Double Rainbow Over Our Land in South Dakota

Last week four of us made our first trip beginning to move to South Dakota. I had been asked to speak again for the ladies retreat at The Farm in Tripp, SD, Friday and Saturday, so it worked out that we could "kill two (or three)birds with one stone," by making two moving loads out of it. While Rose and I were at the ladies retreat, Jonathan and Danny worked again at the church on the reservation (more about that later).

This would be our first time to actually walk all over the land we had purchased, which we had looked at only briefly a couple months earlier. The former land owner and a friend took us all around, showing us the boundaries and telling us about everything they could think of.  

One of them took this picture of us for us.

 

Both Jonathan and I were pulling trailers--he the travel trailer to leave up there on our land,  

and I the very old flat bed loaded with a pole barn kit that Jonathan had seen advertised nearby. Here he is strapping it on better by our house here before our trip.

The pole barn had never been set up and was a fraction of what it would have cost new.

We only had Thursday afternoon and evening to traverse our 61 acres and try to decide where to place the house Jonathan plans to build from scratch. 

There were so many different kinds of terrain all on the same property! Hilltops under blue sky almost as blue as Colorado, except the sky is not quite as close as here.

Both Jonathan and I noticed that at 2000 feet altitude, we were not becoming as winded while climbing hills as we would have here in Colorado at 7200 feet.

The draws were full of trees, mostly scrub oak. And this one draw had this beautiful sandy creek bed that is going to be the joy and delight of some little children!

This area covered with bushes and small trees with paths all among them is also going to be a spot for little ones to find adventures and use their imaginations! 

Kinda wished I could just be a little girl again, but slipping in here made me feel like one again!

Jonathan had brought a 300-ft. measuring tape so he could start to lay out where he thought we should have the electric company put line and poles.

It was a very windy day, so we had to try to keep the measuring tape from billowing too badly in the breeze.

We heard that in SD, electric companies bury the lines, which keeps the lines more stable in all the spring wind and winter blizzards. We'll have wind to tangle with almost constantly, but we have been used to that here on our Colorado prairie home, too.

This is one shot of one side of the hill where we think we will probably put our new home.

Down below where the house should go is this seasonal pond area. Right now it is dry as a bone, about like ours here in Colorado, except at least ours has a puddle in it right now!

Danny and Rose were so excited! We loved seeing how happy our children were. They quickly decided to walk all the way down to the river. The former owner has land between us and the river, but told us we were welcome to go anywhere we wanted.

Part of the land in late afternoon.

We hope this will be part of our future lawn.

A side view of where our house is to go (just beyond this big tree). 

The former land owner invited us to a grill-out at his mother's home, where he had invited a couple relatives and friends and neighbors, all of whom seemed to be welcoming and very curious about us. We quickly felt we would love these South Dakota people who will be our neighbors and friends.

Early next morning, Rose and I took off to begin the three-hour trip east to Tripp. It was hard for me to concentrate on having my devotions and going over my notes because I just wanted to watch out the window and see all the beautiful scenery. Even Rose was captivated with the beauty of South Dakota! She drove on the trip over, and I drove all the way on the trip back later.

Rose had been asked to mind the small children during the ladies' meetings.

Meanwhile back at St. Francis, Jonathan and Danny drove the nearly an hour to put up this faux stone wainscoting at the St. Francis Holiness Chapel where Nathan Easley pastors the SIM church.

Nathan and Bro. Patton helped a lot, too, finishing baseboards and putting the trim above the wainscoting.

Danny was a big helper.

Back at the property that evening, the wind was ferocious.

And the guys were introduced to South Dakota gumbo.

But out there at the land God provided for us, as Jonathan and Danny came back for the night where they were going to decide where to unload the barn pieces,

a double rainbow graced the horizon!

It seemed like a special promise!

That night the wind would be so fierce that Jonathan could hardly sleep for fear the trailer would blow over, but we would all come through that awful time of wind.

At the ladies' retreat the wind was so bad we could hardly do anything outside except run from one building to the other hanging onto our hair, hat, and skirt!

It seemed that wind was just one perpetual roar. The ladies said they had never experienced anything like it!

Yet there was the rainbow at our property!

A double one!

A token of God's promise that has never failed.

And not one of His promises will fail us, no matter what happens or how the wind roars.

His promises are like a double rainbow, sure and solid,

even when we feel blown to pieces and exhausted with the plans and the work and ministry of maintenance at SIM ahead. 

Thank You, Lord, for double rainbows when we deeply desire Your leadership and help in our lives!

Hairy Scary Days--But God Deals Bountifully!

Some days turn out a little more hairy-scary than you anticipate,

such as when our goats get out, and all the kids are gone, and Mom has to go chase them back in, with her hair looking like the laundry waving in the breeze!

And then there are the days when a whole family of company arrives for Saturday dinner and stays through Tuesday morning...

--the president of Society of Indian Missions and family.

Maybe there weren't enough seats??

And suddenly I remembered that I did save just a couple boxes of toys after my kids all grew up, 

and I pull out the box with the train set that my boys used to spend hours playing with. 

Timmy and Danny remember and help the littlest visitor to have a fun time! 

 

Until we get word of a fire nearby. Several of us left the half-built train and the rest of the crew and took off to go see. It burned over 30 acres, a house, and a couple outbuildings. But Fireman Sam, along with others, helped to save another house, and get the fire stopped.  

