Merry Christmas From The Worthey's

Merry Christmas everyone...We hope you had as great a day as we did celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! We started last night with Tommy reading about the very first Christmas from Luke 2. It was a little different this year because it was just the 3 of us, but it was nice! We each opened one gift which is our usual tradition and Chase opened her present from Poppa DewBerry! Chase wanted to open presents at midnight last night, but Tommy and I convinced her she wanted to wait until morning:) Believe it or not I was the first one up this year, all you with small kids are going to hate us, I woke up about 9:30a and came downstairs and got breakfast started and then tried to do something with my hair because I knew we would be taking pictures:) About the time I was blow drying my hair Chase pops in all excited saying "Merry Christmas" I sent her up to wake Tommy and then the fun began!:) We opened presents while the Breakfast casserole and hashbrown casserole both baked! We had such a good time watching each other open presents - Tommy got usual daddy gifts underwear, 2 movies from our favorite comedian Brian Regan, and a Seinfeld Scene It game, which is really fun! I got 2 shirts from old navy, 2 movies from the Love Comes Softly series, a new set of dishes that I absolutely love!:) and I also got a Willow tree figurine! Chase was so excited she has been wanting a Wii and We (Tommy and I) didn't think it was in our budget and Chase understood! However, I found a really good deal online and we were able to get her a Wii...and let me tell you we, all of us, have had so much fun with it today...Neither Tommy nor I are big video game players, but I can see us having years of fun playing this one...Worth every penny:) Chase also got a new Kodak easy share camera and memory card, a game for her Wii, a couple of Webkinz, and some Project Runway stuff...it's pretty cool, she can learn to draw and design:) All in all we had a wonderful day and we were blest with many things to enjoy this coming year!

If you have already seen this post you will notice I have changed it up just a little...I noticed that several people use these slideshows when they have lots of pictures instead of making the post so huge with pictures, so I thought I would try it out...I hope you enjoy!:)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Wonder of Wonders

This post is being written by Tommy. Heidi usually writes all the post for our blog, but today I have something that I would like to share with everyone. I assume that most people are like myself and enjoy listening to and singing Christmas songs. I like fun songs like Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman, but I especially like songs that are about Jesus and His birth. Songs like Silent Night and O Come All Ye Faithful are among my favorites. However, I believe that the song titled The Wonder of Wonders is my very favorite Christmas song of all time. I have this song on an old cassette tape by the Inspirations. I was looking on "YouTube" and actually found this song by the Inspirations. I am going to get Heidi to try to add the link here so you can hear it for yourself (I am not technically aware, so I will not try to do it myself). I am also putting the words here so you can at least read them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOcMP3ulLVc


THE WONDER OF WONDERS

THE WONDER OF WONDERS, AS SHE LOOKED ON HIS FACE,
THAT THIS LITTLE BOY, SPOKE THE WORLDS INTO PLACE.
THE STARS AND THE MOON, SHINING BRIGHTLY ON THEM,
THE EARTH AND THE SUN, WERE CREATED BY HIM.

CHORUS:
THE WONDER OF WONDERS ,OH HOW COULD IT BE,
THAT GOD BECAME FLESH, AND WAS GIVIN FOR ME.
THE ALMIGHTY CAME DOWN, AND WALKED AMONG MEN,
THE WONDER OF WONDERS, HE DIED FOR MY SINS.

THE WONDER OF WONDERS, AS SHE LOOKED DOWN AND SMILED,
THAT HE WAS HER MAKER, AS WELL AS HER CHILD.
HE CREATED THE WOMB, THAT HAD GIVIN HIM BIRTH.
HE WAS GOD INCARNATE, CAME DOWN TO EARTH.

CHORUS:

THE WONDER OF WONDERS ,OH HOW COULD IT BE,
THAT GOD BECAME FLESH AND WAS GIVIN FOR ME.
THE ALMIGHTY CAME DOWN AND WALKED AMONG MEN,
THE WONDER OF WONDERS, HE DIED FOR MY SINS.

THE WONDER OF WONDERS, AS SHE HEARD HIS SMALL CRY,
THAT THIS VOICE HAD THUNDERED, ON MT. SINAI.
THE SMALL HAND SHE HELD, SO TENDERLY,
HAD MADE A DRY PATH, THROUGH THE MIGHTY RED SEA.

CHORUS:

THE WONDER OF WONDERS ,OH HOW COULD IT BE,
THAT GOD BECAME FLESH AND WAS GIVIN FOR ME.
THE ALMIGHTY CAME DOWN AND WALKED AMONG MEN,
THE WONDER OF WONDERS, HE DIED FOR MY SINS.

Our pastor has been preaching from the first chapter of the Gospel of John for the past few weeks and this morning he preached on verse 14 which says, "The word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth"(HCSB). His message was about the amazement of the incarnation, the necessity of the incarnation, and the blessing of the incarnation. It truly is amazing, and necessary, and a blessing, that our Creator became flesh and died for us. There is another song on my tape by the Inspirations titled I Love to Spend Christmas at Calvary. The chorus of this song says:

The most beautiful gift there was given,
When God Himself in mercy, decorated a tree,
The most beautiful light there is shining,
I love to spend Christmas, at Calvary.

