Song of the Month

I have decided that I want to post a song each month on our blog. Music speaks to my heart maybe more so than any other medium. As I listed to this particular song on Robin Marks "Revival in Belfast" CD it ministered to me and where I am at this moment of my life..... I pray that it will minister to you as well. Listen to it on his website! H O P E

Jesus, All For Jesus lyrics
Robin Mark


Lyrics:
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans I surrender these into Your hands.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans I surrender these into Your hands.
For it's only in Your will that I am free,
For it's only in Your will that I am free,
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.

Beach pictures

Sunset overlooking Pensacola Bay Jake, Sarah, Luke, Bailey & Caleb on board

Hope & Ray Paul, Luke, Laura, Caleb, Jake (back)

Doyle & Marylyn Sarah & Bailey

Luke, Peyton, Cole, Jacob & Caleb

Hope & Ray (back)

PENSACOLA BEACH June 2010

SO MUCH FOR HITTING THE RETURN BUTTON!!!!!

Our house has room for parking four cars underneath the house and then you climb up to the next level that has 3 BR and 2-1/2 Baths. Then you climb up another flight of stairs to where the kitchen, LR and another bedroom/bath are located. It has a large deck (part covered and part sunny) and a small porch with a grill. We have surely gotten our exercise these two weeks. If you go up another flight of stairs there is another large deck (not covered and HOT)but good for our sun bathers. The boardwalk to the beach is right by the house and Paul set up his easy up at the beach and we just take the top off at night in case of storms. The weather has been perfect with only a small afternoon thunderstorm today.

Many of us are avid shell collectors and there has been buckets and bags full of shells. There was a large board for surf sailing here at the house and the older kids put it to good use.

We were quite anxious about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that was reported to be headed to Pensacola Beach.... the first morning we saw a few TAR BALLS and then one other day there were some minor sightings.... but God has blessed us with beautiful weather, sand, water and family fellowship.

On Friday the 11th Ray and I drove toward Texas and met Matt and Heather in Louisiana and picked up Cole - 10 and Peyton - 7 (until July 3rd) and brought the two smallest boys back with us for a time at the beach. Boys, boys, boys..... we went to see How to Train Your Dragon and it was so cute...LOVED IT. Hiccup was just like our JACOB....

We have eaten and eaten and eaten and believe me boys can eat. We have probably consumed several grains of sand with our food too.

Carrie Hope Shannon Hodges gave birth to her first child (a boy don't you know) while we were here... Carter Brian was born June 13th at 5:00am weighing in at 7lbs10oz and 21" long. We are so excited for them...

We are still waiting on word from Robbie & Renae Hale about their expected arrival.

Canada seems sooooo far away from the white sand of the emerald coast but on Friday we will drive back to Texas and visit with Matt and Heather a couple of days and then catch up with friends in Arlington. I will be picking up some items for VBS and then focus will change from holiday/vacation to getting to work. See you later........ Remember - we serve an awesome God.

PENSACOLA BEACH June 5-19, 2010

We have looked so forward to seeing our families and spending time at the beach. After a snowy drive to Edmonton for Dennis Rempel's wedding on May 22... we were closer than ever to our departure time. Ray included a trip to British Columbia for the National Leadership Board meeting May 30 - June 2 just prior to our drive to Calgary on the 3rd. Thank you to Wilson & Mary Win Nelson for the lodging and EARLY morning drive to the airport on the 4th. Thank you to Max Graber for the ride from the DFW airport and use of your car as we picked up our oldest grandson (Jacob 16) and headed to Florida. We drove as far as Lafayette, LA where we spent the night of the 4th. My sister, Marylyn and her husband, Doyle, and two of their grandchildren (Sarah - who will be 18 on the 23rd) and Bailey - who is 14) were driving down from Tennessee and our son, Paul and his wife, Laura and their boys Caleb - 14 and Luke - 12 were driving from Arlington, Texas on the 5th. We received a text message on Saturday morning that Luke was throwing up in the car on their drive.... I told Ray I was sure glad that we had brought Jake and not Luke when I heard Jacob throwing up in our hotel room.... the virus claimed Laura by the end of the day and on Sunday Ray had it also. Caleb started the whole mess the Wednesday before. I am so thankful that Paul and I and my sister's crew avoided catching the bug.

May 4th and it is snowing...

We have had the mildest winter. A warmer than usual February and March. April had the snow all gone and the golf course even open. Last night we had our monthly ladies ministry meeting and Ray was playing golf in his golf league...the wind was so cold when we came out of our meeting that I was wondering what was up.... snow. It is very cold and windy today and I need to put some socks on my feet as they are freezing!

Since our Luke visited us we have been quite busy. This week is a bit of a blur since our little Roger passed away early Saturday morning. He was diagnosed with his brain tumor on October 10th and died on his dad's birthday, May 1st. Roger was 10 years old. Ray will have his service at church on Thursday and there will be a memorial service at the school on Friday. Our ladies are busy preparing for the lunch for the people who attend the service.

