The Angels are Rejoicing!

For the past year or so Kayla has been talking about getting saved, but she is so goofy that we never knew when she was serious. Plus, she was easily distracted so we never pushed. Lela has been interested for a few months now, but when we would ask her about it she would say she "didn't understand yet" so once again, we'd let it go.
This morning I opened "Call To Glory", a Baptist devotion book, to see what the subject was about (sometimes they're not appropriate for kids) and saw that it was about Salvation. I just knew that Kayla would get saved because of it! The devil was really fighting; the phone rang twice while I was reading, Noah couldn't pronounce half of the words in the passage and got mad when I said I would read it, Anna was flinging water all over everyone from her cup, and the girls were more interested in giggling than listening. I had to really fight the urge to give up and just start school!
We got through the devotion which was about Paul talking to Felix about the Lord, and I asked Kayla what she thought about the lesson. She said that everyone has to be saved or they won't go to Heaven. Lela was raising her hand so I asked her what she thought, she said, "Last night when we were praying (prayer meeting at church) I was crying because I knew I needed to get saved but I was too scared." That hit me like a ton of bricks! I didn't notice her crying. So we talked about it and both girls said they wanted to be saved right then! I made sure they understood that they were sinners, that they couldn't go to Heaven because of that sin, and that Jesus died on the cross so they could go to Heaven instead of Hell!
So I texted Caleb and asked him to come home, and he rushed over to the trailer. We talked to the girls and then I took Lela into our bedroom and Caleb stayed in the Living Room and talked to Kayla. They both asked the Lord to save them! Lela was so sweet, I told her what to pray and she repeated and was crying! She was so happy. Kayla was giggly and happy as always and was jumping around the trailer singing every song with the word "saved" that she knew!
They of course wanted to tell everyone they know right away so we went from trailer to trailer telling everyone and then made about twenty phone calls!! It was so sweet to hear them tell what happened and to see their excited little faces. And what a burden that was lifted for Caleb and me! To know that all four of our children will go to Heaven with us is a better feeling that I ever imagined. I am ready for the Lord to come back, before Anna is old enough to understand!!!

It is hot here!

The heat is starting to kick in, here in Southern Kansas! Yesterday it got up to 92degrees and with the humidity, it feels a lot hotter! I'm having a hard time convincing the kids to play outside when I don't even want to go outside. The men seem to be taking the heat well, they all have their big straw hats and plenty of water to drink.
This is our last week of school, and then we will go to part-time school. I'm excited about doing science projects with the kids and learning about different history topics! I have also had my eye on a math program called Math U See. It is a little pricey new so I've been scouting it out on Ebay to see if I can get it cheaper. Unfortunately it's a popular program and everyone wants it cheap, so the bids really add up, especially when you include the shipping! My dad has the manipulatives that he's willing to send me ($30 value) but I still need the Teacher's Manual, Student Manual, Test booklet, and DVD. After I had looked on Ebay and saw that those were going for no less than $50 plus shipping, I decided to try Craigslist, just in case. It just so happens that a man in a town not too far from here is selling all of that except the DVD for $20 and is willing to meet us halfway! Praise the Lord! So I'm waiting to hear from him, when we can meet. God is so good to provide!
It seems our laundry situation is working out for now. The Pastor's inlaws (Titus and Cynthia Mohler) have graciously allowed us NTCP members to use their washer and dryer while they are gone on deputation bouts, so I am able to spend a few hours there washing the clothes, and then I can hang them outside to dry in the natural Kansas wind! Thank you Lord for providing a dryer! I just make sure that I wash the undergarments and towels first so those can dry in the dryer while the others wash!
The building is going well, as usual. They are putting up the corner things, not sure what they're called, and this weekend the trusses will go up for the roof.
Thank you for the prayers and the support! And for reading my lowly thoughts. :)

Watch out, Dorothy!

Being in Kansas during tornado season certainly is testing our faith! There have been a few high wind storms and a few rain storms, but yesterday was our first tornado scare! There were storms all the way up through Oklahoma and Kansas and we were waiting all day to see if one would come near us. Thankfully, the Lord saw fit to have the storms go around us and the worst we got was some thunder! Praise the Lord!
There are quite a few families here now (6 in total) and the walls are going up fast! They took yesterday (Monday) off because of the threat of storms and it was misting and cold. But today it is sunny and they've been working hard!
We are going home for a few days starting tomorrow. We have dentist, doctor and eye appointments all set up. Plus, our little Kayla is graduating Kindergarten on Thursday!! She is so excited and she's getting a special haircut tonight to celebrate. I'm so proud of her, she's been working hard and is doing great. Today she read "neck" today without having to sound it out! And the phrase "Can Jill wink?" We were excited.
I have a silly little prayer request, if you could keep it in mind. Doing laundry is getting to be quite a chore, and we need to find a solution. The only laundromat here in Anthony is small (two washers, two dryers) and to wash clothes there I have to spend 4 hours in a tiny room with all four kids, or go back and forth all day which is quite tiring. There is a laundromat in Harper (15 minutes away) but it is really expensive ($2 to wash, $2 to dry) and it only has four working dryers, so once again, I'd be spending a long time there. The only other options are to either do drop-off service which charges by the pound, or to buy a washer/dryer combo so I could do laundry here. Because of space I need to do laundry every 5-7 days and it is very hard to spend an entire morning or afternoon at a laundromat or going back and forth to one. A washer/dryer combo would probably be best but they're around $1000. and we don't have that kind of money! If you could please pray that we could come up with a solution that works best for everyone I would appreciate it! Anyone that has done laundry at a laundromat would understand my problem!
Kayla lost a tooth today, with a little help from Daddy! Now she says the one next to it is loose. We are keeping the teeth in a jar!
On a closing note, anyone have any advice for getting a 10 month old to eat more than avacadoes, bananas and Gerber chicken sticks? She absolutely will not eat anything else!

