Camp and More....

Hello everyone! We got another camera and finally found time to share some of the last month with you.

The main event was camp! Aaron was the director, so between preparation and the actual week, it kept us pretty busy.

Some of these pictures are out of order, but above is Esther at camp giving Daddy a big smile :)

Miriam and Julie graciously came along as much-needed counselors - this is Miriam in the dining hall, which was below the chapel.

Esther playing carpet ball at camp - but I had to take her out pretty quickly because she kept wanting to eat the bug-and-germ-covered balls.

This is Esther at my parents enjoying the toy shelf! She's becoming more mobile everyday and keeps us busy keeping an eye on her. She's also learned to wave :) and is getting her top two teeth.

I love this picture! Esther with a happened-to-match teddy bear from her O. grandparents. Oh, and that's not a scrape on her forehead - she just woke up from sleeping face down.

This is all the way back from 4th of July (or around there) - Esther is trying out a slice of cucumber - she's getting better at eating, although I'm not sure who's really the one learning how this works...her or me!

Baby, mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother - four generations of daughters!

Morning devotions at the waterfront at camp - Aaron did a great job as the director! There were 83 kids who attended and over 20 made a profession of salvation - including three from our church that we'd been praying for! It was in central MN, the weather was great, and I think everyone had a good time.

This was a new addition called "Gaga Ball" - I never did figure out exactly how to play it....You can see the chapel in the background.

A couple people from our church came along and one of them helped out with the fishing. I guess they caught tons of panfish - I think that's what they were - but threw them back.

Aaron and I taught the 3-6th grade campers. The theme was "Heros of the Faith" from Hebrews 11, so he did Abraham, Isaac/Jacob, Moses, and Jesus Christ. I helped out with some of the songs, teaching verses, and a missionary story. Aaron did the Bible lessons and songs and a lot of review. Hopefully they all learned a lot because we went through a lot of information!

Due to rain the first day, our games got a little messed up and we ended up doing skits/charades on the last night. It worked out really well actually - this is Miriam's cabin acting out the Christmas story. Miriam said she's been in a lot of programs and done a lot of roles, but this was her first time being Joseph!

Every night there was a campfire service and different pastors spoke - this is Aaron on the last night.

We stopped at Arby's (Aaron's favorite....) on the way home - it seemed strangely quiet and peaceful without any campers around :)

Guess what was waiting for us the next morning?! The cucumbers that were small when we left were big enough that waiting 'till Monday wasn't an option.

Aaron helped me and we ended up with 16 quarts...good thing too...I've been eating more pickles than usual these days :)

Speaking of the baby-to-come, I had my first prenatal today and thankfully, everything seems to be fine and normal.

I had let Esther be in her stroller unstrapped for just a moment as I was checking something and turned around and found her standing up! I guess that's why they say to keep them strapped in!

The garden - we didn't do a very good job weeding this summer, but things seem to be growing and we've been eating stir-frys and salads and freezing beans, so we're thankful to the Lord for the continual miracle of seeds growing into food!

I'll close with some big news - we're moving to TN! The end of this month - middle part of the state - Aaron has been asked to pastor a church down there - town of about 15,000 or so - we haven't found a house yet, but we're looking - so, it'll be a big change, and we'll miss MN a lot, but I'm sure the Lord has new things planned for us! And I'll try to post on the blog more often!

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Hello! I think I say this every post, but we've been very busy the last few weeks...In July we took some of the Sunday school kids fishing off the docks in Warroad - we didn't catch any fish, but I think the ice cream afterwards made up for it :)

Aaron and I went to help out at the Good News Tent at the fair one evening - it was very slow, but we got to help a little. I told the Evangecube, instead of the wordless book, to children who had been there a couple years in a row.

We've had a couple days already of freezing beans and peas - and on Thursday we tried making pickles - we'll find out in a few weeks if we did it right!

Saturday, July 31, we left for Camp JIM, near Baxter, MN - On Sunday the campers arrived (about 78 - including 3rd graders through high school) and we had a great week.

Aaron was the "camp pastor" so he kept very busy - he preached Sunday night and Friday morning to everyone, then the other days, he did children's chapel at 9, went right to preach to the teens after that, and in the afternoon he did a Bible study for the teens and one for the children. Plus he did cabin devotions a couple nights...

The above picture is during children's chapel - Aaron taught for a little bit, and also told a Bible story. I helped with playing piano, teaching a verse, and doing a review game.

This is during children's Bible study - Our theme for the week was the "armor of God" and they had the same emphasis each day during chapel, Bible study, and devotions, so hopefully they'll remember what they learned - I know I learned some things!

This is the chapel building (they have chapel in the morning because it gets very warm in here in the evening...) and below it is the dining hall.

The first few days of camp it seemed like the campers, particularly the teens, were very unresponsive to the preaching and spiritual things, but the Lord worked, and by the end of the week about 18 boys and girls accepted Jesus as their Savior! and many others gave their lives to Christ. It was pretty exciting!

I got to pray with one little boy - he was crying - and in all the years I've worked with children, I've never seen that. Aaron got to lead several children to the Lord and we also were able to talk to half-a-dozen teens or kids that had some questions about eternal security and other things like that.

This was the outside of our cabin -

We were very spoiled - you know how camp normally is, well, they let us stay in a brand new cabin that looked more like a hotel than camp!

The last morning, they had a baptism for a few of the children who had been saved.

We had to pull this big trailer to Badger on Friday afternoon, so we borrowed this big desiel truck for the week - it was kind of fun :)