This week, I chose the hymn “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” to use for tomorrow. While researching the hymn, I found this little statement, which I liked so much that I printed it and put it in a frame, after modifying it from “Thou givest,” etc. It was simply titled “I am Willing.”

The women at church are preparing to study “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges and I’ve been reading that. Today, I also read an interview with John McArthur where he talks about being a slave for Christ. Between the hymn, the book, and the interview…a lot to think about. And the statement above seems to resonate with what I’ve been reading.

If you like the statement, here it is to copy for yourself.

I AM WILLING, MY GOD
To receive what You give,
To lack what You withhold,
To relinquish what You take,
To surrender what You claim,
To suffer what You ordain,
To do what You command,
To wait until You say “Go.”
~Unknown

~~Rhonda

At each home they visited, as well as at the church, they were given tasks to do, from playing simple party games, to reciting the Ten Commandments, to singing songs for their hosts.

Task? Climb into the gym and sing “Jesus Loves Me.”

Task? Make tinfoil animals for Noah’s ark.

One of the tasks that allowed for lots of creativity was “Build-a-Bob.” Given paper, markers, crayons, etc., they chose a slip of paper that gave them the name of the “Bob” they were to design. The headshots are of Pastor Bob, BTW.

Getting started on Elvis Bob.

Cowboy Bob

Firefighter Bob

Scotsman Bob (We are Presbyterians, after all.)

Leprechaun Bob

Biker Bob

Baker Bob

Willing hands and hearts provided snacks for the teams.

And the kitchen crew decorated their own Bob.

ChefBoy-r-Bob and Bob.

All in all a great evening! They are already talking about doing it again. ~~Rhonda

Laurie checks to see if it’s ready.

Shawn had some studying to do.

The kids climbed the old stump.

More checking…

More stirring…

And everyone wanted to hold the baby. Unfairly, I had just one turn. ::pout::

More stirring, more checking…

Everyone pitches in.

Then it was time to set up the apple butter line.

Once the jars are poured, they have to be processed quickly.

Kettle full of yum!

The weather was beautiful all morning, through lunch, and into the afternoon. Until we were about ten minutes from being done! We thank God for holding off the rain while we finished.

Then it was a mad dash for the gym!

Apple butter day is always a lot of fun for our church family. We have a great time together…working, playing, eating, talking. I’m already looking forward to next year!

~~Rhonda

Thanks goes, too, to all our church family members who helped in so many ways to prepare for the house tour. They cleaned and decorated and ran errands and helped advertise and then, after all that (and more!), they served as room hosts during the event. The tour raised $856 for the missions fund at church.

Here are a few of our wonderful helpers.

Brooke greeted our guests and accepted donations at the door. She was a tremendous help for weeks ahead of time, pitching in to help with decorating and cleaning.

Dave and several others helped with parking and helped guests with the front steps.

We had great help from the young people from church, as well.

Janice and Wendy were gracious hostesses.

Our thanks to all who helped! We love each and every one of you! ~~Rhonda

After the report, while we had snacks, everyone got to talk to Bethany, and she was introduced to Margaret who was born after Bethany left.

It was great to see Bethany “face to face” and to have her input in the mission report. We all miss her a great deal!

~~Rhonda

This afternoon, I watched two caterpillars molt their skin, which I had never been able to catch them doing before.

After they molt, they rest for a while, then turn around and eat the old skin.

Have you ever watched a caterpillar have lunch? They are eating machines! BTW, this video is in real time, no speeding up.

~~Rhonda

DD made the cookie bars and I decorated them. “Bethany, the Lord bless and keep you. ~all our love and prayers”

Bethany didn’t know the dinner was for her. She had been with the mission team in West Virginia all week and had arrived home Saturday evening. We have a blackboard by the front sidewalk of our yard to advertise plant sales and DD wrote, “We’ll miss you, Bethany!” on the sign. She saw that and thought it was nice, but didn’t give it much more thought than that.

When she came in, she found her pictures from her Haiti trip on a slide show in the living room, which she said did surprise her. But the light bulb moment was when she walked into the kitchen and saw her name on the cookie bars. (I edited out her name before posting the picture on flickr.) Then there were tears, but they were good ones. {{{{Bethany}}}}

We also had pictures in a slide show in the office of the mission team’s trip to Atlanta in July.

