Blog

We are back home in Florida!!!  We just finished a program for the Seniors today at Scott Lake Baptist Church.  We had a great time (and they fed us well!)  We'll be going to the Consulate Health Care facility tomorrow, and every other Friday after that.  Joe is working at the church, and has Fridays off.  So far, Brenda has not been able to get any work at the schools, as they have a hiring freeze on.  Still hoping to possibly get into a long term sub position, but if not, we'll be looking for something else.  Keep us in your prayers! 

Well, it has been awhile since I had time to sit down and update this where I had some WiFi!  We've been a lot of places, and most of them did not have WiFi available.

On July 31, we did a program Sunday morning for the Faith Free Methodist Church in Snover.  On Wednesday, August 3, we did a night of VBS for the Pleasant View Free Methodist Church in Mayville.  Right after that, Brown City Family Camp started, and we had a few days to relax and get our breath back!  That was nice.

On August 14 we went to the Wahjamega Country Church.  We'll be going back there next year to do their VBS program.

We had planned to leave around August 15, but because of the problems we've had with our car, we were not able to.  We did take an extra couple days to go visit our friends in Evart.  We went to Georgia's family reunion and visited Lake Michigan.  We did a couple things for their church (Chippewa Lake Community Church) on Sunday morning, then we headed to the nursing home in Reed City, where Steve's parents live.  We took along the dulcimer and Jethro to do a couple things, and it turned out the folks who were supposed to do the church service that day had cancelled.  So we filled in with music and Jethro!Ri

Right now we're in Marysville, and if all goes well, we will leave tomorrow morning, and make a stop in Kentucky, and maybe in Georgia.

We're excited that our son will be home soon from the Middle East.  We'll heading to Florida around August 15, and will get to see him!!!! 

We had a great time at the Evart Dulcimer Festival.  It's always so nice to get together with music friends that we only see once a year.  We always enjoy going back to Chippewa Lake Community Church.  They're like family.  Saturday night, the head-gasket went out on our car.  Sunday, two fellows from the church came over, picked up the car, and took it to a mechanic for us.  The next day, we had our car back!!!  Thanks Clyde and Ted for your help!

We spent three nights on Mackinac Island doing ministry with the Mackinac Island Bible Church.  We did the childrens' church Sunday morning.  Then we traveled back into the island, and stayed with a family there Sunday night.  They had a bonfire, and Jessa and Jordan Anderson (who did the music Sunday morning for the adults), led our music and worship time at the campfire.  We had a wonderful time (be sure and look at the pictures).  Monday, we went to British Landing and did free face painting for the children (and some adults) riding around the island.  Tuesday, we were at Turtle Park, doing the Tuesday Club.  We shared some of our Alien Kids program, music, face painting and illusions.  Thanks to Christi for coming up with some games for the kids while I was face painting, and to her and Jeff for opening their home to us!!!!

Wow!  We had a great time at the Sears Church of God last Sunday.  Thanks to everyone there who made us feel so welcome!  This is the first time we have ministered at this church, and despite the fact that the woman who got us invited (Vernice) wasn't there, we really felt welcome.  Jethro showed up again.  I only got one picture while we were there, and somehow Jethro got in it.  I put it in a Miscellaneous Summer 2011 album on Photobucket.  I will be adding more to this album over the summer.

We are in Evart right now, and the Evart Funfest starts in 2 days!!!!  That's the dulcimer festival for those who don't know.  I will be teaching a couple workshops with Ida (Praise and Worship on the dulcimer), and face painting for the children's workshops on Saturday afternoon.  Next Sunday we'll be in the Chippewa Lake Community Church with our friends Steve and Georgia, who so graciously are putting up with us for a couple weeks!

Wow!  What a week we had at Hemans Camp!   We knew God had great things planned for this week when we had so many problems getting there.  But He does good work through all our trials, and not only did we have a fabulous week, we got lots of work done on our car!  We were surprised at the large numbers of children attending.  Our largest day last year was about 27.  This year we started with 38 and went up to 40 by Tuesday!  The kids loved the alien theme, and we learned so much about how to be an alien for Jesus.  Jethro even joined us every once in a while.  Thursday morning was interesting.  Just as we were ready to start, the power went out throughout the whole camp.  We made do with my computer on battery power for our music and video.  We just had to be very quiet!  During our lesson on "We come in Peace", 9 children came forward so we could pray that God would help them be peacemakers.  Be sure to check out our photos.  I have split them into Bible School and Misc, and Face Painting and Aliens because there are so many.

