Works of God Monday

What a big day today was for us! We took our "baby" and dropped her off in the middle of the Mojave desert for summer camp. I know Emma is not a baby anymore, but it is hard to believe that she is now the age of a junior camper. I am so glad that she has this opportunity. God provided through a couple of different ways for her to be able to go to camp this year. We praise Him for working out all the details. I know that this will be a fun week for Emma, and I pray a time for spiritual growth in her life. We were excited to get to meet the speaker, counselor, and several other staff members at camp today. It was nice that we didn't have to drop her and rush off. The workers were so welcoming and kind. They drove us down to the cabin area where we were greeted with lots of excitement. We were able to get Emma settled in her cabin. She was the first camper in that cabin to arrive, so she was able to pick out her bunk bed (top, of course) and then unpack a few things out of her suitcase. I hid a card in her sleeping bag after she got it set up on the mattress and was looking around at things with Olivia. :-) Speaking of Olivia, she is definitely missing her big sister already! Our girls' lives changed so much this year, and they have grown so close to one another. It's been a wonderful blessing. They always have been sweet to each other and played well even in MI. Now they are homeschooled and in a very small church with no kids their ages yet, so it's created a deeper bond between them. It will be interesting to see how things are around here this week, but I have some plans with Olivia. I'm going to enjoy some special time with her that we don't often get to have by ourselves.

I had our camera with me today, so I snapped some pictures before we left:


A true Western experience!


Excitement and nervousness all running through her. . .


The cabin she'll "call home" this week.


Posing with Miss Elizabeth, her counselor


Setting up the bunk bed she chose


Beautiful scenery around the camp!


Kris and Olivia stopping to pose during our exploration of the camp.


This is part of the room where Emma will be for services.


Here is where the kids eat their meals.


Emma can hardly wait to ride a horse! I tried to snap a quick pic on our bumpy jeep ride back to the parking lot and got a bit of the seat in there.

A Year of Change

Aaaah! How did almost a whole week go by? I told you last Monday that I was hoping to do more posting about this last year. Well, tomorrow we send Emma off to summer camp for the first time, so that kind of consumed me all week. I can't believe she is already old enough to be a junior camper! She and I had a very special day yesterday. We went to lunch at Panera Bread and then had frozen yogurt at Cherry on Top, one of our new favorite places. There were a few more things we needed for camp, so we went over to Target. I bought her a pack of disposable cameras to use this next week, so we can see all the fun of camp. BTW, Olivia looked at one of the cameras and said to me, "Did you show Emma how to delete the ones she doesn't want off of this kind?" hee hee I told her that it was not a digital camera but one with film. She looked at me like I was nuts, so I tried to explain film to her. She then wanted to know where you see the picture. I guess I really am getting old and kids are just so used to the technologies of today.

So back to the memories. . .It is exactly one year ago today that we pulled into CA to call it HOME! I can remember crossing the border and talking with Kris and the girls about being in our new state and how weird that sounded. We were finishing our cross-country drive and about to stop. . . and stay. . .not head back this time. There was a lot of excitement, nervousness, and heaviness in our hearts all at once. My own thoughts--I was so far away from everyone, besides my immediate family, that I knew and loved and was now in the most different of places I had ever lived. I had never been to CA before in my life until just several months before, and now it would be my home. There was no question in my mind that this was right, as different or weird things may be, and that God had clearly led us to CA. What a calm that brings to the nerves and comfort to the heavy heart--saddened to have left good friends and family on the other side of the US! The excitement and desires only grow when the thought comes back that this is about God and His glory, and what a wonderful opportunity to be part of His kingdom work in this part of our country! Well we got to our hotel, thanking the Lord for giving us safety across thousands of miles and asking Him for grace and strength, as Kris would start his first Sunday as pastor of Heritage Bible Church the next morning.

