Today was a catch up day for the Maxwells. Many things needed to be done after being away for a month! The big job on the agenda was cleaning out the shed that was built last year. We needed to completely re-organize it so we could optimize our space for all the books and other items that need to be stored out there. Team work is an amazing thing.
Our garden produced bountifully while we were away. Here’s our crop of jalapenos! We do enjoy spicy food :-). Mom said there are more flowers on the plants, although with the cooler weather coming, I don’t know how much longer they’ll produce.
BTW – we have just a few more openings for the marriage retreat, November 10-11th. If you’re interested, please see this link.
I believe one reason children lose interest in their parent’s faith is that they see a life that is simply religious. There is no deep love and excitement for Jesus, but simply going through the outward motions and with the flow of those around them. Difficulties, persecutions and trials of life that come into our lives provide excellent opportunities for our children to see Who Jesus is in our life.
Certainly, they are not what we prefer, but they bring with them the blessed grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our children have had those blessings and the most recent was this weekend. As we were packing up after our Charleston conference, Sarah was sitting on the floor amidst some boxes. She said she was feeling terrible and really didn’t know if she could do much more. With others pitching in to finish what Sarah normally does, we were soon packed up and heading for the hotel.
Such was the beginning of some of our family’s most memorable days because by Sunday morning six of us were terribly ill and since then only one has "escaped". Still very sick, that afternoon the Lord enabled us to begin the 900 mile drive to Shreveport, LA for a conference on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday with some better and some worse we drove 600 miles home.
It is easy to praise the Lord Jesus when all is well, but the real growth opportunity is to rely on Jesus and be at peace when things are terribly bad. The children saw that if Jesus doesn’t remove the problem, then He will enable us to go through it.
It made no sense for us to begin homeschooling when Teri was in the midst of depression. She shares that she was hopeful that if she was obedient in homeschooling God would remove the depression. However, we found that God is faithful and He gives grace to do what He calls us to do. We want the difficulties removed, but most often, His way is to enable us through them.
After thirty days on the road and thirteen cities, we are home in our own beds again. We met many special and courageous brothers and sisters in Christ and were shown much love and kindness. I think we would all agree it was our most memorable trip, in more ways than one, and we praise our Lord Jesus Christ for His love, mercy, and sustaining grace.
We love to hike! We had some time Monday morning in the Asheville area for a family walk.
When we headed to Franklin from Asheville Wednesday, we saw a little music shop and stopped there. We enjoyed our visit!
Dad and Mom
My mom’s sister came from Alabama to visit us in Franklin. She came to the Tuesday evening conference. Wednesday we had a “free” day, so we decided to hike. One of my mom’s favorite things to do is hike in the woods, which doesn’t happen very often! Of course, our whole family enjoys hiking.
The sunset was gorgeous last night over the mountains!
Dusk is falling, and we are settled in at a hotel in the mountains of Asheville! It’s hard to believe we only have a week and a half left on the road. We have a one-evening conference in the Asheville area tomorrow evening.
Our weekend in Winston-Salem was wonderful. We started out Friday evening with our music session. I’m very grateful that Jesus has given us opportunities to play together. As Dad shares, only a few have natural musical talents (meaning they could literally pick up an instrument and play it with hardly any practice!), the rest of us have to work hard to learn. On our FamiliesforJesus site, we list some resources we’ve used to self-teach ourselves without instructors, http://www.familiesforjesus.com/music/ When the session was over, we had a little "Visit with other Moody readers&qout; time. A mom had requested this, so it was a delight to be able to talk to children who have enjoyed the Moodys. They motivate me to continue working on Spring!
Saturday, I briefly chatted with a couple who had come from the Kingsport, Tennessee area, several hours away! A number of other families had driven two or more hours as well. We are blessed beyond measure to have these dear families come. The coordinators for the conference even provided meals for us throughout the weekend. Thank you!
This morning, as we headed to Asheville, we listened to a message by Dr. S. M. Davis, How to Humble Yourself. It was incredibly convicting to me personally. It’s a CD that would be good to listen to several times!
We are deeply grateful to those of you who have been praying for us. May Jesus richly bless you and your family.
Last weekend’s conference in Fayetteville went extremely well. Our music session hadn’t been scheduled, but after discussions with the church elders, it was decided to squeeze it in Saturday during the long lunch break. The family scrambled to set up the sound system, and tune instruments. We love to be able to play and sing at our conferences because it allows those attending to see our whole family together.
Heritage Bible Church, which invited us to speak and sponsored the conference, is a family church without programs. If you live in the area, you might want to look into it if you want a family integrated church.
We haven’t had time to tell about our first weekend conference in the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania area. Grace Covenant Baptist Church hosted the conference. We ended up outgrowing their building, and the pastor’s family found another church in a nearby city where the conference could be held. Grace provided Friday evening dinner, Saturday breakfast and lunch for the entire conference at no cost. We loved seeing the servant attitude demonstrated by the church as they foresaw the needs to those attending the conference and then met those needs with the provision of meals. Grace Covenant Baptist Church, in the Wilkes-Barre, PA area, is another family church without programs.
Monday and Tuesday evenings we were in Rocky Mount. Again, we were pleased to see the response to the message God has allowed us to share in our conferences. The Rocky Mount and Wilson homeschool groups blessed us by giving us a surprise birthday cake for Jesse, who turned 12 on Monday.
We have been overwhelmed by the expressions of love shown us on this trip. Thank you to everyone.
Mom gave a ladies’ mini-conference in the Raleigh area this morning. We girls manned the book table, and the guys helped with getting more chairs when we ran out of room, opening doors, and helping with the tear down afterwards. We also squeezed in a few songs at the end of Mom’s last session.
We’re looking forward to this weekend’s Winston-Salem conference.
Joseph took this picture earlier this week; it always takes more than one trip with the cart!
Only for Jesus, Sarah
The Maxwell family and ministry blog of Titus2.com.
