she would have a "stuft animal" sale this past weekend.

You will have to click the picture to be able to read her sign that is taped to the frame of her bunk bed.

Tess and Joy

Lee Family Time-line, 2008-2009

September 9...............Subcommittee will vote on whether or not to accept our applications. We will be notified the same day with their decision.
November 11-13..........Appointment in Houston, TX (all are invited)
January 26-March 26, 2009.......Orientation in Richmond, VA
March 26-April ?.........Adios time in Texas
April ?,2009-?.............Language school in Costa-Rica

Happy Birthday Grandpa...No Grandma

How God Has Change My Husbands Goals

Mike turns 40 this next week! What an awsome testimony his life is to God's faithfulness! I remember when I first met Mike, he was coaching basketball at a small school near lake Whitney. He told me then he had based his decision to teach there on that fact. Sure he had a love for basketball and a desire to teach, but ultimatly he was a guy who loved to fish. The years have passed and although Mike still loves many of the same things, his goals have changed in a powerful way. Gone are the days of making decisions based on the best fishing in Texas.
The years alone may have changed many of his goals. Age, experience and knowlege may have told him to possibly base his life on more mature pursuits, however it was God who ultimately changed his heart, his life, and his goals. I have been blessed to see many of these changes .
What a wonderful God we have who does not leave us to ourselves and our own desires. What a powerful and loving God we have who allows us to change and grow in His likeness.
Today, Mike still loves to fish, but his location, lures and catch have changed. Today he would rather fish for men, not because he is a great guy or because he has been given the gift of evangelism, but because God has done a work in Mike's heart changing it from a heart of stone to one of flesh. In Luke 5:10b Jesus says,"Do not be afraid, From now on you will catch men." So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him." Mike, by God's grace ,recognized his own sinfulness and his futility and foolishness in laboring in vain for the things of this world, turned away from these things and followed Jesus Christ. It was that miraculously simple! God's word says"He saved us, not becuase of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy."
Yes, God has changed Mike's heart and in turn his goals and much to my amazement, he has changed mine along the way.
After much thought I realized the most important thing I could do for Mike's birthday is to ask you all to pray for him, for his walk and for his next 40 years!
Please leave a prayer or comment for him on this blog for his 40th birthday, thank you.

Jake and Poppi

My father mass emailed this conversation between him and my son to all of his friends and family.



My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Poppi, do you know how you and God are alike?"
I mentally polished my halo while I asked, "No, how are we alike?"
"You're both old," he replied.

Me and Jake

1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,
3 and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom,
and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds victory in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Proverbs 3

Cabelas

Yes that is a real stuffed elephant.

My kids and I recently visited the North Fort Worth Zoo...That is we visited Cabela's. Here are some pictures documenting our trek during this wild and woolly adventure.

Wedding Vows Renewed In 2003

VEGGIE TALES

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Dancing Queen

Before bedtime, with her pig tails taken out, Joy decided to put on her Princess dress over her P.J.'s and dance. Though you cant see them, she also has her Princess dress-up shoes on. This is evidenced by her funny walk.

To Sum Up - A thank you from Megan

We have wanted to sit down for months and share our hearts with you all, our overflow of thanksgiving for all of you. Where do we begin? First we want to thank those of you who have called and encouraged us, your regular just checking up on us phone calls have always been right on time and greatly needed. Some of you have gotten an earful and a tearful of blubbering; others have called on less emotional days and didn’t know we were struggling. Either way, your words and prayers kept us moving through some difficult times this past year. God’s faithfulness has been walked out in you, thank you.

Next we want to thank all of you whom we’ve been blessed to spend time with this year. Your outreach and hospitality have been appreciated and much needed. A visit here and a walk there, a play date this week and a meal another. Gods love has been shown by you, thank you. Finally for those who have shared something special with us; cards, gift cards, autographs, Christmas ornaments, birthday gifts, coffee mugs, E-mails and much more, God’s care and provision have been extended through you. Thank you.

Lord willing we will leave for our five weeks of training in Virginia a year from January 26th and then head to Costa Rica for a year of language training, and ultimately end up somewhere in Mexico. Our prayer is that you all will come with us! Please join us in prayer these next four years as we move in the direction of God’s call upon our lives. We will need you. We have recognized how powerful your prayers have been and how awesome your support, we acknowledge our need for it in times to come. We humbly yet boldly ask God to lay it upon your hearts to pray for us and encourage us. We love you all and are blessed to call you family.

The Long Walk

Please note that I am in no way trying to make light of what happened to the Navajo people in the early 1860's by the use of this title. I actually have more of an idea and feel much more compassion toward what the Navajo went through after my visit to the South Rim two days ago.

