With My Sister Joella's Family at Rocky Mountain National Park

Over Labor Day weekend, my sister Joella's family took in Rocky Mountain National Park on their way out west to Glacier National Park.

So our family decided to join them over Sunday and Monday. We traveled up and Craig and Joella's family traveled down to Lakewood to attend church at the Johnsons' church where Craig and Joella's family sang the special. 

Here I caught the pastor's granddaughters running up after the dismissal for their hug!

And hadn't Melissa Johnson invited the whole gang for a picnic lunch--at their 5th wheel! They are without a parsonage until they build one right now. Both our families took some dishes to contribute.

The guys found an extra picnic table further away and brought it. We had a pleasant time! 

Monday morning, on Labor Day, we got an early start.  

We cooked breakfast outdoors.  

 The fathers pored over the map and tried to decide where to hike that day. 

The girls visiting by the stream.

I was totally delighted to discover that our hike would take us to this Lake Irene.

I remembered years ago visiting my Aunt Irene in Idaho. She gave us a little brown teddy bear that she herself had knitted. The teddy bear was such good quality that it made it through two or three of the littlest girls in our family before becoming worn out. 

 

 I can't describe how fun it was to hike with a sister whom I rarely see.

It was late summer, so there weren't many flowers, but we saw a few. 

At one visitor center, a ranger was showing people different antlers or horns. She said that in the spring when the antlers have velvet on them, you can feel the heartbeat in that velvet!

 After a very long, hot hike that afternoon, we all splurged and bought some icecream cones, eating them on the street at Lake Granby. 

We ordered pizzas for supper that night. The girls hanging out together on the grass. 

We got a quick photo of us all together (minus Jonathan who is taking the picture) before splitting up. It was comforting to know they would be joining us a week later in South Dakota for a day on their way back through on their way back home to Missouri.

 

But just as they started off, they discovered this bull elk making his way to the parking lot! 

It created a lot of excitement!

Members of both families followed after it, keeping a safe distance. 

That elk didn't seem the least bit afraid of people or vehicles.  

He just found this little patch of trees and started scratching. He must have had a severe itch, for he scratched and scratched and scratched.

We finally had to get on our way as we had a very long trip home that night.

Missionary Retreat--and How the Children Were Valued

A few weeks ago, Jonathan and Danny and I attended the Society of Indian Missions missionary retreat held at a lovely, rustic venue--a church campground in Nebraska.

We had a good time together for two days. On the last day, several of us helped husk good sweet corn. Keith Lavery and I helped his little boy husk his corn!

 

Rev. Claire Sams and Marc and Melody Sankey, SIM missionary pastor, attended as well and spoke to the missionaries. I was thankful for their helpful wisdom. Most of us managed to make the short hike up a steep trail through the piney hills to the cross at the top of the hill above the river.

 Danny had been worried about what he would ever do to keep himself occupied, but we had heard there was a river and told him to bring his fishing gear. We found out that the river had been just stocked a week earlier upstream, and Danny quickly found that the river was full of fish in certain spots!

That's where he was the morning when Melody Sankey was planning to present a gift bag to each of the missionary children. She had let it be known on Facebook and at a camp they were in  that she was hoping to give a gift to each SIM missionary child when she came, and people really responded to help her with that goal! 

Jonathan had to go to the river to try to find where Danny was fishing! He is bringing him in for the presentation!

Here Danny is receiving his gift bag from Marc and Melody, with Claire Sams getting the photographs of each child or young person. 

Enough money had been donated that each of the children received a gift of money besides some little gifts. 

Whenever children are valued, the parents feel valued, too,

just in case you were wondering.

Danny had tucked his fish away in his pocket since he came in late! He probably smelled a little fishy, but that didn't keep Marc Sankey from hugging him.

He got about 14 fish and then more another day. 

Jonathan fried the fish for breakfast while Tasbah Lavery cooked the eggs and heated the sausage gravy for biscuits, and even board member Claire Sams enjoyed a breakfast feast of fish!

