Experiences from our trip

I've been catching up on things at home since we've returned. I've been wanting to share with you about the trip we took last week with our church group.

We left Thursday, June 4 after my hubby got off work to go to my Mom's house for the night. Friday morning Caleb went with her to school (it was their last day and there weren't many kids). We headed to Lubbock and stopped on the way in Abilene for lunch. We went by ACU and found a new cap for hubby.

We continued on our way and saw many of these filling the horizon. Caleb loves watching them. He calls them "energy" because last year on the trip we talked about how they were used to make energy.

We stayed with my Dad Friday night in Lubbock, TX. Caleb got to feed the ducks at a local pond with Grandad. Then Saturday morning we took him to the Kids Workshop at Home Depot and a little festival hosted by a local hospital where he got to go across a little lake in a paddle boat. After lunch we continued on our way, stopping in Clovis for a root beer float. I was excited to see on their sign that it was "happy hour" when we arrived.

We stayed the night in Santa Rosa where we met up with our church group. Caleb enjoyed swimming in the pool. Sunday morning we left out with the group. We stopped at a pretty little park in Albuquerque for a time of worship together and then lunch.

We arrived in Gallup Sunday afternoon. Caleb helped unload and we all got settled in our rooms. Sunday evening we went over to the church building for their worship service and also a meal they had prepared for us, which was delicious.

Monday we worked on preparing our individual rooms for VBS. Our theme was Treasure Hunt Bible Adventure. This is a bulletin board in our room (my husband and I were co-teachers for K/1st grade this year). Thank you to my Mom for the words. It says, "The Bible is our map to lead us to our treasure...Jesus!" My husband made the little islands. We had a ship that sailed from island to island for each day to find a different treasure from the Bible....trust, love, pray, live, and Jesus. I used little paper Bibles for attendance each day that we also moved around the islands.

We were all pleased with the VBS turnout. The church there worked really hard advertising and promoting the VBS and we had more this year compared to last year. I think we had 39 children in attendance plus probably 15-20 adults in the adult class which was great.

Tuesday we went on a trip to El Morro National Monument. We went last year also as a group. Caleb kept telling us he was going to the top this year. We did all three go to the top

We did all three go to the top this year and this is one view from there. I wasn't sure I was going to make it! I didn't like how I felt climbing across the path. I did better when my boys were in front of me, I didn't feel so much like I was going to stumble. Caleb kept saying, "This hiking is hard work." It was cute how much he loved it. He walked the whole way. I figured part way up he'd want to be carried but he didn't!

On Wednesday we worked at the home. It rained in the morning (and was rather chilly) so we went to some shops downtown and came back to work in the afternoon. Caleb scraped paint and then repainted a curb with Daddy.

Thursday some of the group went to Red Rock but we decided to go to Petrified Forest in Arizona with another family since we'd been to Red Rock already last year. Caleb was so excited to hear he was going to Arizona since Daddy had just been there a few weeks ago on a trip. We enjoyed the ride over and seeing another piece of God's creation. This is a picture of a cactus I took on our drive into the park...something we don't see here in Texas, and Caleb told me to take a picture.

Here are a couple pictures of the Painted Desert. Pictures don't do it justice. It made me want to go to the Grand Canyon.

Friday we packed up to head back home. We stopped along the way. It was sure a LONG drive across New Mexico into Texas and this was such a welcome sight.

We are all thankful for the opportunity to go on this trip. We enjoyed being together. I was so proud of how well Caleb did while traveling again this year. He was the youngest one there and really the only kid in the group (besides the youth from the youth group who went). Everyone commented on what a good boy and hard worker he was during the trip. That made me smile. :)

Thank you again for your prayers for us while we were away. I am still catching up on things at home and look forward to visiting your blogs again soon! I've read a few here and there in my Google Reader. I had other things that needed to be taken care of first. (I put more pictures on Facebook too if you want to see some of us. I have my reasons for not putting pictures of us here!)
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"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

We're home

It is good to be home. Thank you to all of you for stopping by while I was away. I have a long list of things to do....laundry (I sorted the clothes last night in the garage and am going to keep track of how many loads I have done! I was thinking I really wash this many clothes every week when I saw all the piles.), work on Father's Day cards/boxes with Caleb, get groceries, upload pictures, post reviews of books I finished while traveling, catch up on blogs, etc. Just wanted to come and say thanks for your prayers while we were traveling. I'll be writing a post about our trip...sometime.

Have a great week!
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"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth." Psalm 100:1

Proverbs & Prayers: Week #23

(I am posting this in advance since I will be out of town.)

The memory verse this week is:

Proverbs 12:25

"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up."


Also, please let me know if you have any prayer requests this week.


Please pray for us on our trip--for safe travel and that the VBS will be a success with many seeds planted.

Our upcoming trip

We will be traveling towards New Mexico for our mission trip with our church. We went last summer as well. Please keep us in prayer as the group travels.

We'll be working at a children's home and doing VBS in the evenings. The theme is "Treasure Hunt" with the idea that "The Bible is our map that leads us to our treasure, Jesus." We're teaching the kindergarten/first grade group.

We're looking forward to the trip! I have some posts ready for next week and may try to add a couple more to schedule to post as well because I've thought of a couple sites on marriage I want to share. I will probably read your posts on your blogs from my Google Reader but don't know if I'll be able to comment, depending on the connection I have there. See you next week!

