It was Mother's Day/ Baptism

Kyle and Grace were to be baptized along with others from the Church. 

It was a refreshingly, lovely service. 

Refreshing to be in the beautiful sun and breeze..

Refreshing to watch people take another step in the following of Christ.

Lovely because of the of being together with the Saints

Lovely because of the Presence of the Spirit 

 "Now, Nelson has a song for us..." says the moderator. He walks to the front and starts talking about Mother's day. I look over at Derek with the arm in the cast and say " 'Thank you Mamma'! Yes? " We both smile and nod predicting the future. Sure enough! He calls up the the family in the audience (they had no idea) and picks up the guitar "A song we've sung hundreds of times..." I wait for it..."A song called 'Thank You Mamma for Praying for Me'". I love hearing them sing together at random. 

Then there was children's songs that Nelson is so good at getting together. 

"If you're happy and you know it wear a smile YIPPPEEE!"

Powerful message by Mr. Beiler. 

Gracie shares her testimony (It was sweet and sincere.)... 

and likewise Kyle (it was a base-voiced, made-us-laugh, testimony)

The water was a might chilly. :)

"...in the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost"

under

up

and prayer of blessing

"buried with Him in baptism..."

"that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life"

 And the closing prayer, after river-side singing, with hands held and lifted together. 

That special baptism day was also Mother's day. 

and so the evening was spent with picnicing, talking, croquet-playing, Andy Griffith watching, and sharing blessings to our beloved Mother together.

Mother-food

Fresh Strawberries and homemade yogurt.

Compromises and treats.

Mother's Day photo 2013

Prayer for the food and Daddy thanks God for Her.

They're the cutest. 

Sitting around chatting.

There was frisbee and croquet

 

Father was winner, of course. We say he's best at all those Amish games. :) 

Controversial hits, there was. 

Kyle...all alone...in the woods...where I hit his ball far, far away. :)

Of Mother's Day activities un-pictured: 

• Friday night, 2-hour, body massage until nearly two AM (For the house is more quite at that time.). It was lovely, just Mother and I...music and essential oils. 
• Crepe for Sunday morning breakfast.
• Chocolate-Raspberry, sugar-free, cheesecake that we moaned and groaned over. You would never have guessed it's healthy sugar-freeness and we certainly thought it the element. :) 
• Blessing time in the living room concluded with the singing of her favorite song and such. 
• The drama that took place in getting Men excited about picnic dainties when there could have been a soccer game to attend, but in the end it was beautiful and we learned and we grew and we had a splendid time.

We are so incredibly grateful for our Mother. 

We are so aware of how we are not grateful enough.

We should have more Mother's Days in a year.

We should remember to bless and encourage all her sacrifice every day.

We stand amazed at how God can use a woman to influence us and our home so much.

We thank God for His life we see in her.

We are grateful that we can learn and grow together.

We are so grateful for His love to us-, undeserving, and how He uses Mother to show us this.

~Deborah Isabel

February/ March recap.

Sometimes we get super motivated to stay up-to-date here on this blog.Then reality sets in. Therefore, we are here, once more, doing a bit of back-tracking.  

Prison Crusade beginning of Feb. just after Mother and Father came back from Thailand. It was a blessed and learning time! Dumbfounded at pain that Jesus can heal and lives that He can change. Men and women behind bars...and they can be FREE! Above is a coffee shop gathering during the day before we went into prison. It's always so enriching to meet up with the other ministry teams that come for the weekend and have rich fellowship between prison services. Below, local SC friends have us and the Esh family over for lunch. 

 Then it was off to Fl. for tent meetings and an auction. The Bontragers followed us there! Happy were we! Above is a group of young people gathered to play "Church" (The new and improved "Mafia" taught to us by the Bontragers. :)) after a Sunday night service.

Lunch at our favorite Fl. restaurant with friends from Michigan! 

A marvelous week of tent meetings were concluded with a auction and all that goes with such a weekend. Above is Eugene gracefully loading sound equipment after it's all over. 

 In March we did a trip that started with a wedding in PA, took a fun and rejoiced-over stop in Holmes County, and finished with revival meetings in Plain City OH. Free days in Holmes County make for much fun! Here we have tea with some of our nearest and dearest concluded with a color ananlasis session. 

  Mothers do this after supper. 

Daughters Skype their incredibly missed friends in Thailand. That was good. 

Grace orders hot chocolate at Rabecca's Bistro, and my, they know how to do it right. 

Revival meetings were held in Plain City OH. Saturday morning the men gathered for a few sessions together and the afternoon was the ladies time. We enjoyed a lovely display of food, and two sessions together. One of the sessions being focused on godly clothing which included three hours of color analyzing. :) 

  We had supper with them on this Saturday night, then the table was removed from the dining room and the instruments were brought out. It was a sweet time. 

I smile when I see this picture. Daddy is crying as the Pastor blesses him. 

And then we were home (and ready for it, to say the least! We were home about 2 days in 2 months).  The Penners were at our home church Sunday morning and we so enjoyed having them for lunch and playing music together!

Sunday night at church was called "Talent night". What fun that was. :)

We got two of the Penners to play with us in a most impromptu fashion. (No, we don't consider a guard-rail as appropriate church decor. :) Pastor Jason has been doing a message series on "guardrails", so, hence. )

He got a" standing O" for good reason. 

And this nearly made you cry for joy. Beautiful musical drama by these ladies. 

A quartet that Nelson called up to the stage at random. They even coordinated! 

Home is for haircuts and Saturday mornings at home. Eugene and Grace are in PJs for their devotions on this Saturday and it's better together. (Birthday present signifies Daddy turning 43.)

Disclaimer:

  Our life isn't glamourous, no matter how many pictures of coffee and tea outings we post. :)  These are beautiful times, indeed, but the only true richness of our life is the realization of who He is and how that changes the way we live. We are blessed, indeed, to be the "guests" everywhere we go and how people treat us to lovely times we don't deserve. But don't be fooled, this is not our joy nor the reality of our every-day lives, it is a beautiful aspect, and only that. What really brings fulfillment is our time alone with Jesus (Which suffers so much when we're on the road, which sometimes makes for dis-hearted Millers) and allowing Him to use us. But sometimes those moments in which the real richness of life takes place a camera is not appropriate, or you just want to relish and forget about capturing, so all you see is the tea and coffee dates. :) Sorry.

   This has been re-capping with Deborah.
   Tune in next time for a more recent life-update (maybe).
 
 

~Deborah Miller