(By the way, Sam is now not just taking training, but he is the teacher/trainer now for the probies at the fire station. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that.)

Saturday evening was another hairy scary time, as I tried to give Tim a hair trim, in time for him to go back to Penn View.

As you can see, we multi-task even during haircuts! 

And maybe after this one where I kept making mistakes and having to trim the back shorter and shorter to cover up the jags, maybe he will go to a real barber!

Except he said he didn't care, and he is fine with me doing his hair cuts!

So--I keep doing these hairy-scary haircuts (including Jonathan's dad two nights ago!)

as well as I can.

The Easter Pause

On Thursday I decided to try to make a centerpiece in honor of our Suffering Savior, to remember Him that evening and Good Friday.

I pulled down the water pump from above our kitchen cupboard and filled it with red roses, 

complete with teardrops.

To help us remember the fountain filled with blood,

drawn from Immanuel's veins.

We sang that hymn after reading Isaiah 53,

and also sang "Lamb of Glory," one of my favorite songs.

 

In the middle of sorting and preparing to move,

in the middle of organizing shelves so everything is ready to go when we have to pack,

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in the middle of filling empty jars with rye grain so we don't have empty jars and full bags taking up valuable shelf space... 

in the middle of chopping veggies for dinner... 

and mopping behind umpteen people and dogs... 

and setting out meat for the next day's meal...

 

we remember God.

For He had mercy on us in our low estate, sent His Son to die that Terrible but Good Friday. 

So that while we saute vegetables and clean our house and write blogposts,

we can be at peace and have hope of eternal life.  

And when we find this and that around the house, including three colors of paper and a wee white crate and a few lavendar and white flowers, we can know... 

        that 1 cross,

          +3 nails

           = 4 given.

  

Ukrainian Style Easter Eggs--And a Robin Egg for Easter!

A couple weeks ago, a friend invited me to come paint eggs Ukrainian style for Easter.

Now I am no artist, and Easter eggs are not my thing, but I was curious as to how eggs are painted Ukrainian style.

When I was in Ukraine 28 years ago, one of my English students brought me a string with at least three painted eggs. (The shells were almost certainly real.)

Painted eggs are a Ukrainian souvenir/novelty. My friend Sally showed me some eggs that she had painted, in a basket.

 And here were some in process.

She had a lot of cups of dye waiting. 

And these kistka tools, or wax pens, for drawing the designs. 

To make straight lines around the egg, you can use a rubberband to guide your pen a bit.  

The wax pen is held over a candle flame for a few seconds, and then the hot wax pen is dipped into a little bowl of beeswax. 

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The sugars in the beeswax turn black, and the pen fills up with that black wax. Then you can start drawing. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I've never been too keen on Easter eggs and Easter bunnies taking the place of Christ for Easter Sunday, but I don't have any problem with eggs, beeswax, wax pens, or doing artistic things with anything creative, especially if it glorifies God.  

So I set to work making an Easter egg that I wanted to glorify the Risen Christ. 

The lines and designs aren't perfect, but amazingly, the egg started turning out!

First we dipped the original design in white vinegar to help the colors set better.   

Then we used a little blue for the tulips. 

Then we dipped it into the light color, yellow.  It sat in there several minutes.

Then we let it dry. 

Meanwhile, Sally helped me start another egg by putting it on a lathe to draw lines like above.  

Here is a closeup of the hollow in the one end of the lathe to set the egg in. There is a sort of spring, and you can tighten the egg in gently. 

Well, after the yellow dye, I added more lines or filled in with the wax where I wanted raspberry color to be, and then soaked the egg in raspberry dye.   

 Here is the side. "Christ is risen!"

And a cross on both sides.

 Last of all, we soaked the egg in black dye, and this is how it turned out, after we wiped the black off. Wherever there were other colors of wax, the black dye wiped off those, leaving it black only where there were no other wax lines.

It's a little hard to explain all the steps, and I was having a hard time understanding the how and why as we moved along, with Sally telling me each step and trying to explain. 

Later, Sally would blow the innards out of the egg and I would have an empty egg--like the empty tomb!

I started an egg with a butterfly design, but when someone came to the door, I got distracted, and dropped the egg, and it broke!

 

But Sally did four more eggs for me, and brought them for me Friday night at the Good Friday service.

The yellow egg with bits of sky blue was done in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

One was done with butterflies, and the other two were done with Star of Bethlehem or Rose of Sharon design. 

She had blown out the innards, and the eggs continue to drain a bit into the nest of shredded paper for a while.

 

I also like the simple Easter eggs that we gather every day in our chicken coop! In fact, I had taken some of our own eggs to paint that day.

I went out there just now to gather the eggs, since the children are away with friends. 

But my very favorite "Easter egg" this year is this one, sent in a text from Crystal today,

an Easter egg God sent to my daughter Crystal's window this week. 

This morning the robin, which had just built this nest a couple days ago, left an egg behind in the nest it built in the corner of Crystal's kitchen window at Mt. Zion Bible School! Crystal is taping up a paper on the window so the poor robin will hopefully not be scared every time someone moves in Crystal's kitchen! 

Ukrainian eggs, daily chicken eggs, robin eggs--

all reminders of the perfect Creator Who loves to give and create new life--

especially new life in Christ!