Saying Goodbye to Ryely

This last week we said goodbye to our nephew, Ryely, as he headed to Indiana for college to attend Rose-Hulman. We are beyond proud of him to be attending the second best engineering school in the nation. Ryely, the son of John's brother, Bob and wife, Kristin, has always been bright, driven and hard working. I'm overwhelmed with pride when I speak about him with my friends. With his positive attitude, friendly personality and drive for success, I know he will be successful in life.


We celebrated Ryely just a couple of days before he was leaving for college with a barbecue at his house. The entire family was there, along with some of Ryely's close friends that have grown up with him. His parents presented him with a book of "Words of Wisdom" that had been written by his family and friends. This incredible 55-plus page book was filled with lots of pictures, funny stories and lots of advice for Ryely to read through during those difficult, stressful college moments. As I flipped through the book to see what others had written, I was overwhelmed by all the people that love and support Ryely.


We invite you to pray with us for Ryely as just months before graduating, he was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease called PANDAS. This rare disease is caused when the body inadvertently begins attacking parts of the brain during a Strep infection. PANDAS has left Ryely with body tremors and cognitive inflexibility, along with some other problems. We know that despite this unfortunate disease, Ryely is success-driven and capable of doing anything he sets out to do. We love you Ryely!

There's a Smell Coming From the Refrigerator!

For several days, we noticed a little smell in the kitchen. We couldn’t quite place where it was coming from, I thought perhaps the garbage disposal, so I did what I spend way too much time doing and cleaned, putting bleach down the drain. Slowly the smell got a little worse and we narrowed it down to the refrigerator and freezer, but only when we opened the doors. I obsessively clean all the time, but I decided on my next free day, I would do an extra thorough cleaning and check expiration dates on everything. Then, I got some ice and water from the door dispenser and the ice had the taste of the horrible smell. We couldn’t wait, the cleaning needed to happen immediately! I had to go to swim team practice to be the “board member on deck” so John removed everything from the refrigerator, completely cleaned it with bleach, threw anything that wasn’t purchased that week away, but the smell remained and was getting worse. Next, we pulled out the fridge and took apart the back, looking for anything that could be the source of the now HORRIBLY ROTTEN smell. After some investigation and research, we discovered it had a very “rare condition” that was only going to lead to more smell, which I couldn’t imagine since I was already gagging and starting to vomit every time the thing had to be opened! The repair? Replace the leaking, dying fan, tear our all the insulation and replace it. The cost? Pretty close to the price of a new refrigerator. It was only 5 years old, but it had to go, so we kicked it to the curb with a free sign. I guess that stainless steal, bottom freezer refrigerator that we had always wanted was now going to be a reality.

Here is where God’s humor comes into play. Just several days before, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with that extra money I had earned from taking a little, part-time, summer job as a Chapel Director. I couldn’t decide between splurging on something or the practical decision of saving it for awhile. Well, God answered that for me! When you’re responsible with your money and give as God calls you to give, He will ALWAYS provide!!! I have experienced that time and time again. He provided! My new stainless steal, bottom freezer with water and ice in the door refrigerator is now sitting in my kitchen, paid for by my summer job. As an added bit of humor by God, after most stores told me it would take about 2 weeks for the model of refrigerator I wanted to come in, we discovered Costco was the only store that had 1 in stock (not counting the floor model)! His timing is always perfect!

Camp, Get-Away & Time with the Rices

Ah, the long awaited week of summer camp is here! The girls are currently at Adventure Mountain at Forest Home and I pray they are having a blast and growing in their love and knowledge of our Lord. This is their second summer at camp, but their first time at Adventure Mountain. Just like last year, I click through the pictures Forest Home puts online each day in hopes of seeing the girls having a great time. We have seen one smiling picture of Kiley in the pool, but none of Makenna. I admit, it's so discouraging not to find lots of pictures of them. At least we got to see Kiley, as she is the one that has the hardest time being away from us. So far, Kiley has sent 2 postcards and Makenna has sent 1. All say they are having fun, making friends and enjoying the adventure. The highlight for Kiley is that Miley Cyrus' sister is there. As much as I enjoy the peace and quiet at home, I am missing them.


Just after dropping them off at the church to leave for camp, John and I headed to Oceanside with our "front row friends," the O'Malleys. We enjoyed our time there laughing, relaxing, laughing, shopping, laughing, eating and did I mention laughing? It was a great time and the 2 days went way too fast!

One of my favorite moments in our quick trip was meeting up with Derek and Christiana Rice in San Diego. As I've posted before, they are dear friends of ours that moved there as missionaries to reach out to the community living in poverty there and show them the love of Jesus by befriending them and living in community with them. We feel so blessed to come along side them and sponsor them in this ministry. On Monday, we went to visit them and have lunch with them. It was wonderful to see where they are living, learn what they are doing and catch up with them. Their daughter, Naomi, is growing so quickly and so is Christiana's belly as she is coming to the end of her first trimester of pregnancy. I know Naomi will make a great big sister, even though she will be not quite 2 when her sibling is born. As we spent time with them, I became more and more determined to make visits with them a regular experience. I feel so strongly about the ministry they are leading there and I want to be a part of it physically, not just financially.

I would love to write more, but now I'm moving onto another project that I hope to finish before the girls return.

In Giving, I Received

I have often found that when I set out to do something for someone else, to bless them by serving them, I am often the one that walks away blessed. For example, several summers ago, I went to Guatemala to build a cistern in a small village called Santa Maria de Jesus. I went there with the mindset that we were going to help them so much. Not only would we give them constant access to water, but this gift of a cistern would change their lives. I had this image that as we dug this giant cistern, we would be teaching the villagers about Jesus and how His unconditional love inspires us to serve others selflessly. My group did do that, but what I didn’t expect was how blessed I would be by them, how it would be ME that walked away forever inspired by the Guatemalan people.

The same came true this past summer. For the past 6 weeks, I’ve taught chapel for 4 year-olds through 6th graders at a summer day camp. Most of the children at this day camp come from unchurched families even though it’s a Christian day camp. Again, I had this idea that I would come in and teach these children about Jesus. My goal was not to teach them just about Jesus, but how a relationship with Christ would be the most life changing decision they could ever make. For the younger children, I suppose I laid the foundation for their future experiences with Christ. For the older children, who knows! Most of them look like they’re listening. I pray that I got through to them that they would desire to know more. Now here I am, the last week of my time with them and only one session left with each age group and I am the one who was blessed. They touched my life is so many ways. Each day that they entered the sanctuary with eager smiles and excitement to see what I had for them that day, I felt God warming my heart. It’s as if God has told me, “Well done, my dear daughter, you doing as I’ve taught you, to love others and share the gospel with them.” I came into this job knowing that there was no curriculum and that I would have to write my own lesson plans. Each weekend as I sat down to plan, God always inspired me and guided me to the perfect lesson. God is so good!

God never ceases to amaze me and teach me something new. He is always at work in my life and giving me so much more than I could ever give. Through this job, He also blessed my daughters. They served along side me as my little “assistants.” I watched my shy, socially awkward daughter, K, blossom as she lead the children in song and dance and both K and M made sure I had all I needed each day. Thank you Lord for this gift you gave me this summer