Think Water Buffalo! :)

We have been known to throw some "wild" parties in our lifetime, but this past Thursday just might have surpassed them all. :) We organized a New Year's Eve party at our church. And the theme? Water Buffaloes.

Don't laugh. Just hang tight for a minute, and it will all make sense. :)

There is a ministry called Gospel for Asia (GFA) that has its headquarters right here in Carrollton, and several of those on staff with this ministry attend our church. Every year, GFA sends out a Christmas catalog that allows people to give specific gifts to poor families in Asia. (go to www.gfa.org/gift) You can give anything from Bibles, to bicycles for missionaries, to chickens, to blankets...

And don't forget about the water buffaloes!

To the poverty stricken families in Asia, a water buffalo is like manna straight from heaven. They serve as tractors, "vehicles" for transportation, surrogate cows to give milk, and of course, an income generator when they reproduce every other year. They can live for 29 years, and even after they die, they are still useful by the meat they give. So you are getting some bang for your buck with that gift!

But, speaking of bucks, a water buffalo costs $460. So we thought we would throw a party to raise the money as a church family - water buffalo style!!

Our pastor and his wife, who are retired missionaries from Taiwan, had several statues of water buffaloes and water buffalo horns and were excited to bring those to help decorate!

We started out with splitting up everybody into four separate teams and having a competitive quiz involving fun facts about water buffaloes. Whoever answered a question right got a point for their team and a Starburst. :)

The next game, and by far the biggest hit and the most lively, was Pictionary! Each of the four teams had to draw items that involved life in Asia and make their teammates guess what they were drawing before the other teams got it. Needless to say, we had some pretty crazy drawings, and some pretty crazy people too... :)

Christa and our friend Nicole enjoying some social time together.

Some more intense sketching. :) Our pastor is great with children, and loves to gather the little ones around him whenever he gets a chance!

As you can see, the scores were pretty close!

Sweet Miss Hannah was my faithful team partner and helper for the evening. I greatly enjoyed getting to know her better! :)

Dad was the emcee for the night, and did an awesome job! We also showed two videos from GFA that shared testimonies of changed lives. You can go to their website (click here) to view one of the films we showed.
Our friend Mr. Dickson who is on staff with GFA shared a testimony that he heard about a widow who received a water buffalo recently and accepted Christ as her Savior as a result of it! That was so exciting to hear!

And we are thrilled to report that God raised up enough money to purchase not one, not two, but three water buffaloes, plus a goat and fourteen Bibles on top of that!! We praise God that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us! ~ Ephesians 3:20. May God use these gifts to change many lives for His kingdom.

White Christmas!

We have big news for all you that live outside of Dallas. Make sure you're sitting down!

We had a WHITE CHRISTMAS here for the first time in eighty years!!!!!!!!

It was enough to put the whole city into shock. It was the talk of the town. A whole 2.5 inches of powdery white flakes that actually stayed on the ground for 24 hours!!! Oh my!


Isn't it beautiful??

Our poor flowers were definitely not expecting such "frigid" temperatures...


And we even built a little snowman, complete with raisin buttons and a small cup for a hat! His name? Billy Bob! :)

Yes, there's still a "little kid" in all of us! :)

Trip to Houston

This past weekend, we traveled to Houston for the wedding of a dear friend! While there, we were so blessed to be able to stay with some other dear friends, the Riddell family!

Mr. and Mrs. Riddell have 3 daughters: Tara and Kelly and Elizabeth. They are SO MUCH FUN!!! and such a godly family too!

We arrived in Houston on Friday, and headed over to the Fiesta Fellowship dinner that the engaged couple hosted for many of their guests. We had a wonderful time catching up with Tara and Kelly (above) and also the bride and her sweet family!

Part of the Fiesta Fellowship was a "family talent show" for everyone to do something special for the bride and groom. The songs, skits, stories, and poems had everyone roaring with laughter! Our family wrote a song, and sang in public for our first time together ever!! :) Yikes! :)

Here is the lovely couple Katelin and Nathan on their wedding day! A special thing about their ceremony was that both of them saved their very first kiss for the wedding alter! What a special gift they were able to give to each other. And what an inspiration this was to Christa and me also!

Our whole family really enjoyed being able to serve during the wedding in a variety of ways. Before the ceremony, we took gifts from guests to a designated room, manned the guest book, and welcomed guests. During the reception, we helped to restock the "munchie" table... :)


...and Christa's and my favorite part was serving toppings for the ice cream sundaes that the family had at the reception instead of cake! Learning to spoon liquid caramel into a cup without getting it all over the table cloth, the outside of the cup, and the hands of the guest was quite a task! :)
Ice cream serving buddies! :)

We consider these 3 older girls, Kelly Riddell, Katrina Rebsch (sister of the bride), and Tara Riddell, our mentors, and we are so thankful for their friendship! We also had such a fun time getting to know Elizabeth Riddell (age 10) better over the weekend! She is a sweet friend too! :)

Praise the Lord for friends who encourage us in our walk with Him!

Family Choir Camp

This past week, we hosted a family choir camp at our church! We had some sweet friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. Amon and Joy Baker, drive over from Arkansas to direct it for us. Mr. Baker is in his eighties, and Mrs. Baker is almost eighty, but both seem years younger!! Together, they have been directing choirs and teaching voice for over sixty years!

