A party and a wedding

Thanks for your prayers for our women’s group on base, PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel). God has brought some truly wonderful YOUNG ladies who are stepping up to leadership and doing well. In the picture below I am singing with Victoria, Sharlene and Aleanna. Each of these women has a fantastic story. Victoria was raised in my first home town of Ontario, Oregon. I have seen her grow by leaps and bounds this past year. She is in charge of our Outreach and is learning to play the guitar.  Sharlene (who is my son Greg’s age) is our VP for programs. She put on the Christmas program pictured here. She is also learning to play the guitar. Sharlene has such a heart for God and it shows. She had a few “stumbles” in her teen years but is going very strong now. Aleanna was born in my second home town of Roseburg, Oregon. Her parents went to Roseburg High School the same time I did. Aleanna’s husband is deployed and a dear family member is chronically ill. She chooses to look to God for her strength and gives so much of her time and talents to us at PWOC. She is in charge of our praise and worship as well as our Spring Retreat. This description of these precious gals doesn’t even scratch the surface of what they are about. God has blessed me to work with them and several other very wonderful women. I am truly blessed.

Pictured above: Suzie, Victoria, Sharlene and Aleanna

Above, Sharlene is playing Silent Night while we sing.

Aleanna gave our devotion. She was so nervous but I think she is a natural.

We had great food and had a white elephant gift exchange.

This past weekend we drove to Boise to attend Matt and Alicia’s wedding. Matt has been involved in MANY other Cadence ministries. He started coming out to our house here from the beginning. We were so excited for him when he met Alicia through e-harmony.  Alicia is an Air Force kid who lives in the Treasure Valley of Idaho. They both wanted to honor God with their relationship and waited until their wedding day for their first kiss. It was very sweet.

They plan a cruise in the Caribbean for their honeymoon.

We plan on having a crowd here for Christmas. The RSVP’s right now stand at 46. God give me strength!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Thanksgiving Time

We had the whitest Thanksgiving I can remember. Poor Ed had to do tons of shoveling.

There are actually 3 pigs there…

It looks like we may be in for a long winter.

Thanksgiving went well here. We had around 20 folks here that day. I finally have the big meals down to a science. The new wall unit in the former dining room has helped so much!

Hailey spent her first Thanksgiving with us. Unfortunately for her, daddy is spending Christmas deployed.

One of the tables during the meal.

Madeline Carollo and her mom checked in with Julie and Dawson in Hawaii via Skype. Madeline and Dawson seem to have a special bond.

After the meal, we played a game and had lots of fun.

We are now gearing up for Christmas. So far, it looks like we will have a very full house!

Mid Fall 2010

We are still plugging away here in Southern Idaho. We are grateful for the relationships our God is allowing us to have. Friday nights (dinner and video) are still going great. Up until two weeks ago, several of us regularly would hike the Bruneau Dunes each week. It has become just too cold and windy lately to do so. So some of us went shopping in Boise together instead. 

It was such a treat while in Boise to see the O’Brien family who was passing through while on vacation. Ariele and John were part of our ministry team while we were at Ft. Lewis.

 

Our young adult ministry, Velocity, is still going great. We are filling our facility with folks from the base. Many of these precious ones are stepping up to leadership and it is exciting to see. The Song of Solomon study we are currently involved in at the dorm day room is going well and is well attended. All the seats were taken last week.

Velocity also put on a murder mystery night with about 30 participants. We all dressed up for a Las Vegas type event. What fun we had. Here are just a few pictures. I was an agent (I had to wear a trench coat and carry a badge). Ed played a bookie (the head one).

The Protestant Women of the Chapel here is going well now too. I’m very grateful for the gals we have here. There is a sweet spirit among us and it is wonderful to see. We are growing closer to God and each other.

We recently had a great program and some of our gals posed for a picture.

God also blessed five of us with the opportunity to attend the PWOC International conference in Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX this past week. One of our group was there to work at a vendor booth. So the following picture is of the rest of us.

