We are very excited to be working on a resource to encourage young men and families in being debt free. We would like to hear about young men that you might know that are committed to being debt free and have purchased homes. If you know of some, please write us. Use the contact us form. Please enter your telephone number and e-mail address. Thank you.
Steve and Teri
“Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself
in the field; and afterwards build thine house.”
Proverbs 24:27
Just a reminder that Christopher’s ITonRamp’s Quickbooks Course begins Wednesday, October 2nd.
This course is extremely practical, and you’ll learn bookkeeping skills, which are valuable for anyone who has a small business or wants to start one. Since it is only eight weeks, and ends before the holidays, the timing is perfect too. The course can benefit an entire family, although only one person will be answering review questions and interacting with the mentor.
Blessings,
Sarah
“A wise man will hear, and will increase learning;
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels”
Proverbs 1:5
Special thanks to Mary for writing this post!
We have really enjoyed our stay here at John James Audubon State Park. Being a large, active family makes us a bit of a curiosity at an RV park since each day we exercise, some of us do our school or work outside, and we also do our music practice outside weather permitting. We love the talking time we get with our neighbors. It provides great opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus in some way or other!
Everybody likes dad. He is one of those who makes friends with everyone! He always has the right word of encouragement, compliment, or humor to whomever is around. While we girls started on our walk this morning, Darryl, a very industrious park employee, was driving by on his golf cart, and stopped us. He told us he had just spoken to our dad and said how much he enjoyed his conversation with Dad. Darryl continued that Dad’s encouragement was just what he needed. It’s been exciting to hear all the conversations different family members have had with our neighbors here.
We look forward to Louisville this weekend and what the Lord Jesus will do.
Jesus’ Girl,
Mary
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works!
in wisdom hast thou made them all:
the earth is full of thy riches”
Psalms 104:20
We left home about 7:15 Friday morning. Belleville (St. Louis area) was supposed to be about a five hour drive. However, we hit a major slowdown, which cost us a little time. When we arrived at the church, we found out that we actually had spoken there many years ago (at least 10+). That’s neat.
Set up went smoothly, and so did music practice. A great group showed up for the small business session. There was good dialog and ideas offered during that time, and then we transitioned to the concert and Inspire! session.
Saturday dawned sunny and cool, a gorgeous autumn day. We began promptly at 9, and our day progressed quickly. Families were very attentive to what was shared, and our hearts were full of joy to see the Lord Jesus working. We saw old friends and met new ones as well. The panel discussion was our most diversified one yet. Not only were the questions very interesting and assorted, we couldn’t even hope to get through them all in the time allotted! Answering questions on the spur of the moment, makes one think quickly ;).
A special joy to me was meeting a new little baby, Gibson, who was named after a Moody character. If you remember from an earlier blog post, one of his brothers wanted to name their baby Gibson, and sure enough, that’s his name. It was a joy to hold him!
Saturday evening, we drove to a state park in Kentucky where we’ve been since. I’ll share some pictures on that later. đ We look forward to Louisville this weekend!
Joyfully His,
Sarah
“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee,
Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”
Psalms 27:8
We’re excited to announce a new date added to our schedule: Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, October 1st. It’s only an hour south of Pittsburgh, and might I mention it’s also just an hour from Wheeling, West Virginia and Morgantown, West Virginia.
We’d love to see you!
Check out the details here.
Joyfully His,
Sarah
PS – We had an awesome conference in Belleville. More on that later.
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to the which also ye are called in one body;
and be ye thankful.”
Colossians 3:15
Thirty-one years ago, our oldest little boy headed off for his first day of school. He was very cute with his navy shorts, white polo shirt, and lunch box in his hand. We took his photo before he left the house to get on the school bus in order to capture the memory of that momentous day. He only headed away to school one more year. After that, he was homeschooled.
Even with homeschooling, we made it a priority to take first-day-of-school photos. Now there were two children to photograph and eventually there would be eight. No longer did the children have their lunch boxes in their hands but instead they held a few of their school books for their pictures. We took an individual photo of each child and a group photo. Those photos were put in albums with the rest of our family photos, but I had a plan in my mind to someday, when life slowed down, collect all those first-day-of-school photos into its own special album.
In 2010 something happened. When school began, we were preparing for Christopherâs wedding in October and also our fall speaking trip. We planned to do the photos the evening of the first day of school, but we forgot. We didnât think we had time to reschedule them before our speaking trip, and when we got home late in October, we decided that since we had missed the actual first day of school, the photo didnât matter than much anyway. Because we missed the 2010 photos, we decided it wasnât that much of a priority in 2011. We were down to only two homeschooled students and besides we had never done anything with those photos anyway.
By 2012, I had almost forgotten about the first day of school. We had one homeschooled student who was in tenth grade and by choice started her new school year as soon as she finished her last one. She was way beyond the excitement of first-day-of school special breakfasts, school surprises, and photos.
However, this year my heart was heavy when I thought about the missing first-day-of-school photos. My last homeschooled children are as important to me as my first ones were. Sadly, I let the urgent push out the important. We thought we had good reasons for choosing the urgent, but in hindsight they were only excuses. A photo takes very little time, and it would have been well worth the effort.
I regret those three years of no first-day-of-school photos. I canât redo those particular days and get the photos, but I can learn from that mistake. This year, even though we missed three years, we have a first-day-of-school photo for Mary for 11th grade.
What about you? Could I encourage you to look for what is important in your life and not let what seems urgent push out what is important?
Trusting in Jesus,
Teri
“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
Colossians 3:17