Finally Happened!

Now we can finally get some of those

naysayer guys into the church:)

Matthew 24

1 in 5 people in the world live on less than $1 a day.

1 in 7 people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.

18 million kids around the world have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

12 million of these are in Africa.

40% of the world lacks basic water sanitation.

80% of the world lives in sustandard housing (too hot, too cold, in a flood zone)

22 million people died last year from preventable diseases.

1 in 4 children in the world have to go to work instead of school.

Americans spend more annually on trash bags than 1/2 the world does on goods combined.

What can I do about it?
The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty.
-Colin Powell

Since Jesus' mandate to do so, countless numbers of Christ-followers have chosen to claim His command to 'go and teach all nations.'

How will you be involved in this work of the Kingdom of God?



"This gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24

40 days until Zach and I depart for Panama......will you pray with/for us?

Comic Relief

Just for fun!

20 truths to remember....

1. Faith is the ability not to panic.
2. If you worry, you did not pray. If you pray, don't worry
3. As a child of God,prayer is like calling home every day.
4. Blesses are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
5. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still.God wants to untangle the knot.
6. Do the math. Count your blessings.
7. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
8. Dear God, I have a problem, it's me.
9. Silence is often misinterpreted, but never misquoted.
10. Laugh every day. It is like inner jogging.
11. The most important things in your home are the people.
12. Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional.
13. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.
16. We do not remember days but moments, so enjoy your precious moments.
17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it. Otherwise is just hearsay.
19. It's alright to sit on your pity pot every now and then. Just be sure to flush when you are done.
20. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what other think of you.

Aaron

Aaron is really sick.

Apparently somewhere within the last 11 days he went from having a little cough that did not sound so good but was not keeping him down, (he still had a basketball clinic sponsored by the high school on Saturdays from noon -3pm) to a full blown case of pneumonia.

He went to school for a week with what seemed like just an annoying cough.

Well here is where the worlds worst mother award goes to me......I finally took him to the doctors office yesterday after keeping him home from school for only the 2nd time this year, the doctor listened to him for about 1 minute and said lets gt some x-rays. Sure enough the x-rays came back his lungs where full.

So; much to Aaron's dismay he got a shot in the butt!

If you could have seen his face, we laughed for 20 minutes while waiting in the emergency room to make sure he was not going to have a reaction. The whole nurses station was laughing with us. He did not have a reaction an we went home directly after that.

Today Aaron is still on the sofa, still coughing and looking pitiful. If you feel like sending him a card to cheer him up please do so. He is so bored but really does not feel like doing anything. You can call him on his cell too.

Whilwind weekend.....

It began Friday afternoon as we headed South, no not to Florida,
just Detroit. Cobo Hall to be exact for a wonderful night with
Travis Cotrell, the Worship leader for Beth Moore, Beth herself, the
Living Proof Live! and 71 hundred other women! It was one of my favorites when it come to
a weekend away with just the girls. In this case it was my "Tasphilas"
Jude Hall. We had a nice time together and learned a lot about
each other and what it means to be and have a "Tasphilas"
















Then Saturday after driving home, taking Jude back up the road just a few miles to her home, and back to my house , I did a quick change to head south again, this time just to 22 mile road for the wedding of Ricky Clark and Amy Puzio. They got married at the Macomb Christian church in Shelby township. It was a simple yet elegant wedding.

















The ceremony was at 4:00 in the afternoon but the reception was not to begin until half past six in the evening. We did not want to drive home and then go all the way back down to 17 1/2 mile road so we headed to one of our favorite hang out spots. Caribou for a little coffee, well not one to turn down a child, there was a brownie troop selling girl scout cookies. Now we had 6 boxes at home already mind you, but we did by another box of samoas because, well....just try looking in that little girls face and say no.






























Then we were off to the reception. It was held at Pena's of Sterling and once again was very elegant. There was a great dinner served and a fabulous Cherry jubilee for dessert. We saw many friends including Jason and Shawna Rogers with their 7 month old Ethan, Jason and Shawna were in our Youth group at Community when we were arrived on the scene in 1994



















This is Ricky and Matt, they had always been good friends even after Matt moved on to other roles in the church, Ricky and his brother Dale as well as Allen( the little brother) maintained a fun friendship. Dale got married about 2 years and now Ricky is married, kind of makes one feel good to see the kids all grown up and making good choices in their spouses. We know there parents did a great job, but know also that we must have done something right

February 15

School was cancelled on Valentines' day! Now wouldn't that make a great
newspaper heading! It really was. Too much snow!
I know, I know, we live in Michigan, school should not be cancelled!
Well, it was. Last week we closed for too cold..... go figure.
We have been off three times this year, when to Zach's dismay
the last three years we were not off at all. He used to get so upset because
Romeo schools would be off when Utica (last years school district) was not.
Well this year we are Romeo schools. If we are not careful however,
we will be going to school till the end of June at this rate.
It is only mid February and already we have had 3 snow days.......