The Big Bend is an amazing place. Yes it’s a desert, but beautiful. The Chisos Mountains are almost in the center of the park. On the East side of the Chisos Mountains, the desert plant life is sparse. On the West side of the Chisos, though it is still a desert, the plant life is considerably more. Then as you ascend the mountains you get into a forest of pines and other trees. The scenery is breath taking. If you have never been there before I recommend that you go see it before you die.

Speaking of dying my friend and I decided to take a day hike to the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains. If you ever go, do not let the name "day hike” fool you. It should have been named “3 day hike” or the “are you a man or mouse hike?”

I was worried about this day hike before we left. I didn’t go over board and let my friend know that I was worried so I went and asked a ranger about this hike when my friend was not looking. The ranger that was working in the visitor center was a lady around 55 years or so. She convinced me that I could hike the trail in at least 10 hours. She said that when she walks it, it takes her between 6-8 hours. I looked at my watch and it was 10 a.m. and thought if this lady who is easily 17 years my senior can do this in 6-8 hours, a 38 year old MAN can do it in at least that amount of time Arrr.



Just in case it took longer than she suggested, I packed matches, an extra set of clothes, extra food and rain ponchos (there was a 50% chance of rain in the mountains) etc… I then asked her if they had Fat Boy Helicopter Rescue Units in the area and she just smiled and said “No, but we have donkeys”. That clinched my decision to go…donkeys to the rescue.

We started on our journey. We walked about 50 yards or so down hill and realized that I hadn’t packed a flash light. Around we turned and headed back up hill. My legs started screaming at me. I should have listened when my legs said, "Mike even though that lady is 17 years your senior and could concievably be your mother AND to top it off, a lady, you probably should not go.” Of course me worrying about my manhood it wouldn’t allow me to listen to my legs.
About an hour and a half into the hike I make my second mistake by not listening to my legs. Thinking that we had traveled some distance we stop so that I could look at the map (even thought the real objective was to catch my breath). When I looked at the map expecting to be somewhere close to the halfway point, it looked like we had hardly left camp.

OH MY GOSH! MIKE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? Just tell Mark that you aren’t a MAN after all. Tell the truth. Tell him that sitting behind a desk for the last 7 years coupled with a serious lack of exercise has turned you into a mouse. Tell him that it is in my best interest and possibly his, that we turn around and head back to camp hoping that Lady Ranger wouldn’t see us.


A mixture of pride and a lack of memory nearly called for an embarrassing day because I didn’t tell him those things. You see when I was younger, I was in excellent shape. Though I was thin (6”6” and 170-175 pounds), I was relatively strong. I was able to bench press 210 lbs. and could almost get my elbow on the rim. I could run the mile in a very easy 5-6 minutes. I possibly could have ran it in a low 5 or less if I had enjoyed running and strove for that goal. My memory failed to tell me that it was 20 years ago that I was able to do those things.

Two hours after checking the map, with the top of the mountain still looming overhead, I started thinking, “Im going to be in next months Readers Digest edition!”. About that time we meet 4 young men in their mid 20’s coming down the trail laughing and having a good time. I figure that the rest of the hike must not be that hard since they were not in any obvious pain or discomfort.
An hour or so later we come upon 2 men and 2 women who were retirement age who were bird watchers. They had been watching birds a little further up the path and were headed down.
They didn’t seem like they were in need of rescuing so I decided to trek ahead.

About a mile further up the mountain we ran into two more young men about 25 or so and they said that the mountain top (South Rim) was about 2 more miles.
I thought “WHAT DO YOU MEAN 2 MILES!!! THIS DAY HIKE IS ONLY 6 AND A HALF MILES TO THE TOP AND WE HAVE BEEN HIKEING GOING ON 4 HOURS!!!!”
Of course I said “Thank you” in a very polite manner and continued on toward the top wondering if i would not only have a story written about me in the Readers Digest but if my face would make the cover of next months edition. Deciding that I might grace the cover, I asked Mark to take my picture so that I could at least look like I was having a good time before tragedy struck. He did.

Right after he takes my picture it starts raining lightly and the temperature drops so that it feels like it is in the low 50’s. I start thinking, “I am going to be lucky if I grace the cover of Readers Digest. With the temperature drop and the rain, I’m going to die of hypothermia and will instead grace the cover of the National Parks Ranger Quarterly, titled stupid civilians.

Luckily I remembered that we had packed rain ponchos. I started feeling better.
When we got to the top of the mountain we visited briefly with a man and lady who were there enjoying the spectacular view with the lady’s two sons. But it was time to head down. The sun would set in 3 and a half hours and we needed to leave then if we would make it back to camp before sun set (we only brought one flashlight).

My calves, my GM, and my dogs were screaming at me. Mark asked if my knees were hurting two or three times. Each time I told him no. I have been incredibly fortunate throughout my life. I have NEVER had a single problem with my knees. Until literally 2-3 minutes after Mark asked about my knees, my right knee began to ache.

