Category Archives: trip

And We’re Off

Well, I didn’t give you any warning, but we are currently on the road again. Our three-week trip started in Illinois and will conclude in Alabama…and of course, we will be going home to Minnesota.

Last weekend we were at Lombard Gospel Chapel, our sending church, to give an update on our work. Saturday night was Missionary Study Class, so Dad gave an update to the adults while the rest of us shared with the children about one aspect of our ministry, kids club on the reservation.

showing the kids a pictures

singing

Sunday we were excited to fellowship again at Lombard, seeing so many people that we haven’t seen in almost two years. At Awana it was missionary night so we had fun teaching the kids to sing “Oh How I Love Jesus” in the Cree language. We also did a little skit about a Native man whose life was transformed by Jesus, and the boys sang.

happy to see friends

our skit…”Joe” being arrested

singing “I Would”

Our friends (more like family) the Carricks are always so hospitable in opening their home to us. We also enjoyed visiting with other friends.

jamming with friends after dinner

Wednesday we went to Believer’s Bible Chapel in Rockford to give an update and sing there. It was nice to see friends again and get to know some of them a little more. Saturday we skipped over to Wisconsin to visit some friends and fellowship at a chapel there. We are currently staying with a couple from the Rockford chapel. They were planning to host us just Wednesday night, but Dad’s grandmother ended up in a nearby hospital and this morning passed away, so we are staying in the area longer than planned. We are so grateful for their graciousness and willingness…and wonderful breakfasts they have made!

our wonderful Rockford hosts

Mom has some family down here so we were able to visit with some of them this week. It was nice to see them all again and also meet some cousins from her side of the family.

Mom and family

And on Dad’s side of the family, we have a brand new cousin we have been able to see! Such a beautiful sweetie!

adorable

This week is the funeral for Dad’s grandma, so we would appreciate prayer for unsaved who will hear the gospel. Last week we had no idea this was going to happen while we were down here, but God obviously has a reason. Next week we will be in Alabama ministering with We Care prison ministry. Please keep us in your prayers. Specific requests:

that we would be prepared spiritually and musically
hearts of the inmates and guards to be softened to the gospel
Jesus Christ would be glorified and Satan would have no power during this ministry
we would pour ourselves out for Jesus
that God would do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think (Eph. 4:20)

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Tahlequah

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I’m starting this post off with an apology for not doing a better job with keeping our blog up to date. Some of you may be waiting to see the last part of our trip…and while we don’t have quite as many pictures from our second weekend in Oklahoma, here’s a little taste of it.

So a quick retracing of our footsteps so far…the first weekend of our trip was in the area of Ada, Oklahoma, where we sang a couple times at Blue Baptist Church; the next week was spent in San Antonio, Texas, where Dad did some recording for The Storyteller and our van was stolen and, miraculously, found (go back and read the story if you haven’t already!); that weekend we drove back to Oklahoma, which brings us to this part of the story.

Tahlequah, Oklahoma. We arrived on Friday at our friends the French’s house, where we would be staying for the next week.

Here you are supposed to imagine pictures of our concert.

Sometimes afterward we let any children who want to come up and play the instruments. It’s fun watching some of them, many of whom have never played anything like a banjo before. (Actually, it’s also fun for the adults who can’t help themselves either.)The church was holding a revival, which Dad preached for and we sang. It was nice to meet other brothers and sisters in Christ and to see some again whom we had met last year at the camp in South Dakota.Revival…we like to think of that as something that sweeps across a church, or multiple churches, or a nation…and God can do that. But what about ourselves? Revival begins with individuals who are humble and broken before their Creator. If you are praying for revival, remember the words of Isaiah 57:15– “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'”

After the revival was over, we settled in a little more at the French’s house. It would be a few more days before we left because there were some testimonies for Dad to record, and he had to drive back to San Antonio to get our van!

Dad always enjoys meeting Native believers and recording their testimonies. In Tahlequah he was able to record three men who are following Jesus Christ.

Mr. Holcomb (right) and Mr. French (left), who led him to the Lord

Mr. and Mrs. French were so hospitable, making us tasty meals and providing us beds, fellowship, and many laughs! Some of our family especially enjoyed the two-wheeled vehicles…Some of us girls enjoyed being enthusiastically given rides, and Abby and the boys had too much fun on the moped.

On Monday, Dad and Daniel drove down to San Antonio to get our van back from the shop it was being fixed at. That was a long two days of driving round trip! The night they were down there Dad made use of the opportunity to do some more recording for The Storyteller.

Jonathan was lonely for his brother, but found a job to keep him occupied for a while.

scraping paint…

…and blowing it away (the fun part!)

The morning we left, Mrs. French made us homemade biscuits and gravy. And bacon. We had such a good time with them while we were there. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. French!

loading our van, in the rain

We drove to Missouri to spend the night with our good friends the Fesslers, who not only put us up but made a feast for dinner and breakfast. It was so good to see them again. (We love you!)

