The B-I-B-L-E

Jenae found a new spot for her daily Bible reading.

It is amazing to me. Jenae loves books. She has always loved books. She will just sit and "read", of course, she also likes it when others read to her. What is amazing to me is that she is able to distinguish which of her books are her story books and which books around the house are Bibles. She can say "Bible" now (thank you, Darlene) and loves to carry it around and say, "Bible. Bible." She was doing this the other day and I asked if she was preaching like Daddy, if she was telling other people about Jesus and she responded by saying, "Eeeee, Ooooo, Eee-oooo, Eeee, Ooooo."

I pray that she will only grow in her love of God's Word and that she will live to tell others about Jesus!

Jenae at 18 Months

The Preacher's Kid

Some of our best (and most difficult) days in Belton were the last two weeks of our ministry there. During those days we spent precious time with people who had blessed our lives in such significant ways. We shared many meals and conversations, hopes and dreams for the futures and laughter and tears over our memories. It was during these days that Jordan and I would lament and wonder why we don't do this more often. No, not move--aahh! But really share life and the things most important to us...tell people what they mean to us and the church...why their ministry is important...pray together...look to God and trust He is shaping our futures...speak God's graces to each other. Such powerful and meaningful times!

One evening was spent with the Jarratt family. Their whole family is making an eternal impact at the Belton church. Mom, Dad and kids are all special to our family. At the close of our evening together a "presentation" was made to us:I was blown away! Michael did this pencil sketch from a photograph his mom took of Jenae at Christmas. It is incredible! He was entering it in the art contest so we didn't get to take possession right away, but he explained to enter the contest each piece had to be titled. Since he had done this as a going away gift to our family as Jordan began his preaching ministry, he titled this "The Preacher's Kid." That's when my eyes began to well up with tears. How thoughtful could he be?! Thank you, Michael! And thank you Jarratts for sharing your lives with us! We love and miss you.

Tad Meyer Park

One of the ways we fill our days is going to the park. We just hop in the stroller and head down the street, past the DQ and the football stadium. (Of course it seems we don't drive anywhere in town. We just walk.) This park would be defined as a park with a "classic" playground. There are no brightly colored plastic climbing toys, no fancy tube slides, not even a water fountain. What we have at the Winters park is old school and FUN! We have an old bandstand pavilion, metal monkey bars (with at least 10 coats of paint), plank of wood see-saws and a merry-go-round. Not many parks have merry-go-rounds anymore, something about safety, but in a town where kids still ride around in the back of trucks, we love the merry-go-round. And so does Jenae!

Here are some shots from the park:

I'm Back!!!

We are getting settled in Winters and we have so much to tell. Our lives have been quite busy over the last few months and I am so glad things are slowing down to a normal, easy pace. I'm ashamed at how much I haven't blogged about...even as we uploaded pictures from the camera I was surprised that they went all the way back to before Christmas!! That is a horrible blogger!

So now, I have many stories and even more photos and I'm not sure where to begin. I'm a little afraid that blogger will crash on me if I try to do too much at once so I'll break this up into small stories.

Many of you have been waiting anxiously to see pictures of the "parsonage." Here she is in all her glory! These are the pics we took before we moved in while they were still working on the house. When I get all of our stuff squared away I'll post new ones so you can see.