Until the Whole World Hears

[18] Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.* [19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,* baptizing them in* the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,* [20] and teaching* them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you* always, to the very end of the age.”*
Matthew 28: 18-20

Imagine that you have a bird's eye view of the world that God sees. You can look down and view the earth and see all the people groups and nations. Which one of these children of God do you suppose He loves more? Do you think he loves anyone less? We are called to spread the word of Jesus...it's right there in the Bible (our family's standard of truth)! It is our prayer that it will someday be the standard of truth for the whole world, that those who choose to believe and hear will have the hope of eternity with our Lord and Savior. So, when opportunities arise for us to go out and share that is what we do. This year God has placed on our family's hearts the people of Honduras. A group from our local church is going to serve on a short term mission trip to Honduras (many are already there this week as I type this). Nolan felt God's ever so gentle touch and felt a calling to serve Him on this trip. His dad and I felt the same call. Although we would love to take the whole family, we felt that financially and for the health of the family as a whole that some should go and some should stay home. I elected to let Nolan (because he felt so strongly about it) and his dad take the trip, and I would stay behind to care for the other children. I am not claiming to be the martyr here, and in all reality, I look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for the "father/son duo". I am almost as excited to see what they will be doing as they are. I cannot wait to hear about the way God is using them to minister in that country. I cannot wait to hear about their shared experiences and to see the stronger bond that God will create between two of my favorite men in the whole world. I cannot wait to hear about the joy they will experience in serving others. God is doing and is going to do AMAZING things with our Honduras team during these two weeks.
Would you please join our family in prayer over the next 10 days?
*First, pray for the safe travels of our Church's Honduras team...Group 1 has been there this week and will be returning on Sat.7/17. Group 2, which includes Brad,Nolan and three others will be leaving early morning Sat 7/17 , flying to Honduras, and joining the remaining portion of Group 1.
*Pray that God will be glorified in all that they accomplish there in Honduras.
* Pray that hearts and minds will be touched and will hear the message of Jesus our savior.
* Pray for the missionaries in Honduras who serve the Lord faithfully year after year.
* Pray that that our team serving will experience all that God has in store for this trip, that they will be forever changed by their trip,and that they will carry with them always the time they shared with the people of other nations.
(Special thanks to Mr C.J. for the beautiful analogy of God's love for all nations and peoples)

Happy Birthday to my sis...

I will always remember the birthday I turned 4 years old. You see God gave me a special gift, a baby sister! That of course has been many, many years ago but the fact remains that she was an amazing gift to me and my family. It wasn't always fun sharing our birthdays. Even though our mom always tried to make it special for us both, we had a hard time sharing the one day we each wanted to be special. As I look at that now, I see the "child" in us both. As we have grown older their are many birthdays that we wish we could be together again. It is fun to have the claim that we share the same birthday, and we aren't twins; although, my mom would claim that we should have been because we are alike in many ways. It is fun to pick each others birthday presents ...we are assured that we will like what the other has picked out!

I love that I can claim that my sisters are my closest friends! Here is to hoping that we can celebrate together sometime soon...

Happy Birthday Ceci !!

A Family Camping Trip...

Goof offs... Can you tell how hot it was... Mia and I don't "do" heat very well...

A Friend that came to visit our tent after the first night's storm...ugh, the boys caught it and took it away from our camp! It was a HUGE spider!!!

Garrett trying to fish in the area right across from our campsite... no bites.

Waiting to have smores... Nolan playing his guitar for us...

Let the fun begin...roasting marshmallows to go on those cookies and chocolate waiting...

Swimming in the lake...A Picnic lunch...

Last weekend we took a few days off as a family and went camping. It was a very fun weekend, but we have decided that our camping trips are destined to be filled with unusual events... namely, thunderstorms (last May, a major rainstorm ended our camping trip too soon). When we arrived at the camp on Friday afternoon, the weather appeared to be perfect, but during the night we experienced a pretty scary thunderstorm. We rode out the storm in our tents, and some of us got some sleep (not so, this momma!). Saturday morning brought sunshine, and we had fun exploring. It was most definitely humid and HOT! The afternoon plan was to fish for a bit and then swim at the swimming beach near the fishing docks. We had just got the kiddos settled in their fishing spots, when we watched a huge thunderstorm quickly rumble it's way into the area. It was slightly wierd to watch the thickening of clouds, hear roaring winds and thunder, and then the wind started. We made a quick dash for the car, getting everybody inside just in time. It rained for a couple of hours, and we spent our time in our tent reading stories. The nice thing about Saturday's storm was that it cooled the temperatures down. The not-so nice thing was that it was too cool to go back swimming. It made for a perfect campfire night, and of course we had to roast marshmallows ...SMORES, yummy!! I wanted to take pictures, but somehow I left the camera battery on the charger at home. We managed to get a few pics with Brad's phone, but they aren't very good (I will post them anyway). Saturday night was cooler and no storms, so we managed to get a decent nights sleep. Sunday morning, we had a simple breakfast and a family church service. I put the big boys in charge of having church for our family, and they did a super job. I am so proud of them... Nolan did the worship service,playing his guitar, and Garrett planned the lesson. I loved having church in the great outdoors. After church and after we had taken down camp, we took the kids back to the swimming area and let them swim. They had a great time splashing around, and then we had a picnic lunch. Every good thing must come to an end and so did the camping trip. I think every child was asleep before we had been on the road a few minutes. We enjoy camping; however, tent camping sure is a lot of hard work. It is worth the work because we can never deny the memories that we make as a family every time we take a camping trip.

