A Winter Day with Pop, Nana, and Uncle J

Back at the beginning of the month we were able to take some of our teenagers to a local homeless shelter for a service project.  We made over 130 beds to be slept in that night.  We folded towel and pajamas and scrubbed walls.  As I laid out each cot and tucked in each sheet I couldn't help but be thankful the warm bed that I would be going home to that night.  We are so blessed...and thankful for how God has provided for our every need.  My dad was kind enough to meet us at the shelter and take the kids home for the day...what a blessing!  The kids were blessed to be able to spend the day with their grandparents, and we were blessed to have focused time serving with the teens.  

Mom and Dad took the kids to a Christmas play and out for lunch.  We met up with them later in the day and enjoyed a horse drawn wagon ride.  

Later that night we got to go on a date night with Beth and Adam to see the cake boss and then out for coffee....what a blessing to have time with family!!

Operation Christmas Child 2012

These are two very excited children who are eager to turn in their shoe boxes.  As always, they had so much fun shopping and putting together boxes for a little boy and girl who don't know Jesus.  We can't wait to find out what country they traveled to!  

Trunk & Treat

We enjoyed taking part in Trunk & Treat at our church this year.  The weather was cold and rainy, so we moved inside.  The kids had a great time and we enjoyed the chance to reach out to the community and share the gospel message with those who came.  

Hannah and her friend Brianne  

Face painting  

I also did face painting, spent the whole night here painting one little cheek after another..so much fun!

Ethan came too!  

Our little circus animals :)

Abby and Ethan

Ladies Retreat at Skyview Ranch

Skyview Ranch has a very special place in my heart.  I spent many summers there as a camper, served on staff for 5 summers, and met my husband there.  I grew in my walk with the Lord and my desire to serve Him with my life grew through my time there.  So many wonderful memories always come flooding back as I drive down the lane and walk around the camp.  It was neat to spend a weekend there with the ladies from our new church.  It provided a great chance to get to know some of them on a deeper level and to bond with them through common experiences.  :)  

The weekend was beautiful, we went on several walks.  We had fun walking to the petting farm and feeding the animals.  

 It was great to see several familiar faces while we were there.  Bekah and I were counselors together.  It was great to see her and Ryan and their little one.  Bekah and I had a chance to talk, pray, and reconnect ..what an encouragement that was!  

 I also bumped into Denise who I went to church with when I was in high school.  

Of course, we went on a horse trail.  The lady in the red jacket is from our church, she won a prize for being the oldest lady at the retreat...and she was out on the horses that afternoon...so neat!  

 Oh Skyview, it's the most beautiful in the fall!  

Our Little Cubbie

Our little Cubbie just completed (well..back in May ;)) her first year of AWANA.  She loved Cubbies and looked forward to it all week long.  Hannah had so much fun...but more important than that, she learned more about God and His Word.  She learned all 22 verses in her Hopper Book, and by the end of the year she was reading her verse card and memorizing the verses on her own.  It's so neat to see her hunger and enthusiasm for Gods Word, something that her Daddy and I pray will continue through the rest of her life.  

Here's Hannah with all of her patches ironed on and ready for awards night.  

 Here is Mr. Pherson and our AWANA club at the awards ceremony.  

 Not only was it Hannah's first year of Cubbies, but mine as well.  It wasn't my plan to work in AWANA this year...but it was God's plan.  I LOVED every minute of working with these little ones!  It was neat to see them soak up God's Word.  They were a blessing to my life each week...it was also a blessing to get to serve side by side with an amazing woman and my dear friend, Julia.  God is good!  

"But Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.'" Matthew 19:14 ESV

Founders Festival Parade

Saturday was the Founders Festival. We had a float in the parade again....and although it was rather hot, we enjoyed being in the parade and passing out gospel tracks to those in the community. The parade route was shortened this year, which was better...but the wait to get started felt like it was forever...probably because it was 90 degrees :) Hannah did a great job and loved being a part of the parade. She walked the whole way and happily passed out tracks to everyone that she could. The theme this year was beach party...so we all wore beach clothes and our float was a big wave that shared the verse:

John 3:17 "For God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

Ready to share life savers and Jesus with Farmington

After the parade we were at church passing out free water and sharing more tracks and info about the church (including kids kamp and outdoor service invites) for the afternoon. We moved kids kamp this year to the week right after the festival. We are praying that many unsaved kids and families will come to kids kamp as a result. It's always neat to see the church come together to serve. It was a full and exhausting day, but we pray that the Lord will bless the work of the many who were involved.

