October Update

We had a hot summer that went straight to winter... or so it seems.

Dear friends came from far and wide to celebrate Ed's retirement from the National Guard. Above: Jesse Cornell (our son in love), Nancy and Vance Kondon, Richard Anderson and Devyn Kondon. Below: Ed's retirement ceremony. A highlight was that the wing commander from Mountain Home attended and spoke. 

Ministry continues in the summer. This picture below is of our Thursday evening women's Bible study at the chapel. 

My Aunt Myrna and Uncle Drexell celebrated their 60th anniversary. We got to be with them for that and for the eclipse.

We had a great chapel women's retreat at the end of August. So many things made us change our plans. We think though it was for the better. It went great. Women were challenged and we bonded with each other.

Labor Day weekend we had a camp out and chapel service at the park. We love our chapel family.

My dear Xiomara and her children had a surprise birthday party for me. 

My dear Aunt Jan passed away at the end of September. We took a trip to Montana to attend the funeral. It was God honoring. I loved her and will miss her greatly. 

We went to Yellowstone with a couple (Danny and Amanda) from our ministry. They are moving to Japan in a few months. We wanted to spend just a little bit more time with them.

Summer is Here!

After the coldest and snowiest winter I remember here, we are having the hottest summer. We have now been in Mt. Home for 10 years. Wow! It really doesn't seem that long.
Ministry continues to be challenging and rewarding all at the same time. Here is a recap of some happenings in the past few months.

For Good Friday at the chapel, we headed up a passover seder demonstration. It was well attended and well received. I think we will do that one again.
   

Our homemaking seminars are going very well. We now have the younger gals teaching skills to each other.

We had an impromptu baptism service for two of our loved ones who attend Friday night study.

I got to go to Alaska to bring back Julie and the children to Idaho for 5 weeks. Jesse took us to Homer for a night. I got to see Julie lead worship at the chapel there. When we got to the lower 48, we went to Roseburg to celebrate Ed's parent's 60th anniversary. We also got to spend time with my parents.

When we got back to Idaho, Julie jumped into ministry and led worship at the chapel. She also helped at Vacation Bible School.

We had a wonderful visit with Julie and kids. The time with them went too quickly. 
Our dear Ayla took great pictures.

Spring Has Sprung

What a long winter we had! It is officially one for the record books (record snowfall). It did snow last week, but for the most part, winter is behind us. Yay! We took two of our folks to Shoshone Falls. Because of record precipitation, the amount of water going over the falls is the most they've seen since the 70's. 

We've had some great outreach/inreach events with the chapel. Below are a few pics of us helping a gal whose husband is deployed. She was given a great deluxe swing set but needed to disassemble it and set it up at her house. So, Ed recruited help.

We have two great women's studies on base. The one at 1:30 on Thursdays meets at the Kid's Gym. One of our gals had us over to her house for a luncheon. 

Gals from both studies got together to eat and watch the movie "Facing Darkness".

The chapel staff had a volunteer appreciation luncheon for everyone. The food was great and we felt loved and appreciated. The week previous to this, the chapel had a designated offering for our ministry. Over $5000 came in from that!

Mountain Home has some gorgeous scenery. This is just outside of town. 

Our sweet Riley zoomed past the crawling stage (she wasn't even crawling when we saw her last in February) to standing. She is such a joy.

Beginning 2017

We started off 2017 with a bang at the chapel for our "Adventure New Year's Eve Party". Many of us dressed up as adventurers. There were prizes and treasure hunts. There was also a great slide show (put together by Ed) about what we saw God had done at the chapel in 2016. We then prayed in the New Year. (We decided to celebrate it East Coast time, so we could get the children to bed).

We had our second installment in our Homemaker's sessions at our house in January. 

It was so successful that we are planning the third one in a week and a half. 

We have saved air miles throughout the years and were able to fly 4 of us (Ed, Greg, Riley (his daughter) and me) to Alaska for "Second Christmas" and to attend Jesse's promotion to Technical Sergeant.

Some of us even got to ride on a dog sled on a frozen lake (for free!).

We hosted the chapel staff in February for their off site planning day. Janet provided a yummy lunch. The wing chaplain was very grateful and so were most of the staff. 

This is a chalkboard we have in our bathroom.

It has snowed a lot this winter. I am very much looking forward to spring. But God reminds me there is beauty and growth in every season. We've seen growth and beauty among people here in Mt. Home this winter. I also got a picture with my cell phone of the beauty of a snowflake in our yard.