Witnessing in Your Jerusalem

For those of you who went to PCC, we went to hear Pastor Schettler preach at a church here in town last night. He preached the same way there as he did at college, and I really enjoyed it. There were a couple of points that really stood out to me. One was to let the Lord use whatever you have to spread the gospel. He said that we try something such as knocking on doors and get discouraged because we get no responses, but we don't use any of our other resources. He used a missionary in Brazil as an example. She mowed down a lot for volleyball and started games. Afterward she would tell the gospel. She had taken one piano class at college and knew four songs. She put on a piano recital with those four songs, and gave the gospel between each one. She went to a local swim center and asked to teach swimming. They let her, and of course, she gave the gospel to her students. At the same time she was working with two church planters who were doing nothing, because they said that Brazil was a hard place to reach people.
Another good point that he gave was that when we tell our testimony, we need to include the full gospel in it. Do not just assume that people know what you are talking about. Make sure that they can clearly understand how to be saved when they hear your testimony. My testimony may end up being one of my coming posts.
Until then..............

Escaping the Kids

Friday night my mom offered to let my kids spend the night with her. We met her at Taco Bell where I felt like we were on display. First off, my mom ordered 2 orders of food. These two orders were for their 10 item special. We ended up with 10 burritos and 10 tacos. The guy must have thought that we needed a lot of hot sauce to go with it. He gave two huge heaping handfuls of sauce....almost too much to carry. Next comes the big, huge tray of food. I was getting really embarrassed. It did not help that the older couple at the table next to us kept staring at us. On top of that Brittany and Sierra kept taking turns going to the bathroom. The last time, Sierra got too confident sitting on a big toilet and started playing around. She started swinging back and forth until she fell in. It was kind of funny except her dress got wet. When we got back to our table, Spencer was cleaning water and ice up from the floor. Brittany had knocked it over. I was so glad to leave. We traded off car seats and children and headed off into the sunset. The only thing was that Spencer and I could not think of anything to do, so we ended up at Lowe's where we ran into one of his uncles and aunt. They made fun of our date. Next, we went to Cold Stone for ice cream . We decided to head to a park to eat the ice cream. When we got to the park we saw a car that looked awfully familiar and decided not to eat there. We had just left our kids with my mom and weren't quite ready to have them take our icecream from us. :) We decided to just go home.

Family Fun 5

This last week, we watched a movie called Captain's Courageous. The kids really loved it and watched it again the next day. It's put out by Feature Films for Families. Don't know if any of you have heard of that group, but they put out some pretty good movies.
We also had brownies and ice cream. Seems like ice cream has become a theme for us.

Camp Meeting

This last week, the first full week of August, our church had Camp Meeting. For those of you who do not know what that is......it's kind of like a Bible Conference, but it is mainly to edify Christians. There were four services each morning and two each night. We would serve lunch and supper each day. For those of us who are members at our church, it is a week of cooking, cooking, cooking, and very messy kitchens. There is some great food there. By the end of the week you do not even want to see food.
The preaching was great. There were four preachers-Evangelist Jack Tripp, Ronny Simpson, Evangelist Bill Behrens, and Evangelist Chuck Cofty. Some of you from PCC might remember the last two men. I also have a link for Chuck Cofty on the right hand side of my blog.
The mornings were especially busy for me. There was no nursery in the mornings, and it is difficult for little ones to sit through four services, so I would take them to one service, and then we would go play for the next one. We would run back in for singing in between services so I could play. They behaved well, but they were worn out by the end of the week.

By the way, I found one of the messages by Bill Behrens on the following link. This is one of the messages he preached at Camp Meeting this year. It's incredible how he got saved. If you get a chance to listen to it, please do. God can use unusual circumstances to save people. http://www.fundamentalbaptists.com/behrens/ Be sure to click on the link off to the right of his name to hear the message. The printed info does not give his full testimony.

Family Fun 4

Taught the kids how to play Uno. Zach was thrilled when he finally won a round. We also did wheelbarrow races. Zach and Brittany raced against Spencer and I. Zach and Brittany won. Apparently Brittany has more upper arm strength than I do.

