Camp pictures

The setup

Beautiful spot

Quiet, calm

A small lake, with a path around it.

We rested!

:)

A Little Newsey

We've been so busy I've not had a chance to update my blog, or decorate for Fall!  The kids are working hard on their school, beginning on Tuesday each week and ending on Saturday.  Our week is a little unusual, but that is the beauty of homeschool.  In our schedule, we have two days out of the week in which we do school in the afternoon, because the kids or their mother have ministry related items scheduled in the morning.

That is, all except the days when they are sick, which has been the case for the past two weeks.  A harsh nagging cough gradually made its entrance into the household a few weeks ago, and now it's just as slowly making its exit.  I'd like to evict it sooner, but all my powers of cough elimination are fruitless against this bugger.  I love how the Mexican ladies are all giving me advice.  In the US I'm usually the odd ball for my home remedies.  Twice, families have dropped by with their favorite herbs to make tea with for the kids, and I've also been scolded for not making them wear socks in the house.  "That's why they're sick!  Get socks on those feet!!!!"  (I would have to use a stapler, I think.)

I'm missing church, and missing the missing of church!  I'm so thankful for a church that I can serve in, and receive blessing from, for people to minister to, and who often minister to me.  Our pastor is a man of God who preaches God's Word without compromise or fear, and who, with his wife, genuinely love God and people.  These things are all priceless to me!

The property is ready to build on, we are just getting plans and people ready for the project!

This has been my news.  Thank you for taking the time to read it!

Bro. Jaimez baptizing Elisabeth!

These aren't the greatest pics, but there wasn't a lot of water in the pool, and since we couldn't wait for another two hours, we just dunked them the best we could. Elisabeth is so light, her feet popped right out of the water!

Joy in the presence of the angels!

This morning I dragged myself out of bed and plunked down on the couch, opened my Bible, and started rubbing the sleepyheads out of my eyes so I could read. I do not like mornings. As far as I'm concerned the only thing good about them is the fact that no one else is up, so I can have some solitude with the Lord before the rush of the day begins. As I peered at the first chapter of Colossians I realized that I was not alone. I heard a pair of little feet slapping down the stairs. My youngest daughter appeared, looking just as sleepy as I was.

Great. There went my devoes. I thought. I said, "Hi, sweetie, come sit with me." Maybe I can get some reading in this way. She snuggled up, and I commenced reading out loud, so she wouldn't feel the need to squirm or talk to me. I got to this part:

Colossians 1:12-13 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

And I began to think, she has no idea what this means. I read the next verse;

Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Then the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask, "Do you know what redemption means?"

"Uuuuuh, no."

Again, the Lord pushed me to explain this word to her. There is a wonderful story about a little boy who made himself a sail boat, that he loved, and when he went to the river to play with it, the wind blew it away. He saw it go in to the rapids, where there was a big fall, and he thought it was lost to him forever. Then one day he saw his sail boat in a store window. Not only had it survived the falls, someone had found it! When he asked the store owner for it, he found out that it was still lost to him, because in order to get it, he would have to pay the full price for it. He loved his boat so much that he brought money to pay for it, and redeem it.

I told her this story, and explained, that was what Jesus did for us. He made us, and He loves us. But our sin will take us to Hell, and we will be lost to Him, so He paid for us to be redeemed back to Himself, to take away our sin, and the price he paid wasn't money, it was His own blood. That's why it says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." All we have to do is repent of our sins and receive His gift of eternal life!

"I want to do that! Right now!"

Thank God for this! Isn't it wonderful to see His Spirit working in the lives of our children? Elisabeth had made a profession of faith, but I sensed she didn't understand everything she had done, and last week, the Lord put a burden on my heart to pray for her, that God would make clear to her if she was saved. My prayer was answered a couple days ago when she told me frankly that she was not saved and going to hell, because she was a sinner and couldn't stop sinning. At that time, she didn't accept Christ. Sometimes it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work each part of the gospel through our hearts. I didn't push it. This time, I could see the lights come on. No, she didn't want to wait another minute, Jesus had paid for her sin, and she wanted to receive eternal life right now! I told her to tell Jesus! She did, very simply and frankly, ask Jesus to forgive her, and take away her sin so she could live in Heaven with Him. Then she jumped up, eager to tell everyone, "How do you say 'I got saved' in Spanish?"

