OCHEC was Awsome!!!



Here are some memories/highlights.

• Hanging around with Rachael B :)


• Seeing and talking (a bit) with many old friends from here, there, and every where


• Meeting people who I had previously got to know somewhat through blogging, how neat to finally meet them in person!


• Hanging around the vendor hall trying to decide if a book is really worth buying


• I puchased some books and a CD


• Eating in the food court


• Eating in the caf


• Listening to speakers


• I heard part of the Macdonalds speech on courtship, I now know a little more about the diferences between courtship and dating


• Being encouraged by Brian Ray's speech called "Swimming Upstream"


• Him and his wife Betsy were also really good that night, presenting " Loving and Leading"


• Kirk Durston's " Does God Exist?" was good


• "Faith on the front Line" by Floyd Brobbel was good too, allthough I hardly got anything out of it b/c I was soooooooo sssssssleeeeeppy


• The last one was Kirk Duston again, " How to get better grades and have more Fun" was great. He sharred losts of helpful pointers and things


• I also atended a few which I found uninteresting so I wandered out
• Sleeping at my aunts house
• Singing "Amazing Grace" with about a thousand other people
• Asking people if they have seen my Mom anywhere
• Coming home and seeing my siblings exitement over their new books, we have a family tradition of buying a book for every one at the conference
• THE BEST PART WAS LIFESONG PRESENTATION!!! Jacinda, Amy, Maria, Niomi, Kimberly, Carol-lee, you all did great! I loved the music... It was delicious, to the ear that is, not the mouth. See the picture at the top, too bad the pianist can't be seen.

Kids playing by the water

Benj again!

Christ the Lord is Risen today! Alleluia!!!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His aboundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incoruptable and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

How Deep the Father's Love for Us!

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was acomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts no power no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Blessings to you all as we remember, in a special way, the love our Savior had for us as He gave His life for us on Good Friday.

Friends...

Rachie and me:) ^ Andrew and Deanne, isn't it cute how they're skipping along?

My friend Rachel and my sis Rachel, I love how the field fades into the fog on this one, makes a perfect background.

More Wild Life

We had this pair of Mallard Ducks on the pond for a few days last week, I don't think they are there any more, but maybe they'll come back, or maybe they're at the back pond.

When I was taking a walk the other day I saw these two Canadian geese wandering through the field.

This mother bird and her mate have put new nesting material on top of this old nest in our living room awning. It seems as though they are going to raise a family here. The father has a pinkish redish color on his breast so we think they are rose finches.

Wild Life

Last week we took a quick peek at the Tundra Swans. They rest at the Aylmer Wildlife area for a week or so every March as they migrate North. I didn't have my camera with me but I got this picture off the web.

The new skidsteer,

Dad on the Allis Chalmers,

Andrew on the 4wheeler,

Steven and Jeremy S.

Here is Jer at our church's anual kale dinner, with his plate full of delicious borenkole, sausage, gravy and more yummy stuff.This event is put on by the young peoples, they do all the work of making the food and providing great entertainment!

Every body lining up for food...

After ward we split into groups and did a number of diferent activities, racing against the other teams. We had to make a trough to roll a marble through by holding pieces of half pipe against eachother going all the way down the hallway. We also had to contruct a play ground or a farm out of modeling clay, solve crossword puzzels and search through a bucket of corn kernals to find the letters to make up a name of a book of the Bible. The final activity was to write a 6 lined song, to a familliar tune, about the evening's dinner, and perform it! Some of the results were halarious...

This is my team, hard at work, and below is Dad's team, but he isn't in the picture.

Benjamin

...with Marie! 

Kids

 

The Savior Died, But Rose Again

The Savior died, but rose again
Triumphant from the grave;
And pleads our cause at God's right hand,
Omnipotent to save.

Who,then, can e'er divide us more
From Jesus and His love:
Or break the sacred chain that binds
The earth to Heav'n above?

Let troubles rise, and terrors frown.
And days of darkness fall;
Through Him all dangers we'll defy.
And more than conquer all.

Nor death,nor life, nor earth nor hell,
Nor time's destroying sway,
Can e'er efface us from His heart,
Or make His love decay.

~Scotish Paraphrase

I found this when I was wandering around the net, folowing unfamiliar links, and I'm glad I did! It is a paraphrase of the last part of Romans 8, a favorite of mine:)

I went away this weekend, when I met my family at church yesterday they had some news...
"You know what Karen? We got a new dog!" Surprise! Isn't she cute? She's a golden retriever about 4 months old, her name is Lady. At first we thought it should be Honey, because of her color but Mom found it hard getting used to caling a dog "Honey":) So after much discussion at supper tonight, we finaly came up with a decision.
Her eyes really aren't green, thats just the camera.


 

In the summer of '04 our family took a vacation in the Smokey Mountains of Tennesse. As a souvenir, we bought a book called, " The story of Gatlinburg". Gatlinburg is a small town but a large tourist attraction. This book tells a little about it's first settlers and their way of life. The area was then called White Oak Flats. Dad pulled it off the shelf the other day and read some parts aloud. I thought this story was worth passing on :)
"Few in those days were greatly concerned about the fashion of shoes or clothes. In the story of his youth--related to the writer by Mitchell McCarter, a Baptist clergyman who was born in White Oak Flats, educated himself and fitted himself for the ministry almost unaided--he spoke of his sparse wearing apparel. Until he was seventeen years of age, he said, he never had at one time more than the one suit of blue jeans in which he stood, for his mother was left with a family of small children to rear, and was as poor as poverty.
When he was seventeen he was converted at a religious revival in the White Oak Flats Baptist Church, and soundly converted, with the conviction that he was called to preach. He could neither read nor write at this time, for his help had been needed on his mother's farm and she could never spare him to go to school. So earnest was his desire to become a preacher, however, that the elders examined him. They conceded his religious qualifications, but refused to let him enter the ulpit because of his lack of the proper clothing--the long-tailed black coat and long trousers that ministers always wore.
His grandmother took pity on him and presented him with a calf, telling him he might sell it for enough to buy the clothes he wanted. But he got only enough money from the sale of the calf to get a coat--a "Prince Albert"--and that at secondhand and many times too large for him.
Again his good grandmother came to his rescue and promised to make a pair of trousers for him out of old linsey-woolsey skirt of her own. She cut and made one leg, but when she came to the other one, she found she had not enough material to make the second leg as long as the first one. There was no help for it now! she finished the trousers as well as she could, but when he put them on he found that one leg came down to his ankle, the other struck him about half way between the ankle and the knee.
But he was given a trial, and at the age of eighteen the unlettered boy entered the pulpit and preached his first sermon from a text an uncle had repeated to him until he remembered it. And on the strength of that sermon, he received his license as a preacher.
Not long afterward, he said, when he had gone out into the world and seen how other people dressed, did he realize how grotesque he must have looked in those clothes--a long black coat with tails away below his knees and a pair of butternut colored trousers with legs of differing lengths."

Sunsets!

 

I thought I'd share with you something that I came across while reading a devotional book. One particular chapter speaks about the importance of spending time alone with God, reading and meditating on His word and praying to Him. This time can be called "the great exchange," because, in it I exchange...

my weariness for His strengh,

my weakness for His power,

my darkness for His light,

my problems for for his sloutions,

my burdens for His freedom,

my frustrations for His peace,

my turmoil for His calm,

my hopes for His promises,

my afflictions for His balm of comfort,

my questions for His answers,

my confusion for His knowledge,

my doubt for His assurance,
my nothingness for His awesomeness,
the temporal for the eternal,and
the impossible for the possible!

Six months old and he can sit up all by himself :)