A Smashing Job at Sermon Prep

Jerry did a fabulous job preparing wonderful sermons two weeks in a row! Even the second one was amazing despite the late notice on a Saturday that the other pastor was sick. 

You can listen to them by clicking on the sermon titles:

The Glorious Kingdom Revealed: Matthew 13:24-53

Draw Near: Matthew 13:54 -16:28

Kate made gluten-free peanut butter cookies to support the sermon writing. It's been a tradition ever since Jerry became a pastor. 

Sewing Camp

Sewing Camp Monday through Friday was a blast! The youngest sisters (minus BB) enjoyed sewing four hours each day with some of their friends!

Sewing buddies!

Thanks to the W family for the van loan that made this possible!

Smiley!

Kate super enjoyed helping a sweet little girl figure out her machine and how to sew!

The last day Aimee came along and hung out with Em

The teachers were such wonderful, patient ladies! Thanks so much for devoting a large chunk of time to helping the girls quilt festive projects!

The finished products:

By Anna-- a potholder, zippered pouch, and lanyard

 By Pearl--two potholders, zippered pouch, wallet, and lanyard

By Emma--a potholder, zippered pouch, wallet, and lanyard

Tired but happy, we now prepare for a busy weekend after a busy week!

By Our Favorite Pastor-- A Sermon Series

Listen to this sermon series on the Upper Room Discourse by our favorite pastor! <3

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
If Anyone Loves Me...
God's Wonderful Plan for Your Life 
The Counsel of His Will

This Page Cannot Be Found...

We just love this. It cracks us up. : ) Comment if you enjoy!

By Our Favorite Pastor...

Listen to the first two sermons of this super encouraging series by our favorite pastor! <3

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
If Anyone Loves Me...

Stay tuned for the last three!!!

The Kids-Photo Marathon

Our clothing accidentally coordinated for our Good Friday service so we snapped a photo of all of us with bruises (black and blue--get it?) sometime around midnight when we got home. It is pretty awful looking and it was the best of the three, but enjoy! :D

(We were all cracking up about something...who knows what. ;P)

Then this recent Sunday (also happened to be Siblings' Day) we got a few more... 



We started out great....

...and got sillier and sillier...

and sillier...

Recent Ministry Opportunities

-Monday-

Jerry led Evangelism Training (South). We are going through The Way of the Master, and this week we watched session 2 ("Discovering Hell's Best Kept Secret"), a very convicting episode! 

Praying for all the lost souls and asking for courage to bring them the Gospel.

-Tuesday-

Mrs. Y who usually leads the monthly Ladies' Bible Study (Living the Gospel in Relationships by Tara Barthel) was very sick so she asked Betsy to, and she did a GREAT job!

Some of the girls squished onto one couch under a fuzzy blanket as we watched the message in the chilly basement. 

-Thursday-

Jerry led Evangelism Training, North

 Praise the Lord, it was so crowded we had to use a second room adjoining the first one!

-Friday-

Betsy and a friend have been hosting a girls' Bible Study every Friday on the topic of reclaiming beauty. They are doing a biblical study (using the webinar material by the Botkin sisters "Reclaiming Beauty") on what God says is beautiful and how we, as biblical women, should represent Him. 

 The girls each decorated their study guide notebooks...it took all day, but they enjoyed it immensely. :P

Our week was rather packed, but we thank the Lord for all these opportunities to reach out to the people God has put in our lives.

Food, Family, Friends, and a Yard Sale

A quick recap of the month of November.

Thanksgiving at Aunt and Uncle's:

Which of course includes football. Watching football, that is. ;)

 Yeah, you might just be a hick if you can't figure out how to use the whipped cream. :P

It was great to be able to spend our Thanksgiving meal with family after so many years. 

We said goodbye to two very special families. On direction from God, our church sent out the M family as missionaries for the Lord to a tiny town in Mexico. It was a bitter-sweet goodbye.

Pastor M sharing a little with the congregation about the people there in Mexico and what his family's goals in reaching out to them are.

 The father and three of his daughters singing a beautiful song together

Praying over them as we sent them off. We miss you, guys!!

The second hard goodbye was to our best friends from Oregon who visited down here for a month. We've known them for a very long time and highly enjoyed getting to hang out together again. So sad when their stay ended. :( 

Ever since we were really young our families and personalities have just clicked, and we've built many priceless memories together. 

 ...Including silly ones. :)

 We walked to the park so the guys could play basketball like in the old days, and everyone else had fun playing, taking pictures together in the cool lighting, and catching up after so many months. 

 The girlies. :)

And of course you've got to take pictures of your toes with the awesome lighting!! 

And of course, whenever these two are in the same vicinity (for more than two hours) a war always breaks out. Axis and Allies, a board game depicting the second world war between the world powers. Sadly, there wasn't the kind of time they needed to resolve their differences before we had to leave, but there's always another chance. :) :) :)

Can't wait to be with you goofy people again!!

We attended a super wonderful wedding of two longtime childhood friends!! Praise the Lord!

Yard Sale!!

 Wow! Hold your breath everybody, and pray!!! :P

And that was our November! Looking forward to what God brings our way during 2016!

Our Random Moments of Inspiration

It's always been a joke around here that moments of inspiration seem to come during Grammar lessons and some of the most clever poems, sayings, or story ideas are thought up then. Apparently though, the game "SET" has the same effect for the other day the phrase "you're quotable" was heard often while a tense (and talkative) game of "SET" was underway.

"The last presidential debate was rated R for thematic elements and Hillary's evil laugh."
"Don't put words in my mouth. It's my mouth, so that's trespassing."
"I love inside jokes, especially the kind that are so inside that the people who made them up don't know what they are."

Looking back on August

August was a month filled with new challenges and so many blessings, and we made countless special memories! Here are just a few random pictures.

New 14 year old in the house! Beware!

The birthday meal!!!

Ice Cream. Of course. :)

Up front at church with all the others whose birthdays are in August.

Numerous scavenging trips to thrift stores. Thank God for Goodwill (and reverse cameras to pass the time away!!)

Kate made this scrumptious banana pudding & vanilla wafer thingy that disappeared within seconds of it being placed on our table at church (it never had the chance to participate in the potluck food line). :P 

SOMEONE quietly shut the door while Paul was in his room and made quick use of the scraps of danger tape Jerry brought home from the work sight.

House of girls; ya know, gotta warn them.

This summer, though I have been so bad about posting about it, we had a blast participating in the Arizona Bible Bee for the first time!!! We finished in August and everyone gathered for Celebration Day. Here are just some sneak peak photos of the games at the Hive Meetings we attended.

The girlies with some friends

 Ready to play Water Balloon Battle Ship!

 Introducing our family's team of Bible Bee-rs, complete with a banner Jerry created.

A hilarious Bible quiz with buzzers and all

Hopefully a post about Celebration Day and some more of the festivities will appear soon. Somehow. :P

Drawing, drawing, drawing!- has been the theme around here. Ya gotta be careful nowadays,  when you think you're just sitting on the couch reading. :) 

We think these two are exceptional:

She drew it off a photo and recolored with a smartphone.

Paul drew this one, also off a photo. Isn't it REALLY good?!

And....

For some days, a secret for BB was being put together (in the closet :P) by the older little girls and when it was finally revealed...

She was...um, ecstatic.

A whole doll clothing store was set up...

With cardboard hangers and everything!

She was presented with a stack of Monopoly money and immediately began shopping for her various sizes of baby dolls. 

And that was a really random post of all the things I didn't have time to post about in August. 

Thanks for reading!