Ministry Announcement

Our ministry announcement letters and emails have finally been sent.  I figured that I would post it here also for anyone that I missed with US mail or email...

Wow! I honestly never thought I would be the guy sending out ministry letters. In fact, I adamantly swore that I would not be "that guy". Well, God apparently was laughing at me the whole time, because apparently, He had other plans.

In the last year God has invaded the Mangerchine home and completely taken control. Our hearts and lives will never be the same. During this time, the Lord has grown both Shannon and I in significant ways and has revealed Himself to us in an undeniable way. After seeing a number of people touched by God in many ways such as; miraculous healing, deliverance, and people giving their lives to Jesus, we have made the decision to answer the clear call and begin a life of full-time ministry.

There are so many testimonies of God’s goodness, love, and power. Recently, Shannon ended up in the home of a family a block from our house, whose son was just shot in the face in broad day light and killed. She boldly ministered to several women of the family who were grieving. Or somehow, through several unexplainable circumstances, I ended up in the house of a family that I have never met. After we prayed for a young lady who could not walk for over a month due to crippling pain from complications of back surgery years ago, she wept with joy and praised the name of Jesus because she was able to walk me to the door with no pain as I left. We jokingly refer to these sorts of events as “the new normal”, considering the fact that they occur on a regular basis.

We live in the heart of New Orleans, which is the murder capital of the US. It is a broken, violent, and deprived city that most have written off and have given up on it. But we love it and feel that we are exactly where God wants us. While there are a lot of needs in the city which we will be tending to, our primary focus will be spending time loving the unloved, broken, sick, fatherless, widowed, etc.

With the confirmation, blessing, and encouragement of the counsel over our lives and our local church, I have resigned from my job - effective 1/1/2013. We are in the process of establishing a ministry called Bastion Ministries, which in time will be a team of mighty men and women, however, God has shown us that some of these people currently do not know Him and may even be drug dealers. It is our desire to speak the hope of Jesus to the hopeless and call them into a life of fullness in Christ where they will discover their true identity as sons and daughters of the most high God.

We will be supported fully by individuals and organizations who feel led to partner with us. So, if you feel so led, please contact us and we will give you information on how you can give.

We also want to know how we can be praying for you and your families. What are your needs and desires? As I jokingly say, but totally mean – you want to be on Shannon’s prayer list, because when she prays, things move!


Sincerely,

Jeremy & Shannon Mangerchine

PO Box 79172
New Orleans, LA 70179

We will be sending out updates and newsletters via email and US mail, if you would like to be added to our mailing list, please contact us at the PO Box listed above, or by clicking "email me" from my profile.

the party

Here are a few pictures from Noah's planes, trains, and automobiles birthday party.

2 years old

Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy.  I can't believe that you are 2.  The time has flown by!

It is such a joy to be your mother.  You are such a fun, energetic, funny, enthusiastic little kid.  You are brave and fearless.  You are handsome, and you know it.  If I had a dollar for every time that someone said you should be a Gerber baby, we would be rich! 

You are so smart!  You have a larger vocabulary than any other kid we've met who is your age.  You are so good at communicating and expressing yourself.

You love trains, trucks, cars, planes, buses, or any type of vehicle.  We go for walks and to the playground almost every day.  You are quick to tell me that you like the City Park playground more than the other one that is closer.

You are working on potty training.  Requesting to use the potty multiple times a day (mainly for the skittles that you get as a reward), but still going in your diaper on multiple occasions also.

We are thinking of moving you into your big boy bed soon, especially since you have recently learned to climb out of your crib, even with it on the lowest setting.

You take one 2-3 hour nap every day.

You love yogurt, cheese, pizza, fruit, meatballs, turkey burgers, and any sweets that we let you have.  You are still a picky eater, but will eat all fruits, dairy products, some vegetables, but almost no proteins.

You love our weekly family trips to get frozen yogurt.  And when we spend Sunday mornings going to Starbucks as a family and sitting and letting you watch the trucks driving by.  You really love it when you get to eat pumpkin bread, or take sips of mom's passion tea lemonade on said Starbucks trips.

We let you watch a half hour of TV before bed every night and your favorites are Thomas and Friends, Chuck and Friends, and Curious George.

When you get hurt, you ask us to kiss your boo-boos.  But recently, you've started kissing some of them yourself before we can get to you.  If mommy or daddy gets hurt you insist on kissing our injured body part right away.

You love life.  You love people.  You love being outside.  You love being the center of attention, and try to capture it when we have our 20ish people over for community group each week.  As comfortable and wild as you are in your own environment you are still shy, quiet, and take time to adjust to new places and people.  You cry almost every time that I leave you in the church nursery, but get over it within a few minutes and then happily play with the kiddos.

