A Singing Birthday

Saturday, October 13, Mark celebrated his birthday. After a hearty country breakfast, we were surprised with a birthday visit from Jack. After singing for a while and enjoying each other's company, it was time for dinner (the country word for lunch), and we all sat down to a hurried meal. We had to leave as soon as dinner was over in order to reach Toledo Christian church for our evening's singing engagement. Our meal was finished off by Mark's annual favorite Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake- a recipe that his grandmother and mother always used to prepare. We all cleared the table and prepared ourselves for the north bound trip.

Reaching our destination, we arrived at Toledo Christian church where they were hosting an area women's banquet. The meal was delicious and the company was great as we visited with Bill and Bonnie.

The ladies were a wonderful audience and we were blessed by the smiling faces in the crowd.

Christopher Christian church Homecoming

October seems be Homecoming time for many churches and Christopher Christian church was no exception as they celebrated their 116th Homecoming anniversary. Darren Perryman, the day’s speaker, challenged us with a message about Abraham's covenant with God- and how this applied to us today as Christians.

We were scheduled to be the homecoming entertainment, so after the service was over, we presented around thirty minutes of a capella as well as accompanied music for the congregation. They were a superb audience! Our prayer is that the Lord was praised through our voices and that the congregation was brought closer to Him.

As Providence Prairie's Autumn Homeschool Family Pioneer Prairie-fest draws near, we are all staying busy working and preparing for the much anticipated day! For more details about the event, visit : http://www.providenceprairie.com/events.html

October 27th will be here before we know it ~Busy, Busy, Busy!

The Midget Singer

Sunday evening, being a fifth Sunday we gathered with other area Christian churches at Enfield Christian church for the Fifth Sunday Rally. We had met Lowell Mason about a year ago when we were visiting Elton and Edna in Indiana, although we had never heard him sing. So with much anticipation, we arrived ready to be blessed by this big fellow packed into a 46 inch body.

After enjoying a delicious meal before the service, we headed upstairs and joined in a congregational song, "What a Mighty God we Serve." With the highest visiting attendance Dale CC came home with the trophy!

Soon afterward our singer walked onto the stage, and Lowell turned our hearts to the Lord with his strong baritone voice. He explained about the work he and his wife are doing in Russia, sharing a moving video about all that is being done. If you would like to see their work and his ministry, you can find that here.

We visited with him afterward and he remembered the evening we met at Elton's. We enjoyed the night worshiping and praising God with those of like precious faith!

Let's Sing!

This morning, we arrived at the Carmi High School and were kindly escorted to the choir classroom by members of the "Singing Six," a select chorale of young ladies we had previously heard at a recent area family fellowship.

After brief introductions, our family proceeded to sing a variety of patriotic, barbershop, spiritual, gospel, and even a few Christmas songs. We had been asked by the teacher, Mrs. Hyla Lamp to sing for the group of 47 students as they were learning a few a capella numbers. Since we enjoy singing a capella music, she thought it would be appropriate for our family to share some of our music with her class, as well as a little history of ourselves and our adventures in singing.

They were a very gracious and attentive class and laughed and participated in what we offered. We did some "doo-wop" improvisational music that everyone was able to join in, picking out harmonic parts as well as vocal percussion. What fun!

We were encouraged to hear one of the spiritual songs that they are working on. Keep up the great work guys! It sounds wonderful! A capella can be such fun!

Fall Family Camp 2007

What a wonderful weekend full of worship, fun, and fellowship. Family Camp is a growing event at Dale Christian church. We had the largest attendance yet this year, with around five families staying to camp and many more who attended the numerous activities.

Saturday evening began with a workshop led by Chris that strengthened our hearts. He did an excellent job of teaching on the importance of fellowship within the church body.

The next activity was the yearly apple bobbing tournament. Amanda was last year's reigning champion. She watched and waited until the rest of the bobbers were narrowed down one by one. The judges had a difficult time deciding who to eliminate as both old and young alike took their places at the washtub filled with swirling apples.

After one by one were set down, the competition became one of sister against sister! Amanda and Rachel were to fight the battle- best two out of three.

. . . And our champion is. . . .

. . . Amanda!

While the bobbing went on, the fire had burned down to coals, making it perfect to roast our hot dogs.

Following supper, we started our annual marshmallow stuffing contest.



One by one, marshmallows are stuffed into the contestant's mouth until they can hold no more! Jerry, last year's reigning champion, was defeated this year by William who used an unusual stuffing method which turned him into a sticky mess!

After we cleaned our faces, it was time to re-focus for the campfire devotion and singing, followed by campfire stories.After a good night's sleep, we began the morning with a Prayer Walk. It was a spiritually uplifting time.

Our morning worship time was followed by dinner and fellowship. An exciting treasure hunt was soon to follow. Two ladies from the past visited us as we helped them find their great-great grandpapa's hidden treasure.

They reminded us that our real treasure is the found in the Word of God.

Bill planned the games that followed. They were such fun!

The evening concluded with our quarterly fellowship meal and worship service.

What a wonderful weekend of Family Camp spent with our Christian family!

The Hat-Hungry Equine

Wednesday, Trey's time was well spent bush-hogging our south pasture and around the edges of a couple of fields where electric fence would soon be put up. The field looked beautiful after it was mowed; clean and fresh- kind of like a good haircut. Trey hung his hat on a fence post while he completed the job at hand.

In the meantime, Rachel gathered Sumac berries to make Sumac Lemonade. Buddy, our miniature jack decided he wanted to help pick berries as well!It tasted refreshing to have a "wild" drink as the day was very hot!

Molly and Polly, both standard size jennets, decided that since we were going to have a treat, they wanted one too! Theirs was not a beverage of sorts, but rather a pile of straw sitting atop a fence post! Trey's hat looked like a tasty treat!

They totally destroyed his hat in an attempt to get what nourishment they thought there was in the straw! Donkeys are so funny!

Shannon Hayes Benefit

Sunday morning, we prepared ourselves for our singing engagement that afternoon at Gunion Christian church. It was to be a benefit for Shannon Hayes, the young mother of three children, who is battling cancer. The program included our family as well as the Preacher's Quartet, good Christian friends of ours.

Amanda awoke with her face contorted and swollen due to the honey-bee sting the evening before. Since she ignored the stinger that was lodged in the end of her nose, there was considerable swelling. Just the evening before, she had said that the only thing she DID NOT want to happen was to get stung in the face since we were to sing the next afternoon! She had to laugh at the irony of it all. She was a real trooper, and went to church and then attended the benefit. She had a lot of people praying for her swelling to decrease. Needless to say, she wore her hair somewhat covering the right side of her face (to spare the audience from her contorted appearance.) It was one of those "memorable" days that won't quickly be forgotten.

The Preacher's Quartet did a fantastic job of drawing our hearts near to the Lord.

The attentive audience was very gracious and over $1900 was raised for Shannon and her medical bills!

We are continuing to keep her in our prayers. God is almighty!