The Lord Jesus blessed the Jefferson City conference last night and today — we’ll post an update next…

It’s been a busy last few days as we prepared to leave for our first weekend conference. We were able to get most of the bus loaded last night, which was a blessing.

Jesse loading the bus.

This morning, there were more last minute details to finish such as hanging the clothes bar and loading all of our miscellaneous gear. Mom and I have felt some relief knowing we’ll be home for several more days before our 5 week trip—there is still quite a bit to be done. Mom said she had a momentary thought, “We don’t have our passports!” and then she remembered we haven’t left on the “real” trip yet :-). As we pulled away from the house, Christopher made sure we all had our conference clothes, because the clothes bar was quite empty—when we leave on this next trip, it’ll be FULL!

Uriah out front this morning.

Prayer time before we left.

We would appreciate prayer for this weekend: for our hearts as we share, and for those attending. We are looking forward to meeting some of you!

Sarah for all the rest

We now have the motor home back after having a structural issue investigated, the roof raised, and new windows installed. The old windows couldn’t open while moving, but they were a great way to get big items loaded into the motor home because they could be unlatched and swung fully open. After having the roof raised on the bus, we needed to put everything back inside so it would be ready for our upcoming trip.

Doesn’t look like “home sweet home on-the-road” yet.

All the bus “ole timers” tell us that removing and replacing the windshield is a quick and easy job. You just peel off a piece of rubber and then lift out the glass. Then the new one goes in, just as easily. Well, it’s easy once you know it.

Monday we gathered for the big event, and a friend wanted to come over to watch the “show.” With no little effort we were finally successful in getting the glass out so the loading process could begin. We were relatively pleased with the progress and anticipated a reasonable conclusion.

We need more tools. This isn’t going like it was supposed to!

Working on taking the windshield out.

Out comes the windshield.

Feeding Uriah our furniture.

Still hungry for more.

We are so very grateful to have a refrigerator finally after using a cooler for so long.

Once all the large items were in, we began the process of putting the glass back in. Unfortunately, it didn’t go back in as smoothly as everyone had said it would. We tried and tried to get the glass edges to fit back into the rubber gasket we had just taken it out of. It became obvious that it needed to be slid in with a bit of force.

As the collective muscle force was applied to push a resistant glass into position, there was a loud “pop,” and we all stood there looking at a poor imitation of a windshield.

Well that was Monday and the only thing to do was begin the search for another windshield on Tuesday. We also were taking the bus in on Tuesday to a bus line that was going to do a bit of work for us, and I was hoping they would have a windshield.

Dropping Uriah off, we found out that they didn’t have a windshield, and so I began phoning other local sources. Thankfully, again, the Lord provided. A brother who owns a coach line had a windshield he would sell us, and he was only an hour away.

However, one other problem is that our family has a Honda Civic, and transporting new glass would be impossible unless I strapped it to the roof. Hmm. I wasn’t “brave” enough to try that so we needed to borrow Grandad’s older car that has a huge trunk. Off John and I went to pick up the glass and deliver it to the shop where it would be installed.

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Thank You, Lord Jesus.

In Christ Jesus,
Steve

We thought you may enjoy seeing a visual representation of our upcoming trip itinerary. We’ll be traveling 8,000+ miles, and would love to see any of you that can make it to a conference! Make sure you say “Hi!”

Fall 2008 Conference Locations

We were excited to set off for another evening at the little church in Gypsum, Kansas. This trip was different from the last time we were there in December for a few reasons: the weather was fifty degrees warmer, Nathan and Melanie weren’t with us because of Abigail, and neither were Grandad and Grandma because Grandad was in the hospital. Before we left town, the children played/sang several songs for our nursing-home church Sunday morning. Our dear friends were thrilled!

The children played/sang for our dear friends Sunday morning. 

The Gypsum church provided a wonderful BBQ for everyone before the service. Several men barbecued, and some of the ladies and children worked on the rest of the preparations inside. We were blessed by the kind provisions.

The pastor and his sons helped us carry all of the equipment inside.

