Research can be so entertaining!

I was doing some research for my book and ran into this video. It's hilarious! I'm positive that my conversations with my children must sound like this sometimes. Yes, that is me lecturing. 

 I had a friend preview this for me since he can actually speak Spanish, so that I'm not posting something that has foul language in it.

Enjoy a good laugh

Tardis in Progress day's two and three and COMPLEAT

So it took my dad and I two and a half days to turn a kitchen cabinet into the Tardis. It then took my husband, daughter and I four hours to hang it.  Here are the pictures of the tardis being painted and then after it's hung in my bathroom.

 Primed white and ready for the blue.

 That's my dad supervising

 The third day I went over it with flat black spray paint. No brand spanking new Tardis for me, I wanted it to look like it's seen some time travel.

 the handles looked too new, so we hit them with some black paint.

 Ahh, finally hung and widows filled in with toilet paper!

Tardis in progress

My current project is turning and old kitchen cabinet into the tardis. It will hang in our bathroom, just above the potty.

How did I get started on this delightful project? Well, it's a long story but it involves a bathroom that was not regularly cleaned by certain people in this house. When I could stand it no more, I went in, scoured the bathroom, even replaced the plastic shower liner, and locked the door. I told said people that the bathroom was no longer in service and they would have to move to the bathroom on the main floor, which they would then be expected to clean. This would share the duty amongst three instead of just two.

Now we have a shortage of storage space in the bathroom that four are now using as well as our guests. So...if you need more storage, the only logical solution is to make a cabinet that looks like Doctor Who's tardis. Right?

Here are pics of our fist day on the project. My dad is helping me with it. I got to use POWER TOOLS!

 See those windows? I had a great idea. instead of creating faux window panes, I'm going to store our toilet paper on the top self. Presto! white windows.

I'm hoping that with one more day of work it will be finished. At least is should be completely built, but the paining may take another day.

Missions Trip to Stanley Mission, Canada

Wow. We are all back home safe and sound after an eighteen day trip to Stanley Mission, Canada. Everyone in my family went, all six of us. We met in Sterling, CO on June 20th and stayed the night there. However, our trip started out with a major error. We were 45 min. away from Sterling when John asked me where I had put all of the paper work that we needed to cross the boarder. My heart sunk to my toes as I answered,  "At home in the safe." I had the kids state issued ID cards, but birth certificates and our passports were all still at home. Its two and a half hours from Aurora to Sterling.

The whole day I was packing and trying to get the kids to help clean the house. I had moved the stuff in my purse from one bag to another and had seen the kids ID cards in my wallet and it still never dawned on me that I needed to go get the other documents out of the safe. Meanwhile, the week prior I had gotten some of the missions trip info put together in a three ring binder to take with. When I told John I had the Canada paperwork all gathered up, he thought that also included the most important documents. So I guess after sixteen years of marriage we must be doing something right because we are still miscommunicating.

 The team minus the two members below that had to leave after the first week. And some of our new friends.

 Sorry Bob, I didn't have a better picture of you.

 Jessica did crafts and was great fun.

We continued on to Sterling so that the kids and I could stay there for the night and John headed back from where he had started our trip. Thankfully we have a wonderful friend who was house sitting for us. She gathered the papers and met John half way between Aurora and Sterling. Thanks so much Sue! Your a life saver. It made the difference of John getting to bed at 10:30 p.m. rather than 1:00 a.m. Since the next day was the longest day of driving it was a huge blessing.

We met the rest of the missions team at 5:00 a.m. on June 21. There were a total of eighteen of us. We had only met one of the other team members, excluding of course the people from our church who were going. After two and a half days of driving we finally pulled into Stanley Mission.

We were immediately greeted by kids and Joe and Mary, who became some of our good friends. Everyone was so helpful getting the trailer unloaded. Then the cleaning began. Then setting up personal spaces.  As was to be par for the course, we couldn't get into two of the rooms that we intended to use as a bed room for the girls and one for the boys. So Everyone ended up in two rooms. John and I and our two youngest were in one small room and everyone else was in the only other room we could use. Thankfully it was a large room. Boys on one half, girls on the other.

