Happy Thanksgiving!

I liked this google Thanksgiving motif, so decided to share it. Hope you are able to share this day with loved ones. We have overcome all the flu symptoms of the past week or two & are grateful for our good health along with everything else the Lord has given us. Enjoy His blessings!!

125th Anniversary Celebration of the Dry Creek Bible Church

This past week-end my sister & her husband, my parents & I drove into mid-January scenery & temperatures to attend a 125th Anniversary celebration. We met my brother & his wife in Bozeman, who had driven from Billings. Sunday morning, it was only 8 degrees outside as we left the Comfort Inn in Bozeman to drive the 30 minutes to the Dry Creek Bible Church.

My father pastored here for 14 years - while I was in Junior High, High School & college. This church was started in November 1884. That was 5 years before Montana became a state... only 20 years after the Civil War...& 8 years after the Custer massacre.

Mom & Dad were younger than me when they pastored at this community church in the middle of a rural farming area. We saw folks we hadn't seen for over 25 years & were able to catch up a little on their lives. What a blessing!

The older part of the church is now the fellowship hall, in which are several historic photos. This one is of the church building being moved a number of miles via bobsleds & 24 horses in 1905. The only damage suffered from the move was a crack in the brick chimney.

My family of origin had the week-end to reminisce without the distraction of children or grandchildren for the first time in many years. Here we are in front of the desert cake for the celebration -a replica of the older portion of the church. This is all there was to the church back in the 1960's & 70's when we drove out to serve each Sunday. Oh, yes, there was the outhouse in the yard that we used back then too.

Sampling of October-November 2009 photos

This was our October sukkah setting - snapped just before our Beth Tephila members started coming to our home for the first day of Sukkot celebration. Lacking palm branches & other items like the etrogs (citron like a lemon), we substituted what was locally available...pine branches & cattails & lemons. Last week I reduced those lemons to hot lemonade with honey to treat the sore throat I developed from a sinus post-nasal drip. It worked so well!

These other photos are a sampling taken the last month or so. Above is a look towards Missoula during a hike Becky & I took on logging roads in Pattee Canyon.

Shadik is now 18 months old & usually sitting somewhere near my workspace. Outside, she is a huntress, but inside is slowly becoming a snuggler like our other cat, Rachel. They still do not get along, so we keep them separated in the house.

Our new puppy is growing but is not completely house-trained...so much of the time he is in his puppy playpen in the dining-room area. He answers to "Puppy" or "Ari II".

Here is Becky on our Pattee Canyon hike. Since it is now hunting season, we were wearing orange. I continue to drop seed into her life & pray for an eventual harvest.

Last year in the AWANAS nursery, we usually had 4 to 7 children. This year it is usually only 2 girls. Elizabeth, the red head, is around 20 months old. Her grandma is my co-worker during AWANAS. Her brother, Andrew, became a Sparky this year.

Katie is almost a year old. Her brother, Luke, also became a Sparky this year.