Koko Crater Hike

Elba and I were crazy enough to try this hike which was the most challenging of my life!

At the top!

This is the view down the train tracks from the top (over 1000 tracks and quite steep)!

Laci Melissa Cornell

Announcing the birth of our first granddaughter, Laci Melissa Cornell to Jesse, Julie and Dawson Cornell.

7 lbs 4.7 oz – 19” long – January 24 around 5:30 AM in Honolulu, Hawaii

More to Follow……

Christmas Season 2011

I got a new cell phone that supposedly takes great pictures, I unfortunately haven’t figured it out well yet. So, most of my pictures that I took didn’t turn out well. This blog installment will be mostly words. :(

The Christmas season has been quite busy here at En Gedi Hospitality House.  We had a full house for Thanksgiving. We  sent out an announcement via facebook and got so many RSVPs that I was fearful we would get too full. We stopped inviting people and discouraged some from inviting others. That was terrible. I would like to have a bigger house, Ed is content with the size as it is. Lots of folks who came out said that being at our house was the next best thing to being with their own families far away.

Christmas eve we got to be with my side of the family in Payette, Idaho.  I always treasure that time with such dear people.

Christmas day, we had about 25 here for dinner. It was an extremely busy day it being a Sunday. Those who attended seemed to enjoy it as we did our traditional Twelve Days of Christmas with motions, team Pictionary, and white elephant gift exchange.

We went to Roseburg after that and spent 6 days with friends and family there.

It was nice to spend time with my brother Jerry, his wife Denise and my mom. We also got to spend lots of time with the Buris.  Of course, the highlight was getting together with Greg.

Dawson continues to improve. I get to leave next week to visit him and the rest of his family. His baby sister is due to arrive soon. This is a Skype picture of him pretending  Julie’s headband is sunglasses.

Dawson’s Accident

On November 3, I received a phone call from my son in law, Jesse. The night before, Dawson (our grandson) had run into the kitchen and grabbed the pyrex measuring cup with boiling water in it down on his head and arm. He was sent to a children’s hospital near Waikiki. I put the word out on two prayer chains. The next day, I prayed that if God wanted me to go be with them to make it very clear. I then got an offer from our home church to pay for the flight. Then Jesse asked me to come. It seemed clear. I was weepy most of the journey there. I got weepy when I got to hug Julie and see Dawson. He was so swollen (he couldn’t open his eyes) that he didn’t look anything like Dawson. We were overwhelmed with prayers and well wishes from folks around the world. We feel so loved. Dawson spent 5 days in the PICU at the hospital. But then, he got discharged. He is healing very well. Below are pictures I took on the Skype camera, three weeks after the accident (after I had already been home a week.) He still has some healing to do, but he looks great!

He was playing “Peek a Boo” with me.

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Fall 11

We have had a wonderful summer and early fall. What beautiful weather!  Today I ate some of the last of our tomatoes we grew in our backyard. The cold weather is finally here. We have kept quite busy. Ed had to work most of September and half of October at the Air National Guard due to an inspection. I’m so glad that is all over with. 

Ministry continues to keep us busy. Ed is active with discipleship in two men’s studies, 2 men’s prayer groups and some individuals that he is mentoring. Our Friday night study is still going well. The number of chapel attenders is dwindling….

Part of military ministry that I HATE is having to constantly say good bye. This particular good bye last week was especially hard. Our accountability partners here, Vance and Nancy Kondon have moved on to their next assignment in Mississippi. Vance is now the new command chief there.

This picture was taken at Vance’s farewell dinner. Most of the top brass of the base made it a point to attend and give him very “honoring” gifts.  They are both very God honoring folks and I already miss them terribly.

At 50 years old, I am the oldest woman at our Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC). There is only one other gal there close to my age. Many of the young women there want to be mentored. We went into a partnership with the Southern Baptist Church in town. They have plenty of older women and not as many younger ones.  So I brought in a bunch of our younger gals for their “Apples of Gold” mentoring program.  We are having our final meeting, a banquet this week. I have seen these young gals grow in their walk with God. The Bible study that I’m leading at PWOC seems to go hand in hand with the Apples of Gold. I have about 20 ladies in my class for Elizabeth George’s “A Woman After God’s Own Heart”.  It is all very exciting. We had a PWOC Sunday at chapel. I played my guitar for our praise band. I think we were able to get the word out about PWOC there.

