His Last Sermon

Sunday Brian preached his last sermon at our church.

For 7 years (since August 2004) Brian has preached at our church Sunday mornings, Sunday nights and Wednesday mornings.

Truth be told I am glad for this day to have come...

not because I'm glad he's done pastoring or that we'll eventually be finding a different church (one closer to our new residence... wherever that might be... LOL!!) In fact those two things I will miss the most!!! I know I'll be missing sitting under Brian's teaching! And I love our church members and definitely miss being with them (when that time comes).

but because since Brian started working part-time and then full-time... he's been soooo busy!! Too busy!

From leaving the house a little after 7:30 each morning, working until 2 (or now 4:30) at the college.

Coming home he went to his home office... to return calls, check on church members, prepare sermons, visit with deacons, hospital visits, event organization and set up. And work on the TWO classes (last semester he taught 4 in one semester!!) is teaching!

We'd usually see him emerge about 6:30-ish to catch the national news and eat dinner. Usually he was with us until the kids went to bed about 9... and then it was back to work!!

Weekends were the same... just getting everything done. Saturday didn't include any time at the college, although he usually has a book with him to keep up with his classes :(

In Brian's words "I have no weekend, no breaks" and he didn't! And that meant we didn't either... at least not with him :(

So his last sermon hopefully lets him have some downtime now... although his plate is still pretty full... working full-time at college, teaching one class at the school on week night, one online class and trying to find us a house!!

But it is sad to think that "this season" has come to an end! We have enjoyed our time at our church.

We came to this church as a young couple holding their one little babe in their arms.



LOL! ..... has our family changed in these 7 years!




We have often said that we have grown a TON from serving this church. Learning about pain and loss. Encouraging those struggling and giving generously. Growing in maturity, knowledge and love for others. And serving.... in a small church everyone does their part... big or small!

Brian's last Sunday sermon marks the end of his pastoral service to our church. But because we do not have a house picked out or ready for us, we are staying!! The church is being soo gracious by allowing us to stay in the parsonage a little longer while we make permanent housing arrangements!

We are soo thankful for their generosity!! And excited to be able to stay, worship and serve with them now as regular church members!!

Funny though that they are just as happy to have us stay as we are happy to stay:)





281. a delicious meal fixed in Brian's honor
282. church members happy to have us stay
283. tokens of gratitude
284. tears of joy and sadness
285. families attending church together
286. good memories
287. friends to share burdens
288. church family that "holds up" those struggling
289. wise men and women of the faith
290. a nursery volunteer;)... thanks Sue-sue... I really needed THAT!
291. boys room totally cleaned
292. answer to prayer for a family member's health scare
293. hearing children practice memory verses on their own
294. a new loved series for an emerging reader
295. possibilities

296. a gift of fall mums

Weekly Wrap-Up

Seriously... another summer week over :(

Bible
To better learn the 10 Commandments, I made copies of a simple list of the 10 Commandments. Then the kids took some time one morning to decorate their own.... I cut off the "aquarium" theme, pasted the Commandment List on a piece of cardstock and the kids decorated. I'm hoping to use this as out first page of a 10 Commandment booklet they will put together.

They all copied and illustrated the 1st Commandment. Anna wrote on her illustration in her own word what the Commandment means, and she did the 2nd Commandment, too. So for those 2 days that was her "journaling".

I also copied a 10 Commandment Train for our "working on it" door or wall. We'll add a piece as we study each Commandment. And I changed the 1st verse to be John 14:15,"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." It's definitely a motivation for learning and following.

My challenge this summer if to read through J.Douma's The Ten Commandments:Manual for a Christian Life as the kids (and I) memorize and talk about each. I read the book in seminary but felt "rushed" through it. I remember loving how it applied each commandment to modern day situations/thought!

