Foster Care

Over the past 7 years or so my husband and I have been foster parents. We have had the privilege of hosting 17 beautiful children in our home over the years. Children whom we pray for continually as they continue through life journey. We do not hear how they are doing once they have left our home but the Lord knows their needs. While the children are in our home they have the opportunity to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for them on the cross. They learn songs like Jesus Loves Me and they also learn how to pray. One of our last little ones loved prayer time and she could pray like no other. Her prayers went on for a good five or ten minutes. And even though we only understood bits and pieces of her prayer I know that her Father in heaven caught every word.  What a privilege to teach these young kids about God.

Many people ask me how on earth can you be a foster mom? Isn't it hard to send them back home? I don't think I could ever do that! Well my answers are as follows. I can only be a foster mom by the strength my heavenly Father gives me to do so. The comfort he gives me when I must grieve after they go home and the hope he places in my heart of getting to help, teach, care for and comfort more of His children. I remind my self that these children did't ask to be placed in this situation and the still need all of the love and care that I am able to provide. So why not me? If I don't do it who will? I discovered this week that ND has a huge shortage of foster care providers in many counties. If you think that you might be able to open your home to a child or two or three or four :) please contact your local Social Services department and ask about taking the PRIDE class. You will know if you are able to do it after completing this class. When Tim first came home and told me we should think about becoming foster-parents my response was the same once I listed above. But once I took the class I knew this was in Gods plan for me. Yes it is hard, it is sad and sometimes you will even get mad at the authorities who send the kids home even when the social workers Suggest that no they shouldn't go. But you will have made a difference to that child or children who were in your care for a day or a year depending on their situation.

So think about it! Pray About IT!

Sing Praises to your King!

If We Say We Have No Sin We Deceive Our Selves.

1 John:18-9 This is a verse that I remember saying each Sunday as we recited the liturgy of confession and absolution while I was attending  the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. In case you were wondering they can be found in the Divine Service setting two from the LSB hymnal pg 167.  I have always found comfort in hearing these words and miss hearing them now that I attend a church that is not as liturgical.

We attend church to hear about the law that shows us our sins and also the Gospel which reveals the saving grace that God has bestowed upon us. This is what strengthens us and helps us to hold steadfast in tough times. If we are not hearing both of these things during the sermon at our churches we need to ask ourselves What Jesus is our church proclaiming? Is it the true Jesus of the bible or a Jesus that fits the mold of what we want him to be?  

Sing Praises to your King!

Fellowship In Christ

Today we learned about fellowship. I must confess that when I hear the word fellowship I think of the coffee time at church or a gathering where something fun or entertaining is happening. Too often this "fellowship time" turns into a gossip session or an all about me session. How is this glorifying our Father in Heaven. This is not the kind of Fellowship that John is talking about in 1 John 1:3 Being in fellowship is much more. It is sharing in the hope of eternal life. Praying for one another, encouraging one another with scripture and working together for the glory of God. The next time you are at a church function weather it be coffee or a youth activity where there is fun to be had. Take some time to talk about the Lord with those fellow believers, offer to pray for or with them, discuss the sermon or part of scripture that you have recently read. Let us turn those fellowship times into true Christian fellowship.


Sing Praises to your King!

Cakes, Cakes and More Cakes!

  Before I begin I have to tell you about the first birthday cake I made my son. It took several tried lots of tears and frustration. You see he wanted an ocean theme cake. We had just adopted him and he was turning 9. I felt so bad that his cake looked so terrible. But even thought it was not perfect he loved it any way. Well I have done a lot of practice since then  and have come a long way. Here are my latest creations. 

This week I had the privilege of making three Birthday cakes. 

The first cake was for my grandmother who will be 90 in Sept.

She loves birds so I figured this cake was just up her ally. She loved it and even shed some tears.  

