http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:02:00 -0500 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:02:00 -0500 Hello Dear Friends! It has been SUCH A LONG TIME!  I go through these spurts where I just take a break to focus on what is important, and sometimes they are much longer than I expect!  I had a friend tell me last night that I need to blog and Twitter.....well, the twitter thing, I'm not so sure about....maybe someday I will venture there, but I seem to have a hard time keeping my focus, just with blogging!  Our family has been doing great!  Caleb Marshall McConnell was born April 3, 2009!  He weighed 9.2 and was 21 1/2 inches long.  I will download pics soon to update everyone and tell the amazing story of his birth!  We are now involved in a life group with several other couples in a nearby town, and are excited about learning and serving with them this upcoming year.  They ALL homeschool!  How cool is that!?  God is amazing!  We have been trying to keep the kids around other christian home school kids their age.  So this has been an answer to prayer. Will is still the youth minister at out church as well as carrying 45-50 hours a week at work.  We all love and respect him and are so thankful for the leader and provider that he is for our family. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/717288/ Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/717288/ I have the blessing and benefit of having several older christian homeschool moms who are a constant encouragement, from our little town. As for our learning, we use My Father's World, which gives wonderful ideas and uses a very "Charlotte Mason" approach.  We are VERY hands on and Very into reading.  We have spent more than a year covering 9 of the 20 some focal points, meant to last a week each.  We just take our time on each one, and learn about so many other things along the way.  I love training and the children love learning, but it's just nice to have the reminder of older friends to know that we are doing an okay job.  We focus more on character traits and Biblical living than anything else and my 4 year old LOVES for me to talk to him about how to make wise decisions and choices later in life.  We have talked about topics ranging from what God desires and requires of him as he grows into a man and one day leads a family of his own, to the wisest decisions in stewardship with belongings and money.   This is just a little bit of what goes on in the hearts and minds of our family as we train each of our children every day. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/618615/ Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/618615/ Hello Everyone!  Well, after a month of the computer being down,  and a trip just for Will and I to beautiful Montana, it's been a long time since my last entry!  I am having a wonderful time with my children teaching them about the pilgrims and Indians!  We are leanring about how the pilgrims honored God and obeyed Him even when it was hard!  We got a wonderful audio book from Family Life about the first Thanksgiving!  It's wonderful!  Well, things are going well with the baby!  We have an ultrasound on Thursday to find out what God is blessing us with this time!!! So exciting!  I feel like this one is a boy, but who knows!  My sister is having a little boy, which makes Anna, still the ONLY girl on my side!  Hope to hear from many of you soon! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/617618/ Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/617618/ Hello Friends!  Sorry I have been away for a while!  September has been a busy month with many birthdays and showers!  Things are going well with the pregnancy, I feel very blessed!  I have 11 other friends who are also expecting babies, plus, both the Jeub family and the Duggars are expecting little ones!  How exciting!  God's timing is perfect!  I have also been busy working on blankets to sell to make a little extra money for Christmas.  I was blessed to get birthday money to buy the material, so I'm hoping to make a little profit so that I can buy Will a nice gift this year.  I love Christmas and have been listening to Christmas music for the past 2 months!  The cooler weather is REALLY getting me in the mood!  It's just in my blood!  There is something about the celebration of our Savior's birth that is so amazing and exciting, I just can't celebrate only one month out of the year.  Singing "Silent Night", "O Holy Night",  "There's a New Kid in Town", gives me goose bumps!  I know you all think I am crazy, but hey, that's just me!  Hope to hear from many of you soon!  I need to go, but hope to visit some of your blogs soon. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/594800/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/594800/ Hello everyone!  We have exciting news!  Baby #4 is on the way!  Yea!!!  God is so good  and His blessings and gifts are beyond compare!  It is great to serve a God who we can fully trust with the size of our family, knowing that He knows better than we do, how many children we need and when we need them as well as the purpose He has for each precious life! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/583510/ Mon, 1 Sep 2008 17:19:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/583510/ There is a joy that is found in serving our Lord that surpasses all others.  It is so wonderful, and such a privelage to serve the God of the universe and to actually be called "His".  It is so amazing to see how His hand is in every little thing that we do.  As you look at the following pictures, please pray for these children and their siblings and cousins.  These are some of the children on the reservation we worked with that absolutely captured my heart.  They are in an area that is so desperate for the gospel of Jesus.  They hunger for love and affection and the opportunity to just be kids without the worries of the world.  So many of them never have this chance.  They have seen more in the first few short years of their life than many of us see in a life time.  They need Jesus.  They need hope.  And Love, and someone to be there with them to show them that they care.  I am reminded of Steven Curtis Chapman's song "It's all Yours".  