Happy Valentine's Day!

I made this card for my parents and then saw the option to post it, so I thought I would share it with you too. :-) I am most thankful for my Heavenly Father's love, and then my family's and friends' as well! I am also thankful for the opportunity to love back. I miss so many of you and hope you have a wonderful day celebrating the loved ones in your lives.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Works of God Monday

I come to this post tonight with a very heavy heart. While that is true, and I will explain why, I also know that God is still at work. I may have chosen to make each Monday the day to share of His working, but He is always working. He never slumbers nor sleeps. He makes no mistake. God does not turn His head and miss something that is going on. It is in these truths and many others found in Scripture that bring a peace in the midst of our storms. We can trust our sovereign God while going through unbelievable circumstances and pain. Again Prov. 3:5-6 comes to mind, along with many other verses that I can't begin to list right now.

Last night we received the sad news that one of the teens at Calvary Baptist Academy, the ministry we just moved from, was found yesterday afternoon unconscious. His mother and sister found him. 911 was called, and Grant Neeb was taken to the hospital. Grant showed no brain activity and underwent an unsuccessful surgery to relieve pressure on his brain in hopes that there would be a positive change. He was on life support, but no hope was given that this young man would be able to live on his own. The decision was made today to remove Grant from the life support. Unfortunately, the cause of death was an accidental overdose to mixing narcotics that he was trying. Grant was only 17 yrs. old. Please pray for his mother, Diane, his sister, Faith, and many other family members and friends who are touched deeply right now by this tragedy. Diane works at the school and is involved at the church. She is surrounded by people who love her and are aching for her right now. Pray for a special measure of grace poured out on her by our great God. As Kris and I have experienced, God's grace is sufficient for the unimaginable trials of life. There is no hope in anything or anyone else than in our God. The pain is real, and it is deep, but our God is bigger than it all.

Kris has been memorizing Psalm 42 and found that so appropriate to meditate on today in light of the circumstances. Also, we had opportunity to talk of many aspects of what happened to Grant with our girls today, particularly Emma. She and I had a good time of sharing tonight after she went to bed. Kris and I love the book Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp. We've talked about the "circle of blessing" diagram with Emma and the importance of obedience and righteous living before God. Specifically we have dealt with lying, sneaking, etc. in the past. We've shared with her that it is only through God's grace that we can do right, and she has to make the choice to trust in Him for that help. When we start doing things in our own strength and leave God out of the picture, we find ourselves out of that circle of blessing and in a place of danger. We need loving correction and discipline to bring us back to the place of blessing. God's glory is at stake, and we were made for His glory. I wish I had not learned the hard way in these areas when I was younger. . . . I am praying for Emma to learn faster and better! The consequences of sin are devastating. We went down that road tonight, and I shared with her that when Daddy and Mommy are so serious about learning things while she's young, part of it is because the consequences are usually much bigger and far-reaching when we are older and have formed wrong habits. Emma asked me to pray with her tonight as I was about to leave her room. She shared her heart with me about wanting to do right, and together we went before the Throne!

Grant was a senior at the academy this year. I know that kids, not to mention the teachers and others, at the school are reeling with all that has happened. But, I know that God can work good out of this. We look forward to hearing again how God works in a bad situation to bring about good for His glory. Pray for a great working in the lives of all those involved and/or affected by Grant's death. May Jesus Christ be praised this week, as we hear of His working!

Same Blog, Simplified :-)

Okay, so the "Happy New Year" blog background was just annoying me, so sorry if it's been annoying you. I really liked it at first. I LOVE red! I just made things look too busy. Well, I've calmed things down a bit, so I hope you like it. :-)

I hope you also like the pics of our wonderful, little dog, Bailey. The girls have just been thrilled to have her in our home (me too!). She was an unexpected Christmas blessing from my sister-in-law's neighbor. We were GIVEN Bailey while we were on Christmas vacation in CO! She is NOT some mutt either. She is a beautiful, miniature yorkshire terrier, who is in wonderful physical condition and has been fully trained. What a blessing! Her adjustment to being with us has gone so well. Traveling from CO to CA was no problem at all for her, and she has just adapted and fit right in with us. We're so thankful for her (and Daddy's saying "Yes"). :-)

Works of God Monday

Today, I am thankful that God is patient with me. Don't you wish we would struggle with something just once, learn from it, and then never have the same problem again? Hah! Wouldn't we become too self-sufficient though and stop depending on God? I don't want to go it alone in this life! God's ways are always the best. I look at the verse above, under the title of our blog, and I am convicted once again--stop looking at the circumstances that don't make sense, are tough, unwanted even, etc. and get my mind stayed on God! Oh that I would see our faithful, unchanging Rock and rest peacefully in His sovereign will. This is what needs to happen in the everyday, mundane stuff of life--a homeschool day not going according to plan, stiff/painful muscles that don't want to move well, running out of time to do something fun, or whatever it is that just isn't going my way!

Do we really see God in the "small" things? He is there. He is using it all for our good and His glory. It matters to Him. Romans 8:26-39 Oh Lord, conform us to your Son, and give us the grace and strength through Him!

