Content no more

The little lady’s one year birthday has come and gone (many of you saw pictures on facebook….I didn’t take the time to blog…I know).  She has been just a little delight to our lives and is continuing to make us smile daily at the little personality we see coming through.  For months and months…and months she was the most contented little observer of her surroundings…feeling no need to move toward anything or anyone.  I’ve got to admit, as much as you tell yourself (and hear from others)...“they’re fine….they’ll move when they’re ready…every child goes at their own speed”...you also begin to wonder if your child really is okay…I mean…you know, just a little.  Then finally, slowly but surely, this past week she decided enough was enough and she began to move….crawling…walking along furniture….and is now anything but content to sit in one spot.  I’m so thankful for a healthy girl and that she is branching out of her little one-spot world. 

In the picture she’s pursing her little lips together…and I love, love, love it.  She does this quite often..like it’s her camera face or something.  Just love that little Tava.  She is quite thrilled with her Dada these days and lights up when he walks in the room.  She’s pretty amazed with Truman too even though he still roughs her up once in a while. She’s watching him carefully and he’s still the only one that can make her laugh in just a certain way.

Meanwhile I find myself praying more and more for wisdom in how to point these little ones to our great Savior, so that they too would truly love Him one day.  Honestly, that’s the bottom line.  All of what I do needs to support that goal in some way.  I’m asking God for the ability to weed through the junk that’s just distracting me from the heart of that goal, and give me eyes to see my kids and my responsibility to care for and train them, like He does. 

James 1:5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”

Summer Ministry!

We need to catch you up a bit with the summer happenings at Camp Forest Springs!

Five weeks of Youth Camps began in late June and ended in late July!  Hundreds of youth were served and ministered to from age eight through Senior High.  What a whirlwind it was, especially for our frontline staff such as the counselors - but the work was not in vain! 

A cabin group participating in the high ropes course together - this is not only an incredible team building process, but one that brings out endless spiritual parallels and lessons.

I had the opportunity to attend the end-of-youth-camp staff sharing time.  It was incredible for me to hear story after story how God moved in the hearts of campers and staff.  It’s easy for me to feel removed from the happenings at camp these days simply because my focus and priority is at home.  However, it was so good for me to be reminded that God is always at work, regardless of whether or not I’m aware of it (or a direct part of it for that matter!).  One counselor that night shared of an experience of leading a camper to the Lord and said, “When we really let go and let God use us - that’s where true joy is”.  Another staff member said of his experience serving at CFS, “It’s incredible to come and experience the community here….I feel like God led me into a huge family here.”  All praise to the mighty God we serve!

We are now half way into our Family Camp season which is busy and fantastic in a lot of different ways.  What an incredible blessing to play a part in providing an environment and opportunities for families to reconnect with one another and to meet with their creator away from the busy-ness of everyday life. 

A one-day canoe trip is offered during the family camp weeks.

Mother and daughter enjoying making crafts

Truman has even gotten in on some of the camp fun!  Here he’s enjoying a ride in the “CFS Express” - he really was thrilled.

Just a few more weeks of Family Camps and we pray that hearts would continue to be softened toward him!  We already know of a father who came with his family and trusted Christ for the first time while here at camp - God is moving!  I don’t have any pictures of our Adventure Trips but hopefully will be able to do a post later on those when I do get some….they are an equally critical and life-changing ministry that God uses here at CFS. 

Thanks for taking the time to read a bit about what is happening in our neck of the woods!

Garden Tour 2010

For those of you salivating in anticipation….here you go:

Coming soon….a post on youth & family camps (we’ve hit the ground running with the later you should know), and a special outing with the hubs.  I’ve been slacking big time in picture taking, so I don’t have many!...hmmm….I’ll have to do something about that before I post again. 

Six Years Ago Today…

...I made a commitment to love, honor and cherish this man. 

I think he’s pretty fantastic and here’s why.

He’s hilarious.
He makes food….really good food.
He’s strong.
He fixes things.
He is meticulous.
He gets excited about the simplest things (like seeing a movie in the theater, grilling burgers, and getting an ice cream cone from McDonalds)
He loves being a dad and is amazing at loving our munchkins.
He is an extremely hard worker and does things with excellence.
He gardens.
He cherishes God’s Word and will defend it.
He thinks long and hard before he speaks (who really does this anymore?)
He manages our finances with the utmost care, responsiblity and thoughtfulness (yes, I’m thankful for my ‘saver’ mentality husband!).
He has interests because he likes them..and doesn’t care what other people think of him (which is why you can find ‘Weird Al’ in his music collection).
He loves me and cares for our family with faithfulness.

I am sure that in my humanity I’m not holding up my end of the bargain we entered into six years ago.  All too often I display my selfishness, my sin and my lack of honoring this fine man.  But I also find myself reaching for God’s grace to fulfill my commitment and am thankful it is there, for it’s really the only thing holding any of us together.  Today I praise God for the man He’s given me, and for the grace He offers me to love and honor him the way he ought to be. 

The waiting game….garden style

Things are really growing in our garden these days.  One thing I’m glad we didn’t have to wait too long on was to see the beautiful Zinnias blooming!  We’ve been enjoying lettuce, peas, basil and parsley, but are in the waiting game on much of everything else.  It’s actually kind of a nice spot to be before the storm of harvesting comes.

Even though our tomatoes were hit with blight this year (a fungus that is in the soil and almost inevitably will infect your plant!!), we see lots of tomatoes and have been assured that if we stay on top of picking the blighty leaves, our tomatoes should be largely unaffected - we hope so!

Onions are doing their thing….growing, growing, and now they’re in the process of dying back…a necessarily step in the process before they are ready to pull.  I just LOVE the blossoms at the top of the onion stalks.  They give such texture to the layout of the garden.

We planted green beans this year for the first time!  I’m excited to see so many beautiful blossoms.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year though, it’s that I need to not be so scared to plant stuff in the spring….a few of our crops are a week or so behind because we were a little gun-shy.  This includes our pumpkins….they are growing great…but no blossoms yet!  Hoping they catch up soon.

Ahhhh Dill.  We are thankful it really took off this year because Sam has been inspired to make pickles.  We are gearing up for our picklers to come in soon and busy ourselves with the pickling process.