Orange is my favorite color

When got home my flowers had bloomed and are so pretty.

Pictures from the weekend

SIGN OF THE WEEK

How could I resist, it's a little town named none other than Shannon.

The church at Imboden gave us this goody basket.  The kids really loved it (ok so did I) it was full of everything.  Did I mention chocolate?
Here are some pictures from Walnut Ridge.  Some of the Royal Rangers had to have a picture taken with a missionary.  They were cute.
Shannon and more Royal Rangers
Megan
Kids will be kids!  They are really doing well with all the traveling.  I guess you could say they are little troppers!

Friends are special!

Here are my flowers!
Ethan and Megan today

This is the Martins

When Shannon and I went to Springfield this summer we met so many great people.  People that we still keep in contact with today.  It is so great to have friends that know exactly how you feel. It has been 10 days ago today since I had surgery and still not feeling real well.  I am still very sore and tired.  Friday morning I got a very unexpected gift.....flowers!  From a family that we met in Springfield, the Martins.  I don't know what I would do without Angi Martin.  When I feel down and out, I call Angi.  She always listens to me and makes me feel better.  I hope that I do the same for her.  The Martins are on their way to Africa and are itinerating just like us.  It is so good to share our experiences with each other.  They also homeschool and she helped me out with that too.  What would we do without friends?  All of our friends are very special to us and we don't know what to do without them.  

We will be in Imboden tomorrow morning and Walnut Ridge tomorrow night.  We are in Pocahontas right now where we will be spending the weekend.  Please keep us in your prayers as we travel.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs!

We decided that it would be fun to take pictures of our travels through Arkansas.  There are so many little towns that I didn't know existed.  So, every week I will post a picture from a unique little town and see if you can guess where it's at.  Or see if you have ever heard of the place for that matter. 
Check this sign out!

God does talk to 10 year olds!

Have anyone ever been here?
This is for our good friend Chuck. This is God's country!
This is River of Life  Assembly of God in Valley Springs Arkansas

This is Pastor Mike, a very good friend of ours.
Where do I begin?  One of our services for last Sunday got cancelled on Saturday night so, we had to make some last second changes.  We ended up going to Harrison for the Sunday morning service.  Listen to this amazing story......Saturday night (on the way home from our missions convention) our kids were really upset.  Not so much Ethan but Megan.  They were asking questions like, why do we have to be missionaries?, why do we have to go to a country that we have never been to?, Why?, Why?....  Megan was really upset and I know a lot of it was she was just tired.  Our lives stay in overdrive and I think it caught up with her.  When we got home we sat down and had a long talk with her.  Believe me, this is the hardest part of being missionaries, making sure your kids are happy with all the unknowns.  I also explained to her that sometimes we girls just get sad for no reason.  That is how girls are made....moody.  Before she went to bed I told her about the verse in the bible that says weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning.  When I was blow drying her hair the next morning I told her that she should ask God if this was what she was suppose to be doing.  I explained to her that God does talk to people and he answers our questions.  If its through the word of God or by someone else, God does answer us.  I left it at this, you just pray about it and God will give you an answer and will give the peace that you need.   Then, we headed to Harrison.  To make a long story short, as soon as Sunday school was over Megan came running to me and she said "you will never guess what scripture is on the board in the children's church"  I said, what?  She said "weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning"  She said I think that was for me mom.  That was her confirmation from God and she knew it as soon as she seen it. To make this even better we found out that that scripture was last weeks scripture.  The children's church teacher said that God had told her to use that scripture again for this week. She didn't understand why but, she did it anyway.  She said that it didn't even go with her lesson but that's what God told her to do.  To make this all the more interesting we were not even suppose to be there that morning.  Or, maybe we were.  Maybe it was all in God's plan.  I believe with all my heart that God put us in that place just for Megan.  Let me tell you what Ethan said about the whole thing, he said "He really is real".  So many times we take for granted that our kids know Him and how he works but they don't.  Just because we take our kids to church every time the door is open doesn't mean they know God.  If we don't teach them that God does talk to us how will they ever know?  It is all about a relationship not about religion.  I want my kids to have a relationship with God and to know that they can have a two way conversation with him.

As for me, I am recovering well from the surgery.  I had an inch of bone removed from my neck/throat.  I didn't even have to spend the night and I was so excited about that.  I took my bandage off today and the incision is about 3 inches long.  I would post a picture but, that might gross some people out so I wont.  I can tell you this, this surgery was 100 times easier than the tonsillectomy.  

We are heading to Harvey Arkansas (never been there before) for the a.m. service and then to Texarkana for the p.m. service.  Right down there with all the evacuees from Texas.  Please keep us in your prayers.  As of right now I plan on going, we will see.

Weekend Schedule

These pictures are at the uth workers conference in LR.  She looks like she is freezing to death!
Doesnt E look like he is having so much fun?
Me and Meg
We have been really busy this last week.  We didn't have any electricity for a couple of days so, we went and spent a couple of nights with my aunt in Hot Springs.  Today, we are at a youth workers conference in Little Rock and tonight we will be at a missions convention at Happy Valley. Tomorrow morning we will be at Pottsville and then Valley Springs tomorrow night.  It seems like we are packing ALL the time.  

I finally got my curriculum picked out and ordered for the homeschooling.  I didn't realize that there was so much to choose from.  Thanks to everyone that gave me your advice.  That's really helps when you have no idea what you are doing.  We had some friends that gave us all the books for Ethan and saved us about 450.00.  Praise the Lord!  The kids are really excited about being homeschooled.

Please remember me next Wednesday, I will be having surgery at 8:00 a.m.  Just say a prayer for me.

Battle of the burgers/PK retreat

We were in Muldrow Ok tonite where they had the 4th annual battle of the burgers and Shannon spoke.  Battle of the Burgers is a competition between Muldrow and Roland's football teams.  They see which team can eat the most burgers in ten minutes.  It was a lot of fun!  In the first picture these are cheerleaders from Roland.This is Morgan and Megan

All the burgers and lots of water.  You should have smelt all those burgers, it made me want to gag!



This is Shannon and Michelle, his first cousin.  They have been really close since they were little.  We love her very much!  Her and her husband pastor Muldrow First.
Switching channels....this was my group from pk retreat.  
Ethan sitting with the boys at pk retreat

Ok, as you can tell these pictures are out of order but, I dont want to take the time to fix them.  This is at Muldrow again.

Look at all these stinky burgers!