Thankful for Mom Stephens

Today marks nine years since my mother-in-law went home to be with Jesus. She was an amazing woman who was such a great example to me of a wife (a pastor's wife at that :-) ), mother, and servant for the Lord. I so wish that my girls could have known her, that I could have gotten to know her better, and that Kris still had his mom, but I know God's ways are always best. He makes no mistake! I would have never wanted her to continue suffering in her battle with cancer. We were fortunate to have her for over 3 more yrs. after her cancer diagnosis. What we do have are pictures, stories to tell, and even some video to remind us of her and share who she was with our girls. Our girls have a godly heritage that we desire to pass on. While I write this post through tears, I am reminded that we don't grieve as others who have no hope. I Thessalonians 4:13-14. Mom is with her Lord and Savior. We are not sad for her. We get sad for us because we don't have her here anymore, but who would want to take her from the presence of the Almighty to this sinful world again? I look forward to the time when we will worship God purely with her one day around the throne.

God is good, ALL the time!

Here are some pictures of Mom that Karmen posted on facebook today.

Works of God Monday

Sorry it's taken a while to update anything. God is definitely at work, and we are thankful for Who He is! Amazingly, today marks 6 months from the day we "pulled into town" here in CA. It is hard to believe in a lot of ways that we've already lived out here for half of a year, but in other ways, it seems like we've been gone from MI for a lot longer. I would like to write more of what is going on here, but I'll just share a few thoughts about things I've thanked God for in the last couple of weeks.

First of all, we had ANOTHER earthquake since we have been in CA. This one was much closer to us, and although it was a 4.5 instead of a 5.4, it was louder, longer, and a bit more concerning to me! Kris and I were watching football. I heard this rumbling sound and looked up toward the ceiling. The girls were playing in one of the bedrooms above us. For a split second I thought, "What are they DOING?" Then it "hit" me! Kris and I literally got jolted a bit on the couch, which is against an exterior wall. It sounded and felt like something hit the house. Our CD tower began to sway and the CDs were rattling. The grandfather clock was shaking too. I said, "OH NO! Kris, get the girls!!!" The girls were already on their way down those stairs and "wimpering" a bit. The really cool thing is that the earthquake was already subsiding and Kris said, "Girls, what's our Bible verse for this week?" We had started memorizing Isaiah 41:10 as a family just 4 days before! It says, "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous, right hand." What wonderful timing God had in drawing us to this particular verse that we had been meditating on and discussing together all week.

Second of all, we did have a visitor come two Sundays ago as a result of getting one of our door hangers. She is an elderly woman who lives close by, and we had a good time of talking with her. She was not able to come back yesterday, but we hope to have more contact with her soon. Unfortunately we did not have any other visitors yesterday, but we are getting 5,000 more door hangers soon and will continue going through the area with those. Thank you for your prayers for these efforts and our need for God's leading in the ministry here. I can't tell you what a phone call, quick comment on the blog or facebook, a card or email has meant to us to know you are praying. God is good, ALL the time! We need to remember that tomorrow (and everyday) when "the wrong seems oft so strong," as the song "This Is My Father's World" reminds us. God IS the ruler yet!!!

The Beautiful End to 2008

We were able to go to Zion National Park in Utah on our way home from Colorado. We stayed in Springdale, UT. Our plan was to get there a lot earlier than we did, but travel across the Rocky Mtns. was VERY slow. It wasn't because of the weather--that was amazing and perfect for travel. We just were in major ski traffic from just north of Denver, all the way to Vail! It was Mon., and the last week of vacation for everyone. The mountains had gotten dumped on the week of Christmas, but the week after was a little warmer with clear, sunny skis. We saw tons of skiers! Anyway, it made us get to our hotel in UT at about 10:30 PM. I could tell by the last 30 mins. of our drive that we were probably in some beautiful area, based on the climbing and curving we were doing. We just couldn't SEE the beauty at the time. Well, here is the view we woke up to out our hotel room window the next morning:

I did nothing to enhance the photo, change the color, or anything. Isn't this amazing?!? We were just in awe the whole day as we drove and explored the national park. The beauty of God's creation all around us was breathtaking! We had such a wonderful time as a family, and Kris and I were excited to talk of God's power and majesty with our girls. For additional pictures of what we saw and experienced in the park, you can go to my facebook album by clicking here. Enjoy!

Works of God Monday

I am so excited to share with you some wonderful blessings that happened yesterday. I mentioned to you in my previous post that we were going to be going out into area neighborhoods to pass out door hangers. You can see a picture of what they look like here in this post. I also mentioned that Tim Lovegrove's church, Grace Bible Church, in Menifee was going to be involved in helping us hang these. Well, the Lord knew that Kris and I needed some extra encouragement, and He certainly did exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ask or think. Isn't that just like our great God? There was quite a group that showed up from Grace--8 families represented, I was told! Pastor Tim even brought stacks of tracts with our church information on it, which was a special surprise to us.

Kris was looking forward to the first Sunday of the new year and being able to present our theme of knowing our God. He preached from Phil. 3. The new SS study I mentioned last post was starting yesterday too. Well, we were down in numbers dramatically yesterday for SS and church--12 of us. Some were still out of town, and we had no visitors show up. That was somewhat discouraging. We also had a potluck planned for after the service. Only the Fox family and our family were able to stay for the lunch, but we had a wonderful time. Between us and the group from Grace, all 1,000 door hangers were distributed in the Grand Terrace community near our church. Praise the Lord! I've not been on that side of the church much at all. We live the other direction and do most everything further into Riverside. It is an amazing community nearby. I've driven near there on the freeways. I just had not been IN the neighborhoods. Our goal was just to go from door to door hanging the information on a knob and then move on to the next house. There was some interaction with people that I heard about afterward, and one man was able to be given the Gospel. Please pray that people will come visit in the weeks ahead as a result of yesterday's efforts. Thank you so much!