Language Arts
We followed our goals each day we were home;) Anna journaled and read! She's also

Chris did most of his reading from Leap Frog "learning to read" set of books. He likes them, but it doesn't follow our reading curriculum's school of teaching reading, so there are a lot of words I have to help him with because he hasn't learned some of the phonics rules yet.

Lydia has been doing a great job in the OPG book. I kind of knew once she started getting some more one-on-one time she'd really start "buzzing" through. But I've been really impressed with how quickly she wants to and can work through her lessons... funny how different kids can be:)

Math
We did a math lesson or two. And Anna practiced her addition facts using a workbook I had saved for her. We also went back to the "store" and played store for a couple of turns:)

Math fact practice and discovery has been happening on it's own. I've lost count how many times Chris or Lydia shares with me a math fact that they've figured out on their own;)

History
We started a chapter on Christopher Columbus and other explorers during that short time period. Obvious in a young children's curriculum Columbus was the one most discussed:) So we read, colored and read some more. Our read aloud book last week was Christopher Columbus from the Sower Series of books. And we'll be finishing it this week;)

We also finished the chapter of explorers learning about Magellan and Amerigo Vespucci. We borrowed a great biography of Vespucci that we're hoping to finish reading after we finish Columbus although a lot of the Vespucci biography contains a lot of Columbus.

We have some company coming in midway through this week, so we'll probably continue working on the 4 explorers that were mentioned in the chapter and finish up the biographies that the kids had started to enjoy listening to:)

Science
No intentional Science again this week :(

But from reading about the explorers we got a nice review some of the constellations that would have guided the explorers and even some earth science with hemispheres, equator, and directions. That wind and currents affected where the explorers landed. And different types of land formations... like islands, peninsula:)

And we FINALLY started planting a garden;) LOL... I know super late. I had really given up hope of having any flowers or veggies. We were given two healthy cucumber plants and then one evening at Walmart we started hunting in their plants and found some clearance tomato plants (we'll see if they do anything!!) and flowers:) So we talked PLANTs:)

Ohh... that gives me some ideas for THIS week;)

Other Activities
On Monday night we made a visit with Brian. Since it was in a hospice facility and we really didn't know how everyone was doing, the kids and I stayed in the car (and explored outside until they got bit by fire ants!!) After a bit, Brian came out and asked if we wanted to visit because our church member was ok with visitors and seemed well. I know the kids were a little nervous, but Chris brought in a picture he drawn and wanted to share and we marched the troops right in.

Looking back it was a simple last minute decision to visit with her too... it really would have been a LOT easier to NOT visit, to jump into the car and head to our next destination/activity for the evening.

But I am soo glad we went in, we had no idea that she was going to pass away soo quickly just two days later. I am soo thankful for her kind and sweet words over the years. Her testimony of a gentle and quiet spirit. And our last visit. The family said that on Monday evening she was talking about all the teeth Chris had drawn on his giraffe picture he had given her.

On Tuesday morning/afternoon we went to town:) First we made a stop at the library to get loaded up with library books for at least the next week and I got history books for next week as well. Then we headed to the park and met up with another sweet family... it was last minute and the kids were glad to have friends to play with:)

And then we completed our grocery shopping for the week. I went without a list or my coupons pulled ;( But I knew that we'd complete the shop during Sonic's Happy Hour so I told the kids if they behaved then we could make a stop... slushies for 50cents... sounded like a cheap way to have a good shop!! The kids did awesome... soo nice and I was GLAD to stop to get their slushies;)

The rest of our days were filled with bike riding, scrapes:), reading, naps, meals, another swimming time, cleaning the playroom, Little House episodes, Father's Day cards:) The kids ALWAYS have something to do:)

Pics of the Week
Just realized I had only 1 picture of schoolwork from last week :(

here's our Father's Day pic for Brian;)

Just taking pics outside with the kids....
I liked this one of Anna and Nate drinking
I think I like it b/c of Anna's eyes;)

Another Reason to LOVE VBS...

The Friendships!!!

This week at You Capture the theme is B&W.

