Jack has never been ice fishing before, so I asked if he would like to come with.  He was thrilled! 

After about two hours on the ice, we had caught nearly 30 good sized bluegills.  Several of them were even over 10 inches! 

Jack - learning from the master

Lauren was bummed that she couldn’t join the Guy Time, but she did help us clean the fish at the end of the night.

For what has been the past 10 years, Jesse and I have tossed around the idea of possibly adopting.  Well these last few years in particular the Lord has been pressing that thought more and more on our hearts.  We have felt the knock becoming louder and louder and thought it time we stop ignoring it and open the door. 

So as of a few weeks ago, the first set of papers (which will soon be many I am sure) arrived at our house for us to begin the home study process which is the first step towards adoption.  We have started talking with the kids about what adoption is, what it means, how the Lord has adopted us as his sons and daughters, and it has really been such a neat process so far.  And we have only just begun!

There is a long road ahead of us, and from what we hear that most often times involves waiting.  We ask that you would pray with us!  We are trusting God for a lot of unknowns in this process but are so excited to see what He is going to do!  We’ll try and keep you updated as we go. 

Over the past two weekends we presented our annual dinner theater on six nights, to over 100 people per presentation!  One of the staff members, Matt Hoffland, has written and directed these productions for the past number of years.  This year’s was set in a retirement home and told the story of Louie, a cynical man, who was formerly a Vaudeville stage performer.  The three men in the retirement center were asked to reunite and do a performance for their fellow residents.

Along with a lot of humor, songs, and dancing, Louie was impacted with the fact that his life was nearing its end.  Fritz, one of the residents was able to connect with Louie and share the Gospel with him.  It was a really touching performance!

At the end of the show, Matt was able to come on to the stage and use elements and quotes from the show to clearly present the Gospel to the guests.  For some reason it was very meaningful for me, I was the sound and lights technician, to be part of such a poignant presentation of what God and Christ have done for us.  In my job I click the mouse and type an awful lot, so it was special to feel a part of the message of Christ being shared!

Here is a video clip of one of the dance routines in the show!  Enjoy!

It was a lot of fun to work with the staff on this project!  Plus, since I wan’t behind the camera lens, there actually were some pictures of me working!  (Thanks Laura Viol!)

Moving insulation

Working with my buddy Sam on the “Scuttle Hole”

Watch those fingers!

Some pictures of the process….

Measure twice and cut once right guys! 

The weather was for the most part just beautiful.  A great weekend to work on the roof!

It is coming!

In the morning we thought it would be fun to take the family on a voyagers breakfast.  It is something we do for the campers at family camp each year.  So, we loaded the entire family into ONE massive canoe (this one canoe can hold up to 18 people) and paddled to a campsite at camp and cooked flam burritos!  It sure was fun!

I have not yet taken a finished picture but plan to do so soon.  Thanks to everyone for the help and the awesome food that you all brought as well.  We truly felt blessed in SO many ways!

Anyway, we enjoyed corresponding through email and then when the time came we surprised each other with our gifts.  It was a fun surprise and turned out each of us made the other a purse.  She did a great job on mine and picked the perfect colors that I would naturally gravitate towards.  She blogged about the bag she made for me here if you’d like to see what I received.

For her I followed a tutorial that I found over here at “The Boy Trifecta” (another craft blog I found).  The tutorial was pretty straight forward and the bag came together quite easily (just time consuming).  I think if I were to make this bag again I would shorten the strap a bit.  I made it long to be able to be worn across the chest or also over one shoulder if tied in a knot.  I like mine to go just over the shoulder so I would probably make my straps shorter if it were for me.  But hopefully Lisa liked it the way I did it! 

Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished bag that I made…

For the exterior I used a slate grey velvet material that I had in my stash. 

For the lining I used one of Jesse’s dress shirts he had in his closet (don’t worry I asked!) and just used the existing pocket on the front of the shirt for the pocket in the bag.  I also found out that one of my partners favorite Bible verses was Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile”.  So, I fired up my Silhouette (a die cutting machine) and cut myself some letters out of heat transfer, grabbed some grosgrain ribbon and ironed them on, and then sewed that to the top of the pocket. 

