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.