Trunk-or-Treat

Hey all

Trunk-or-Treat was tonight. We had a great turnout. It's hard to say what the exact count was but we estimate that there was probably about 60+ kids that came. We figure we had over 100 people total. That's about double last year, which is what we were praying for. God is good.

Butch had the camera tonight and he doesn't take near as many pictures as me, but I'll post some in the next couple of days.

The other praise for tonight was the weather. We had all the games outside this year so we didn't have to take down the chairs. The wind stayed away and it didn't get super cold. After our early snow I wasn't sure what it would do. We had coffee and hot chocolate, which we went through a lot of, plus we had a roasting fire so people were able to warm up if they did get chilled. Surprisingly, we went through more hot dogs than s'mores. Go figure!

Thanks for your prayers for Trunk-or-Treat. The Lord blessed this event and the community is becoming more aware that we are here and reaching to them. We had quite a few unchurched families come and some that are on the fringes. Pray that we will continue to be able to continue to reach out to these families.

Amazing Sunday

Wow. Today was an amazing day. Have you had one of those? I was a little bit weary when Butch came in at 10:00 last night and said I needed to change the closing song. Of course my first thought was "what about the rest of the songs?" He generally tells me what the main idea of his message will be and I let God take the lead and choose the songs He puts on my heart. So I'm thinking, "How will these songs fit with a message that God gave to Butch at 9:00 Saturday night, completely different from the message he had planned to preach, when I put together the music on Thursday?" (Sometimes I forget that God orchestrates everything and if He gave me the songs and Butch the message, then they will fit together.)

Well, because God is God, the songs He had put on my heart earlier in the week worked perfectly with the message God gave Butch to preach. On top of that, at 10:00 last night I felt like we should do "Made to Worship" by Chris Tomlin. Brand new for us, I've never even begun to introduce it to the worship team. But if God puts it on your heart to do it then you kind of have to listen. So I pulled it out of the "New Songs Someday" file and at practice this morning sprang it on our piano player and other vocalist. We ran through it twice and said, "well, let's give it a shot!" So we sang it for offering, and closed by just singing the chorus. We might just have to add it to our rotation.

Sometimes you wonder if the congregation is moved to a spirit of worship through the music you lead them in. But today you could just feel it. And when people who don't usually say a word about worship mention that it was good, you know God moved in people's hearts. Sometimes I get discouraged and wonder why God put me, a self-taught guitar player who doesn't sing in the position of leading worship. It still scraes me to death. Our church is great. They continue to encourage both me and Butch in the call that God has given us.

Thank you Lord for Sundays that confirm the call. You are an awesome God. Thank you for giving us what we need to effectively serve you in this place.

Just wanted to share what God did on this amazing Sunday!

Hi all

It's hard to believe another week has passed us by. Wow, it's the end of October already. Tomorrow is no school for the kids. It is Nevada Day, a day to celebrate the day Nevada became a state. How come Washington never had a holiday for that!!!!!!

Anyway, we basically have no plans, just a day to relax with the kids. Well, I do have music to get ready for Sunday but most everything else is done. I should do this every week! Movie Night is tomorrow night. We are showing Nanny McPhee. Butch and a couple of the guys worked hard last week and this week to get the new screen and projector in. Thanks to the supporters who helped us be able to purchase these for the church. It will be cool to watch a movie on the BIG screen. Now we just need the surround sound...

We had Becca's fall conference today. She contiunes to excel in her classes. Grady and Spencer are at the age where we will only have a conference if they are not doing well. They generally do well. Spencer has a few low grades, more because he doesn't see the point of taking his time with his work than anything else. He is doing very well at drums, maybe we should have encouraged him to play them in Washington. He's already asking for a drum set. We told him he had to wait a year and see if he still wanted to pursue drums. Grady is also doing very well at trumpet. He and I are working on a song to play at Christmas. I haven't played my clarinet since the last time I played at Lake Tapps, the Christmas before we moved. I better get practicing!

Continue to pray for ministries here. youth group is growing slowly. Tonight was just our kids so we just had some time to hang out and play games. Next week we're having sort of a campfire night. The fire pit will be out from our Trunk-or-Treat the night before so we are going to roast hot dogs, make S'mores and have our worship and devotion around the campfire. Hopefully by sporadically doing something different, word will get out and more kids will come to check it out.

