In New York

I have safely arrived back with my family after a little bit of trouble departing Panama City:) It never worked out to get pictures up on here from my trip down south. I didn't have room to bring my camera and was going to borrow one but just never got to it. It was busy, busy the whole time I was there. Not that it is any different from normal:) We had lots of fun though. Our flight went well with no other problems. After arriving in Indy we went to Ohio to a friends house for some fun. We stayed there for 2 days and then had to go to a Church in NY for a meeting. This is the first time at this Church and all went well. Dad preached all day yesterday and many came to the altar. We are now going to a state park near Erie, NY for a little while. Then we have another meeting next Sunday. Hope the weather clears up as it has been rainy and muggy up here.

Babysitting at the Home Church

Wow! So much has happened since my last post. I will back up a little bit so everyone knows what is going on since it is kind of confusing. After the Indy 500 we had gone up to a brothers house in IL for a while to kind of rest and relax. His house is set up for us all to come in and we have plenty of room to spread out. We had been there for a couple of days or so when we received a call from our Home Church. Basically to make a long story short, they needed someone to come down and help with the family of the little boy who has cancer. This whole month is going to be kind of full for everyone around here with all the camp-meetings going on and babies being born (soon!) and then with Silas being sick it was putting a lot on so many people. So, they came up with the plan to fly 2 of us down here to help out and take over watching the rest of the family. Elijah and I flew down last Wed. leaving from IL, having a layover in Atlanta, and then getting in Wed. afternoon. It was fun to fly as that was the first time on a long flight. I am now staying here with four of the little ones. Two are with their Dad and another one is with her Mom and Silas. I am doing their school:) and pretty much being Mom to them. It is a little rough at times but they are having great fun, as am I. There have definitely been moments I just wanted to have them all nap and get some rest myself:) I will try putting up some pictures here soon of them playing outside and doing school, etc. In the meantime it has been so niceto be back at home and able to see all my close friends. This mornings service was great. Bro Buddy preached a message about being filled with the Holy Ghost and you could tell the Lord was present. It started though with Clay playing and singing a song he wrote recently. The words are so good! It is about salvation and how some people doubt it is real and then goes on to talk about how it is real, where there were doubts and fears before, now there is peace. It is a very wonderful song. Anyways, I will be here for 2 weeks and then will fly back to meet my family in Indy. Hopefully I will be back in October for our meeting here.

Well, it has been quite a while since I have had time to put up a new post. We have had the Kentucky Derby and just recently the Indy 500 for events but we have also had meetings up in Chicago, IL.
The Indy 500 went well. Most people came in Friday but we had some dear friends, the Owens, come in a day early so we were able to spend some time with them. On Friday we were busy getting set up for others who were coming in. We had a good crowd this year with over 50 people. Many from Michigan, Chicago, Ohio, NY etc. Our family had to set up beds and get arrangements for all those people to sleep in the Church:) Many came in during the middle of the night and early morning. We had a good day Saturday out witnessing and passing out tracts for the parade. Some of the people had to leave after the parade as they had to get back in time for Church. They were greatly missed:( We did a big meal that afternoon for everyone. We had a pasta salad along with deli sandwiches. The pasta salad was great, compliments of a wonderful friend from NY. Then that evening the men went out to preach at Georgetown, which is a time that the men only go. It gets kind of rough so they prefer that women stay home. Which we did and had a great time of fellowship together! Most of us stayed up until the men got back around midnight. Then it was up and running again early the next morning. We left by 8:15 in the morning after getting the Church set back up for them to have service that morning. The preaching went very good. We had a mild time with only one incident where the police had to pull someone away from us. It was very mild compared to the Kentucky Derby:) After it was over we went to get something to eat and then went back to the Church. Many of the people left within a few minutes so they could get back home but some special friends from Chicago stayed and we had a volleyball game with these two ladies and the Craft family. The boys team won one game and the ladies team won the other. The ladies from Chicago had to leave soon after. We were wishing they had been able to stay. They are like sisters or as the girls say, Aunts:) We should be seeing them in August when we go to our Northern home church.
It is now raining here in Indy but we will be leaving soon to go to Illinois to a friends house for a while. We will be able to tune in to some Church meetings from home on Skype:)!!! And get some rest. Too bad we missed the graduation at our home Church but we heard it went well.
I can't believe the year is already almost half over. It has really gone by fast. We are planning on going out west a little bit in August-November. Hoping to be able to go home the end of October for a quick visit!:)

We are now in Ohio at a State Park. The weather is really lovely, JK. It is raining and one town about 20 minutes away had sleet. The temperature has dropped too so it is about 40 degrees here. Not too bad if it wasn't so windy. We are preparing for the Kentucky Derby which is coming up fast. We have people coming from NY, FL, OH, IL, etc. It will be 2 very long days. Praying that we get some good conversations. Missing friends from down south more and more.

Helplessly Homesick

Well, we are finally leaving to go up north. It is so hard to be leaving our family and friends for a while. We are in Alabama right now and are heading up to Ohio for a couple weeks and then we have the Kentucky Derby. We were blessed to be able to go home this past Sunday morning for service. The preaching was great and the singing was wonderful. No Church can sing quite like ours. (Yes, I am biased) We will be back in October and I am sure it will go fast just not fast enough. Let's just say, I can't wait to get home!

Satisfied

Reading tastes

Well, recently I have been having a discussion over the Internet about reading tastes and then a friend and I were talking about the books we read and I thought that maybe it would make for a good post and it might help somebody. It started with someone asking what I thought about reading books that were not Christian and how much do I allow in my books. First I am going to give the Bible verses I gave her and then I am going to give what are my standards but they are my personal convictions.
1.Phil 4:8. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things". Personally I think this verse really sets out what should be the standard for any Christian in anything in their life, but I really think it is pretty clear for what we read.
2.Romans 14:21 "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak". This is something else I have thought of before. I need to make sure what I read is not a stumbling block to another Brother or Sister in Christ.
3. "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity". Now I know this is not necessarily talking about what I read but to me it tells me I need to be an example. Which we all are an example, either a good one or a bad one, but I want to be a good one to those around me.
Now, this is where I am going to talk about my convictions. These are my personal preferences for what I read. This person I was dealing with over the Internet asked me about how much profanity, relationships, violence, etc I allow in my books. Personally, I have read books where I had to mark out one swear word, etc. I will allow 2 words, otherwise I get rid of the book. As for the relationships it is kind of hard. I know people who will not read books with any holding hands, kissing, etc. Even if it is a married couple. Personally, I will allow a little, especially if it is a married couple in the book. The one friend I was talking to about this said he had some problems with one fiction series because of all the touching in them. There are some Christian fiction books though that I can't even read because it is explicit in the relationships. I also don't allow fornication, or adultery. That is not something that I believe is allowable even in a fiction book. This person also asked me about non-Christian books. I read a few, mainly non-fiction, and my younger siblings read some older fiction books. There might be some good books out there that are not Christian, but they are very few. Books out there are getting worse and worse. I believe as Christians we need to stand up against these things, but how can we if we are reading them? Or we are reading the Christian things that have the same stuff in them? One last thing she asked me about which I don't think I need to get into was, do you read any fantasy or para-normal books? To me that is definitely out of the picture for any Christian.
If anyone has any thoughts on this, please email and let me know. Hope I haven't gotten anyone upset with this.:)