Our days have been busy as we hurry to get the bus livable before we leave for our next trip. Every week there are new challenges and obstacles to overcome, but God has given grace through the hurdles, and progress is underway. Joseph is currently building our kitchen and other cabinets, which is adding more of a “homey” spark to the bus. Jesse’s project is getting the electrical side of the conversion figured out, while John fills in the gaps with the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) and other projects. Dad is now gladly joining the boys as he has finished his ministry project. There is much that has been done and much more that needs to be done in the upcoming weeks, but we are grateful that the Lord has allowed us to make so much progress!

This last week was spent in a variety of ways, including music practice for the song we sang at the funeral of our dear friend that passed away. Saturday morning many of us gathered in the basement for a much needed cleanup. Not to mention in the afternoon we compiled Chore books. With Abigail living around the corner, we enjoy her appearances at our house from seeing her on a walk to devotions to when they pop in for music practice – whenever – we greatly enjoy her! The Lord has blessed this past week filling it up to the brim with expected happenings and unexpected, and we look forward to seeing what He has for these next few weeks as we prepare to leave!

Joseph measuring for cabinets that will go above the driver's area.

Our kitchen cabinets!

John working on the HVAC.

Jesse - compiling chore books.

Shrinkwrapping!

The finished product!

Uncle John and Abigail. There are many happy playmates at Grandpa and Grandma's house!

Abigail loves dogs, and Honey is no exception! Here Uncle Christopher is helping Abigail feed Honey a treat, and Abigail finds this quite fascinating!

In Christ,
Anna

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

I don’t think Steve has mowed a lawn, except a time or two, for about twenty years since Nathan turned twelve and was given lawn mowing responsibility. All of our son’s have been lawn mowers for our family. Now our youngest son is thirteen, and this is the third year he has been in charge of our lawn plus he mows Grandad and Grandma’s and a few others in the neighborhood.

Not only has Jesse whole heartedly accepted the responsibility for the mowing – which he does with no reminding – but he also has taken on the maintenance of the yard. He observes weeds and pests in the yard, discusses them with his dad, and does research on how to deal with the problem, completing the designated course of action.  Jesse is learning the fertilizing needs of the yard, the fertilizing schedule, plus how to apply it to the lawn. Jesse has learned how to give a lawn mower a tune up, and he is beginning a little mower tune up business in addition to the neighborhood yards he mows. Recently he took a riding mower that was given to him but wasn’t working, did some troubleshooting of it, bought parts for it, fixed it, and sold it for a nice profit.

While Jesse mows and fertilizes, Steve’s time is freed up for his writing. In addition, Jesse is serving the family, being responsible, and developing income-producing skill.

Jesse mowing the lawn.

These are the fruitful years. The Lord has been faithful in teaching us, through His Word, the importance of implanting His Word in our children’s hearts in a practical day-to-day manner. Those years of planting can become discouraging when you give the same encouragement over and over but don’t see the results immediately.

Just as the farmer does what he needs to do and waits for his harvest, so we as parents do what the Lord Jesus calls us to do, looking forward to the fruitful years with expectation not discouragement. “Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain” (James 5:7).

We, as parents, are the ones who first get to enjoy that fruit that the Lord Jesus produces in our children’s lives. “The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits” (2 Timothy 2:6).

Jesse

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

We praise the Lord for another week that Baby Max has not come. We are extremely grateful for the prayers: truly, our Heavenly Father is so gracious.

Joseph and John have been working hard to build the deck for the new house while the weather is cool. There definitely were some challenges they faced, but they persevered, and after a week and a half, the deck is in the final stages. The building inspector came out, and he was quite complimentary of their work.

As some may have heard, severe storms affected the Midwest Thursday evening. Around 1:45 a.m. Friday morning, we were awakened by and watched the violent downpour, ferocious wind, and constant lightning. We were surprised that the tornado sirens didn’t go off, since there were several tornados in north Kansas City.

May each of us look to our Lord Jesus this coming week and be filled with His joy. “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all” (2 Thessalonians 3:16).

Only for Jesus,
Sarah for the rest

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Psalms 100:4).

Am I grateful for each precious minute the Lord gives me to be with my family member? I don’t know how long the Lord will give me with my family. Our little Susannah Joy was only with us for three short days in March. I think back to Melanie’s pregnancy, and how if we had known what was going to happen, it would have been very difficult to bear. Yet, we didn’t know ahead of time, and the Lord’s grace was sufficient and was given when we needed it. Our hearts are overflowing over the Lord’s gift of baby #2. We all have been extremely touched to read the many comments after Nathan’s blog post. We are ecstatic over the incredible blessing of this new little one.

We’re thankful for the nursing home church we have. Those precious people love us (not to mention how much we love them!) and pray for us when we’re gone on the road. Their delight when we arrive safely back is very evident. Sunday morning church is the highlight of some of the residents’ week. What a joy it is to be able to fellowship with these dear saints.

