MATTHEW 25:40- AND THE KING SHALL ANSWER AND SAY UNTO THEM, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, INASMUCH AS YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE MY BRETHREN, YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

6th Annual Ladies Tea

Saturday, March 10, was the 6th annual Ladies Tea fundraiser for GEMS. This was the largest tea, to date! We sold 190 tickets and had table sponsors which allowed the full ticket price to be donated to GEMS. The sponsors paid for the meals. We profited around $10,000!! :) 

A BIG Thank You to those who bought tickets or participated in some way. Many hands were offered and that is what made it a success....well, that and our Father God!! :)


The beautiful tables! Candice has a wonderful gift for decorating!!


Harpist playing in the lobby as guests arrived!


Mrs. Montgomery {Chaplain Gary's wife} with two of her friends, getting dressed up for pics! :)


Brianna Rhodes played violin a few times throughout the event. She has been playing at these events for the past 3 or 4 years! :)


Veronica~ a former inmate who shared her testimony and how prison ministry affected her life.


A table of young ladies :)


Scanned copy of the photo Tamara and I had taken. {The original is not so washed out...not sure why it scanned that way? :P }


What a blessing this Tea was to help support the missionary chaplains and their families. While our family doesn't directly benefit from this, we are amazed and excited to see God supply this money for the ones who will  benefit!! I know it will be a blessing to them!



Emptying My Camera Card

So I am getting my camera ready for the weekend. Here are a few pics that were on it....
Just random stuff from our lives in the past week! :)

The check engine light came on it our van about 2 years ago when we were going up a mountain on a trip to PA. Last August when we were in PA, Dan took the van to our trusted mechanic we had up there and he hooked it up to a computer and it showed like our one oxygen sensor was bad. {I never knew vans had oxygen sensors} He said we can run on one, but if the second one gives out we might not be in too good of shape! He said it would cost around $200, I think, to get them replaced. Well, a few weeks ago Dan stopped at the Auto Zone and ordered the parts. They came and were laying around here for over a week. I finally decided that the next day I was going to call around and see who would replace them for us and see how much it would cost.
Well, that night Dan came home from work and said he is going to replace the sensors that evening. I didn't know that he had been doing some research to see if it was possible for him to do it himself.....
So, that night, he and Danny took the old ones out and put the new in!! :)


No check engine light anymore!! :)


Our trampoline net ripped and we took it down last summer, but the poles were still up. Danny took them all off one day and made some "bling" with the hardware! :) 


Blooming phlox in my front flowerbed! :)


This isn't a real good pic, but our row of plants out front is doing pretty well. We have 3 azaleas {only one bloomed this spring }, 2 knock out rose bushes {with lots of buds}, 2 new crabapple trees that survived the winter and have beautiful leaves, 3 magnolia trees and a large flowering plant that came up on its own! :)


This is the Crabapple tree we planted two years ago in the side yard. It is growing so well. Hope the two out front do so well. We'll soon have a nice privacy "fence" and dust blocker if they do this well!! :)


Made cinnamon rolls last week to take to our small group Bible study. They didn't last long!! :)


Sharing the icing beaters~


 Danny had a little bike accident Friday evening. :( He came in the house calling me to help him, but heard the water running in my bathroom and figured I was taking a shower {I was just washing my hair}. I heard lots of bumping around in the hall bath, so I went to see what was up. Danny was trying to clean up his wound himself. He had the peroxide out and was cleaning it. I asked if I should help him and he said, "yeh....and my vision is getting blurry". I hurried him to the sofa and had him lie down. We cleaned it up and it's looking much better this week! :)
That is a job I do not love! :P


Looking forward to spending the weekend at the Greenville Homeschool Convention with 2 car loads of friends!! :) The trip up and back might be interesting with 2 pregnant ladies!! :) :) :)
I'm sure it will be lots of fun!!

Just hoping everyone else here stays healthy. Dan told me last night he felt achey like he is getting the flu. By this morning he had fever, but he went to work anyway. I expect to see him home early today!! 