We have had a great week at Owosso Free Methodist Church!  We started the VBS program on Sunday evening, and continued with programs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!  Thanks to Pastor Mark for inviting us!  Special thanks to Kathy for being my organizer, photographer, craft person and artist (she made the cool stand-up aliens).  You can look here to see some cool pics of all our fun!  Also thanks to Bobbi, who jumped in and learned some cool face painting techniques and helped me with that!  She did a great job.  And thanks to Jolene, Joe and Lisa for doing the games, Madbely and Janet for snacks and Myrna for doing sign-up.  What a great crew!

We had a great time in Cartersville, GA at the Grace Baptist Church. We did an intro to our program for the children's Sunday School in the morning. We are having a lot of fun with our'Alien Kids' theme this year! Brenda did the offertory for the main service with her dulcimer. That was fun, as their were many folks there that had never seen a dulcimer before. We also did a full program for the children in the evening service. We had a bit of technical problems getting our computer hooked up to the TV, so pray we'll be able to overcome those glitches in future programs! We're spending a couple days with some friends in Kentucky, then we'll head North to Michigan!

We are getting ready to leave for Michigan! We will be leaving June 4 to head North. Our program this year is "Alien Kids". We we be looking at how God wants us to be different from the world in our speech, actions and home.

Happy New Year!  We have been looking through and trying to decide on the theme for this year's VBS and Bible School programs.  I'm leaning toward "Armor of God", but a final decision hasn't been made.  We hope to have some new, interesting music and games this year to add to our program.  We'll be sending out some letters soon to our contacts in Michigan (and on the way to and from) to start setting up dates for this summer.  If you have a date you really want us, let us know ASAP, as last year we were busy every week.  Down here in Florida, Brenda has been busy subbing at the schools, but we were able to minister last Thursday at the Lighthouse Ministry Women and Childrens' shelter.  We always love going there, and hope we'll be able to go again before leaving for Michigan.

We made it back to Florida last week!  We are so happy to be home.  We made a stop in Kentucky on the way down, and was able to do some ministry at a nursing home, and at a church for the children who are bussed in.  Things aren't looking like they are go to slow down right away.  We went to the Gospel Music Coffee House last Saturday, and Jethro made an appearance.  We'll go again in a couple weeks, and Brenda will take her dulcimer.  Next weekend we'll be busy with KBC's World Mission Conference.  Our choir will be singing for the services, and on Saturday, Brenda will be face painting at the block party.  Jethro may show up there, but he's also wanting to go to the nursing homes.  I don't think he's made a final decision about that yet.  Thanks to everyone who supported us with prayer and finances over this summer.  We traveled over 14,000 miles!

Things have been busy since Owosso!  Over Labor Day weekend, we did an early morning service at Crystal Lake Campground, then to the Cass River Bible Church right after that.  Things were a bit chilly, but we met Bruce, who invited us to do a program for their childrens' group in Oxford at Christ the King Church on Sept. 15.  We had a GREAT time there.  His enthusiasm is infectious.    On September 12, we went to the Brown City United Methodist Church.  Brenda played a special during the service, Joe did the Young Disciples sermon, then we went downstairs and did the Children's Church program.  Brenda even got to do a short, impromptu concert afterward!  The next day, we did a program for the "Over 50's" group in Brown City.   It was a lovely day for an outdoor program.  We are in Evart right now.  We'll be meeting with the Chippewa Lake Church to discuss doing VBS next year, then we're off to Mackinac Island for our annual honeymoon, and to make some connections with the Pastor of the Bible Church on the Island.  Hoping to be heading back South soon, but we don't have an exact date yet.  We may have one more booking!  Go HERE to see some pics.

What a great time at Owosso Free Methodist Church.  Their VBS program was August 26, 27 and 28, with a program during Sunday morning service on the 28th.  Click here to see more!

We have had a busy couple of weeks.  From Greenville, we went West to Cartersville, GA and did a children's church program for the Grace Baptist Church.  We left there (after the potluck, of course) for Rocky Mount, VA.  We visited with some friends, and had a nice time of relaxing.  From there, we went back to Flemingsburg, KY.  We went to a nursing home Saturday afternoon, a campground Sunday morning, then to the church, where we did some things for the Junior Church.  After they got a look at the dulcimer, Brenda also played for the evening service!

We left Greenville, SC this morning from our week long mission trip with other families from KBC.  We are now in Cartersville, GA, where we will be ministering tomorrow morning to the children at Grace Baptist Church.  We had a great week in Greenville,  Read more and see pics HERE.