You share really well,  and don't seem to have a problem handing over your toys to the other two kiddos that I watch.  You love playing with those two girls, but you are a little too energetic and rambunctious for those two milder mannered little ones. 

You love wrestling with your Dada.  So much so that you try to wrestle with everyone that you play with, not fully realizing that you can't play that rough with anyone else.  Dada recently taught you how to do a forward somersault, so you do them a lot.  You also love getting to sit on the couch and watch football with your dad on the weekends, so much so that you ask for it during the week, not knowing that it's not on everyday.

You make better animal noises than most adults.

You can count to 5 without error, and to 10, missing a number or two along the way.  You are starting to learn your colors.  You get yellow right almost every time, but frequently mix up red and green.

You are becoming a professional boundary tester, and have MANY timeouts per day.

You have recently started calling yourself "baby David".  If we ask who you are, you'll say "I am baby David".  We have no idea where this came from, you don't even know anyone named David.  It's pretty funny though.  And you love to make us laugh, so I have a feeling this will keep going on for a while, at least until we stop laughing at it.

Although you are such a rough and energetic little boy, there is a softer side to you.  You are sensitive, empathetic, and discerning.  You are going to be a leader.  You will be able to feel the hurts of others, and your heart will go out to them.  You will care about and love people.  You will love Jesus.  If you marry, and have kids, you will be an amazing husband and daddy.  You will make disciples of the nations.

Your daddy and I are so proud of you, and love you lots!  You have changed our lives for the better, taught us how to play and explore.  You give us a reason to be a man and woman of God, to lead by example, to do the things we want to see you do, to provide a stable, loving, Christ centered home.  You are going to be a great big brother!

::this week::

Now that the cat is out of the bag I can share that lately I have been tired.  and nauseous.  and everything has suffered as a result.  I have done the bare minimal cooking, cleaning, party planning, etc. possible lately, in exchange with naps and extra time sitting idle on the couch (not something I do well!).  that is why there has been a recent shortage of new recipes, crafts, or spiritual inspiration here lately.  I just haven't been feeling like myself.  I haven't had the energy to do a lot of the things that I enjoy, and that fill me up.  I've had physical, and spiritual, and creative nausea.

That said, we are super excited about baby #2 arriving in late May, and I'm just treading water trying to make it through the next week or two, knowing that then I should start feeling somewhat better.

praising:  the healthy, new little life growing inside of me.  some really cool ministry opportunities for J over the last week.  some new friendships/ partnerships for J, that are an answer to prayer!

praying:  to feel better.  to not be discouraged by my lack of productivity.  to not be so consumed by my current circumstances (not feeling good) that I am not present with the Lord, in each moment.

thankful for:  the extra support of my husband, family, and friends as I've been feeling bad for the last few weeks.  grace.  my Friday morning ladies Bible study... it has far exceeded my expectations, I am so grateful for the new relationships I've formed through it, and the encouragement it is to me each Friday morning, challenging me to stop wallowing in sickness, and to persevere and pursue the Lord.

reading  Desperate Women of the Bible, 1000 Gifts, Ecclesiastes, 1 Samuel

cooking:  egg mcmuffins, spinach mozzarella breakfast casserole, pizza, chili, cranberry chicken salad sandwiches, sparkling grapefruit punch

doing:  ladies Bible study.  celebrating Noah's 2 yr birthday.  community group.  a coffee date with a friend.  an afternoon visit with another friend.  hoping to finally send out our support letters as soon as I feel good enough to print them, the address labels, and stuff envelopes.  a lot of sitting on the couch.

creating:  the final touches on decorations, favors, and food for Noah's party.

10 weeks prego

Now that Noah is 2, and not changing as rapidly, I'm going to stop doing monthly posts on his development.  And now that I'm prego again, I'm going to attempt to do a weekly update like I did with my last pregnancy... attempt being the key word... with a busy 2 year old, and 2 other kiddos that I watch, my life is a lot more busy, leaving a lot less internet time than my last pregnancy.

Here is what is going on with our little kumquat this week, according to babycenter.com;

Though he's barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, a time when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature.

He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver (now making red blood cells in place of the disappearing yolk sac) — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy.

If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot minute details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes (no more webbing) and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin.

In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. His hands are flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. The outline of his spine is clearly visible through translucent skin, and spinal nerves are beginning to stretch out from his spinal cord. Your baby's forehead temporarily bulges with his developing brain and sits very high on his head, which measures half the length of his body. From crown to rump, he's about 1 1/4 inches long. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches.