Beautiful & Busy Saturday, Spring Forward

We spent the better part of the day in the car today traveling.... but the best part was being a part of our church's ministry to a State Ministry! And even better was seeing our friends that work for the ministry!!!

Here are our "more than serious" boys... on a mission to get dirty, find snakes and be little boys!

Here is my sweet little Lydie-bug.... just as quiet as she could be for hours entertaining herself:)
The girls! Ahava and Anna play soo well together! The girls chatted, giggled and made dresses for their dolls. It's soo funny how alike the girls are... they have almost the same length of hair, love to ride bikes, love their dolls and are totally girly !
The kids and I took Daddy to the library to collect some more resources for those "final" pages of his disseration. We had a BLAST playing outside of the library while Daddy was inside.... I'll share more pictures later, but this was my favorite!
We made MANY, MANY stops!! The kids did well in the car, resting, watching their DVDs, playing with the Tag and snacking... he hehe! We were gone from 9am- 6:30pm....

I'm ready for bed!

Oh, Don't forget, US peeps, to "spring forward" tonight!!! Does that mean we loose an hour or that the kids will sleep in an extra hour.....LOL

Our Harvest Festival - gotta lot to learn

Our church held our neighbor "outreach" and church "inreach" last night as a Harvest Festival. Our town doesn't have store or place that we meet up with people, so using special events we try to meet more neighbors and reconnect to those we haven't seen in a while!!

Being one of the "planning ladies" , having my own "job" and my kids to try to keep an eye on (although Brian and Ginny really kept them most of the time).... I was busy, busy, busy!! I didn't sit down AT ALL from 5 to 9:40 (when my kids were tucked in bed)!! We had a pretty good turn out (we served over 100 hot dogs!)!! But I was surprised by the way we were able to encourage people!

When we started talking about the Harvest Festival, I was thinking about it as a ministry to the children in the neighborhood and a way to reconnect with some of our VBS crowd. But other ladies had a desire to have activities for the older crowd:) And they were completely right!!

We had a handful of older members of our community who attended and just enjoying being around a group of people!! One commented to one of our church members, "Thanks for inviting me, I would have just sat at home by myself tonight!"

I wasn't surprised by older members of the church and community coming!! But I was surprised with how much they enjoyed themselves... whether it was walking in the cake walk, playing BINGO or just watching all the activities:) I've got a lot ot learn about ministering to my community!!!! oh.... and the kids had fun, too!!! They had PLENTY of games, candy and prizes to keep them occupied!!!

And with my busy-ness, I dropped a couple of pounds on Halloween night.... how's that possible:) Must have been running around more than I thought!!!!

If your husband/pastor asks....

How was the sermon?

My husband asked the question this afternoon after church. Before I answered him, he stopped me and told me I had to follow the ....

Sermon Critiquing Suggestions for Pastor Wives :)

1. It's generally better to wait and be asked about their sermon than to initiate the conversation.

2. Always immediately respond with something positive.... if there is NOTHING positive comment on his appearance, posture, etc

3. Never offer negative feedback if your pastor is hungry.... sooo nothing too critcal before lunch.

4. Hesitate and add an element of being unsure of yourself before giving negative feedback.

5. If your husband is particularly prideful you may need to follow negative feedback with ; "But what do I know? You're the professional and I'm just you sweet, humble wife." Then smile.

6. Comparisions to legendary preachers is always nice:) hahahaa...

7. FINAL NOTE: "Honesy is the best policy" doesn't appear in the Bible.

A conclusions from my husband's wife. I am very blessed to be the wife of a good preacher.... went I get the chance to sit and listen to my husband I am always very proud of him and usually left with something to "chew on" (AKA apply to my life). Part of the reason I enjoy hearing him preach is that I like his well thoughout, clearly presented, and logical style and his illustrations usually capture his main points, allow me to relate to the point/passage and are easy to remember....

