Ladies gathered for tea…what better place to come and relax. Fall leaves and oil lamps and flickering candlelight…the perfect place to share our hearts surrounding our theme…Trusting in Jesus.  We felt God moving us to begin to focus more directly on passages of scripture when our friends gathered and last Friday evening, with seventeen of our Polish friends with us, we explored what “Trusting Jesus” is in the story of Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14. Did you know the salvation story is right there? It was an exciting discovery for me. And this is what I gleaned…

1.       Invitation—Jesus said to Peter, “Come!”

God longs for us to trust Him…so He invites us to come to Him through Christ.

2.       Choice—Peter chose to get out of the boat

God longs for us to trust Him…so He gives us a choice through Christ

3.       Doubt—Satan brought fears to his mind.

God longs for us to trust Him…so God offers us His power through Christ.

4.       Realization and Salvation—Peter called out to Jesus

God longs for us to trust Him…so He wants us to admit our need of salvation through Christ.

5.       Belief and Trust—Peter believed in Jesus

God longs for us to trust Him…so we will acknowledge our sins and come to Him through Christ.

6.       Worship—the disciples said, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

God longs for us to trust Him…so we can know who God is through Christ.

Isn’t that beautiful? We really felt God’s spirit among us and were thankful that we didn’t let fear of men overwhelm us at the last moment. One lady said…”I know the story of Peter. It is well-known in Poland but I never realized it could apply to my life today.” Praise God for His faithfulness. Baked apples, barbequed sausage tidbits, cheese and crackers, and cakes crowned the evening making it a special memory for all of us.

• spending a long weekend in GA with Sam, cousin Bonnie, and family, pontooning, hiking, losing watches and retainers and watching God answer our prayers for recovery of those and just hanging out.
• an unplanned "date" that John and I took to Helen, GA. Strange how God gives you the things you need. Bonnie's son lost his retainer while we were traveling through Helen, GA, an hour and one half drive from Bonnie's house. Sam called the next morning and to make a long story short they had found the retainer out on the sidewalk when they closed up the day before. All of us, including Sam and Bonnie and family were preparing to leave early the next morning for our trip to VA. Noone had time to make the trip, but we felt sure someone should go get it. Finally, Sam asked John if he would go and John said we would make a date of it. It was a nice three-hour date that we needed. Thanks to the lost retainer.
• getting blessed with dresses for Alli and myself all sewn and ready for our trip.
• meeting up with friends and family while in GA that we hadn't seen for years including Cheryl (Mast) Yoder, Kathryn (Bender) Garbutt, and Dorcas (Kropf)Stutzman. For some reason all of them have aged just as much as we have.
• spending a fun weekend in South Boston, VA with old friends there, visiting, shopping with Mildred, Crys, and Marie and the hilarious day we had forgetting to bless our food at the Bagel restaurant and Marie forgetting to pay for her ice cream sundae at Cold Stone Creamery, eating Mexican with Joe and Crys, a recital for the children, getting lost on the way to Ronnie Roysters and arriving an hour late, and getting in on some of their Bible School.
• Talking to Norv and Jewel Yoder on the phone in Puerto Rico and hearing their hearts about mission work there.
• The fun overnight stay in Harrisonburg that included hearing the "Music Camp Chamber Choir" in which Joel and Gina were singing, eating supper with Uncle Paul, Aunt June, and Cousin Carmen and son Caleb, spending the night with Su and Cal.
• seeing former vsers, Hope Singers, and cousin Tim and family and other friends at our various presentations.
• Staying overnight with Maria Zimmerman's family in Lancaster, PA, whom we had never met, but discovered they are a wonderful family with big hearts. A story that showed God's care to us. We have experienced things like this over and over again: Warren Zimmerman's generously had a vehicle driven down to Harrisonburg, VA for us to drive to their place in Lancaster. That was a big gift in itself since most of our travel had been with other people and we needed some family time. We got into the van the first time and John said, "Oh, the gas tank is empty. Looks like we will have to find some money somewhere to fill it up." The next morning, as he was packing up for our trip to PA, he found an envelope, with a welcoming letter from the Zimmermans, maps so we could find our way, AND cash to cover the fuel. Thank you, Lord! We felt humbled again at His provision.
• Our wonderful time at Faith Builders and the many memories made there. Melvin Lehman's graciously opened their home to us and it was used as our hotel for the week. We had a great time connecting with them again although it felt like we didn't reach around. One souveniour from there was Derek's broken arm. We were with friends for supper. The boys were playing out on a tire swing. They were swinging up high and hanging from the bottom of it with their hands. Derek swung out and then as he was getting up high, his hands slipped and he fell, probably about 6-7 feet and landed on his right arm and left hand. We knew right away that it was hurt, but we didn't know how bad. Finally, that evening yet, we decided to take him to Urgent Care and get it x-rayed. Yes, it was broken. They sent us to an orthropedic doctor the next day to get it casted all the way from his wrist to above his elbow. He was very sad about it because he wouldn't be able to do much this summer--work, swim, and play basketball, etc, but he's being a real champion about it all and adapting quite well. He played whiffle ball the first evening he had a cast and king's base the next evening. It was very painful for him. It was a buckle break (compressed). Both of the bones were broken so it means 6 weeks in a cast. His victory day will be August 6. At least he will have a few weeks free before we go back to Poland!
• Spending time with Kevin and Brenda Birky, and Nelson and Ashley Bear as well as staying with Allen and Brenda Troyer. The boys went flying with Kevin one day and the next day we got treated to "the Creamery" for lunch and ice cream. Yummy!
• Our short coffee break with Lloyd and Mary Kauffman at Panera Bread eating Cobblestone Cake and enjoying the free refills on our coffee. What a wonderful two and a half hours of encouragement and blessing.
• The many boasts we had of encouragement, of prayer, of advice, of sharing together with friends at each stop. We really feel God gave us these moments of blessings to recharge us for Poland.
• the big yellow school bus that picked us up at the airport and our surprise to walk out of the terminal to find most of my family waiting even though it was nearly midnight! We all piled in the bus and went home. Raymond blinked his lights and pulled in to the bagggage claim area just like he was picking up some important guests. A lady sitting on the sidewalk asked, "How many more stops do you have to make yet tonight?" (Remember it was almost midnight!) We laughed until we cried. (Could it have had anything to do with the lateness of the hour?)
• just crashing in our little apartment and wondering if we will ever replenish our energy before the summer is over.
• God's provision of summer work for everyone. That has been keeping us hopping, but it has been so fulfilling for the boys and good for all of us to be on a bit of a schedule. It gets us going in the morning and keeps us going all day.
• spending time with family and anticipating more on both sides of the family. We haven't had much yet, with all the harvest going on, but August should be full of lots of family times.
• celebrating Alli's 10th birthday in GA and Austin's 15th birthday in OR
• ...and I know I'm not thinking of all the great moments. We decided to enjoy each moment to the full. We feel badly that we weren't able to spend as much time with some of you as we wished, but we did the best we could. Maybe that means you should come see us in Poland if you want to have uninterrupted time. :)

Each, in thier own unique way, made me feel blessed of God on Mother's Day!

Conrad, with his meal certificate, entitled me to a FULL day with no meals to make! Awww! Bliss!

Austin built me a "toaster" table for my kitchen out of an old weathered shutter he found on the junk pile.

Derek made me a treasure box complete with woodburning on each side, and a pretty rock to open it.

Allison did a beautiful framed needle work, proclaiming, "I Love You, Mom."

And I feel blessed and loved today.