At your next prenatal visit, you may be able to hear your baby's rapid heartbeat with the help of a Doppler stethoscope, a handheld ultrasound device that your practitioner places on your belly. Many women say that the beating of their baby's tiny heart sounded like the thunder of galloping horses and hearing it for the first time was very moving.

Before you got pregnant, your uterus was the size of a small pear. By this week, it's as big as a grapefruit. You may or may not be ready for maternity wear now. Even if you're not there yet, your regular clothes are probably feeling uncomfortably tight and your blossoming breasts are straining the seams of your bra. The thickening in your midsection is most likely due to slight weight gain and bloating. If you're between regular and maternity clothes, pants and skirts with forgiving elastic waistbands (or low-rise waistlines that sit below your belly) will provide some much-needed comfort.

Depending on your level of fitness, you can most likely participate in a wide range of activities during pregnancy. Swimming and walking are excellent choices for the whole nine months. Exercise promotes muscle tone, strength, and endurance — three qualities that can help you carry the weight you gain during pregnancy, prepare you for the physical stress of labor, and make it easier to get back into shape after your baby is born. (Unfortunately, there's no evidence that regular exercise shortens labor.)

As for me... I have been feeling awful this week.  I never threw up when I was pregnant with Noah, but I've thrown up a few times this week.  I've been pretty tired, but been foregoing naps in exchange for some catchup on an out of control to do list.  I feel bad almost all day, every day, but, if this is like my last pregnancy, by next week I should be starting to feel some relief from this.

I am determined to be more active, eat less junk, and gain less weight with this pregnancy.  With Noah I gained 50 lbs, and then it took me a while to loose it all.  If I can gain a little over half that this time, than hopefully it won't take me so long to get back in my pre-prego clothes.  So far I haven't gained any weight, but do feel like my stomach is starting to stick out a little more than normal (maybe due to not having done abs at the gym for 5 weeks now).  I was still jogging and lifting weights regularly until 2 weeks ago, but now I feel so bad that I'm settling for some walks, and 1 day a week of riding the recumbent bike at the gym.  I did a bit of biceps and triceps this week, but only things that I can do seated, because I get very nauseous trying to lift weights while standing up right now.  I'm just hoping right now to maintain some strength and endurance during this awful season, so that in a few weeks, when I start feeling better, I can continue to exercise as normal for my second trimester.

I have been eating completely different than I did with Noah, I remember eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and lunch with him, and eating saltines and gingerale all day everyday to try to keep myself from feeling hungry, and therefore nauseous.  This time I haven't been eating any peanut butter, and not much carbs, I've found that what really helps me feel better is protein, mainly eggs.  So I have eggs for breakfast, a fried egg sandwich for lunch, and scrambled eggs as a snack some days.  

My first doctor's appointment was this Monday, and everything was good and healthy.  It was great to see our little kidney bean, hear the heart rate, and confirm that everything is looking good as of now.  And now we have a sonogram pic that I stare at for a little while everyday, dreaming about who this kid will be, what they will look like, and what their future will hold.

And for those who want the details, my due date is May 25, but there's a good chance that as a result of my last birth, I'll be having a scheduled c-section this time, a week before my due date.

Noah has an announcement for you...

::this week::

praising:  God's provision.  despite some hold up in details over our ministry, submitting some paperwork for the 501c3, and sending our support letters to start raising money, I have been blown away by the promises of provision that have been coming to us.  at times, I start to get stressed, realizing that we have two months left of J working his job, and then we're on our own.  I get overwhelmed by all that needs to be done.  by having no idea what our finances will be like come January.  I want to control it.  I want to plan it.  I want to make things happen.  BUT, like I said, there have been some reasons that we keep needing to wait before moving forward due to some missing information that we need.  and then the fact that we have not reached out and sought these things on our own, but that God is giving us favor, working in the hearts of His people, bringing these things to us, has been such a great reminder of His sovereignty... that He is in control.  that all of my attempts to plan and grasp for control are meaningless anyway.  that He is present, and perfect, and good.  that I can relax and trust Him.  that worry is futile.  I'm blown away that He has put it on people's hearts to give to us... I think I cry almost every time that someone tells us they are going to give to us.  I am humbled.  overwhelmed by emotion that these people love us, believe in us, support us, not only with words, but through their actions and finances.  and I pray that I never loose sight of that gratitude... never take for granted the people who give to us, never come to expect it, but am always moved to emotion by it.  I pray that we are faithful, faithful with what is entrusted to us, good stewards of every last drop of money, time, energy, Truth, love, provision, and resources that the Lord brings our way.  He is SO worth it!  SO more than worth it!

praying:  for the remainder of details that still need to be worked out.  for guidance, clarity, and wisdom on some doors that have been opening to us, ministry related.  for the needs, desires, and struggles of those around us.  to see God  move, in this city, in mighty supernatural ways, that can only be explained through Him.