I had such a good time getting to know these girls better and reconnecting with dear friends I knew from other military installations. Some of the dearest, sweetest, godliest women I know were there. It was a little taste of Heaven. Our speaker was Priscilla Shirer. She is one of the best speakers. Our praise and worship leaders were Kari Jobe and Point of Grace. Wow! We were blessed. Another huge blessing was having 9 other Cadence women attend the conference. Dotty Hash (who has been with the mission since the beginning) was there for a visit Thursday evening.

While I was gone, Ed participated in Veteran’s Day events and a Habitat for Humanity service project (Velocity).

Here Ed is pictured with his two dearest friends and accountability partners on base.

 

It is nice to see our young adults give back this way.

We are thankful for this opportunity to serve our military and our God. You are a big part of that. Thank you so much!

Pastor’s Summit

We were blessed to have some of the pastors from the Conservative Baptist churches in the Ore/Ida area converge on our home.  They meet regularly for fellowship.  Most of them live on the western end of the Treasure Valley. One lone pastor is all the way over in Burley (past Twin Falls). By meeting in Mountain Home this pastor didn’t have as long of a drive. We are wonderfully supported by several of the churches represented by these pastors. It was a great time for us. Ed may join them on another of their meetings. The churches of the Ore/Ida Conservative Baptists are very blessed to have these men of God leading them!

Camping, Hiking, Retreats

This past month has been filled with adventure for the Buris.

The girls and I have gone almost weekly to the Bruneau Dunes. It is a great activity to get to know each other, spur each other on and get a good cardiovascular workout.

This shot is to show perspective. I’m not quite at the top.  The two specks on the middle right are two of our gals.

We had to take Korrin to the dunes with us when she visited from Hill AFB, Utah. She was one our girls when we were at Ft. Lewis/McChord, Washington

Korrin is like a daughter to us. I hope she can come up more regularly.

On my birthday weekend, Velocity went camping.

We had mishaps getting there, one of them being the battery of one of our vans died while we stopped in Boise. A nice lady came to our rescue after we prayed and helped with jumper cables.

This is Chris with the nice lady.

This is the view from our camp site. It was the coldest  I’ve ever been camping but worth it.

Ed and I got to attend a National Guard couple’s retreat in Eastern Idaho. It was lovely weather. When the retreat was over, we went the long way home and travelled through the Grande Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Wow! I hope we can go back again.

One of our couples put on a “rice and ramen” evening. We ate simple Asian food and prayed for God’s work in Asia.

We are seeing depth in this group like we haven’t seen before. We expect to see great things from God at Mountain Home AFB. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Dorm Feed and Bubba Country

On August 19, as a ministry of Velocity (the young adult ministry here) we made a meal for the dorm dwellers on the base. I volunteered to do the cooking for this meal (I had wonderful help too). We were told we could have around 120, so that is what I prepared for. We ended up having around 60 which is still a good turnout. The theme was Hawaiian Plate Lunch. The menu was: kalua pig, rice, macaroni salad (Hawaiian style) and fruit. Chaplain Carollo also bought a nice cake to go with it.

The airmen’s center got decorated too.  I think everyone enjoyed the food and had a great time.

It was nice to visit with Krissy in between bites.

A few days later Velocity put on “Bubba Country”.  About 30 of us participated. We dressed up and rode in an Air Force bus (the closest we could get to a school bus) to Boise.

We ate at Donnie Mac’s Trailer Park Cuisine…a very interesting place.

They serve Spaghettios in the can.

Unique flower pots.

Classy….

Interesting food….

Comfortable furniture….

After dinner, we went to Julia Davis Park and played “redneck games” (toilet lid horseshoes, fishing pole casting, lassoeing the critter, etc.) Dee did a great job of putting all of that together.

Great prizes too!

Nancy won the prize for the best costume. We unfortunately had to leave early because a massive wind storm caused huge branches near us to come crashing down. Still, it was a great event. We had folks come who hadn’t come to any of our other chapel programs. What next?  We’re tossing around an Indiana Jones theme. We’ll see.