On Halloween we will have our second annual Trunk-or-Treat. We're hoping it will be bigger than last year. We'll have carnival games, cookie decorationg, hot dogs and s'mores, and of course the trunk-or-treat. Pray that God will supply the helpers and the families. We'll probably see a lot of kids come through as they are trick-or-treating. Pray that they stay long enough to plant seeds for a lifetime.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I have been scrapbooking older pictures but here are some from summer, when we went to Santa Cruz for an afternoon while at our staff conference. Note Becca's face as they are coming down the freefall. She says she wasn't scared but that pretty much mirrors her face on the Giant Dipper which now has her vowing to never go another roller coaster again!

Take care and have a blessed week!

Jen

Happy Friday

Greetings
Happy Friday to all! We continue to plug away. Our District Rep's were here Tuesday. We had a nice visit with them and felt encouraged by their time spent with us. I haven't gotten back to painting. This was a busy week. We had our monthly Ladies Luncheon Wednesday. We had a good turn out, 26 ladies came plus about 9 children. We are not offering childcare this year as no one took advantage of it last year. In setting up we are trying to accomodate the children who come. What a blessing to watch the ladies visit with one another over a home cooked lunch! This month was soup bowls. (Bread bowls) It was a hit! And the best part...I have a speaker for every month so I can sit back and breathe a little. Be the hostess and let others share what God has put on their heart. Amen!

Kids Club started on Thursday. This is our outreach to elementary age kids. We have a few 4 year olds that come as well. We had 17 kids, pretty good for the first day! Pray for those leading Kids Club. Pray that this would be a fun time to learn God's Word.

Continue to pray for Youth group as well. The group is growing slowly. Pray that we will be able to keep it fun and different so the kids don't get bored and will invite their friends! This week we had pizza instead of a game and watched a video. We do that about every five weeks. We have some other ideas on how to make it fun and different but if you have any suggestions, just leave me a comment!

Well, I need to keep this short. I am trying to get everything done today that I usually put off until Saturday so that tomorrow I can work on my Christmas projects. I figure I better not put that off too much longer or I'll be stressing over getting them done in time. But that would be nothing new, it's the story of my life!

Take care everyone. Have a great week.

Love in Christ,
Jen

First Snow of the Season!

Wow, can you believe it? Today, October 5th, it snowed. Not a lot, but enough to make a mess. And typical of what you would see in Washington...it melted within an hour of when it stopped snowing! And typical of Nevada, our forecasted highs for Sunday...mid 70's! Close to 80 by the end of the week. And two days ago it was 80. Gotta love living in the high desert of Nevada.

The last couple of weeks have been good, busy...but definitely good. My mom came for a visit, that was nice. We did a lot of nothing! One of the days she was her we went to Scotty's Castle in Death Valley. If you ever get the chance to go there, do it. We're planning a trip back with the kids. Maybe in November. Should you ever come to visit us, we'll take you there. It's funny how we are three to four hours away from everything in Nevada, but Death Valley, in California, is only 2 hours away. Go figure!

This past week I've been trying to get my kitchen finished. Once I get that done, we can start on the main bathroom. Then the dining room, and the master bath, and everything else. I'll be glad when we get all the work done. It'll probably take 10 years but that's OK. A little at a time!

Continue to pray for our ministry here. Our ladies Bible studies started a couple of weeks ago. Pray that the ladies would really dig into God's Word and discover what He is speaking to them. Also pray for our other women's ministry opportunities. We have a luncheon once a month, pray that the ladies who come would be blessed by the speakers, pray for the speakers that God would use them to reach others, and pray that new ladies would come. Also pray for Mornings for Moms. This is a ministry for moms with young children, sort of like MOPS, not as developed. Pray for me as I share Words of Encouragement with the moms and help the two moms leading this ministry. Pray for them, that they would keep Christ at the center of this outreach, and pray for the moms that come, that they would be encouraged in the most important job they will ever have, raising their children to follow God. Pray also that the work would get completed on our Annex building. It has been a year since the roof work began, and the inside hasn't begun yet. Pray for men to come and finish this project so we can move on to other necessary projects.

Praise the Lord for the generous donors who have given enough to get the projector and screen. It's ordered and should be here soon!

God continues to bless us in our ministry here and provides for all we need. The kids are doing well in school. We are preparing for a cold winter, getting as much firewood as we can. If this early snow is any indication, we should have a fun winter. Time to scout out a good sledding hill for the youth group!

Thank you all for praying us. Feel free to contact us anytime.

Serving Him Together,
Butch, Jennifer and Grady, Spencer and Becca