... But we all have off days or moments :).... And my heart (and hopefully the heart of many pastor wives) is to encourage my husband and the ministry he is serving!! So I want to encouarge him and give him an honest answer to make him "better"!!

In all honesty, our husband/pastors need our encouragements !!! So let's remember that "iron sharpens iron" and that "two are better than one" and work with our husbands. Encouarge their ministries. And preaching!!!!

Our Teams

Here are our "fearless" and precious leaders..... Rob and Melody, our Canadian missionaries:) They did soo much in planning and preparing for us and then went till all hours of the night to minister with us and to us:) Thanks guys!!!


Members of the Skateboard Church and Mel.... I LOVE meeting youth that love the Lord and are passionate about telling others about Christ. Sure, these guys LOVE to skateboard and ride their trick bikes.... but they use their gifts to share the Gospel with others.... just awesome guys!!!

And here is the group from our church with Rob and Mel.... they all were just so willing to jump into the tasks assigned with a joyful spirit. I'm just soo thankful for this group and just soo honored to be in ministry with them :)

A Fun Ending to our Trip

When I did the quick update this morning, our plans were up in the air. But the sun did start peeking out and so we headed to the park with a smaller group and less activities. We weren't met with a bunch of kids, which we figured would be the case after the downpours from the morning. But we did have a few that had returned looking for us and we made TWO solid contacts from people interested in the church:) So we were VERY glad we had returned....even though we had a LOT less kids:)




















After the park, the our kids and Rob's family came out to play with us at the hotel...they really, really liked my mom's "bubble machine". The kids played really nicely and were very gracious in their sharing...


Eating Chinese at the Chinese mall.... reminded me of Taiwan, they even had Milk Tea with Balls.... here they call it Bubble Tea...

Finally, our families went to watch airplanes with together...


Amazing all the different possibilities we had when it started to rain....but we were gad we returned to the park and made the contacts. And I personally was soo glad to have a chance to spend time with Crystal and her sweet kids!!

Tuesday!!

This morning we did some preparations for Kidz Club and then headed to the park to invite people to the Club in the afternoon. I'll be honest that I was a little intimidated to initiate conversations (just part of my personality), but I got over it and had some conversations with strangers. And then I was further encouarged by my poor attempts to invite people when I saw them waiting for us at the park after lunch:)

We had kids waiting for us when we got there and many staying playing the games from 1 to 4pm!! We really had kids everywhere..... here is a busy time at the craft station.

The parachute was another HIT.... the kids had a blast!!!


Although the kids had a GREAT time at every activity!!! This was a favorite for the kids and on-lookers..... it was a relay with water balloons. The kids would be put into teams and given water balloons. Each kid would run to the cones and try to pop the water by sitting on it and then running back to their teams after it popped. Anyway, it was soo funny and the kids LOVED it!!! Plenty of kids left with SOAKED bottoms:)


After dinner, we did go to the SkatePark with the skateboarders...again, just truely amazed at their talents, courage, and perservance (trying tricks over and over).

The Rest of our Monday

From the reports I heard the Kidz Club went well this afternoon (at least 55 kids there). They held it from 1:30 to 3:30ish.... my plan was to let the kids nap (at their normal time) and then participate in the last hour or so.....but as the kids and I pulled onto the road the park was on, I saw our teammates driving by....they had ended a little early......

If you know me, my heart to serve, and my struggles with ministry vs motherhood... you know how disappointed I was. And then the guys told me I had missed an opportunity to spend time with the pastor's wife.....but I held it together and figured we have two more afternoons???......

So tomorrow I'm hoping to go straight to Kidz Club and then delay the naptime until we've spent some time at Club.... so that's the plan, let's see if they make it through lunch, or else plans will change:)

After dinner we headed off to the Skate Park.....we got there at 7pm and there were few kids out there skateboarding, biking, etc!! As it got later more and more people started pouring in.....I am totally not knowledgeable about skateboarding or the skateboarding culture.....