Things are going well here in Anthony. They got the plumbing laid, the concrete poured, and the gas and water hooked up. I think they're starting the framing next week.
We have been busy, going to several meetings in Kansas. We were in Andover, Kansas for a Sunday night; Hillsboro, Kansas the next Sunday night; and this week we're in Attica, Kansas for a Missions Conference! It is such a blessing to be able to present our ministry! I was also able to play the piano at several churches, Caleb was able to sing and preach.
The kids are extremely excited to be almost done with school! Noah has finished all but one of his PACE's, we are waiting for a few more to be delivered so he can be on the same number in all of his subjects. Kayla is doing great in her reading, once she decided she could read, she has been doing great! She reads blends she hasn't learned about. This summer I am thinking about doing things a little differently. I am thinking of doing one subject a day, and making it fun with everyone involved. I'm thinking of doing a math day, science day, history day, and a something else day. I am going to start planning it, if anyone has any ideas!

Anthony, Kansas

Well here we are in Anthony, Kansas! Caleb considers this "home", because he was born here and then graduated from high school here, even though in between those times he lived all over western Kansas!

Caleb started doing the ground-in plumbing today, and the concrete will get poured on Saturday. The church is very exciting to get started on the construction, and things seem to be going smoothly.

Caleb was able to get a Bond so that he could pull permits. Bro. Newkirk seems to think it went well because Caleb is a graduate of the High School here!

The family is doing well, we are so excited for Spring to be here and we love being parked right next to the job site! The kids are loving playing outside.

As I said in my last update, we were able to get a bigger, newer trailer! It has been such a blessing and it is so nice to be able to send all four kids to bed in their own beds! And it's also nice to be able to shut the door to their room so they can play, and I can sit on the couch in quiet!

The Lord has been good to us, and has provided for us through other churches. We were given money to get a new laptop, and we also have a new supporting church! Praise the Lord!

Thank you for the prayers!

We have had a busy last couple of weeks! Our Missions Conference was great! The messages were challenging, the fellowship was sweet, and even though our numbers were down big time, I think it was the best one we've ever had!
On Sunday the 21st we were supposed to be in a church in Sperry, OK in the morning and Ponca City, OK at night but because we had a "blizzard" on Saturday we weren't able to make our morning meeting. It was the craziest thing, we had 70+ degree weather on Friday, snow blizzard and 20's on Saturday, 50's on Sunday and by Sunday night you couldn't even tell we had a snowstorm, much less a blizzard! That's Oklahoma in the Spring for you!
We did make it to Ponca City Sunday night, since most of the snow was melted by noon. We had a wonderful time at Second Baptist Church. The people were so friendly right from the start, and we felt very welcomed. We had told them previously that our laptop was slowly dying; we couldn't depend on it to turn on and when we would get it on, sometimes it would shut off for no apparent reason. They took up an offering for us and the total came to $640 and some odd cents. The next day we went to Walmart (then Best Buy, then back to Walmart! lol) and bought a laptop with all of the extras we were wanting, plus a carrying case, for just two dollars under the love offering amount! It was amazing to see God provide exactly what we needed!
Caleb has still been busy working on our Associate Pastor's house, getting it ready for them to be able to move into it. He took Wednesday off to make some phone calls and was able to set up some meetings in Kansas! Praise the Lord!
Our ETA for Anthony, Kansas is now somewhere in the second week of April.
And now for our biggest news: the Lord has blessed us with a new trailer! As you know, we were given a 29' trailer in October. It was a huge blessing then, and it has been since, but we have been praying that we would be able to purchase one that has an extra bedroom in the future. We were able to meet the Means family, who are missionaries to Mexico, when we were in Russellville. They are leaving for Mexico very soon and were needing to sell their fifth wheel, or they were planning on putting it in storage. Everyone involved felt that God had brought us together, so we could meet each others' needs! The trailer is a 40' fifth wheel, it has four slideouts, an extra room with two bunks (four beds total) and is available right now!
We need to raise some more support to be able to completely take over the payments, so please pray the we would be able to do this, but we are exciting about what God has provided so far and how He will provide in the future!

Back Home!

We are back home in Mustang, Oklahoma now. We came back for our church's Big Day on the 7th. Our goal was 300 but we had 240, Praise the Lord! We had a lot of visitors and we're hoping to get some good prospects out of the day.
We are now in our Missions Conference and the devil is fighting right and left! First our main speaker found out halfway here that his mom died, so he had to turn around and go to Florida to deal with that. And then, one of the missionary's had put on their schedule to be here April 14th, not March 14th! We only had one Missionary family left. While in Russellville we had met a family to Mexico, the Means, and they were available this week and willing, so they joined us Sunday night.
So far the Conference has been a blessing! We are looking forward to what else the Lord has for our church. Bro. Means called a Missions Conference the "Annual Business Meeting to see how blessed we want our church to be". And it's so true! If a church isn't supporting Missions, they aren't going to grow and the Lord isn't going to bless.
We were surprised and blessed to be presented with two gift baskets Tuesday night and tonight Caleb is able to make a presentation of what we've been doing in Arkansas and preach.
We will be staying in Oklahoma for a while, until we can go to our next project, probably in Anthony, Kansas. Right now that project is expected to start the third week of April.
This Sunday we have a meeting in Ponca City, Oklahoma and one in Sperry, Oklahoma. We also have a meeting in April in Kingman, Kansas.
Please pray that we are able to raise some more support! I hope to be able to update this more often than I have been.