Category Archives: summer

Snapshots of Our Summer

The warm season has long come and gone here in Minnesota…but it was wonderful and busy and so instead of skipping out on this post here are a few of the highlights!

At some time or another all five siblings served at camp…never all of us at once, though.

Abby went to New Mexico for a couple of weeks to volunteer at a camp down there. A lot of the scenery in the southwest definitely looks different than Minnesota!

Somewhere in between all of that we were involved with what has become an annual double-VBS week for us…one in the afternoon on the reservation and then helping with one in the evening in town. We are grateful that our home church in Illinois comes each summer to serve in this way! No picture, but you can imagine children smiling and laughing and learning about Jesus.

August brought the Lake Itasca Family Music Festival. Mark your calendars for next year…the first full weekend in August.

Every year we get to sing and share the gospel at our county fair.

We traveled out to South Dakota to sing for a Native evangelism conference.

Our garden is a great place to watch God’s creation and just enjoy the beauty in small things.

Family camp in Iowa was such a great week for us. Getting to hear so many good, challenging messages and spending time with encouraging believers always helps sharpen our perspective and energizes our desire to grow.

One part of summer that changes every single night are the incredible sunsets we get to witness.

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons…” Daniel 2:20-21 NKJV

August

August was a rather full month for us! Here are some of the highlights.

Lake Itasca Family Music Festival…

jamming with friends

Mom runs the snack shack and Dad is the stage manager (photo by Hannah Schoenfelder)

Counseling at Bible Camp…Gospel outreach at the fair…It’s a great place for planting seeds through music, literature and conversations.

We sang at several different church-led outreaches, including one where multiple vehicles driving on the highway behind us thought it was a great idea to honk as they went by (it was amusing, actually)…It’s really neat to see the different ways churches reach out to share the gospel with their communities.

And somewhere along the way we came across free Ferris wheel rides…so why not?

so fun!

Update on September travels coming next!

 

July

An update from our mid summer! Some of the things we were involved in were a couple singing opportunities, helping with a local conference, three of us helping with a conference in Iowa, and counseling at camp. And, of course, we enjoyed watching fireworks. We don’t have pictures from everything but here are a few.

We always enjoy it when we can help with Bright Lights conferences. We traveled to Iowa for this one.

Sara shared a testimony

skits with a point…in which we might have been three of the four girls under those blankets, pretending to be horses

we always love the sweet fellowship

And girls camp at Storybook Lodge!

skits at mealtime

the speakers always presented the gospel so clearly

dress-up night, where we were given fascinators for our hair…

…and had an elegant tea party complete with a chocolate fountain

cabins got more points if the cabin inspector found a Bible verse sign

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Psalm 95:6-7 NJKV