All in all I had a great time sewing something special for someone I’ve never met.  I am so thankful that the Lord allows me to use sewing in my life as a means to glorify Him! 

We continue to pray that our kids would accept Jesus as their savior soon and we are so grateful that our church is doing their part as well to try and reinforce that hope.  As I was standing in the back of the room waiting for them to dismiss the kids the other day I heard our pastor talking to the group of kids (maybe 50 or so) about how simple it was to be a Christian, yet how important that decision is for eternity.  He also was sharing to those who were already believers the importance to share that faith with your friends.  I was encouraged, and I only heard the last 5 minutes when I came to pick her up! 

A friend took some pictures for me today of Lauren’s pre-school group.  Here are a few to share….

Lauren with one of her friends, Leah

Working on a craft

Game time

The pre-school group

Then we headed down to the water front and loaded the kids in the boat.  Low and behold after the first cast Jesse and Lauren caught a fish.  Jack and I weren’t too far behind but it did take us a few more casts than one!  We enjoyed the evening together and caught a handful of sunfish and blue gills.  Now that the day is gone the kids have been talking about when we get to go fishing again.  We are so grateful for these moments that we can share with our kids and grateful also for a camera to help us remember those precious times.  Here are a few pictures of our adventure!

The first catch of the day.  Lauren was SO excited.

Though his face doesn’t show it here he was excited to get a fish also!

My dear sweet Avie.  What a joy she is to have around.  Give her a few years and she’ll have a pole in her hand too! 

Once in the ER, I was taken in for a CT scan.  The radiologist confirmed that I had one kidney stone in my right kidney and it was about 5mm in size.  According to the Dr. that is right at the threshold of what a person can pass on their own.  So he prescribed some pain killers and some meds to help with the nausea.  We went back home and spent the rest of the night trying to manage the episodes.  They would range from 20 minutes to over an hour in duration.

Friday and Saturday were spent much the same as Thursday night.  But on Sunday morning the episodes became too strong to bear, so we headed back in to the ER (Thank you to Laura H for coming and keeping Jack and Lauren entertained!).  As this was our second trip to Medford, they immediately put in an IV and upped the strength of my medication.  That helped quite a bit in me getting comfortable.  After a few hours on the IV, they prescribed a tougher narcotic, scheduled an appointment with Urology in Wausau, and sent us on our way.

Right away in the morning on Monday we contacted the Urology department and traveled down to the hospital for x-rays and consultation.  After some conversation with the Dr. we decided the best approach would be to have an outpatient surgery as soon as possible.  So at 2:30 I was prepped and soon after the IV went in, it was lights-out for me!  The surgery was only about 50 minutes and they were able to remove the entire stone.  They did place a stent in one of the ureters, and so I will have to have that removed later this week.

At this point I’m feeling much better, without any of the painful episodes like before.  However, I’ve been immobilized for a few days, so moving around is a bit slow.  I’m sure that will change quickly over the next few days.

Again, thank you for your calls and prayers - It’s been an experience that opened a whole new threshold of pain for me.  I don’t know how I could have endured without the Lord, my wife’s patient care, and your thoughts.

PS - DRINK YOUR WATER!!!

This time is no different.  It seems as if we were just on the ski hill working with kids from churches, schools, and youth groups.  Now we are preparing for our 7th summer of ministry at Camp Forest Springs.  The snow is gone, and the leaves are beginning to bud out.  I’m not sure I’m ready for this!  But, ready or not, here they come!

We still have a number of openings in our summer youth camps, so if you, or someone you know would like to come and join us for a week that is sure to be life-changing, check us out on the website.  Speaking of which… I’m still busy working on building the presence of Camp Forest Springs online.  We are continually working to improve the information and process of learning about Camp through our website.  Online registration, facebook, and internal computer web systems are always needing improvement!  I really appreciate the opportunity to serve the Lord in this way.  Thank you for helping make it possible.

Finally, here is a quick video that we put together to get the younger kids thinking about youth camps.  Enjoy!