August 2010

Grandma and Grandpa!

My kids love their Grandparents - (Luoma)
I had Jury duty this day and my parents had been visiting.  I love this photo and wanted to post it!

August 2010

Okay so it isn't Aug anymore - but I feel like I need to post things that happened in the past before I can write about what is going on now.  I also don't want to cheat and back post these because well it is May 2011 right now!

Things after Aug - went so quickly really and then getting settled in Moldova has been interesting and this blog is for those kind of things but I've been lax really.  Also this blog is more about the kids - well more about us as a family and the kids are included in all that.

So Aug- was such a crazy month it was the slow time before the great fast forward really.  Wesley was running his lemonade stand - well not really we were now helping him with it.  We figured out that we had written our website wrong on the over 200 business cards we were handing out.  AGH!  Wesley officially stopped running it in Aug but did some guest appearances like at our rummage sale.

Kelo- land news ran a second helping of his story and it co-in-sided with our huge rummage sale that we held at our church.  So we got a little bit of free advertisement for that.   We paid extra to be in the Newspapers rummage sale map but then wasn't put on it.  This was a huge bummer for us and we did wonder why the traffic was so slow.  We had so much stuff!  I don't ever want to hold another rummage sale that large again.  In all honesty I don't care if I ever have another one in my entire life.  But we did earn  a bit of money - though I can't remember how much.  Wesley sold Lemonade at the rummage sale and he had one man and wife show up just to see him.

In Aberdeen every Aug there is a big car show held on the main street - Tony got a wagon to put in the show to advertise our Mission.

Wesley reached his goal for earning our plane tickets - when we got a $1,000 anonymous donation.  Still have no idea who gave it to us.  If it was you - thanks!

We had an unexpected addition to our family for a bit - a stray cat that we ended up feeding and taking care of.  I put an add in the paper about it because it was absolutely the nicest cat ever.  The kids had a great time taking care of it and we ended up giving it to some friends of us who agree with us that it is the best cat ever.  The kids gave it several names.  Elizabeth Explorer Jones was what they settled on.  Now it is called Explorer Jones I believe.  If we hadn't been leaving the country it would have been our cat but I believe she is very happy in her new home.

We started our school year in Mid-August as well.  Wesley started 2nd grade and Irina Kindergarten.   We also say that Lucy had her first of 3 years of pre-school.  She hates to be left out!

Lucy's first Science Experiment!

2 year old + Dime + plugged in phone charger =

 big blue spark and startled 2 year old!

In all fairness, had Lucy known what was going to happen when she put the dime behind the plug in I don't think she would have done it.  The huge blue spark that flashed was pretty impressive, Lucy was pretty startled and after checking her over she complained her foot hurt and there was a raised spot so I took her in to our Dr. office.  He quickly took a look at her and said she looked great.  That I should just watch her pee make sure it wasn't brown, he didn't think it would be as she looked good.  She might be sore in her joints and muscles.   She was a bit "shocked" for awhile but then seem to perk up and be fine until she crashed on the rocking chair.  Which might have just been because of the cold she had.  I hope her experiments with outlets are a thing of the past but she is a pretty inquisitive child. 

Melted Dime

Fried Outlet

Sleepy Girl

Lemonade With a Purpose: K-Love Shares Lemonade with the Nation!

K-love picked up the story about Wesley’s Lemonade stand and is running it on their radio news broadcast you can also find it on their website.  

Wesley’s Lemonade Stand has effected many people.  His heartfelt quote; “Everyone needs to know God!” (Click here to see the story that ran on Keloland news: Lemonade With A Mission.)

This simple message is so true.  It is also true that God has chosen to reach the world through all his children.  We get to be a part of his display of love to all the the nations.  

Our neighbor doesn’t know God.  Wesley is very burdened for him to know God and has shared with him several times now.  It amazes Wesley that people don’t also share the same heart for God.  

Wesley said to me after we talked about some people that we love that don’t know God.  Wesley said, “I just don’t understand it; I love God so much that it makes me want to cry.”    

We are very proud of our son and his love for the Lord.  It continues to inspire us to teach him diligently about God’s love and God’s love for a lost world. 

We can all reach out to those around us who do not know God; through prayer, conversation and friendship.  We can all spread the love of Christ wherever we are.  

A great missions scripture is 2 Cor 2: 14-17  which says we are the aroma of Christ wherever you go.  To some that smell of Christ on you draws them to Christ and to others it makes them want to avoid you.   We choose to be an aroma of Christ that is pleasing to God first and our prayer is that it will draw others to a relationship with Christ.

Isn’t it amazing how God chooses to do things through his people.  

If every Christian does their part in their own community and those called to go to the other places around the world were supported by Christians here at home.  Think of how much of his love could be revealed and how much joy we would receive.

If Wesley has inspired you at all:  Pray, Give, Go!

Pray, for those who don’t know God.

Give, to missionaries who want to be the hands and feet of Christ to other nations.

Go,  when called into all the world to preach the good news. 

Let us feed the sheep that God has given us to feed.  Because Wesley is right - Everyone needs to know God!

We should all love God with such a passion that, like a child, it makes us want to cry at his amazing love for us! 

How AWESOME that we get to be part of that work here on earth!