Moving on Up! (North)

Big things are going to be happening! The Toledo Baptist Temple has closed on 32 acres of property that is 3 miles directly north of its current location. Depending on when the TBT building sells, we plan to begin construction on this piece of land located in Lambertville, MI. It is an amazing property that we were blessed to get at an unbelievable price, and we hope to use it to effectively reach the people in the surrounding area.

The red border shows TBT's current property, with the church on the left side. Towards the right of the border is a back building that Head Start has rented from us for several years now, so in actuality, we've only been using about half of this area.

Using the same scale, here is a shot of the newly acquired land, which goes from Douglas Road on the right all the way to the left edge of the photo. Part of the property will be protected wetlands, as there is a sometimes dry creek that runs through it. Plans are to use the space for community outreach and make it available for people to use it for walking trails, recreation, possible skateboard park, etc. We've already met several teens who have been using the area for ATV riding. Towards the west edge of the property, you can see that the trees sort of form a natural ampitheater . . .we hope to make that useful!

Our church is excited and ready for the move! Directions study groups and FLOCS ministries are going full force as we shift to a new era. Our Harvestfest in October is going to serve as a grand kickoff for the new land. There are some pretty huge developments regarding that, I'll be able to share them very shortly!

Remembering

http://www.imremembering.com/

I can't stop looking at this website. It has probably 70-100 pages, and one evening not too long ago, I viewed every single one! Toys from my childhood, long-forgotten favorite foods, and 80's memories in general -how could I not love it?

Three items stood out in particular and were a huge part of my pre-school days:

I taught myself how to read on this Fisher-Price desk. I remember sitting on the floor in front of my closet, tracing the letters on the chalkboard, placing the magnet letters in the slots, and trying to sound out of the word "bath".


Maybe the time spent on this toy helped contribute to my current accounting/financial background.

The Fisher-Price medical kit! I think I lost the pill bottle early on, because I don't remember it, but the stethoscope worked surprisingly well and the blood pressure thingy was fun to spin round and round. The medical kits are still sold today, but they just don't appear nearly as cool. Now get off my lawn. Not an earth-shattering post, but I've had fun revisiting slices of my childhood. What are some of your favorite toys?

I'll try to do better with my blog updates, I've even had TWO whole requests for me to get back at it. I'm currently mad at my camera, which has been casting dark shadows on my pics lately, so we'll see what I can do.

My 8-year old son, Connor, wrote a book for me for Mother's Day. It's always eye-opening to see what perspective your child holds of you and his book pretty much reveals it.

My Mom's name is Kim. She likes to wear makeup mostly every day.
She works at Ronald McDonald House. She works on the computer.
When she doesn't have work to do, she likes to get e-mail.
Just for fun, sometimes we like to go shopping together. I love my mom.
One thing my mom does not like is cats because she's allergic. I wish she wasn't.
I can make my mom happy when I clean for her. I don't like cleaning though.
The best thing my mom cooks is spaghetti. I love my mom and spaghetti.
She's really good at cooking too. I love her cooking. (picture of him saying "Yay! Macaroni!)
My mom taught me how to talk. Now I can talk really good!
I think my mom wishes for a beautiful garden. And I think my family will build one.
I know my mom loves me because she took me to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". I liked that movie.
Mom knows I love her because I make her laugh. That's why she loves me and I love her.

Team Croatia Missions Trip - Day 7

(I'm determined to finish blogging about this trip before I return to my regular blogging.)

Day 7 - Sunday

We went to the Sunday morning service in Verazdin, where the other missionary works. The sky was bright and blue that day . . .



This house was across the street from the church. It was the largest house in the country I saw the whole time we were there. It also had a uniquely modern look, and lacked the terra cotta roof that almost all the other buildings had.

A crown of thorns was on their fence . . .interesting.

Bethany, Lizzie, Nichole, Hannah, Elvira, Lacey, and Melissa

Elvira and Brett wait for the service to start.

I wonder if I'll ever get to see Elvira again . . .I've mailed her a couple letters, but it's hard to know if they definitely reach her or not. Later that week, she told us that she had informed her mother that she wanted to visit the States when she's 20. . .hopefully, we can help arrange that.

After the service on Sunday night, we enjoyed the cool evening and goofed around with the kids. They loved to ham it up for the camera.

Especially the boys . . .

Melissa and I smile with one of the girls, I forget her name. Elvira's mother is in the background to my left.

By this time, i was missing my own kids like crazy, and it was Cole's 4th birthday that day, so it was good to hang on to Elvira and take her in as one of my own.

Later, we headed to the downtown square and ordered pizza at the local cafe. We were so hungry for "American" food by this time, we could hardly stand it. Normally, our group couldn't fit into the van, but we didn't want to take two trips, so four of us crammed in the back of the van, between the back seat and the doors, crouched in the small space. Yeah, after I snapped this picture, I jumped in there with them, and they shut the door on us.
Around midnight, we got on skype and had a conference call back to our home church during the evening service. We got to share with them our experiences for the week. It was so good to hear from familiar voices even though we had only been gone for 7 days.

We had it arranged for several of us to answer questions from those back home. Right when it was my turn, the person who asked the question was Baylea. It caught me off guard, and I had to choke back some tears as I answered her . . .it was so good to hear her voice and I missed her and my other babies so much.