OK, bear with me, 'cause I know I can write long posts. . . .One other special thing that happened last night was that we took the girls to the Mission Inn's Festival of Lights final evening. We had only driven by previously. The girls knew that there were these beautifully decorated "Cinderella" horse-drawn carriages that went around downtown. Emma asked if we were going to be able to do that. :-) The answer was "no" because of the cost. She asked how much it would cost, and Kris told her that it didn't matter. We just weren't going to be able to do it. After walking around and through the beautiful inn, we were about ready to leave. We saw two horse and carriages left, and Emma went running to go see them. An older gentleman was there, and she asked him how much it cost. "$35" was the reply! We were approaching when Emma turned around, and in a half shocked sound, half laugh said, "OOOHHHHH, NO WAY!!! Daddy will definitely not do THAT!" and told us the price. The man was listening, and Emma then turned to him and asked with this sweet voice, "How much would it be for just TWO people?" The man asked then where we were parked. We told him and thought he was going to give us a ride to the van. It was actually better than that! He told Kris that they were "closing up shop" for the night and taking the horses and carriages to a parking lot pretty far from where we were. He offered to give the girls and me a ride there for FREE if Kris would drive over and pick us up!!! It was so awesome to see the girls' excited faces and hear their squeals. :-) Emma was especially excited! We were the last ride of the season. We shared with her on the way home that God had done special things for us that day that weren't even really important, but that He takes joy in His children and gives those extra blessings sometimes. Emma actually cried a bit at being overjoyed, and we ended our day thankful to God for the extra encouragement that He gave us.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

It's hard to believe that nearly a decade has gone by since everyone was freaking out about Y2K. Remember those days? LOL It's just hard to believe that we are 9 yrs. into this century, you know? But, here we are again. It's another new year, and for us, we are in a new place this time. We never seem to have a dull moment in life. I'm sure you can agree and relate yourself. Who would want "dull" anyway? Sometimes a little stability and/or consistency would be nice for a while. Unfortunately we, or at least I'll speak for myself, become less dependent on God when everything is just going along the same way. I don't want that! In fact, I want to depend whole-heartedly on God and desire to know Him better each passing year. I want to learn through the sovereignly planned circumstances He brings into my life. This is done only by His grace! II Cor. 12:9-10

Kris is excited to present a new theme to our church tomorrow--"Know your God!" We are going to be going through A.W. Tozer's book The Knowledge of the Holy, which teaches on the attributes of our God--a great book! Pray for us as we desire to see the ministry here in CA grow. Yes, we would like to see more people come to our church, but we mostly we want to see people grow--in knowledge of and a relationship with God as well as in building relationships and serving others. Love God and love people--Matthew 22:37-40! We will be going out tomorrow afternoon to place our church door hangers in area neighborhoods. Tim Lovegrove's church people are coming to help us with this. Please pray for us in this effort to reach the community for Christ. We also are supposed to have a neighborhood Bible study called Explaining Christianity that Kris found through Pastor Mark Dever's church website. We are supposed to be starting this Thurs., but we've received no phone calls from interested people--just one prank call. :-( We are trusting God for the people to come or for Him to show us another direction to go with this type of outreach. We also have a lead on a possible outreach to college students in the area. These are all things we would ask you to please pray about as we seek to serve God and serve people here in SoCal. Thank you so much!

Well, I've started to get my pictures together and posted a bunch on Facebook. It had been quite a while since I had done that. I usually post a slideshow here on my blog, but you can see the pics by clicking here.

We are excited about the year ahead and look forward to what God has for us. I pray you are off to a good start in 2009 and that you too will see God do great and mighty things in your life. Please keep in touch and share with us how things are going and how we can pray for you too!

Christmas Letter 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We have had a special time with our girls this Christmas season reflecting on the greatest gift of all, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Back at Grace Bible Church in SC, our pastor, Eric Sipe, introduced celebrating advent as a church by having Scripture readings and an advent wreath with candles. I had never really thought about doing it at home as a family. The idea came to me recently as I was reading from a booklet about starting family traditions during the holidays. For the last several weeks, our family has been enjoying celebrating advent with a wreath and candles that we bought at a local Christian bookstore, and reading the Bible passages that are listed for each day. We had great discussions with the girls about the verses and how our great God loved us so much that He sent us Jesus to be our Savior. We pray that you all have had a joyous Christmas season and have been able to be overwhelmed once again in the gift of Christ.

This is a very different Christmas for us. It is the first Christmas of my life that I have not shared Christmas in person with my family. We weren't always together on Christmas day, but we did have our own special time of exchanging gifts and celebrating Christmas around that time. Living in MI these last 4 yrs., we would drive down to SC to be with my parents and sister's family. Then Kris and I would go to NC for a music conference the first week of January and leave the girls in SC with my family. They always had a blast with them. Now that we live in CA, we won't be driving (or flying) to SC. Also, Kris is not a music pastor anymore, so we're not going to the music conference. My girls, especially Emma, has voiced her sadness about the change. I have had my own emotions for sure, but we are thankful for what God is doing in our lives. His leading has been so evident. The changes can be hard, but they are not bad. It's about God. I love my family and am so thankful that we have other ways of staying in close contact--phones, email, blogs, digital cameras, webcams, etc.! I especially am glad for those last couple of things now that I have a new niece that I can't see in person. :-)

By the way, I am excited to say that with gas prices so low, we were able to drive to CO to see Kris's sister, Karmen, and we are having a blast out here with her family. We are so thankful that it worked out to be with family at all this Christmas. Unfortunately Kris's three siblings are all spread out around the country and they have lost both their parents, so we don't have one gathering spot that we all go to each year. In fact we don't get all four families together very often, let alone a couple of the families, so it was really good for us to do this trip. Family is very important to us, and we know Karmen was really excited about our coming too, so this is great!

