Skiing

The entire crew. Front row,from left to right, Jeshua C,Matthew M,Ronnie C. Second row; Caleb M, Ellen C,
Isaac K. last row; Linda M, Elizabeth M, Rachel M, and Priscilla K

Jeshua. There was a wonderful view from the top of Buena Vista.
The weather was very, very delightful.

The Lodge.

From left to right; Caleb, Isaac, and Ronnie.
This is the middle and largest lift at Buena Vista

Caleb, Jeshua, and Ronnie were all new skiers. They did very well.  Here Jeshua, Matthew and Caleb (hiding behind the mask) are ready for another fun run!

My sister Rachel. As you can see by the look on her face she (all of us really) was having a great time:)

Priscilla and Rachel after getting of the smaller lift...ready to head down...in the blinding snow...which didn't last too long.

Ronnie and Elizabeth coming up the ski lift. We are so glad that our cousins and aunt were able to join us for a day of fun and exercise.

 Elizabeth did fine on the slopes...but here she is just taking a quick break.  The weather was mild...at first it snowed heavily...but it cleared up and was such a nice day, we really didn't want to stop.

My wonderful mom. Thank-you Mom for taking us to Buena Vista.
Thank-you very much Daddy for staying home with the little girls..we wished you could have come with us.

Our Cousin Isaac hit into a deer.(we are glad you are o.k.) Isaac gave us the meat from the deer.
Here Caleb is cutting meat of the bones..notice his lovely apron:)

"But let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven."
May our great God give you all many opportunists to share the Lord with others this week. No light is too insignificant. I once read a story about a little girl. She was a housemaid in a large house. Her jobs were lowly and menial. Whenever her companions saw her she was cheerfully fulfilling her tasks. When asked what her secret to joy was,she replied" I know that Jesus sees all I do. I want my candle to burn brightly even in this small corner of the world.
You never know who your life is touching.

Linda's Latest Creations

Um, something interesting for lunch? Nope, just the latest of Linda's projects.

I don't think boiled sweater would taste good anyways. I think she was making sure it was shrunk.




After cooking it, she hung it up to dry and shrink. From there, it will end up looking something like this....

Beautiful wool mittens, lined with fleece. Sold in stores for over 25.00. Made in just about 1 hour. Old sweater gotten at second hand store for .50 cents. Or, Sportsmans guide is selling 4 wool blankets for 31.00. Either way, these are nice mittens. I love my Mitton :))

December in Review.

 Just a smattering of what we have been up to lately.

We take the seniors center service all the month of December.

Bringing bright sunshine to the elderly.

More sunshine.

Our piano players.

Jesus, the reason why we serve and love.

Caleb celebrated his 11th birthday this December. We sure love him.

Then of course there is all the Christmas baking. We sure had fun this year sharing with some of our neighbors.

We even  got a little snow this year. Though most of it is gone now.

Victoria has been doing pretty good lately. She grabbed her own feeding tube here and it looks like she wants to feed herself. Here teeth are still bothering her, but slowly they are coming. We enjoyed a second Christmas with her.

Wearing a gift from Grandma Mitton

And of course the Christmas play on Dec. 24th is always a favorite.

Christmas morning. Wearing her new pj's with her new dollie. I wish she was more expressive. :)

Christmas dresses that mamma made. How come we boys don't get anything like that?

Ahha...we did get something. The Mitton boys doing the "Christmas can can"

I could get nothing for Christmas, but would still be happy with this cute little "package"

After bath time, and wearing more presents.

After the 25th, the S.D gang came up. Some of us visited the shed...what a fun place.

Enjoying a game at the Grandparents place. Someone said this year that we are getting to the point where grandpa will have to build a 3 stall garage to accommodate  everybody.

Daniel "boone" and his white elephant gift. Too bad you didn't get to keep it. Such fun.

The rink is opened, and so we have been enjoying some skating.

New years eve this year we celebrated at home with some fondue...so good.

I end this post with our little dollie. What are you focused on? This year, may it be Christ and His kingdom. We received power to be His witnesses...may it be so in word, and by the way we live all year round.  For each one that reads this, I pray that this will be an extraordinary year for you, being filled with the very fullness of God,and delighting  in Him. If you have never received him as Lord and Saviour, drop us a line and we would be glad to tell you how.