The Girls

A Sweet Helper

We began the service with about an hour of music, interspersed with testimonies from each of us. Our desire is not to entertain but to edify and lift up the Lord Jesus. Dad shared from God’s Word during the next portion, and he gave a very challenging message. After that, the children closed with a new “medley” on which they’ve been working.

Joseph, Dad, and Anna

Mary

We were on the road a little before ten, and we had a good family time chatting about the evening for a while. Then most of the family decided to sleep, but Mom kept Dad awake talking since they had both had naps in the bus while the rest of us did the set up. We pulled into the driveway around 1:00 a.m.

Great news: Grandad was released from the hospital last night :-)!

Joyfully His,
Sarah

We just finished up the last conference of this month-long trip. Set up for the MACHE conference began Thursday afternoon, so we drove a short distance to the convention center to begin our final set up for the trip. Jesse didn’t have to hand-truck in as many items, since we had shipped books ahead.

Set up was uneventful, and then we had a nice family evening. At one point, several of us needed to go back to the convention center, and the rest went on a walk along the lake and get pictures.

(Jesse with Lake Superior in the background.)

(Anna and Mary.)

(A drawbridge near the hotel and convention center.)

Friday and Saturday. Dad and Mom’s sessions went very well. At least one or two of the boys went with Dad and Mom to each session to help them set up and then stayed in the session. There wasn’t always all nine of us at the book tables, sometimes several of the family would wander around, chatting with other exhibitors and conference attendees. During the weekend, people often came to the booth and asked questions of Dad and Mom, and we all thoroughly enjoyed our interactions with so many different families.

(Dad talking to several fathers.)

(Dad and Mom giving Keeping Our Children’s Hearts.)

We saw more babies at this conference then we ever remember seeing at others. Since we know Baby Max may come early, we were especially interested in several preemie babies that had been born early, realizing Baby Max might be that tiny!

 
As we reflect back over the last month, we are so grateful for all the blessings the Lord has given us. From our travel safety, to many hearts that were touched, to having so much time together each day, to even Baby Max staying put :-).

Joyfully His,
Sarah for the rest of the family

One of the joys for us of our traveling is seeing “old” friends. Two years ago, when we spoke at the Washington state convention, we met Andy Bradrick, who had come from Minnesota to help his family with the convention. Last night, there was a familiar face in the group, and it was Andy. We also had the privilege of meeting his wife and children, whom we hadn’t met previously.

(Andy Bradrick Family)

At the end of our evening conferences, we almost always sing two songs accompanied by our instruments. Last night we had a first-time occurrence with that. The group wanted an encore. Steve questioned them because we were already a few minutes over our 9:30 dismissal time, but they indicated they wanted another song.

The group that invited us to speak in Fargo, provided us with a wonderful dinner before the conference. After the sessions, when we were packed up and loading the bus, the organizers invited us to join them at a nearby Dairy Queen. We were treated to ice cream sundaes and a time of fellowship with two families.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

Uriah definitely needed to be washed. So, we took him to a Blue Beacon truck wash.

You know it’s windy when…

Today we’ve been driving from Fargo, ND, to Duluth, MN. Minnesota - the “land of ten thousand lakes” is pretty, although the winter scenery isn’t very colorful.

Spring seems to arrive a little later here in the north; many of the lakes are still frozen! Although the temperature has been a pleasant 62 degrees as we have been driving.

I took a break from my computer work and borrowed Joseph’s camera to take a few photos. At that same time we started the lunch sandwich process. Unfortunately, the new bag of bread had not been taken out of the freezer, so those that were having bread (instead of tortillas) for their sandwich had to individually defrost their pieces of bread. I put mine in the sun by the front windshield and let it defrost as I was taking pictures.

Playing with shutter speeds and motion blur while photographing vehicles that are passing us heading the opposite direction on the interstate. (too fast of a shutter speed freezes all of the motion in the picture, a slow shutter speed without panning results in everything being blurred, whereas a slow shutter speed and panning along with the passing vehicle results in a sharp vehicle and a blurred background)

Coming up to pass (yet another) semi-truck. As we passed one semi-truck driver this morning he waved at as, and Dad (and others) waved back. But the truck driver seemed to be signaling something with his hand. At first we thought he was indicating that we were too close to him and needed to move over, but truckers would usually hit their horn in such a situation. After we had passed the truck Dad inspected the bus as best he could in the mirrors and noticed one of the rear engine side compartment doors was open. When we came to a flat and straight section of the Interstate Dad pulled over and Joseph ran back (avoiding the dead raccoon that was laying in the grass) to close the compartment.

