All caught up

Wow, have we had a busy month! I can't believe I haven't written anything since the day before Vacation Bible School. VBS went great. We had good participation and even had guests that didn't speak English. It was very encouraging to see people that had never worked in VBS before take on big roles this year.

After VBS ended, our family was going to travel up to Clear Lake, IA for family camp. The night before we were to leave, we had a severe storm come through. It damaged our house, shop, barn, trees, and the girls swing set. We were thankful that we were safe! Our girls left the next morning with my parents and Karen and I stayed home to put things in order. My business partner came over and we shingled the house, fixed the shop roof, hung a new barn door, fixed some horse fencing (the horses went through it in the storm), and hooked up a generator to the house (we had been without power since the storm). All in all we had a good day and were able to leave for family camp just 24 hours behind schedule.

Some of our close friends and neighbors had significantly more damage. Two families had their roofs come off and suffered severe water and wind damage. They are still in the process of hiring repair work to be done. The Lord was gracious though and no one was injured.

We had a great week at family camp. I played a lot of disc golf. I was even able to spend some time with our previous Pastor while there. He was the morning chapel speaker for the week. He and his son are also great disc golfers. They won a tournament in their town the day after family camp was over.

From Clear Lake we headed to Minnesota and visited with my cousin Brian and his family. We also went to a 40th anniversary party for my aunt and uncle. It was great to catch up with extended family before coming back home.

When we got back, I had to work 5 shifts at the fire station, Preach three times and teach ABF on Sunday the 13th, teach on Wed. evening, lead our deacons meeting on the 17th, interview a pastoral candidate the following Saturday, preach on Sunday evening the 20th, teach ABF and lead our 2nd quarter business meeting. My brother and his family are also in town this week so we have been trying to visit with them. In addition, yesterday began our week at fair. The girls have animals there so they need to go to the fairgrounds twice a day for chores as well as the chores they have to do at home for all of their animals here.

To catch you up to date, I have to work 120 hours at the fire station and teach on both Wed evenings between now and next Saturday because we are headed to Colorado for another vacation! I know, we don't deserve it, but thankfully the Lord doesn't give us what we deserve when we know him as Saviour.

Jon