Ray had his 65th birthday on Sunday and we had TWO lovely meals out with friends with a service at the longterm care in between. I am always telling Ray to "GET OVER IT" if he complains about anything....so I found a card that had a little cowboy sitting on the floor crying and all the card said was GET OVER IT. I could not pass that up!

We are having our first "Girls to Grandmas Tea" this coming Saturday so it has proven to be a very full week. We hope to honor women of all ages whether they are moms or not. I will keep you posted on how it turns out.

Ray heard from his brother Terry for his birthday and we will be great aunties or uncles again with Tyler and Amy. Carrie is expecting her and Mike's baby this month. All so very exciting!

Patty Ford had a new grandson, Grant Wesley who arrived 3 weeks early on April 30th.... congrats to Jared & Kelley.

We are so excited about Max's new job - I hope his new company realizes what an awesome man they have hired! God is such a great provider - in every way.

Talked to sister this am and we are getting a little concerned about the OIL SPILL in the gulf as it is a month from tomorrow that we are due to check into a beach house in Pensacola Beach. We just want warm weather and sand for our toes and visiting with family. I don't think I would like a black beach (unless it is the one on Maui or the Big Island). That spill is such a mess and then you have all the earthquakes and other STUFF going on all over the world - is God trying to let us know it is time for Him to return? Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Ray is at prayer time with some of the area pastors. They meet on Tuesday mornings and it has been an encouraging time for Ray. The house is quiet when he is here since he studies so much of the time and of course when he is gone it is really quiet. I have to talk to myself. Ray is trying to get me to not talk so much and God has agreed with him that it would be a very good idea to listen more. I will definitely work on that.... you can pray with me about God using my ears to minister.

We filled out papers and looked at permanent residency but after learning the cost we felt it would be better to just go to the border and get extensions and much cheaper. Even after you are granted permanent residency you still have to apply for new cards ever so often. Paperwork is not fun you know. We had to list every place we had worked since we were 18... now that was a challenge for me - Ray did not have it too hard. We also had to list every place we lived from the time we were 18. Just a lot of information that somehow is hazy in my memory...now, I can remember every word of "Run Around Sue"... go figure.

On April 23rd four of us ladies from church went to Edmonton (I drove the whole way down and back!) for a Vacation Bible School clinic. Another lady met us there since she was in Edmonton with her husband. Two of us led sessions at the clinic. We went down on a Friday morning very early so we could shop on Friday and then the clinic was on Saturday from 8:00-1:30. Ray asked me why we were going so early - I said duh we are going to shop in the city. Ladies, food, shopping, talking and of course singing.... that is how I knew I could remember the songs! Frank Ford had put some oldies on CD for our drive to Canada back in 2006 so we pulled those out and it is amazing what the brain can remember.... we may forget all the important stuff but we can sing oldies!!

We got the word yesterday that we have 14 of the best folks in the state of Georgia coming to help with our VBS. We will have several that are returning guests but also some new faces. We are so very thankful for these dear ones who take time away from families, raise their own money, and travel to a foreign place to minister to kids for a week. GOD BLESS Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church. Thank you to Ricky for leading the group this year. Pray for pastor Danny as he holds the fort down while all of them are away. Pray for VBS July 19-23 and for our director, Lora Casselman.

The end of March Ray spoke at a youth retreat in Worsley on Saturday and then Cesar Parra who led the youth came to our house for a "Action 52" event on Sunday. It was from 3-6 and we had almost 100 folks attend. He presented information about the Evangecube and how to share your faith 52 weeks of the year using seeds as reminders. We had several churches that participated and it has been fun to see the ways folks are sharing their faith. I was in charge of the childcare so the folks could participate. We had 4 classes of kids and I want to thank Priscilla Hale, Jennifer Hammerschmidt, Ember Selnes and Tristin Kaiser for giving up their Sunday afternoon. I was in the room with 3 babies and two of my special girls from Sunday School (Dallas & Taya). They proved to be a big help to me with the babies.

Paul & Laura both had birthdays in April and Matt & Heather had their anniversary. I sure miss being in town for their special events. JONI (my sister-in-law in Pennsylvania) will have her birthday on the 20th and it would be fun to surprise her with a visit too.

I hope everyone knows that Ray and I are here in Fairview because God gave us the word to be here. It is our prayer that HE will use us to help many come to a faith in the one true God and we will enjoy eternity with them. We would also like to help them grow in their faith and see God use them in this community. Let us not grow weary in well doing...... Hope

For Sunday May 9th - Happy Mother's Day to all you who have been blessed to be a Mom. What a privilege and responsibility to shape a life! Let God lead you with this undertaking.

Pictures above of our relaxing day with Mel & Lisa Lubeck on their land and the wonderful Trumpeter Swans.

