Christmas Eve Service at CCMA

Thanks be to God, we are in our new building! Theron and many others worked for three days, moving and getting things set up so we could have our first service in the new facility tonight. And now the doors are open. Come and worship.

There is no other reason we come together, but to worship our King! None else is worthy of our praise.

The One and Only Son of God, who came into the world as a baby, suffered and died for our sins and reigns in heaven above. It is often hard to imagine the God who created all, coming as One created, offering Himself as one helpless in order to ULTIMATELY HELP (rescue, redeem, purchase) US!

We are weak, but He is strong! He accepts our feeble praise. He clothes us in His Righteousness.

Our spirits, still wrapped in imperfect flesh, yearn to draw near to Him. Our hearts rise with the sound of the stringed instruments.

Our voices too, rise in unison and we are closer to our Creator in worship than at any other time.

Things may not be perfect from our point of view, but I wonder. . . What does God see?

Does He see us complete in Him? Does He draw near to us as we draw near to Him? The answers are found in His Word.

Draw near today.

Exploring Norway

We completed our two weeks in Norway, the land of fjords. Do you know what those are? They are the fingers of the sea that cut into the land for miles all along the western and northern coast of Norway. They are surrounded by cliffs and are quite beautiful to look at.

Did you know that the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff supposedly began here? There is also the Fjord horse. You've heard of that, I'm sure. And in the far north, live the reindeer herding Sami people. I love their colorful red hats. Sorry I don't have a picture of that for you. Only this picture of a blond-hair, blue eyed Norwegian girl.

We enjoyed this book based on a true story. It is a story of bravery and faith. Norwegians still celebrate this with a skiing race in which the participants wear a (10 lb.?) weight on their back to represent the baby prince that was saved.

Our Read Aloud did not take place in Norway, but in the Netherlands (not too far away). The children found it a bit boring with its lengthy retelling of history, but to me it was interesting, and mysterious. I got the audio version as I had a hard time pronouncing some of the words and wanted to hear how they were to be said properly. For instance, when one was excited, they said, "Huzzah!" The book held Hannah's attention during the exciting parts. It has a very happy ending and there is much mention of godly character in the book. There are parts in it that might be distubing to young children. When the father who has a head injury tries to burn the mother in the fire, not knowing what he is doing. And when the surgeon comes to operate on the father. There are no details given of the surgery, but the young girl, Gretel's, reaction to seeing the instruments and fearing that they will kill her father might be unsettling to some. Definitely for 8 and up. Luckily Josiah did not care to listen to it and chose to play in his room while Hannah and I listened.

Now we are off to France, where Hannah says her favorite city of Paris is located AND the Eiffel Tower!

1st Night of Hannukah and Hebrew lesson

Last night after returning from our Walk Through Bethlehem, we looked at the "scrolls" the kids had received from their stop at the "Hebrew School". They were so excited! It was the Hebrew alefbet (that's Hebrew for alphabet).

We lit our candles. There is always one more candle then the number of nights. This is called the shamus or helper candle. Some think it represents Christ. He is the servant who was raised up. The shamus usually is higher than the other candles. As we light the candles, we can think of miracles that God has done as he did long ago with the oil in the temple. We can also think of the Light of the World, who came to earth and suffered and died for our sins, who is now ABOVE ALL.

As the light burned, Hannah got pencil and paper and sat and copied every letter carefully from her "scroll".

Josiah decided to do the same. For some time, even before today, he has been telling me that when he writes a letter illegably, "It is in Hebrew."

A Journey through Time

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord."
The Messiah!
The Anointed One!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We went to this tonight at Simpsonwood Retreat Center.

If you want to go, it is from 7 PM-9PM (Saturday)

6PM-8PM (Sunday) this weekend only.
We really enjoyed it. Theron and I had not been since the children were born.

It was nice to go and share this experience with them.
There is no admission fee. They only ask that you bring a donation of nonperishable food.

Eggs-periment

A while back, we did this experiment to see how strong eggs are. First, I had to save some egg shells from making a quiche. Then put tape around the broken edge so it would not be compromised. Set the egg shells evenly apart in a rectangle shape and start to lay books on top.


It held quite alot of books, but this was the final straw that broke the egg.

Cccccccrrrrrrrraaaaaaaacccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk!

How much did it hold? Can you guess?

It held twenty pounds of books before it collapsed!

Thanksgiving 2009

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We took the week off from schoolwork and visited with family over the Thanksgiving holiday. The kids enjoy seeing their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We get to take a break from the norm and sit around working jigsaw puzzles or taking walks outside or just watching the kids play.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too.

Exploring Brazil

For the last three weeks we have been learning about Brazil.


One night I tried to serve a semi-authentic Brazilian dish.



When in Brazil, eat what the Brazilians do.

We played GeoSafari to help us learn the Countries and Capitols of South America.

This was our read aloud. It is a biography of the pilot who flew with 4 others into Auca territory in Ecuador to try to reach them with the gospel. It was his sister Rachel who eventually, along with Elizabeth Elliot and her daughter Valerie, went and lived with the tribe and saw them accept the forgiveness of Jesus.

We made a replica of an MAF plane like the one Nate Saint flew to help Missionaries in the jungle.

All of us enjoyed learning about the animals of the Amazon Rain Forest. We continue to watch our ants. They are not the leaf-cutting ants of the Amazon. They are harvester ants, but they do stay very busy.

While we read books, they created more and more tunnels.

And dumped more and more dirt out of the hole.

See you next time in Norway!