thankful for:  amazing, encouraging friends.  a helpful, graceful husband.  a bag of new to me clothes that no longer fit a friend.  a little extra help with Noah from my mother-in-law this week, so I can get some rest, and knock out some of my to-do list that hasn't budged in weeks.

reading:  Ecclesiastes, 1 Samuel, Desperate Women of the Bible, 1000 Gifts

cooking:  fish tacos, warm sesame slaw, wine simmered mushrooms, pasta with bolognese sauce, egg mcmuffins, buffalo chicken dip, pizza, mushroom stroganoff

loving: the way the Noah loves to watch football with his daddy.

doing:  not much.  laying low.  community group.ladies Bible study.  one walk date with a friend.  60th birthday party for Jeremy's dad.  trying to tackle sorting through my over stuffed closet and drawers and getting rid of some items that I don't wear.

creating:  more Christmas presents.  more decorations and favors for Noah's birthday party.

Mushroom Stroganoff

Mushroom Stroganoff

Had I planned this meal in advance, it would have been served with egg noodles.  However, this was a reaction to mushrooms that I had that were quickly passing their prime, so I had to make do with the rotini in my pantry.  You could add cooked, sliced beef or chicken to make this a main dish, but most of my weeknight dinners are vegetarian, so it was perfect as is for me.  To be truly vegetarian, use veggie stock instead of beef stock.

-1 box desired whole wheat pasta shape, cooked al dente
-2 Tbsp butter
-1 onion, diced
-32 oz mushrooms, cleaned and thickly sliced
-3 Tbsp flour
-1 c beef broth/ stock
-1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-1 Tbsp dijon mustard
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1/2 tsp thyme
-1/4 c white wine
-1/2 c light sour cream

Melt butter in large pot, over medium high heat.  Saute onion until softened, 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms, cook until they begin to release water, about 5 more minutes.  Add flour, cook, stirring well for 1 minute.  Add broth/ stock, Worcestershire, dijon, salt, pepper, thyme, and wine.  Simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in sour cream, toss with noodles.  Serve immediately, garnished with fresh parsley if desired.

::this week::

praising:  God... His grace... faithfulness... provision... love... mercy... power... restoration... reconciliation... new life... healing... wholeness... bigness... majesty.

praying:  for all of the details and provision to be worked out for our ministry... just over 2 months left until Jeremy is no longer working at his job, and no longer receiving a salary... still some hold up on moving forward due to waiting to see how a possible opportunity pans out.  for the needs of those we know and love.

reading:  Ecclesiastes, 1 Samuel, Desperate Women of the Bible, 1000 Gifts

thankful for:  this cooler weather.  good books.  good friends.  increasing ministry opportunities that have been given to us.  the deep belly laughs of little kiddos.  time to rest.  regular girl time on Friday mornings, and the encouragement and refreshment it brings.

cooking:  pesto tomato soup with pesto mozzarella grilled cheeses, pot roast, salsa, guacamole, salad with mexi-ranch dressing, pizza, pumpkin oat muffins

creating:  some decorations and activities for Noah's birthday party.  some Christmas presents.

doing:  getting to see a sweet friend in town from Tampa. some play/ walk/ park dates.  hosting community group and ladies Bible study.  nothing else.  keeping lots of margin in our schedule this week... lots of time to relax and hang as a family.

::this week::

praising:  answers to my prayers from last week... feeling restored, healed, and reconciled from the hurt feelings and surprise of not seeing things work out the way we had been expecting or planning.  super thankful for some really cool encouragement that the Lord gave Jeremy (through a strange series on unexpected people and events)... it was exactly what we needed in that exact moment.  He is SO faithful, and SO good!

praying:  for the needs and struggles of others that are heavy on my heart.  to see revival in the city... to see the Holy Spirit poured out... to see His Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven... to see transformation... in individual lives... in the city as a whole... impacting the whole world with the glory of God

reading:  1 Samuel, Proverbs, 1000 Gifts, Desperate Women of the Bible, this blog... so much Truth. gratitude. cherishing of moments. beautiful pictures.  it's pure food for my soul, spiritually, emotionally, creatively, and more.

doing:  some walk, coffee, lunch, and dinner dates with friends.  throwing a community group birthday party for the most amazing man I know.  hosting community group and ladies Bible study.  lots of relaxing in between all these things.

creating:  the finishing touches for the above mentioned birthday party.

cooking:  potato soup with whole wheat artisan bread, pumpkin oat muffins, huevos rancheros, pizza, hummus, rosemary curry spiced nuts, sloppy joes, curried veggie dip, lentil salad, sesame soy baked tofu, chocolate cake