Part of Thanksgiving Day we spent joyfully working on the house together. The guys were finishing up some of the final small areas to sheetrock, while Dad and Jesse working on mudding, and Mom and I worked on clean up. We are thankful the Lord provided for the house and the ability for the Titus2 ministry to have more room.

As we enter into this Christmas season, my desire is that my focus would be on my Savior, the Redeemer of the World.

Only for Jesus,
Sarah

Mary, a wonderful helper !

Mom has diligently helped carry sheetrock scraps out from the different rooms to the garage. We’ll be taking the scraps to the dump!

Sheetrocking!

The great mudding pair!

I’ve helped also with cleanup and carrying sheetrock scraps.

It was a perfect fall day. Today we were able to pour a cantilevered retaining wall that Joseph and John formed out and then the sidewalk to the house. Hopefully, on Thursday, we will begin pouring the driveway.

“Hit the ground, boys!”  We thought of that caption after seeing this photo. In reality, the boys were working, and Dad had been directing the cement truck driver.

After the cement truck driver arrived, he asked John if he was the boss. John smiled, and said he was, and pointed over at Joseph saying, “And he’s the foreman,” and then over at Dad, “And he’s the owner.” Clever, John.

Another week of house work has ended. Most of the plumbing is done. This week John worked a lot on the gas line. I was called over yesterday to get some pictures of his work (I’m including one below).

(Jesse caulking.)

This morning, Dad and John put up the shutters; what a finishing touch it added to the outside. You might think the house looks ready to move in, but looks can be deceiving. The guys will be starting on wiring…

Chester continues to stick around. She’s always happy to see the family, and regardless of whether she has clean feet (John experienced the aftermath of Chester having fallen into a puddle), she’s ready to climb up you to see where those sunflower seeds are. I took a few pictures of her this afternoon. She’s definitely growing!

As a side encouragement to hand out tracts, I was at Home Depot today with John, Anna, and Mary. We girls were looking around while John found what he needed. I saw a lady sitting on some lawn furniture, obviously waiting. So, I found two tracts and brought them to her. She took them, and then a minute or two later, I walked by and saw she was reading one! 

Only for Jesus,
Sarah

Dad and several of the children worked on copper for the new house today. Anna was Dad’s helper—getting him anything that he needed along with cleaning pipes, etc. Joseph and John worked with the plumbing too. Jesse was an “odds and end” man. When I came over to take some pictures late this afternoon, Jesse graciously helped me up to the house with using two boards; we stood on one, and he put the next one out for us to get on. It has rained quite a bit the last few days, which makes a mud mess in the yard and “driveway”. While I was in the house, Jesse contrived another way, scrap pieces of wood going down the “driveway”.

Dad has such an incredible spirit as he preserves and works through challenges on the house. It’s amazing how each step takes longer than you really think it would.

Joyfully His,
Sarah

Anna and Dad working together.

Anna cleaning a pipe.

Joseph working

The creative (and resourceful!) way Jesse designed to get down the “mud driveway.”

The girls and I figured out that it took us 8 woman hours to polish the cabinets. We completed them with our project time on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday – only working a half hour on Wednesday.

This morning we decided to tackle the refrigerator. It gets cleaned during our Christmas school break and during the summer except for taking care of occasional spills that happen in between. Mary started on the outside and then moved to the refrigerator door. Anna cleaned the freezer portion and finished up with the bottom of the refrigerator. I worked in the main part of the refrigerator. When one of us was washing a shelf or drawer in the sink, the other two would be working at the refrigerator. The whole task was accomplished in 45 minutes by the three of us – 2 woman hours and 15 minutes.

I used to feel a bit guilty if I asked the girls to help me with these kinds of projects. The Lord has shown me how beneficial this work is for the girls, and therefore caused me to see it as a blessing in their lives rather than a negative. They are learning to enjoy working. They are being prepared for a future role as a wife, mother, and homemaker. In addition, we have time together and a clean refrigerator that the family notices and comments on.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

Each summer I tackle cleaning and organizing projects for which I don’t have time during the school year. I will usually have scheduled an hour a day for these projects, working from a list I keep to help me undertake what is most important first. This week Mary, Anna, and I are polishing our kitchen cabinets. Because it is wrist-intensive work, we have broken our hour time slot for projects into two half hour times – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With all three of us working together, we should be finished in four days. Not only are we accomplishing the job that needs to be done, but we have wonderful mother and daughter fellowship as well. Here is a link to a Mom’s Corner where I share a bit more about our cabinet polishing and summer chores in general. This link is for a Mom’s Corner on summer scheduling.

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

The house work is continuing to come along. Joseph has been diligently working on the plumbing, with Jesse as his helper. I took some pictures of them this afternoon.

There is definitely work for the “clean up” team.

Joseph was finished with his project in the ceiling, so he now was handing down his equipment to Jesse.

We’ve also begun preparing for the Kansas state conference next weekend in Wichita (TPA). Above, Anna’s helping out with putting covers in the albums.

For those who have followed little Chester, she’s still doing well–and very playful! This afternoon, John saw her venturing off, so I guess she’s becoming adventuresome.

Only for Jesus,

Sarah