Jeff and Nickie

Jeff and Nickie

Friday, November 19, 2010

Family and Ministry

Wow, the 2010 Christmas season is upon us! This year is another year that has just whizzed by.

It looks like we will be down to only one child home for Christmas this year. That will be a big difference. I remember what it was like when we were down to 3 and then 2. Thankfully, Kittie’s fiancĂ© will be joining us so that will be nice.

Kittie is still interning at Souls Harbour Rescue Mission in Regina, SK. It stretches her in all kinds of new ways. She will be done in April. Wedding plans are well under way for their wedding on May 7th.

Sunnie has been hired by a Christian school as a special education teacher’s aid there in Rimby. She loves it and especially loves learning the therapy techniques and then working with the children.

Heather is attending a Beth Moore conference as I write this. She and many of our friends in the Black Hills are all gathering for the 2 day conference. I am praying for a great blessing for all of them!!

Sara is hosting the Robinson family Thanksgiving in the States on Monday (a day they can all get together). Thanksgiving is always the saddest holiday for me. First of all we are not having Thanksgiving here (as it is the first week of October) and Secondly half of the family is in Canada (not celebrating) while the other half is in the States celebrating.

Josh and Meg hosted a huge Robinson family get together at their place last Christmas and we were all able to be there!! That was a blast!! They had a rent a big community room for all of us though. We were 18 in all and since then (as of May) we will have added 3 more to the family! So far we are a family of 21.

We are loving ministry more each year. God has brought new folks into our lives that truly desire to be discipled. He has brought a couple of new families into the church which added greatly to our children’s ministry. He has brought us help in our children’s ministries, something we lacked for a great number of years. We are seeing spiritual growth in many folks. That in itself is a huge blessing to us!

Speaking of blessings, has blessed us in too many ways to be able to number. We know we can trust Him because His will is always perfect..what more could we ask for except to be able to know and desire Him more! I am excited for what the Lord will be doing in our church and in our familes this coming year. God is so good. Praise His Name!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

October 2010

It has been a while since I last posted. I am great a starting posts and terrible about keeping them updated.

The Lord continues to bless us immensely thorugh His Word and the things that He has planned for us. More and more each day we realize what an Awesome Holy and Sovereign God we serve.

In September He gave us our 9th grandchild (8 boys and 1 girl). Sara and Dean had another baby boy (this makes 5) Jace Nicholas Colling. He is growing by leaps and bounds. I was able to be in the States for 3.5 weeks with my daughter and spending time with my other children and grandchildren as well. I treasure that time and the memories that were made!

Thanksgiving has come and gone here in Canada. I can't even begin to list the blessings God has given me. The greatest one is His love for me, the grace and mercy He has bestowed and most of all the price He paid for a wretch like me.

Who God is and what He has given me was driven home to my heart recently when someone I love very much said to me "I don't even know if I believe in God anymore". "I don't believe that the Bible is God Breathed". My heart was devastated and not just for this person who had lost his faith, but for my God and my Savior. Our Lord GOD has given so much and has been rejected so much.

Ministry is going well, we are enjoying the discipleship part of ministry so much. It is so exciting when God brings new ones into our lives. We have a hard time balancing a lot of our time and there have been hurt feelings that we are not giving as much time to friendships, but we know God called us to minister and that has to take preference over recreation and get-togethers with friends. We know if we do as God asks, He will take care of the circumstances.

Kittie and Kurt have set the wedding date, it will be May 7th. They would like to have a family wedding with just a few others who have watched them grow up. Even so, the invitation list has grown to 125. Kurt has a very large and wonderful family who mostly live in the area. So their desire of a small wedding is growing a bit...lol.

Soon all of our children will be married. Each one of them have grown tremendously in the past couple of years. We are so proud of them.

Sunnie and Justin recently suffered through a miscarriage and even though very heartbroken, handled it a very good way which deeply honored the Lord.

I have looked back at my blogs and realized they somewhat read like prayer letters...so many years of writing prayer letters has rubbed off a bit, I guess.



Ta-Ta for now...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Almost September

Wow, it is almost September!! The weather has changed here in Manitoba. Our nights are very cool (We were near frost the other day) and the days are cooler as well. It has been a very short summer considering summer does not really start until July 1st when the kids are out of school and the weather finally warms enough to feel WARM!

We have had so much rain this summer, we were not able to get a garden in because of that,and I really miss not having one. I did grow some lettuce, zucchini and a pepper plant on my deck. The pepper plant is ding outrageously well!! Better than any I have tried to grow in the garden. I plan to bring it inside at night when it begins to frost soon.

I am so excited to go camping. Jeff and I will be going to Assessippi about an hour and a half from here. Close enough to get back if something happens in the church and remote enough to be completely by ourselves. We are camping for 3 nights in a yurt. A yurt is a round tent/cabin (mostly made of canvas). Something new for us to try!!

Jeff has been away all week. He took 5 holidays from the church to work on a bridge in Saskatchewan. Then I leave on the 3rd to go stay with Sara and family as they await the arrival of little Jace Nicholas Colling. Jace will arrive via c-section on the 13th. Jeff will arrive on Sunday night (late) the 12th to be there for the birth.
Jace is named after my father "Nicholas". His brother, Caleb Jeffery was named after...well, you know who. Jace will be our 9th grandchild.