Reuben, we sure missed you this year, and hoped you enjoyed seeing some of what we have been up to. Blessings on y'all. Bruce

Merry Christmas Everyone

To all those who didn't get our email, we post our Christmas letter here.
I hope this finds you all enjoying this wonderful time of the year. It has been a terrific year, filled with new adventures and new trials and new discoveries about the grace of God, and how sufficient it is to meet our every need. In Christ, we have received every spiritual blessing we need to love and live for Him every day of the year.
As many of you know, we have been blessed with Victoria , who is now 22 months old. She had an interesting first birthday as she spent it in the ICU ward of Gillette children's hospital in St. Paul Mn. She was so very sick with so much wrong with her, that we were sure that the Lord was going to take her home to be with Him. We all went down and stayed  at a friends place for one week, then Bruce had to get back to work, so left Linda there with her for another month.  The longest we had ever been apart, and we missed them so much…but God’s grace and presence proved to be all that we  and they needed. Though I would be the first to admit that there was much wrestling with God in prayer about what He was doing.  After many trips down (and flying Linda home one weekend as a surprise for the children and a balm for myself) Victoria slowly got better. The three operations helped (for the shunt and to put in a G-tube for feeding), and we are now enjoying her at home. There are still many trials in taking care of her, but blessing and joy too.
For most of the year, Bruce was on 32 hour work weeks, but God’s grace helps us to live within our means and we are blessed to have all that we have need of.  He is pursuing another job about 1.5 hrs from here, and we are just waiting for the house to sell before we move there…Lord willing of course.  He was able to fly to Toronto for a nephew’s wedding and got to see all his family for the first time in 5 years, such sweet memories.
Linda still keeps busy as family accountant, mother, wife, nurse, pyschologist, counselor, entrepreneur, full of good works for neighbors and widows, gardener, teacher, and so much more. What a wonderful domestic engineer she is.  She had many wonderful opportunities to share Christ with others during her stay in the hospital.
Benjamin 22 still lives on his own in Thief  River Falls and is enjoying his job as training supervisor with Digi Key.  He has just joined the Army National Guard, and as I write is at his first training weekend. Please pray that God would guide and sustain this godly young man.
Reuben 19 lives a little further away….like, the far east in Nantou ,Taiwan. We all spent a wonderful week away camping with all the family in Aug. and then said our goodbyes. He is teaching English there for the year, all paid for by the Taiwanese gov’t. To say the least, he is loving it. He has 6 different schools he goes to every week, along with work on  Sat . in an orphanage. He is there with a team of 40 young people, though lives with only 7 of them at one of the schools. Please pray for his health, spiritual growth, safety, a burden for the lost there, and for the gift of tongues, that he would be able to learn the Chinese language. We miss him so much, but are thankful for Skype and FB and email.
Elizabeth is 17 and will be graduating next year, so would appreciate prayer for God’s will for what she should do next.
I could write about all the other little (and not so little ones) children, but this letter would get quite lengthy . Rachel is 15,and along with Elizabeth, are mother's great helpers. Matthew 13, is growing tall, and loves to drive....not yet sonny boy, need more practice :)) Caleb 11,is full of life...and a little mischievous? at times .  Marie 9,loves to read and quote from videos..please, no more UP Joanna 6, is quiet, shy reserved, and then wakes up. And Esther is 4 and comes up with just the greatest one liners. Do you know she is faster than snow?  If you would like to see a few pictures of all of us, here is a link that you can go to.  https://picasaweb.google.com/home  We are so blessed to have so many young disciples to train up for Christ. Thank you for praying for us as a family, we are blessed.
We are so far from being what we ought to be in Christ, but little by little , here a little , there a little we are changing into the image of Christ in practice what we are already in position with Him.  At this Christmas season, and always, may you hold tight to Him in trials and joy, sorrow and good times…He is coming again soon .
With much love , prayers and blessings , Bruce, Linda and family


""God has a reason for everything He does. You may not understand why he leads you now in this way and now in that, but you may, nay you must believe that perfection is stamped on His every act." E. Prentiss

