Work Day at Nana and Papa's

 

 

We recently were able to help out at Nana and Papa's house.. those pesky weeds just never give up! We had a wonderful day working together, followed by a yummy meal (thank you Papa!) and a bit more work into the evening..

 

Mandy was commenting at the end of the day how she could have never worked so hard a year ago. She is feeling so much better these days, praise the LORD!

 

 

Grant cleans out the pond! One of his jobs was to get the old soggy leaves out of it. He found the job well.....quite... smelly!

 

 

 

Working Hard



Taking a break.. well truth be told I didn't do much this time.. not really sure why..

What a blessing when your children are able to pitch in so much that as you train them up.. you kinda work yourself out of a job. Nana and I had a great time visiting and supervising! :-)

Cute bonnet Ash!

Laura inspects the ladybugs.. and flowers..

 

 

After completing the back yard, they decided they also needed to climb onto the

garage and clean the leaves and debris off of the flat-roof. Such hard workers!

Nana was thrilled with a job well done!

~The work crew~

 

Time to go home and to bed...

 

 

 

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A Must Listen-to Sermon! The Annointed Body of Christ in China

Today, our church body (consisting of our family, lol!) listened to an annointed sermon preached by Denny Kenaston. It was so impactful that I wanted to post a link to it here on our blog:

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=12569&commentView=itemComments

Dear Christian, please take the time to listen to this sermon. May God's Word go forth!

 

 

So ecstatic to receive God's Word.. despite the certain resulting persecution for 'cultish behavior'

 

 

 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.~ Jesus Matthew 4:4

 

 Secrets of the Exponential Growth in the Chinese Church....... Evangelism and Persecution  

 

 

Cases of persecution of Christians rose by about 42 percent last year compared with 2011, according to the report by human rights group China Aid. With the number of persecuted Christians rising by roughly 14 percent and detentions by nearly 12 percent, overall persecution was about 13 percent worse than in 2011 – though China Aid termed its statistics just “the tip of the iceberg.”

Read more: http://www.colindye.com/2013/02/20/chinas-plan-to-eradicate-house-churches-sees-dramatic-increase-in-persecution/#ixzz2UQpnoCPj

 

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…. If they persecuted Me they will persecute you… for they do not know the One who sent Me.” John 15:19-21

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
—2 Corinthians 12:10

Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you

Let us not only pray for the persecuted church today.. but let us learn from their fervor and passion for Jesus and devote ourselves to Him fully.  Have a blessed Sunday

...meanwhile, back at the 'homestead'

While we were at the beach, all 6 of our children stayed home. Happily serving and caring for one another. It always blesses me how well they all work together. Of course there are those times.. where things and relationship issues need to be worked out but for the most part, they are one another's best friends. What a joy and blessing for us, their parents!
Ashley and Amanda took a few photos of their time during our absence. We enjoyed looking at them and seeing the fun things and hard work that went on around here without us! :)

Mandy, getting Laura ready for the day

Ashley, serving up some grub

 

Ryan, dutifully setting the table!

Grant, patiently waiting for his meal..

 

Grant took Gracie's training wheels off and was having her give him a ride!

 

Wild Child!

Ashley comes and reigns her in!

 

 

Special Girl! Both of the little girls were so good for Ashley and Amanda

Daddy and Mommy brought them home a few books as a treat for listening so well

 

Time to clean up! Dad and Mom are coming home soon!

'Get to work!' :)

 

Mandy to the rescue!

 

 

The girls love to clean up quickly!

'Put your dolls away Laura!'

 

Adorable! When we arrived home.. our lovely ladies had prepared a yummy meal for us, complete with a hearty stew and delicious pull apart rolls. The house was clean and the children were all happy and content. What a lovely ending to a wonderful time at the beach! Thank you Ashely, Amanda, Ryan and Grant for your hard work! We love and appreciate you sooo much!

 

 

 

Jesus Saves!

Our favorite happening on the beach trip was the chance the Lord gave Grady to speak with a precious homeless man. We had seen he and his dog for 2 days.. scavenging out of dumpsters for cans and food. We prayed the Lord would give us a chance to speak with him which he did! I sat in the car (praying!) while Grady sat on the grass and spoke with him for almost an entire hour.. listening to the story of how he had gotten to the point of being without his home or family. The Lord did a work in his heart, praise God and showed him his sin and need of a savior! Please pray for this precious man.. This meeting with the homeless man was Grady's second of it's kind within 2 weeks, both men he had spoken to had so much in common with the other.. Both so riddled with sin and guilt that they felt they had to leave their families.. Sin had brought them to a place of complete ruin. Brothers and Sisters, let us remember that we have the answer to the pain and hopelessness in this world! May God continue to work in all of us and lead us, by his spirit, into HIS ministry of reconciliation.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 2 Corinthians 5:18 NIV

 

 As we all grow in the Lord, he works in us His good will (including this ministry of reconciliation) equipping us for his kingdom...in the way He wants to use us. That ministry may look very different from one surrendered Christian to another.. We are not all going to have the same method and giftings and that is ok! :) But let us all continue to fight the good fight, spreading the gospel.

 

Thank you Jesus that you do not make us all the same, that you give special giftings to each believer.. that we do not have to be exactly like anyone else. We do not want to seek popularity among men.. we only want to be pleasing in your eyes.. Please humble us and help us to grow, giving us your vision for this lost and dying world.. give us your zeal and humility.. Lord, we desire only to 'fit in' to your Kingdom and not to compare ourselves to others... ONLY TO JESUS~ AMEN ♥

 

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, ²¹ make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you^[a] what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20 NKJV

 

 

A Trip for Two

Recently Grady and I were gifted a beach trip to Lincoln City, OR. The hotel was located right on the ocean with a lovely view.. Grady and I had such a nice relaxing time.. truly a time of refreshment and bonding. We were able to sit for hours and talk about current things going on in our lives, read the Word together as well as a great Andrew Murray book that he just picked up at his favorite bookstore (Goodwill). It was such a special time together..

 

 

We brought food from home for most of the trip but this night we splurged and went out to Gallucci's for pizza! We ordered one with all the works!

There was enough left over for breakfast!

Mmmmm... going out to eat is a luxury which we normally do not afford ourselves... When we do go out, it can be stressful since I have a wheat allergy.. so it was a blessing to find that Gallucci's serves this wonderful gluten free pizza. What a treat!

Later back at the room, I made the misake of feeding the seagulls off of our balcony...

They wouln't leave us alone after that! :)

(The view was magnificant by the way!

Well, what we could see of it through the sea gulls!)

 

Grady had me take a few photos of him standing next to the this little BMW.

It is so tiny that the whole front of the car opens up as the door.

 

The entire car fit into 1/4 of a normal parking spot!

 

 

We liked this posted sign in an antique store that we

visited.. it was entitled 'Christocracy'

 

On our last day at the beach we stumbled upon this wonderful 1+ acre garden, right in the middle of town. A local master gardener had designed and worked on it for years before her passing. It is now left for the community to enjoy.. with the mild weather and because there were only the two of us, we spent a long time at the garden, admiring God's wonderful creation..

 

 

 

Look at the size of this Rhody! The blossoms were enormous!

 

 

My sweet tour guide.. In some parts he goes by the name 'Poncho'

 

This bridge was demolished in the late 90's. Being the oldest covered bridge in Oregon, many folks from their community pulled together and salvaged the demolished pieces and over a few years and after the Lord providing huge trees in which to mill the large supports needed, erected it on their property in order to preserve this historic monuement. It was a blessing to read their testimony

 of how the faith of a few and the trust in the Lord to provide was the only way

 it could and was accomplished.