Later, 78-year-old board member Claire Sams and Marc Sankey taught the young people how to play a little bit of simple basketball in the gym nearby. A few adults joined in, too.

I was totally amazed at the agility and strength of Bro. Sams, playing with the young people like that, valuing them like that. 

The second day of the retreat, Judy Sherman hosted a fun game she had seen a family clan do at a reunion by a river. She'd watched them send little yellow rubber duckies down the river on a race and thought, "We've just got to do that at the retreat!"

So we did! Each duck was given a number and then that number corresponded to someone's name, 

first the younger children, then the adults. 

Judy and the girls dropped rubber ducks three times from a bridge upriver and then the rest of us watched for the winner of the race downstream!

Marc Sankey, Tasbah, and quite a number of children  were there waiting to catch the first duck to declare the winner, and they had lots of fun catching the rest of the ducks, too! 

Board members Sams and Sankey alike, and even Melodie Sankey came tubing down the river with the kids and young people! I had never seen anything like it--middle-aged and older board members valuing the kids and just getting down on the level of the young people. It didn't just bless the kids and young people. 

It touched a middle-aged mom's heart as well. 

 I wasn't sure I'd ever seen that aspect of Christ's love in action quite like that before. 

In a unique way--eating a boy's fish, teaching a homeschooled boy and others how to play basketball, helping the little kids catch little yellow duckies, tubing down the river, jumping around in the dusk while playing Nine Square, and cheering on the young people and children who were climbing the climbing wall in the gym--the board members and missionaries expressed the same value that Christ did when He said, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to Me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Wild plums--and Gifts Right Under Your Nose

A few weeks ago when we were up in South Dakota, Jonathan and Danny didn't want to leave for home until they had picked enough plums to make some wild plum jam or jelly.

 It's true the plums were only a fraction of the size of plums you find in the grocery store, but underneath the tart skins there was sweet flesh.

 You just never know the sweetness and value you'll find in things you don't expect, if you look for it, and if you are willing to expand your ability to enjoy new things and develop your taste buds to savor something besides pepperoni pizza, Frosted Flakes cereal, and ice cream.

How about sending a few wild plums into your digestive system, complete with Sunshine Vitamins and loads of South Dakota minerals and nutrition?

 The guys even braved the chiggers to go pick in that patch of bushes where we saw a mama deer in the mornings getting her share of the plums! She knew what was good for her!

It's so easy to become stuck in the rut of wanting just our favorite food when we ought to be taking advantage of the free produce God has supplied in our own back yard--even if it is wild plums on thorny bushes down where there might be chiggers!

We all took a shower afterward and were none the worse for the wear for picking plums,

and Carrie made a bunch of jars of wild plum jelly when we came home. 

Brave the elements.

Try new things.

Look for diamonds and wild plums in your own backyard.

Discipline your appetites.  

Find sweetness under the tartness.

Face your fears of chiggers, chills, choices, or churlish opinions of others.  

And enjoy the wonderful gifts God hands to you right under your very nose!

Framing Walls, Building a Life, and Needing Jesus

A week ago, we were up in South Dakota again, this time framing the interior walls of our house.

A new friend had offered to help us for a day or two, and we try to take up anyone who offers to help!

Danny was a big help, too! 

He was the only son up there this time. 

I really liked the 45-degree angle wall that Jonathan put in to break up the long wall in the middle of the house. I also can hardly wait to see the little loft we hope to put above the back rooms, just high enough for little children to enjoy playing in under the trusses and eaves.

Jonathan had the basic plans made for our house, but we had to figure out the details as we went along--sort of one day at a time! 

Just like we might know the basic plan of God's will for our lives--like to be a pastor or missionary or teacher or medical worker or computer technician or godly layman.

But we have to figure out the details for each day--striving to find God's will in the details as well as in the overall plan!

Jesus, we need You, not just to help us know Your plan for each season of life,

but to know Your plan for the details!

Just as we had to backtrack a few times and change some things, such as move a window and plan an extra bathroom based on a future with almost certainly work crews to keep, 

we may sometimes have to backtrack and make changes in our lives.

