Spider's Web

"So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:

Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web."

Job 8:13-14

"The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces."

Proverbs 30:28

Father's Day at the Lake

This last Father's Day, we went to Lake Erie after Church.

We really enjoy living so close to the Lake!

Here are a lot of pictures!

Four of my beautiful sisters (in age order!) 

 Simeon and the twins like to be "thrown" into the water. (I just pretend to throw them.)

Simeon is almost too big to do it anymore.

Everyone except Anna.

By the way, Anna took the pictures with me in them. 

Jump. Mercy! 

 They were loading/unloading a ship in the harbor.

 Run boys, run!

 Anna with our "baby" sisters.

She is working on 11th grade and they are starting 1st!

This summer has been crazy!

With the store, gardening, cooking at camp for 7 weeks, a trip to Texas, starting a new job as an opener in my Aunt's bakery/restaurant, and trying to keep up with normal life stuff, I have kept busy.

Click here to listen to my new favorite song (for now!).

I have a lot of pictures from the last year that I haven't even put on my computer because I have run out of room. I am saving for a second external hard drive to keep my pictures on to free up space on my computer so that it isn't so slow and I can actually do things on it. :)

Well, farewell till next time (whenever that may be)!

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27:1

Houston Sunrise

I took this as I was flying into Houston a week and a half ago.

Not the greatest quality, but the best I have.

And this was getting ready to fly out.

 "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."

Psalm 73:25

Twins at Sunset and Sisters

The twins running through the covered bridge on our road. 

My two adorable nieces.

Introducing...

Tonight, my 5 year old sister informed someone that I have 4 Facebooks.

She was right, just not what most people think of when they hear facebook. :)

SGI Session 3

Message by D. H.

 "12But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; 13So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; 14And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: 16The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: 17But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. 18What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."

Philippians 1:12-18

How Should I Respond to Difficulties?

Paul said that his imprisonment was for the furtherance of the Gospel.

Romans 8:28

God uses all things to transform us into the image of His Son.

One of the missing elements in our evangelism is faith. Our faith that they will come to faith.

How are my difficulties going to advance the Gospel?

God wants them to advance the Gospel.

Even if it is something we do not see on this earth.

We have to stop living for ourselves.

The Gospel needs to interpret everything in my life.

As I was reading verse 14 today, it "struck me" that God used Paul's bonds to encourage other believers to spread the Gospel. I don't think I ever really "saw" that before. 

The Bible never gets old, there are so many things in it that I have never learned/understood.

So, how will I respond/do I respond to difficulties?

Click here to see the audio from the Conference.

SGI Session 2

More notes!

Message by

J. F.*

He started out in Genesis 3:15-

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

The woman's offspring will ultimately destroy the Serpent.

The rest of Scripture flows from this statement.

This offspring will have kingly authority throughout all the world.

From this point and time, all mankind can be classified in one of 2 categories- offspring of the Serpent, or offspring of the woman.

It is a spiritual offspring (no, there are not human serpents :) ) 

The Serpent and his seed is in opposition to the woman's seed.

Examples- Exodus 1, Saul (trying to destroy David 2), Athaliah (2 Kings 11:1-2), Matthew 2:1-23, Pharisses.

Isaiah 53- It was the Lord's will.

Since Satan did not succeed in destroying Jesus, and he is approaching his end, he wants to destroy Christ's followers.

He will oppose us, Jesus' servants, both externally, and internally through unbelief.

When you face opposition (as a Christian), you can be pretty sure God is with you.

This does not mean we must always stay and face the opposition, there are times God uses this to move us and spread His Word. (Acts)

We must remember that God is sovereign.

We are in a war, we must expect opposition.

We are certain of the outcome. "the zeal of the LORD will accomplish this." (Isaiah 9:7, 37:32)

Jesus ministry was not what the world would call successful, but if He hadn't done it, there would be no point to our Christian lives. He was making the way for all who follow Him.

"If my ministry is only to gather the materials and another to build the house, my joy will not be less."

William Carey (paraphrase)

I hope these notes will be an encouragement to you.

When they upload the notes and audio, I will try to post a link.

*Some of the people there have asked to not have their names published, and I can't remember which ones, so I am going to just initials for all of the names except Pastor Doran's.

SGI National Conference 2014

On January 2 and 3, Esther and I went to the Student Global Impact Conference in Allen Park, MI.
It was very encouraging, yet very convicting.
It is 2 days packed full of workshops and general sessions, and so it is kind of an overload of information.
So how can I remember the highlights and get more out of it?
I decided to try and post at least a little bit about each session.
So here goes!

General Session 1

To Be In the World, Not of It
Pastor Doran
(with some of my thoughts)
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
The choices Paul made were for the sake of the Gospel. v23
His purpose was to be a fellow partaker in the Gospel. v23
If I can be satisfied in an idolatrous* context, then there is something seriously wrong with my spiritual life.
If we do all things for the Gospel (for Christ), it will control our relationships, our actions, our life. Our relationships, actions, and life will not control the Gospel.
I can not join people in sin to try to win them, because then I would be just like them and they would see no need for the Gospel.
We need to have Gospel-centered flexibility, but we are not to assimilate to the world because we are under the law of Christ and we must be careful to guard against idolatrous entanglement.
Just because we are under grace does not mean we can do anything, because we are under Christ. He is our Master, we must obey Him.
This does not mean we will not fail, oh, how many time I have failed! But with God's help, we rise.


Lord, help me to live my life for You, for the sake of the Gospel!


"For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you."
1 Corinthians 9:19-23


*Idolitry is worshiping anything that is not the one true God