Upon Further Review!

You will see that scratch down Daisha's cheek is healing nicely. And, if you are even slightly observant, you will notice a new shiner on her little nose.

Thought I would just show the genius of the mouse trap. There was not a chance that guy was stealing this peace of bread. If he could have cut or untied the thread and munched the bread, we would have just named him and welcomed him into our family.

Thought this was kind of funny and all too related.


Happy Reformation Day!

Hate and War

Yesterday's post was called Love and War. Today's, hate and war. No, this has nothing to do with marriage, well, not exactly. Lets begin the story with this little but very significant fact, my wife hates mice. A mouse is the worst thing. So, just last week our friends Jeff and Chelby were staying across the hall from our apartment and started noticing mice. We set out a glue trap and they ended up with 2 mice on the same trap. In the middle of trying to catch their mice, we explained to them that we had never seen a mouse in our apartment. Well, Sunday morning, our bread had been vandalized by something and the work resembled that of a mouse. I, as her hero, went straight to work and this is how the story progressed.

Sunday Night - Glue trap with peanut butter - No Mouse

Monday Night - Glue trap with peanut butter and one of Keri's fabulous pumpkin cookies - No Mouse

Tuesday Night - 1 Snap trap with cracker, 1 snap trap with macaroni (he had also opened a bag of macaroni) and 1 snap trap with bread. - bread was eaten, cracker was nibbled, and no mouse

Wednesday Night - We now know he likes bread, 3 snap traps with bread but stuck on with peanut butter as to not make it so easy to steal off the trap. - Eats the bread and no mouse

This is the part of the story where you see the hero with his back against the wall, beaten, battered, and defeated. His pride crushed, his will broken! But, then he thinks of his damsel in distress and finds anew the will for one last battle.

Thursday evening - The same bread that has now become a nightly snack for our little friend on 2 of the traps. But, now it is tied on to the snap trap with sewing thread as to not let it be so easy to steal. Now thats smart. Bring it on Jerry!

Later Thursday evening - SNAP! VICTORY!

Love and War

(a book review)
Our marriage needs help! I am guessing if you are honest, yours does too. Marriage, like life, is in a perpetual state of growth. In the scope of the Kingdom, our marriages are of the utmost importance as a tool for showing Jesus love to the world and bringing His name Glory. Because of this, we try to make a practice of continually studying and investing in our marriage. Our latest endeavor was the book "Love and War" by John and Stasi Eldredge. Over the past few months, we have been slowly reading through the book together and this is our review of the book. This does start with a fairly negative outlook on marriage, but I don't think it is necessarily inconsistent with the realities of the world. Thankfully, our marriage has not been to the depths that they used as a starting point for much of their message, but we read it with an understanding that if not for Grace, that too could be our reality.

Obviously, there is no shortage of marriage books but equally obvious is the reality that their is no end to the complexities of marriage. "Love and War" was beneficial for us in that it highlighted areas of necessary growth in our marriage that many other marriage books dont often address. Let me pull off the pages of the book the Eldredges summary of their 3 biggest pieces of advice for marriage.

1. Find life in God
2. Deal with your brokenness
3. Learn to shut down the spiritual attacks that come against your marriage.

I have seen "find life in God" appropriately dealt with in other marriage books and will therefore not address it in this review. "Deal with your brokenness" is probably also another common theme of marriage books but the Eldredges handle this topic a little differently. By differently, what I really mean is very honestly. If you have ever read anything from the Eldredges before, you know that they write in stark honesty. We have found this refreshing in the way that they "give the gift of going 2nd." We have all been in a situation in which we may have something to say but there is no chance we would say it first. Well, the person who does say it first gives everyone else the "the gift of going second." The Eldredges provided us with this gift as they honestly dealt with their brokenness in ways that gave us the comfort and freedom to begin similar discussions regarding ourselves. #3, "Learn to shut down the spiritual attacks that come against your marriage," pushed against the limits of our comfort zone. This is a topic that I have not seen commonly dealt with in other marriage materials and similarly this is a topic that is not at the forefront of our Christian tradition. Therefore, this part of the book made us uncomfortable and I hope it was in a good way. In a way that fostered discussion, in a way that caused us to question how we have ignored the realities of spiritual attack against our marriage, and hopefully in ways that pointed us back to Jesus and the realities of the advancing Kingdom. It is sometimes all too easy in our "little peaceful worlds" to forget about the spiritual realities of the war that we are living. So, would we recommend this book, well you can read this review and decide. Again, we really appreciated the honesty and openness with which the Eldredges wrote this book. We have found so much value in committing time to thinking about and processing material about growing our marriage. Often, the quality of the material has been far less important than the time we have committed to study and growth. To God be the Glory!