So much has happened since that first Sunday in our new church here. I will try in the days ahead to hit the highlights of things God has done and what He is teaching us. I have spent some time this week going through pics and even some short videos I found on my phone of our trip across the country. First though, I will go back to the final service and farewell given to us in MI. Here are the memories of saying goodbye at Calvary that the Dumonts so sweetly captured for us:


Sunday evening--our last choir number (I choked through it!) Wow--after further review, it looks like the picture was shot either right after we stood to begin, or during an interlude. Those faces were not typical of our expressions during singing. ha ha


Kris leading the congregation (background shows proof of my "choking")


We sang "Jesus Paid it All" and this time KRIS choked! Oh, and what is the dead give away that we were living in MI and NOT the CA sun yet? Yikes!


Kris got to play one last time on the borrowed euphonium.


My dear friend, Deb, presented me with gorgeous roses from the church.


Pastor Dan and Pastor Mike presented a beautiful, etched glass plaque to us.

Works of God Monday

Today has been a good day of reflection for me. It was a year ago today that we had our final service at Calvary Baptist Church in Midland, MI. God allowed us to serve four years at Calvary and then made it very clear to us that He wanted us to move to CA. I am thankful for those years in MI. Personally, MI holds a special place in my heart, since that is where I was born and raised. We lived two hours North of where I grew up, and I still have extended family members in the Detroit area that I was able to see at times. We enjoyed Thanksgivings and other fun times with aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was so nice for my parents and sister's family to come up to MI from SC. We were a day's drive away then, and of all places for us to have moved to, my family was glad it was MI. They could come see us AND visit with their siblings and friends that they have there. Well, that has all changed and we struggle with that emotionally at times, but Kris and I would not want to be anywhere that God doesn't want us. I know my sister and my parents feel the same way. God makes no mistakes. His ways are perfect. We know life is about Him and His glory, and we want to live out that truth! We are humbled to be part of His work here in SoCal.

It is really neat to look back at what God did in our hearts while serving at Calvary. He taught us many things about Himself in new ways, things about ourselves, and much about ministry in new ways as well. We thank Him for the variety of experiences He gave us both in SC for 8 yrs. at Grace Bible Church and for the 4 yrs. in MI. The ministries and responsibilities/positions at those churches were quite different, and we pray that God will use those experiences to help us here in CA.

The friendships we made in Midland are very special to us. I have missed those people a lot! Today especially brought out emotional times for me, as I thought about how God brought different people into our lives and allowed us to minister to them and alongside them. In so many ways, they ministered to us too. I'm thankful for the way that those relationships continue today.

I think that I will try to post more often in the next two weeks and share somewhat of "a year in review" broken up into several posts. You wouldn't want me to do it in one. Ha ha I will add some pictures of the last year in there as well. As my friend, Jenny, said today, "A picture is worth a thousand words!" and that should cover some of it. :-) I guess the posts I've done in the last year really tell a lot of the story too. There is much to praise the Lord for! A passage of Scripture that our family has memorized this year is this:

Psalm 34:1-3

1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh,magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

God has truly done great things! Thank you for your prayers for us over this year. I can't tell you how much they are still appreciated.

My Baby is Growing Up!

Last Thursday morning, I was the last one to wake up. My family all came into the bedroom and were being very sweet in waking me. I hadn't really opened my eyes much, but Kris knew I was coherent enough, and I heard him say, "OK, go ahead and show her." As I opened my eyes, I saw a shocking sight! Olivia's sweet face was right in mine, but she had a whole NEW look. I gasped, and everyone started laughing. I knew her front teeth were wiggly some, one more so than the other, but I thought it would still be a little while before one came out. Not so! Olivia had asked Kris to try to pull it a bit earlier that morning, but he couldn't get it. She went ahead and worked on it, and she pulled it out herself! I don't think I was ready for HER to change like this. It seems Emma just had all this happening, but I guess that was three years ago already. . .I'm cherishing the moments, 'cause they are flying by!

