Our week at a glance

Thursday, we had the privilege of taking our three oldest children along with others from our church, up to the George Washington Inn in Port Angeles, WA.  There, we heard 3 lectures from Dr. Peter Lillback, the author of "George Washington's Sacred Fire".  The book, an 843 page piece with 102 pages of appendix and 210 pages of endnotes,  represents about 15 years of study for Dr. Lillback.  Many in our nation today would have us believe that our founding father was a deist rather than a christian.  This book refutes that claim with proof diligently sought out by this historian.  The lectures were encouraging, educational, and inspiring.  It was an intimate group, and ours was the only one with young people.  We brought eight teens ranging in age from 13-19.  This seemed to be very encouraging to the older group that was there, including the author.  He gave them a charge to stand strong for the Christian faith and for faith in our nation.  Dr. Lillback also honored us by signing our books and allowing us the time to ask questions and even to get our pictures taken with him.  This proved to be a fantastic "field trip" for school, though I guarantee that absolutely none of what was spoken would ever be taught in the public schools!!!  I am thankful for this opportunity to learn more about our first President, and am looking forward to reading this book!  We have decided that this will be required reading for each of the high schoolers in our home.

Yesterday, we did some much needed spring cleaning!  The day proved to be quite profitable as we got much accomplished.  We had a little encouragement as our basement kept flooding.  We were trying to figure out where the water was coming from, cleaning out drains and just keeping a watchful eye.  The girls and I started noticing that the floor would be somewhat dry until after a load of laundry was finished.  It appeared that the washing machine was draining all of the water directly onto the basement floor!!!!  That is a lot of water, when you think that each load produces approx. 40-45 GALLONS!!!!!  And all of this was flowing into our basement!!!  Praise the Lord (once again) for willing and capable people who help out!! We had to replace our pump as it had completely burned out.... imagine that, a pump burning out in our home that does anywhere between 4-6 loads a day!!!! ;-)  I am thankful that we can once again do laundry!  We also took a load of garbage to the dump, got our septic pumped, oil in our tank, a large garbage bag ready for Goodwill, and the boys did some yard work.  It feels good to get so much accomplished in a day!!

Today, the older children, with their Daddy, went and met Bro. Dave Hardy for coffee.  He was in the area preaching at a church in Tacoma and called to see if Craig wanted to meet up.  My husband and children were very willing to oblige!! They love their "Grandpa Hardy"!!!  The rest of the day will consist of preparations for the Lord's day, including our International dinner tomorrow evening.  We are making a much loved soup from Belarus, borsht.  I love this soup and am looking forward to the tastiness of it tomorrow!!  The dinner is the wrapping up of a month long missions theme as we commit to giving to missionaries all around the globe for the furtherance of the gospel.  This is always a highlight in our church each year as we love our missionaries!!!  I have mentioned in the past that it is our hope and vision to take each of our children to a foreign mission field sometime after their 13th birthday.  My son, Samuel, is 13 and is hopeful for a trip to India this summer!  My husband has been asked to come and speak for Bro. J.D. Moses once again, and as long as the Lord wills it, it is a possibility.  Craig has had the awesome privilege to go there twice already, preaching to and teaching national pastors and loving on orphans, often coming home from these different countries begging people to pray about adoption!!! Though it breaks our hearts to see these little ones without the love of a mother and father, we are thankful for those who lovingly serve them in orphanages, teaching them the love of Christ.

Well, this pretty much wraps up our week!!  Hope yours was a great week as well!!  May all glory be given to God alone as we seek to honor our Lord with our lives!!!

Emily