Here is part of the group forming....this was just ONE corner of a very busy skating ramp thingy

Here are some of the "smaller" guys....I can't believe how HIGH they can get:)

So, I got a little skateboarding culture info.....and was really amazed of the ministry opportunities involved with this sport.

Morning Work : Trash Cans:)

So, our work this morning was to paint the trash cans that the sports complex would use around the park; in order to obtain the permit to use the park at night:) Honestly, none of us knew what to expect, how many, clean or not, etc!!! But we had 8 newly panited cans to "decorate" using themes of where in the park they would be placed (if we wanted). So the skater team did a lot of skater themed graphics and symbols, we did nature and kiddie themes, as well as a basketball theme.

Because we were painting the cans for a public place we couldn't put Christian themes or wording... Brian and I were talking about how challenging it is to encorporate Christian themes without making them "too Christian". Just a reminder of how faith encompasses thought and even words:) But we did include some of the basic fruits of the Spirit which many faiths would view as "goals".... but that we understand as coming from one who has the Holy Spirit.

Here are some pictures of our team hard at work....

And here are our finished products:)


One of my prayers have been that each of us would use the gifts and talents we have during the week to do the ministries that have been laid out for us. So, I was a little worried about how painting trash cans would use our teams' different talents....

BUT some were painters, some were fillers (filled in large painting spaces), others were suppliers (getting supplies and cleaning brushes) and others were directors (encouraging others to finish the tasks, figuring out what to do on each can,etc)..... so even though some didn't paint everyone was used:) Another answer to prayer and plenty more bonding moments....including getting the orange glob of paint off my favorite flip-flops:)

Our Canadian Lord's Day

This morning we visited our "Canadian church" - the church we're working with in ministry this week. Although the church was much smaller than we are used to and met in a local school, we enjoyed the service and especially meeting the church members:) And I personally can't wait to spend more time with Rob's wife....another young mom/pastor wife/SAHM, etc... just to have someone in the same stage in life and many of the same struggles....

Our "fearless" leader doing orientation.... since this afternoon was the official start to our ministry here...

The team spent most of the afternoon preparing the materials to use during the week!! The exciting part of this activity was the unity and teamwork that it built. We all immediately started working and then helping those who took on larger tasks.... it's always nice to have the team come together and start to blend:) The other church we are working with is from the same state as we are.... so we're already culturally unified... well sort of... the other group is mostly younger teen boy skateboarders...and we're a mixtiure of ages, with little to no knowledge of skateboarding:)

Ginny and Anna working together

Our team at the Skate Park

Ministry to the Home that Extends Beyond the Home

One of the biggest struggles for me with motherhood has been the limitations. Of course with the the new limitation have been other opportunities and a new crew to minister to (the kiddies). It seems that I do a lot more when I focus on theose small things that I CAN do for others instead of thinking of all the opportunities I've had to "miss".

So this morning I got my crew working hard.....hard on some Banana Bread for a neighbor and friend who is sick. Of course, I could have had this done in a matter of minutes without all the extra dirty utensils...but my crew is also my ministry so why not teach them to show a little kindness and learn how to serve others, too.


There is some learning involved as well...this was the first time I let Anna push the buttons on the microwave!!

Christopher is a very serious cook....he was a very good mixer and enjoyed dumping the ingredients in.

Anna and I little more about measurements... yay for practical Math!!

Since we didn't cook with the eggs the kids got to eat some of the "extra" batter....yummm!!

I made some mini muffins with some of the batter and so the kids got to "test" their cooking.....it gave them a treat for all of their work:) And look Lydia even woke up just in time for some warm muffins.


As I was typing this post, Brian said one of the sweetest things about the kids working on the bread was Anna's excitement when he walked through the door after visitation. She excited asked, "Daddy did you give the bread to Miss Patsy?" Genuine concern that our sweet friend had gotten her bread.