Adam had just arrived home last Wednesday from his mission internship in Nairobi, Kenya, and he also had pictures to show.

In the past, we’ve set the food on the kitchen table. This time we tried two tables in the front hall and it worked very well. I think this is going to be SOP for future church dinners. We had more room and I think the flow of traffic was better, too.

The temps were supposed to be in the high 90s, but turned out to be about 20 degrees cooler than expected. While most of our guests ate indoors, we all gathered outside for Pastor Bob’s devotional.

After the party, there was lots of help cleaning up, taking chairs and tables back to church, picking up, and washing dishes, etc. A big thank you goes to Paul who washed all the dirty dishes and gathered and took out all the trash. And thanks, too, to Susan who took all the tablecloths home and washed them for me. What a great gift. Thank you!

We had a wonderful time, and will miss Bethany a great deal while she’s gone. But we are thankful for her shining testimony of her love for Christ and her willingness to follow Him in service to others. Bethany, we will be praying for you!

~~Rhonda

This is the third team our church has sent this year. In January, we went to New Orleans, Louisiana, and had the privilege of drywalling Gloria’s home. Earlier this month, a team went to Atlanta, Georgia, to aid in community assistance, and this team is going to Fairmont, West Virginia, to roof two homes for those in need. At least one of these young people has made all three mission trips and several have made two trips. I believe this is the 13th year we have sent a team to Fairmont.

DD24 joined them in Virginia, after her summer of working in a girls’ camp in New York. We won’t see her until October, when we go east for DS29′s wedding.

As God brings them to mind, please pray for the mission team as they work this week, sharing God’s love with others. Pray for safety, for spiritual growth, and for strength to do the work.

~~Rhonda

Then I made a bouquet for church. The hydrangeas are just coming on, so I used them.

The young people hosted breakfast for dads…pancakes, sausage, tater tots, peaches…delish!

Have you hugged a presbyterian today?

We’re proud of our young people. They’re the best!

Herschel favored us with hymns and songs on his harmonica, including one of my favorites, “Faith of Our Fathers.”

It was fun to have breakfast served to us by such willing servants of Christ. The young people did a great job, as usual.

After church, we had Russell’s favorite meat dish for lunch. He loves marinated pork tenderloin. I made the marinade last night and left the meat in it in the fridge overnight.

Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Saute until golden brown and caramelized:
1 yellow onion, diced
2 T. olive oil
4 T. sugar

Place the following ingredients into a gallon-sized plastic zippered bag and marinate at least six hours or overnight.
3/4 c. apple juice
1/3 c. light soy sauce
2 T. cider vinegar
8 slices fresh ginger root
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
freshly ground black pepper
the caramelized onions (above)
2 pork tenderloins

In the past, I’ve baked the tenderloin on a rack in the oven until done. Today I put them in a crockpot and cooked them on high for three hours. It was SO tender and delicious. Yum! The marinade can be used on chicken, too.

In the afternoon, DD and I made an apple pie for DH. He loves pie. The pie making is fodder for another post, coming soon.

~~Rhonda

The campers enjoyed all kinds of fun activities. Paddle boats and canoes…

Crafts and woodworking…

Kiddy pool kick ball…

Camp is for new friends and old…

Dinner time!

Celebration and worship.

Active and involved staff…

A favorite part of camp is always the Nathan Clark George concert. This year he brought Mark Stoffel with him. Mark was one of the musicians Nathan brought with him to our house concert last Christmas.

The campers loved the concert!

The campers had quite an adventure this year when a tornado warning sent them to the shelter at 4:00 AM one morning. A tree fell hitting the porch of one of the cabins and crushing a counselor’s van. The crown of the tree fell five feet from DH who was going from cabin to cabin hustling campers into the shelter.

Everyone was safe. We can’t say the same for Heather’s car, though.

We thank God for His care over the campers and staff this week. He is good indeed!

DH says it was a good camp. The campers were smiling all week and we’re getting reports from parents telling us how much the kids are talking about camp…non-stop. We hope we’ll see them all again next year!

~~Rhonda