Christmas and Sam's Birthday

Here are Rosie and Timmy helping to hang ornaments on the Christmas tree this year.

Crystal helps little Danny hang a homemade ornament on the tree. Homemade ones are the best! Some are cut out of Christmas cards in the shapes of bells, hearts, gingerbread men or other Christmas shapes.

Here is Sammy at his 12th birthday on December 1st. Sammy is our outdoor boy, caring for the animals and most of the outdoor work. He's like a right hand.

The children love this picture of our poodle looking ferocious! It gets up on its hind legs by the window to take a look at our kitty, who loves to lie in this sewing basket where the sight of it keeps the poodles prancing with a terrible desire to bug her. By the way, finally yesterday, this kitty caught her first mouse in the garage. And today she caught her second. Well, it is about time. That is why we accepted this kitty from Aunt Iva. Now hopefully she will start earning her keep!

Continuing the Work

Well, here Jon and Jeffrey are still working. The guys bantered Jeffrey about his head covering which he wore to keep mud out of his hair.
The two Dave's taping drywall. We have hardly any photos of Jonathan because he was the one taking pictures on our camera. Sorry!

Jason Sturtevant planing a board. It was because of Jason's generosity that this project was able to be paid for. Jason and Joanna are being used of God in many ways. Pray for this wonderful young family.

Jarrod is sawing an opening into the basement ceiling so that the staircase can be used. Now that the basement is usable, the stairs are needed!

Yeah!! Light streams into the dungeon!

Starting the Work

Dave Weaver and Dave Holderbaum and another guy working on the wall, banging out a ledge to put electrical wiring in.
"Bishop" Weaver doesn't seem to mind the camera. In fact, someone taking a photo is a great time to make the picture worth taking! "Bishop" Weaver keeps these mission trips and projects jovial and fun!

This is Roman's son helping hold the ladder with Dave Holderbaum. One of the guys is on it, I'm not sure who. This boy, Valik, was born soon after Crystal was. I have photos of them together as one or two-year-olds. Now they are teenagers!

Jon McVey surveying the job ahead. Despite crutches and a stiff leg, he got the plastering done, with Jeffrey Albertson's help.

Here they are plastering. Jeffrey mixed and hauled mud. Mixing mud doesn't sound like all that great a job to do (something like staying home and minding Jonathan's seven children). But God needs mudders--and mothers-- too.

We've been having trouble with my computer going on the blink several times a day, so we just have to keep trying again and again. Just getting photos on as we have time and the computer works. We've been keeping the computers hot just keeping ads for our goldendoodle puppies up to date and answering emails about them, to say nothing of other things. Thanks to my marvelous son Sam for helping me with the work of downloading and uploading photos and typing in the information for ads, etc. I don't know what I would do without my children's help. They are wonderful! Please do pray that we will be able to sell the five puppies we have left. We've sold three, but I am getting very tired of cleaning up behind five very messy puppies on top of everything else that needs to be done!!

Mission Helps Project

On October 22nd, Jonathan left for Kiev, Ukraine, with a Mission Helps crew to finish the basement of the church pictured above. Jason Sturtevant had called a few months ago and asked if a crew could come over to finish the basement so there could be usable rooms for Sunday School and Kids Club. Just a week earlier, we had found out that some funds had come in for Jonathan's mission trips from the sale of the Bible College where he used to attend as a young person. Funds from the same sale had been sent to Ukraine, and Jason wanted to use part of it to help this church. We know the pastor well, Roman Organyuk and his wife Nadia. They have four children. Roman used to be the translator for Bro. Glenn Pelfrey when he was pastor of this little congregation in Ukraine. Now Roman has been pastor for about 12 years or more.
Here is the beautiful inside of the church. Jonathan had helped build the first church of logs, but it was burnt to the ground by a lightning strike. After we left Ukraine, the church was rebuilt of block.

Here are some "before" pictures of that dark, dingy basement.

Jonathan gets such a kick out of the way this drywall was put in patches on the walls. Imagine how much time it would have taken to tape all those cracks! But when there is no money, this is what has to be done. Thankfully, now God had provided funds, and the guys tore off this stuff and put up whole pieces of drywall.

On our way to get hay for our heifer one evening, we stopped at Paint Mine Interpretive park, a place half mile from Calhan. It has formations made out of clay, which the Indians used for paint years ago. Here are the girls among the formations in this fascinating place.

Sam and Timmy explore another intriguing spot.

Oops! We got mixed up and these pictures got in the wrong place!

Carrie plays the piano while high and mighty Hannah sits on top of the world.

Kitty and Hannah.

