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.

Vacation Bible School and the Meschke Visit

We are thankful to God for a great Vacation Bible School at the chapel at MHAFB. This year the Catholics were invited to participate. As registrar, it looked like quite a few Catholic kids came but I was aware of only a few Catholic adult volunteers. Because we were low on volunteers, Laura (the VBS director) only advertised in the chapel publications and had a banner hung on the chapel.  With this minimal advertising we had around 70 kids. I am sure we would have had twice that number had we advertised.

The theme was Joseph and his journey in Egypt. The kids LOVED it! The week went very smoothly and I believe God was glorified!  Here are just a few pictures.

On Friday afternoon, a few hours after VBS ended we got a visit from Dave and Betty Meschke. Dave is the former director of our mission, Cadence International. They were in the area visiting a friend. They stayed long enough to participate in our Friday night dinner and study here. Instead of our usual study, we had Dave and Betty share stories of God’s faithfulness to them these past 50+ years of ministry. We were all very blessed to have them here. Many of our folks are going through much pain right now. It was perfect timing.

The above pic shows Betty (left) and Dave (right) sitting with the Andersons on the couch. Thanks Dave and Betty for ministering to us (even in your retirement).

July Travels and Other Experiences

Ed and I have been so busy this summer that we haven’t had much time to enjoy it. Ministry here goes on and we are thrilled to be able to invest in so many lives. In July, we made a quick trip to Roseburg, Oregon. We got to speak for about 10 minutes (in both services) to our dear church, Wellspring Bible Fellowship. We got to see my new niece and nephew (my brother, Jerry’s babies). I think their brother, Kyle is still getting adjusted to not being the center of attention anymore.

Here I am holding Rachel.

Here is the family:(Denise, Ryan, Kyle, Jerry and Rachel)

We also got to visit with my mom and Greg.

After only a very few, short days, we took Ed’s folks with us back to Idaho. We dove into ministry for another few days. Here, Ed’s folks participate in a Friday night study at our house.

We then took them to the Wallowa Valley area of NE Oregon and had a rendezvous with Ed’s brother, Sam and his wife, Sarah. We all stayed in a cabin together in Joseph. It was very beautiful there.

This deer followed me back to the cabin.

The highlight of our trip was taking a tram up Mount Howard and hiking at the top. The view was breath taking.

I love hiking, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Suzie, Ed’s mom, Ed, Sam, Ed’s dad, and Sarah.

 

It was beautiful and sunny when we first arrived and a storm quickly came with buckets of rain and hail. We got soaked. But I wasn’t done, so I convinced Ed and Sam to walk with me to one last ridge. We didn’t really get to enjoy it. I was freezing and anxious to go warm up somewhere. But, hey, I have a picture to show I made it to that ridge.

All in all, it was a great (although too quick) trip. We are very blessed.

Fourth of July

Our cherry tree is bursting with big, beautiful, sweet cherries!

 

We spent the fourth of July with our dear Velocity folks with a picnic at the park on base. We were going to watch the fireworks in town but they exploded on the third of July injuring three firefighters. Still we had a wonderful time at the park. All four of our protestant chaplains were there too.

Here are chaplains: Rick Montoya, Craig Forsythe, Mike Carollo and Richard Anderson.

We love these men of God and are thrilled to be working with them!

June 2010

The first of June we still had Jesse, Julie and Dawson with us. I LOVED having them here. My dad came over from Prineville, Oregon and picked up my grandma (Ontario, Oregon) to be with us. We took some priceless 5 generation pictures.

Pictured here: Great Grandpa Page, Great-Great Grandma Page, Dawson, Grandma Buri and Mama Cornell.

Jesse spent a good portion of his time here helping us improve our home. He painted our kitchen cabinets white. They were dark green before. It was so dark in the kitchen that it was almost depressing. What a difference the white makes!

He installed a new floor in our entry way and hallways. He worked so hard. We are grateful!

Supporters of ours gave us monies to do the home improvements. We had new free standing cabinets installed in the former dining room to expand the kitchen. Our kitchen was getting too small to meet our demands. This helps so much.

We also had a rolling kitchen island custom made for our space.

The time flew by and I had to say good bye to the Cornell family. Here is a picture of Dawson and me at the airport.

We were blessed to attend our mission’s (Cadence International) staff conference at the Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin. What a gorgeous facility. There is a beautiful prairie with millions of wildflowers on the property.

I hiked to the top of the Judson tower that overlooks the property.

Below is the view from our room at the center at sunrise.

The best part, however, was being with our dear friends and colleagues.

Tim Bettger and Ed renewed their friendship and Ed enjoyed being with Tim very much.

We also got to be with our dear Jennessa.

I was pretty lazy about taking pictures this time and don’t have very many more people pictures. I was greatly encouraged by my conversations and prayers with loved ones there. We came away refreshed and ready for ministry.

On the way to the airport in Madison, Ed and I had just enough time to check out the Wisconsin Dells. We rode the “Duck”. I had never been on an amphibious vehicle before.

As soon as we landed in Boise, ministry demands came calling (literally!).