Birthday Pictures (& more)

Erin turned 3 on August 19 and we had a little party to celebrate. She requested a pink cake with a pony and Dora. Her big gift this year was a bicycle. She still needs to work on pedaling, steering, and looking up all the the same time!

We also went with Tim's family to Rehoboth Beach the week after her birthday and Erin had a great week there.

You can see pictures from the birthday party, the beach, and some from freezing corn at our picture website here.

Vacation Ending

Our week at Rehoboth Beach is coming to an end. We had two good beach days, 1 OK beach day, and a lot of rainy days. Thankfully we ended the week on the good days.

We took Erin on rides at the boardwalk tonight. She has been terrified of public toilets all summer and has been using the plastic potty we keep in the back of the minivan. But tonight we parked far away from the boardwalk and Erin had to go. We gave her the choice of going home or using the real potty and riding on rides. After many tears and one failed attempt, she finally did it and was able to ride the rides. Her clear favorite was the paratrooper ride.

We'll have some pictures up next week once we're home. Internet here is spotty so I don't want to try and upload them now.

A quick story from the beach today. Dad was holding Erin out in the water, which was quite calm at times. Suddenly a large wave came up and Dad lifted her up as high as he could. Everything went under except Erin's head. When the wave passed, Dad had no shorts! And another wave was coming! Fortunately he was able to pull them up enough and get over the next wave. It was quite a site.

So Says Erin

"Telly is a messy mess. But, for Ernie I have words of praise. Thank you, Lord."

Sunday night

Tonight at our small group we studied the second half of Philippians, chapter 1. Paul talks about his imprisonment and how to live is to show the world Christ because Christ is in him, and to die would be great because he would be with Christ. This reminds me of a book I just finished reading called "The Heavenly Man." It's about one of the founders of the Chinese house churches. He and the Chinese Christians have suffered tremendously as they have sought to spread the love and salvation of Jesus Christ. Brother Yun often speaks of these words as he was being tortured in prison. Yun and the Chinese Christians feel a call to be missionaries in the countries between China and Jerusalem, where Christianity began. They call it the "Back to Jerusalem" movement. Many of these countries are in the Muslim world and they know that the persecution they have suffered over the last 40 years has been the training they needed for this difficult and dangerous work.

I urge you to read "The Heavenly Man" and/or "Back to Jerusalem."

Friday night is finally here!

Our VBS finished up tonight. And we are all 3 tired. Erin went to bed very quickly and I'm not sure why Melody and I are still awake.

We were blessed with 4 nights of 30 to 35 kids. They really had a fun time. Hopefully they learned some Bible stories/lessons and will share them with their families. We hope to see some of them at church on Sunday, too. (This is a picture of Erin and her friend Michaelah.)

Our church is looking for a 12 passenger van since the old one has finally quit on us. If anyone knows of a good used van (not 15 passenger), let me know.

New pictures

We have some new pictures from July through today. These include our trip to Michigan.

http://picasaweb.google.com/timandmelody

New Hope's VBS

Our church is running a Vacation Bible School this week. On Monday we had 9 kids. On Tuesday, 30 kids. And we're running out of space! I had to run to Michael's twice to get craft supplies since the kids just kept coming. Erin is really into it. She loves the music and singing. And her friend Michaelah came last night so she was all happy. Anyway, we'll see how the rest of the week goes. It happens to be the hottest week of the year. Supposed to be 101 today. The activities center we are renting has AC, but with 30 kids and 10 adults, it doesn't really stay too cool.