A few more pics

We drove to a ridge where we could park and look down over the lake community that was doing the fireworks display. The sky was changing so fast, but you can get a little bit of an idea of the mountains all around and the lake down below.


Enjoying the beautiful evening--landscape and weather were amazing. No jackets needed on this 4th of July!


The kids had fun playing Uno while we waited for the fireworks to start.


Eric and Alicia True


I couldn't get very many good pics, but this one turned out pretty well of one of the cool shapes the fireworks exploded into that night.

Pics from the 4th

Well, I know it's been a week or so since I wrote about our fun time with the Trues on the 4th. I mentioned I would post pics from our time together. Here they finally are:


Alicia and me


Eric and Kris getting ready for a game on their Wii


The kids loved playing the Wii too.


I found Olivia out in the backyard playing by herself. She is content to go do things alone.


Our two with their two. Here is where you start to see Olivia coming out of her shell.


We couldn't do any kind of fireworks here because of the fire hazard, but we could do those pop-its, so the kids had fun throwing them.


Ready? One, two, three!


Kris came out and had to get in on the action too. :-)


My sweet girls!

Works of God Monday

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend celebrating Independence Day. Kris started the day off around the breakfast table with the girls, asking them what they could be thankful for that day. Emma said, "That's Thanksgiving, Dad. This is the 4th of July!" Ha ha We are still working as parents and hope our kids will live in daily thanksgiving for so many things. Kris shared with the girls about the Declaration of Independence, and Olivia informed me later, when being quizzed about her morning "lesson" that the "Decoration of Pendence" was signed over 200 yrs. ago. Hee hee She still says those cute little things that make us crack up. She is growing up though, so her words and phrases are right most of the time now. That makes me sad sometimes.

Well, I am so thankful that I live in America. As crazy as things are in this country, and as concerned about several things as I am, I love my country. Peace comes to my heart when I remember that God is sovereign over what is going on around us. It is a privilege to stand for Truth and make our voices still heard as Christians in this land, but I know in the frustrations of things that ultimately God is in control, and I trust Him (Prov. 21:1). He is so loving and merciful. It is an awesome privilege to be free! For the past year I have been reading a devotional book by Beth Moore that is basically a compilation of missionaries all over the world sharing testimonies after each Scripture reading for the day. What a great reminder of all we have to be thankful for in America, specifically the freedom to own Bibles and worship when, where, and how we believe!

We have never had a 4th of July in CA, so we weren't sure what we were going to do. We did find out it would be very different in that it is illegal to do any kind of fireworks, even sparklers because of the fire danger here. That was a real bummer. We always do fireworks for the kids. There aren't big shows like we've been used to either. Oh well! It's still a great place to live. :-) Anyway, the few families in our church all had plans to be out of town on the 4th. We ended up going to Menifee and having a wonderful dinner with the Trues. They are going to plant a church in Rancho next fall. They are currently working with the Lovegroves. The Trues live just barely over a half an hr. from us, so it was great to enjoy fellowship with them and have fun together. We are allowed to do those "pop its" that the kids can throw, and my girls brought some bubbles in Patriotic containers that someone gave them, so they and the Trues' boys had fun with that outside. They enjoyed playing with the Wii for quite a while too. I will try to get my pics off the camera and on the computer soon. Anyway, they knew of some fireworks not too far away from them, so we went up on a ridge and looked across the valley at the fireworks from there. The mtns. were so clear that day, and before the sun went down, the views were just gorgeous. Kris and I laughed on the way home that the fireworks were done before 9:30 PM. They don't even start until 10 PM in MI, and they last a pretty long time. We still really enjoyed seeing them here, and overall it was just great to get together with new friends and have a fun evening.

Well, a new week has begun. I hope you have a great one! I am looking forward to having another post-op this Wed. Please pray it goes well for me. I have a couple of minor concerns, but mostly I am doing very well. Praise the Lord!