We may have to adjust our attitudes,

apologize,

try again,

and never give up. 

More than we need finances and lumber and house plans, 

we need Your guidance and help, Lord!

We just need Jesus!

r

The Truck Built from Scraps--Children's Choice of Toy

I got a text a week and a half ago with this picture. This is the little truck our Danny put together a couple months ago on our first trip to start building our house in South Dakota.

The message said that the children in this Sunday School class LOVE to play with this truck. 

I thought how children love toys that are made from scraps. 

You can give them all sorts of plastic toys from the store, all sorts of dolls and even techy toys, but somehow, children get the most fun and fascination out of a toy built from scraps.

At the missionary retreat we attended last week, there happened to be a gym on the campground, with this climbing wall.  

The children and young people alike had a blast. There goes Danny!

He hit the high mark! And missionary Mr. Smith, board member Mr. Sams and Danny's dad cheered for him!

But when it came down to it, the kids enjoyed the dirt and the sand and the river water and sticks and just time with their parents and friends as much as anything!

 

But I keep thinking about that truck put together from a bunch of scraps. 

The way the kids love it.

Kids have a knack of loving things that are made from scraps.

They haven't lived long enough to learn to value

fake plastic toys trying to be something they aren't ,

technology,

others' opinions,

the media's opinions,

and television advertisements.

They just like simple things.  

Things made from scraps, for instance.

Scraps of wood from the building site. 

Over and over I realize how I just don't fit with the classy (even though I recognize and admire true class)

and how I fit anywhere but in cathedrals or fancy places or with cool people. 

My life seems to be a collection of scraps--bits and pieces here and there,

some good, some bad, 

some worthy, some I'd like to hide somewhere. 

The struggle to process all the changes,

the taking of risks and bearing the consequences--

or rejoicing because I actually took a wise risk that turned out okay!

But Lord, if maybe those scraps would make something that would delight the small and insignificant of society,

the children,

the lonely,

the unworthy,

the less than'ers,

I would be grateful.

Our 28th Anniversary--Sunset in the Sandhills

 This year was Jonathan's and my 28th anniversary.

The week between trips to SD had been very full, and since we didn't have time for a getaway, Jonathan found instead a little spot to spend the night in Nebraska on our trip up to South Dakota.

 It helps me a lot to break up the trip with an overnight in the middle, and thanks to an anniversary gift from Jonathan's dad, we were able to do this. 

On the way, I spent most of the trip reading this newly published book out loud to Jonathan--reading aloud--a lost art in these days of technology!

It is written by a lady I had met when we were both young--possibly teens.  My family stayed at her adoptive family home either for a meal or overnight or both. I also knew about Susan when she was a singer in the Bible School college choirs and traveling groups. It was intriguing to read her story, full of both heartbreak and joys, but mostly woven with the grace of God helping this girl through the hard places and bringing her out to joy and peace in Christ.

 

It was a blessing to read how one person after another brought happiness into her very unhappy life, especially her maternal grandmother who taught her to knit. She would later win a purple ribbon, highest prize, at a county fair in Kansas for knitting a red, white, and blue poncho. God also changed her heart of bitterness and gave her forgiveness to where she could pray for her birth father and later learn that he had stopped drinking and become a Christian!

 

Jonathan and I enjoyed sitting on the veranda watching a Nebraska sunset.  

It is hard for us to just sit around.  

But we did. 

He and me. 

And we walked down to the river near the railroad tracks nearby where Jonathan got a picture of the sunset.

We watched train after train go roaring by on the tracks--and read an article in a Nebraskaland magazine lying there about Railroad rescues.

  And got a call from Tim in Arizona who is having a blast working with other cowboys--fixing fences, building corral things, lassoing bulls, experiencing Tim's first flash flood ever, and such like. 

Hopefully Tim will come back up and help us in South Dakoat! That is the plan anyway-- 

up in South Dakota where the grasshoppers are all over the place!