And Here is Elijah enjoying 1 of the 300 Dum-Dum suckers that we brought! Don't worry he didn't eat all of them..we gave about 100 to two of the pastors in Colombia, passed some out at church for a treat, and the Dickinson's enjoyed the rest! :)

Here is Noah enjoying some gifts. If you look close you can see some of the airplanes from Bryan and Gram.

For offertory Kimberly and I played a violin duet. We played the hymn "Amazing Grace."


Daddy preached the Sunday morning message after we had sung about 10 songs! Some of the songs were hymns that we knew and others were Latin American songs.

This is Colombian culture. The man is required to push the lady around, all day, everyday, up and down the hills, across the streets, up the stairs, and if you believe that; I have some beach front property for sale in Florida.

Thank you for your prayers. We made it back safely. Here we are with my nephew.

Being Where God Can Use You!

To quote my Best Friend, on this earth,(my sweetheart) "sometimes you do something because it's the right thing to do, even when all the 'numbers' might not add up, in the human"! As most of you know, now Daryl is in Colombia teaching a class on Spiritual Leadership, this week. What you might not know is that Natasha is with him. She came to us a few weeks back, asking if she could go along to help. Heather, as you know is on complete bedrest with complications with the pregnancy of their 5th baby. The desire of Natasha's heart is to be used of God wherever He can be used! It has been such a blessing to watch her grow in the Lord as she used this opportunity to learn what it means to seek God's will for HER!
Please do keep them in your prayers this week. They both are feeling inadequate, but are seeking the Lord's help in all things... even dishes, laundry giving Kimberly, Sarah and Noah a needed break from all the work that they have carried these last few weeks for their Mommy and even hoping to help watch sweet lil' "Whyjah"when needed! (Dickinson's special name for their little boy Elijah!)
Our prayers are with you, though we miss you MUCH here at home, Sweets and Natasha, we are glad that you are willing to allow God to use you where He can! To God Be the Glory!
(Natasha, you know Mommy can't do this blogging thing... so thus the reason for No photo attached!:) You could do that if you like from one of the photos that you have taken over there, or the nice one of You and Daddy that I took at the airport just before you left! We luv and miss you much!

After tearing a ligament in my ankle one particular Friday evening (yes of course it was on the basketball court), one of his sons asked me if I wanted to stay at their house for a few days. I didn't want to impose, but the thought of hobbling up and down stairs in the 'cold' dorm, quickly changed my mind. So, I spent the next 5 or 6 days in the home of Dr. Robert Whitaker. He was the President of the College, so I was a little intimidated. However, his tender smile and gentle spirit eased any anxiety within me. I had seen him as a 'position', but now I saw him as a man, and I was not disappointed. He was real!

In one particular chapel message, he illustrated that he didn't think anyone could play the piano. It's impossible to play an instrument that has so many keys. It can't be done. However, he went on to say, we all had previously heard that it could be played, and the piano was played quite well. Beautiful music came from that impossible instrument. People say holiness isn't possible. It can't be lived. You can't do it. But with God's help, the life of holiness can be lived and has been been lived by many saints.

The message in that illustration has never left me. Thank you Dr. Whitaker for being real. You made an impression on my life that went beyond head knowledge. Knowing Christ and making him known!

• Bear the blame; do not share or transfer it.
• Give thanks when credit for your own work or ideas is given to another.

(taken from Spiritual leadership by J. Oswald Sanders)

Ouch! and Amen!

One Tall Grandma!
This is a picture of my Great-Grandma Bryan in a nightcap that her mother wore. She is 102 almost 103 years old. Some years back Grandma Bryan sent us a letter with stories from her childhood in it. Mommy used it as our bedtime story for that night. After she finished reading, she explained to us that grandma was 96 years old. One of us piped up and said,"Wow, she must be really tall!" :) And she has been our "tall Grandma" ever since!
We love you "tall" Great-Grandma Bryan! Thank you for your prayers and godly example to all of us!

We had a great time being with family over Gramp and Daddy's birthday as well as Valentine's Day! While we were there Brittany and I went to a Valentine game night. We had a fun time of eating lots of food, playing games and laughing!

And to my wonderful Father too, For they SHARE a birthday... just not the birth-year!!! :)

Dearest Daddy, you are a wonderful father to me and are always so loving! Thanks for loving Moma and all of us! You prepared me WELL for a life of following my Man wherever God leads! I Love you much!

Happy Birthday to My Dearest Husband!!!!


