Goodbye Irene!

We had some excitement not too long ago when Hurricane Irene whipped through our area! Leaving in her wake uprooted trees, downed power lines, and a bunch of inconvenienced people! We were without power for 5 days, which was too long for me, but shorter than the last time a major hurricane hit this area. My in-laws kindly rescued us, and brought down a generator and a chainsaw. We we're thrilled with the generator and were SO excited at the thought of getting a real shower again, until we realized we couldn't have both power AND water since our water source comes from the church. So...Dad LaVan got inventive, and rigged an old push lawn mower found in the woods as a make-shift transport to get the generator up to the church so we could have a shower! :0) Even though it was in the dark (and quite chilly!), it was the best shower we have ever had in our lives! :0)

Our property didn't have a lot of major damage but we did have some trees uprooted or fallen, and a few shingles fly away. My father-in-law and Luke worked hard getting the trees cut down and piled up to burn. We certainly had a time of rejoicing when our power came back on! :0)



Transporting the generator from the church to the house again so we could have power!
TIMBER!!!!

A massive tree at the edge of our woods in the backyard was pulled up by its roots!
Our disaster relief team :0)

VBS at Indiana AWMC

These pictures are from our second VBS of the summer at Indiana Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Barberton Ohio VBS

Miss Mint... from the Peppermint Forest, learned a lesson!


King Kandy crowning Gloppy, Lolly, Miss Mint and Jolly with their crowns of Life!

As promised...pictures of our summer Vacation Bible Schools! These were from the first one we did in June at the Barberton Bible Holiness Church--my home church!

Summer Highlights

It's been FOREVER since I've posted on here, but rest assured, I'm still here! :0) This summer has been one wild ride, and we have been so incredibly busy that my dear blog has had to go by the wayside...however, now that summer is over MAYBE I will once again have the time to keep my blogger friends up-to-date with our crazy life! :0)

As I mentioned in my last post, most of our summer has been occupied with Vacation Bible Schools. We started off the summer by doing my home church (Barberton Bible Holiness) in June, and had a wonderful group of kiddos there. We always enjoy doing their VBS and are SO THANKFUL for all the wonderful helpers that always pitch in wherever they're needed! Those helpers include my wonderful parents who pitched in right along side us; playing the piano, getting involved in the puppet show, encouraging us, and providing a place for us to stay while there! Made us feel right at home! ;0)

Next was my hubby's home church (Indiana Wesleyan Methodist). This was the first year we have done a VBS for them there so that was an interesting experience for both of us I'm sure! :0) Thank you to my in-laws for letting us camp out at their house that week too! :0) Always nice to be "at home" while away from home! Also, we so appreciate their Pastor (Rev. Joe Smith) and wife.

August was a whirlwind month... We started off the month by doing the children services for the Bible Holiness Church family camp in St. Mary's, Ohio. We had a good group of kids to work with there and were thrilled at the great job they did for the program! And...might I add... a SPECIAL thank you to a lady from my home church, Susie, for all the help building, painting, and transporting our props for us this year!! There is no doubt that we couldn't have done this without her help!!!

The following week found us at our conference camp meeting in Stoneboro, Pa. Camp meeting is always a busy time for us as we try to pitch in and help out with some odd jobs around the grounds.

When we arrived home from our camp meeting, we had our churches VBS! By this time, I will admit, we were a little weary in well-doing... However, the Lord helped us once again to deliver the message of "Living the Sweet Life" with Jesus. We we're also excited to see a few new faces among our regular attenders! Normally, we would have ended our VBS with a Program that Sunday morning. However, nature had other things in store for us and we had a Hurricane instead which knocked out our power for 5 days! What a way to "end" our summer! :0) Aren't you glad that our Father in Heaven knows what lies ahead for us and will take us through if we just keep our little hand in his?

This concludes the brief overview of our crazy summer... As promised, I WILL be posting pictures of all of our Vacation Bible Schools SOON!! Check back soon for an update!