Merry Christmas!

Morgan, Luke, Benjamin, Stephen, Anne, Joseph, Isaac, & Erin

Merry Christmas!

We pray you have very blessed and wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus' Birth and all He did for us!

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 

which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, 

which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe 

wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel

 a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, 

and on earth peace, good will toward men."

(Luke 2:10-14)

Packing the Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes!

By: Erin

For the past four years we have enjoyed packing the Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes together and planning what we want to put in the boxes.  We are so thankful that Samaritan's Purse started this ministry and that God has blessed them as they have been able to reach many children.  We packed twenty boxes (in the past we have packed twelve) for ages 2-4.  This year a friend from church helped us pack the boxes.

Morgan spent a lot of time getting the items and picking the perfect toys!

We include a letter in the boxes to let the children know how much they are loved by God and us.

Packing the first boy's box.

Finished product.

Luke gathering items for a girl's box.

We enjoy setting them up to get a picture of everything!

Mom made us delicious hot chocolate!

All the boxes!

"Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: 
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest."
(Luke 10:2)

Fall Days

By: Erin

Since our leaves don't change color down here in Georgia, this past fall has been a fun season as we've been able to go up north at the peak of color.  Being from Virginia, we really miss seeing the vibrant colors of fall.  God has blessed us with beautiful weather this fall, and we are excited to be heading into the cooler season!  Below are pictures of our adventures this fall.

Our county had it's annual Salzburger Festival (The Salzburgers came from Germany to be able to worship God freely and founded the area where we live).  In this picture we are in Jerusalem Lutheran Church, the oldest Lutheran church in America.

First day back to school party!

Daffodil is watching the turtles-something she shouldn't be doing!

A baby goat, Space.

The sky on cool days is always so pretty!  God is an amazing artist!

Life Chain Sunday.

        We were blessed to be able to meet Dr. S. M. Davis and his wife at a family conference.

This is one of the many historic houses in Savannah (and one we hadn't been to yet), so we took a field trip there with our home school group.  

The front door.

The piano in the parlor was beautiful!

Afterwards, we headed to Leopold's Ice Cream Shop.  Our first visit to this famous shop!

We had gotten matching T-shirts from the organization I volunteer for, The Cloud Foundation. My miniature horse, Cloud, was named after the wild horse the foundation was named after.

Morgan & Cloud

For the past couple of years, we have packed shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child/Samaritan's Purse.  This year we were able to hear a woman who had received a shoe box give her testimony at a nearby church.  Livia grew up in an orphanage in Romania where Samaritan's Purse delivers shoe boxes.  She was then adopted by a volunteer from Samaritan's Purse.

Isaac enjoying a warm day on the pond.

After going on a tour at Dad's work, we drove through our local wildlife refuge.  If you zoom up close on the picture above, you can see an alligator.

It was a beautiful day at the refuge!

Judge just turned one year old and is 85 pounds!

We recently found these adorable mushrooms on our property!

We hold church services at a local assisted living center and they invited us over for their Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving!

Grilling Thanksgiving breakfast.

Thanksgiving Dinner!

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, 

to the which also ye are called in one body; 

and be ye thankful."

(Colossians 3:15)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for many things God has done for us, but here are just a few:

Jesus dying on the cross to save us,

Each other,

Family & Friends,

Protection on the road & while we are working,

Health for us and our animals,

Our Ministry,

Our home and land,

&

Being able to attend the Majesty Music Conference this past year.

"Know ye that the LORD he is God: 

it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, 

and into his courts with praise: 

be thankful unto him, and bless his name." 

(Psalm 100:3-4) 

New York Bound!

By: Erin

At the end of October we had to make a sudden trip up to Lynbrook, New York as Mom’s oldest sister, Christina, died.  It was a blessing to see family again, but we were sad that Aunt Christina died.  Praise the Lord for His faithfulness to comfort us and for the promise of heaven. We made the 15 hour trip in one day, arriving at our hotel at 2:30 in the morning!  We were glad to get on Long Island late at night since there was no traffic.  We are so thankful for God's protection on the road.  Many times we saw His hand keeping us safe!  Unfortunately, Dad was not able to come with us.

Heading in to busy Washington, DC traffic.

 

The next morning we got up rather late since we got in really late!  That afternoon we went to the Long Beach Boardwalk with our Aunt Geralyn.  We had so much fun!  When we got to the boardwalk, there was a really neat cloud formation.  I had a fun time photographing it.  God's creation is beautiful!

The boardwalk at sunset.

After the boardwalk we went to Uncle Hilary and Aunt Geralyn's  house to say hello to everyone.

Benjamin & Uncle Hilary

The next morning we exercised, then got ready to go to the wake.

This funeral home has been a blessing to our family as they are always so kind and understanding.  They do a great job!

After the wake we went to Uncle Greg and Aunt Tina's home for lunch.

Cousins!

The Becker family waiting outside of the church for the funeral.

Mom is the youngest of twelve, so there are a lot of Beckers!

The Autumn colors are so pretty!

After the funeral we went back to Uncle Greg and Aunt Tina's to have lunch. 

On Thursday, we went to  Theodore Roosevelt's home on Long Island.  The fall colors made everything especially pretty.  It's always so amazing to be out in God's creation!  Aunt Geralyn was our guide and we enjoyed our time with her.  She is such a blessing to us as she always takes time to show us sites in NY.  You can learn more about this park by clicking here.

Theodore Roosevelt's home.

At Sagamore Hill (the name of Theodore Roosevelt's Home), the National Park Service made a nature trail down to Oyster Bay.  Theodore Roosevelt actually owned a portion of this beach.

There were history signs along the way

A hermit crab

These trees were amazing!

Our lunch was very delicious--New York bagels and tuna fish!

Theodore Roosevelt's front door.

After touring the house, we went through the museum quickly as it was about to close. 

After walking through the museum, we walked back down to the the nature trail.  At the beach, the tide had come up a considerable amount, as we looked over the boardwalk, we saw two swans!

These stiles were made so they could climb over the fence instead of using a gate.

The next day, we started our long trek back home to Georgia.  This time, we decided to split it up into two stops: the first at our Aunt Terry's (Mom's sister) home in New Jersey, and the second in Culpeper, VA where we decided to attend church with some friends.  There is a lot of traffic getting on and off Long Island, that we felt like half our trip was over once we had gotten off of the island.  During a previous trip to Long Island, traffic was moving so slow, our GPS asked us if we wanted to switch to walking mode!

We love Aunt Terry!

Late the next morning, we drove to Culpeper, VA.  We stopped to take a short hike in Maryland

As always, the leaves are so beautiful in the fall!

God provided great weather to have Church outside. It was a beautiful day!

We drove the rest of the way home after church, and thankfully, we had very smooth travelling back!  We are grateful to the Lord for keeping us safe on the road and allowing everything to go well at all our different stops.

“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.”

(Psalm 31:24)