Fall Traveling Kick-off.

   The last of the Western Tour pictures have finally been posted. Western Tour now seems rather a distant memory. We've had a delightful ("delight"-yes. "full"-yes.) summer after Western Tour, spending about a month at home, having a graduation, enjoying input time at conferences,  stay-cation (where one stays at home for vacation. ;)) and summer home projects. Then September held a three week trip to begin the fall travels.

          So here pictured (emphasis on the "pictured") is the very eventful,  joyful, Sept. trip.

First Stop: Lancaster, PA

Purpose: Wedding

Time spent: 7 hours

Unpictured, but worthy memories in our minds.

Second Stop: Holmes County, OH
Purpose:(on our way to Michigan) Grandmother in hospital, family to visit and enjoy, and friends to bond with.
Time spent: 3 days
Unpictured here

Third Stop: Sturgis Michigan
Purpose: Church Revival Meetings at Calvary Chapel
Time spend: One week 

 One night after a service Mother and Father went to Wal Mart to get carpets for the motor home and us Children stayed at the Church (which was "home" for the week), snacked, chatted, and played volleyball. As we were bumping the volleyball around,  Kyle went into a random funny fit and ran out of the fellowship hall into the main church area. We all smiled at his random escape then heard him say "GUYS! COME HERE! QUICK!" 

"He's joking and he's just going to scare us when we come around the corner." I say rolling my eyes. 

But the other brothers still fallowed after his plea, and I do too after I hear there really is something going on in there.

Needless to say, as Kyle was running through the dark church in his socks he ran into a big water puddle! Now, because very few of you have experienced running through a dark church I might have to explain that this is not normal. :)

The nursery pipes had some manner of leak that caused quite a bit of flooding throughout the church within about an hour. We were glad that Kyle is a man of random joys (such as suddenly leaving a room to go church-running. ) so that the whole church wasn't flooded by morning. :) 

(Above) Grace is puddle-juming by the coat racks. :) 

AH. We love the people in Sturgis Michigan, they were impeccably generous and gave us a great many cookies and memories. :)  

^Sunday night we enjoyed outdoor volleyball, prisoners base, homemade pizza, and Ships Ahoy with the youth. 

These two siblings (Pastor Dana and Gina's) delighted my heart. Confident and fun-loving, it was a pleasure to get to know them. All of them. 

A time of blessing and sharing.

Such a delightful group of ladies I got to know there. Honestly, meeting each one was a complete pleasure and getting to know each one shaped me more into His likeness. 

 note: There is no Sturgis Michigan/Calvory Chapel "guy picture" because guys don't do that type of thing, you know. But the Brothers bonded amazingly with the group of guys there too. They had an incredible blast with them. 

Fourth Stop: Holmes County, OH (again)

Purpose: To see Grandmother who returned from hospital, visit family that was unseen form the last trip, Living Hope auction to help out with, and more friend-bonding.

Time spent:1 day

We'd see random people that we saw on our last little trip to Ohio and they'd say "are you still here?" 

"No. We left and came back for a day. :)"

Grandma (right) is of the dearest ladies I know. When she laughs she puts the back of her hand over her mouth (pictured.). She's precious to all of us. We were so glad to see her back in her rocking chair. She just functions better when she's at home. 

Cousin time. Butterfly that just hatched that morning was being let into freedom. 

At this time we'd like to have a Martha Stewart segment for this post. Only, we don't call her Mather Stewart, we call her Martha Kline (But she's pretty much the same deal without a camera crew.). She doesn't consider herself, thus, however. 

When we play gestures or catch-phrase as a family and a word like "organic" comes up all we say is "Aunt Martha!" and everyone yells "Organic!" :) 

Now, she by no means lives in a little, natural, organic, bubble; she lives life real and simple with Husband, four boys, a dog,  and tries to do it naturally. ;) I learn a lot whenever I'm with her. 

{I could post about all my relatives and all I learn from all of them, just so you know. I'm rather blessed}. 

Here she is, eating her maple-syrup sweetened, puffed spelt on her lovely deck. 

Sisters pose by the lovely gardens. (Photo Credit to Grace)

Here she get supplies from her Husband-made garden shed to give us fresh veggies. 

Grace and Tyler do duets on the piano. 

