Peaceful Evening In Lancaster County

It is harvest time.

The fields are quietly sharing the bounty

of the Summer's growth.

When I say quietly it is in the sense that many

of the fields around us are tended to by 

Amish families.

Families who work together to plant,

maintain and harvest.

In the Springtime it is not uncommon to 

see children as young as five or six

working alongside their parents and
older siblings

in the fields.
The toddlers do what they do best..
they toddle, playing in the field
while the others work.

Tobacco is planted with the 

help of an interesting machine that must

have the plants hand placed in slots

which then in turn positions them

in the ground.

It is a sight that is beautiful to behold.

And nearly silent

other than the chatter of the workers

and the gentle creaking of the harnesses

and machinery.

Now, of course, we have English farmers

who work with tractors and large harvesters.

I have nothing against them.

It is with glee once per year that I hear the 

Mennonite farmers across the street from us working

late into the night to bring in the corn.

The sound of the harvester is unmistakable and it 

means that crisp air and turning leaves are just around

the corner.

The photo at the top of this post is of a 

fellow I followed down the road 

as we returned from the Lampeter Fair.

So, not only is it harvest time in Lancaster County,

it is Fair time, as well.

A time for community.

To celebrate the best of our year's work

both in baking and canning 

as well as the arts.

4-H students say good-bye to their
pet projects and pick up a check
to put toward higher education...
or perhaps a car.

It is a place where high school and civics groups

recharge their bank accounts while feeding 

the hungry attendees.

A place where the young and the old mingle

and take the time to sit a spell and 

chat about things that so often get lost

in our busy days.

I love Autumn.

It takes the best of all of the seasons

and puts a bow on it.

Happy Fourth of July

I awoke this fine July 4th morning

bright and early to pack lunches for 

Warren and Mikey.

They are off to ride dirt bike with 

two friends of Mikey's.

 

I saw them off just after 6:00am

and settled down to download photos

from the week.

So many!

One of these days I'll show you 

a few photos of Chelsea and Grandma 

Ruth at a local park.  

We had gone out thrifting and decided to 

take a detour to this park to play with the

camera.  It was fun!

But for today I will show you some of our

church family at a picnic yesterday.

May I just say, one more time, 

how much I love our church?

It is becoming more precious to me as

it grows and I get to reap the blessings of 

years of endless hours of hosting and cooking

and all that goes into the ministry of a very small church.

Not that I minded it ...at all.

Nor, am I washed up and done....

it just doesn't all fall on a few of us because there are more 

than a few of us now.

Others have gifts and talents in these areas and

are delighted to share them.

Our family is one of the "oldest families" in the church

and as such I have seen a lot of personalities

in our little group.

We have never been in a better place.

Yesterday I sat and listened to conversations that were 

uplifting, entertaining and edifying.
My heart was sooooo blessed!!

I heard an older woman praise a younger

for her hostessing skills.

I heard mothers sharing experiences from 

their week.

There were comparisons of our chicken

flocks and protecting them from the 

foxes and owls and other predators.
(No not everyone has chickens...
but you might be surprised at how common this is becoming.)

I watched children of all ages playing together

and teenagers sit with children on their laps.

I really wanted to call this post "Picnic with Sonja"...because she was my shadow as I took photos of the day.  I loved it.  What a perfect little helper to show you the fun we had on this day!

I saw Dads totally involved with their children.

I saw several people holding our host family's pet duck....

 

but that really doesn't have anything to do with 

church....not exactly.

I saw the rockets come out to be launched and 

observed the silly excited grins on certain faces.

I was reminded that these things don't always 

go as planned.

When one experiments, one must be

prepared for the unexpected.

By the time we got in the car
to return home my eyes were 

so heavy they would barely stay open.

However, it was worth every
second of
exhaustion!

With memories to treasure.

Friendships deepened.

And more to look forward to.

The Lord is good.

Happy Fourth of July.

Chelsea, Jonathan and I are planning 

a quiet day....

what about you?

Family Game Night

We had a family game night with
those from our church who aren't
currently sick.
So many are.
This upper respiratory thing is
taking us down...temporarily.

Our boys are among the sick.
So, they were at home.
However, those that were there
had a wonderful time.

I learned how to play
Mexican Train Dominos.
However, I would rather see
Italy so I renamed it. lol

Mom beat us at a game of Scrabble.
By a lot!
I accused her of practicing at home!
Actually, she is a very, very good
Scrabble player.
She makes me proud!
As if I had anything to do with that!
Hmmph.

The little ones played a game that
involved a "big mouth" and little
pieces that had to fly into the
mouth at just the right moment.
I can only think Hungry, Hungry Hippo...
but that is not it.
Just similar.
Then they played hide and go seek
with a little help from Pastor Mike
in knowing where they could hide.