Upon arriving home we were greeted by something we were expecting but at a larger degree than we had imagined. A broken window. And glass. Everywhere.

dining room window

Our neighbor who was watching the house for us saw that our window had, as you can see, a hole it in. We called our friend and co-laborer Tom and he came and boarded up the window for us. In the process he saw the culprit: a dead grouse under our dining room table. Thankfully our neighbor came and took care of that for us!

Imagine if we had been home…and the boys had been sitting at the table doing their schoolwork…We are so thankful God allowed it to happen while we were gone! Glass was everywhere, and had gone farther into the house than we would have expected. It took a while to get it all cleaned up.We can so clearly see God’s hand in various ways on this trip. Thank you for all your prayers and for everyone who was a part of this story, both on the road and here at home.

Now we are wishing you a (late) Merry Christmas…because of Christ!

Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? Psalm 113:5-6

San Antonio

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Ah, Texas! You know, it takes a long time to drive from Oklahoma to San Antonio. Dad had some recording to do in San Antonio for The Storyteller, so we all headed down to the big state for a few days. We were all glad that it had worked out for us to go…Daddy and I have been here before, but for the rest of the family this was new…but to all of us it was exciting.The night we got there some of us decided to go swimming. It was strange…the sky was dark, the air was warm, and the water was warmer. Not something Minnesotans are generally used to.

Chick-fil-a for a poolside supper!

We made good use of the swimming pool each day! There we were, swimming and sitting by the pool in 90+ degree weather in the morning, knowing that back home it was in the low 50’s! Yes, we were definitely enjoying it.

Our second full day in San Antonio was our touring day. We were going to the Alamo and the Riverwalk…and looking forward to being able to do that as a whole family. It’s hard to get a whole-family picture though, when someone from your family has to take the picture.After we toured the Alamo, we walked to the convention center where Daddy and I went to the Christian Film Academy last year. It brought back so many memories to be in the room and show our family where that exciting event happened!

anticipating the Riverwalk

From the convention center it was off to the Riverwalk! The scenery was so beautiful, and we have so many pictures that I would love to share, but here’s a few of our lovely afternoon.

so beautiful

“Look…

…ducks!”

We stopped at some shops along the Riverwalk, and one in particular had something a little intriguing.

the lid says, “Caution–open slow”

looking closely…having trouble

can you see them?

river theater

buddies, catching some shade

It was such a nice, laid-back afternoon together.Dad had done some recording for The Storyteller with a man named Soapy Dollar on the first day, and the last night we were there he went back to the radio station and did dome more.

The next morning we packed up to leave, and a few of us took our loaded luggage carts downstairs to pack the van. A few minutes later they returned with the full carts and an announcement that our van had been stolen.

We had to be in Oklahoma the next night to sing. We had to check out of the hotel in a few hours. We only knew one person in the whole city of San Antonio. What can you do in a situation like this?

We prayed. And we asked others to pray.

The police officer who took the report said that we would probably never see our van again, that it was probably in Mexico by now. When a police officer tells you that…well, from a human standpoint there was no hope.

We started thinking of all our belongings that were in the van. Dad’s recording equipment. Our cable bag. A speaker and microphone. Our box of CD’s. Our dress clothes and baseball gloves, some shoes and sweaters, all our other “stuff” …things kept coming to mind. But Dad had transferred the recording he did onto his computer, which he still had.

Well Dad called around and was trying to make arrangements for a vehicle (or two) to get us to Oklahoma in time for the next day. Meanwhile, Soapy Dollar so kindly and graciously came and picked us up from the hotel. We squished all of us and our luggage into his car.

waiting outside the hotel

not the first time we’ve crammed!

Mr. Dollar brought us to a rental house he owns to drop our belongings off there, and then he took us out for lunch. Meanwhile people all over were praying about our situation. We were almost done eating when Dad got a phone call from the police, saying they had found our van in an alley! Wait, it was supposed to be in Mexico, wasn’t it? Evidently not in God’s story!

Dad and Mr. Dollar went to get the van, and sure enough, there it was, still running. Some damage had been done to it but Dad was able to drive it to a gas station and then a shop to get it repaired. The officer who had been with the van was a believer, and he said it was like something had scared the thieves away from the van. Well, there were many people praying…I wonder if that had anything to do with it. (smile)

Mr. Dollar and the officer

We ended up renting two mini vans to take us back to Oklahoma. It was around six o’clock when we left San Antonio. We had a long drive ahead of us.

the mini vans

What a day it had been! In one looong day:

Our van had been stolen

We were able to check out of the hotel in time because our friend came to help us

God provided two very nice mini vans to carry us to our next destination

We experienced a new restaurant

Our van had been found

We became familiar with the local Target while Dad and Mr. Dollar were gone for several hours getting the van situation taken care of

We got free samples from the coffee shop in Target

Just because He can, God allowed all our stuff in the van to stay untouched

God grew our faithAnd He kept us safe on our long night drive through Texas and Oklahoma. It was a long night. Eight hours after we left San Antonio, we arrived at our friends’ house in OK.

a.m.

Does God hear us when we pray? Is He big enough to do something about it?

If you don’t think so, read this story again.