I don't think I'll ever complain about having my personal devotions interrupted!

Rejoice with me!

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He did a wonderful work, one that I could never do in the past month.

We went to a church service on May 20th, the day a precious little boy by the name of Josiah Herring, age 5, was born into eternity to be with his "Best Friend". This church had been praying for Josiah, and his death was announced in the service, along with requests to pray for his family. My two young girls, Elisabeth and Rebecca, were sobered by this. We had shared the gospel with them, but they both didn't really think it was important to deal with it right away. When they asked me again how old he was, my husband and I took a moment to talk about death. We told them that, just like everyone has a day to be born, they also have a day to die. God knows this day, and we do not. It's important to be ready for eternity! Both of them were under conviction.

About three weeks passed. Then one morning while I was fixing Rebecca's hair, Elisabeth announced, out of the blue, "I'm ready to die now!" Well, those are words that make a mommy take notice! I asked her what on earth she was talking about. She repeated herself, in a matter of fact way, with a big smile on her face. When I asked her why, she said, "I'll go to Jesus!"

"How do you know that?"

"Cause Jesus took my sin away!"

"How do you know He did?"

"Cause I asked Him to!"

"Why did you want Him to take your sin away?"

"Cause it was going to take me to Hell, and I don't want to go there!"

She was so happy and content, and I had not seen her like that in a long time. I continued asking questions, and learned that the night before, June 9, She got out of bed, knelt down and asked Jesus to take away her sin and save her. She told Him thank you for dying for her, and for saving her. Then she went back to bed and slept.

I was, and still am amazed by this work the Holy Spirit did on my daughter, while I did not even know about it. This is not the end of the story though! A few days ago, my second daughter, Rebecca, came storming into our room about two hours after I had sent her and her sisters to bed. She was gasping and sobbing broken heartedly. She choked out, "I want to accept Jesus as my Saviour!" Again, we started asking questions to make sure she knew what she was doing, but that was just foolishness on our part. She knew exactly what she was doing, and this senseless delay was upsetting her even more. She cried, "I'm gonna die and go ta Hell! I wanna get saved!"

What can you say to that? We said, "Go ahead then!"

I watched my daughter drop to her knees and cry out, "Oh God! I'm so so sorry for all my sins! I've done so many bad things! Please, please forgive me!"

That was it! When she raised up her head, a smile started to shine. Ryan asked her, "Did He do it?" She said loudly, "Yessss!"

Rebecca and Elisabeth are two different little girls today! They have peace with God, and it shows. Do you have peace with God? Do you know what will happen to your soul when you die? God is not willing for you to perish!(2 Peter 3:9) Are you willing to repent of your sins and accept His gift of eternal life? If you are, then He is ready to save you! "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." II Cor. 5:21--John 3:16 says it better than I ever could, "For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

My heart goes out to the Herring family, I can't imagine what they've been through, and even though they don't know me, I've been holding them up in prayer. I'm so thankful for the life of their son. One day, I'm going to see him in Heaven, and I'm going to give him a hug and tell him "Thank you for your testimony!, here are two precious souls that were brought to Jesus!"

Where Do Bats Come From?

Here is one of the deeper conversations we had this morning. Rebecca, who likes to anylize everything to pieces, Elisabeth, the serious one who takes everything literally, and me.

Rebecca (wearing a black plastic batman mask, quite adorible): "Look Mom! I'm Batgirl!"

Me: Cute!

Rebecca, after a short silence: "Mom, can bats be girls?"

Me: "Well, yes, there are bat girls and bat boys, too."

Rebecca, after another short silence: "Are there bat babies?"

Me: "Of course there are bat babies! Where do you think bats come from?"

Elisabeth has been listening intently, and she thinks she knows the answer to this one. She pipes up immediately, in all seriousness; "I know! The BAThroom!"

We can see the light!

We're coming out of the yucks, and getting ready for a very busy month! We're going to Vancouver, Washington on Friday, and we've got meetings every week all through the month. We love being busy, so we're looking forward to it!

