Visiting Jon for Easter

When Jonathan made the decision to go to Florida for ministry training at Advance, we just knew we'd have to visit him (and the beach) sometime around the cold temps of Missouri. Phillip and I flew down for five days and the dates happened to work out for Easter.

It was a stressful trip, no doubt about it. Stormy plane landings (motion sickness ensues), car towed (the towing-est place I've ever seen!), driving in traffic in a vehicle you're unused to on highways you don't know..... 

But, it was also warm and wonderful to see the place Jon has settled into and meet so many faces he has talked about.

We attended one of Jon's classes with him and were very pleased with the scholarship and content. We got to talk a little with the director Travis and the visiting professor. We also met Mrs. Norma and Mrs. Glorimar who live in the duplexes where Jon lives. They take care of him and he takes care of them. Especially Mrs. Norma who is 97! He reads his Church History book to her out on the porch swing, and she enjoys it immensely.

From class Phillip and I headed to Daytona Beach for a couple of days. We did not spend a lot of time on the beach, but the hotel was lovely with onsite restaurant and coffee. Our room was on the first floor and we had a cabana so we would walk right outside to the pool and the beach and keep our door open to hear the ocean. It was a relaxed time to be together. I got a pedicure. 💖

I did get up in time for the sunrise our last morning. 

I had a beautiful walk down the beach and enjoyed all the different birds in Florida. Shorebirds are so quick and funny.

Very good barbecue on the way back to Kissimmee: Colt's Pig Stand. And later with Jon we ate at 4 Rivers Smokehouse, another we can highly recommend.

We met Jon at his duplex and hung out a little while.

After pizza, we walked down Kissimmee Mainstreet and saw all the shops and whatnots.

Sunday was Easter! I have to say that it's hard to be in the right frame of mind for Resurrection Sunday when you've been traveling. Nothing feels right, at least to me. But we heard an excellent sermon from Jim Book and enjoyed being with Jon on this day. 

Jonathan was teaching the young adult Sunday school class, so we got to sit in and hear him. He did a great job covering the evidences that Jesus actually did die (refuting those who say that he just fainted and came back to life and so never rose from the dead ~ the Swoon Theory). He's part of a great class here. They have a lot of fun, you can tell. 

More of the young adult class.

Jonathan and I went to several parks. He knows how to find the good stuff. They were lovely walks. We saw and heard so many birds! Saw a couple of alligators.

At this park there were a pair of sandhill cranes and their two chicks. They ignored us and continued to hunt for food. Their chicks are brown and blend in so well with the grasses.

Hanging out at Starbucks.

Phoebe and Harrison held down the fort back home. Unfortunately Phoebe got sick, so they didn't get to do much that was fun. Phoebe was the cook though and she kept them fed. Mimi and Papa took them out for Easter lunch, which is wonderful since we couldn't be here. I prepared a scavenger hunt for them to find their Easter treats. Wasn't sure if it would be a dud, but they both said they enjoyed it. We sure missed them!

Amos and Lanaya Elizabeth sent us their Easter picture from their church backdrop which she helped put together. I love her dress.

Lanaya also has her art work set up at the coffee shop she works at. There are three locations and each location displays her work for a month. She's sold several pieces already.

We are back home! I think we're almost caught up on sleep and relaxing back into normal life. So happy to see Jon. We'll see him again when he's back home for the summer.

 

Preacher Boys

Both our boys have gotten to be a part of the Preacher Boys program at church. Jamie started it with older boys and this past year opened it up to younger ones as well. Last night 8 young men from our congregation each gave a 10 minute sermon. It was the first time for five of them, one of those being Harrison. Phillip preached his first sermon at 14, so Harrison has him beat by a few months.

I just want to say that all of these boys made my heart melt last night. I was so proud of them! The 'veterans' of the group were so much more comfortable on stage. The younger ones had thoughtful sermons that were well put together. Their forthrightness was precious. They were not afraid to name sins, talk about hell, and call all of us to repentance and salvation. Harrison chose his own topic which was David and Bathsheba and the consequences of sin. He did a great job having a cohesive sermon around this one topic. 