We had an interesting week.  We stayed in a cabin at Hemans Camp, but our Amish friends wanted to come up for a small vacation.  So Joe drove the half hour to their house to pick them up.  There are nine of them, so it takes two trips in our Buick.  Also, they have chores and cows to milk, so he had to take a load down twice a day for that.  They were there most of the week, except Thursday, when they had company coming.  On Friday we took them all up to "Noah's Ark", a small amusement park for children, with a picnic area and pond.  The children had a great time!  Well, I think Henry (the dad) did too.  The boys didn't want to wear their hats while they were riding the rides, so Henry had three straw hats on his head as he ran around and helped them onto the rides.  It was quite a sight.

Sunday, we went to the Faith Free Methodist Church in Snover.  Jethro showed up, but Brenda had a great time trying out some of the new things she learned at the Dulcimer Festival.  We went on to Brown City in the afternoon for a family reunion, and we're resting a couple of days now, until Brown City Camp starts on Thursday.

Well, we've had a busy week.  The Evart Funfest (Dulcimer Festival) was this week in Evart, MI.  Brenda spent most of her time there, seeing old friends, playing music, teaching, and even learning a bit!  On Saturday, Brenda participated in the youth program by doing some face painting.  Our friend, Georgia, had a crash course in doing some of Brenda's faces, and helped out, while Joe did crowd control (he had the hardest job!)  Georgia did great, and between the two of them, painted at least 35 faces that day.  It was too chaotic to get any pics.  They were lined up 15 minutes before it was time to start.

On Sunday, we headed over to the Chippewa Lake Communuty Church, and Brenda and Jethro did a program in the Sunday morning service.  Jethro was really wound up, but I think most everyone enjoyed the program.  We're heading back down South soon.  Today we're catching up on paying bills and doing laundry.  We plan to pick up our Amish friends and take them up to Hemans Camp for a couple days.  It's kind of a mini-vacation for them, and hopefully should be nice and relaxing for us, too.

We had a nice, relaxing weekend over Fourth of July.  We stayed at Hemans Camp, and the Bikers for Christ group was there with us  Sadly, Dave Raymond, founder of the local group, was killed a few days later when his motorcycle hit a deer.  We attended his funeral yesterday.  It was the largest funeral we ever attended.  On July 10, we traveled to St. Louis, MI to do a program for the Jesus Coffee House.  We drove up to Evart last night, and looking forward to the Dulcimer Funfest and we'll be doing a program for the Chippewa Lake Community Church next Sunday.

We've just finished doing the Bible School program for the week at Hemans Camp!  We have a few days of rest before we head North.  We've added a bunch of stuff to our schedule, so be sure to check our calendar.   Read more about Hemans Camp here.

KBC prayed us out on Sunday night, to go and do the Lord's work over the summer. We really appreciate the support of our church! We are leaving for Michigan and heading straight to Hemans Camp to prepare for the Children's program there. We are teaching about Noah this year.

Had a wonderful time with the Ladies of Grace at Kathleen Baptist Church! Thanks for inviting us ladies!

We had a great conference in Michigan last week at the 2010 EMFCM Creative Ministries Conference.  Brenda was mostly at the registration desk, but also taught her standard "Sign Language to Music" class.  She also co-taught a new and exciting class with Anna Wilinski on using face painting in ministry.  Joe taught three different classes this year, one on ropes, one on cheap tricks, and one on developing patter for your illusions.  You can read about the conference and see some great pictures at http://www.emfcm.org/2010Conf/2010conference.htm.

In home news, we have a new grandbaby!  Lucy Ella Ross, and our son is home from Kuwait!  Good news all around.

We have been busy, but with so many things! We did a program at a seniors park on Feb. 20 that went very well. We have been to Lighthouse Ministry twice. On March 4, we did chapel for the staff, and March 11, we did chapel for the Women and Children shelter. Life has been busy this week with a new grandbaby, surgery for Joe, and Emma's birthday coming up. Wow!

Looks like I'm way behind on updates!  So much has happened, I'm not sure where to start. Our trip to Indiana was fabulous.  We had a great time in Evart.  We had a week long trip to Wisconsin with an Amish Family.  We stopped in Kentucky to minister on our way to Florida.  We flew my mom to Kentucky, and she traveled with us back to Florida by way of Tennessee, where we were looking for some geneology stuff.  Tomorrow night we're ministering to the seniors at Kathleen Baptist.  Wow!  This is very abbreviated, but I've posted a more detailed account HERE.

We are leaving tomorrow for Indiana for the International FCM conference.  This is sort of a scouting trip to try to find new workshop leaders for our conference we do in the Spring.  We'll be going straight from there to Evart, MI.  I hope to get in a day of the dulcimer festival, and we're doing a program for Steve Scott's church on Sunday.  BTW, I figured out how to get into the groups on my phone, so I'll be able to monitor this site from just about anywhere!  Yay!