That was better than him finding a surprise
behind the pulpit on Sunday morning.
They hunted and hunted for each other until
it was just funny.

There was a group of teens very intently
working to be at the top of their world in
a Settlement game.

This is one of the many things I love about
our Family Integrated Church...all generations
together in fellowship. We had a three year old
on up to the Grandmothers...four of them last night.

What a blessing to see them interacting
and sharing with the children and teens.
It is so natural and beautiful in a setting
like this.

It was fun!!!!!

Ahem...the camera was in my coat
pocket the entire evening.
We just got very engrossed in our
games and I did not get it out.

Miss Emily Rabe is really getting
into music and photography this year.
She showed us photos she has taken.
Awe....some!

Nigel and Pastor Mike are helping her
to learn more about her guitar and
chords. She is growing by leaps and bounds.
Very fun to watch.

I am so proud of our young people.
They are involved, energetic, loving,
respectful and just nice folks!

So..I look forward to our next opportunity
to break out the games. Although our next
fellowship night sounds fun too.
The guys will be building rockets and the
women will work on handwork or scrapbooks.

You know that will be a fun night of chatting
and laughter! Almost reminds me of a quilting
party. We might have to do one of those sometime.
Another local church does that for missions and they
have a wonderful time in fellowship as they
tie off quilt after quilt.

Now, if we could just interest someone in our
congregation in piecing us a quilt top.
I'll bet it could happen!

To those of you read this and were one
of the sick ones...you know who you are...
you were missed.

Many blessings on your Saturday.

♥♥Becky K.♥♥

The Mystery Menu Dinner....and an Unexpected Find

Note: I added to the title of this post so that the visitors from
The Inspired Room's Mr. Linky will know they are in the right place
for this week's unexpected or imperfections of life posts. No worries.
When things aren't exactly as we had hoped we can make the best of
it and...laugh!


Today, after our lessons are done
we will drop Mikey off at work and
begin preps for the Mystery Menu
Dinner. It is going to be so much
fun. I don't remember looking so forward
to an event in a very long time.

It sounds like there will be about eighteen
guests. I have been working with my friend,
Sue, to prepare the menu. It is so cute!
The one above is the prototype that I showed
Pastor Mike Wednesday night. There are some
errors on it...but you can get the general idea.

Kelly and her family, from Cozy Comforts, will
be entertaining the guests as they wait for thier
dishes to be served. Should be great.

Each person will be choosing six items from the
menu. We will serve with a flourish...there will
be much ooohing and ah-ing...and then laughter.
At least that is how I anticipate it.

My Mother-in-law told me of one of these that
she attended years ago where a very conservative
woman, after receiving her order and not getting
a spoon, retrieved one from under her shirt. Hmmm
funny. I wonder what else she had up there...It
created many laughs and great memories for those
in attendance at that meal. I hope we have fun too.

By the way...as I was headed downstairs to get the
menu, I spotted this.



Do you think I should be concerned?

((laughing))

It is going to be a crazy day!


♥♥Becky K.♥♥

Fall Fest!

Creekside Cottage was the host
for our First Annual Church
Fall Fest.

New church...new traditions!

It was so much fun!

Now, I have to say that with two
of my best homeschooling friends,
and their families, now attending
the church, I have been a bit uptight.

I guess there is a fear that combining
these two worlds could lead to stress
or problems in one or the other.

I am finally beginning to breathe a bit
easier and it is just so fun to be with
these gals and their families in a worship
and fellowship setting.

The new families that we are getting to
know just fit in so well. I love Kelly, Duane
and their boys, and could not have hand
picked a better suiting family for the church.
Kelly is a worker bee and has already lifted my
load considerably!

There are others but they are not in this blog
world yet so I will leave it that it is wonderful
to see the growth in our church that is so
obviously orchestrated by the Lord.
He IS good!
His Mercies are new every day!

Anyway, back to last night...Mrs. Rabe will have
better pictures but here is one that Warren
snapped while we were at the campfire...as you
can see, especially if you click on the picture,
there were hot dogs being prepared...



Those are the Moms, Warren's and Mine, doing some "cooking" here.
They are sharing the fire with Mr. Rabe...who made this fire.
It was great...although it seemed to have it in for a few people
who had to keep moving to stay away from the smoke.

You should have seen some of the burnt offerings that the kids made...
"Yummy!"...she says with a disturbed look on her face...

Mrs. Rabe got some really fun shots of the kids bobbing for apples.
I am very sure she will share.

The weather was just perfect and the skies were clear for
the astronomers among us. The huge telescope came out
and I was shown a smudge that was "something"...If I had
been paying more attention I could tell you what it was
more than something about Andromeda.

Warren got these couple of scary pictures...




and these fun ones of the two Emily's.