I've heard stories from Harrison about the boys helping each other with their sermons, giving encouragement and examples and points when someone can't think of what to say. I love that camaraderie. One of the older boys was encouraging the youngest one (9 years old) before it began last night: "Don't be nervous. I've done this before. You just get up there and do it and you'll be fine." 

Harrison's first sermon.

Jamie and Marshall, our preacher and youth minister, are both involved with the preacher boys. They meet together for about an hour before youth group on Wednesday nights. Harrison told me they read a chapter from the Bible (right now they are reading through Timothy), pray, and then work on or practice their sermons or communion meditations. They close again with prayer. His favorite part is that he's working on this with guidance (he's a perfectionist, so this makes total sense). He likes that he's getting speaking practice and learning how to properly teach the Bible. His advice to young preachers is "Project your voice!"

An evangelist (Tom Weaver with The RSM Podcast) interviewed the preacher at Callao Christian Church who has been doing these Preacher Boy meetings for a while now. You might be interested in listening to it to find out how he operates his and see the amazing fruit they've had from it so far: March 6th podcast with Josh Stucki. 

We need preachers. Boys will consider ministry if you talk to them about it and offer them the chance to consider it and if you offer some guidance. Even if all these boys don't become preachers, some of them will. And the others will be ready to lead and teach in their church one day. 

Which reminds me that I might as well bring up Midwest Ministry Training right here as well. It's a college alternative to ministry training that our church is starting (planning to start this August 2024!). You take online classes while apprenticing at a church for longer term than the usual internship. It's very affordable and there are three training churches on board as of right now. We need students, more training churches, and any support churches can give (prayer, financial, spread the word). You can find them on Facebook and also at midwestministrytraining.com. 

Harrison and Silas are way too big to fit on this little electric car ~ they were like clowns trying to hang on. 😆 

Enjoying the Sunshine

It is sunny and 66 outside right now, we had a great Sunday morning at church, and I don't think my mood could be much brighter ~ it's gorgeous!

 

Harrison let Phoebe practice with his BB gun. She hit the can off the box a number of times.

Phillip is preaching in another town this morning, so we just came home and ate leftovers. I thought the variety was funny. Harrison had a cookie and a boiled egg. I had three different leftover meals piled into one bowl. Phoebe made a sandwich with a hunk of bread she brought home from work. (She's not angry, she's just intensely eating her meal.)

We celebrated Paul's 87th birthday last weekend with peach pie (Elayne makes the best peach desserts!).

Silas and Harrison had a huge yard of snow to play in while we were at Mimi and Papa's so that was fun.

Uncle Earl and Aunt Pat, Debbie and Mateo, and Aunt Anita were all here this weekend. I didn't get any pictures, but we sure have a good time talking and eating while they're here.

I attend a ladies' Bible study on Thursday nights. Someone usually makes a cake for each birthday, and this one was for Jennifer W made by Norma. It was a heart cake since it was Valentine's Day. We've been going through Psalms. I enjoy getting together with these ladies.

Harrison and I were at home one evening, and we decided to make clay creations to stave off boredom. 

He made a pulpit.

I made a very sad little piggy. If you had only seen the picture this was based off of, you would indeed realize how sad he is. He was supposed to be cute and cuddly.

Some ladies at church concocted this idea of secretly putting our kids' faces on t-shirts and then showing up at church with them on. Christy got it all set up, and we had a lovely time of fellowship and ironing.

I just put Phoebe's picture this time around. Harrison will get his turn for something embarrassing in the future. Phoebe's friend told her at church that morning what her mom had done with the t-shirt and then asked Phoebe if her mom had one. Phoebe told her that her mom would never do something like that. 😆 Then we revealed our shirts during the church service, and I got a big surprised look from Phoebe. "Mom! Why would you do that?!" Loved it.

It was also the Sunday that the youth cooked and served a meal for the congregation.

Lanaya Elizabeth finished her birthday sweater. I love those colors.

Jonathan sent a picture of him at the rodeo with his Wednesday night group. He's the fifth one down. He had midterms this past week. I can't believe he's halfway through already!

And so we go on to continue another week of school and work and life. 

Remembering Uncle Lee

  Phillip has had quite the week. He was gone three days to San Antonio for his work. Of course his flight was changed (something always goes a little awry with travels it seems) so that he ended up driving home around midnight Tuesday. He finished putting in the heating/cooling system this week. And we had lots of family time surrounding Uncle Lee's funeral.