Here I am with my beautiful grandma. I am so blessed to have both my grandparents in my life. I pray they know how special they are to  me and how grateful I am that they loved my mother enough to teacher her about the Gospel who then passed that knowledge down to me and I in turn down to my son! Now we all have the Renascence that Jesus died for our sins and we have eternal life in Heaven to look forward to. 

The next cake was for my dad who's birthday was on Friday. As many of you know he loves fishing so I fashioned this cake around his favorite hobby!

Here is my dad with his cake. He was also very surprised!

Now this cake was for non other than my mother. She had no idea that I was making this cake. Her birthday was the week before but I didn't want to leave her out of the celebration. 

My mom loves to garden so this cake was the perfect fit. 

Here is My mother with her specialty cake. 

May God bless both of you and use you for his will in this new year of life!

Sing Praises to your King!

Minot Mission Trip 2011

I am so sorry I had to remove this video. It contained some copyrighted material that could not be distributed. If you would like to see it please let me know and I will see if I can hook you up with the video via email. So please if you have shared it please delete it from your site.

This video contains members from our church Youth group. Much help is still needed in the Minot area and other areas around the country that have either been hit by tornadoes or floods. Please prayerfully consider helping those who have lost everything and who are overwhelmed by the clean up process. Let's literally help them pick up the pieces so that they can move on with their lives.
Sing Praises to your King!

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a heresy found in the church. I had heard of it before from the radio program Wretched Radio by Tod Friel. Then last night I was reading the introduction to Colossians and discovered that this was the main heresy in the church of Colossal. This is the main reason that Paul took time while he was in prision at Rome to write to the church and then to have the letter also passed on to Laodicea.

Here is the definition my study bible gives for Gnosticism in the introduction to Colossians.

Gnosticism: that God is good, but matter is evil; that Jesus Christ was merely one of a series of emanations descending from God and being less that God (a belief that led them to deny his true humanity) and that a secret higher knowledge above Scripture was necessary for enlightenment and salvation.

Gnosticism is still around today and we must not let ourselves be deceived.

For more information visit Issuesetc.org 

Sing Praises to Your King!

What about Those Who Say They Are Christian But...

I have heard many excuses for not attending church from those who confess their belief in Jesus Christ. The following is one of the most frequently heard excuses.

Excerpt from Lutheranism 101 pg 80


What about Those Who Say They Are Christian But...


Perhaps you have heard the excuse, "I'll come to church when they get rid of all the hypocrites." Isn't the church weakened by those who say they believe but really do not? shouldn't we institute some sort of program to root out all the false believers? Actually, such a program can only fail because there is no way for us to know and judge what a person really believes-oly God can do that. All we have is the outward confession a person makes.

Though both true believers and hypocrites are mixed together in the outward fellowship of the church, we trust God to sort them out when Christ returns at the Last Day. In the meantime, we continue bringing God's Word to all people. For God's Word alone (spoken written, given in Baptism and the Lord's Supper) leads us to repent of our hypocrisy, brings us to faith, and keeps us in the faith.

The definition of Hypocrite according to Websters Dictionary is as follows:

hyp·o·crite

 noun \ˈhi-pə-ˌkrit\

Definition of HYPOCRITE

1

: a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

2

: a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

— hypocrite adjective

Sing Praises to Your King!

AALC National Youth Camp

This week Tim and I had the privilege of  chaperoning 7 awesome teens from our church to Estes Park for the national TAALC Youth Gathering.

In ND we are sheltered from great restaurants like IHOP. So Steffany and Morgan wanted their picture taken in front of the sign! 

Along the beautiful drive there was this random Indian head. It was beautifully carved. 

The scenery was breath taking.

There were about 200 teens in attendance this year. 

Here is Kayla and Hannah eagerly awaiting the session to start!

Here is Steffany and Morgan also awaiting the session to begin. 

All the teens participated in the "get to know your fellow campers" activities and also in the singing of fun songs.

Each student met with either Tim or I just before their personal quite bible study time. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know the teens and to pray with them one on one.  