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

Happy 24th anniversary Mom and Dad!!
Since our camera is not working I can't post a recent picture of Dad and Mom.So instead of pictures here are 24 reasons that I am thankful for Mom and Dad.
1.That they are Christians.
2.That they have stayed together all these years.
3.That  they love  the Bible.
4.That they are pro-life:) 
5. That they bring us to a Bible-believing church.
6.That they home-school us.
7.That they have a sense of humor.
8.That they have instilled in us a love of Scripture.
9.That they teach us to honor others.
10.That they teach us to respect government.
11.That they have believed in dressing us modestly.
12.That they have protected us from bad videos.
13.That they have a BIG garden.
14.That they have taught us to love books.
15.That they teach us about Creation.
16.That they have good standards about music.
17.That they enjoy playing games with us.
18.That they discipline us when we need it.
19.That they believe in having personal bible reading.
20.That they humbly ask us forgiveness when they need to.
21.That they have brought us on so many fun vacations.
22.That they have always had time for us.
23.That they teach us about our heritage.
24.That they love each other so much:):)

I love you so much Mom and Dad. May God continue to give you joy in your marriage.  Thanks for the great example that you are.Here is an old picture of Mom and Dad when they were in Banff.

Marie's Birthday

Marie is nine years old now.

Mom made a special castle cake for Marie.

 Blowing out the candles!!

Marie with her gifts from  her family.

Smile!!

Marie working hard.

Wood for the winter!!

Our men work so well together.

Marie's birthday wish came true! She was so excited!

 We are very grateful for you Marie. We hope that you would grow up to love Jesus more and more. Happy 9th Birthday!!
 Every time that I look at the snow I am reminded of the verse in Isaiah."Come now, let us reason together,saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Here is another verse that I like about snow.Psalm 51:7" Purge me with Hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter that snow."Psalm 51:7 I want to thank all that made Marie's birthday special. May God bless you all with a Great Thanksgiving. Remember  To be thankful for the best gift  of all, JESUS. 11 Cor. 9:15" But thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."11Cor.9:15

Dad is Rambling again...

Greetings  to one and all. It has been so long since I have rambled on here, (probably no one has really missed it anyways), so thought I would share some of my thoughts with you tonight. As I write, our family is shrinking. Reuben is on the other side of the globe teaching English in Taiwan, and loving it. Ben is a training supervisor at Digi Key about 1.5 hours from here. So we are left with only 8 blessings at home. How did they ever grow up so fast? They go from diapers, to driving to dreams in lightening speed, and our time to train and nurture is gone in a blink. This week, Linda and I will have been married for 24 years...did I mention that I married her, and she has become my very best friend, and still is. She is the most incredible woman I know (shouldn't every husband say that about their brides?). She has taught me so much, especially with Victoria. Her steady belief in the sovereignty of  God in our lives has been such an encouragement to me.
She has such a simple, yet profound childlike trust in God's goodness and providence, believing that He always does all things well..even when we do not understand. Thanks my dear. Jesus is represented in my little Victoria's life, and he said, if you do it (acts of kindness) to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me..so we are learning to love Jesus. Many times His blessings come wrapped up in packages that might not look like blessings, but they really are. Learning to love those that are many times overlooked or considered not important.  It takes, love, patience, unselfishness, perseverance , time, for which I am trying to learn about these qualities. This week is also when we celebrate thanksgiving, even though we should be grateful every day. Are you thankful that your children can talk, walk, feed themselves, dress themselves, smile ,  all these simple little things we take for granted, and really don;'t miss them until they can't do these things anymore. Be thankful. Be thankful for trials...for the glory of Jesus is revealed in them. They are used, or can be used to draw us closer to God. Be thankful for trials. Be thankful for   possesions, but be willing to give them up joyfully, because you have a country and an inheritance in Christ. Be thankful that you know a God who loves and cares for you, and that He knows you and has written your name on His hands, how humbling to be known by Him and be able to serve Him. Serve Him with joy and gladness of heart....can't wait to see Him face to face. Blessings on all who read this. Love Christ with all your heart today....He is worthy of such affection. Affectionately, Bruce