So, those of you who read my blog know the changes that have occurred in our lives this year. If you are just visiting, I will try to do a recap:

January started out cold and snowy of course, living in MI. :-) We came back from a wonderful time with my family in SC. Unfortunately I let my blog "slide" and didn't do much at the beginning of this year. There were several reasons for that. One is that I had surgery the second week of Jan.--a tonsillectomy and nose surgery--not fun! I couldn't think well enough through that to write, I guess. Then, I needed to catch up on things, get back into teaching, etc. I put off getting back to writing on the blog.

February is when we received an email about the potential pastor position for Kris in a church planting type work in Southern California. What a surprise! It was an exciting surprise, actually. Kris loves to study God's word and teach it. He loved teaching in our SS class in MI, teaching Prime Time classes there, and also working with some people in counseling situations. His burden for this kind of focus in ministry was growing. His love for the music side of ministry was still there, but the teaching side was overpowering that. God was obviously working in his heart for a reason. Basically we began earnestly praying, seeking counsel, and talking all the time about the possibility of going to CA. I really didn't write on my blog then either, because I couldn't say anything about CA yet, and it was about all that was on my mind. I just stayed silent for awhile. I know, who ME, silent?!

March was very busy with Easter being so early and planning for our cantata. Our plan was for Kris and me to go to CA for a survey visit at the end of March, but Kris got his appendicitis two days before flying out, then he had two infections, so his recovery was long and crazy. Thankfully he ended up healing and getting back to normal! We did go out to CA in April instead. It was a great visit, and we definitely felt that the possibility of God's leading us there was being confirmed. The church did ask Kris to candidate, and he accepted.

During the middle of May, in the midst of end-of-the-year school concerts, recitals, etc., we made the candidating trip! It was such a busy, crazy time, but it really was the best time to go. Calvary needed to know if they should start looking for a new music guy for the church and next school year. Also, the church in CA had been without a pastor since Nov. 2007, so they were eager to proceed with the process. We took the girls with us and had a full and exciting several days exploring Riverside. We looked at neighborhoods, Christian schools, the area in general, and enjoyed getting to know the people of Heritage Bible Church a little more. Candidating went well, the people voted, and Kris was called to be the pastor.

The months of June and July were spent preparing for the move across the country. Praise the Lord--we had a buyer for our house in MI 16 days after putting it on the market! That is unheard of in MI with such a bad economy, and it was just another sign to us that God was in all the change that was happening in our lives. We did get to go to SC in June for Father's Day and my dad's 60th birthday celebration. How fun! We got home from that trip and had less than a month until the big move. We had wonderful packing help from friends and an amazing, emotional send-off from our church in MI.

The first several months in CA have really just involved adjusting to a new life. God provided a great home for us to rent for this first year. Kris works from home. I am homeschooling the girls for the first time. We are learning the area and seeing we are in a new culture. It's a different world out here! :-) We are in such a huge mission field. Check out the sidebar link to LAhope. That gives some great info. We would so love for anyone who is burdened for church planting type work to come join us in what God is doing in SoCal. It would be especially wonderful if you spoke Spanish and could help us reach the largest ethnic group in SoCal. We have approx. 20 people in our church right now. Kris has gotten a church logo, business cards, a website, and doorhangers for area neighborhoods all made in the last few months. Also, we will be starting a neighborhood Bible study in Jan. to reach people for Christ. It has taken time and some roadblocks along the way, but we are now going to be able to get the word out more that we exist. :-)

We did get to enjoy a visit from my parents in October. Many of you know that two days after my parents flew home to SC, my dad ended up in the ER. A few days after that, he was having open-heart surgery. I did get to go to SC to be with my parents. I also got to see my sister and her family. She was due with her second baby, and we hoped maybe by the end of my time there that she would go into labor. That was not to be. Poor Sarah went 10 days OVER her due date, but we are excited that she had a healthy baby girl, and all has been going well over the last six weeks. You can read more about my dad's recovery and my new niece by going to the links on my sidebar from my mom and sister.

We look forward to seeing what God does in this upcoming new year and hope to see many people come to Christ. We appreciate your prayers for us as we continue to settle in out here in CA and serve God at Heritage Bible Church. We seek to see people, including ourselves, know God better this year. We hope to stay in touch with those we love and miss who are so far from us now. We also look forward to new friendships growing that God has already started and new ones that He will bring into our lives too. Keep in touch and let us know how you are and how we can be praying for you. Hopefully we will get to see some of you who have talked about coming out for a visit to CA in 2009. We would love to have visitors! :-) Well, until next time, Merry Christmas, and God's grace and blessings to you in the new year!

Love,

Kris, Andrea, Emma and Olivia

Birthday fun at Disneyland

Okay, I am up for the second night in a row, not able to sleep. I figured that this was a good time to do something I haven't been making much time for lately (months, really). I have had people, dear friends and family, "on my case" now for quite some time for not posting many pictures anymore. You've all been right. With homeschooling and all things new in CA though, posting pics and doing much fun stuff on the computer for me hasn't been priority. :-) Well, here are some slide shows of Emma's birthday weekend. I hope you enjoy!

