Harvestland Baptist Church

The Lord has given is another great meeting in another church plant.  And again with friends, James and Cate Appel, from Bible College.  If I am remembering correctly the Appels arrived here, the home town of Cate, in 2005.  It was great to see the Appels again and to see them interact with their people.  They had 2 visitors to the morning service.

It is thrilling to see them focus on missions.  Their mission bulletin board highlighted 6 different missionaries.  And they have recently had a couple different missionaries visit - not a common thing during the winter time here because the weather is so unpredictable.  Will you pray with us that the Lord would strengthen them for the work here?   Pray also that the Lord will continue to bring them souls for Christ and that they will be blessed with many more solid church members.

We trust that the Lord used some portion of our presentation and time here for Him.  And we are thankful to present the need for the Gospel in Uruguay with these dear people.

Mount Rushmore

I have always wanted to see Mount Rushmore but we've never been "in the area".  So when Scott said we might be able to see it on this trip I was so excited.  There were a few moments of doubt when our friends told us the weather had turned sour.  And had we been here last week we probably would have not gone - the weather up there was -22° F.  I was so pleased to see this historic monument!  It really is amazing.

The trail is a set of steps, I think the sign said 250.  We went the wrong way...up, instead of down.  I guess it was good though because we worked off some of all this food we've been eating.

 

Taken from a crack in a cave on the trail.

Our kids like the Jr. Ranger Program with the National Parks while we were on deputation so we have continued it as a tradition.  Bethany, Adeline, Nehemiah, Isabel and Simeon all earned their badges for Mt. Rushmore.

Brandon has some grand aspirations.

We drove through the Wildlife loop in the Custer State Park.  It was so cool to be just a few feet from wild buffalo.  Let me tell you they are HUGE!  This guy walked in front of the van and then stood off to the driver's side.  I couldn't see the top of his back from my seat.  Our van is 7 foot 2 inches.

After we left the park we were still driving through the Black Hills and saw a sign that said "Danger Large Wildlife May Be in the Road" .  It was a good thing he had to slow down for a curve or he would have had a mighty big insurance claim as there was a HUGE buffalo standing in our lane. 

Travel from Nevada to Nebraska.

Having always drive the southern route across the country and back east again I was loving all the sites that filled the horizon as we traveled from Nevada to Nebraska along Interstate 80.  It seemed that there was a surprise around corner.  Here are a few pictures of the things that we saw:

The first picture is the mountains in the west.  The next is the Rockies from the I-80 looking South from Wyoming.  The Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah are below.

Statue of Lincoln off the freeway in Wyoming.

The wide open prairie of Nebraska.

Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Front of their headquarters.  This building was at least 20 stories high.

Rocky Mountains off in the distance.  

On the way to Chadron, Nebraska we passed the historic site of Scott's Bluff a way point on the Oregon and Mormon trails.  

Grace Baptist of Fernley

This church was planted in 2009 by friends, Pastor Rick and Melanie Lynn.  They have told us that the Lord has far bypassed what they expected during the first few months.  It was thrilling, to say the least, to be in this church and see first hand what the Lord is doing.

 
                                

One of the things we especially admire about the Lynns is their desire to give God the glory and honor for all He is doing in the ministry He has called them to.  In a day and age where men grab for the attention by throwing out numbers and touting their own successes we have been refreshed these past few days by the consistent glorification of God. 

The two pictures above are their ministry buildings.  They rented a store front in a small strip mall.  Just two weeks before their first service the owner came by to see how things were coming along and asked what they were planning for children's ministry, he then offered this store front.   It also functions very well for fellowships after church. 

The people here were a tremendous blessing to us.  And we are leaving here extremely encouraged in the Lord!  Pastor Lynn challenged them to give generously in the love offering to us and we are dumbfounded at how generously they gave.  The kids had been taking up an offering for our kids and they are all planning out what they will be doing with their windfall!

Thank you all for praying for this meeting.  Our presentation went very well.  Scott preached the evening service.  And we pray that the Lord was able to use us to further the cause of worldwide missions.

Please be in prayer for our next meeting in Chadron, Nebraska.  We will once again be with friends from Bible College and we are looking forward to the meeting.   

Over the Meadows...

and through the woods from grandmothers house we went.

