We have reached the midway point of our summer camps already! It's unbelievable how fast the time flies by!! It has been a great summer so far. We've been very fortunate to have avoided the smoke from Alaska's hundreds of forest fires. We are thankful that God has been gracious enough to allow us that! We are also in prayer for other camps who have had to cancel or had their camps threatened.
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| Evie goes for her first ride on a dirt bike with our friends Evan and Elizabeth, who are engaged. Evie and Norah love giving Evan a hard time any chance they get! We laugh because our kids go into wild animal mode any time these two come over. :) I think it's because they love them a lot. |
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| We've never had actual portraits of our kids done; we usually rely on snapshots, even for framed photos at home. But it's crazy how much time I let slip by sometimes without really capturing their little faces on purpose! .....*Ahem.....a year*......so we did an (extremely) amateur photo shoot the other day. Here's Grady being his regular impish self. |
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| Thinking he's such a big boy! |
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| My pretty Evie is growing up so fast! She went to her very first week of camp at the end of June and had a blast! (Though I don't think she slept much!) She is a deeply philosophical soul and always asks me questions I have trouble answering. Right now she's decided she'd like to be a teacher when she grows up...or a professional dancer. I think she'd excel at both! |
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| Here is my feisty, spunky, intelligent, deeply intellectual, soft-hearted, crusty-shelled, creative, driven Norah. I would need so many more adjectives to describe her! She is learning nowadays what it means to be a big sister to Grady and set a good example, and she is becoming more and more of Mommy's helper too. |
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| Being goofy. You gotta have at least one of these shots! |
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| On Sunday afternoons, when new campers come, everyone waits outside Miracle Lodge with music, a bounce house, and dancing and playing to meet the incoming campers and the bus. Norah usually contentedly draws with sidewalk chalk for around an hour! |
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| We have two boards in the chapel where, at the end of the week, campers are invited to write down what God has taught them during the week, or write whether they've made a decision to give their life to Christ or rededicate it. It's wonderful to see the numbers of small papers growing and covering the boards each progressive week! |
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| Daddy isn't home a ton in the summer, which means we usually go out and about to find him! But when he IS home, he's in high demand! When I took this picture, all three were yelling "MY Daddy!" (Grady's in that awesome mimicking stage where he'll repeat anything the girls are saying!) We went on our staff trip last week, to Seward, with the summer staff. Hopefully it was a time for the counselors and other staff to renew and refresh, and reflect on what has happened so far this summer and how God wants them to continue to serve Him in the second half. It was awesome to walk down by the lake today and see one of the counselors sitting out of the game to talk one-on-one with her camper and overhear her telling about how Jesus came to be the ultimate sacrifice for sins, the Lamb of God, once and for all. In the midst of real life and running around playing games, God is changing lives here! And I am so thankful He does! Here are some ways you can be praying right now: -Pray for health and energy for the summer staff. Right now is when a full month of late nights and early mornings, combined with mental and emotional stress (or just plain busyness) really catches up to everyone! Pray for a deep sense of purpose, and for the Holy Spirit to give motivation to those who are struggling! -Pray for our barn manager, Doug, who has had bleeding on his brain and a past surgery, and now has the same issue arising again. He goes for surgery next week and there a lot of unknowns for when he comes out. Pray for health and strength for him, and his biggest prayer request was that he can be a good witness for the Lord to the doctors and nurses he meets. Pray for peace and reassurance for his family. Pray for the doctors to have wisdom that's supernatural. Pray also for Caleb, a staff member here who will be taking Doug's place for the time being. -Pray especially this week for an unnamed camper who is heavy on my heart right now. This camper is very unreceptive to the gospel and doesn't like to hear about Jesus. Pray for God to break into this camper's life! Pray that they will have a desire to know who Jesus is! Pray also for a gentle heart and patience and discernment for this camper's counselor. -Pray for other camps that have been affected by the forest fires. Pray that the forest fires can come under control of the fire fighters, and pray for safety for those working on containment. Pray that it continues to stay away from VBC! Thank you for all your prayers! They are so needed! Isn't it amazing that we can come before the God of the universe, make requests, and He hears AND answers us?! |