***DISCLOSURE NOTICE: A free copy of this book was supplied to me for the purpose of review. No monetary exchange was given. All comments and wording in this review are purely my own.

Cousins and Friends

This past week, our friends and cousins Jeff, Chelby, and Chase came for a visit. Chase is the same age as Drew. To put it mildly, they had fun. The kids had a great time together and we really enjoyed their visit. The fellowship was sweet and it was great to catch up on life. It is always encouraging to share life with those at the same place in life and with the same goals. What a blessing!

Here are a few pics of the kids!

Magnetic Beauty

We may be biased, but we think Daisha is beautiful. She has a darling face and an even more precious personality. We are starting to wonder if her beauty is magnetic. Magnetic towards hard and unforgiving objects. If you remember from a few weeks ago her little nose was red like Rudolph from taking a nosedive onto some concrete. Well, yesterday, she somehow put a massive scratch down the side of her face. Nobody saw it happen, we found her laying down on her stomach beside a broken lid of a rubbermaid container. We have no idea! She can be a little trouble maker and often finds herself banging her head, tripping over something, or dropping something on herself. We are thankful that her accident didnt catch her eye as you can see that the scratch starts on her forehead, catches her eyelid, and then proceeds down her face. I am afraid this wont be the last time her pretty little face attracts some sort of accident.

3 Years!

I think that every once in awhile we should read through Paul's descriptions of his trials in 2 Corinthians 11.
Prison - Many times
Whipped 39 times - 5 times
Beaten with rods - 3 times
Stoned - Once
Shipwrecked - 3 times
Day and night lost at sea - Once
Oh, and faced danger from rivers and robbers, jews and gentiles, deserts, hungry, thirsty, cold, and the daily burden of the churches.

Phew! I am tired just reading it. Today is our 3 Year anniversary in Jamaica and it is good for my soul to remember Brother Paul and his journey. It is in the context of the trials above that we can get some understanding of the perspective of his written words that encourage us today. The call of the gospel goes deep, but after several years, we feel like we are still just dipping our toes in the water. Now granted, there have been times that we have felt like our emotions have been whipped 40 times less one. Shipwrecked sometimes seems like a worthy description of a few of our days. Lost at sea fits at times. But, God has been faithful. Paul's trials bring perspective, maybe too much perspective, as His witness humbles us. May we continue to press towards the mark of the prize of the High Calling.

Extended Arms

God continues to amaze me.
Each morning I wake, he is there, extending his arms full of love and grace to me.
It's my choice to embrace.
With each time I shamefully recognize that I have hurt him, he again extends his arms of love and grace.
Will I choose to embrace?
He sweetly smiles upon me as I learn to serve and honor my husband, mother my children, and be his example to those around me.
And in the midst of the busy day, he extends his arms and waits for me to stop in his presence to enjoy a moment together.
Wearied and exhausted, I lay my head down at night. And he is there, ready to hear me, touch me, and calm me.
I must embrace these arms so full of love and grace.

Happy 6th Anniversary, Love. Thank you for teaching me more about God's loving arms through your own!
"My beloved is mine, and I am his." Song of Solomon 2: 16

Picture Update

Click here for a few recent pics.

Pray for the Pfisters

Please join us in praying for the Pfister family. They are serving the orphaned of Haiti through Loving Sheperd Ministries. We worked alongside Rich and Amber at Gateway Woods for a short time and really support their family. Their daughter Katelyn developed an illness in Haiti. They have since, through the mighty hand of God, transported her to a hospital in Florida. We praying for them and feel as if we walking especially close to them during this time. Please pray! They set up a "care site" which you can access through this link.

Please be advised!

Product Warning: "Cute little noses" are not designed for use as a braking device when a little girls body begins moving faster than her feet on concrete. Please see example below:

Couldnt have said it better

Erin is our neighbor and teammate. She put up a cute and so true thing about Drew on her blog. Check it out HERE.