After a very long day of travel on Friday...that could have been shorter if we took a different route, I'm told...we arrived in Fernley, Nevada.  Our time here thus far has been full of blessings and we are so encouraged in the Lord!  I plan to write more after we have tonight's service because I'm hoping to add pictures when I blog about our meeting here.. 

I wanted to thank you all for praying for travel mercies for us.  We had an uneventful trip...those are good when you're traveling with a family of 10 in the winter.  It was dark when we drove through the Donner Pass though so the kids weren't able to really see anything.  I'm hoping to drive into Reno before we leave so the kids can see the Sierras.  It would be good if the fog would lift before then. 

There is snow on the ground and the kids had a blast playing in it yesterday morning.  Our older kids went bowling with friends here.  Later Scott and I had a double date with the pastor and his wife, who are friends of our from Bible College.  It sure was great to go out and have fellowship with adults....in English!  However, it did make me miss our double dates in Uruguay with our friends Daniel and Amparo Lopez. 

HAPPY 2010

New Year's was a very loud experience!

New Year's Day we headed to Scott's Mom and step-Dad's house in Santa Barbara.

It didn't take long for the kids to begin having fun with Grandma Karen, and her brother, Uncle Gary.  Then to teach them all to play the Wii.

While the kids were having fun I was building this crazy train puzzle for Nehemiah!

Christmas With Family - Final Installment!

The neighboring cities of Hemet and San Jacinto are where we grew up.  The Hemecinto Valley is home to much of my family.  And it also offers one of the prettiest views in Southern California.  The mountains below are what we grew up looking at and driving into to play in the winter snow. 

Our first stop when we got into town was the In N' Out where Scott and I had our first date!

From there we headed to my cousin Val's house to visit.  Val and her husband Matt are the parents of Madi, for whom many of you have been praying.  It was so great to see Madi doing so well.  Our kids had a blast playing with eachother and my older girls LOVED their twin boys who are 2 months younger than Silas.

The next morning Scott's Dad and Step mom cam down from the mountain to have Christmas with us.  It was so great to see them and not have to wait until this summer when we'll be in Michigan.

After this we met my Dad and Step mom to spend some time with them.  I must say of all the Christmas gifts I received this year this was by far the best one.  All of my children were able to meet their grandpa, and WOG.  Most of the time the younger ones were occupied in the playplace so that enabled us to have some quality time as adults too.

From here we went to my Aunt and Uncles house to see them but we ended up going out to dinner with them and my other cousin Dawn and her husband and children.  The top picture is with me and my Aunt (my dad's sister).  The next is with my cousin Dawn (Val's older sister) and her husband. 

Our final stop the next morning in Hemet was to our best Man's house to see him before we headed out of town.

We drove out town by way of the "blue roof people" aka Scientologists.  I'll never forget my dad's warniing to my sister and I about the dangers of this area.  So whenever we pass through here I'm always uncomfortable.

Our last view of the mountains as we headed through the Lamb's Canyon Pass.  It was a short but wonderful and memory filled visit to Hemet. 

Christmas With Family Part 2

After a longer than we expected drive from Lake Havasu City to North LA on Christmas Eve the kids were quite ready to get out of the van to be greeted by their Grandma Jay's open arms and exclamations of how much they have grown and changed in the past few years.

 Opening presents Christmas morning.

Jay's boyfriend, Nelson, is from El Salvador.  It's been fun to speak with him in Spanish.  Her neighbors are Venezuelan also so we've had lots of practice.  And they all have declared our kids have no accents...us on the other hand.  HA!  Our kids commented on all the people that are from other countries here in LA.  

Our time here with Jay, my "adopted" mom, though brief has been absolutely wonderful!  She hasn't changed one bit.  Which is always nice to see.  We've been having all kinds of fun playing the Wii, visiting parks, malls and even Griffith Park Observatory.  The best part though has been the time spent with Jay and her boyfriend. 

Our family with the Hollywood sign in the background. 

Tomorrow we head off to the town we grew up in, Hemet.  We'll be there for a couple days only.  And then we head back to the LA area to spend time with Scott's Mom and step-dad before we head to Nevada for a meeting.

The 3 horizontal lines at the far right are the "earthquakes" our family caused on the seismograph in the Griffith Observatory.