~Remember~

And Moses said unto the people,
Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt,
out of the house of bondage;
for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place:
Ex 13:3

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Ex 20:8

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God:
for [it is] he that giveth thee power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto
thy fathers, as [it is] this day.
Duet 8:18

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations:
ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
Duet 32:7

Remember his marvellous works that he hath done,
his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
1Chr 16:12

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD:
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
Ps. 22:27

I will remember the works of the LORD:
surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
Ps. 77:11

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Eccl 12:1

Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Eze 16:60

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:12

The word "Remember" is used 148 times in the KJV Bible. We are charged to remember the past. Our heritage, our mistakes, our commands, and our protectors. God remembers his people, and is always ready to help them, if they will but remember him. But he also promises to forget our sins when we repent and call to him. We have so much to remember and be thankful for this day, and every day of our lives.

okay, I'm back

Sorry I didn't write for a month. Nothing interesting has happened. Well, actually they did, just not something I'd take time to write. So I'll list them. :)
1. I began working at a daycare in Sioux Falls.
2. Went to an AWESOME Bright Lights Conference.
3. Dear friends are leaving. :(
4. Lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks :) :)
5. Figured out an arrangement of Jesus, I Am Resting.
6. Went to a State 4-H Leaders Meeting with Mommy.
7. Started teaching the second year of 4-H Dog Obedience class in McCook County.
8. Really miss my Melissa who is gone for 2 weeks. :(

And now I am out of time. I have to leave for work, but maybe tonight I can elaborate on my list. :)

Happy Birthday Nathaniel!!!

Hey everybody, can you believe my "little" brother is 15 today!?!?! WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!

My he has grown up so much in the last year. And I don't just mean in height. He has matured, and become such a wonderful friend. I do admit he has his days, but then so do I.

This young man has so many accomplishments, people should be clamoring for his autograph. He has loaded an entire field of square hay bales onto a rack by himself. (driving, lifting and stacking) He has built some pretty genius make-things-easier-on-people gadgets, and done tons of work on our house. He bakes cookies, with them NEVER getting burnt. He helps his technology illiterate sisters, a lot. He has several younger friends at church who look up to him, and again, I'm not just talking about height. He is wonderful at organizing games to play within a group. He learned to ski this winter, and made it all the way down the big hill. Next year he'll do it without falling to stop. (lol!) And he makes some totally trump all LEGO houses.

Oh, and did I mention that he is strong enough to carry any of his "big" sisters around? Yeah, this guy I'm telling you about is amazing. And he is my brother. I love him. And that's all there is to it.

Waiting for Spring

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I am not a winter person. I would rather have it be scorching hot with lots of humidity than to be cold. Call me weird, but hey, I grew up in Phoenix, AZ and to us cold was 50 degrees. Having been in a warm country for 2 weeks in February, and getting a sunburn was a nice break from the sub zero temps we had lately. But it made me long for spring even more. Everytime people say its supposed to be cold, or snowy I just remind them that April is on its way, and anything we get now will be gone very soon. YAY!!!!! I love spring!

My favorite part of early spring is seeing and hearing black birds in the trees. On the farm all summer long we'd have huge flocks of birds in the trees. They'd sit and sing, and then all at once they would fly to another tree. The rush of their wings is one of my favorite sounds in nature. And to have them come in March and begin their summer long visit brings me hope that it will be warm soon.

The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
Song of Solomon 2:12

And he changeth the times and the seasons:
he removeth kings,
and setteth up kings:
he giveth wisdom unto the wise,
and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Deuteronomy 2:21

Then I will give you rain in due season,
and the land shall yield her increase,
and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Leviticus 26:4

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How Ye Ought To Answer

Colossians 4:5-6
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
redeeming the time.
Let your speech be alway with grace,
seasoned with salt,
that you may know how ye ought to answer every man.

