Lots of pictures!

I actually added so many pictures tonight that you have to go into "older posts" to see them all.  Enjoy.

Life in Estradaville

Part of my original intent with this blog was to have a way to keep our loved one updated on our lives.  So far I haven't done very well, but here we go again.  

Moses finished year 4 (can you believe that!?) at the Master's Seminary this summer.  He's the pastoral intern at our church and therefore has had many ministry opportunities.  

In May he was part of our Evangelism Focus and went door-to-door a couple times.  One of the ladies they were talking to fainted while she was visiting with them and they ended up calling 911 and waiting for the paramedics to arrive.  Crazy.  Several people from our church had the opportunity to share the Gospel to people.  As we focused on Evangelism, Pastor Bryan led a 12 week Sunday School class for the adults and teens on Evangelistic Home Bible Studies.  This is an awesome model of evangelism which provides 6, one-hour sessions in an interested individual's home to share the important aspects of the Faith with them.  Moses has been involved in several of these home studies now.  

After that class, Moses started a series on prayer during Sunday School which has been delightful.  We are reading "The Cup and the Glory" by Greg Harris on the topic of suffering as part of that class.  

Moses has also had the opportunity to preach 5 or 6 times this summer at Sunday evening Church.  He's preaching through the Book of 1 Thessalonians.  Eventually some of his sermons will be available to listen to online through our church website, but not yet.

My ministry through all this has been to take care of Moses and the kids.  It has been weird to not be "leading" anything, but this is where the Lord has me focused right now and I love it.  I, of course, serve in the nursery and am involved in the Women's ministry at our Church, but just at a member level.

With the desire to have a Christ-centered home, we have implemented a Family Worship Time this summer.  We are still tweaking it to make it fit our family at this stage, but the kids love it.  Most evenings we sing a couple songs (sometimes Daddy plays his guitar) and we read a Bible story and pray.  We have been reading the Bible together at night for years, but incorporating the element of music is new.  We have also been teaching the kids about prayer and why we pray and Who we are talking to.  

At this time Moses only has 4 classes left and could graduate in December, however since the ceremony isn't until May anyhow he has decided to take 2 in the Fall and 2 in the Spring.  

I am prayerfully considering a ministry opportunity and will share more once the decision is made.

The Lord is faithful and we are growing in love for Him and His Word.  Thank you again for your interest and love.  You are precious to us.

"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;  for by his wounds you were healed."  1 Peter 2:24

Silas

Silas with his orange balloon and matching orange cloth diaper was too cute to pass up a picture.  Please pray for him.  He has an appointment to have his heart murmur checked out this coming week.  We're expecting it to be innocent, but treasure your prayers as we wait.  His iron is also low (a problem Eden also had back in the day) so we'll be deciding the best plan to address that soon too. 

Beach Day!!

You can see the progress of the hole I wrote about in a previous post.  It was huge when they were done.  Moses is in the picture of the guys boogieboarding: top, righthand guy in the picture. 

Disneyland!

Here's the pictures from Disneyland.  In the midst of the sorrow of the funeral we  were involved in (see previous post).  We already had this day planned including having our tickets so we spent a fun-filled, HOT day in Disneyland.  Our kids had a great time and were little troopers.  We didn't leave the park until after 10 pm.  Then I left my camera case (including my cell phone in it) on the tram so it was another hour or so before we got that all sorted out and found it.  (Funny story... the people who found my phone scrolled down and saw "Mom Cell" as one of my contacts so they dialed it at what was midnight Colorado time to tell "Mom" they had found her child's phone.  My Mom was very relieved when she realized it wasn't an emergency that had Joy calling her at midnight...) Anyhow...  We eventually made it home with the camera and cell phone and MUCH rejoicing that they weren't lost forever.  I realized that day how many phone numbers I have stored nowhere other than my phone.

Malachi can't stop talking about Disneyland, but he thinks it was Chuckie Cheese.  Our conversations go something like this:  Malachi says, "Mommy remember when we saw Buzz Lightyear at Chuckie Cheeses?"  I reply, "Yes, but that was Disneyland."  Malachi, "Oh, Disneyland."  Ten minutes later, "Mommy, remember when we saw those fireworks at Chuckie Cheeses?"  "Yes, Malachi, but that was Disneyland."  "Oh, Disneyland."  Ten minutes later, "Mommy,..."  He is sure going to be disappointed the next time we go to Chuckie Cheese if he's expecting Disneyland.

Eden, to my surprise, told me the "Finding Nemo" ride was her favorite ride.  I was surprised because she was very scared on that ride, but she told me, "I was so afraid when we went far under water, but Jesus kept us safe."

A Great Privilege

Philippians 1:21  For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

This week did not go at all as we had planned but that is the beauty of the Sovereignty of God.  It went according to His plan.  Moses had the great privilege of sharing the true Gospel to a large group at a funeral today.  This is the second funeral he has ... what's the word?  Officiated on his own?  (I will get back with you on the proper term because I don't know) but anyhow...  I was so blessed, challenged and encouraged as he reminded us that we all will die,  we deserve death because of our rebellion and sin, but Jesus satisfied God's justice by dying in our place.  Now when we die we can receive eternal life.  His message was a beautiful combination of compassion and confidence in the Truth of God's Word.

We found out late Monday that the younger brother of an old High School buddy had committed suicide.  Not having a church to connect with themselves the family asked Moses to do the funeral.  He spent Wednesday and Thursday off and on with the family, planning the funeral, praying working on his message.  Then today we spent most of the day at the funeral.  Please pray for the Pinion family.

Eden's and Silas' Room

This is Pastor Bryan and Moses installing... hmmm... when it's this high is it still called chair rail?  Anyhow... they are installing it in the room.  Looks great.  Someday I'll get the curtains done.

Our Little Serta Lambs

I found this picture in the camera.  Not sure when Moses took it.  It's funny though when you know what it is.  With the birth of each baby we have bought a Serta sheep because our little lambs were conceived in a Serta bed.  

Malachi in an Apron again?

I friend sent this too me.  I just thought it was funny that Malachi is in an apron once again and for all intent an purposes it looks like he may be naked under there...

Life in CA...

Okay everyone who has been hounding me about updating this... I apologize.  I returned to CA and things just went wild.  BUT... we have been doing fun stuff lately and I plan to post pictures this week while Moses is home spending time with us on vacation from work and school.  We spent a wonderful day at the beach yesterday and will going to Disneyland on Tuesday.  

About the beach.  I learned something new.  If you have boys and they are... hmmm... probably 8 or older (teenagers work best) the best thing to bring to the beach to keep them happy for hours is a shovel.  A good old-fashioned farming, gardening, dig-a-big-hole, long-handled shovel.  We went to the beach with our Church family and several of them brought shovels and the boys dug half-way to China until the hole was so deep they hit water and couldn't keep it bailed out.  They had so much fun and we all had so much fun watching them.

One quick Eden funny... as you might know we had an earthquake last week.  My first ever.  Crazy.  I thought I was walking on a ship tossed by the waves.  Definitely makes you aware of how finite we are and how infinite our Lord is.  Galaxies dripped off His fingers at the sound of a Word.  Mmmmm... anyhow... Eden was outside when it happened and when we were talking about it moments later I asked her if she felt it.  She didn't understand what I meant so I said, "Did you feel the ground move under you?"  She said, "Oh that.  I was running so hard Mommy I made the ground wiggle."