The Griffins

This is Brother Leroy and Sister Joyce Griffin. They are missionaries and, Lord willing, going to Montana in May. They will be helping pastors out there, encouraging them and helping in their churches with evangelism and tract ministries. They are the nicest couple!!

They were wanting some pictures for their new prayer cards and I was glad to offer my lens. We had a nice morning, but a little chilly. Poor Mrs. Joyce did some shivering, but she survived. They were good sports considering the walking we did.
They'll be having a yard sale this Saturday, March 19, and the money they raise will be going toward their trip to Montana. So if you live in the area and want to help them, stop by their yard sale. There will be two other families with them and also they will be selling construction items from their former business.
The yard sale will be at 2338 Flinthill Church Road, Boiling Springs, and begins at 7:00 in the former Griffin Choice Buildings shop.

Please pray for the Griffins. This has not been an easy road for them, although they have some great stories to tell about their road trips and how the Lord has proivded for them each mile of the way.

Love you, Brother Leroy and Mrs. Joyce. Thank you for letting me take your pics.

SAFE!!

Thank you so much for praying for Brother Douglass and all of the missionaries and the Pastor that was detained in Vietnam.

They have been released and are on their way, if not already, back to Cambodia.

God is good...........all the time!

First Night of SIGMA, 2008

First of all, please take a moment and pray for our good friend, Missionary Dave Douglass. He is on a missions trip in Asia and he, along with some other team members, have been arrested in Vietnam along with the Pastor they have been working with in Cambodia. The family is asking all that would, to please pray.
Two of these Pastor's wives have said that the Vietnamese Pastors are very fearful of being detained by police.

Here are the names to lift in prayer:
Dr. Dave Douglass, missionary out of Calvary Baptist Church, Middleburg, Florida
Dr. Chris Pledger, Pastor's son from Calvary Baptist Church, Middleburg, Florida
Daniel Williams, layman, just graduated from Hyles Anderson College
Brother Delacruz, Pastor in Cambodia

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Last night was our first night of SIGMA. Brother RJ had the kids choose a partner and divided them into two teams.
This is team 1.


This is team 2.


The object of the game was for you and your partner to go up the hill, around the tree, and back down to your team for the next two partners to go. The stipulation was that the boys had to carry one another on their backs.


And the girls had to run arm in arm.


After the game, Brother RJ made some announcements for this upcoming year. Our theme is racing toward the goal. He has some things in the works for the end of the year that excited most all of the kids. And then it was preachin' time!

Brother RJ's sermon was from Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
There was a purpose to the game Brother RJ had them play last night. Sort of a visual, if you will, of how sin will slow us down in the Christian race. If the teams were allowed to run by themselves, without having to carry one another or drag the other, they could have moved faster. Sin will slow us down. Brother RJ asked them what it was in their lives that would slow them down from making it to the finish line.

After preaching, Brother RJ announced the SIGMA teams for this year. Spencer (left) will be on Bruce and mine's team this year and will be our team captain.
Jeremy (right) will be the team captain on Chris and Dana's team.


And then the youth was told which teams they were on.


RUSH night will be mid-October. AHHHHHHHHH!

WARNING: GOBS OF WEEKEND PICTURES!

I have tons of pics to look at from our weekend. I had wanted to attend the Sword Conference one day last week and thought it would be Monday or Tuesday, but it ended up being Thursday, which was the best day for me anyway. It was all kind of last minute. I've never really driven anywhere more than thirty minutes away without Bruce, so I wanted someone to go with me. I knew that Mander needed this trip as much as I did so I asked Mrs. Janet if I found some people to go with me, could we take the church van. She said yes and I called Pam to see if she wanted to take her kids. Everyone else was working or had something to do that day. So the eight of us hit the road.

Brother Norris Belcher's sermon was on "Where Are The Other Nine?" This was a great message taken from the story of the ten lepers. And how we need to keep the main thing, the main thing. Quit worrying about what other Christians are doing, or rather NOT doing, and just continue in the work of the Lord. Stay focused on what He expects of YOU and not what He expects of someone else.

Celine won a prize for the most well behaved in her class. I wasn't surprised.

Group pic: Caleb, Hannah, Harrison, Celine, Pam, Nicole, Mander

Pam, me, Mander

When it was time for lunch, we ran Pam and her kids to Wendy's to purchase their lunch and headed back to the church. I figured that since Gospel Light had a school, there had to be a playground there. I was right and we had it all to ourselves. The weather was nice and the frosties Mrs. Pam bought for us were delish!

One of the highlights of this trip was seeing Rachel and her family. She is like a sister to me. I can't even tell you what she means to me. She's always been there when I needed advice or needed someone to pray or just needed someone to giggle with. And when she says she'll pray....she really does. I just love her so much. AND! For those of you who don't know, she's Courtney's mother from Courtney's Contemplations.

And an added bonus at the conference was seeing Naomi, Rachel's sister. She and her family are from West Virginia and she is so sugary sweet. Although, she WAS in the above picture, but she threatened my life if I didn't crop it out. So I did. LOL (((HUGS FOR NAOMI!))) We've had the privilege of spending time in their home in West Virginia and have such sweet memories of that. The beauty in the front there is precious Anna. Does she not have the CUTEST little face?

