A God Moment

We had a full day of conference on Wednesday. My workshop on children and family ministry inspired me and after sharing what I learned with Dad we went to the bookstore and bought several books that may help us implement what I learned. Other than that I was tie rd of people that I didn't know. I was looking forward to supper in a restaurant alone with Dad. We had ordered our food and just launched into a conversation when someone we knew came in and joined us for supper. Dad promised me ice cream after the evening service. At 9:10 we walked into a restaurant for ice cream. We ordered and then pulled out the books we had purchased earlier to look at. Our ice cream came, the waitress set it down and left. I was putting the first bite it my mouth when I looked up into the face of a stranger. He said, "Were you looking at books about the family?" "Yes" "Well my brother's family is in crisis, do you think they could be of help to him?" The result, he slid into our booth and opened up his heart to us. Turned out he knew the Lord but not his brother. His nephew, 16, had just been picked up for dealing drugs. They also have a 3 and 6 year old. He took the name of our books as well as some other information, shook our hands and left. Our ice cream was done. Why did God want that man to meet us? Only He knows. At 10:15 when I slid the dead bolt into our hotel door, we were finally alone. Praise God.

National Conference

We are at the Free Church National Conference in St. Louis. We have a nice motel and Conf. is going good so far. The workshops have been interesting today and the business meeting was even a little exciting. A few too many people for me but Dad is having a good time. I will get my alone time next week when we travel to the Smokey Mts. We got to see flood damage on the way here and I am trying with no luck to put up pictures, hopefully soon. For now all is well.

Gift from President Bush - Vacation

Dad used some of his money from the President to get a GPS. He says it is for me, but he sure is having fun with it. We have tried it out to Cleghorn and Marcus etc. and are now anxious to use it in a big way. We will be leaving for vacation on Sunday, June 22nd and we hope this will be useful. We will head to Chaun and Becky's for overnight, then Monday to Drakes, Tuesday to the Conference in St. Louis,Missouri. After the conference we will head to Tennessee and the Smokey Mts. until July 2. Then we go to Louisville and meet Chaun and Becky to check out where they will be living. We are looking forward to the trip. Please pray for our safety. We will have our cell phones. (If anyone can tell me why I am lately writing in blue and underlining I would appreciate it :)) Plan to be home on July 5 as Dad has to preach the 6th.

Emily's visit

Emily and Grandpa on a beautiful summer day looking over the lake and finishing the ever famous Nutty Bar.

Emily Comes To Visit

Emily came for her visit several days ago. Today. Father's Day. we took Grandpa to Okaboje for the day. We had alot of fun. Here we are trying on some funky glasses. Don't you think we look glamorus? Grandpa thought we should buy them.

Tornado Party

As you all know Iowa has been having it's share of tornadoes lately. When a siren goes off we all take it seriously. Several nights ago, during threatening weather we invited several town people over to take refuge at our house. One of our visitors is a poet and he wrote the following poem about our night:
In a concrete basement room we sat.
Six adults and one small cat
It was a special get-together
Necessitated by inclement weather
A tornado warning was in effect
The kind of thing you don't neglect
Four of us had an invitation
To share this safer accommodation
So we responded right away
Glad to have a safe place to stay
With a radio to keep us informed
We sat snugly there while it rained and stormed
It didn't last a great long while,
And we finished up with a sight and a smile
We each returned to our own places
With relief in our hearts and smiles on our faces
With gratitude sincere and hearty
We thanked our hosts for the tornado party.

Eric, Sarah and Josiah visit

Eric, Sarah and Josiah visited the first week of June. We had a really good time with them. Josiah is getting big and is so cute. He really entertained us all. We also had Bible School this week , so they visited Bible School nearly every day. Sarah and Josiah came ahead of Eric because of his work schedule. Eric embarked upon an adventure and took the Grayhound Bus to LeMars on Thurs. He said the ride was fine althought a little long. We were really glad he came.

Hanging with Grandpa

Playing with Grandm's cups

.Here we are all ready to head to the Omaha Zoo. Friday, May we met Dave and Anita and the children in Sanborn, Minn. They had picked them up from school and brought them to us. They didn't know where they were going. We surprised them by telling them we were going to Omaha to the Zoo. This is Saturday morning before we left. We spent a wonderful day looking at animals, riding the train, and eating ice cream. We gave the kids special shirts for the occassion. They have them on in the picture. We are thankful to the Lord for this special times.

Train ride

We waited a half of an hour for the train ride, but everyone agreeded it was worth it when we got to ride in the cabose.

Luke and a pretty bird

This was voted the favorite spot at the zoo. It was a new bird cage where the birds would really get up close and personal.

A Load of kids

Grandpa pulling a load of grandkids in the desert at the Omaha zoo. The day turned out to be hot and very crowded with people. but we had alot of fun and created some lifetime memories.