Making More Noise

As if we needed more noise at our house, we just got a new (to us) piano after months and months of searching the local listings. It is a 17 year old, single owner, 43" Young Chang. It's a great piano that Sergio and Holly are both happy with. Now that it's been tuned, Linda and Lisa have started piano lessons. Linda would like to play the violin and Lisa would like to play the flute. Joshua and Luci just want to play.









Holly has brought out all the old music she can find and enjoys a half hour of music therapy whenever she can get it. Tonight it was Chopin, Bach, and Rachmaninoff.

Making a Joyful Noise

Quiet moments at our house are few and far between and at any given time someone will be humming a tune, singing a little jingle, or belting out the lyrics from the theme song to Star Blazers (or Celine Dion's Theme from Titanic, or Journey's Separate Ways, you get the picture). In addition to the private concert we get every day, each spring the kids get to perform (a more "sacred" repertoire) at church with their choirs.
This year Joshua made his Praise Pals debut singing two songs with the three-year-old choir. About half way through the first song he got uncomfortable with his T-shirt tucked into his jeans and decided to fix that problem. His shirt was so long though that he really had to stretch and tug to get it untucked. He tugged so much that his shirt ended up almost over his head with entire belly exposed. All he needed now was to get his arms and head out and the "show" would be over. Luckily, he didn't get that far and Mama didn't have to crawl under the chair and pretend she didn't know that kid.
In her final year of Praise Pals, Lisa sang in the spring program entitled Love, Love, Love. While learning their songs, the kids learned about God's love and how they can show God's love to others. Of course the best part of singing in choir is the cake and goodies after the concert.
Linda's choir, Praise Kids, sang a program called Worship By Design. It included several skits and songs which focused on different ways to worship God. Her part was a fifties style song complete with poodle skirt (notice her shirt is not tucked in) and do-wop choreography.

AWANA Awards

It's awards month here so we would like to take this opportunity to bring you some pictures of AWANA awards night at our church. Linda finished her third of three Sparks books and was chosen to recite the "P" of the Sparks code at the awards program. "P" is for Power. Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes . . .

Lisa not only finished her first Sparks book, she finished it twice! So she received her first book award and her review patch.

Joshua finished his first year of Cubbies. He and Mama put all his verses to music and motions and every night Joshua asks to hear his Cubbie story.

Back from Chile!

Wow! What an experience! I just got back from a two-week mission trip to Chile where I led a 6 member LifeWay team to share the Gospel with the Aymara people group throughout the Northern Region of Chile, known as Tarapaca. We spent one week in the city of Pozo Almonte where we saw 62 people place their faith in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. We then spent our second week in the Codpa Valley of Chile (at the foot of the Andes Mountains) where we saw another 24 people come to know the Lord.




Northern Chile is the driest desert in the world as it typically rains only once every 30 years. If you have ever visited the Grand Canyon, imagine driving into the canyon and finding small towns scattered wherever a stream of water could be found. Where there was water, there was life.
While in Codpa, the Aymara were celebrating their annual wine festival called "Vendimia" which gave us a greater opportunity to share the Gospel as the population of Codpa doubled for 3 days from 200 to 400 people.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for the Aymara people and for our mission trip.

Cruisin'

How do we pass the time when Daddy's away? We go cruisin' on the red Radio Flyer tricycle. Luci's almost got it down. Occationally she will pedal and move forward about five inches, but most of the time she pats the back of the seat and wants me to push her.

Where in the World is Sergio?

Don't worry I know where he is, sort of. He's spending the next two weeks in the country of Chile on a mission trip. I've talked to him twice and he said things were going well. In the meantime, I've been home wondering how many more toddler/preschooler messes it will take before I totally loose my cool (if I even had any coolness to begin with is debatable). Joshua and Luci are quite the pair and thanks to her big brother Luci has learned to say "No Way!" Just what I need, a sassy 21 month old. Luci only calls one family member by name, "JA-josh". Everybody else except "Dada" is called "Mama".

He Lives!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1 Peter 1:3 (HCSB)