Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Spring Peepers...

Our family always listens for the spring peepers each year. We always say that it truly is spring when you can hear the spring peepers chirping their wonderful song! Last year we went on a search to try to catch some, we figured that it couldn't be too hard to find one considering how many there must be to make so much noise!

Here are some pictures I got from Google of spring peepers.


The way that you can tell if a frog is a spring peeper, is by the x on their back. You can't see it very well in this picture, but it's there!

Spring peepers are so tiny!!

Monday, April 26, 2010

A Witnessing Story from Last Easter....

After the Easter party last year, Mom, Haley, Noela, and I went on a walk. As we were walking to the park we were trying to decide whether to go into the park, or on a trail that was across the road. After a little discussing, we decided to go on the trail first, then into the park.

Not long after we entered the trail, we noticed two people with their baby sitting on a bench. When we got near them, Mom said “Hello, isn’t it a nice day for a walk?”
We started talking and found out that they had gone over to the lady’s Grandma’s house to celebrate Easter. They weren’t even married and had a messed up family. Kirsten was the girl, Brian was her boyfriend, and they had a baby--Elizabeth.

After a little while, they got up and started to walk with us down the path and talk to us. I asked Mom if she wanted to give them an IQ card from Living Waters. Kirsten liked it a lot and said she would give it to her grandma, who went to Trinity (a church down the road) with her and her little girl Elizabeth. Mom asked Brian if he went to Trinity too. He said, “No, I am atheist.” Right away Haley and I looked at each other and wished that we had some atheist tests. He said, “The way I figure it, we all end up six feet under the ground.” Kirsten said, “You’re not going to keep me and Elizabeth from going to church.” Mom asked, “Why did you decide to be an atheist? Then Brian said, “Well, I believe in God. I won’t keep them from going to church but I won’t go.” Mom said, “But it won’t hurt you to go, so think about going. Your body will go six feet under, but your soul won’t, and if you believe in God then you should care.” His girlfriend said, “I would rather go to be with my creator.” He said, “My spirit will haunt people when I die.” Then I said “Yes, and your soul will go to hell and hell is for eternity even after the world ends hell will never go, you will be there for ever if you don’t have God in your life!” He said “Honey, I’ll tell you what, I will be kicked out of hell! I’m so bad, I will take over hell.”

Then we decided to recite the pieces of John 20 that Haley and I knew. Kirsten thought that it was amazing. After that, we came to the end of the trail and Mom asked if we could pray with them, They answered yes, but during the prayer I think that Brian was trying not to hear and just play with his little girl. Then I said to him “you know what? No matter how bad your sins are God will forgive you.” He just walked away and since the girl had said that they wanted to get married, Mom explained how important it was to have a Christian spouse.

We said good-by and walked back down the path praying for them.
I thought that it was amazing how in the first place we weren’t even going that way on a walk. God must have wanted us to meet them! So please pray for: Kirsten, Brian, and their little girl Elizabeth who was 14 months.

Watermelon!

Our family LOVES watermelon! We always keep a chart of how many we eat each year. So far we have eaten 4 this year! With 8 people who love watermelon, you get through them pretty quick!




Whenever I try to take a picture with Noela in it she always looks away at the last minute and ends up with a funny face!

Our whole family!

Noela is actually looking!!!

Spring Has Sprung!!

This is the moon and you can hear spring peepers, (a type of frog). They are always very loud this time of year!

God is Great!!

Spring always makes me remember God's mercy and wonder. Just seeing all the beautiful creation... how perfect each flower is made, you can't help but praise God!!


Isiah 40:8; " The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."

Solomon 2:12; "The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land."



Psalm 27:1; "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

I Thessalonians 3:13; "May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones."

Psalm 127:3-5; "Behold children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is His reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate."


Genesis 1:22; "God blessed them and said, "Be fertile and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Thank God!


Just a few weeks ago Mom mentioned that it would be fun to do a dance performance at Mount Hope Church, (a very big church in our area). She kept feeling like God was telling her to call the church and see if they needed any entertainment for the 50+ers group there. Mom didn't do it at first, but God kept on prompting her and saying, "How can I do anything if you don't do your part?"


So, she finally called the Church. Someone called Mom back and discussed the topic with her. After a little explaining about what our performance consists of, the Lady said, "How early of a notice do you need? Would you be able to do it on April 16th?" Mom looked at the calender and answered, "Yes we are open on that day." Mrs. Wardlaw said, "The person that was scheduled to do the entertainment for that night just cancelled on Friday because of some health issues, and you will never believe what she was suppose to be doing. Telling Irish stories! I think that this is an answer to my husband's and my prayers!"

Now we are going to do a performance there on April 16th. So please keep us in your prayers that we would be a great witness for God! Also let's pray for the person who was suppose to do the entertainment, that she would get better.


There is still another thing that is wonderful about the date of the performance! We were suppose to have the cast party for the musical we are in on that day, and it just been changed to the day after because of a conflict!

"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." (Numbers 14:21)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Saint Patrick's Day

Hello!
We did a lot of dance presentations some were with our dance class, but our family likes to do some on our own too.

You see, Mom didn't think that it was enough just to do a few competitions and a recital once a year and we needed to use our talent to bring glory to God. Then Mom saw a advertisement for an Irish tea in our area and she decided to look into it and see if they had any entertainment. It so happened, that they didn't and were happy to have us come and dance for them!

The great thing is, that we don't only dance and share Irish history, we always make sure to add scripture into the program and afterwards pass out the Mally's Saint Patrick's Day tracts. People love it and always ask us to come back!

The last presentation that we did was on Friday the 19th. The people were liking it so much that Mom asked me to tell the story of how we started memorizing scripture (the one that I told at Leaders Training). After the show, a lady came up to me and said, "I have memorized my favorite verses from the Bible, but I have never memorized a whole chapter." I said, "I really think that you should try!" She answered, "I am going to, what you said really encouraged me!" I was so excited to see the fruit of our labour and very glad that I was ready and willing to share the story of how we started memorizing! Usually people will just blow the story off and say that it is too hard for them and we just have been gifted, but I always think, how can they memorize a whole scene from a movie and say that they can't memorize Scripture... our spiritual food!

I can't wait to hear something about your Saint Patrick's Day!