50th Anniversary

Vern and I are both blessed to come from Christian homes. We enjoy all the times we get with our families as it is always a time to make some special memories. We were blessed 6 years ago to celebrate Vern's parents 50th Anniversary. Many, very special memories were made together. And this weekend was all we had ever hoped it could be. It was an awesome time together celebrating with family and friends. As many of you know my mother has very poor health but we Praise the Lord for giving us as a family such a special day together. The one big group picture is of my parents, grandmother, and all of us siblings. The other group picture is of all the in-laws that have married into the family. We goof around a lot with all the in-laws but they are totally awesome and make our family complete.

We had a program during the party. One of my brothers put together a game called, "It's all relative." The sisters were on one team and the brothers were on the other. It was packed with family trivia which I believe the SISTERS won. Our kids and Vern and I sang "I can't Help Falling in Love With You" to my parents. My siblings and I sang "You Rasie Me Up". A neice and nephew played their violins. There were several special numbers. One of my brothers had a gospel presentation and Vern's brother put together a presentation from the Pume saying "Thank-You to my folks for letting their children go to tell them God's Word. It was a fun and meaningful program.
I will be posting a picture of all the grandchildren and then a big group picture of everyone in the family but I need to get them from one of my sisters. These are a pictures of family. The picture of the men holding the "50" are two of my brother-in-laws, Don and Al. They were born on the same day and the same year. And guess what, this fall they will both be turning 50. It was very convenient that there just happened to be a 50 balloon right there to get this picture.

Anniversary Eve

For my parent's 50th Anniversary Party we had the event in my sister's church gym. So the evening before several families got together to decorate. The ladder that my brother-in-law was standing on was not stable at all so although my nephew seems to be sitting down on the job, it was an important job. Several people took turns of standing there trying to stabilize the ladder. I put in a picture of the poster Ruth helped me with and of a couple on the wall. I think the posters were a nice way to help decorate and we all had fun walking around checking out every one's family poster. It seemed like there were plenty of jobs for everyone but it was also a good time to connect with each other again.

June 11, 1983

Let The Party Begin

The car is all packed up and early tomorrow morning Ruth and I will be taking off for Chicago. (No, Cuddles is not going with us, although she would love to.) Vern and the boys will leave later in the afternoon. (With their work schedules it didn't work for us to all drive together.) This is the weekend of my parent 50th Anniversary. We are looking forward to a VERY special time with family and friends and making some very precious memories! One project that Ruth and I have been working on is getting a family poster together for the event. I wanted to be able to use as many pictures as possible so I ended up scanning lots of pictures and having them printed up that way we could cut them down and not worry about cutting the original. A friend also came by to help us. (THANKS KAREN!) Although I have not been able to be around to help as much as I would have liked, I am looking forward to being able to help decorate. We would appreciate your prayers for safety on the roads.

Stocking Up On Essentials

On Monday Ruth and I did some shopping for jungle camp. There will probably be several more trips yet before jungle camp start, but we did pick up some essentials. As you can see several of the items are related to keeping the mosquitoes away. Last year was the first year we used the "Fire Starters" and they worked very nicely. With all the fires we start in our stove, having plenty of matches on hand is always important. I found that citronella wristband and don't know if that will help but I figured it is worth a try. I don't remember the bugs being as bad other years as this year.

The Buildling Has Begun

This is the third day of jungle camp building. Our students have done a tremendous job working up in the bush. They have put in some long hours in less then ideal conditions. Monday and Tuesday was rainy, and yesterday it was terribly cold. Since no one had their roofs on at the beginning of the day, many people got rained on and then with the cold temperatures it made for very rough working conditions. But our students have been real trooper and are moving forward. Vern was able to get our stove working yesterday so that people could come by, warm up, and dry off a bit. Please be praying for our students as they continue to put in very long days. Pray for their safety as they work, and encouragement as many times things work out differently in reality then how they were planned on paper.

An Evening of Praise

Last night Ruth and Titus participated in a recital at their music teachers house. The recital was called "An Evening of Praise". Since many students would not want to participate in something like that, there were only ten students involved. Ruth played "He is Lord" and "The Power of your Love". Titus played three songs my favorite being a duet he played with his piano teacher, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". At the end of the program a student who is around 20 and almost at the highest level you can go in piano played "Majesty". WOW! Was that moving to listening to. It was a very uplifting Evening of Praise.

The Graduating Class of 2007

This is a VERY exciting day for all of us here at the Missionary Training Center. This afternoon these 24 students will be graduating from the two year Missionary Training Course that we have here. For many of the students it has actually been four years of training as they also attended two years of Bible School. It has been a growing and stretching time for these students as they have seen God bring them through many things throughout their training. In all reality we never know if we will see our students again as they will be going out to the ends of the earth. Praise the Lord for these very dear people! They will be going into situations where they will experience less then ideal living conditions and moving away from their dear loved ones. But we know that the Lord will be there EVERY step of the way. Please be praying for these dear ones as they leave here and make the necessary preparations to serve the Lord overseas.

Happy Birthday Dad & Shantell!

Happy Birthday Dad & Shantell! We hope you both have a wonderful day. We are thinking of you.
(The group picture was taken a couple of years ago and it is me with my five sisters and my dad. Shantell is my youngest sister. My sisters are a great bunch of ladies and I enjoy hanging with them. And my Dad is just awesome. )

Book Burning Ceremony

What would the end of the school year be without a book burning ceremony? The kids enjoy seeing all their used workbooks going up in flames. (HE , HE) They take great pleasure in ripping out the workbook pages and throwing them into the blazing fire. (Maybe not so blazing.) Some how it makes it feel a little bit more like the school year is officially over.