Works of God Monday

I thank God for the most wonderful opportunity of being a mom--what a blessing!!! This gift was given to me almost a decade ago now, which is hard to believe. Our sweet Emma turned 9 yrs. old yesterday, and we just had a fabulous time celebrating her life.

Over the weekend we started our celebration at Disneyland. We enjoyed spending the whole day going to some of both parks--Disneyland and California's Adventure. Some new friends, Ruth and Elizabeth Fox, from church here joined us in the afternoon. Ruth is a teenager that our girls have really created a special bond with since we've moved to CA. She has helped me with teaching the girls Sunday school and plays with them after every service. Elizabeth and Ruth made the girls' stay with their family one weekend last month a blast. The sisters thought it would be neat to take the girls over to Disney the weekend of Emma's birthday, but they weren't going to be able to go until the afternoon. Well, Kris and I thought we would go ahead and take them in the morning and just meet up with the Fox girls later and let our girls go on with them for a while. We actually had a surprise character dinner planned for Emma that night where she would get to see the princesses. BTW, I know Olivia certainly didn't mind being the sister of the birthday girl. Hee hee Normally we've had some sort of birthday party with friends, but since we've not met many children her age here yet, the dinner was in place of a party. What a great experience for all of us! The food was absolutely amazing from start to finish. Of course the atmosphere and experience was tons of fun too! Oh, and I forgot to mention, but earlier in the day, when we first arrived, we took Emma to the Disneyland City Hall to get a birthday button. One of the cast members called us aside and asked if that is what we were in line for, and then he went on to surprise us. He selected Emma to receive a private meeting with one of the princesses that afternoon. He told her he would not know which one, and it could end up being two or three. We were given a special invitation with the appt. time. He asked about how many would be in our party, and we told him the Fox sisters would be joining us by then. He said, "No problem" and took each person's name down so that all six of us could go in. It was quite special! We got to see Cinderella and Princess Aurora--aka, Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose. :-)

Yesterday we had the Fox family over for dinner after church. Emma chose to have stuffed shells, which was a real hit with everyone! I had stayed up incredibly too late on Sat. night working on a cake, stuffing the shells and finishing some things around the house. The cake was a nightmare experience (breaking, frosting issues, etc.), but it tasted quite good. :-) I had been so sad and upset about it before I went to bed, thinking it looked terrible, but Emma made that all subside the next morning when she saw it and thought it was the best ever. I thought she was going to wonder what in the world happened to our little plan of how it would look, but no, she thought it was amazing. What a sweetheart!

Emma's ninth birthday is definitely one to be remembered--so many new experiences, new people to share it with, and her last year of being a single digit in life. How I praise God for her life and pray that she will grow into a wonderful woman one day. It's an awesome responsibility to raise a child, and by God's grace we are trying to raise our girls for His glory. May Emma have many more years of growing, having fun, being stretched, learning, and knowing her God more as time goes on. We love her so much!!!

Works of God Monday

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we ended up having! Kris's cousin, Rick, and his family were able to join us for dinner. They have four kids, the newest of the crew being only two weeks old. You can see her here. What a sweetie! There is nothing like a snuggly newborn. Rick and Kim's other kids range in age from 7 down to 2 yrs. old. Our girls had a great time playing with them. They were able to keep themselves occupied most of the time, but I did have some organized activities for them too. They did a cookie craft that looked like turkeys when they were done, and they also made turkey headbands out of construction paper. Fun times! I would show you pics, but my camera is not connecting with my computer right now. :-( I dropped the camera at Disneyland a couple of weeks ago, and I think I loosened the connector for our cable or something. We are still taking good pictures, but I can't get them on the computer--not good!

After we had dinner, Rick and Kim were able to take food to Uncle Dave and Aunt Carol--Rick's parents. Carol is adjusting to being home after months of being in the hospital and the rehabilitation center following her cancer surgery and the stroke that took place. She was just not ready to be out of the house and over to our place for Thanksgiving, nor was she up to having a house full of company. We are just glad that we could send some Thanksgiving dinner over to them and their other son who was visiting from Fresno, so that they could at least feel somewhat a part of the holiday. We thank God for how He is working in Aunt Carol's recovery!

Over the last several days, we have enjoyed reflecting on God's goodness and grace in our lives. Everyone was able to share something they were thankful for when Rick and Kim were over for Thanksgiving, but we also did more in-depth sharing with our girls and our new church family on other days this past week. Kris read most of Psalm 107 during our Thanksgiving praise service. We sang and spoke in between his reading sections of the Psalm, and it was wonderful to hear people giving testimony of God's working in their lives.

We enjoyed watching some home movies this weekend too and looking back over the last several years of our girls growing up and changing so much. Wow--time sure does fly, and we need to treasure every moment together! A big thank you goes out to Kris's brother, Kurt, and his wife for inspiring us to pull out our home videos. We called them this past week and heard lots of laughter in the background, and we found out it was from their watching their own videos of years gone by. We hadn't done that ourselves in way too long, and what a blessing it was to do together as a family.