I've posted a few pictures and a summary of the Hemans Camp Bible School program.  I do have a few more pictures on Facebook (I don't have to reformat all those, so it's easier to post a lot of them).  We have about one more week to stay in the trailer at Hemans, then we'll be heading to Indiana for the International FCM Conference.

We are set up at Hemans Camp with a Fifth Wheel from the Kincaids!  While we enjoyed staying in the cabin last year, it's nice to have a place with a bathroom in it!  We'll be at Hemans Camp for 3 weeks.  We will leave for the International FCM Conference in Indiana on July 12.

I set up a Facebook page for Set Free and for myself (Brenda).  Don't know yet if I'll be able to do a lot of updates there, but I'll try.  I got Internet on my phone for the summer, but haven't figured out yet how to get the groups up.  Anyway, be sure to look us up (Joe doesn't get on the computer much, so you probably won't see a page for him!

Well, I haven't updated in a while!  We have been busy the last few months.  We did a program for the seniors last month, and enjoyed that immensely.  In April, we drove to Michigan for the Creative Ministries Conference.  We had a great time there, and had lots of wonderful workshops.  We are in the process of trying to get a conference down here in Florida next year.  We have a lot of people in our church interested, so be watching for more details of that.

We are leaving tomorrow morning to head back to Michigan.  We still have a few things to do to get ready for the Hemans Camp Children's program that starts June 21.  Our theme this year is Jonah.  More details later!

We went to Lighthouse Ministries on December 18 to minister at the Women and Children's shelter during their chapel time.  We had great fun!  The children had a special project that night, so they were not in the service that evening.  However, we are expecting to be able to go back at least once a month, and the children should be in attendance then.  I did not get any pictures of the event.

We made the trip safely from Michigan to Florida.  We stopped in Kentucky to see our friends, Otis and Martha.  Then made another stop in Cartersville, GA to minister at the Baptist Church there.  We have a couple pictures of the Christmas party .

I've posted some pictures from the Port Huron Free Methodist Church Block Party last Saturday.  We had a nice time.  Be in prayer for Joe, as he has eye surgery this Friday.  The lid is beginning to sag again, and the doctor is going to have to do a skin graft.

We've just returned from Owosso where we did a week long VBS on the life of Joseph.  I have to say, the folks up there really spoiled us!  They set up an RV for us, and someone different cooked and brought us food every night.  I could get used to that!  Check the gallery for more info and pictures .

We were only able to spend a couple days at Brown City Family Camp this year.  However, Joe still got in lots of dishwashing.  Brenda also ended up helping with the interpreting for the deaf, as they were short-handed in that area this year.  Thank goodness, J.P.s' grandmother was there and did most of the service, and Brenda just had the music to do!

Info on the Mayville Street Fair is posted here .  We had lots of fun, and not too much rain!

We had a nice trip to Florida.  It was wonderful to see mom, the kids and of course Emma while we were down there.

We had a wonderful week at Hemans Free Methodist Camp.  We were the children's directors for family camp this year, and based on an Egyptian theme, we looked at the life of Joseph.  For more info, check out this page  and the photos !

We returned last night from Cherokee, NC, where we joined families from Kathleen Baptist Church in Kathleen, FL on a FOM (Families on Mission) trip.  More than 130 families joined together from different parts of the country to create 7 teams to minister in different ways to the Cherokee community.  Click HERE to read more, and see some of our pics !

We had a great program at the Blue Water Free Methodist Church on May 10 for their Mother/Daughter Banquet.  I was hoping to take pictures, but it was too busy.  I'll try to do better next time!

Adam is back from Kuwait!  He's home safe and sound.  He's gotten moved into his new apartment, and he's riding back to Michigan with us.  We are leaving Wednesday, after he checks in at the base.  I'm told we'll be driving straight through, cause he's a bit anxious to see his wife and daughter after 8 months.  Not that I blame him.  Just hoping I can take the trip!  With two drivers, though, I hopefully won't have to drive!

We are soon leaving for Michigan for the annual Eastern Michigan Children's Ministry Conference.  Hope to see you there!  If you want info on the conference, click here.  We will only be in Michigan for 1 week, and will be returning to Florida.  We are expecting our son back from Kuwait in early April, but don't know the exact dates.  He has only 2 weeks once he arrives to get his new apartment procured and moved into, and we hope to be of some help to him in that area.  Then he's heading to Mich for a well-deserved vacation!  We will probably drive to Michigan about the same time he heads North, and will be there for the summer.  The highlight of our trip will be our granddaughter, Emma's 2nd birthday party!