Crazy, Lazy Days of Summer...

The older boys spent two weeks at golf camp and loved it!! Playing in the water and being outside fill up most of our days...

Friends to share our playtime just make the days even better...

...And then there is baseball, more baseball and even MORE baseball... (our season ends this week; however we have a few more tournaments into July)

Trips to a local swimming pool help us to keep cool in the heat...

Well, I don't know about lazy, except for a later start (than normal) each morning, we continue to have full days this summer. We have filled our summer with water fun, playing outdoors, going on trips, day camps and just plain ol' fun. In between fun activities, mom is working on getting all the school stuff reorganized, and it is time once again to place our curriculum order for next school year. There never,ever seems to be enough time in a day, a week , a month or even a year. I'm still in disbelief that June is almost over!

A Fun Visit

Mandy was thrilled today...she got a surprise! Her BFF came for a short visit. We had known for a few months that her friend and family would possibly be coming through town on their way to a vacation with family. We were excited to hear that they had made it into town last night and would meet us at church this morning. We kept it underwraps, only telling Mandy that "guests" were coming for a visit for several days now. She had begun to suspect something, so we told her this morning before church. She managed to concentrate during the church service; however, she wasted no time in going to meet up with J~ once she and her family arrived. It brought a huge smile to her face, and both girls loved spending treasured time together. We enjoyed lunch and some good conversation this afternoon. The visit was short as they had to head on out to make it to see family, but the girls love to be together any chance they get. This visit we met more of J's family and had a terrific time getting to know them. Thank You Ms Chris and Mr Craig for taking time out of your vacation to bring J~ for a visit. It means so much to Mandy! She loves and misses her friend. We enjoyed meeting their lovely family and renewing friendships. It was a wonderful way to spend our Sunday.

Family Fun Day...

Ready for a day of family fun... Would somebody let me in so I can see,pleeeeeassse??!!

That's really a shark's egg?

Two VERY HUGE beavers...the tail of the one on the right was the size of a plate

Viewing Rays...

One of the many varities of jellies...

Mia and Levi loved the "Nemo" fish...

Trying out the shark cage...

The big boys and the hubby have been having "hankerings" ( a Texas term) for a Whataburger...most definitely one of the best hamburgers. Unfortunately, we do not have a Whataburger in our part of the world. So...since it was a holiday weekend and daddy was off tomorrow, we decided to take a day trip to get a hamburger. Are we the only ones crazy enough to make a two hour trip for a hamburger? We went to our early church service this morning, and left right after to head out. We made it in time to have our hamburgers for lunch. and then...

Actually we added a trip to the aquarium into our plans. My mom had gifted us (for Christmas) with money to purchase family passes to two places. Our first selection was the zoo and then we decided to use the second for a pass to the aquarium. We may only use it once or twice more, but believe it or not, it will more than pay for itself in 2 visits. The kiddos enjoyed their visit so much that I am sure we will use it as often as possible. Some of the favorite spots at the aquarium were the shark tunnel, the river life area (aka, some seriously huge beavers), the jellies, the octopus (Levi's favorite), and the crustaceans. We were impressed with the areas that allowed the kids to touch and feel, feed and view up close many aquatic animals. Although it was very crowded, the kids got a chance to see many of God's creatures and view some of His most amazing artwork. As we were viewing the several different species of fish, corral, and starfish, I could not help but marvel at the uniqueness of each one. How amazing is our God?

After spending a fun afternoon, Brad treated us to dinner. We enjoyed Asian food at Pei Wei. It was pretty good, but I think PFChang's is better (of course the price matches the quality). There weren't any complaints from our gang. The kids sucked up their noodles, rice, chicken, shrimp and such. We had to finish it off with fotune cookies, of course. Then we made the return trip home. The kids are such good travelers that it is actually fun to take them on trips.

It was such a fun day and such a blessing to have family time. We just might have to plan another family trip soon.

Playing in the Creek

We completed our homeschool lessons for the 2009-2010 school year on Monday of last week. After working so diligently for the entire year, we were more than ready for our summer break. We celebrated by hanging out with our fellow homeschooling families. We were invited to lunch and fun on one day. Thanks Ms S for inviting us over for a fun end of school party! The next fun day, we spent playing in the river. Our Homeschool "group" found this fun park that backs up to the river. We made a visit last year, and so enjoyed our picnic and fun in the sun on that day. We decided a return trip was definitely in order. So when the date was set, we were more than excited. The threat of rain was in the forecast, but we were blessed with a beautiful day (even though it was a bit muggy). Playing in the water and exploring was the first priority; however, it didn't take long for hunger to set in and picnic time was on. After nourishment, the big kids took off and the littles stayed close to mom. The littles played and played in the creek, pouring water, wading at the edge and exploring all the aquatic life. The older kiddos ventured further out and spent much of their time exploring and creating adventures (hence the lack of older boy pictures...they would rather avoid the camera if they can anyway). We are looking forward to a few more trips out to the river this summer. It is so relaxing for the moms and the kids have a blast getting wet and just being together. Stay tuned for further adventures of the homeschool gang...