Before I go, I have to say again how thankful I am for the homeschool group that God led me to here in Riverside. We moms met for our first Mon. of the month meeting tonight but made it a bit of a Christmas party at one of the ladies' houses. By the way it is weird to be having a Christmas party on a day that was 85 degrees! Decorating for Christmas in shorts and t-shirts these last two days is different for sure. Ha ha Anyway, what a wonderful time of fellowship it was tonight, getting to know these ladies better and being able to share God's blessings in our lives.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I am happy to say that while we were resigned and happy with Thanksgiving Day looking to include just the four of us here, God has given us an extra blessing. Kris's cousin, Rick, who lives only 45 mins. away in the high desert, is coming down with his family and having Thanksgiving dinner at our house. We are very excited! They have a new baby girl that we haven't met yet. They also have a daughter that's around Emma's age and two little boys. The kids will have so much fun playing together. The sad thing is that Aunt Carol and Uncle Dave will not be able to join us. While we are thrilled that Aunt Carol came home Friday, for the first time in months due to all that has happened with her physically, she is not doing so well with eating or being up out of bed. Rick and Kim are going to take food over to them though after we eat. They will spend a little time with them before heading to Kim's parents' house for the evening. We are just thrilled to be able to host Thanksgiving at our home and get to know this part of Kris's family better.

Some of you asked about our door hangers that we had done for the church. Here is a picture of the front and back:

You can see there is an address for our church web page. Kris is still working on the site, and a man from our church is putting Kris's messages on it for people to be able to listen to. Not all of them are up yet. The whole thing is a work in progress. Please pray that as we "get our name out there" now, that it would be Christ that is seen and exalted. This is His ministry, and we are excited to see what He will do in the surrounding community here in Riverside.

Works of God Monday

God knows just what we need and in the time we need it. This weekend we received some wonderful things in the mail--some expected and some unexpected. I'll tell you more about that in a moment, but let me share what I was struggling with first.

Last week was hard for me emotionally. I am missing friends and family quite a bit lately. I was able to talk by phone to three different friends from Midland in the last two weeks. That was so nice! It made me miss our times together though--family nights at each others houses, Bible study, coffee, teaching their kids lessons and talking "forever" afterward, etc. :-) It's slow-going in making friends here, and Emma also started really struggling openly last week. In addition to the friends thing, my sister had her sweet baby girl. I wanted so badly to be there with them to celebrate, but that is not possible right now. I've been a bit sad too with the holidays coming up and knowing that we will not be with family. Our first Thanksgiving in MI, my parents and my sister and brother-in-law all came up to visit. The other Thanksgivings we had in MI were spent with my extended family that are in the Detroit area, where I grew up. For Christmas the last several years, we have been traveling to SC to be with my family. Kris and I would then go up to NC and attend the WILDS Music Conference the first week of Jan., while the girls would stay with my family and have a blast. :-) That will not be happening this year. No one from either side of our family can travel to CA right now, and it's not possible for us to go anywhere to see them either.

So, I can have a pity party and stay "down in the dumps," or I can praise my sovereign, loving Lord for the amazing blessings in my life. He has called us to minister here in Southern CA--how humbling and exciting to be part of His work in this area! I may not have family and close friends living nearby or within a day's drive anymore, but I am grateful I HAVE a family and wonderful friends and that we have the technology in this day and age to communicate by webcams, cell phones, facebook, etc. :-) More than anything or anyone, I have my Savior. He has promised never to leave me or forsake me, to be a friend unlike any other, to teach me more of Himself through difficult times, and has given me so many other promises that I can cling to from His Word. I have His Word!!! He has blessed me with an amazing husband who put his work on hold to let me "spill" at the beginning of last week and cry on his shoulder. Kris just loved me and took me to Scripture, pointing me to the One I need most. Praise God!

By God's grace the rest of last week was refocused on His being enough for me and sharing these things with Emma too. Then we received our special blessings in the mail. One surprise was from a teenager that Kris and I both had opportunity to work with at our church and school in MI. She framed two pictures together, each one having her standing next to one of us, and put two quotes about people touching your life next to the pictures. It was so thoughtfully and beautifully put together, and let me tell you, we were touched! We are thankful for the people God has allowed us to minister alongside in ministry over the years. Another thing that was so touching was our dear friends, the Muths, sending us a large envelope filled with beautiful MI fall leaves, a card, and a picture from Aaron. :-) The most unexpected thing that came in the mail was from a man that we've met only once. He sent us a note that shared with us that he and his family have been praying for us and the church here in CA, and they included some financial support! We were stunned, emotional, and VERY grateful for this unexpected blessing.

The one thing that we did receive in the mail this weekend that was expected was a welcomed package for sure! We finally have some materials printed for our church. We had hit some roadblocks along the way and have been quite a bit behind schedule on our initial plan to get something in people's hands to tell them about our church, but God's timing is always best. Now we can blitz some neighborhoods and put our new door hangers out there. They look fabulous, thanks to our designer, Holley VanDenBerg, who helped us get a new church logo and designed the door hanger. Please pray that we will reach this area for Christ and that God will bring some strong, Christian families to our ministry as well to help us better serve at Heritage.

God is good, and I praise Him for these things that I could share with you today.

Praises and Prayers

I know that I haven't gotten back to my blog since my dad's surgery. Sorry! I believe most of you know what is going on through our talking on the phone, updates on facebook, hearing things "through the grapevine", etc. :-) We are all praising the Lord for my dad's successful surgery. The doctor came out afterward and told us that he only had to do 4 bypasses, instead of 5. That was good. He did say though that my dad had severe heart disease and definitely needed the surgery. God's hand in all this has been so clear. Thankfully the heart muscle was not damaged. The problem was major blockage in the arteries. What a blessing that this was found out and that my dad never did have a major heart attack, causing permanent damage to his heart, or even death! Thank you for your prayers. We appreciate them still as the recovery takes quite some time and the lung issue is still a problem.

I am so glad that I had a week in SC. It was a special time with my family as we went through emotions and trials together. Here are some pictures of my trip that Sarah posted on facebook.