When I think about Christmas I think about the birth of Christ. When I think about the birth of Christ I think about His death and resurrection. I am amazed that God loved us so much that He gave the greatest gift ever given when He gave us His Son Jesus. My prayer is that you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and that you recognize that when God took on humanity it truly was a wonder of wonders. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and please fill free to contact me if you have any questions.
Tommy

Cal Farley- Update

I am sorry about not updating the blog sooner...I had a terrible headache yesterday and I went back to the hotel and went to bed! Of course we have spent all day today traveling home:) Anyway, to update you on what happened...We had a great interview...I think all went well...we were a little disappointed, to be quite honest we did not have that overwhelming feeling that this is the ministry that the Lord is leading us into. We do not however feel like it was a waste of our time. We needed to go and see for ourselves what it was all about, and they have a wonderful ministry at Cal Farley's and I can't even begin to know how many boys and girls they have helped over these 70 years, but we have talked it through and prayed about it as a family and we just don't feel at this time this is where the Lord is leading us to serve! We have not even officially been offered the position, but unless the Lord tells us differently we are pretty sure this is not the place for us right now! Thanks for all the prayers! We appreciate everything! :)

Please continue to pray for us that we will get a clear direction from the Lord about where we are to go from here! Until we know something for sure we will be here in Wake Forest...Tommy and I both have jobs, Chase is in a good school and we have a roof over our heads! :)

Cal Farley's - Girlstown USA

Tommy, Chase and I are in Lubbock, Texas tonight preparing for our interview tomorrow at Girlstown USA, a part of Cal Farley's...We have been praying together tonight as a family that the Lord will give us clear direction on what He would have us to do. We would like to ask you to pray for us as well. Tommy was reading some scripture to us tonight, where Paul was writing and praying for a church...I can't remember which one right now, but he was praying that they would have the knowledge of God's will for them and that is our prayer and our desire that we would have the knowledge of God's will for our lives. We don't know what exactly to expect tomorrow, we are going in with open minds and open hearts and praying the Lord will reveal to us if this is where He would have us serve! I copied this off the Cal Farley website to give you some idea of what Cal Farley's is about! Thanks for your prayers and we will update tomorrow to let you know how things go!!

Cal Farley's Girlstown, U.S.A. prepares adolescent girls, ages 10 to 18, to become responsible family members and successful adults by providing a family-style, Christ-centered environment supporting each girl's total development. Although needing structure and supervision, the residents function in an open environment and community without extended periods of intense individual supervision. All programs are designed to bring about a sense of balance to each girl's life. The staff works with each girl's entire family unit to develop healthy, positive relationships.
The girls attend Whiteface Consolidated Independent School District and enjoy the same opportunities as other area students to grow academically and socially.
Girls may remain at Girlstown for as short as one year or through high school graduation, depending on when goals she and her family have set are successfully achieved. Youths receive medical, optical, dental and emergency services as needed.
Cal Farley's Girlstown, U.S.A. is situated on 1,425 acres of land eight miles south of Whiteface, Texas, (west of Lubbock) on FM 1780.
The population generally ranges between 50-60 girls.
Girlstown graduates who choose to further their education may apply for assistance through organizational scholarships for academic or vocational training.

The house parent couple is the backbone of our programs at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch and Cal Farley’s Girlstown, U.S.A. House parenting is arguably the toughest job within the organization.
House parent couples provide daily supervision for up to 12 children in the home or cottage. The job includes serving as positive role models who teach life skills and offer guidance, discipline and spiritual development to the children. This takes a high level of energy and the capacity to meet the demands of a large family household.
At Cal Farley’s, successful house parents come from many walks of life, represent different age groups, and display different personalities. One common theme is that they see their role as a ministry to help hurting and troubled children.
Although it is not unusual for various staff members at Cal Farley’s to serve the organization for ten or even twenty years, it is seldom that a house parent couple reaches the 10-year-mark.

Tommy's Graduation!! December 12, 2008

Jacob and Kinley made Granddaddy some cards to wish him a Happy Graduation day! Here they are giving him their cards! Thanks Jacob and Kinley these are wonderful keepsakes that Granddaddy will keep in his office for years to come! We love you!

Brian, Gerie, Billy, Nathan, Hester, Jacob, Kinley, Matthew, Sarah, Hannah, Kaleb, Chase and I are so proud of Tommy and all that he has accomplished these 2 1/2 years!! We had such a great time watching him walk across that stage and receive his diploma that he has worked so hard for!! We hate that Matthew and his family were unable to come and be with us, but we are very grateful that Brian and his family and Nathan and his family were here with us!! I know the boys and Chase are so proud of their dad for going back to school after all these years to follow God's leading in his life and go into full time ministry! I know I am!! I know we have alot of other family and friends that are so proud of Tommy as well! I am going to post a few pictures that we took at graduation and I am working on figuring out how to post a video, but for some reason...it is just not working for me, but I wanted everyone to see the pictures, so I will post them now and then get the video up as soon as I can! Hope you enjoy the pictures! :)

Here are a few pics from after graduation:

Here is one of the whole clan minus Matthew and his family!