Bugs!

We like to collect the germs and explore them throughly everywhere we go. I'm sure we are sharing them too! The last week has been a flu week, checking fevers, wiping snot, and tucking in moments of sleep where we can. Chicken soup has been involved.

Homeschooling has not. Not by my word. That was the Principal's call. Teacher is a tyrant who would happily have her little charges studying from the sickbed, Kleenex in hand. The kids are glad to have a dad with more compassion on them than their mom-although they are getting bored.

It's not as bad as it could be. My kids have been through the Twister a few times, and a little thing like the flu just sets them back a little. They aren't complaining much, and they do like Chicken Soup.

Some pics of the critters!

Ok, ok, you pulled my arm!!!

I can't stand keeping good secrets like this. I'm going to spill it, even though I don't have a picture because the item in question is getting resized.

Ok, I must go back two years to the sad day that I realized our wedding rings were really and truly gone, along with several items from our van. I was hoping I had not been so stupid as to leave the little pouch with my ring in the van. I hoped that for months. (It's called denial.) It was my fault; I should know better, but a day hasn't gone by that I haven't thought about my empty hand with a touch of sadness. I'm not one to wallow deeply in my pit of self pity, but I felt BAD about this.

So on Valentine's Day this year, my husband asked me to make a picnic lunch, and he drug out the picnic basket I used the day he asked me to marry him-he said the kids would think it was fun, or something. We piled into the van, and he said that since it was Valentines Day, he thought it would would be a good idea to show the kids "the place" where he proposed, since we were in the area. This was a good idea-even though it looked like rain, we set out to the redwood grove, where a little stream rushed near the road.

I love the redwoods. I love the clean, wet smell, and the feeling of being so small surrounded by straight, dark posts of the trees. No rain reached the floor where we walked, and I was just delighted that the kids could enjoy this too. When we reached the stream, and the small gravel bank where I accepted my husband's proposal, he started to tell the kids how it had happened. They were more excited by the running water, and plunk of the rocks they were throwing into it.

You've guessed what was next, I'm sure, but I was taken completely by surprize! When he got to the point in the story where he gave me the ring, he got down on one knee and gave me a ring!!! (Please pardon my overuse of exclamation points. I can't help myself.) Then I squealed, and jumped around, and hugged my sweet husband while the kids threw more rocks in the water. Someday they are going to say to themselves, "Wow, I was there when Dad gave Mom her ring! That's cool!"

I'm so thankful for my husband, for his love, and for his care of me. This action turned something that hurt just a little every day into something that makes me smile every time I think about it.

Oh, and I LOVE IT. (Sorry for yelling, I can't help myself!!!!!)

Piñata!

Hello!Getting the frame ready

Ryan gets some expert help cutting the wires

More help!

Lookie! It's coming together!

Ryan has more help than he knows what to do with!

Well, it's for a girl, so it's gotta be pink...

More pink...

Now it's all ready to bring to life!
(Check out the brand new glasses on the birthday girl!)

All done! Ready to whack!

Don't hate me because I'm so beautiful...

Hello!

I've been away from my blog for a few weeks because the internet blinked out on us and we only just got it fixed.

My uncle passed away two weeks ago after a ten year battle with cancer, and we took a trip to his funeral. I'm so thankful for the promise of Heaven that my dear Saviour has given. About fifteen years ago, Jesus saved my uncle. My parents had prayed for God to open his eyes to the gospel for nearly thirty years. What a sweet hope it is to know I will see him again!

Elisabeth loves her Uncle Jim

Tongues are useful for work and play

More pics!

We went to Rosarito!

Busy fun!

We are having a blast out here with my mom and brother visiting. I will post pictures! My dad sacrificed them for a whole week-thanks Dad!

I love this thing!

My dear sweetie brought this thing home to me one day. It's not made of the strongest material, as you can see, it's been reinforced. It's made my life a lot easier. You know some missionary moms have to wash their clothes in the river. (Jungle Mom's post on this forever silenced my laundry whine. That's not the post, but you will see what I mean. I will never complain again!) I think this is cheating.