As for another prayer request. . .my sister is STILL pregnant, poor thing! She was due on Oct. 31. Her first baby came 6 wks. early. Who would've thought that she would go overdue with her 2nd. We thought maybe today was the day, and that would have been cool because it's my grandma's birthday. Well, it wasn't meant to be. I'm still on the 8th on the West coast, but Sarah is already into tomorrow on the East coast. :-) There have been many signs over the last couple of weeks that labor is close, but it never really gets going consistently. Maybe tomorrow. . . .My mom's b-day is Wed., but I know Sarah doesn't want to wait ANY longer!

Surprises that are difficult

I am sitting in the surgical waiting room at a hospital in Greenville, SC. Right now my dad is undergoing quintuple bypass surgery. If you read one of my earlier posts, you saw that my parents were coming out to visit us. They did, and we had a wonderful time with them. They left last Tues., and Thurs. night into Fri. morning, life changed dramatically!

To give some background: My dad had an incident at the beginning of the year where he was making a delivery at a plant, a chemical vapor was released into the air right at my dad's level, and he was knocked to his knees. He was taken by ambulance to the ER, but he was told that the effects of the chemicals shouldn't be long-term. That has turned out to be not so. He has just been diagnosed with RADS. Over the last many months he has had episodes of pain, breathing issues, etc. when cutting the grass, walking around the neighborhood and other various things. He saw a pulmonary specialist who thought he may also need to see a heart specialist to be sure that not more was going on. He had a stress test about a month ago, had trouble finishing it (but did at the prodding of the techs and/or dr.). His heart rate/vitals were good, and they wanted him to press on through the "episode" he was having. They felt it was from his lungs, not his heart. The test result turned out to be "inconclusive," and the dr. suggested a heart cath. to be done just to be definitive that nothing was going on with the heart. Well, Dad told the dr. about his big trip coming up the next month, which included CA :-), and decided to hold off since the dr. was not thinking there was an urgency.

This past Thurs., Dad saw another pulmonary specialist for another opinion on the lungs. That dr. told him that he had reviewed my dad's records and said, "Let's cut to the chase, Mr. Johnson, you don't have a heart problem. I believe you have a specific lung disorder from the work-related incident." The dr. did a test that proved this and my dad was told to take 5 days off of work, take some meds., and come back on Tues. to discuss the future with work and stuff. Well, Thurs. night Dad had a terrible episode that came on so suddenly and intensely that he felt like he was maybe having a heart attack. He thankfully was not (it was most likely a reaction to Advair), but the ER drs. wanted him to have a heart cath. after hearing about all that he's been going through. My parents told them that just less than 24 hrs. before, they were told he had RADS and no heart problems. They did not dispute the positive diagnosis of RADS but believed the heart could still be involved. Praise the Lord for their convincing my parents to have the heart cath. There was obviously a heart problem! One artery was dead, which means my dad did have a heart attack sometime in the past. The other four arteries were blocked too badly to have stints put in--2 were over 80% blocked and 2 over 90%. Now, my dad has been all about nutrition and good health for years, so this just didn't make sense. The drs. agreed and said his cholesterol, blood pressure, heart muscle and vitals, weight all are good and this just must be genetic or something.

Obviously our great God has not been taken by surprise. He is sovereignly working in every part of this situation. What a blessing in disguise that Dad had this episode on Thurs. night to be forced to see he has advanced heart disease! God is always good and has a bigger and better plan than we ever could. As I sit here knowing what is going on in the OR, I am not without emotion, but I have a wonderful peace that only comes from my Savior. His grace IS sufficient and I rest in Him. I am so thankful that I found a ticket for a decent price yesterday morning and got here by 2 AM to Greenville this morning. I am sleep-deprived but do not care. I had a very special time with my dad before he went back today. That was priceless! Thank you for your prayers for my dad and our family.

It's Fall! (or so the calendar says)

Well, Fall in CA is just not the same as it is in MI. Where's the beautiful color around here??? Also, we've had so many days recently that have hung in temps. around 100 degrees--another clue that we've left MI weather behind. Today though, the high is only in the 70s here! Kris was out earlier today and said that people are wearing sweatshirts. Ha ha--Maybe I shouldn't laugh. Our blood will change too, and next year, we may be doing the same thing. I don't know though. . . On avg., since we moved here, we've seen temps in the low 90s for the high each day, and the lows have been in the 60s, maybe occasionally going down to the upper 50s.

I am still around. I keep thinking, "I have to get back to my blog!" I don't post current happenings (except the occasional "Works of God Monday") because I never really caught up on the story of our trip West, and that has been first on "my list" of things to blog. Well, that way of thinking just has made me further behind. Oh well! I continue to learn how silly I can be, and then I work on changing my thinking. :-) So okay, here goes. . .

The last month or so has been full of change still. We've had fun, exciting times and sad, difficult times as well. The growth of the church is very slow, but the people at Heritage have been a true blessing to us, and we are thankful to serve with them here. We are averaging in the low 20s for attendance. We've had as low as 13 and as many as 33 people on Sun. mornings. Soon we will have church brochures/materials, which we believe will make a huge difference for us. Only one other family that currently attends our church lives in Riverside. Most others drive 30 to 45 mins. away. We need to blitz this area with info. and get our name "out there" so people even know we exist. Kris has been working on a website for our church. It's in early stages of being developed. If you have any website advice, I know he would welcome it. :-) You can contact him through the site. We are certainly not about numbers and know that this is the Lord's work. We do want to reach people for Christ and would love to have a growing church body for Him.