Congrats to Spencer

Earlier I wrote about Spencer having a job interview. He started his new job this last Monday. He is so excited to be doing what he has always wanted to do.

Still Having Those Embarrassing Moments

Some of them are my fault, some are not. I'm sure most of you remember how I always seem to find some crazy thing to turn into an embarrassing episode. Since I stay home so much now, it does not happen as often as it used to, but sometimes I still manage.
The way I managed recently was definitely my own fault. I've been praying that the Lord would help me keep my big mouth under control. Well, I wrote on my blog several months back that my sister's former fiance was a geek. Who should find my blog and see the comment?? Of course!! My sister's former fiance! So, Steve, if you are reading this, I'm sorry for saying something outside of the KNT guidelines. For those of you who don't know what that means...K stands for kind, N stands for necessary, and T stands for True. Maybe I'll start learning to keep my mouth shut soon.
The next embarrassing moments were not my fault. I was playing for a wedding a couple of weekends ago. The wedding cordinator changed plans the day of the wedding without letting me know. As a result, Here Comes the Bride was being played as the ushers walked down the aisle to roll out the aisle runner.
Last night at church, Spencer had picked out two numbers for the choir to sing. I started playing the intro and Spencer looked at me and said, "Page 13." He decided to not do the first choir number and told everyone except me. So, if you ever work with a musician, PLEASE clue them in on your plans! It's very helpful for everyone if you do!

Family Fun

The reason I keep putting these up here is that other people might get some ideas that they can do with their families.Last night we made banana splits and jumped on the trampoline. Well, I didn't jump. Still recovering from an ankle sprain that happened over a month ago, but Spencer had a blast making all of us bounce around uncontrollably.

Tomboy Brittany

See the camoflouge skirt and John Deer plate?

Banana Split Sierra

Spencer squirted some whipped cream in Sierra's mouth. She got more than a mouth full.

Zach

Brittany

Thurday: Went with Amy and Johnny to a children's water park. The kids loved it. We enjoyed it too. It's nice to let the kids run around under the water fountains without worrying about whether they are going to drown or not. We got our feet wet too.

Zach enjoying the water

Sierra finally decided to have fun in the water too

Spider at our house

Saw this spider beside our house. Did some research on the internet. It's called a golden orb weaver. It's also known as a garden spider and a writing spider. The reason it's called a writing spider is because of the zigzag that it makes within its web. I know the picture is not really clear, but it's the best I could do. This spider is not poisoness.

Rants and Ramblings

This is just a conglomeration of the last week-starting with Sunday.

Went to Pizza Inn on Sunday night as usual. Had to get cottage cheese off the salad bar with tongs :( It was really busy there. When the waitress finally got around to us, she just sat down and cried. Her manager had just cussed her out and told her that he would make sure that she did not get the promotion she was up for. She's actually one of the hardest workers there. We felt really sorry for her. She's always so nice. When we left, Spencer figured out why the manager was in such a bad mood. The food inspector was there...........

Tuesday: I feel like I'm living in the Rio Grande Valley again. It's in the high 90's with an over abundance of humidity. It made me irritated because as I was driving, I could only get the heat index and not the real temperature. The news media always has to make things as bad as they can. Went swimming at my in-laws with Amy and Johnny.

Wednesday: Took Zach to an allergist. It was an early appointment at a place about 35 minutes away. We waited in the waiting room for an hour and were in the exam room for 2 hours. That was fun with three little ones. Zach was tested for asthma--a test he enjoyed. Thankfully he does not have asthma. He also had a skin test for allergies. That was when all the sorrow broke loose. Zach really cried, which made Brittany cry, which made Sierra cry. Brittany was really broken hearted for her poor brother. I think she was also afraid that she was in for the same test. We now know a lot of things that Zach is allergic to in addition to peanuts. Hopefully, we can help him so his eczema will clear up. He really cried as hard as when he had the skin test when he found out he is allergic to beef. He thought that he could not eat steak any more. The doctor said that he can occasionally have it since he is not severely allergic to it.