Courtney and I got in trouble so they locked us up. It was all her fault, I'm telling you. She was my flower girl and is now in the process of planning her own wedding. I guess she had to sow some wild oats before she gets married to that Georgia boy. And look where it got us!


Hey, y'all like that hat? She loves lime green and from what I hear she loves that Georgia boy too, who happens to like all that cowboy stuff. So I had to get her this hat. She looked good in it, but the bars take something away from it.

I guess Donna Janey (second Hutson sister) couldn't make it to the conference, so Alan Camperson (Curtis Hutson's grandson) filled her spot with his mother, Sherry and Aunt Kay. They sounded wonderful together.

Shelton Smith, Editor of the Sword of the Lord.

The choir

Brother Jim and his two oldest boys showed up for the evening service. He's saying, "Hi Bruce!"


The boys: Caleb, Seth, Stephen, Jonathan, and Joshua there in the back. I don't know who the little guy is. Sorry. Stephen is also getting married soon. As a matter of fact, he's getting married about a month after Courtney. I had to give him a hard time for that. After all, Rachel is going to lose her two oldest children within a few weeks of each other.

*poor Rachel*

Rachel and Brother Jim

Naomi...I was hoping to get a pic of her and her husband, Brother John, but as soon as service let out, he made his way out for tomato sandwiches. Oh well...next time.

The beautiful girls, Anna, Courtney, and Bethany. Very good, Bethany...stay focused on the camera. ;)

Courtney, Harrison, Hannah, Bethany, and Anna

We had a good time at the conference hearing good messages, making memories and catching up with friends.

We got home about 2:00 Friday morning. I was up at 7:30, vacuumed the van and returned it to the church. Then cleaned mom's house. I was so tired, but looking forward to our evening with the L family.

We hung out in their remodeled garage and it was so much fun! Mike and Kim had scads of food. We brought everything for hotdogs and they did the burgers and fries. Wow, were those burgers good! You can't find 'em that good in a restaurant.

Mike did homemade fries too. They were seasoned to perfection after he pressed the potatoes through his new press and fried them in his deep fryer. YUM!


Everyone seemed to be enjoying their supper!

And Mike did two things of homemade ice cream. One was strawberry banana and the other was peach. Ohhhh, they were good!

We also played a game or ten of UNO. I wish we had kept score.

I'm not sure what they were playing, but Hannah had a sneaky look on her face.

They broke out the Wii games and that was a lot of fun. Now I want the Wii Fit! Here is Bruce playing golf.

We had a wonderful time and, again, didn't get home and in the bed until the wee hour of the morning! Thanks, Mike and Kim, Taylor and Madison. We had a wonderful time with y'all.

Bruce played some real golf with his brothers Saturday morning and then went to cut his mother's grass. While he was at his mom's, I went to pick up this box from freecycle. Freecycle is an online community site where people in my county and surrounding counties give things away that they don't want to throw away or bother taking to Goodwill. I receive emails of things people are giving away or looking for and when I saw someone was giving away some light covers I jumped on it. I really only needed one for the boy's room, but there were two and so I decided to replace my chandelier with one and put it on Freecycle. The light covers are really nice. Bruce will put them up sometime next week. The other thing in the box was this darling picture. The frame is rulers and the picture is a one room school. It is SO pretty, I love it! Look up Freecycle on the Internet and see if there's one in your county.

I went grocery shopping after I picked up from Freecycle. The kids put the groceries away while I laid down. I was feeling very bad and HAD been all day. When I got up, we went to a birthday party for "Little Joe."

The little ones had a BALL in this pool

Some of the older kids played Monopoly.

Mrs. Janet was learning to fly. lol

Mander and Carissa

Me and baby Ethan. He's the youngest of six and such a content little fellow. Wow, I look whipped, huh? I probably could have used a little longer nap. lol


Cameron was really enjoying that hotdog!

The birthday boy ate his hotdog from the top instead of the side.....obviously.

Amy, of course, made this Thomas the Train cake. God has blessed her with such a talent. She does some awesome cakes!

Present time!!

We bought him the Travel Aqua Doodle. You fill the pen with water and they can draw on the inside. As it dries, the picture disappears. No mess! We mommies like no mess!

Ethan was enjoying his toes. Can you do that? Yeah....me neither.

Little Joe LOVED his tricycle. But bless his heart, everyone wanted a turn on it and he was the last one to get on it. Poor thing.



Mom and daddy were at church this morning. It was wonderful seeing them in their usual place. It touched me to see daddy raise his hands in praise and shed tears because of how good God is!

Tonight we said goodbye to our missionaries, Brother and Sister Brackeen. We have supported them for many years while they've worked in Russia. Their son and daughter-in-law are members of our church and we love that whole family. They've been home for six months and may not get to go back into Russia. They won't know until they get there. I believe God will get them through with no problem. Their heart is there in Russia and they long to spread the gospel.

They were shaking hands at the doors after church. I snagged a quick shot and I guess it was too quick because Brother Brackeen's eyes were closed. hehe

We were surprised and glad to see Holly and Katie from 2 Sister's blog, their mom Lisa from A Place to Land, and their dad there tonight. I wish their family could attend every service, but we understand they can't do that. They live FAR away from the church.

We start VBS tomorrow night. So be looking for more pics to come!