missionary church camp

Scenes from camp (Clockwise from top left:
Tabernacle, Elauna, Jeremy, inside the tabernacle, Prayer Street,
Frederick, Jeremy and Keith making chicken, Claire)

We have been blessed to spend time at our church camp this week, getting refreshed and spending time with friends growing in the Lord. Our children love being here too!

We have been sitting under some wonderful speakers: Rev. Jeff Getz (serving in New York City), Rev. John Gregory (serving in Mishawaka, IN) and Dr. Dennis Engbrecht (serving at Bethel College). Our children have really enjoyed "Miss Judy" Masterson and "Miss Mari" Rice.

Notes from my Journal:

From one of John Gregory's talks. Foundational Truths of Forgiveness

1. forgiveness is a journey, not an event
2. forgiveness does not require forgetting
3. forgiveness causes pain to gradually decrease, not disappear
4. forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same thing 

From one of Dennis Engbrecht's talks on Revival. Ten Steps for Personal Revival (A. W. Tozer)

1. Get thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself
2. Prepare for a sweeping transformation in your life
3. Put yourself in the way of blessings
4. Do a thorough job of repenting
5. Make restitution where possible
6. Bring our life in accord with the Bible
7. Be serious minded
8. Deliberately narrow your interests
9. Begin to witness
10. Have faith in God

homemade pasta sauce

I was reminded today of the passage in Matthew 9:37 where Jesus was talking with his disciples and he said “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” The interesting thing about harvest is that it doesn't wait for when it best suits us to work. When the harvest is ready, we need to stop whatever else we are doing and gather the harvest. The same is true of the Lord's call on our lives. He is calling, and we need to act with obedience and promptness, because his call is an indication that his harvest is ready and he needs us to work.

My harvest today was tomatoes, and it was time to make pasta sauce. I wash them and remove the stems, then boil them in water for a few minutes. Next, I run them through my KitchenAid sieve, which removes the peel and seeds, and purees the rest. Then I add my spices to the tomatoes and cook again. Pour into the pint jars and process for 40 minutes. Pretty easy!

some of my tomatoes (small size this year)

my KitchenAid attachment

my pasta sauce

my kitchen help: Frederick and Elauna
note: one needed an apron :-)

zoo

We had a great time at the Columbus Zoo with some family and friends.

Knee High... and a miracle

Each year I take a photo of my children in front of the field. This year I took the picture on the 4th, because corn is to be "knee high by the 4th of July."

Jeremy took a risk this year and planted early and was able to get his crop started when there was still good weather. We had a neat story that happened last week. It had been very dry here in Ohio for awhile and Jeremy was home working on his semi. I walked out to see him and asked him what he was doing - he said he was praying for rain. I went back in the house and had my two oldest children gather with me to pray for rain. I prayed for a drenching rain, and the kids prayed for thunder too. :-) By the time we were done praying, dark clouds were over our house and it started to rain. There had been a zero percent chance of rain that day. The rain drenched the ground! People 5 miles away did not get a drop. It truly was a miracle!!! I was glad Jeremy led us to pray, that my children could see the hand of God on our family, and that he chose to bless us that day.