Vacation 3

Hello to all in Lighthouse land. We are on our return voyage home and have stopped through Morgantown, WV to avoid a Hotel charge halfway. (hey, I believe in honesty)

Anyhow, this is the first that we have had reliable internet and I was watching some things that Brian Mensch as uploaded to the website. (Yes, I am missing our church)...Anyhow - Wow!! What a great job Josh French and Kelley Evans did on the Penny Whistle and Piano - -what a wonderful reminder that the Lord leads us like a shepherd. It was also nice to see the reminder on Memorial Day that "All Across the Country, the Country needs the Cross" --- that is certainly true of America.

As you see in the picture - I had some Fishing Fortune with the help of Mr. Powell's borrowed lures.

Well, we will be back in Delaware tomorrow night, so be sure to stop by our house and help us unload and unpack! ttfn

PW

On Vacation 2

Well, I finally got around to writing the second installment in our vacation series.

The drive to Chincoteague was a couple of hundred miles. Going regular highway speed, we should have gotten there in maybe 2 1/2 hours or so...however, both Mapquest and TomTom kept saying longer. There is a certain torturous value to seeing 60 miles to your destination and driving 1 1/2 hours and still no destination.

I guess it is the stop and go of that particular Route that winds through towns, etc. This actually was good for Amy as she needed to stop periodically because of the pregnancy. We were able to hit a real nice Goodwill and peruse other people's junk for 30 minutes or so. Also, we made an excursion off the road to find a "Case Knife Store" for the boys who enjoy whittling and other dangerous things that boys do with knives. Andrew has quite a nice collection of knives and Daniel is well on his way. We have only had one minor accident with a minor wound last year on vacation. It healed.

The Island of Chincoteague and Assateague (sp?) are very nice. There is a good balance between tourism shops and wilderness adventure. There is also a very nice beach that is big enough (long enough) to get alone. We were here preseason, so the people were minimal and the ocean was ours to enjoy.

The Atlantic was brutally cold and only Abbie and Andrew spent extended time in it. Abbie seems to have a "polar bear" ability to endure such numbing temperatures. I went in for a minute and literally went numb all over. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

We were overjoyed to find out that NASA was launching a Rocket from their Wallop Facility which is beside the Island. We went out to the shore and watched the rocket soar into the sky. The children were delighted as were we.

Well, this week will find us in Amy's Parent's cabin in Fancy Gap, Va. It is a beautiful little place tucked away off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is in a Golf Course community, in the woods with its own fishing Pond. Mr. Powell "hooked" me up with some promising lures to snag large mouth bass. I have caught only a few, but know from the experiences of others that they lurk in the pond.

We will also enjoy Antiquing, perhaps a trip to Pilot Mountain (Andy Griffith Show), a trip into Galax for some good BBQ, hiking through the woods, and quiet reading on the deck of the cabin. There is also a "Game Center" not far away with Arcade, Laser tag, etc. for the kids. Oh....I failed to mention the llama farm. Nice llama...
Amy's folks have a golf cart so we generally scoot around the golf course and area in joyful glee.

Well, that's enough for now. I am supposed to exercise with Abbie, so see you later! Don't know if installment 3 will be written. Poor internet access at the cabin.

PW

On Vacation 1

Packing up for vacation can be a dangerous experience. In our home, packing begins a few days before the actual trip when the suitcases are pulled up from storage and Amy begins to layout the children’s clothes.

I must admit, my packing is much easier than hers. The older children pack themselves and Amy checks what they have chosen giving instruction along the way. Ellie, of course is given the task to pack a “toy backpack”. This year I found Ellie on her floor crying as she had three “toy backpacks” around her unable to stuff her blankie in any of them for lack of space. She still so sweetly mispronounces the word “bag” as “bay-ug”.

Amy works from a master list that she created years ago that has everything neatly listed that she and the family will need. I work “buffet” style, walking around the room, thinking about what I want to pack returning several times to the same drawers and closet. My one “strangety” is putting everything in my toiletry bag the night before instead of waiting till morning. This includes things I will use the next morning. I guess I am afraid I will leave something behind, so there is a higher chance of taking it if it is already in the bag.

There is a longstanding "frictionous" point the morning that we leave. It seems to me that it takes hours to actually pull out of the driveway. I feel like Amy decides to spring clean the morning we leave for vacation. Of course, the truth is that she is being thorough so the family will not forget anything. I just think of all those cars that are getting ahead of me on the highway. One very disciplined habit that Amy has is leaving the house clean so we return to a neat home from vacation…..OH THIS KILLS ME !!! She obviously is the more mature of our relationship.

I help her and she actually writes down jobs for each of the kids to do on that morning. I do big stuff and actually pack the car……but my packing philosophy provides for the biggest suitcases to go first, which of course are the last things Amy finishes before we leave. Ugggh.