A few weeks ago I heard these verses read, and they really stuck with me. I read them over and over, pondering them each time. And the parts of "redeeming the time" and "that you may know how ye ought to answer every man" really jump out. I have found myself in so many situations where the conversation is about something I feel strongly about, yet it goes beyond my ability to converse intelligently quite soon. Abortion, modesty, creation, God and the Bible in general, for example. All are things I think I know so much about, yet when I'm talking with somebody about it, I realize I know hardly anything. And then here are these verses that tell us to know how to answer people. There is another verse that says something similar.

1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:
and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you
with meekness and fear:

"Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh of you" Well, I'm usually not ready, because I don't have an answer. I never thought through WHY I believed what I did.

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.

We can interpret this verse to mean to study the Word of God, but we also need to study the world around us. So we know the Truth, inside and out, by seeing what is truth (God's Word) and what is false (the world).

Specifically I am challenged to study the issues of my day, that I view from God's stand point. But to give an intelligent argument I need to know the other side, so I can counter it with the Truth. But I also need to speak with grace. Not condemning someone for their belief, but in Christ's Love sharing the truth. In so doing I am redeeming the time for God's Kingdom.

Home Again!

I arrived home safely on Wednesday, after leaving Bogota on Tuesday. But let me back up a few days...
We got the school as finished as we could, and early Saturday we got to cleaning it for the dedication and open house. My morning was spent holding baby Angie, who was sent home from the hospital, but still needs lots of care. They asked the team to help with her, so they could get the other children ready for the dedication. I volunteered to help from 6-9 am, and then somebody else came over.
The dedication ceremony was wonderful. They had several of the kids tell what the school meant to them, and Ann, and Richard, and Jeanene all spoke. There was a husband and wife who were special guests, that also spoke. These people had donated much of the funds for building the school.
Then we had a big parade from the old school, to the new. With their little marching band leading the way, and the kids all walking by class. We sang the national anthems of Colombia, America, and England. And then they cut the ribbon, and people were invited in to tour the school.
Afterwards the team was invited to continue the celebration by going out for supper at a fancy restaurant. That was fun.
After church on Sunday we went to the Emerld store, and some of the people bought jewelry. I decided to wait until the next time I go to get anything.
On Monday we waited all morning for the call that the container had arrived. It was being kept at the shipping company, they had gotten it to Bogota, but weren't letting it come to CVII. So Jeanene had gone there, and finally they sent it to us, but divided out into 5 smaller trucks. When it arrived we all pitched in to get the boxes to their places. I was helping in the upper level of the garage, where the clothes, and shoes, and toys, and bedding, etc all go. The whole project took about 4 hours.
We celebrated Jeanene's birthday by making pizza for the kids. And somebody arranged for a Maranachi band to come play too. That was interesting, but of course all in spanish.
And we left on Tuesday morning. I flew in to Chicago, and then my aunt picked me up, and I spent the night with them. And flew into Rochester the next day, wit Mommy and the kids picking me up there. And I was so thankful to get to come to church that night.

Faith is the Victory, that Overcomes the World!!!

And that has been the theme of my day, and in fact the entire time here! We have talked about faith everyday during devotions in some way or another.
The container was finally approved totally, and was shipped out by truck yesterday. And will arrive on Monday. That is an answer to our prayers, because if it arrived on Saturday the school´s dedication would be all messed up. So Monday will be our unload day.
The school will have the dedication tomorrow, but they won´t get to start school until later, because its not getting finished. ;( We are all a little upset, but Richard is the most upset, cause he really wanted it done. But we´ll still do the dedication ceremony and open house. Later this evening our team will go over and do a major cleaning for it to be ready.
We had some rain today, and so now the air is fresh and clean. It even hailed for a few minutes.
Please pray for baby Angie, I can´t remember if I told you about her. She has pneumonia and is in the hospital. They are really worried about her.
Also pray for the dedication tomorrow. We´ll be busy I´m sure.