One of the things that has been sad and difficult for us is Kris's aunt having a heart attack within a week of our being here, getting an infection and being in the hospital for a long time, and then being diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer a couple of weeks ago. She is still in the hospital and not doing well. She has suffered a stroke(during surgery), and so far she has not been able to speak, respond well, move all that great on her right side, or eat. There is a lot to the story, but we ask for your prayers for her. We know God is sovereignly working in the whole situation.

Another difficult thing that set us back for a couple of weeks is that Kris ended up at the ER a few weeks ago with diverticulitis. That was a shock! Hmmm, similar to the appendicitis he had in the spring--what is going on? He is doing fine now, but he was so sick and in terrible pain. Then, when the infection got better, he had the medication side effects to deal with for 10 days. The Lord allows all things for a reason, and we've trusted Him through this situation as well. I am really glad that Kris is better though!

The girls and I continue to learn the ropes of homeschooling. We've had a great time, for the most part. There have been a couple of difficult days. :-) I have been trying to find the balance of how to make everything in life run smoothly--teaching, cooking, cleaning, ministry, etc. God has been teaching me much, and I thank Him for how He continues to stretch and grow me. I am also thankful for the kind of support I have out here with our homeschooling groups. What a blessing so many have been to me with advice, ideas, etc.!

The girls and I went to the LA County Fair with some people from our homeschool group. That was a lot of fun! Daddy was supposed to come too, but that was during his time of being sick. I have never been to a fair that huge in my life. It was like farms, museums, shopping malls, amusement park and more rolled into one. I believe the website states that the whole thing is over 500 acres. I cannot believe how much we did in one day.

The girls are both enjoying gymnastics each week. They are in noncompetitive classes. Olivia is enrolled in Kindermusik here too, so I get to take her once a week to that. I am so glad we have a teacher somewhat near us--25 mins. away. I have missed teaching and attending Kindermusik with my girls. Emma is too old now. :-( I am teaching her piano though. We are on hold with violin. To take lessons here is extremely expensive--way more than in MI! Hopefully we'll get something worked out and get her back into it.

Well, I would like to post more, but I should get going. My parents are coming in this week for a visit. We are all so excited! I just have a lot to do to be ready for them. We will be having so much fun while they are here. A few things on the agenda are: going to Huntington Beach the day they fly in (we'll be so close), visiting Disneyland for the first time, going up to the mountains for apples, and possibly seeing the San Diego Zoo! I am sure I will have lots of pics to choose from for posting. :-) Off to cleaning I go for now though!

Works of God Monday

I am so thankful for a great start to this school year with the girls. Who knew I would be a Kindergarten and third grade teacher? I have taught music in schools for both of those grades, being an elementary school music teacher, but I have all of the other subjects now too. I am really enjoying the curricula we chose--A Beka for K-5 and BJU Hard Drive for 3rd grade. The girls would've done the same material at Calvary if we were still there.

God has blessed us with a homeschool group (out of a local church) that I am enjoying. This group is purely for support/encouragement and planning things for our kids to do together. I have been to two mom's nights now. I'm meeting new people, learning much, and am amazed at the support and huge community of homeschoolers that there is here in CA. We had a great field trip to a living history farm 2 Fridays ago. It was hot that day, but we were up in the mtns., so it only got to 92 degrees. By the time we got home, it was 102 degrees here. We had a park day last Fri. morning. We met for about an hour and a half. The girls and I just switched and did school in the afternoon. It's better to meet at the park in the morning because of the heat here. Funny thing is though, that morning was cloudy and cooler. We had not seen cloud cover since moving from MI. It felt like a MI day, and we enjoyed that for a bit. We have had a couple of days in a row like that, but we are back to normal now. Today it was 100 degrees, and that's a little much. The girls and I went to the pool after lunch though and had lots of fun.

We are also now members of HSLDA and Olive Tree Christian School. The first organization is national and provides legal cover, if there ever was an issue concerning homeschooling. The second organization is a network of homeschoolers in this area. The school takes care of our affidavits (needed for CA private educators) as well as paperwork and records of our children's progress in school. We first-time homeschool moms were given an advisor (seasoned homeschool mom) at our first meeting last week. What a blessing to have someone to answer our questions, get ideas from, etc.! The school also provides extracurricular activities for children of all ages. They also will offer some group classes at times. There is a picture day coming up next month. The girls will get IDs and I will have a faculty ID. We homeschool families make up the school. Our administrator has an office and office staff, but there is no school building.

Well, I wanted to share my thanks and praise to God with you for all of the ways He has worked to lead us to homeschool the girls and then bring the right people into our lives to help us on our journey. He is always good!

Starting School--at HOME!

Well, it's official. We have become a homeschool family. Tuesday of this week began our first day of 3rd grade and K-5 for our girls. I am happy to report that we have had two successful days of school and are all looking forward to more. We even have a field trip planned already. We are going to a living history farm this Fri. with a homeschool group that I have joined. I am excited about the girls meeting some children!!! Please pray that we really connect with some families and have opportunities for the girls to make new friends. We have Olivia signed up for Kindermusik, which starts this week, and both girls have started gymnastics, so we do have other avenues for meeting children their ages.

I wanted to share some pics I took Tues. morning before we started school. Some are a bit blurry for some reason. We thank the Lord for the donation of desks from San Bernardino Christian School, where Kris's aunt was administrator for many years. We also have had a couple of families pass on some wonderful teaching tools to us. God has blessed us with a great start to what I believe will be a great year!