Dearest Daryl How much I love you! Thanks ever to much for loving me unconditionally and for being a wonderful husband! Thanks for your Godly example and leadership to our Home! I love to watch you with our kids, you are a wonderful father too! Thanks for your quiet, consistent, godly life! I love you dearly and am excited to grow old together!

Dear Daddy,
Thank you for taking time away from your school work to play with us in the snow!
Thank you for helping us to build a snowman and taking us sledding!
You are the best Daddy in the World!
We Love you!!!!!
Love,

Darla and Bryan
Natasha and Brittany

We enjoyed getting to see the Lebanon Christmas Horse Parade with the Dickinson's and Pilmores. It was a FREEZING COLD day, so thus the reason for the heavy coats and Rudolph-like noses! It reminded us a lot of our days in Russia because of the extreme cold temperature.

Natasha enjoyed being a part of God's Bible School Christmas Musical.

For those of you who may wonder why all of the changes in the blog, I will fill you in on the details. I know this may be a shock because all of my deep intellectual insights have been and will be lacking in comparison to the light, frilly things that may take place in the future. I do hereby bequeath the insightful privilege of managing this blog to the rest of my family. Someday, I will reclaim my distinguished position as supreme commander of this blog and officially boot out my willing and subordinate subjects. Huh?

We gave our children an early Christmas present! God providentially worked it out for us to get this 2 year old Bullmastiff. Our 2 youngest didn't know that we were getting him and you can still see the delight on their faces. Ever since we had a Rottweiler in Romania, we've missed having a DAWG, not a little wimpy dog, but something worthy of the name DOG. We looked for quite some time, trying to find a Rott. but it just wasn't God's will. So we were very delighted to see how God worked things out. We've had many prayers of thanksgiving for Diesel.

Nothing pertaining to our life in this world is unimportant in the sight of God. He is interested in everything that concerns us in life. T.M. Anderson

I was recently reminded of this powerful quote:

"Holy shoddy is still shoddy." - S.D. Herron

"It is done! Over....for now anyways!"

For those of you who know what I've been doing the last 11 weeks, you know what that refers to.

Happy Birthday, Brittany!

We love you! You have always been our little bundle of "joy"! Keep Jesus 1st in every endeavor of your life and you will have TRUE Joy!




Steak N' Shake!

A family gave us some cash and told us to do something special with our family! We were able to celebrate Brittany's birthday here, thanks to coupons and kids eat free night! We don't go out much, so it's a REAL treat for all of us, not just the birthday girl!



Every Cake has it's story!

We made Brittany an ice-cream cake! Since I was given some dipping chocolate, I decided to "dip" her cake in that for the icing. I had just enough left-over white icing to come up with this concoction! Again, I'm glad for very forgiving kids when its comes to their 'original' birthday cakes! :)

People put the dumbest pictures on their blogs! What are they thinking? So, I thought I would join the crowd. :) Just a warning, this is what happens when you drop a 70 lb. battery on your fingers. My wife and kids wandered if it was on my "trumpet" hand (the right one), because we are working on a pretty complicated (for me anyways) piece of music for the Christmas program. I replied, no, it's my left hand, my typing hand. :) I have lots of typing to do for my second research paper, so this kind of slows things down quite a bit. :) What people will do to get attention.

BTW - I had to "drill" (with a scalding hot paper clip, actually, it just burns a hole through the nail) a hole through my finger nail to release the pressure. Of course I didn't go to the hospital, I'm waiting for the new health care program to go into affect, everything will be better then. :)

School Days!
Since this was Bryan's 1st year of school, we chose a school bus theme in which to do his birthday! Thankfully kids are very forgiving concerning the decorating ability, or the lack thereof, of their Momma! I did have fun doing it and he had fun telling me how it should look. Bryan loves any type of vehicle therefore, he is quick to catch all the details of where the tail lights should be put, etc. :)




Thank you Aunt Celeste for coming to help make Bryan's birthday party~ a real party!



Look who had a "Birth-day!" Our little boy is fast becoming a "little man"! Life is so much fun with a boy in our Haus!


I can't believe it... my baby boy is in school now! Kindergarten with all of its great new discoveries. I love to see his face light up as he catches a new concept, or learns to spell a word for the 1st time. Ever wonder if that is how our Heavenly Father views the lessons He is trying to teach us?


Daryl is back to school in a BIG WAY! He is officially a FULL-TIME student at Wright State University in Dayton, OH - working on a Masters in TESOL.