Our Tree

 I had a second birthday celebration and made myself cheesecake!  Don't count the candles, it's deceiving.  There should be way more.

Double yolk egg!

At first we thought this huge egg was from one of our ducks but it turned out to be a double-yolked chicken egg! No wonder one of them was yelling so much! :)

Birthday Surprise!

I love this sweater that I got as a present!  Just in time to sport the reindeer for Christmas!

 

I had no idea that I was going to be surprised with a cake and sweets!

I love Oregon leaves!

Another of my favorite things was getting to see all the colors that God paints with the leaves.  This is one of the best things about Oregon!

My Gramma

One of the best parts was visiting my gramma.  She’ll be 92 this month and she still lives in the same house by herself.  I remember playing up in the attic with my cousins with this toy housekeeping stuff that belonged to my Aunt Patty and my mom.
  We used to make up how to play croquet by sticking the wires somewhere and then deciding what color had to go through which way.

 I got to visit my gramma at the senior center where she serves lunch to the seniors every week.  She filled up the butter dishes and someone else put them on tables.  Her job is to toss the silverware into buckets, scrape the plates that are brought over, stack them and take them through the doorway into the dish room.  She does all of this very quickly so that the counter doesn’t get clogged up.  It’s so great that she has this to do every week.  She even goes to an exercise class several times a week too!  My gramma is unstoppable!  She has always been a busy woman with lots of stories to tell because she has lived a lot.  I love hearing about her life in North Dakota on the farm as a kid.  They had prairie dogs for pets!  Her job was to watch the cows and they used to chase the cloud shadows to stay cool and watch the shapes just for fun.  Once she forgot to wrap up one side of her head on the way to school on horseback in the snow and her ear got terrible frostbite. They used to eat potatoes cooked on the coal stove with salt and pepper mixed in some butter that was kept at school.  “We were poor,” she says, “but we had potatoes.  And they were delicious!  We never complained about what we ate.  We were just grateful we got it!.”  I love my gramma.  She is truly an amazing woman. 

 This is the oldest book in my gramma’s house: It belonged to her Uncle Elmer and was given to him in 1889.

This was my great grandpa Jessie’s first grade primer.

And this was my great grandma Nellie’s book at teacher’s college.  It has her seat number 174 written inside.  It’s about flowers and plants, which she loved, so that’s probably why she kept it.

Then I found her blue and red ribbons for winning botany contests at the county fair.  This was after her children were grown of course, when she had time again for this love.

This is my grampa John’s Bible that was given to him by the Presbyterian church of Cloverdale in 1937.  He died when my mom was a teenager so I never knew him.

 This is how you make a craft out of bread.

Love these old vacuum sweepers! 

 Gramma’s tomatoes were rotting on the ground because she’s too cheap to buy those metal cages for them so I showed her how we poor people here do it by driving a stake into the ground and tying the plant to the stake.  She has like a million stakes in her garage, along with a whole bunch of other metal and wooden parts.  And spiders, 60 years worth of spiders.  I used to be absolutely terrified of that garage.

 This is a rock that my sister made for my gramma like 40 years ago.     

 I love that my gramma still has it!  "This is how kids used to amuse themselves before TV and computers and stuff,” says my gramma. :)

  Here’s my sister ordered at the A & W.  It’s the epitome of American laziness, even at a fast food place: you don’t have to get out of your car or up from your table to order. 

 The Root Beer float was something else!  We certainly don’t have those where I live right now!

Young People

When I asked both the mid-school and high-school groups at Norkenzie how many of them were thinking about doing m work or being an m, half of them raised their hands!  I think this speaks volumes about that church and those families and youth leaders who are ministering to them.  If just half the church did m work the whole world would soon know the love of Jesus!
I always love answering their questions about life in a different country and working with people of different beliefs.
I met with several other young people along the way who were interested in m work.  I told them that character is the most important thing.  I told them I was more persecuted in middle school by my friends than I have every experienced anywhere.  And working to be a good friend and obedient child and good sister or brother is the best character building anyone could ever find.  Learning to do hard things when you are young prepares you for the field.

We all have different gifts

While I was at home my favorite thing was getting to see everyone.  I was especially glad to see my sister and my nieces whom I have not seen for several years.  We talk on Skype but being there is different.  I am SO thankful for the time I was given to get to be with them, my parents, family and so many other friends.
We were sitting around on a Saturday night and I told everyone I needed to make a card holder for a bulletin board and right away my youngest niece piped up with excitement, "I can do that!" and set to work folding and taping paper.  I just love to see how God has created each person with different interests and gifts to do all the different things that need being done in the ministry of His church.

Hymn

The last line of these stanzas really spoke to my heart.

Come, Ye Disconsolate

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot heal. 

Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure!
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
“Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot cure.”

Here see the bread of life, see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above.
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heav’n can remove.

Two verses

I just read Deuteronomy 8:16 in the ESV and Moses reminds Israel that God "fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end."

I had remembered the part about the manna and the wilderness being for testing, but I had never noticed this phrase before.  The whole point was to do them good.  Wow, in my wilderness and testing I will have to remember that.