Anna working on her “laptop” computer? One of our cash registers died on this trip and we had to purchase a new one. Anna has been working on learning the new register and programming the various products into it.

Because there is no easy (read as: interstate) route from Fargo to Duluth, we’ve had to travel a fair distance on two-lane roads. We’ve seen a lot of picturesque farms and small towns.

I enjoy seeing the various streams as we travel…

And there are plenty of trees!

In Christ,
Christopher

(Update: We are now safely in Fargo, North Dakota.) 

Mountains we saw after we left Red Deer.

We are always grateful when we have a smooth, quick border crossing. Coming back into the US, there was no line at all, but the traffic into Canada was really backed up. We had to briefly pull into the inspection area while an agent came on the bus and asked a couple of questions about anything we had purchased in Canada. Then we were on our way again.

We drove through an area of the US we had never seen before when we came through northern Montana. We were especially impressed with the headwaters of the Missouri River and thought about how we often cross that same river, hundreds of miles away, as we drive from Leavenworth to Kansas City.  The Interstate went through the Little Belt Mountains with the Missouri River flowing along a beautiful valley beside it.

(We saw this house on the rock edge above the Missouri River. Very scenic.)

We can tell spring is arriving even in the northern parts of the country, where it still isn’t green, but the front of the bus and windshield is now covered with splattered bugs. We not only enjoy the beauty of God’s creation as we travel but all the mama and baby animals this time of year.

(Uriah is quite bug-splattered, but he’ll get a wash very soon!)

Steve has felt a bit lonely in his driving now that he is back on US Interstates. In Canada, on the two lane highways, the truckers all waved to each other, and they waved to Steve as well. He quickly picked up the friendly greeting, not only returning waves but initiating them as well. Steve is missing those waves.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

We saw several semis, such as the one below, transporting wrecked train cars. We wondered if we would actually see where the wreck was, and about an hour or two down the road, we saw where it had happened.

Motoring down the Interstate in Uriah.

We had a great weekend with the AHEA Convention in Red Deer, Alberta. With six of our family having come down with colds, we were in much prayer about the music session Friday night. The Lord Jesus showed Himself strong on our behalf and allowed voices to hold up through the music session plus the speaking sessions. Most are now over their colds.

Friday and Saturday were full of sessions, which were well attended. That says to us that those at the convention were interested in our messages. People who talked to us through out the weekend were positive, saying they were encouraged and challenged.

(Mary was straightening up the book table. After a “rush” of people come through, the tables need a bit of organizing!)

(Sarah took this photo as I was talking to a lady at the convention Saturday.)

We had more opportunity to talk with members of the AHEA board than we often have at conventions because of being included in a dinner with them on Thursday night. On Saturday evening our hostess and her family took us to a quiet restaurant where we could eat and relax after the busy weekend. The AHEA board took very good care of us during our time with them. We were blessed.

On this trip, we are making the transition to life on the road with one bathroom in which to get nine people ready for the day. When we traveled with the van and trailer, we had to have two hotel rooms which provided us with two bathrooms. Now with the boys sleeping in the bus, we only need one hotel room and that means only one bathroom. As you can imagine, we have quite a structured morning-bathroom-use schedule!

We rejoice each day that goes by without a call from Nathan and Melanie saying that Baby Max has arrived. When we started this trip 3 ½ weeks ago, with the doctors having put Melanie on bed rest and indicating the birth of Baby Max was likely to be soon, we could hardly imagine returning home with no baby’s arrival. Now having only a week left of our trip, we are hopeful that we will get home and be able to be part of the bed rest support team rather than the baby-in-the-NICU support team. Thank you, Jesus. We are grateful for your prayers for Nathan, Melanie, and baby Max.

