Springtime/Summertime!!!

 First of all we would like to congratulate Ben and Emily. As most of you all know they are expecting their first son!! ~Lo, Children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb in his reward Psalm 127:3~

 We have had many fond memories of bubbles in the springtime...Esther here is continuing the tradition.

Marie

JoAnna

 ~James 4:14b For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.~

Planting!! (I know...this was a little while back:) JoAnna and Esther planting onions.

 ~“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” Robert Stevenson~

Caleb making rows...Esther, (!), you know you are not supposed to be jumping over the rows!!

Elizabeth,(Me), making rows.

Most of us are working...right Esther?!!  (note the beautiful feet...evidence she was helping :)  )

Even Daddy got in on the fun. Meanwhile, JoAnna just watches on in amazement:) Dad is normally at work when we plant.

~“It always amazes me to look at the little, wrinkled brown seeds and think of the rainbows in 'em," said Captain Jim. "When I ponder on them seeds I don't find it nowise hard to believe that we've got souls that'll live in other worlds. You couldn't hardly believe there was life in them tiny things, some no bigger than grains of dust, let alone colour and scent, if you hadn't seen the miracle, could you?” L.M Montgomery Anne's House of Dreams~

In May, Mom, Reuben, Me, Rachel, Matthew, Caleb, and Marie, all headed down to Sioux Falls, for Abby's, our cousin, graduation! Here Rachel is reading Ellie a story.

Marie, bottle feeding a wee lamb:)

Hannah, fixing my hair, with Rachel looking on. We had one of our best talks of our visit here in this room:)

~A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.
William Penn~

The finished look.

Marie, Libby, and Sarah.

May this be said of all of us!!.

 ~A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.
Arnold H. Glasow~

Matthew with a very special friend...his younger cousin, Ellie:)

June, brings Vacation Bible School!! This year was a spy theme. One of our cousins wrote a theme skit for the week. Here Matthew, Rachel,  Dallas,  Davis and I are practicing our lines:) Just want to say a big thank you to the Arthur Krahn family for all the work they put into VBS. It truly is a highlight of our summer!!

Esther and JoAnna, posing as Thompson and Thompson:) For saying your Monday daily verse, every child got a spy face...they were really funny!!

This year at VBS there were many answered prayers! 1.We got over 100 children. 2. Specifically on Wednesday we prayed for children to get saved...some did!! ~I Samuel 16:7b For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.~ 3. One day we were kinda worried that the crafts would be really confusing, we prayed, and the crafts went great!! There were other things too. It was such a faith building week. The main lesson that stuck out to me, was that God does not make junk!!

Rachel telling day 2 of the missionary story. The story was one we had never done before; it was on George Muller.

A new game that we just recently acquired is called Guesstures. Its an acting game. Our family loved it right from the start...even Esther got in on the fun too:)

 So that is a basic catch up in what is happening in our lives. Later on we will post pictures of birthdays, Father's Day and our last day with Reuben. He is on another adventure. Instead of Taiwan, it's South Dakota that will be his next adventure. He will be working on a carpentry job, then later on( Lord Willing) he will get his EMT training, and some other training and hopefully, some time in the future get in on the Suoix Falls, Fire department. This is a pretty competitive job, so prayer would be appreciated for him to be successful, if that is what the Lord would have him to do. We are already missing him, but are glad that he is not quite so far away this time:) I will leave you with one final quote. May it challenge you, as it continues to challenge our family.
~Only one life, twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. C.T. Studd~