On the trail before we got into the clay formations. It just looked like prairie at first, but then we started into the clay formations. Of all things, we forgot to bring a coat for Baby Hannah, so we ended up wrapping her in two blankets and Mom carried her most of the time. She fell asleep on the walk.

More of those interesting formations behind us.

Rose checks out a cozy corner.

There were so many colors such as these pink stripes. We children wanted to climb the formations, but signs asked people not to , so we tried to respect that. As we walked, the moon came up over the prairie. It was so pretty.

Hayride

On Saturday, Oct. 3, we had a hayride at our place. Here we are the afternoon of the hayride arranging hay on the trailer and lining the driveway with hay bales.

Jonathan, Anna, and Danny with Mr. Scarecrow that Naomi French set up.

Getting loaded onto the trailer.

Almost ready to go. We had almost 50 people on the trailer. Most were young folks (or young at heart) fromour church, but also a Ukrainian family came, and a young man that has been working for Jonathan, named David. It was crowded and cold, but we had a lot of fun anyway. We saw quite a few deer as we rode around for almost an hour on backroads through Rattlesnake Bluffs. Afterward, everyone gathered around the fire that Jonathan had built in the driveway to roast weiners and marshmallows. Hay bales were stacked around as a windbreak and and to sit on. Some people of course, didn't care to stay out in the cold and ate in the house instead. Like me, for example. Thanks so much to Grandpa Lucas for keeping the fire watched while we rode on the hayride, and to Grandma Lucas for staying home to watch Baby Hannah so I could ride along on the hayride, too. It was the first hayride like that that the children and I had ever been on.

Before going home, Naomi French and Anna did a little skit that Naomi came up with. In the skit, Naomi was going on a trip and, being in a hurry, left the packing list with Anna, who decided to put anything into the suitcase but what was really needed. So poor Naomi found only crazy things when she arrived at her hotel room for overnight. Instead of toothpaste there was glue, and a fork instead of toothbrush. Instead of a nice set of matching clothes, there was a set of clothes that was --well--anything but nice or matched. And so on. How the children howled! The lesson was: God's Word is our list of what we need to make it to heaven. We can't just look at the Guide and decide to do our own thing. Then we won't make it through the gates of heaven. We won't be ready. We can't decide we don't need to do this or that, or that something God's Word says doesn't really mean what it says. It was a good lesson and a fun time.

Our goldendoodle puppies "kissing." They were actually licking the milk off each other.

In the Mountains

Some of the beautiful yellow aspen up in the mountains.

A few chilly, windy, but joyous moments spent together in God's beauty.

We found one of the most amazing trails we've ever been on, Limber Grove Trail, near Horseshoe Mountain. Starting at a bridge made of beams downstream from several beaver dams, we climbed a ways and then started into this incredibly rocky part of the trail. This is looking somewhat down the mountainside. From this direction there are towering cliffs from which these millions of rocks have fallen over thousands of years. Jonathan called us this rocky slope and its rocks are called talus rock. We picked our way for hundreds of yards across it. Mom carried the baby and managed to only stumble once, getting a nice cut on her hand. A chilly drizzle soon started after we took these pictures. We hurried down the rest of the woodsy trail, unable to beat the rain. Sam hadn't brought a coat along, so had to wear Crystal's sweater. Rose wore a baby blanket for a scarf, and Carrie had a little blanket along to take shelter under as well.

Another amazing spot. Near this tree was a little wooden sign that said, "God saved trees from floods and fires, but He can not save them from fools. " Hopefully it was not too foolish to climb this incredibly gnarled and twisted tree for a photo.

Well, this picture came on sideways again. Can you find Sammy? Talk about camouflage! This was the last of our film, and it's a good thing, because we had to hurry along. Rain was drizzling down. The trail ended at Horseshoe Campground where I stayed with the three littlest children while Jonathan and the others hurried back to the road to go back and get the van. That was quite the half hour. I found a sheltered spot under some evergreen trees by a rushing stream, wrapped the little boys with a blanket, held the sleeping baby under another blanket in my arms, and waited. I felt very sorry for the others, as we could see the wall of cold, sleety rain that was coming down the mountain road. The girls, I found out later, took shelter under another tree while Jonathan and Sammy pushed on the rest of the 1.3 miles for the van. They were very cold and quite soaked by the time they got the van. The girls said their hands were almost numb with cold. The little boys, baby and I fared the best, but even we were awfully thankful to see the van coming! How grateful we were for warm shelter again! But we wouldn't have missed that hike for anything. We'd recommend Limber Grove Trail to anyone wanting an awe-inspiring trek.