As you pray, we would love for you to pray for the hearts of those who come to our sessions in Fargo, ND, Tuesday night and then at the Minnesota state convention this weekend and what the Lord wants to do in their lives.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

(These baskets were dropped off at our hotel Thursday as a gift from the AHEA board!)

In order to remain in our host home in Cleardale and not have to move to a big-city hotel, we needed to locate high-speed Internet. With Melanie in the hospital on bed rest for her pregnancy, Sarah has to download orders and get them to Grandma at home to ship. The conference coordinator had secured permission from the local public school for Christopher and Sarah to use the library, but that didn’t work out. The coordinator then began searching for other alternatives and finally a business about twenty minutes away was located that would allow Christopher and Sarah to use their satellite Internet connection.

(We were able to get Internet Access!)

A truck garage near to our host home allowed Steve to bring the bus into one of their inside bays to do the necessary wheel rim work. The garage was just a few minutes from where we were staying, an amazing provision so far away from larger cities. Securing the additional parts that were needed to put the new rim on required a mornings’ worth of phone calls and a four-hour round trip drive. Tuesday two brothers-in-the-Lord replaced the studs (bolts that hold the wheels on) that were discovered to be broken when the rim had been replaced on Friday.

(Replacing the studs Tuesday morning.)

The time in Cleardale allowed me to get our laundry done, do some school work, and tour the farm. John loved time with the sons in the family helping with farm chores early in the morning and in the afternoons. We were able to spend an evening with the conference coordinator’s family, whom we had met when we were in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, two years ago.

As we left Cleardale on Wednesday morning, Steve thought it would be good to have the wheels torqued.  The place where we found the needed rim was on the road we were on as we headed toward Red Deer. When we pulled in the brother who had helped find the rim, was preparing to head out for his day’s work. His boss let him torque the bus wheels and wanted no payment.

(Getting the wheel torqued on our way out Wednesday morning.)

God’s continual provision in difficult situations gives us many opportunities to look to Him and rest in His solutions rather than our own ideas.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

Our hearts are overflowing after spending the last week with our brothers and sisters in the Lord in Cleardale, Alberta. This area is so remote that there isn’t even a hotel in Cleardale. We arrived there a week ago Thursday evening. We soon had a slight problem, though. Uriah’s tires were hot when we pulled in, and he settled too nicely into the snow-packed parking area at the family’s house we were staying at. So, Friday morning, we needed to move him, and the wheels were in a very icy depression, allowing free spinning of the wheels :-).

There were discussions about how to get Uriah out, including maybe using a powerful tractor. Dad decided to give it a little try first before using other options. After it was obvious Uriah wasn’t going any where, the mom of the family showed up on the porch with a bucketful of week-old ashes from the wood stove and suggested putting a few of these against the wheels. Hmmm. This was a new idea (we Kansas hicks have had no experience with using ashes to get a vehicle unstuck). Dad tried it, and Uriah was free! As we were about to leave for the conference to begin set up, a father in the fellowship had showed up. We had been hearing a slight strange noise ever since we’d been in Colorado. As Dad backed up, he asked the father to see if he could figure out what it was. He found that we had a large crack in one of the wheel rims! We decided to go to Hines Creek, where the conference would be held, and go directly to a place that was likely to have that rim. We’ll make a long story short, but even in a small town where we were at, the Lord provided the exact rim we needed. We are so grateful!!!

(Working on changing out the rim Friday afternoon.)

We’ve never spoken at a conference where hearts were so hungry for the message. The large hall was packed. We were shocked at the size of the group considering the remoteness of the area. Just one week before the conference, the school that had been contracted with to use their facilities, cancelled. The coordinator found a location which was only available that one weekend. Praise the Lord for HIS provision. As registrations continued coming in at the last moment, it became apparent we never would have fit in the school. Our hearts were awed by what Jesus was doing during the weekend! Quite a few families drove up to five and six hours to come to the conference.

(A view from a walkway on Friday evening.)

Sunday we had an incredible day of fellowship with other believers. The singing, preaching, and testimonies were a time of refreshment.