It is one of the best things about a family integrated church...
being there to watch your kids interact.
To enjoy their fellowship with each other.
To learn and grow together.

I made a dip that I found on Lisa's Cranberry Flats Blog.
This is a link!
It was a hit!
So awesome!
The best part...it is easy and quick.

My day yesterday was crazy and I was thankful
to be able to pull off a hot dish!
Thanks Lisa!

Well, I will be a nervous wreck today as
Warren and Mikey are going on a bit of a
dirt bike adventure about two hours away.

Yikes!

I hope all of their bones stay intact and
that all goes well.

Peace...calm...Romans 8:28....Peace...

I'll be kept busy running Jonathan and Chelsea to
work at different hours, practicing music, making the
bulletin and cleaning up around here.

Blessings on your weekend!

Becky K.

The Church that Plays Together....

Bet you can't figure out what in the world this is about....


This is a rocket that Mike built.

The first and the second photos came together under the artistic hand of my friend, B. to become this....



Just another zany photo for the church website. I will very shortly be compiling a section on this website that is all about our Pastor's love of rocketry. He and the guys absolutely love to build and launch rockets. It is a bonding thing, I guess.

I just think it is hysterical to see what Mike and B. have come up with.

The night we were at the church taking photos against the green screen poor Mom nearly hurt herself laughing at us.

It did look totally ridiculous...but isn't this fun?

It has no Spiritual value that I can think of...but it is fun and reflects that we are a church that plays together. These pictures were from a rocket launch a week ago Sunday.





I did not go to this rocket launch because I stayed at the house to direct people to the launch site if they showed up at our place. However, I have seen enough of these to know how much fun was had by all involved. The only negative thing I heard was that it was getting cold. That happens this time of the year...and it makes for perfectly blue skies that make the rockets look great!

At least that is what I have heard...many times!

We have found it so important for there to be activities that capture the attention of multiple age brackets. This is one that is loved by young and old. It is a great activity to bring the family together and is also an outreach to the community. It allows someone to come and get to know us without being threatened by their first exposure being inside the church building. I imagine that must be threatening for some...being raised in the church it is hard for me to relate to that.

Anyway...the guys do this mostly because they love it. They have no other motives. I try to justify it and make it have value because I just don't build and launch rockets for fun...not my thing...and that is O.K.

Blessings on your day!

Becky K.

Whew!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

That is me lately.

It has been so fun, though.

Want to see a peek at what has
been keeping me busy?

This is one thing...
Hot chocolate candles.

And making marshmallows.
See that funky marshmallow mold.
Love it!
They look sooooo real!
People always want to know if they are real.



I made candles any available moment this weekend, and then there was Saturday evening with the family. Fun! We met Chelsea at her job to hang out for an hour until Jonathan got done...I bought 3 pounds of fudge there. That gave us 12 flavors!
Oh...my...goodness! This stuff is incredible. We took it to church to share at the fellowship meal. Some is left over and I swear that it calls to me.

Then we headed over to Gap. We had a fancy schmantzy dinner at the McDonald's.
Have to love their value menu!

After that we visited the Weis (Grocery) Market where we purchased the ingredients to make Mac and Cheese for the Fellowship Meal.

So, you can see that my offerings for the fellowship meal were calorie rich and awfully healthy....ahem ....yummy!

Sunday found us welcoming visitors at church. There were two lovely families. We were so delighted that one of them stayed for lunch. The other couple had a prior commitment.

Mikey shared his roses with us and I made a lovely bouquet for the welcome table. I cannot get over how wonderful his roses are still. Even after a lot of wind and some much cooler weather.



Soooo pretty. Even this morning when I took this picture in my dining room.

Anyway, back to yesterday.

The fellowship meal went long yesterday...but then everything went long yesterday...Sunday School and church....but they were sooo good! The reason they went long was because there was a lot of participation in the discussions in sunday school and in the prayer time in the Worship service. We have an open prayer time and those who wish to can pray out loud. We open with prayers of thanksgiving and then pray for the needs. It is sweet.

The other reason it all went long was because we had communion. With more people coming to church it just takes longer. That is fine because it is a wonderful time of reflection and quiet time with the Lord.

After church and the meal we came home to "rest" a bit before our Sunday crowd came over to join us. Some friends of ours, George and Sheila, from the State College area came to stay with Mom for a few days so I was delighted to get to go and visit with them for a while until the gang got there.

Sheila was often at the hospital with us while Daddy was in his final days. She was the "candy lady". She brought bags of Hershey's mini candy bars and was so sweet and comforting. Up until that point she had been Mom's friend from church and Bible Study....but from that time on she has been my friend as well. Love her!!!!

We enjoyed a sweet time last evening with the families here. It is unbelievable how lively a conversation can get among people who have spent so much time together already in a day. Oh, it was fun! And it was loud. There were seven adults and twelve children here most of the time with a pop in from Mom, Sheila and George. I think we scared them off with all of the noise.