We celebrated his birthday with Boston Cream Pie at Mimi and Papa's house on one of the coldest days of the year. We also had sewage troubles that day. Unbelievably, we found someone willing to come out and fix it for us. The guy was out all day fixing busted pipes and such in negative something-degree weather. What a blessing!

We're all waiting for cake.

Once we got a good snow, the kids wanted to run out in it barefoot and in blankets to see who could last the longest. I think they both came in pretty quickly. There was no toughing it out for them.

These little dark-eyed Juncos were scratching around the yard for food when the sewage guy was here. I am always amazed when I see little birds out in the coldest weather. They must be made for it. Although Harrison and I did find two frozen birds on the way to our dumpster after one of the coldest nights: a starling and a mourning dove.

Harrison is now the boy at home who does all the outside duties. We appreciated one of the Readings coming out to plow our driveway too. 

One of the things I enjoyed about this snow is how the wind blew it into snow dunes. My parents asked how much snow we got. It was a puzzling question because you could see a lot of grass poking out in the yard, but we also had snow drifts 4 feet high.

I made a little snow man and used Phoebe's woven grass bowl as a hat. I took a picture of Harrison beside it, so I could send it to the newspaper. I figured they wanted to see a kid with a snowman and not me. He and a bunch of other snowmen families were in the newspaper. It's so fun to be part of a small town.

Instead of building snowmen, the kids wanted to dig a tunnel. Which they did. Several times. 

The snow would blow into the tunnel at night or it would collapse; so they dug a tunnel about three times. 

This tunnel was a half circle so that you could crawl through one side and out the other. 

Finished product on the walls (the piping will be covered soon). We have four of these in the main rooms of the house, and I am currently being warmed by the one in the living room; they'll also cool us in the summer. Phillip did a great job getting them in!

After he finished putting in the h/c system, Phillip cleaned out the back porch. This was some of the back porch stuff in the kitchen. 

It gets dirtier and messier before it gets better. Now it's all cleaned up and put away, and the back porch is much better.

Jonathan and two other classmates were given the opportunity to preach a sermon together at the Florida Bible Conference at Kissimmee Christian Church. They did a great job; we got to watch it livestream.

Jonathan also played the part of mascot for the church school's basketball game this week. That's a pretty nifty costume right there. 

And now we get to the part about Papa's brother, Uncle Lee.

Uncle Lee passed away last Sunday. Paul got the phone call while we were eating lunch at the Chinese restaurant. Lee was almost 95 years old and was up and going, driving, visiting all the way to the end.

Paul is 8 years younger than Lee. When they were younger, their dad passed away, and their mom called up Lee and told him, "You've got to help me raise that boy. I don't want him getting into trouble." 

Lee choked up when he told us this, when we first moved here and he came to visit us and the old house. So Lee did a pretty good job keeping Paul on the straight and narrow, I guess. They both turned out to be upstanding men. They farmed together 20 or so years. 

I heard a lot of stories about Lee and the family this past week. So many people came to the visitation and funeral. Neighbors shared food and flowers. Spencer Creek Baptist served plenty of food for the funeral dinner. They were more than generous with their time and hospitality. This was my first time seeing a military graveside service if my memory is correct: three volley salute, taps, the ceremony of folding the flag and presenting it ~ it's very moving. Phillip was a pallbearer and read a Scripture for the service.

Today we had family over for lunch after church since several people were still in town. Just a side note: baking potatoes at 275 for 3 hours is too long. We'd had a little potato explosion when we got home from church. But there were still some survivors that were consumed. Plus, Eric brought over extra food that the Readings and others had given them, so we had quite a feast.

Beautiful Phoebe.

 Collin and Harrison once again engaged in silent activity together.

Ava hung out by herself or with the ladies. She did not want to hang out with the boys.

It was also John's birthday today. Kristy made a birthday cake for him which served as our dessert. Thank you, Kristy, and Happy Birthday, John!

The Gore men represented: 

Eric Wayne, Paul Ashford, Phillip Ashford, John Grayson, Collin Ashford and Harrison Lee. (I love all of their middle names.)