Many people make it more complex, but it's really a simple message. We were all born sinners, but God sent His only son to be the ultimate sacrifice and pay the penalty for our sin. It's a free gift! You can't earn it, can't go to church enough, can't give enough money or do enough good deeds. You must confess your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He will forgive you, and you will have a deep peace that the world can't take away.

God's Gifts to us! We were so thankful for the Lord's help with Natasha's Jr/Sr Banquet that she was invited to attend. A friend loaned us the dress and we were able to find the jacket at Penny's and material to match to make the sleeves modest and Jesus helped our local Grocery store to run a special on Roses just last week. Then Jesus helped one Mommy to make the wrist corsage, all from her Daddy! One special young lady, God has blessed us with... and we PRAISE HIM!

A Boy's BEST Friend!!! Bryan's favorite past time... only down side is one HAS to have a bath after playing with THIS Friend named, Diesel! But it's worth it!

God's Gift Of Music! How we thank the Lord for His help to our girls in all of the music recitals that they have had the privilege of being a part of this month. Here is a picture of all of the musicians that participated in the Piano Concert that was sponsored by Martha Miller, the girls piano teacher. This was a lovely evening of piano quartets and duets. Over 30 young people and teachers participating! We thank the Lord for this blessing!
This is a "canned picture" which the girls neither one like... but that was the best way to get a good shot of them, since I'm not an "up-front" person to want to run up there and get a picture while they were performing! :) Natasha and Brittany played on one piano, while Mrs. Miller and another 8th grader played on the other piano. It was really nice. Natasha also played in another piano quartet with 3 other pianist from our Church, Christian Nation Church!

My lack of photographer abilities proved out once again, as I was the only one to take pictures of their recent violin recital too! Daryl had class both of these nights so had to "hear" over the cell-phone so couldn't be there. So Sad! The girls each played pieces that were a reach for them. Their teacher challenged each of her students by raising the bar a little higher for this recital. This was NO SMALL FEAT for our Haushold as we had 2 other recitals vying for their practice time too, plus the routine of school work etc. Much prayer was made and many hours of practice, but once again the Lord came and touched and how we praise Him!

Darla piece was entitled: "Minute II" by Bach... After this recital her violin will be framed. You see it is the little 1st violin that all three girls started out playing! (My niece Kimberly Anna Dickinson also used this as her 1st violin!) So it is my dream to have this one framed! Bryan isn't thinking about playing violin, for it's too "girly" for him, he says! :) Boys!!!

Brittany's piece was entitled: the "Concerto #23 by Viotti"
And Natasha's piece was entitled: "Concerto No.9 in A Minor, Op. 104 (1st movement) by De Beriot".
All of them really needed God's help and wanted to make sure that we took the time after the concert was over to THANK THE LORD for His touch and help! God is SOOOO good! Enough of the music notes!!! Another PLAY on words! :) ~Laura~

Craziness! This picture is especially for A. Heather and Kimberly. When we went to Colombia Brittany happened to mention that if we found some cute sun-glasses to get her a pair..and Darla declared that she too wanted a pair. So on our last day their we went to market and got these funny sun-glasses. They make your eyes work double-time! :)
Hope they make you laugh.
Natasha ~

Who's counting those Candles?! Where have the years gone?! We love you, Natasha! Natasha was "over cake" so she asked for a Peanut Butter Pie this year... with all of those candles it looked a bit "shell shocked!" :)

Happy Birthday, Natasha! How glad we are that Jesus sent you to us. My how the time has flown though! We pray that you'll always seek God's best! We love you so much!

Our Easter/Birthday meal together!

A Few of Her Favorite Things! We usually make quite a to-do with Birthdays around our Haus! This year was no exception... I asked Natasha early enough to plan what she wanted for her birthday meal and got an unusual request! She asked that I make something that we were served over in Romania by some dear friends. Her request? Homemade Schnitzel with Noodles! Yikes,... that was a new one for me to make... so I wrote and asked our dear friend, Sally Sebo, for help. She was so kind as to translate this recipe for me and also gave me a website to "see" it all... Thanks so much, Sally. Here's the finished product! I was thankful for the Lord's help! For those of you "Sound of Music" lovers, you may recall that Schnitzel with noodles is one of her favorite things listed in that song, "My Favorite Things"!


Resurrection Eggs! You can only see a couple of them... but these have become a very real part of our Easter Celebration each year. Years ago while on Deputation we were invited to have dinner with some dear friends who introduced us to the Resurrection Eggs and then gave the set to us after dinner was over. We will never forget your kindness, Beckers, We love you! How could we have known that years later God would lead us here and that we get to have you as our mission directors?! Thanks again so much for your love and support!
That's the news from our Haus! Laura ~ (with MUCH of Natasha's help!!)

Happy birthday to the most wonderful Pop-Pop! Thank you for being such a great grandfather! We love you all LOTS!!!
Hope you have a great day!
Love,
Natasha ,Brittany ,Darla ,and Bryan~

On our way up the mountain we had to go through a really LONG tunnel.

Just barely hanging on! This is Elijah hanging on to the rails at the top of the train. Don't worry Daddy was holding him by the waist.
This is another picture on our way. Here we are passing a train going down.


This is right after we got off the train at the top of the mountain.


And we are finally up at the top! This is overlooking Bogota.
It was a gorgeous view!
More to come...
Natasha~

He is Risen! And every good Russian would respond, "He is risen, indeed!" In Russian, the word for Sunday ,"Vas Cresaynyuh", means Resurrection.

Laura and the kids made these homemade Reese's peanut butter eggs and distributed them to our wonderful neighbors.

Here is a REAL LIVE Llama! It was really neat to get to see one!
This is the mountain that we rode up. You could hike it, but it is not recommended for American's for their safety.
Our last day in Colombia we had the privilege to go to Simon Bolivar's house. For those of you who have no clue who he is....he helped to liberate several of the South American countries. Being a history lover, I really enjoyed it.

This is Simon Bolivar's dining room.
This is the back of his house. Right behind were the picture was taken there is beautiful gardens and the huge mountain that we were on. It was beautiful!
Hope you enjoy,
Natasha~

I apologize for the few pictures of Kimberly for she was always running around working with me. Here is one of the good pictures that we got the day before we left.
And here is the famous "EWWWW Gross Desert" or "Dirt." It looks disgusting, but it was actually VERY good!
This is Pastor Alberto and Pastor Rigoberto laughing at being served "Dirt and Worms"!
As always, more pictures to come! :)
Natasha~

It is a family tradition, at least for the younger Dickinson's, that as soon as Family devotions are finished they run and get a piggy back ride from U. Phillip. Here they are getting a wild horsey ride instead!
Elijah's impression of Wayne. Here he is drinking hot sauce!

A Few Random pictures while helping around the house! Elijah making a silly face!

An everyday occurrence!

Here I am with a favorite pastime....doing dishes!


Here is me eating a Colombian fruit. It would be similar to a pomegranate. The juice was good, but the texture of the seeds was hard to get used to (if you can't tell by my face)! Elijah loves these and so he helped me finish mine!
Hope you enjoy! More pictures to come.
Natasha~

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!