We missed the other family that we are used to having with us...Kelly and Duane. But, I know they will join us again when they can. Next week we have chosen another house to invade...looking forward to it!

O.k., Mrs. Rabe...I am ready to do that "fun" little game you sent my way.

I have been tagged to tell six random things about myself....oyyyyy...you don't really care, do you?

Oh well, here goes...

1. My hair color is all messed up because I first went to the hairdresser's for a haircut and was met by a Russian Mennonite Hairdresser, named Alla who told me that I looked "mousy" and insisted that she color my hair and would not cut it. $95 later it looked "not mousy" and much blonder. That was ok...but not being willing to spend that much again when it needed touched up, I went back to the "box" I used to use and now am not happy with the color...I am spoiled. But I don't look "mousy".

2. I have one brother that I used to be able to push around when I was mad at him until one day, as a teen, he was bigger than me and shoved me harder. I haven't pushed him since. I even love him now. I am so proud of him and am glad he is my brother.

3. I love all things political and newsy. It is a great day for me if I can just putter around the house taking turns on the different news networks to hear the different perspectives and agendas.

4. I am a student of people and their personalities. I love to watch interactions and conversations. I love to see the expressions, the way people process information differently and how they go about their life. I suppose blogging lets us do that in a new way. It is cool. People are cool.

5. I never passed Algebra I. I took it two times. Once in High School and once in College. Weird? Maybe. But I just do not get it.

6. I have to sleep with my feet out from under the covers. My neck has to be all covered up...ever since that Missionary came to the church when I was a kid and talked about vampire bats in Brazil...but my feet have to be out.

There...random and strange things about me. I am not tagging anyone in particular but have fun with this.

Now, Miss Paula....all the way out there on the West Coast...has blessed me with an absolutely adorable award.

Check this out!!!!!



This one comes with questions....

1. Do you have the same friends since childhood? Not really. We moved a lot in the early years since Daddy was a Pastor. I have one friend, Karen, that I often think about. I really should get in touch with her.
2. What do you value most about your friends? Fellowship and laughter.
3. Are your friends your sounding boards? Sometimes... well o.k... often.

4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends? Time hanging out as families...or occasionally a trip to the Cracker Barrel or some other fun spot.

I want to give this award to one of my newest friends...Kelly. She thinks so much like me that it is scary sometimes to watch. It is also a huge blessing to have her at church. She pitches in and gets things done.

This post has gone on and on. I guess this is the result of too long without posting...days...and well only the weekend.

Hope you have a totally blessed day.

Believing For a Miracle

The church saga continues.

We have been praying specifically for a
building which is situated in a very nice
location and which we know has been sitting
empty for the past two years.

I had contacted who I thought was the owner
only to be told he had been leasing the
building for the past ten years.

He strongly suggested I talk to the owner of
the building, which I did.

At that point this man had things stored in this
space and was not interested in renting it out.

Months passed. Many months.

Over those months,
we have been through so much as a church.

We have left the denomination
the church had been founded under.
We have a new name.
New bylaws have been written.
The incorporation papers are on their way
to the necessary agencies.
We have a vision of where we believe the
Lord is taking us. To fill the need for
an Family Integrated Church in the Mid to Southern
Lancaster County Area.
Our web site is coming along.
Those who could not make this leap with us
have moved on.

It has been hard.
Very hard.

We wanted to give up many times.

But now, there is a renewed hope.

I knew that it should not be me to
go back to request to see the building
again. Sometimes you just "know" these things.
I asked that one of the men be
responsible to make that contact.

Our Pastor took on the challenge.

God's timing was apparent.

The owner of the building had just cleared
everything out of the space and was preparing
it for rent...He and our Pastor went together
last week. Mike came back so excited.

We discussed the retail value of the space.
I figured easily this man could ask $2,000 to $2,500
and be well within reason. It is a very large space!

Those who were available went last evening to look.

We met the owner. A very nice gentleman.

After much discussion about what we would do
with each of the many areas in the building,
Mike brought up the subject of money.
We were told that the former tenants had paid
$2,500 month. Just what I thought.
We have 30 people on a good Sunday and none
of us are wealthy. With a full time Pastor this
is just more than we can afford on our own!

Pastor Mike, Warren and the owner of the building all
disappeared into a quiet section of the building.
The rest of us prayed.

This man's offer to us...$1,000 per month and he
will help get the building "church ready".

Is God good, or what?!??

I don't know if this is going to be the solution.
I certainly have not seen anything nearly as suitable
or possible...in the year or more that we have been looking.

Please pray with us.

We truly want to be a church with a purpose.
Reaching out and growing in this community.

I hope you see God at work in your life.
It is a beautiful thing.