Speaking of Paper Chains

Truitt knows we are planning on going back to the states for Christmas. So, everyday, usually even before breakfast there is some comment about him being ready for Christmas. We were sharing this with the Huber family and they said that their kids were wanting to make a paper chain awhile back when there was about 70 some days left to wait for their furlough. Now that is a long chain to have weaving around your house reminding you that its not time yet. Their parents wisely counseled them to wait and make the paper chain at a more reasonable number of days. I am guessing one of those little chains will be showing up around our house in the next couple of months.

25 days

Honestly, we have got the best problems in the world. I am guessing that 99% of the world would have loved to have had our "computerless" problem. We were without a computer for 25 days. Not a tragedy! We got it back this evening. Actually, we got a cord to fix our computer and we also got a backup just in case that doesnt work. Ridiculously blessed! We are thankful to be back in touch with the world. Our computer has become the portal through we we do alot of things. We skype our family, communicate, kids watch videos, get our news, do our paperwork, do our banking, do work related tasks, manage pictures, consume media, keep organized, etc. We are thankful!

September Update

September Plattner Family Update

For Drew’s 5th Birthday, we bought him his own little CD player. Since then, he has become quite the little DJ. I don’t think we can even count how many times we hear “Bullfrogs and Butteflies” blasting out of the boys’ room. They wait anxiously for the chorus and then shout, “Bullfrogs and Butterflies, have both been born again.” It’s hilarious. This past weekend, during our weekend chapel duties, I tried to explain this concept to the students. Not using the Bullfrogs and Butterflies example, but just trying to explain the reality of being born new in Christ. Not simply accepting Jesus and then going on with life, but understanding that saving faith in Jesus means new life. It is not a simple mental exercise, but a commitment of your whole life, every part, no part is left unchanged. The butterfly can’t be who the creator intended him to be if he tries to stay half caterpillar and half butterfly. I don’t know if I got the message across, but that message continues to be critical in light of the fact that we see so many around us that seem so content to remain caterpillars.

As we mentioned in our last update, we were ready for September. It has been good having the students back in school and life back around our campus. The farm program has started slowly as our little plot of land was neglected over the summer and the rain has kept us from working much these first few weeks. Our seeds are not in the ground and so we are missing lots of good rain, oh the life of a farmer. The students are almost fully back into routine and we are hoping that everything really starts rolling in October and November. Keri and I have been doing a lot of teaching. We are on a rotation for Wednesday night chapel duties as well as Sunday chapel duties at the school. We also recently began a rotation for teaching at the new deaf church plant in Savanna-La-Mar (SAV). We enjoy these opportunities to teach but they are also very humbling. We pray that our signs are clear and that the message of the cross rings true across our language barrier.

Speaking of the church in SAV, I think we have mentioned this before as something we have been praying about for a long time. Quickly in review, there are currently 3 deaf churches in Jamaica that are serving only a portion of the deaf population. There is a need for Christian fellowship among the deaf across Jamaica. This has been a burden to the leadership at the local deaf church in our area. Therefore, an effort has been made to begin a new deaf church inside of a large deaf population in western Jamaica. The first weekly services started at the beginning of September. There were 11 people that showed up the first week and 8 the second. We pray that this is the beginning of a foundation of faith that will remain to serve the community of SAV.

Our family continues to experience abundant blessing. I know we say that every month, but it is something we cant get over and it is always before us. Again, that is not to say we are not having our struggles, but we have sensed His blessing in the midst of the chaos. Keri began formally teaching Drew at the beginning of September. This has been going very well as it has brought out her passion for teaching which as been meeting Drew’s passion for learning. They are doing great. Truitt is usually saddled up to the table next to them soaking in all that he can. It remains to be seen if he is just standing in as the class clown or whether he is ready to start his own academic journey. Daisha continues to grow faster than we can believe. She is becoming quite a little signer in her own right. She is cared for in the mornings by Claudine, a young deaf lady that helps our family. We are beginning to worry that maybe she thinks she is deaf as her signing vocabulary is much larger than her verbal vocabulary. She becomes quite the sight as she acts as if she is taking charge in a conversation as her arms and hands move every which direction. Our family appreciates so much your support and prayers. We have been asking the Lord for His continued guidance in our ministry. Thanks again so much!

Love,

Plattners