“Oh no! I am going to die” I thought. “My knee is going to swell to where I cant bend it and there fore have to find an over hang that would protect me from the rain that was steadily increasing and sit out the night waiting to be rescued by the Lady Ranger on a donkey (how embarrassing)... Hopefully she would be able to find me before the mountain lions or the black bear, if I didnt die from hypothermia first.

I decided that I would likely not only make the cover of the National Parks Ranger Quarterly but I would also enable The Lady Ranger to win some kind of promotion or reward for rescuing me from the clutches of death.

Not wanting to be humiliated, I proceeded down the mountain. An hour later the sun was close to setting and camp was in sight. YEA GOD!!!

By Gods grace we, or umm I, made it back with time to spare. Mark was just a little winded. Must be the African water. God was good to me. God is good to me. GOD IS GOOD! Praise God. I sure did a lot of praying.

What a great trip we had. We are already planning another when the Phillips family comes home on their next furlough.
Guess where?

That’s right. The Chisos Mountains…and then on to Copper Canyon. Hopefully I will be wiser and stay at the camp with our little girls if everybody decides to go on that day hike...hmm I sure hope the girls will not want to go...

Six Flags 2006

Tess is riding with me (Mike) on a ride that spins you around and around and around. At first she really likes the ride. However after 15-20 seconds she decides that it isn't near as much fun as it started to be.

Jacob and I (Mike) are on the Superman ride and are being shot about 200 feet in the air. Jacob isn't sure if he likes this ride or not. After we get to the top after being shot like a cannon ball, I try to take his mind off the ride by pointing out to him the view of downtown Dallas. After all was said and done I think that he faired better than his sister.

The arrival of our bundle of Joy!

Announcing Joy's arrival to Jacob and Tess!!!!

Jacob and Tess going to see Joy for the first time.

Proud Poppi

Jacob and Tess Watching Cartoons

South Padre Island 2005

Tiny Dancer

2 Years From 100, 2 Years From Birth

Mamaw and Joy-Christmas 2007

Christmas 2005

Christmas with Grandpa and Nana

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

My Beautiful Wife

Mexico

We are starting the application process with the IMB. It appears that Mexico will be our new home withing the next few years. I have had a love for our Latin neighbors to the South for some time, but was not positive that Mexico was the country that we were to go to. I felt that both Central and South America could be the place as well. Our trip to China in 2004 didn't help that decision process any. I wanted to go to China as soon as we got back.

We had friends go to Greece who gave a presentation at church and Ill be darned if I didnt want to go there as well. After this we had some very good friends come back to the states on state side assignment who lived in Tanznia. After hearing about the Luguru people there in Tanzania, that was where I wanted to go next.

Finally, about two weeks ago, after not only being able to be decisive on where we wanted to go, but how we were ultimately going to get to the mission field, my wife who has fought Mexico since I got back from a mission trip in 2002, said that she was ready to go to Mexico. Of course I immediatly jumped on the IMB web site and started looking for assignments in Mexico. We have narrowed the cities that we are looking at to Puebla, Veracruz and Guadalajara, Mexico.

But Daddy, I cant see you!

But Daddy, I cant see you!

For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.
Psalm 61:3
The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
Proverbs 18:10
I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I trust in the LORD.
Proverbs 31:6
Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
Psalm 67:7-8

I went to spend the weekend with my parents in Evant when Jake was 2 years old while Megan had a church function that she was attending in another town. That night as we went to bed, Jake asked if he could sleep with me. Of course I was thrilled and said, "Yes!". I gave him his GaGa (security blanket), pulled the blankets up under his chin, prepared the bed for me to get in, and climbed in bed with him. I then reached over and turned the lamp off next to the bed.

Pitch black darkness surrounded us.

You literally could not see your hands in front of your face. Immediatly like a rocket, Jake was at my side. He propelled himself from his side of the bed to my side attaching himself to me like an additional appendage. I dont think that I could have pried his little 30 lb. body off my side if I had wanted to (of course I didnt want to). What an awesome feeling it was to be what my son "ran to in times of trouble". What an incredible picture of how we are to run to our Father in our "times of trouble".





Within a minute or two he said in a very weak and quivering voice, "Daddy, I cant see you!"


I replied, "I know son. However you can hear me cant you?"


"Yes".


"Then you know that I am right here."


A few moments elapsed.

"But Daddy, I cant see you."

"You can feel me can't you?"

"Yes."

"That is because I am right here beside you. You do not need to be afraid."

After much considering he responded again, "But Daddy I can't see you."

I wrapped my arms around his little body, holding him tight until we both went to sleep.

What an incredible picture of how we are to run to our Father in our "times of trouble".

Because Jacob does not know the LORD, Megan and I pray everyday that he will run to the safety of this strong Tower of refuge who is a Fortress for all who run to It. May he not cling to the things of this world but to Him who, like a mother hen who spreads her wings protecting her chicks, protects His children, upholding them with His right hand.

Amen