I have a Deep love in my heart for these children, and know that God has a special plan and desire for each of their lives.  Just like He had a plan in us planting the seeds of the gospel there with them. Verse 2:  "I walk the streets of Uganda and see the scars that war has left behind.  Hope like the sun, is fading, and they're waiting for a cure no one can find.  And I hear children's voices singing, of a God who heals and rescues and restores and I'm reminded, every child in Africa, is Your's!" Chorus:  "And it's all Your's God, Your's God, Everything is Your's!  From the stars in the Sky, to the depths of the ocean floor!  And it's all Your's God, Your's God, Everything is Your's!  You're the Maker and Keeper, Father and Ruler of everything.  It's all Your's."     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/576929/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/576929/ Alonda and Malachi Jonathon and Anna.  You may recognize Jonathon and Alonda.  They are friends that we met on our very first trip to AZ.  Jonathon was 12 then, Alonda 11...I think, and we've had the privelage to stay in touch and be with them on each trip. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/575444/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:43:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/575444/ We left out Sat. morning at about 10 AM central time and arrived at 4:30 AM mountain time (sort of...AZ is weird...they don't have daylight savings...at all!)...after gaining 2 hours, so 6:30 AM at home. Noah and some of the older girls knocking on neighborhood doors to invite children to VBS. Redneck Ingenuity~They couldn't find a hose, so.....just use a NOODLE!!!  This was fun to watch! Ministering to young hearts at Sunday nights block party at the church. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/574765/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/574765/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/574009/ Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:19:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/574009/ We just got back from Arizona.  God really worked there.  The Indian village that we worked at last year is the same one that we were supposed to work at this year.  Sunday night (the day we arrived) Lane received a phone call saying that there had been  some drive by shootings and a stabbing made as threats on the woman whose home we were to use there and that the pastor there didn't know if it was safe for us to come...the threats were made because of us coming again.  There is a lot of heavy gang activity in the area, but the men decided that they didn't want Satan to get his way in "scaring us off" and to us, this was just a sign that we were definitely supposed to be there, so we found another location on the reservation at another woman's home.  It was a blessing that we moved, and God knew exactly what He was doing!  We ran about 25 kiddos each day compared to under 15 for the past 6 times we've gone at all the different reservations. This would not have been the case at the other location because of where the kids all lived.   Each day, Will drove to the other side of the village and picked up 5 or 6 of the kids that came from last year, that are now involved in the gangs there.  They broght along some of their younger siblings, but all of them stayed back from the rest of the group, as the gangs are pretty much one side of the village against the other and it's all family based, kind of like the Hatfields and McCoys, I guess.  Many of the kids who came were older, many were very young.  I would say our oldest was 17 or 18.  The youngest several were 2.    It is a blessing to be able to see the hearts of these kids.  I told Will, there's just something about them that's different.  They aren't like most kids.  ALL of them, were happy all week, they never argued, they all included one another, shared, and so on.  I wouldn't contribute it to the way they are being raised, because most of them have parents and family who are in prison, for drugs, violence, or murder and live with relatives who aren't their parents because of that.  We had kids that were 4 or 5 years old tell us that their dad was in jail for having his neck slit and trying to kill the lady who did it.  There was one family with 8 kids living in a house, probably smaller that Will and I's...not that that's a horrible thing...who knows, we may have 8 kids living in our own home someday!...but they were all there for one reason or another due to their birth parents making very wrong choices, one boy, was an uncle to the other kids.  His mom had kicked him out because she didn't want him...he's 5 or 6, pray for Marcus.  Most of the others were siblings who lived there with their grandma and dad, their mom was in jail, and had just delivered a baby boy, in jail, the baby was now living with their aunt.  Pray for Alyssa, Neil, Elijah, Lilly, Liza, Junior and the rest of their siblings.  It's just a messed up situation out there, but everyday, they met us with smiling faces.  Several of them would run out to me with their arms open for hugs wanting me to hold them...some were older.  There is a lot of work to be done on the reservations.  I think they are so starved for love and attention that they are ready to soak up anything from anyone who cares about them.  There is a white pastor and an Indian pastor who will be working hand in hand to reach out to and minister to these kids.    On the last day, Kyle, a 14 or 15 year old guy told Will that he needed to talk to him.  He told Will that he didn't want to live his life the same way anymore.  He wanted to change his life.  This is one of the boys from the other side of the reservation who was involved in one of the gangs.  He said, he wasn't sure if he wanted to give His life to Christ yet, but he definitely wanted to change.  When we left, he was talking to Cameron, the indian pastor who is there (from another tribe) who used to be involved in a lot of gang activity himself.  Pray for Kyle.  Will got me a new digital camera!!  Yeah!  No more film!  So I will have pics to post soon! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/570662/ Wed, 6 Aug 2008 08:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ArrowsInOurQuiver/570662/