Life Update...

Summer is officially just started, buy my summer has been screaming by for weeks now - and the relaxing part of summer is still far away.

We just returned from our annual summers missions trip to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. We stay in Wood in the Native American Community Building (a gym with a kitchen and bathrooms) - population 70. We love on kids all day long and do a Kids' Club. We also try to develop relationships with anyone we can in town. We saw God work in a variety of ways - in our lives, in the children's lives, and in the lives of people in the community. I'll share more on this in a later post.

We've already been to one wedding (cousin - Etienne) - in Dixon, IL. I am doing 2 weddings on back to back weekends for students who graduated from our youth group here. I'm missing out on some weddings of friends and former youth back in Michigan.

I am speaking at Senior High Camp at Hidden Acres this summer (6 sessions). I have preached twice and will be preaching again in one week.

My kids are amazing. They are well behaved, a joy, and incredibly cute. There are new stories nearly every day. Benjamin joined us on our missions trip - and that was great. My wife is amazing - she just keeps going and going - with so much to do.

I should mention we've had a little water in our basement - seeping through the walls - but we don't have padding under the carpet and only some of the carpet got wet - so we just lifted it up and aired it out - now we are trying to put our basement back together.

We are looking forward to 2 family vacations. First - Branson - with a family from Church. Second - near the Wisconsin Dells. Both vacations were found/booked through VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner). Unless you have tons of money to throw around, a vacation of 3 days or more should be booked through them (assuming they have a location where you are going). The price is about the same, sometimes less, than a hotel, and you end up with a beautiful house or condo or cabin. You gotta check it out (we've used them many times and have had many friends start using them - and everyone has loved it).

God continues to provide for us in wonderful ways. He gets the Glory!!!