Okay, okay. I realize that I'm going into way more detail than most of you care to read so I'll try to speed it up. Would it help if I told you that I'm going to post pictures too?

The first three days the kids were still in school until 3:30 so we had kids club at 3:45, per their request. We sent some team members to the school and invited the kids to come with us back to the Learning Center where we were staying and having the kids club. We had eighty kids that first day. It was so awesome to begin friendships that day. And all of the kids heard the gospel. We didn't count the number of kids that accepted Christ, but they all heard the plan of salvation and a number of them accepted Jesus' forgiveness. Praise the LORD!

While kids club was still going on a women's Bible study started at 4:30. Dinner was at 6:00, right after kids club and then we had Bible 101 with the kids at 7:30. This was a one hour session to teach the kids how to look up verses in their Bibles. We would help them find the verse in the Bible that we gave them and then we would highlight it for them. Then at 8:30 we had teens club for seventh grade and up. The guys served men's breakfast on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They got to fellowship with some of the men and share God's word with them.

Crafts.

  Hannah taught our memory verse.

We did actions with it.

 Games!

At the beginning of the trip we had asked God to provide more opportunities to teach the people and He was faithful to grant them. The natives asked for a men's Bible study. This is something that in previous years they had tried to have but didn't have anyone come. It ended up being an adult Bible study which was great! John go to teach and spent a fair amount of the mornings trying to prepare for that nights lesson.
After the first week we continued to do kids club, but at 1:00. The women's and adult Bible studies continued and some of the young mom's asked for their own Bible Study. I got to teach the young mom's at 8:30 at night. You may know that I'm a morning person and my brain shuts down around 7:00 at night. God was faithful to keep my wheels running long enough to teach the study. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the three young ladies that attended the study. It was really awesome to see how God would bring me to the passage I was going to share with them. That of course was in the morning.

Joe and Mary (shown above) were a blessing to us. They made us dinner at least four times while we were there. We got to eat, Northern pike, caught by Matthew and Keith, two of our team members and cooked by Joe. Joe also fixed Walleye for us twice. The second time John, Caedmon and Keith did the fishing. We also enjoyed roast Caribou and fried Caribou and Caribou stew. Mary made us baked bannock and Blueberry Buckle.Yum! My non-fish eating family members even enjoyed the fish. I'm pretty sure that is a first. Aside from cooking Joe scheduled and arranged fun things for our trip as well as all of the details for where we would stay. He also did a good job trying to keep us safe and protected.

We got to swim in the Church hill River with the kids. They kept telling me the water was warm. I beg to differ. But it sure felt nice on the really hot days of our second week.

 The trouble for Kammi was just beginning.

 Do you see the mischief in their eyes?

 They've got her! Matthew described her squeal like this, "She sounded like a mouse on fire."

And in she goes!

July first is Canada day and we enjoyed all of the activities at the beach. John, Cora, Caedmon, Keith, Marie, Emily, Matthew and I all joined in the canoe races. We have some great memories and some good laughs over the canoe races. Talk about sore muscles! Cora, Caedmon and Cosette joined in the Jigging contest. Tanner was in the relay and he swam for his team. We had a great day in the sun and water and ended the night with some great fire works.

 Cora came in 2nd

 Caedmon, yes he is wearing goggles.

 Jigging

 That's me in the dorky hat.

 Keith

 Matthew... well he had quite the adventure!

 Marie and John would have held their own, if they had been allowed to run the 1,000 meter distance, but they had to go the full 2,000 meters instead. They still did great. This was Marie's second canoe race of the day!

We all got to go the the historic church and grave yard of Stanley Mission.

 You'd better duck and cover. I have a feeling it's a real "fire and brimstone" message.

 Caedmon got to go fishing with John early one morning. They were down by the boat dock.


While we were there, Cora turned thirteen. I still refuse to believe that I have a second teenager!  She was blessed by her new friends who made it a very special day. There were gifts and cake.