It was such a joy to have them in our home for the week that they were here! They are a lovely, vibrant couple that truly loves and serves Jesus, and it was so much fun to be able to get to know them better!

The choir camp was Wednesday and Thursday evening, and all day Friday and Saturday. We rehearsed six anthems to sing, and loved every one of them! Here is a picture of all of us squeezed into the choir loft! :) There were about 40 people participating - most of them from our church, but a couple homeschool families from other churches as well.

The fun thing about the week was that we had all ages participating: from six years old to seventy years old!! :) This is Christa with a new friend, Bethany, (17 yrs) and another little friend, Andrew, (6 yrs) in her lap! :)


Besides working on the six anthems to sing, we also had something called masterclasses incorporated into our rehearsal times. This was a brief personal lesson in front of the group to get Mr. Baker's advice and input. Though everyone was more than a little nervous to participate, there were quite a few who decided to take the plunge and put together a song to sing for everyone. :)

Christa playing the piano for our friends, Emily and Jenny, as they practice their duet to sing for a Masterclass.

The two sets of twins! :)

Hope and Grace Rohlin were my "second soprano buddies" during the rehearsal times!!

Mr. Baker...
And the joyful Mrs. Joy Baker!

Even Dad was a good sport and joined us for the week as a promising (but sometimes goofy!!) tenor! :)

On Sunday morning, we warmed up our voices in the Fellowship Hall, and then headed on in to the Sanctuary to present our program of six anthems as part of the worship service.

We closed out the week with a sad farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Baker. We had such an enjoyable time and felt like we benefited so much from the instruction we received!

Calming, Captivating, Commendable Colorado!!

Part 2 -
After having spent a week and a half in the Midwest, (pictures in the previous post below) we pointed our minivan westward to the beautiful mountains of Colorado!

In the lovely town of Fort Collins, we attended our biannual staff training conference for Campus Crusade for Christ, along with 4,000 of our "best friends!" :) The speakers were so inspiring as we heard reports of all that the Lord is doing all over the world as men and women seek to share the Gospel Message! We were able to meet up with old and new friends, and spend time with so many special people! Sadly, we were slackers and pretty much forgot our camera for the whole conference, so we don't have pictures of any of them but one of our dear friends, Libby Cox.
Yes, true gal friends always do each other's hair! :)

Libby is such a special friend, and we were so excited to be able to spend time almost every day with her! From shopping, to long chats, to taking walks, to picnics, to sitting in meetings together, we loved every minute of it! :)

And Mom (actually all of us!) always looks forward to reconnecting with Libby's mom (and dad!) whose sense of humor brings roars of laughter to us all!!

After the conference ended, we decided to spend a few extra days "tooling" around Colorado and spending time in the gorgeous countryside! We ended up passing through Colorado Springs, Denver, Boulder, and all the little "cutesy" towns in between! :)

One of the days, we decided to take a free 5 minute ski lift ride in Winter Park! Fun, fun, fun!!

Here we are in Boulder, walking through Pearl Street Mall! What a crazy, but fun place!

Our favorite times were when we could hike the mountains and explore in creeks and water falls!

Dad in hiking mode! :)

On our way home after a fantastic time in Colorado, we saw this beautiful rainbow! What a reminder of God's faithfulness to us!

HOME!!!

We are back home!! After almost a month of traveling like gypsies, :) we have returned and have finally gotten a handle on bags and bags (and bags and bags) of "stuff" to unpack, mountains of laundry, hundreds of emails, stacks of dishes, etc! But it was all worth it!! The Lord gave us a terrific time, and so many unexpected blessings during the month! We'd like to share just a few of these with you now!


Our first stop was Illinois to stay with my dad's sister, Diane, and her new husband, Don! (on the very left in the picture above) While there, we got to spend an evening with my dad's other sister, Julie and her husband Randy (in the middle of the picture) and their children Meagan and Nick and Nick's fiance (not pictured). And of course we had to make a stop at Whitey's ice cream with everyone! On the Sunday that we spent in Illinois, we visited one of our sending churches, and saw many of our special ministry partners and friends! Though we don't have pictures of any of them, we were so blessed by our time with each one!!


Next stop was Union Pier Michigan (the very southern tip, and I do believe one of the most beautiful places on earth!!) We rented a little cottage right on the beach and stayed up there as a family for the first few days, then Aunt Diane and Uncle Don came up from Illinois to join us for the rest of the time! It was wonderful to be able to take a little break from our busy schedule and rest by the beach!

Activities included:

Badminton,


Rock hunting,

Walks along the beach,

Frisbee,

Bike riding along the darling little streets of Union Pier,

Reading aloud as a family,

Canoeing,

A campfire and s'mores,

And of course swimming!

There were huge waves on a couple of days!

Here I am trying to tame "Finley"- my out of control blow - up dolphin! Impossible! lol

One morning we took a bike ride to "The Whistle Stop:" a little breakfast place,

And another morning, we had special visitors walk by our site on the beach!! :)

Out to eat as a group after a long day in the sun!

Sweet Mom and Dad!

Beach twins! :)


Stay tuned for part 2 of our summer travels: to the Rocky Mountains and beyond!! :)