I normally am at the point of losing it when I physically pick up each of the kids and buckle them into the car….I don’t care how large my children are getting, road rage gives a man supernatural strength. So there we are, car (now truck) running waiting on Amy to actually lock the door and buckle in. I remember one year getting so tense waiting for her to get in the van that I barked at her asking what took her so long… she honestly replied that I had forgot some personal items and I felt about an inch tall.

So we all get buckled in. We have a ritual of Amy putting the second car into the driveway and then we all pray together for safety. Driving out of the development is rough because Amy is scanning her memory to think of items she has forgotten. I am trying to make it to the highway to make up lost time. As we add children I think we would do very hard to make it out of the driveway by 9am. (And this getting up at 6-6:30am!) Although I am bearing honesty in these lines, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate Amy that is the brains of organizing everything from the children’s clothing to the food we take.

This year, packing was a delight with our new (to us) Suburban. We struggled over this decision, but now it is a no-brainer to us. Somewhere between 3-5 children a Suburban makes a lot of sense. There is tons of room for packing, tons of room for growing children to move around, and let’s face it – tons of fun to drive this “beast”. I like to “kid” about all the hybrids I run over.

Well, that is packing…stay tuned for Vacation 2 – “the 180 miles and 4 ½ hours to Chincoteague Island”

Answer To Prayer!

I am praising the Lord tonight and all day long about the meeting with DelDot this morning.

Several weeks ago, DelDot had limited our Building Plan to one entrance off of Otts Chapel Rd. Our Engineer was happy that we got this 4 motion entrance/exit. After prayer and agreement from the Deacons and Building Team, we asked for a meeting to appeal the decision. We did not know what this may bring, and had been warned not to "stir the pot". However, I felt deeply that a frontal entrance was important to our project.

I praise the Lord that DelDot understood our reasons and agreed to the Old Baltimore Pike entrance. All that is left of the issue is for the Engineer to draw it up and address the engineering details.

We praise the Lord. This is a direct answer to prayer and evidence of the good hand of our God that is the giver of all good gifts.

S________

Amy and I met a very nice lady today named S______. This lady has just moved here from Texas and her husband is a contractor in Iraq. She was a dear sister in the Lord and she shared her testimony with joy and praise to the Lord.

She has 3 children. An older teen boy and twin 16 month olds. Wow. She had 6 miscarriages after her first boy and finally told the Lord she would stop trying to have children. Through a surprise pregnancy, God gave her twins. A beautiful boy and girl. Amen.

She doesn't have a church yet and lives near LBC. She was excited to be invited to our services and we ended our meeting in park with prayer together. One of the last things she told us was she was headed for Kmart and stopped at the Park on a whim. She was so glad she stopped and so were we.

Praise you Lord for saving people and allowing us to fellowship together! How happy heaven will be...

Praising and Learning

I am just praising the Lord tonight for His direction and care for our family. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I come to decisions that take faith I am fearful. I seem to forget that the Lord has directly guided us so many times, and He WILL do it again.

Sometimes, I chalk God's guiding up to coincidence. That is lack of faith. I am learning through experience that there is no logical way to explain away how many times the Lord has provided for and directed our family.

We have recently been praying for an issue that took a lot of faith. There was turmoil, the temptation of doubt, the fear of being alone in the decision, the disappointment of an unexpected turn, etc. -- but the Lord guided us and we are sure that we trusted Him in the decision.

I am learning that trusting the Lord may go against what you think you want or should get at the beginning. God often may choose a decision for you that you don't want. You may not understand why God guides a certain way and you may even be disappointed. But, were you wanting your own way or the best way? Were you wanting your will or His will? Trusting God means going His direction with the assurance that where He is leading is better. No matter what, in the end, whether you see it or not, His way is better. This is faith.

I know that God speaks to us through His Word. My decisions must be based on some Biblical principle. Some times, that principle may simply be James 1 prayer for wisdom. When we pray this way and we don't have a verse to rest on, we must believe the Lord has given us the wisdom to make the decision. We can make the decision in assurance and not look back in regret or fear.

At my last Master's class, I debated with a Pastor at my BJU class about discerning God's Will by "feeling". You cannot trust your "feelings". You shouldn't make decisions primarily based on "feelings". People who base their decisions on "omens" and "feelings" regularly make unwise decisions that may even conflict with principles in Scripture and Godly counsel. This is wrong....... However, I concede that God does assure His will to us sometimes through a "peace" that is hard to explain. Sometimes, it is the experience of many believers to know in their hearts exactly what the Lord wants them to do. I do not doubt this as long as it "run through" the filter of God's Word. I do not find this is my case often in decisions. Some of the best decisions I have made have been raw faith without much "peace".

When I have a large decision to make, I nearly always read Proverbs. I usually just open Proverbs and read several chapters to get my mind thinking as God's. Sometimes there are principles from verses that directly apply to what I am trying to decide. Sometimes it just quiets my heart and gets me thinking like God to ponder the Proverbs. In all cases, it is good.

We have the promise of Scripture that the Lord will direct our paths "if we acknowledge Him". I am working on "liking" that at the beginning of something that seems to go wrong as well as at the end. God can be trusted. I am learning.