Dare2Share

This past weekend, we took our teens to Chicago for Dare2Share, a teen evangelism conference. The conference was wonderful, our God did a great work in the hearts and lives of the teenagers that we took! I was incredibly sick the whole weekend, which was hard, but it was still such a blessing to be there and watch Him work.

Love these girls! Meet Erika (on the right) my new sister in Christ!

The most exciting part of the weekend, was watching one of our teen girls come to know the Lord as her personal savior!! Can I hear and AMEN?! She has been heavy on my heart and mind..and it was so exciting to see her accept God's free gift of salvation. It was neat that this happened on Friday night! We were able to celebrate her salvation as a group then focus on sharing our faith on Saturday. The people at Dare2Share did a great job of equipping the kids and teaching them how to share their faith. On one of the breaks Saturday afternoon, they were on their cell phones calling unsaved friends and sharing the gospel!

God created us to be with Him

Our sins separate us from God

Sin cannot be removed by good deeds.

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.

Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life

Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever!!

(the GOSPEL explains God's redemptive plan for humanity from Gen. 1 to Rev. 22...to learn more go here).

Some of the kids were texting back and forth with unsaved friends at home the whole afternoon, and others have committed to write letters...so exciting!

Another highlight of the weekend was sitting in a coffee shop and hearing (I was very sick & totally observing by this point of the weekend) the kids talk with Seth, Jeff, and Amber about what they can do to practically apply all that they had learned when they get home. It was neat to hear them say specific names of people that they need to reach out to and and how we can grow as a youth group in the area of evangelism.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit come on you; and you will be my witnesses..." Acts 1:8

The Lord used the music of Starfield and Propaganda to speak to our hearts too!

Is your name on the list?!


"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said 'Here am I. Send me!'" - Isaiah 6:8

Snow Camp 2010

Well, I'm a week behind in blogging...it was nice to get a break from everything last week as I enjoyed some time with my sister and sweet little nephew.

Last weekend, we took the teens to Camp Barakel for snow camp. We took a small group of teens and had a great time with them. The Lord worked on all of our hearts, we enjoyed time of fun and fellowship and had great weather! Hannah spent the weekend with her Grandma and Papa. I missed her terribly, but they all had a great time...and I do know that it is good to get a "kid break" every once and a while. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the weekend:

Barkakel has a great tubing hill

fun ice skating with my girls :)

Seth and I went snowshoeing with Kimberly...it was a snowy adventure!

our broom ball team

what a great group of kids!

many of them made spiritual decisions over the weekend. Seth and I love being back in the camping atmosphere...esp. with our teens. It was exciting to hear from one of the girls this week...she's already putting what she learned into practice and had the chance to witness to two friends at school...praise the Lord!

Kids Kamp

It's been a busy summer...and a challenge to keep up with blogging, but I have a few minutes to maybe work on one post. We had another great week of Kids Kamp this year! We had 108 kids come out, and only about 20 of them were our own church kids...so we were really excited about the chance to reach out to our community.

I worked with the preschoolers for the week. They sure kept us busy..by Tuesday I think that all my strength was gone...good thing that we don't do it on our own! I can really see how God saw us through the week. Seth worked 70+ hours that week and did such a great job as always. We are already starting to think about and plan for next year!

One of the highlights of the week for me was watching our teens serve the Lord. They served with happy hearts and were so willing to do whatever needed done. They didn't complain...and they just loved on those kids. We are SO blessed to work with such a great group of teenagers!

I also loved watching the kids sing our theme song for the week "One Way", that I wrote about in a previous post. Check out the video of them singing...isn't it great to hear children singing to the Lord?!

Thank you to those who lifted us up in prayer during the week...it was a great week!

The munchkin skit takes me back to our svr days...I loved doing this skit with my friend Teri. I'll have to dig out some old pics and scan them in. :)

"Ya putcha" skit crew

just a few of my preschoolers on water day

what a team!