Anyway, back to the story, because school was closed on Valentines day,
the boys had their parties on the 15th. Here are pictures of the fun!

Micah and his 2nd grade classmates enjoyed a
pizza party and great chocolate covered strawberries.
They were the hit of the school. I had several. Probably
more than I should have and even shared them with some
moms in the 5th grade. We played a few games and went home happy and full.


Noah's class really celebrated. This being their last year in
elementary school they really want to do it up right.
No time for parties in the middle school, I guess? But that's a different blog:)



They went to the gym for their game time and did things like sing like Elvis at the top of your lungs( do they even know who Elvis is? )
and fly around the room like a cupid saying I love my teacher:)
They enjoyed a smorgasbord of treats with their Ice cream sundaes
and open their valentine cards. Oh to be in love and in 5th grade again........

Valentine's Day

What is a person to do on the first
Real snow fall/ schools out just happens
to be on Valentine's day?

Why go sledding of course,
so we packed up our van, got the
neighbor boys(how many kids can you fit in a town and country mini van? )

don't try to count you can't see them all..... and headed to
non- other than Stoney Creek.

Now there is a hill closer mind you,
right at the Community Center, but
no one up north:) right here in our
little neighborhood as been sledding at
Stoney Creek, so since it is by far our favorite
hill that is where we went!
A great way to spend a snow day!

To top off the day, my wonderful, thoughtful husband

had a hot date planned. This was a treat. Due to our

new circumstances we have not been able to do that in

a long while. No pictures however, I guess we were to

busy enjoying our time together. Just trust me. It was a nice

time.

Talent Show

Noah and a few of his friends in 5th grade performed the skit
"The ugliest man in the world" Now it is not something we
would normally condone, but in this situation it is acceptable.
It was very funny and the audience laughed at all the right times.

The Amanda Moore Honors choir sang two numbers and closed
the evening out with the song" The night I starred in the show"
Nice job Amanda Moore and thank you Mrs Rienas for all your work!

New Fridge

The fridge that was in the house when we moved in was nice.
It was white and a top mount freezer, about a 25 cubic inch, in size.
What we were not expecting was that 6 months into it that fridge would
say good night and not wake up in the morning. That is exactly
what happened. Thus began a three to four week process of
waiting for the tech to come tell us it was broken, finding a new one,
waiting on the home owners insurance and accumulating enough
money to purchase that new one etc.. etc... This is what we found.
A side by side Frigidaire the same 25 cubic inch. (I think?) Nice eh?

Anyway, about the same time the fridge arrived, oh but first
you need to know it was colder here in Romeo this year than it has
been in the last 12 years of our lives in Michigan, cold enough
that although we did not have a refrigerator we kept things in the
garage and at times it was colder than the fridge.....the milk would
occassionally have ice in it :) now back to the.... about the same time the
refrigerator arrived Micah scored a 100% on his spelling test!
The perfect place to display it??????........ you guessed it, The Fridge!

Skating on the pond

We have a retention pond in the front of the sub which is actually only 4 houses from the front of our house. During the summer months you really don't want to swim in it due to the lack of water flowing in or out.....HOWEVER......the winter seems to be a different story. You would not want to swim but it makes for a great hockey and ice skating rink. Our next door neighbors, dad a three boys spent a few hours a couple of nights this past week cleaning off the ice and Saturday it proved well worth their while. Earlier in the wee, the mom went door to door inviting a bunch of kids to go play hockey Saturday afternoon and then join them for dinner in the evening. About 20 kids showed up for a great but very cold game of hockey. In the 12 years I have lived in Michigan I do not ever recall it being this cold.

End of Season

The last game of the 7th grade basketball team

against Powell middle school was a huge success

for Romeo. The 8th grade Bulldogs won 4?- 2?.

Aaron scored 12! It was a great game, the best

Aaron had played all season. He was also the

high scorer not just for the game but highs score

in any game all season. He was on FIRE. He had

several assists, allot of rebounds and all around

great game. He picked the best time to be HOT,

because the varsity coach was at this game and met

with the team after to introduce them to the varsity

players and invite them to a 3 on 3 tournament as well

as encourage them in their BBall playing and invite them

to continue to play in the 8th grade and high school level.

Who knows Aaron has been heard to say Maybe he

likes basketball better than football, but after the end

of football season he had been heard saying " I don't' want

football to end". So who knows, we will just have to

follow this young mans sports career.