And here's one more:

Jesus says in Luke 10:19 " Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you."  Wow, ALL the power of the enemy.  Not just authority over the enemy, but we have authority over ALL his power!

Growing a Garden

 Some of the first fruits from our garden.

What a cute little watermelon!  It grows about 2 inches every day.

7-Up

It's always fun when you find something that reminds you of the good-ol-times.  Like drinking 7-up and going bowling!

Ants

This is what happens if you leave a pile of wheat on the ground.  It starts dancing!

The race for the ghecko

This is our National-Geographic worthy picture of the chicks chasing their sister to snatch of a piece of gecko meat.

Ode to Ashley

 Ashley's first picture we her mother.  The first one out of the egg.  She's dry and fluffy and the others are still trying to crack their eggs.

And her first picture with me.

 She always would run up to us and want us to pick her up and pet her.

 Yesterday a dog came and grabbed her in his mouth and ran off with her.  She had puppies to feed, but we were very sad.  This is the second Ashley that we've lost.  We prayed that God would send us joy that day and while I was sitting outside this little one came running up to me!  Not sure what we're going to do with it but we fed it outside and played with it.  It had some fun scaring the chickens.

The Lord is my Shepherd

The shepherds bring their sheep to graze in the fields next to our house ever so often and as I said before, living in a place like this, closer to the land, is such a great chance to experience God's Word.

Everytime I saw how the sheep follow their shepherd and would be lost without him, I think of Psalm 23. 

Last week the shepherds accidentally left behind a baby lamb in our field.  We heard it bleating at dark and brought it into our yard and tried to give it some milk with a bottle.  It wasn't too fond of cow's milk but what it really wanted was to be held in someone's arms, warm and safe.

 I thought about that story in 2 Samuel that the prophet Nathan tells David.  There was a poor man who had one lamb that he had raised with his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.  And then the rich man who had thousands of sheep, stole that man's lamb, killed it, and fed it to his guests.  As I held this sweet little lamb, I thought about the distress of that poor man, thinking of those guests eating his precious daughter.  I can see why David got so angry.  And yet he had done the same thing-stolen something so precious to someone else, that could not be returned.  And yet, God forgave him.  That's unbelievable, huge grace.

And I thought about how they used to have to kill lambs for sins and for passover.  I thought about putting my hand on this little one's head, confessing my sin, and then having to kill it.  And I thought about how they had to take care of the Passover lamb, and then kill and eat it, knowing that it's death was providing protection for them.  Incredible saddening, taking an innocent life.  I thank Jesus that He ended that once and for all by being the ultimate sacrifice!

 "He tends his flock like a shepherd:
    He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young." Isaiah 44:11

For the one day that it stayed with us, I carried this little guy every where I went.  And I held it's warm, soft head close to my heart and I thought about how Jesus scoops us up like that and carries us.  Every time I would leave the room, it would start bleating.  It was amazing how quickly it got attached to me.   It didn't ever want to be left alone and was always just looking at me with innocent, completely dependent eyes.

Well, in the end we took it back to it's mother, and she was pretty glad to see her little one again.  But I sure do miss it.

Learning about soil

We began learning first-hand about the different kinds of soil.  First it must be turned up and softened, otherwise, just like in the parable, nothing will grow.  

The Path

We tilled this whole section of field but we have one row that we decided to use as a path and the soil there has gotten packed down as we walk on it.  Now nothing can be planted in that row.  Sometimes people's hearts are like that: it's not that the soil is bad, it's just that they have been walked over so many times that they've become hardened.  But even hard ground like that can be turned into something plant-able with a little elbow-grease!  Nothing is beyond our Lord.

The Rocky Soil

Actually, they told us not to take the rocks out because they feed the plants with minerals, but the parable is talking about soil that has rock under shallow soil.  Before planting we dig down by hand to prepare the spot for the seedling.  Next to our well we hit cement and had to plant somewhere else.  The soil would not have been deep enough there to support the root.

The Thorny Soil

Every time I water our garden I take the opportunity to pull out the weeds around the plants while the soil is wet.  When it's wet it's easier to pull them out, especially if I get them when they're small.  Otherwise you just end up pulling off the leaves and the same weed is back in a few days.  I've seen how these weeds can grow up with your plants and literally choke them.  I caught one that had wrapped its tendrils around my tomato plant and was using it to reach the sun.  The cares of this world are just like that: it's much easier to get them out of your life before they get big and when you are soaked in the water of the Spirit and His Word.  And if you don't, then they will wrap you up and you won't be able to grow.

The Good Soil

Our soil seems to be pretty good here and we are expecting and good crop.  When you first plant things they look like they almost aren't going to make it.  Sometimes the wind blows and soil gets rock hard on the top and the sun beats down on those tiny leaves for days and you think, "how is that little thing ever going to grow enough to be able to give something back." 

God grows us like that.  

 

What starts as just a simple belief in the sacrifice of His Son, and feeble steps to try to do something right, He grows our faith and our impact and we produce fruit for Him.  Only He sees the harvest that is going to come from that little, struggling plant.  So, if your are feeling like a near-scorched seedling, just remember that all fruitful plants started out like that.