Kids Kamp 2009

Today was the first day of Kids Kamp. We were blessed with 82 children! I am working with the preschoolers this year. The day went very well! This years theme is Daniel, the kids will be learning all about him in Bible time all week. Our theme song for this year is "One Way". The teens worked hard to learn it at counselor training, and it paid off. The kids really loved the song. Many of us have said that it's been stuck in our heads all day today. It's a good tune to be singing over and over again though.

Jesus answered, " I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" - John 14:6

We are praying for a great rest of the week at Kids Kamp. Praying that many children will come who have never heard the gospel before and that they and their families will be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praying that they will see that Jesus is the only way! Would you pray for us too? Pray for the children and families as well as the teens and the workers. Pray for wisdom, strength, enthusiasm, boldness, and endurance. All for the glory of God!

Outdoor Service

We ended a great weekend with our churches first outdoor service. It was so neat to worship the Lord outside. It was good for people who were at the festival to hear the gospel proclaimed as they walked by. We really enjoyed worshipping in God's creation!


The praise team

It was a great family service..the children sang and played bells

one of the sweetest ladies I know and her little girl

Farmington Founders Festival

Wow...what a day we had at the Founders Festival today. We stared out at the church bright and early. We entered a float in the parade again this year. The theme was "circus, circus", which is kinda a hard theme for a church...but Jeff did a great job putting it all together. The kids were dressed as "circus" animals and the slogans for our float were "Is Jesus just your sideshow or the main event?" and "Don't mess around with your eternity...Jesus didn't". We passed out gospel tracks, and invitations to kids kamp, which is in two weeks. We pray that the gospel tracks fell into the hands of the right people and were excited with how receptive the people were.

Meanwhile, back at the church, we had people passing out free water & balloons, faithful prayer warriors praying, men parking cars in our free parking lot, and new this year: the bounce house! We rented a bounce house..which worked out wonderfully! The kids loved it...and it gave us a chance to talk to the families during the few minutes that the kids were bouncing. Finally, Seth and I were on an evangelism team. (Hannah took a nap in Seth's office...while one of the teens listened for her on the monitor...it worked out perfectly!) We went out into the festival in the afternoon with tracks in hand ready to share the gospel. I had the opportunity to talk to 3 teen girls. It worked out really well because they were all friend and one of them is already a believer who attends a good Bible believing church. I had a chance to clearly present the gospel to one of the girls, then another friend joined us, so I got to present it again. They were not ready to make a decision today, so I challenged the one who is already a believer to follow up with her friends. Would you please pray for the 3 of them? Erin and Karley are the ones who still are not saved...and Angela is their christian friend. Seth had a chance to talk to a man who is jewish & probably in his early 20's. He was sitting and waiting for his mom who came out of Quinos shortly after we began our conversation. She was VERY closed to the idea of even talking to us...but he still wanted to...so that was encouraging. She listened for a while, then walked away. He carefully listened, but then said that he need to leave to go be with his mom. Seth was able to share the gospel with him, and we are praying that the Lord will really work in his heart. Pray for him...his name is Emmet.

After watching just 2 of the "Way of the Master" (check out this link for some tips on sharing your faith and some witnessing videos) video series...I have been extremely convicted about sharing my faith. There was a quote from Spurgeon (I think) on the video that said something like this: If we don't care about the salvation of others, then we are probably not even saved ourselves. I need to be concerned about others eternity!! Walking around the festival today...I looked into the eyes of so many and couldn't help but think of the old Steve Green song "People Need the Lord". There are so many who are lost...who will tell them the truth if we don't? What a huge responsibility Jesus left us with when he returned to heaven. I want to be more gospel minded...I will be praying for an looking for more opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those I meet.

How about you? Are you actively sharing your faith? What have you found has worked for you? Do you have any good conversation starters? Is there anyone that you have talked to that you would like me to be praying for? I would love to hear from you!

When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed." (C.H. Spurgeon)

Romans 10:9-15
9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."[e] 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."[f]
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"[g]

Some of the animals on the float

.

Hannah & Elania...not looking super excited...

our cute little dancing bear

The teens....love 'em!

This guy rode his unicycle the whole parade! And my little giraffe...eating her favorite giraffe snack :)

the bounce house

the guys did a great job directing traffic

passing out balloons and water