Our youngest one moved away to Alberta this month. Kittie is attending Prairie Bible College and it starts today.
We know she will do well, but a mother's heart still grieves the separation. Her daddy even shed a few tears over her leaving the nest. We now have two children living in Alberta and 3 children living in South Dakota. We still have children in our home though, thanks to daycare.

Vacation Bible School just ended a week or so ago...we had 85 kids!! It was such a blessing. We had a big get-together on the Friday evening for the parents and families. Please keep these children in your prayers, it is our prayer that many seeds were planted!!

Adventure Club and Boy's Club plus the weekly Bible study in the town north of here start back up soon. Ladies Study will go from every 2 weeks (summer) to every week.

Well, that about catches up the blog for the summer. Hoping everyone has a great Fall as they walk daily with the Lord!!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Soon to be July

Soon it will be July. Thursday marks the day. Thursday is also 'Canada Day' the Canadian equivalence to the 4th of July. Today is the last day of school for the kids and tomorrow for the teacher's. Summer should officially begin on Thursday.

We had such a good visit with Justin and Sunnie last week. They came to help for a week of Special Needs (at the Bible camp) and then spent a week with us. Kurt also came from Alberta to spend a few days here with Kittie and attend his brother's graduation. Both of the guys helped Jeff with the basement clean up and repairs. We are finally starting to dry out. The repair to the weeping tile helped and the sump pump is working to dry things out.

We are still experiencing rain and cool weather. We just hope it will end soon. I can't imagine anyone having much of a garden this year and the farmers are not having much, if any crop.

My grandson, Carter called today and told me all about the fireworks his daddy bought for the 4th of July. He is so excited!! he says "Nana, you and Papa can just drive here to come to grandma's and have fireworks with us and then you can drive home." 3 year old's just can't comprehend the amount of distance it is from there to here. I always fear they will think we just don't care enough to come see them when they ask us to.

Hannah, our only granddaughter always tries to talk us into coming to see her, and it just breaks my heart. I know when they are older they will understand.

This border problem down in Arizona is sure unbelievable! I am just shocked that it has been allowed to escalate to this level. There are actual parts of Arizona and Texas that the Mexican drug cartel have taken over! Since when did the United States of America stand by and let anyone take over land from us? Or allow the land to become a war zone? I stand by Arizona and the law they have passed 110% and I want to see every State adopt such a law!!
Good show of strength and independence by Fremont, Nebraska voting to add such a law!!!

I hear Missouri is going to let their voters decide in August if they are against ObamaCare (Missouri Health Care Freedom Act). Good Job, Missouri!! Now more States will hopefully get on the same page!!

Take care....that's all for today!!

Monday, June 21, 2010

An Update and New Blog Site

Hello,

Welcome to my newer and updated blog. I stopped writing on my last blog a year ago because I never did care for the blog site and life got extremely busy with Sunnie's wedding plans!!

I hope to keep up better with this new blog and combine ministry, family news and my thoughts all together on just this one!

Let me catch you up. This December will mark 10 years for us at Hilltop Baptist Church in Manitoba Canada. There was a period of time not too long ago, we became very unsettled and wondering if the Lord was going to move us along to another church. However, God closed the doors on the things that came up and brought us new people to disciple and new ministries here. We realized after a year or so that even though we might have thought we were ready to move on, God was most definitely not ready for us to. So here we stay glad to be used of Him in whatever way He chooses.

Our children are all either in the middle of a move, getting ready for one or still unpacking from a recent move. Josh and Megan (Jaden and Braylon) bought their first home in Sioux Falls, SD and moved into it a couple of months ago. Sara and Dean (Dawson, Spencer, Carter and Caleb) are nearly finished with their move back to their home in Howard, SD which did not sell. So instead of selling it, they renovated it and are settling back in.
Heather and Ted (hannah and Hayden) just bought their second home in Yankton, SD and are in the process of moving this summer.
Sunnie and Justin (Married in February) are moving to their home out in the country of Rimby, Alberta.
Last but not least Kittie is preparing to move to Alberta in August, where she will be attending Prairie Bible College. This summer she will be back and forth helping at the Bible camp.

Jeff and I are in the middle of summer ministries and heavy clean up. We have had a ton of rain this Spring which has done much damage to our basement and many of our belongings. We are in the middle of cleaning it up. Jeff is also digging out to find the source of the problem and seal it up. We are very thankful for the help of our son-n-law Justin (he and Sunnie are here for a visit) and Kittie's very steady boyfriend Kurt (who came to visit Kittie).

With all the rain we were not able to get a garden in so far this year. We hope to try again soon when the ground dries out.

School is not out yet for our area. Teachers are finished June 30th. Then I will complete the school year daycare and go into the summer daycare. It will be only 2-3 children 2 days a week. I am looking forward to cutting back and having the extra time to get caught up on house and church projects.

My parents still live in Aurora, Nebraska. Dad is still the chaplain at Bosselmann's Truck Stop in Grand Island and he also is assistant pastor in his church. Mom is still on daily dialysis as well as my sister Penny (who lives in Washington State). We pray for a transplant for both of them soon.

Our church continues to grow and we have seen a large increase in the attendance of the children's ministries as well as the adult Bible studies during the week. God continues to bless us each step of the way and we are so thankful He has chosen to use us in the work here in Erickson. All glory is given to Him alone.

This should catch you up a bit and now I hope to keep up on this blog at least weekly from now on. Oh one very important update, that I forgot to mention!! Sara and Dean are expecting boy # 5 (Jace Nicholas Colling) who will be delivered via C-section on Sept. 15th!!