Border Crossing Straight Ahead!

Sorry I haven't blogged.  Trying to take care of all the last minute details, visit with friends and family and stuff all of our stuff in the trailer has been all consuming.  But, we're on our way to Mexico!  Please pray for a safe crossing.  Thank you to everyone who lifted us up this past week.  We even had a pastor's wife of a supporting church call to say we were on her mind this past week and she didn't know we were packing to move.  God knew just who to burden to pray for us.  Her call was so encouraging, Sam even used it as an example in his sermon tonight! LOL!  Thank you to everyone for all the supportive notes and messages. 

Enough said!

Sprinting to the Finish

 "Witness" from Heartland Baptist Bible College

We just started our third mission conference in a row!  Last Wednesday through Sunday morning, we were at a mission conference in Bartlesville, OK.  We really enjoyed ourselves and as usual were very encouraged by God's people, even though we were trying to be a blessing to them!  It was such a tremedously blessing to meet the Steffy's, who have been missionaries to the Phillipeans for 51 years.  I tried to play basketball with the Heartland Baptist Bible College kids and hurt for several days after.

They had a pinata for the children.

 

Then due to some God orchestrated circumstance, we ended up getting to be a part of a conference in Mustang, OK Sunday evening through Tuesday evening.  Our stay in Mustang was quiet and relaxing and we got some much needed rest.  We met a pilot training to work with missionaries.  I'm very excited about the possibility of being dropped off in some remote jungle someday, to catch some babies and reach people who have never heard the gospel.  Maybe I'll even be able to put that jump school training to good use!  Just kidding, I don't plan to jump out of any more perfectly good planes!
Tonight we began our third back to back conference and our last conference before leaving for Mexico.  It is at Gospel Light Baptist our sending church.  It was so good to be at our home church with our church family.  Sam has preached four times in the last week.  So far we have been to church 8 days in a row, so if we aren't all straighten out by now there is no hope! HA!
We leave for Mexico two weeks from today and my garden seeds arrived, so I'm all ready to go!

A Fun Weekend

We were near Mountain View, AR this past weekend.  Sam is still crying because we missed the Mountain View Bluegrass Festival by just one week.  It's this up coming weekend for anyone interested.  We also didn't have our mountain dulcimers with us, and very uncharacteristic of Sam, he didn't even have his harmonics with him.  We also forgot, under wear and under shirts for the girls, a pair of tights for Hannah, the dogs food bowls and the diapers Haden still needs at night.  Maybe that tells you what kind of a morning we had trying to leave!  Anyway, there we are in the heart of blue grass country without any instruments.  My Grandmother only lives a block or two from the downtown square where there is pickn' on the porches of several of the stores.  Sam took the kids for ice cream at the soda shop and they sat and listened.  

After listening for a while, Sam said, " Since you've been playing for us, we'll sing for you."  By the second verse of Standing on the Rock, people were coming out of the shops to hear and quite a good size crowd had gathered.  The pickers were able to join in with their guitars, banjos and fiddles.  Grand applause and an encore proceeded and the kiddos came home with a pretty proud papa.

Grandmother and I chatted it up about knitting.  She got out her patterns and we thumbed through all her vintage stuff.  She even gave me one.  I can't wait to knit the shawl.  It's circa 1975, the year before I was born.

Then of course we sat on the couch and knit and chatted.  Hannah even came in and joined us for a while.  Hannah and something she was very determined to finish, but that's a different blog.  I am so happy to have the below photos of three generations of knitters.  My mom is the only one missing.  She told me just the other day that she plans to learn after she retires from teaching.

Here's a little bonus side story.  This was actually not the first impromptu performance the kids have given.  While on the east coast the kids and I found ourselves out past lunch, so we stopped at Waffle House.  We were almost done eating and Haden had to go to the bathroom, so I took him.  It was a big job, so it took a while. ;) When we came out the kids where all lined up getting ready to sing.  There was a man in the restaurant who had been humming and singing gospel songs a little.  Apparently, (and this is Hannah's words) Samuel had "sucked in his guts" and gathered the courage to ask him if he went to church.  From there the man ask him if they sang, so the kids got up in the middle of the restaurant and sang beautifully, as only siblings can harmonize like that.  Very good testimony.  I see some giants of the faith in the making.