Over and over again, these precious people ministered to us this week. We stayed at one family’s home who graciously provided many meals for us and gave up a portion of their home and even let us use their vehicle as we needed. May Jesus repay you all for your kindness to our family. As we drove away from Cleardale, our route took us near the coordinator’s family’s house. Imagine our surprise at what we saw below in the picture :-).

We are down to about a week and a half left of the trip. We are grateful for your prayers for our traveling and the conferences we’re doing. Please continue to lift up Nathan, Melanie, and Baby Max.

Serving Jesus,
Sarah for the rest

Below are some pictures taken last week as we drove up to Cleardale.

Mini-exercise time!

Beautiful mountain range we saw last Thursday driving up to Cleardale.

We stopped at a rest area, and I took this picture of Uriah.

Jesse, John, and Joseph are standing on about a 4 foot bank of snow!

Wow! We had never been on a 10% grade before :-).

Another quick update. Writing from a cell phone keeps me from being too long winded!

I wish we had good news to report. But, due to increased dilation and some other risk factors Melanie is staying on “inpatient” status for the time being. I would desperately love to have her anywhere but here, but it seems to us that God’s will is for her to be right here.

Praises:

• The dr’s didn’t see a need to suggest magnesium! Those that have been on mag know just how much of a gracious gift of Him that is.
• Melanie is in good spirits. I’m thrilled her spirits have stayed up. I’m the one that’s been up and down.
• No baby yet, each day that goes by is a blessing.

Requests:

• That baby is born in God’s perfect timing. We believe this to be a number of weeks past now, but want His best.
• Wisdom in all the decisions. This is not the “smarts” to make good choices but rather seeking to know God’s will for each thing that comes up.
• That Melanie and I will trust Him. Playing what if games in our minds, especially in light of our experience with Susannah, gets overwhelming quickly. We are seeking to trust and take one day at a time.

Nathan, for Melanie and Baby Max

We are now in the province of British Columbia. Our drive up through Washington was uneventful, except for some portions of heavy traffic. We arrived at the border at 2:45 p.m.

Uriah barely squeezed in between the cement barriers as we pulled up to the immigrations station. It didn’t take too long for our family to be cleared, but the next step was to take the paperwork in (for the Titus2.com products) and get it processed.

Dad and I went into a large building, where we worked through the paperwork. It was nice having the background of crossing the border twice before and knowing what paperwork we needed to have ready. The paperwork went smoothly, and we were grateful for a fellow importer who graciously helped us with several questions as I did a form on the computer, and he even checked up on us at the end. The crossing only took 45 minutes from the time we pulled up to the time we pulled away. We are very grateful to the Lord Jesus for a smooth crossing.

We’ve had such beautiful scenery today. The snow-capped mountains, lush green valleys, cascading waterfalls, jagged rock mountain edges, bright-yellow daffodils, flowering cherry trees, and snow-frosted pine trees have been such an incredible sampling of God’s Creation. We enjoyed our view of spring, but we’re now leaving that for a taste of winter.

There are some hazards to eating in Uriah. Today, after Mom had made lunch for everyone, she contentedly munched on her sandwich. Part way through, an exclamation was heard. Much to her amusement, she discovered that she had eaten half of the “cheese paper”. “Cheese paper” (a term I just created!) is the paper that separates each piece of cheese. She had thought her sandwich was a little chewier than usual, and it was only after she had eaten half, did she discover she was eating the cheese paper. Sorry, Mom!

Thank you for continuing to pray for our trip. We’ll be in Canada until April 13th. This weekend we’ll be doing a small weekend conference in northern Alberta. Then, the next weekend, we’ll be at the AHEA Convention in Red Deer.

Joyfully His,
Sarah for the rest

Our evening conference in Bend, Oregon, was a good one. The attendance was higher than we expected, and the hearts were receptive. In Sarah’s girls’ and young ladies session, she said she had one of the most attentive groups yet. Some were even taking notes.

We were delighted to have a clear day to enjoy the beautiful drive from Redmond, Oregon, to McMinnville through the mountains. There was over a hundred and twenty inches of snow on the ground at the pass.

