Spring Has Sprung!

I LOVE Spring! 

At the end of February and beginning of March we were on a trip to celebrate my mom's 70th birthday and my brother's wedding. It was a great time with family. The picture below is of my nephew Kyle, my dad, mom, and Ed.

We got to visit Ed's folks too!

 Our car broke down outside of Hood River, Oregon

 The tow truck driver dropped us off at a church. It was a great sermon!

We stayed at the Hood River Hotel. It was like a mini vacation. The repair was costly but we had a full day in Hood River. The weather was lovely and the people there were friendly. 

With ministry to young military folks comes opportunities to minister to their children. We watch children in the nursery at chapel and sometimes they invade our house. The above picture is our patio that is nearing completion.

With young couples comes babies. We have done many baby showers here. This dress is my latest offering. Most of gals have had girls, so I make lots of dresses. The next few babies are boys, so I have figure out what to do for a boy. The picture below is our most recent baby shower. About half of these ladies will be gone in a few months.

We have recently learned that even more of our folks are leaving Mountain Home. My estimate is around 70% of our regular attenders will move this summer.

We have had record attendance here and were wondering how we could possibly fit any more people in this house. We probably don't need to get too concerned about it now.

The pictures above give you an idea of Friday nights at our house.
Sometimes, we serve each other by helping them move. This time, Elyssa and Scott are moving back to Mountain Home. Scott deployed and Elyssa moved near family while he was gone. 

Spring has been good for us. I get more hiking in when it is warmer. Recently we hiked to the top of Table Rock above Boise. It is quite a climb but great exercise.

Early Spring... I Mean Winter

For most of 2015 so far, it has been nice and mild here. I am very grateful as I have a hard time getting anything done when I am cold. 
Ministry here is going well. We have started having our folks share their testimonies on Friday nights. Matt was the first one.

We have a new couple here. He is a chaplain assistant. They both grew up in Cambodia. They brought some yummy Cambodian food for the Friday night dinner. It was so good, it all got eaten. 
















We went on a hike with Rex and Sovatta the next day to Bruneau Dunes. 

We have been encouraging our group to participate in causes outside of Mt. Home. One time we went to Boise to support Nagmeh Abedini when she was ready to speak to the President during his visit there. She asked the area pastors in the crowd to come up and pray for her. I nudged Ed up there for that.

We then went to a Rally for Life at the State Capitol. Ed got picked for an interview by the local television station.

We still are very involved with events at the chapel. We had a bunco party for the ladies. Unfortunately, in the military, other events come up that conflict with our programs. So, this particular night, we barely had enough. 

We figure we will be losing about half of our folks this spring and summer. We almost have to start over again on some things. So we are cramming in as much time with some of them as possible. Rachel and Jonathan invited me to go skiing with them. It is about relationships here. 

Christmas Season 14/15

Happy New Year! We have kept quite busy these past few weeks. 

Here is Chaplain Schrader giving his children's sermon taken from the balcony of the chapel on the base. I am usually up there running the song slides and sometimes the sound system. 

Amanda and Rachel sang Christmas carols with me at PWOC. I love these girls so much!

This is the gang we had at our house for Christmas Eve. 

We are so blessed to have family nearby. We got to spend Christmas Day with the Barnes family in Payette. This is my most successful "selfie" for that day. 

We got lots of snow right after Christmas. I was able to capture some snowflakes with my cell phone. I marvel at God's creation.

New Year's Eve we had a game night and prayer time. One of our young leaders, Colin, led us in a devotion. It was so well done! We all decided to celebrate along with the East Coast and did the countdown of their time zone.

I am playing the ukulele and guitar more these days thanks to Karla (pictured here with me). She has encouraged me so much!

I think I am finally getting going after all of my technical difficulties! I now have two working computers! Here are some pictures of the “goings on” here at En Gedi Hospitality House.

We are in front of an F15 at the air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base. This is the aircraft flown at our base. 

Tim (one of our guys at En Gedi) married the lovely Kalli in California. Ed was honored to officiate their wedding.

Some of our gals went to a park along the Snake River one day for a half day of prayer. It was time well spent. 

A bunch of us from the house went apple picking in Kuna. The guy on the right just got back from deployment the night before.

An impromptu game time after Bible study one Friday night.

I am the programs person at PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) here. This is one of the programs this fall.

We had to say goodbye to Dan and Sarah Kephart. Their time in Mountain Home meant a radical change in their lives. When we met them, they weren’t Christians. Now Dan has already gone through a lot of seminary classes with a goal of someday being a chaplain. 

 This is a typical Friday night gathering. 

Since we are bursting at the seams, we have decided to enclose our patio and bring in a heater for the children to use during Bible study time. As you can see here, it is leaking and we still need to fix that before we can lay down a rubber floor and decorate.

Thanksgiving day at the Turkey Day 5K in Boise and then the meal at our house.

Our third annual Holiday Tea Party with a devotion led by Karla Schrader (Chaplain Schrader’s wife).  

                                       Merry Christmas!

Technical Difficulties

For the past 6 months I have had lots of problems with my electronic devices. I have had one computer die twice and a new computer died two weeks ago. Eric Thimell has been so helpful during this time. I have had a hard time keeping up with this blog and e-mail. This past month, we got to go to a mission's conference and a wedding. On the way to the wedding, we got to see Yosemite (which is 17 miles from where the nuptials took place).

Ministry here is going well. We are bursting at the seams. I plan to write more, when I'm settled. My new computer won't be fixed for another few weeks. Thanks for your prayers.

He's Back!

Ed made it safely back from Qatar. My computer died shortly after. More blog posts to come when I figure this stuff out on a new computer!

Yay for Summer!

This is the month folks when Ed gets back from deployment! Ministry is NOT the same without him. Ministry has continued while he was gone. We have had holiday gatherings, Friday night events, baby showers, PWOC programs and Bible studies, etc.

Memorial Day Weekend was full. We had our regular Friday night dinner and Bible study. The next day, lots of our gals got together at our house to put together shoes for children in Uganda. Below,  Jessica is displaying our first complete set.

We had a Memorial Day picnic at Eric and Janet’s house. Their backyard was packed! We took time to pray for Matt as he deployed the following week.

Our Andrew returned from deployment last month. He is getting out of the Air Force and will be going to school in Spokane to train to be a MAF pilot. Some of us went with him to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in Nampa, Idaho. We are so excited for Andrew and Lisa. We will also be sad to see them go.

Friday nights at our house continue to go well. This past Friday we had a full house. We anticipate losing 3 dear couples to transfer this next month.

We have developed great relationships with our group. One Saturday, a bunch of us went to the zoo to celebrate Paisley’s first birthday.

Our Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC) is going great for summertime. We had a gal step forward to lead and she is doing a phenomenal job. Our first Bible study of the summer was well attended.

Since I last wrote I got to take a VERY quick trip to Roseburg with Leigh (an AF nurse here).  I got to see my dad and Carole; my mom and Jim; my in-laws and my precious son.

 

Did you know there is to scale replica of Stonehenge on the Washington side of the Columbia River along Interstate 84? We took a side trip on our way home. I like this picture of Leigh with Mt. Hood in the background.