Pictures from Luke's Visit

Olympic rings in ice on Lake Louise (top picture)

Left - Luke at sign for Banff Hot Springs

3rd - Luke & Papa at Bow Falls below Banff Springs Hotel

4th - Luke & Nanny at Bow Falls

5th Right - Luke in wheel of Columbia Ice Field Bus

6th Left - Luke at one of entrances to Banff

Let It Snow

OK - so February was warm - March has been too - until Saturday (20th) and it turned cooler and then Monday it started to snow and has been snowing ever since. Now Luke has come and gone and there was hardly any snow here for him....but come back Luke - you could snowboard for sure.
It has been a busy March with three trips to Calgary. The 28th of February (Happy 14th birthday CALEB) Ray and I drove to Cochrane (Canadian National Baptist Convention) and were a part of 3 days of FOCUS meetings. We met with our SHARE group twice and had a full day of Coaching 101. When I grow up I want to be able to coach....I have so much to learn!
We drove home on Thursday the 4th and on the 5th Aaron & Alicia and little Titus arrived from Cochrane to stay with us until Monday. Aaron preached for us as part of SEMINARY DAY. It was different having a baby in the house.
JAKE turned 16 on the 6th and we looked at video of when he was little...where does the time go?
We drove back to Calgary on the 11th to pick up Luke at the airport. I was so glad to see him walk out to us! I thought we would go to the gate to meet him but was I wrong....they had extra security in place because of the Olympics and no one got through security that was not flying. The people at American Airlines were very helpful and walked us through the whole process. We spent the night at the Missions House at the Convention office as he did not come in until almost 10:00pm. The next morning we traveled to Canmore for breakfast and then on to Banff where we rode the Gondola up Sulphur Mt. and then Luke & Papa got in the Hot Springs. Since I was at the end of antibiotics for a viral and bacterial infection Ray did not think I should indulge. I sat in the car and read a book while the boys played. We then drove to Lake Louise where they had an actual ICE castle on the lake along with the olympic rings carved in ice. We took pictures - it was snowing very hard. We started our drive toward Jasper at the other end of the Icefields Parkway where we planned to spend the night...after driving for about 30 or more minutes Ray said he did not feel it safe to continue and we very carefully turned around and headed back through the Banff National Park, back to Cochrane and on to Fairview - where we arrived at a little after 1:30am! Luke had a LONG first day in Canada.
On Saturday the 13th we went ice fishing - the ice was about 2-1/2 feet thick (love that power auger). We had gotten Luke a Skidoo (for sledding) at Costco when we found out he was coming and he used it to slid down several hills at Figure Eight Lake. We went 5 pin bowling that evening. (It will keep you active having a 12 year old in the house)
Luke helped me in my Sunday School class on Sunday where he entertained 9 little girls and 1 little boy. After lunch he and Papa watched some curling and basketball until the college/singles arrived for Bible study that evening. After feeding the kids Luke and I went downstairs and watching curling until Ray finished the study time with the kids. Then Luke put on his snow goggles so he could hide his eyes while he and the group played BLUFF.

Monday we had a busy day of ice fishing at Cummings Lake, riding quads at Mr. Mel's and Miss Lisa's house and Luke and Papa having a bowling rematch. Tuesday we drove back to Cochrane where we spent the night....Luke found a basketball and shot some hoops. He could not believe the way the Rockies were just out there to look at from the Mission House. His flight went back to TX on Wednesday at 2:30 and we needed to be there by 1:00....so we went on into Calgary and Luke got a tour of the Olympic site from the 1988 venue. He is an Oakley guy and had fun looking at the STUFF in the gift shop. When we got to the airport and said our good byes .... we waited, and waited, and waited. We did not and could not leave until his airplane took off. There was some kind of mechanical issue that the mechanic HAD TO sign off on before they would let his plane leave. Once he was safely in the air we again got in that faithful car and headed back north....but lonely for our Luke.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY SHANNON on the 20th of March.....
On the 21st of March we had our Sunday School, church and college/singles Bible study. The kids had a mad game of Sequence and another group was working on a 1500 piece puzzle... no, they did not stay to see it finished! I am still working on it.
We had the opportunity last night to help out our friends Zenon and Mona - Mona leads the Tuesday night Bible study and Zenon was working late so we headed over to eat some yummy vegetable beef soup and watch her three munchkins... now Amber who is two decided she liked Pastor Ray...it was the cutest thing. Poor Zenon did not get home until 10:00 and looked much too old to be so young... long day for sure for him.
I am off to sell daffodils for the Cancer Society at the local IGA store.... so I will put on my snow boots and plunge into the white stuff knowing all the time that God is in control of our lives and our circumstances...what security He offers us who trust in him.

Ray has a busy weekend ahead with a youth retreat in Worsley to speak at and the Action 52 (Evangelistic training) being held at our church this Sunday. We have 5 churches that will participate in the class and I will be responsible for child care - so please pray for Ray and his time with the youth and the right folks to fill in some gaps with the little ones..... thanks for holding up our arms (Exodus 17:12) Hope Pictures coming later.....