On his way to Moscow

Pray for Mike--he leaves for Russia tomorrow morning. He and his team will get to meet with missionaries, journeymen, local pastors, and seminary students (all 4 of them). 14,000,000 people, and only 4 seminary students. Pray for Russia, too!

"Open House"

Well, our 1st 9 weeks celebration continued last night with a family "Open House". I was thinking about how in schools, it's report card time, and Daddy's been so busy lately, he might need to get caught up with their accomplishments. So the girls put on a program for Mike, highlighting all they've learned so far this year. We spent the afternoon baking cookies and pies, because what's an Open House without refreshments? After supper we put a tablecloth on the table, along with the desserts, the books they've read, their history notebooks and math scores. The girls got dressed up, I lit a candle, and the show began in the family room with Rebecca opening us in prayer. Then the girls sang songs, quoted the "we hold these truths..." part of the Declaration of Independence, read some stories and reports they've written, and put on a play about David and Goliath. They had fun, and looked proud of themselves, and Mike and I were proud, too. Even if they did get a little silly...
Here they are cooking:




And here's Rebecca exhausted after school last Tuesday (I just thought it was cute):

Fun day!

Yesterday was the last day of our first quarter of school, so we celebrated! We took the day off from school and went to Texarkana. We went to the mall (Bath and Body Works and a bunch of stores' clearance racks), went to Target (got Rebecca some darling black patent leather and brown leather shoes), went to Sam's (food and lots of samples), stopped at Sonic for supper on our way home, and then drove straight to the church after putting our frozen food up. The church provided childcare while we took a busload of adults to El Dorado to see "Fireproof." It was good! I laughed, I cried, it moved me, Bob. (Veggie Tale quote.) It was amazing to me to see the name of Jesus and the gospel so openly stated on the big screen. It'd be great if some lost people actually go see it! We live in a strange time. I never would have predicted a movie like that making it into movie theaters, but at the same time, things worse than I would have predicted might be showing in the same theater! Everything seems very polarized right now. Which is good, I guess...God did say He would rather have us hot or cold than lukewarm. My favorite line from the movie was, "Don't follow your heart. Your heart can deceive you. You have to lead your heart."
(By the way--any OBU or SWBTS alumni out there--did you think Kirk Cameron's dad in the movie looked like Bud Fray?)

Rebecca story: Mike went in where all 3 girls were playing this morning and said, "When y'all get finished playng I've got a job for you." Rebecca said, quite seriously, "We're going to play all day."

A more eloquent writer

I just read Michelle's latest post at Scarbrough Fair. It's very sobering--but important. Click here to read it.

Meddling?

So...
there's an election coming up. A pretty important one. And with our economy in the mess it is, it's tempting to look at numbers and vote for whoever would get ME the most money. But I also happen to be reading through the minor prophets right now, and it's amazing how they relate to current events. Hosea was all about God's judgment due to idolatry; Amos was judgment because of the complacency of the wealthy and how they oppress the poor; and Joel called people to repent in order to avoid this locust plague that would destroy the economy. Listen to this, "That is why the Lord says, "Turn to me now, while there is time! Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don't tear your clothing in your grief; instead, tear your hearts." Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered. He is filled with kindness and is eager not to punish you. Who knows? Perhaps even yet he will give you a reprieve,sending you a blessing instead of this terrible curse. Perhaps he will give you so much that you will be able to offer grain and wine to the Lord your God as before!" (Joel 2:12-14) That's what we should be doing to help our economy, crime rate, addiction rate, divorce rate, etc. For me, as always, a main issue of this election is how the candidates stand on abortion. I remember back in '92, talking to a friend from Arkansas who was voting for Clinton because he would somehow bring money to Little Rock. It would be good for the state. When I said I couldn't vote for anyone who wasn't pro-life, he said that was a non-issue because he wouldn't even make any decisions about abortion, and probably wouldn't even appoint any Supreme Court judges. Sigh.
You know how I love books about World War II, especially those by the Thoene's, and have always been fascinated with Jewish life and history. I recently read a letter on their website, written by a German holocaust survivor whose father was a pastor imprisoned for helping his Jewish friends. I don't like sensationalism or exaggeration, and I REALLY don't like urban legends that are blatantly false getting spread around by email. (FYI, Obama is Methodist, not Muslim; he has never refused to take an oath on the Bible; and he does put his right hand over his heart to say the pledge of allegiance.) But this letter and the related videos are very sobering.
The good news is that one day, King Jesus will return and set all things right. And those verses in Joel went on to say, "Then after I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike."
(Joel 2:28-29)

Bedtime Prayers

When we pray before bed, everyone in the family takes a turn each night. Usually. Tonight we were late getting started because of AWANA and our viewing of last night's Dancing With the Stars results show (priorities??). So Mike asked Jessica if she would just pray for all of us, and she said, "I think Mommy should pray, because she has such a 'crown of glory' with all those gray hairs.."
Whatever.

No more good-bye

In one of the Beth Moore Bible studies I've taken, she talks about what there will be "no more" of in heaven, and gets the ladies to add what they're looking forward to. Some are serious, some are funny. What I'm looking forward to (in addition to kitchen floors that stay clean) is no more good-byes. I know no one really enjoys them, but as a military kid it does seem like I've had quite a few already. I counted up, and not counting the 2 that happened before I can remember or the ones that were within the same town, I've moved 9 times. 9 times of having to make new friends gets old. So I was bummed this week to say good-bye to Chuck and Holly, Kate and Grayson. Holly was one of the first friends I made here, and since her husband was in the ministry too, we understood each other. Kate and Rebecca had tons of fun together. Jessica adored Grayson. We will all miss them. The good news is, they just moved a few hours away and we'll probably see them every summer when we go to Siloam!

Here are pictures of our good-bye supper with them Thursday night:

The rest of my week was busy, busy, busy, as usual! I hear about homeschoolers who say they finish school in a couple of hours and have the rest of the day to enjoy being together...well, um, maybe it's the curriculum I chose or maybe it's just us, but we take pretty much all day. Starting at 9 and taking nice long breaks. And on Monday I went to Wal Mart, Tuesday we had Journey, Wednesday was AWANA (phew), Thursday was our good-bye dinner and Mike had freshman Bible study, Friday Mike was in Arkadelphia all day long and we went to Logoly with the homeschool coop and that night we actually stayed home and played croquet as a family! Saturday we slept in (woo-hoo!) and bought 3 new trees for the front yard and new Sunday shoes for the 2 big girls, and that night Jessica had a Sunday School party that I almost forgot. Life's just busy! But good. And I did bake an apple pie this afternoon, so I know how to make time for what's important. :)