The conference in McMinnville was another one that exceeded our expectations concerning the number who came and open hearts to our message. The church provided us with dinner before the conference. We were happily surprised when the brother of friends of ours – retired school teachers – from Leavenworth, drove forty-five minutes to say hello.

With great joy, Steve was able to say in the Keeping Our Children’s Hearts session that the conservative church that was sponsoring the conference and in which it was being held, had no youth group. Seldom do we speak in a church with no youth group, and many families are looking for a church like that.

Today we move into Canada for weekend conferences the next two weekends. We are praying for a smooth border crossing both ways. Because of the books and materials we bring with us, there is a great amount of detailed paperwork that needs to be accurately completed.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

The conference in Ontario, Oregon went well Tuesday night. Whereas, it is often a bit difficult getting back into the conference setup routine, this one was very smooth. The Lord orchestrated circumstances so that we are able to remain with the family who has been hosting our family earlier this week until Friday. This will allow Steve to accomplish some bus work. It is also easier on our family when get a break from the frequent moving that is characteristic of our road trips. We are enjoying the fellowship, activities, views, and hospitality of our country stay. Grandma is doing a great job of shipping, and Melanie is staying down while her family comes in during the day to stay with her when Nathan is at work.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

Joseph doing a repair project.

The boys helped a fence project.

Mary — feeding an animal cracker to an animal :-).

Joseph, John and I spent about twelve hours with the installer today, while the rest of the family spent most of their day in the hotel room. They did take one trip out to see if they could find Jesse a cowboy hat. He’s been wanting one a long time, but the didn’t find one that fit.

The installer was a craftsman and takes great pride in his work. The negative, is things always take longer than desired. We will pack out of the room tomorrow morning and the family will wait on Uriah while we try and complete the work.

After they finish we drive six hundred miles to Twin Falls, Idaho, unless it gets too late and we are too tired after the bus work. Sunday we go on into Ontario, Idaho where we have a conference Tuesday night.

Our hearts are very much back with Nathan and Melanie. We know so many are praying and we are very grateful.

We received a very amusing email today from a family we will be seeing soon. They knew we were in Steamboat Springs today and decided to check the local webcam to see what the weather conditions are. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words, below is the webcam photo that they saw this morning.

God bless.

In Christ Jesus,
Steve

Just a quick post to say we arrived safely here in Steamboat Springs–praise the Lord!

Sarah for the rest

We stopped for diesel outside of Denver, and the weather was beautiful: it felt like spring and in the 70’s. After we left Denver and started up into the mountains, the temperature dropped, and soon we hit light snow. We drove through light snow for awhile until suddenly the combination of snow/altitude created a whole different situation as the roads changed to snow/slush. Please pray as we go the last 60 miles to Steamboat Springs. We do have chains we can put on the bus if necessary.

Only for Jesus,
Sarah for the rest

We are now on the road, several days earlier than was the original plan. Dad decided last week that it would be good if we could leave today, instead of Sunday. We are going to stop in Steamboat Springs, CO for a little over a day to have some electrical things installed as an initial step as we work toward converting Uriah. It was a perfect stop on our way out to Idaho, so we’re grateful that the Lord opened up a way.

(We missed Nathan and Melanie today during our prayer time. They waved at us from their window.)

Thank you for your prayers for Nathan, Melanie, and Baby Max. Your prayers and notes are extremely encouraging to all of us. For those who are wondering, yes, Melanie is on bed rest. She has such a sweet spirit. Melanie had originally planned to ship our Titus2 web orders while we were gone, like she has done in the past, but obviously the bed rest made that not possible. With very short notice, Grandma willingly agreed to ship orders for us this next month. Thank you, Grandma, for your help. Grandad and Grandma will be spending many hours taking care of the ministry and house while we are away. We are blessed.

We’ve had a few changes on Uriah for this trip. First, Dad decided to bring a refrigerator, so we no longer have to refill a cooler and repack it every few days. We’re careful not to have the door open very long, since it can’t be plugged in all the time until we get the batteries and invertor installed in Steamboat Springs tomorrow. Anna and Jesse spent many hours pulling wires for temporary lights for the bus. It’ll be a blessing to have light in the evening.

