Missions Conference 2013

 Our missions conference was the first weekend of this month.  It is a highlight of the year for me.  I love seeing old friends, making new friends, being with my church family, being encouraged by missionary stories, hearing great messages, singing songs about missions, seeing the flags from the many countries that we support or have supported missionaries in- being marched in, and my list goes on and on.

I am so thankful to be in a church with a great missions emphasis.

 We ate lots of salad one night!

 Roger Dye told us what was going on with his ministry.  Our church supported his Mama and Dad for many years.  They are off the field now.

 The wonderful kitchen crew!

 Our good friend Jeff, looked just like our main speaker, Mark.  Don't you think so?

 Our Saturday morning brunch was well attended and the sharing was fantastic!

 Carl and I met Hans and Gretchen 34 years ago in St Louis.  I am thankful that our paths have crossed many time over the years.  They have blessed many in our church.

We need to remember our missionaries all through the year.  Their work is hard.  Please take time to pray for them today!

Are you glad?

I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord!

Table for 12

 I am blest to be a part of a wonderful church!  The ladies in the church are truly my friends.  One activity that we do to promote fellowship is called Table for 4.  4 ladies meet once a month for 4 months.  I love doing this and I have had the best time with all my groups.  This time around I am in a group with Ashley, Jill and Sandy.  They are all 'includers'- meaning that they feel like instead of just us four, let's add some more!!!!  Sandy had the first meeting at her house and included others.  Here is our picture with the pumpkins we painted.  Also in our group is Sandy's daughter, Abbey.








 So when the second one was at my house I knew what my mission was- include, include, include.  The other ladies did this too.  We each invited folks!  So we had a table for 8!  Did we have fun or what???

 Cheryl, Stephanie, Kaitlin and Mandy joined our dinner party and added so much.  We made turkeys out of pretty scrapbook paper.

Don't you like the features on my camera that does three shots with the self timer?


This month is an ornament exchange.  Ashley's in charge.  Would you like to join us???  We'd love to have you!!  Just ask one of us when and where.  Hope to see you there!

For Tim, Del, Josh and many others

This is Pastor Appreciation Month.  I know this because I have a daughter who works at Hallmark!  We have cards that we plan to mail this month.  Here is a good reminder to us all Things to do for our pastors
I would encourage you all to follow through with these things today.

I am about to die, quick, give me chocolate

We had a Muffin Mixer with the ladies of the church this past Saturday. What is a Muffin Mixer, you may ask, well, it a wonderful time with muffins and visiting.

EmilyR was in charge of 'gatherings' for the women in the church for the last few and she started these. LauraL is in charge and kudos to her for a job well done! We met at a home for a brunch of muffins, coffee and juice- this time we had egg casseroles and fruit too! After everyone was gathered we were put into groups by numbers and symbols that were on our name tags. My first group were the leafs.

This is a picture of us gathered around a table with our wonderful food.

Of course there were muffins.
The best ones there, in my opinion, were made by Mandy. I'll try to get the recipe. They were amazing. They had walnuts and cranberries in them.
Here is the muffin maker herself, Mandy with Brandi.
Here is a group discussing things like: beach or mountains, what do you see when you look out your kitchen window or were you named after anyone?


This was my second group. When asked if we had a teen heart throb... one lady said that David Cassidy was hers. When it got to me I said that mine was Donny Osmond. Sonya, who had been very quiet up to this point, heartily agreed with me!! Another question was if you could have unlimited quantities of one food, what would it be? The answers were cheesecake, chocolate, seafood and the such. When it got to Mary Ann, she shared the her husband suffers from migraines when he eats chocolate. He has asked Mary Ann to carry chocolate in her purse so if they are ever in a situation when he has just a few minutes to live, he wants her to put the chocolate in his mouth!!!! We are laughed about that.

Kris shared her testimony.
There was lots of laughter.A good time was had by all. If you missed it, you missed a good time and I hope you will be at the next one.

Our Best Days Are Still Ahead of Us in Heaven

We had a marriage conference at our church this weekend. The guest speakers were Guy and Denise Richardson. Here are some of their thoughts from the weekend for us to all ponder

-most divorces occur in the 3rd, 13th or 23rd year.
-most are a result of not a major blow out but a slow leak
-we should never even joke about getting a divorce
-there are no perfect people and no perfect marriages
-if both of you think the exact same way then one of you is not needed
-the way I feel controls most of what I do therefore I need to think God's thoughts after him Is 26:3, Phil 2:5. II Tim 1:7
-jealously is a result of the fear of losing
-men think of the engagement/ marriage as an end while women think of it as a beginning
-we have an internal dictionary that is made up of things we have seen or heard in our home. we come to our marriages with this dictionary and it is different from our spouses. We need to talk about our dictionaries so that our spouses will be clued in to why certain things bother us or mean a great day to us ie One lady said her husband didn't love her because he never took the trash out, her daddy loved her mama and he always took the trash out and her mama never even had to ask.
-your home needs to be an emotional safe place, you should be free to share and not worry that your 'old' mistakes will always be brought up again and again. no one shares their heart with the judge.
-if you expect perfection from your family members and your goal is perfect or nothing, you will get nothing every time.
-empathize before you advise
-build your family members up to their faces and behind their backs
-happy children come form homes where their parents love each other
-men get a great sense of satisfaction out of crossing things off their to-do list, they need to learn to 'waste' time with their families
-Fathers - your family is playing Follow the Leader
-lead your family don't manage it, leadership requires personal example and involvement
-don't make your family responsible for your emotions- You make me so mad- Mark 7:15-what is on the outside doesn't make me unclean
-Biblical love doesn't come automatically, we need to be trained
-we need to give verbal appreciation for daily responsibilities that are done, this appreciation is a lubrication for our homes
-the only one you can change is you but you can make it easier for others to change.
-use words to communicate not your tone
-pick your fights-save your bullets
-don't ever tell your children you want them to be happy, happiness is a by product not something to strive for
-anger is always attached to control
-our job is to build a crown over our children's heads and then help them to grow into it- have vision
-everyday keep on choosing the mate your chose on your wedding day, in doing this we are showing a picture of God Eph 1:4
-our goal is to be with our spouse until we place them into the arms of Jesus
-know that the end game is Glory and our best days are still ahead of us in Heaven

I love the way it looks.

Here is the inside of our church. Kaitlin took this picture last Christmas season. I think it is just beautiful.

VBS

Today is the first day of VBS. I have always loved VBS. John is helping with the 5th and 6th graders, Marisa is in the nursery, Kaitlin is the photographer and I am helper KimT in the Kitchen. The theme this year is The Race is On.