Pat and Paul along with Dr. Craig were able to come spend three days with us and it was great to have them. They got to say "good-bye" to their longtime friends and shared the gospel with countless new friends.

We had a great time and are missing all of our friends. I heard a few people say they were surprised by how fast they fell in love with the First Nation people that we went to serve. Those kids are really cute, funny, lovable and precious.

Thank you God for a great trip serving You. May You continue to be glorified in the hearts and lives of the people we love so dearly. Continue Your work among them and us. In Jesus name, amen.

Jesus Defeated Satan in the Past, Present and Future

Jesus Defeated Satan in the Past, Present and Future
Today I was reading Mathew chapter 4. It is right after he is baptized by John the Baptist and then goes into the wilderness to be tempted. I find it interesting that even though Satan knew exactly who Jesus was, the first two of his temptations start with "If you are the son of God..." "Prove it." is essentially what he is saying.
The second temptation is where Satan told Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple.  I was reminded again that Satan used God's word to tempt Jesus when he said, 'He will command his angels concerning you; on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." All scripture quoted is from the NASB version.

Being a curious kind of person, I looked up the original reference that Satan quoted. It's Psalm 91:11-12. I read the whole chapter for context. It is a beautifully written encouragement to "those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High." v. 1

What Satan neglected to mention, was verse 13. "You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down."

PAST: The Cobra. In Genesis chapter 3 the serpent, which could also be translated snake, came to Eve and tempted her. Yet when the snake is cursed in v. 14-15 we read, "and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel."  Seed in the singular here is believed to refer to Jesus the Messiah. As seen in Gal 3:16,19
Hebrews 2: 14 tells us that through His death, Jesus rendered Satan powerless. So, that cobra from way back in Genesis has been defeated.

PRESENT: The Lion and the Young Lion. 1Peter 5:8 "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
   This is written to believers after Christ death, resurrection and ascension. Rev. 12:10-12 honestly gives me goose bumps; let’s see what has happened to the lion seeking to devour us,

Rev. 12:10-12 "Then I (John) heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.
"'And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death."
Although Satan still accuses us, we have overcome him, not on our own but by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
I don't know about you, but sharing my testimony can be very difficult. I'm not talking about my conversion, but of what God is doing in my life right now . That is, until I realized that sharing my testimony, no matter how painful or embarrassing, is one of the ways that I overcome the enemy of my soul.

FUTURE: The Dragon. At first glance it would appear that Serpent and Cobra are the same. However serpent here can be translated as Dragon. In fact, the Hebrew word is most often translated as dragon. Dragon is used 14 times in Rev.
Rev. 20:2 tells us exactly who this dragon is, " And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years:"
While this is a temporary defeat, we are told that "after these things he must be released for a short time." Rev. 20:3 b.
And then Satan will meet his final and eternal defeat. Rev. 20:10 "And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

Whoo Hoo! That just makes me want to shout.

I think it's kind of funny that the scripture that Satan tried to lure Jesus into sin with, contained his own defeat, across time, in the very next sentence. I wonder if he smacked his forehead after he quoted that passage.

Missions trip to Canada

Our family will be going on a missions trip to Canada. We will be ministering to the tribal people  in Saskatchewan.



We are trying to get ready for the trip, and I'm not quite sure how to go about that. Now what was that I should be putting on my packing or groceries list?

Please pray for our missions trip. We will be and have already faced spiritual attack. Please pray for protection and that God's word will soften the hearts of the people and draw them to Jesus. Pray for God's work in my families hearts as well.

To the editor again!

I finally finished the first round of edits on my book. I had one chapter left to edit last Tues. so of course I was awake at five a.m. thinking about it. So I got up and finished the last chapter. It was so wonderful to send it all back to my editor.

I desperately hope that the second round will go faster and that I will have less to edit. But since this is my first book, I'm sure there are still a ton of improvements to make.

In the mean time, I'm enjoying my break and doing lots of fun things with the kids. Movies, water parks, library.