I did a post when we got back last year and included this song and wanted to share it again. I've been thinking about it as we've prepared to go.



"Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name." Psalm 103:1

Our trip

We had a wonderful trip last week! Thank you to all those who prayed for us while we were away.

We left Thursday, June 5 and went to my Mom's house. We wanted to break the trip up into sections so we wouldn't have so much driving in one day. Friday morning we left and stopped for lunch in Abilene. We stopped by ACU too. This is called "Jacob's Dream" and is fascinating to see in person.

The bookstore was open and had CD's on sale for $5 so we got three of those. (More about that later!) and went to Lubbock to stay the night with my Dad. We went to the park to feed the ducks, and Caleb got to play also.

We left Lubbock about 10 Saturday morning (after my stop at the post office to get some stamps). We stopped when we got to New Mexico at the Visitor's Center. Then we had lunch in Clovis. As we were leaving we saw the church van in the parking lot. We went back in and found the other part of our group in line ordering! We thought it was neat we both stopped at the same place for lunch on our separate journeys. Caleb napped and we stopped in Santa Rosa at a rest stop. We were surprised to find two more couples from our church group stopped there as well. They were pulling their own campers and had come from Palo Duro Canyon.

I enjoyed watching the changing scenery.

Caleb loved the trains. We should have counted the trains we passed on the trip.

We arrived at the children's home at probably 8:30. I don't really know! Plus we went into a different time zone so I'm really not sure what time it was. Our group stayed in one of the cottage's of the children's home. We unpacked and got settled in our room. The hall was so cold with the blowing air conditioner, and the guys told us they didn't think the a/c was working in our room.

Sunday morning we went to church and in the afternoon most of the group went to pass out flyers about VBS. I stayed in the room with Caleb for his nap. We worked a little bit on our classroom too. We all went out to eat together Sunday evening after church.

Monday morning some of the group went on a little hike out near the home. Then we went up to the church building to work on our classroom again. Monday afternoon we were invited by one of the church members to come over to his skating rink. It was Caleb's first time at a rink! He was excited to put on the skates. He couldn't believe these kind of skates he could wear without shoes on (unlike his skates he got for Christmas that go over his shoes). We had a lot of fun helping him skate (I didn't put on skates, just helped him. Daddy skated though).

Tuesday morning we went on a hike over to Red Rock Park. Most of the group went all the way to the top. We stopped and went back down after we'd gone up part-way along with another couple and their son.

Wednesday morning we worked around the home doing various projects for them. Our family worked in the playground. Caleb woke up at 7 that morning because he knew it was painting day! He had so much fun painting the teeter totter green. Wednesday evening we had a hot dog supper at the church with members of the church and children's home.

Thursday morning we went on another outing with the group to El Morro National Monument. We walked through the path of the Inscription Trail. This is one of the inscriptions. We were amazed at all the different writing styles we saw in the rock. Some were just block letters and some looked like calligraphy.

These are some pictures Daddy took from the top. This is one of the pueblos on top of the mountain.

Thursday night after VBS we got everything ready and loaded as much as we could. We finished up loading and cleaning up the cottage Friday morning. We stopped at another tourist shop before heading out to Lubbock. We were going to stay there through Sunday but decided we really wanted to get home. So we left for my Mom's Saturday morning and then came home Sunday.

It was a blessing to us to all be able to participate in this trip as a family. The children we worked with each night in VBS were so sweet, and our prayer is that we did make a difference in their lives. We are thankful for our safe travel. Everyone asks how Caleb did on the trip. He did great! He read his books, played with some things in his bag, and watched the mountains and trains. As we were coming back he asked if we were in Lubbock. I said no we're still in New Mexico. He said no we're not, I don't see any more mountains. The weather was fabulous and quite different from the heat we were used to here! It was not humid at all. The day temps were in the 80s and the nights were cool. One night they said it got down to 35. We didn't even notice that our room's a/c vent wasn't working. We're thankful to my Mom for letting us use her car for the trip to get better gas mileage. That really did help on the gas bill!

As we were leaving New Mexico on Friday, I fell asleep for a short nap. I was waking up and sat there with my eyes closed and listened to the song that was playing. It was one of the new CD's I'd picked up at ACU. We'd listened to it before, but I hadn't paid attention to the words of the song and it was a song I didn't know. It's called "How Great You Are." I listened for a minute and then opened my eyes and saw a tall mountain before us. As I sat there I felt so emotional that this song matched perfectly how I felt about the trip but couldn't put into words. I saw God's greatness all around me and my heart was full of thankfulness.

I found it on You Tube sung by Phillips Craig & Dean. I hope you are blessed when you listen to it. This particular video has the lyrics too.

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"Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom." Isaiah 40:28

Will YOU pray for US?

This week there is a switch to my normal question "How can I pray for you?"

Please pray for our family as we are on our mission trip.

We will be preparing our classes for VBS probably Sunday afternoon and Monday. VBS will be held Monday through Thursday. The church has various projects for us to work on while we are there as well.

Please pray for the lessons to be beneficial to the 3s/4s we're teaching and that seeds will be planted in their hearts.

Please pray for safety for our group as we are traveling. We will be a long ways from home!

Thank you for praying for us! I look forward to sharing details of our trip with you when we return. God bless you!

Out of town

We are on our mission trip. Please pray for our safety. I have scheduled posts over the next few days so check back through the week. Also leave me a comment and let me know you stopped by!
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"You make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands." Psalm 92:4