Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
Ephesians 2:7-10 The Message

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Baptism Sunday

Today we had a baptism after church. We were scrambling trying to find an alternate location but it worked out. A guy in town has a heated pool that he let us use.

Butch baptized 4 people today, one of them being Grady. It's exciting to watch your children take this next step in their walk with God. To me it is them saying that their faith is becoming their own. A faith they want, not just because they have been raised to believe, but because they truly believe. And it is an even more special moment knowing that dad was the one to baptize them!

I promise I'll post a picture soon. The camera is downstairs.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

She's Growing Up!

Tonight Becca is at her first babysitting job. Yet another reminder that she's growing up. (Sigh....)
She hasn't called home yet so all must be going well:) I'm proud of her for being willing even though she was pretty nervous about it. I told her she couldn't back out when the last round of nerves hit just as we were leaving. She knows the kids fairly well so I'm sure she settled right in. We'll see how she really did when she gets home tonight:)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Veteran's Memorial Dedication

Last Saturday the Veteran's Memorial at the Glenwood Cemetary was dedicated. Butch had the opportunity to be part of the Service.
This is taken from the White Salmon Enterprise. (the local paper:)

Photo by Elaine Bakke
REMEMBERING -- Butch Hallenbeck reads a poem honoring vets during the dedication of the Veterans' Memorial at Glenwood cemetery.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Must be time for an update!

We are settling into the routine of school. 3 weeks down. a lot more to go:) At least they aren't counting days till Christmas Break, YET!

Grady's Running Start classes haven't yet begun so he has been having a pretty easy start to the school year. We discovered the Internet Academy, out of Federal Way. He is taking his Algebra through that and is already wanting to take a couple of other classes as electives. He is thinking about the possibility of summer school to get a required class out of the way so he can take a Web Design class next year. Plus taking the required class during the summer will free his schedule to take Band. I told him we should probably get through this year first!

Becca is already looking ahead to high school and beyond. (Sometimes I wonder whose child she is:) We were looking at classes offered through the Internet Academey and there is a Photography Class offered as an Elective. Since we don't have much opportunity for Electives here, she is already thinking about how she can work that into her schedule. And then she made the comment, "When I apply to George Fox University it will look really good on my Application to have taken a Photography Class. It will help me with my Art Major." We'll see if she still feels that way in a couple years when she actually gets to high school.

Spencer is plugging away at school. So far he seems to be doing well, although I haven't checked grades yet. I really need to do that! He still isn't showing much interest in thinking about life beyond High School. He's thinking of Running Start next year so that he can graduate with his AA. He doesn't have much interest in going to college at this point so I think he figures at least that way he'll have something more than a high school degree.

Things are going well with our ministry here. Youth Group begins this Sunday. We're praying for 15 kids. New Sunday School classes start as well. We'll have a class for 5th grade and down and a class for Middle School. And the best part, we have teachers for both so I can be available as a back-up! We're still developing the Music Team. We'd like to have a couple more adults join us. Just praying about who to ask:)

We've been pretty busy around town these past couple of weeks. Yesterday the school kids participated in a town clean-up, which we helped out with. Today is a dedication of the Veterans Memorial at the Cemetary. Butch is involved in that. We've had a couple of Memorial Services to attend as well. Next week I'm going in to help out with the beginning clarinets in band. I guess I better dust mine off:)

So that's just a bit of what our life has been like these past few weeks. I forgot to mention our Labor Day camping trip. 5 families from church camped and it rained so hard we all came home on Sunday. We didn't do much other than hang around under tarps and visit. Next year I think we'll try for July instead:)