Fifth Stop: Vicksburg PA

Purpose: Church Revival Meetings at Vicksburg

Time spent: Half week

I give you a little peak into motor-home bed time (once it finally comes). Here Grace and I sing a favorite lullaby in Pennsylvania Dutch and English before we turn bunk-lights off. On most "normal" motor-home nights, once we all crawl into bed I get out my journal and write until the awkward bunk-writing position is no longer bearable, Kyle listens to his iPod and as I journal I hear him singing along with the base line (he gets great pleasure out of this.:), Derek likes to read if he has a good book  (He also enjoys going through all his ringtones trying to find the right tone for his alarm the next morning and you're thinking "WHY NOW!?" :)), Eugene reads his Daily Bread and Bible, and Grace says "good night" and "I love you guys" more then once (She has also recently enjoyed sticking her hand down into my buck and doing the sign language to "I love you". She's rather sentimental.) 

Pictured is a time of family blessing and sharing. 

One thing that amazed me so much on this trip was how broken young hearts become when spoken life into. I see young siblings crying on each others' shoulders and young ladies weeping in their parents arms. These are not young people who  come from "hurting families", rather healthy ones, infact, and I think to myself "Aren't' they too young to even understand this whole blessing thing?" . How is it that such young hearts that haven't even faced all the hardness of this world could become so broken over Mother and Father blessing them for what they do, who they are, and ending it with "I love you". Shouldn't they know, in a very blissful sort of way, that they are loved? Shouldn't they just know?

In this amazement I've seen that, truth be known, we as humans are simply made to have words of life spoken into our lives for us to really know them to be true.The beautiful thing is His words are all life, so as believers we have access to knowledge of love and blessing that unbelievers can never know as fully. 

But the little ones; I ask myself: "how in the world could I ever get so caught up with life that I don't tell  my little sister each day how very special she is to me?"  THAT'S RIDICULOUS! That's not business (blessing really doesn't take that long), that's unawareness of the brevity of life, unawareness of eternal opportunities right before me. And not just the little ones; it's far easier to give a "little one" a kiss on the cheek and say "I love you" then those Big Men that live in my house. WHY DON'T I think to tell them how amazing they are? Bless them for being men of God, and bless them with the fruit of the Spirit?

All in all I was reminded of the importance of the spoken word, and amazed at how His ways simply work.

Young ladies this age are beyond precious. My heart melts...melts at their phenomenal potential. No, it melts not at what they could be some day but at who they are today; big sisters, little sisters, and daughters-- they're amazing. 

Blessed half-week with those people. Grateful to be with them.

Sixth Stop: Lancaster PA (yes...again.) 

Purpose: Gospel Express Soft Ball Tournament. 

Time spent: 5 days

Gracie with her new bubbles (no she doesn't wear glasses. Just play). 

Preparing for the tournament Fri. all day. They de-stemmed an abundance of strawberries.

Mother made food signs almost all day long.

The wonderful lady who made it all work. She's  a dear.

Pealing far-too-hard mangos. Hard, hard work I tell you. (I'm not being sarcastic. The mangos were green!) 

Friday night was a flurry of singing, food, people, softball, and more people. It was a blessing. (Most of these next photos are credited to Lena Stoltzfus.)

Setting up tape-table and talking with people. I'd say it's nearly the story of my life. :) 

Oh, dear Jake and Rose, they're such a blessing to us. 

Our dear french-fry makers. 

Lindsy and I wrap donuts Saturday morning. 

A bit of spur-of-the-moment singing Sat. morning. 

Mother serves soup.

Had so much fun making smoothies with these sweet girls. :)

And the winning team....from Holmes County (we be proud). 

There are some amazing people that put so many hours and heart-felt time into that weekend, and we thank them. 

Twas a wonderful and taxing weekend finished off with two services on Sunday. 

 We enjoyed the rest of Mon. in Lancaster doing a bit of shopping and other such runnings, and having a appreciation banquet in the evening for the Auction committee. My evening, however, was not spent at the banquet but at a home where I often seek solitude while in PA, it did wonderful things for me.

So grateful for that trip. I'm amazed...absolutely amazed (have I been using that word a lot in this post or is it just me?) at how many things one can learn and experience in three weeks...praise Him for His work...in all our lives.

many blessings,

~Deborah Isabel in behalf of the Miller clan.