MP3 Conference Audio

Challenging and encouraging mp3 audio:

Desiring God National Conference 2007 on Perseverance.
Speakers include: John Piper, John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges and Randy Alcorn. I found these messages to be a very helpful in my daily struggle to fight the good fight till the end!

"God, Psychology, and the Christian Care of the Soul"
by David Powilson (3 parts) from the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors 2001. Among other things, Dr. Powilson challenges the church to take back the care of souls from the world, and encourages Christians (especially those in some sort of pastoral ministry) to engage in purposeful and significant conversation with others. For more on David Powilson and his work read this.

New Attitude 2007 Conference on Discernment.
Speakers include: Joshua Harris, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahaney, Eric Simmons, and John Piper. I found C.J. Mahaney on "Discern Your Heart" and Eric Simmons on "Discern the Greymatters" to be especially insightful and helpful.

They are all free - download, listen, and grow!

Mrs. VanNoort

This morning we heard that dear Mrs. Van Noort's earthly pilgrimage ended early this morning, after a painful battle with cancer.
Praise God for His promise that our spirits return to Him
at death -- He brings believers to their eternal home!
"...And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4:17, 18.
We can rejoice even in these times of deep
sorrow, as Rachel beautifully describes.
This picture of Allison & her "adopted Oma" was taken one year ago.


For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.
Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12: 6-7

Grace Manor

On Friday afternoon, some of the homeschooled families from our church went to Grace Manor at H.C.H. to sing some Christmas hymns with the people there. The kids also sang the songs they had learned for the Christmas program, & recited Luke 2: 8-14 again together.
We were greatly blessed by our time there,
and thankful for this opportunity!


"...Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy
which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be the sign to you:
You will find a Baby wrapped in swaddling cloths,
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, goodwill toward men!”


Beppe came too, & Jaden enjoyed sitting in her walker. :)




Thanks again for teaching them, Elsa!

Christmas Program!

Saturday afternoon was our church Christmas program,
followed by a delicious potluck dinner.
Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a special time!
(especially Wilf & Sharon and Bruce & Elsa!)

Zi Tynn playing the harp

These kids sang wholeheartedly!!
...unlike the Sunday School class. :) But they were so cute, & stole the show! They were just so fascinated with those flashlights...
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine...
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
To shine for Him each day;
In every way try to please Him,
At home, at school, at play.

Mom says that they do sing great with her
every Sunday morning, though!
Christmas treats!
Christ is born, O sing Hallelujah;
Hope has come to the world tonight.
Word of God, dwelling among us,
Born to a dark world to give us light.
Glory to God,
All glory in the highest!




Plenty for all!
...with table decorations made by the young ladies of the church,
last Thursday evening.Here are some of them...





As you can see, the kids from the catechism choir were also quite excited about their bags of treats, put together with such care!

Graduation...

...from sitting with this pillow support:
...to sitting all by herself since last Tuesday, very steady at last!
Now Bethany can play with the kids much more easily,
& they all love it! Our baby's growing up...

More Visitors

This squirrel (& others) visit our apple tree daily,
and our rabbit gets his share as well --
so that few of these tasty but wormy apples go to waste!
Breakfast upside-down!?! Some of my kids sit in rather silly ways at our table (see Daniel below, who is watching the squirrel), but I haven't seen any of them try this yet!