We missed you guys, but we understand NC is a long way from Texas!

The graduate with 3 of his 4 kids!

Chase really wanted a picture with her daddy wearing his graduation cap! :)

So Tommy made me do it too :)

Tommy with Nathan, Hester, Jacob and Kinley!

Jacob is giving Granddaddy the thumbs up!

I think the graduation ceremony bored Kinley to sleep :)

Tommy with Brian, Gerie and Billy!

Grandchildren and Christmas - Life is Good!

What a fun week we have had. Our daughter in law Hester came up early for graduation for us to have a little extra time with our grand kids, Jacob and Kinley. We are so grateful to Hester for giving us that time with them! We can't begin to express how much it meant to us to spend this week with them! Since we have been here in NC, we don't get the chance to spend as much time with them as we would like, so we are so grateful for opportunities like this one! And we are so grateful to Hester for giving it to us! We had the best time! Jacob is almost 3 years old and is so inquisitive...Everything is "Why?" and when you answer that question he always has about 10 more for you! He is so cute! He gave us much to laugh about this week. Tommy, Chase and I are still quoting several of his comments! Kinley is 15 months and is so pretty and sweet...I don't think I will ever be able to have applesauce again without hearing her sweet little voice saying "appy sauce". We also made it out to Frankie's one night while they were here. We had loads of fun just following them around and watching the amazement in their eyes from all the games and lights they saw!

Kinley having fun @ Frankies

Jacob was really good at the Basketball game:)

Jacob and Kinley loved playing skeeball with Aunt Chase!

The balls were going everywhere!! We all had a blast! :)

We also had our Christmas time with the grandkids while they were here. Gerie and Billy arrived on Friday for Tommy's graduation, so we had 3 of the 5 grandchildren here with us. Although we missed Hannah and Kaleb being here, we were so thankful to spend time with Billy, Jacob and Kinley!

Jacob said that he wanted Mimi to get him a scooter for Christmas!

So Obviously Jacob got a scooter! :)
I am pretty sure he really liked the scooter...He rode it inside, he rode it outside, he stood on it while he watched TV! The only thing he didn't do when he was on the scooter was sleep :)

Aunt Chase provided all the safety gear...Helmet and knee pads! Kinley's gift from Granddaddy and Mimi was a shopping cart!

She looks happy :)

Aunt Chase got Kinley a baby doll to ride in her shopping cart!
So cute :)
Billy wanted a bike from Granddaddy and Mimi! He looks so big sitting on there!

Aunt Chase gave Billy a helmet as well...Here is Brian and Gerie helping Billy with the pedaling!!

We had a great time watching the grandkids enjoy their gifts!! And we are so thankful they were here to help celebrate Tommy's graduation too!!

Graduation Gift - Thanks Tara!

Tommy and I often talk about how the Lord has provided for us the 2 1/2 years we have been here at Southeastern. One of the ways we truly feel blest is finding a church home at Stony Hill, Jamie Dew is a wonderful pastor and has been a great help to Tommy. Jamie also has the best wife ever. I don't know what I would have done without Tara...She is not only a shining example of a Christian wife and mother, but she is a great pastor's wife and friend! :) Thanks to Tara, Chase and I have a very special gift to give to Tommy next Friday for graduation!! Yes, that's right...Tommy will be graduating next Friday, December the 12th! Chase and I are so proud of him, he has worked so hard and has accomplished so much! So with Tara's expertise with the photography...Chase and I went to the seminary today with our Southeastern Tees and Tara got some really good pics of us at different locations around the campus...We can't wait to give these pictures to Tommy next Friday, he is really going to love having pictures of his two best girls...and to make it even more special, they were all taken around the seminary...He will have lots of fun photos to decorate his office with one day:) Tommy is so busy with going to class and preparing for and taking final exams that he will not see this blog, so sshhhh!! Don't say anything if you see him:)

These are a few of our favorites :)

Downtown Raleigh - Museum of Natural Sciences

What a fun day:) Today was my first time in downtown Raleigh...Chase went on a field trip with her class to an IMAX theatre and Tommy has at least gone through there on his sweeping job and although we have lived here 2 1/2 years, I have never been downtown!! Anyway, Tommy had an assignment for his World Cultures and Religion class to do something cultural, so we decided to go to the Museum of Natural Sciences...We wanted to go and see the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it just was not in our budget this close to Christmas, but we had a great time anyway!

All the dinosaur exhibits were my favorite so as you can see I have lots of pictures from that part of the museum...I felt like I was in the movie Night at the Museum...It was great!! I love that movie:)

Like I said we did not get to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, but we did get some cool pics outside of the exhibit:)

Here is Chase with the head of the Terror of the South :)

Tommy and Chase standing in the dinosaur track...There feet are almost as big:)

I told you I really liked the dinosaur exhibits:)

Here's Chase in a tree trunk with Bats YIKES!! I knew she was a tree hugger, but this is going too far Chase:)

Here is Tommy and Chase being silly...There usual pass time!!

We hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our fun day at the museum!!