I just returned from my 13th PWOC conference, this time in Seattle, Washington. One of our gals said that this was quite possibly the best weekend of her life. I got to see lots of friends I had known from other PWOCs and bond with my current group. The speakers, worship and workshops were deeply motivating. Stephanie, who I invited and brought with me to PWOC two years ago, was chosen to be the Vice President for the West Region. I was thrilled!

This picture is of our Mt. Home gals at the conference.

Looking ahead, I created a facebook event last night for Thanksgiving at our house. So far, we already have 26 signed up. Yikes!

God bless you all and thanks so much for your prayers!

Beautiful September

I think the best place to be this September is Southern Idaho. The weather has been perfect. I don’t know if you can tell, but Summer is my very favorite time of the year. I’m not ready for it to end…

God has given us wonderful opportunities for one on one mentoring with the guys and the gals at Mountain Home Air Force Base. Some of our group activities have not had great attendance but we seem to feel like the ministry is richer right now.

We had a great turn out for our PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) Kick Off Luau a few weeks ago. I played my ukulele. It was fun and very exciting to see so many ladies excited about our PWOC this year.

We had PWOC Sunday at the chapel and we set up our praise and worship team for that.

Mountain Home AB had an air show. It was a great activity to attend with our folks and get to know them better. Here is a picture of Ed and Perry on the flight line waiting to see the Thunderbirds perform.

I turned 50 this month. Ed had to work the whole weekend but some of my friends here brought me breakfast and took me to the Air Force Appreciation Day parade.

I took this picture with my cell phone of the gang who helped me celebrate.

The next day one of the gals pictured above had a party at Maurice’s clothing shop. Dinner was provided and we got to try on lots of clothes.

Julie and Jesse found out that they are having a girl. I’m so excited! I was hoping to visit them this fall because I was going to help the chaplain’s wife here get to Guam where her husband is deployed. He doesn’t have a place for her and her two little girls to stay yet. So, it may not work. I do plan to go in January when my grand daughter is due to arrive.

Summer Fun

Ed and I were invited to be the missionaries at junior boy’s camp at Warm Lake Camp again this year. I stayed on an extra week as the missionary for the junior girls.  We always love going there. It was where I asked Jesus to be my savior when I was a young camper. This year, two of our airmen (Aaron and Andrew) joined us to be counselors there.  They shared their testimonies one night and answered questions about military life. It went very well. Also, one of our kids (Devyn) from our chapel (his dad is currently deployed) was able to join us as a camper. Someone from the Payette church paid his way.  His mother was very grateful for that opportunity and says that he learned a lot about defending his faith (he also had lots of fun).

Aaron and Andrew donning their Warm Lake Camp hats.

Devyn

Most of the campers and staff

Rendezvous at Smash Burger

After boy’s camp, we drove down to Meridian and had a rendezvous with Sharlene and Meleeya at Smash Burger. The girls were there to join me at camp. Sharlene’s husband is currently deployed. I thought it would be good for her to be there. I wanted the girls at camp to have a face to connect with about who we work with at the base. Meleeya is a first grader and became the darling of the camp. When it came time to leave camp, Meleeya cried huge crocodile tears because she loved those girls so much.

The girls at camp were taught to be godly. I did my Titus 2 meal workshop, talked about Jesse Miller (the founder of Cadence International), played my guitar and dressed up like Eliza Spalding, and other stuff. Sharlene shared her testimony, helped me with many things and played the guitar. We saw God orchestrate some amazing things so that Sharlene could be at camp and help me. I think God was honored. I loved getting to know the girls, the junior counselors and counselors and the rest of the staff.

Me with some of the counseling staff: Alice, Tyara, Hannah and Abbie.

One of the groups after the Titus 2 meal workshop

Eliza Spalding visited Warm Lake Camp

This is my picture of the picture of the whole group. Sharlene, Meleeya and I are at the lower right.

We jumped back into ministry in Mt. Home. Ed had a men’s retreat to work on. It went very well. The guys went fishing and boating. They did lots of other men stuff. While the guys were gone, some of us wives went to Silver City, Idaho.  It is so beautiful and rich with history. The long drive into the Owyhee Mountains made for a great time of conversation. One of our gals particularly is weighed down with many cares. I think she came away from that trip encouraged. The following is a picture of a few of us at the beautiful cemetery.

Summer is slow in ministry sometimes, but we have had enough to keep us busy. We had great chapel services yesterday with the ACC chaplain here for a visit. Wow! Can that guy preach! It was great!

At Velocity last night, Ed, Aaron and Norm (also known as Dan) performed a Hall and Oates themed skit.  I think everybody there enjoyed it.

Who wouldn’t love those faces?