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Babysitting

Yesterday we had the privilege of babysitting two little brothers, who attend our church. Their mama is having a hard time with morning sickness and just needs to rest. 
They were so easy to keep!! 
Danny enjoys spending time with little ones and is good at it! Tamara on the other hand is not a "little people" person, although I did see her holding the littlest guy on the porch while Danny and big brother played! :) She wanted to just be by herself in her room, but I pushed her a little out of her comfort zone and encouraged her to play with them and she did just fine. 

Danny and T. had fun kicking the soccer ball, till T. found a patch of clover flowers and picked some for me! :)


T. loved the fish....he really wanted to hold the big one! :)


Danny made shaped balloons for the boys. 


T. loved his puppy....till he decided it would be more fun to pop it! :)


Lil G.


Story time with Danny....


G. sat beside Danny, so still like this, for over a half hour while they watched "God's Zoo". Just a mellow little guy! 



Danny helping G. kick the soccer ball.


Then they found the Walmart smiley balls in the garage. :)


Last evening we had friends over. A very enjoyable time!!  :)
Friends, good food, Bible study, lively chats......


Got to bed late, but got to sleep in late! :) This is the first Saturday in awhile that we get to just stay home and chill. The house is clean {mostly} and all I'm working at is some wash.

We woke to a tornado watch this morning. Around 9AM, the alert went off saying that we were under a tornado warning for 15 minutes. I went out on the porch and watched the sky. Thankfully we didn't see anything! The biggest band of rain is about to us, and the tornado watch was just joined with a flash flood warning. Sounds like a good day to stay indoors. My heart goes out to all those who suffered damages and loss from the storms the past couple days! 

Tea Workday

Thursday was the last workday for the Ladies Tea next Saturday. The Tea Committee and one of the other chaplains wife and daughter spent the day at Candice's house finishing up the last minute stuff. We had 3 stations with projects.
 Candice left us with a "to-do" list and left to go to Eternal Grounds coffee shop for a live interview in regards to the tea. Till she came back, we were done!! :)

The "station" below was were I worked most of the time. We put labels on the 200 sponsor bags, added a ribbon to the handle and then stuffed it with tissue paper. 
The girls worked at putting labels on water bottles and then at another station they put tea bags, sugar and a pen in a little drawstring bag to put placed at each place setting. It's going to be a pretty tea! Can't wait!!


Leia~


These girls did great...and had fun! :)
Shaelyn, To-Anh, Mckenzie, Sarah, Tamara and Lina


Danny and Logan spent a good part of the day on the 4-wheelers. Danny is excited about the fact that this 4-wheeler will be his whenever we can get it to Blountstown. We really need to buy a hitch for one of our vehicles! :P


 Logan


In case you are new to my blog, or haven't ever heard about the Ladies Tea, I will tell you a bit about it.
The organization that Dan and I are with, Gospel Express Ministries South {GEMS} is a prison ministry that places missionary chaplains into prisons in North Florida. 

A couple years back, Candice Nissley came on board , feeling the call to help with fundraising. She has hosted a Ladies Tea fundraiser and a Banquet fundraiser every March and September for the last few years. Apart from  the annual auction in November, these are the two biggest fundraising events for the ministry.
Because of her efforts, we have been able to support more chaplains. God is really blessing the ministry and it seems like some big things are happening this year!! :)

So, this is the 6th Annual Ladies Tea! The tea consists of a full course meal, a silent auction, games, a speaker, inmate testimony's and of course TEA! :) 
This year's theme is "With God all Things are Possible" and will be centered around the story of the bumblebee. Scientists cannot explain how such a big bee can fly with such small wings.....with God...all things are possible.
The colors are black and white damask and yellow highlights. 

Please "Like" our page on facebook! :) Thanks!! Even if you don't live close enough to attend, you can support us in prayer! Pray for the chaplains as they spend 5 days a week in the prisons, that more lives can be brought into God's kingdom!!