We had some free time during our day and on this particular day they were just hanging out visiting. Some of the other activities were white water rafting (sorry no picutres), hiking, zip line and a trip to town.

 The band played some familiar hymns with a contemporary twist to them. The teens put their arms around each other and swayed to the music as they sang. 

Here are Ansir, Tristen and Phil ( a new friend from Minot).

We also saw lots of wild life like little bunnies,

And ground squirrels. The girls tried to pet and feed them. 

This is Swen and Dean who were some of the musical entertainment. They were in charge of the mixers and told funny stories that also had a message. 

You can see Ansir in this picture. He had a fabulous time. You will have to check out his blog to see what he thought of the camp.

In the evenings around 10:15 or so we met with just our youth group for evening devotions to review what we learned each day. The topics were passion, devotion, purity, compassion and conviction. Each topic centered on what Christ has done for us. Pastor Bill Yonker did an awesome job at getting the message of Christ Crucified across to the youth at this conference. 

When Rooming with 4 teenage girls the room can get quiet messy. 

Awe Morgan was embarrassed she closed her suitcase and hid her face!  

 I believe this was the last day as the girls were filling out their comment sheet.

And the boys did also. For some reason Ty was missing. HMM I will have to hunt down a picture! I think that some of the other teens may have a picture of him on their cameras. So check back if you want to see him.

We were able to get a lovely family picture.

And a beautiful group picture of the ORLC Teens. 

This is the entire group that we traveled with. It included the teens from Minot and Parshal. 

I am very grateful that we were able to attend this conference. While it was designed for the teens the adults present were able to learn some things also. There were break away sessions for both adults and teens covering topics such as defending your faith, questions you have about the Lutheran faith, dating, Are you called to ministry and many others. Tim will be going into more detail about what the conference covered over at his blog The Athanasian Truth. So be sure to check it out. 

Sing Praises to Your King!

Fun summer time activity for kids.

Thank you to my sister Charity for this wonderful idea. Today we needed something fun to do out side so we made a bracelet of duct tape with the sticky side out. 

Then we walked around town looking for things made by GOD.

We found lots of leaves and flowers and even a rock but.

Then we cut the bracelet off and hung it on the mirror in the bedroom. I was even told that this was fun! 

Sing Praises to Your King!

Happy 4th of July!

On a day like to day we often celebrate with a big BANG! We remember those who have fought so hard to protect our freedoms that our for fathers have secured for us. But all to often they become our focus point and we forget to give thanks to our Maker and Redeemer. Our country was indeed based on Christianity. We see evidence of that on our currency and in the Pledge of Allegiance. Our founding fathers sought out guidance from God when forming this great nation. He had His hand in it. Let us then this day also celebrate and thank God for for those freedoms as well. Not only should we thank God for our Independence but we also need to remember to thank him for the freedom that we have in Christ. For with out Jesus death and resurrection we would still be in bondage to sin. I have been set free in the Gospel my sins are forgiven and I have been created anew by the bold of Him who took my punishment on the cross! For this I humbly say Thank you God!

Sing Praises to Your King!

My flowers are in full bloom.

This is what we call the front of the house. My mom brought several plants last year and we planted them in this flower bed. They sure do love their new home. As you can see they are thriving. 

I just love these pretty daisies. 

Here is a beautiful close up. 

This is my flower garden to the south. The one  that Trixie loves to dig in. these are the plants that survived her vicious digging!

And finally some pictures of my Vegetable garden! My corn is looking very nice. 

It was a very windy day when I planted my lettuce. So as you can see it has sprouted up all across my garden.

And finally my potatoes. I can't believe how a few hot days makes the garden grow!  I have already been able to harvest some wonderful lettuce and radishes. There is nothing like eating the fruits of your labor. And surprisingly enough the weeds are not so bad. But that creeping Jenny can over take your garden if you do not keep on top of it. 

Sing Praises to Your King!