Dad installed a speedometer with an odometer, but he didn’t have enough time to be able to get it calibrated correctly. No problem, though. We used the small GPS unit to figure out the speed, and here’s a picture of how the speedometer currently looks. 

Dad is hoping he’ll be able to work on it at some point during the trip. Steamboat Springs is several hours past Denver in the mountains, so we would appreciate prayer for safety as we drive in tonight, and then that the work would go smoothly on Uriah tomorrow.

Serving Jesus,
Sarah for the rest

Uriah was mostly loaded last night, which was a blessing.

We arrived home safely just before 2 a.m. Thank you for your prayers!

Sarah for the rest

We wanted to post a quick prayer request. We are driving through slushy/snowy roads right now near Emporia, Kansas. It’s amazing that we had bad weather on the way out and even worse on the way home :-). Please pray for our safety as we drive the last few hours. We’ll give a conference report later.

Sarah for all 12 of us

We are on our way to the weekend conference in Perryton, Texas. Wintry weather moved into Kansas this morning, and we had sleet and light snow. The roads were for the most part okay. The weather will be warm (around 50 degrees!) tomorrow, so we’re grateful for that. Please pray for those are coming to the conference, that the Lord Jesus will work in hearts.

The boys dived into a quick project before we left: they built a wall for the boys’ bunk area. This will make it so that we only have to heat a portion of the bus at night. The generator is now wired up so the boys will be able to run a couple of space heaters.

We are excited to have Nathan and Melanie join us this weekend. We look forward to meeting some of you!

Joyfully His,
Sarah for the rest of the family

Anna and Mary about to get into the bus. (Notice the little ”insect” Anna is holding? We bought him and his buddy, “Pray”, at a store in Arizona. “Pray” hangs off of the ceiling near the front, and we need to now find a good place for his buddy. When we hit a bump, “Pray” jumps/bounces :-).)

Grandad and Grandma waving good-bye.

We all gathered inside the bus to pray, rather than outside because of the weather.

Last Thursday was a rainy, cool day in Yuba City. We had a quiet day at the hotel, catching up on computer things, and the children worked on school. That evening, as we girls were setting up the book tables, a young boy offered to help. He had a sweet spirit, and he told me about a business he has selling candy bars. We were amazed to hear about his diligence and industry, but then what impressed us was when we heard what he did with the money he earned: he gives it to the poor! A lady provided a dinner for us: complete with tri-tip marinated meat. This was only the second time we’ve had this meat, and it’s the most unbelievable tender, juicy meat. Thank you for this special treat :-).

Friday morning we drove through stiff winds, but we made it to Livermore safely. Cornerstone Fellowship graciously let us use their facilities, and the rooms they gave us worked out extremely well. Meals were provided Friday night and Saturday—we are grateful for the wonderful food!

Many families we talked to had driven several hours to be able to come. We are grateful for their extra investment of time. Friday night’s music session for the most part went smoothly, although we had a few minor things, like the dobro being knocked off it’s stand. It wasn’t even noticed by the person starting the next song, so things continued :-).

Since there are so many of us, we have chances to talk to quite a few of the families throughout the weekend. After the conference, we love to sit around and share about the different people we talked to and what they told us regarding their lives and what the Lord Jesus is doing. One very special highlight was meeting a family who started a nursing home church last year. We were thrilled to chat with them, as brief as it was, and to meet another family who had started such a ministry.

(Mom giving the Loving Your Husband session Saturday afternoon.)

We will be posting some more thoughts on the trip later, but we wanted to give you a weekend report!

The little ones that come to the conference are such a delight. Here’s a cute little girl playing on the floor near her mom.

Only for Jesus,
Sarah for the rest of the family

We are now in Oklahoma, and the sun is definitely up :-). Dad was able to sleep for 5 hours while Christopher drove. During that time, a lot of the family was able to sleep, but we always kept one person awake to talk to the driver! We have managed to stay ahead of the storm, and the areas we are now passing through will have even stronger winds than we’re experiencing right now this afternoon.

Thank you for your prayers. we are very grateful. We hope to be home by dinnertime–an amazing whirlwind drive home.

Only for Jesus,
Sarah for the rest of the family