ESL Class

Thought I would show you a picture of our class from last quarter with their Certificates of Completion! The classes started back up in the last month and it is exciting. Not only are we starting a church for those who speak Spanish, we are teaching them English. A special thanks goes to our teachers... (from the right) Betty Cash, Sarah Loveland (babysitter last quarter), Teresa Gaitan and Victoria Pena.

God is honoring our efforts and we have now baptized our first person who speaks Spanish only. He and his family are a great part of our church now and being taught the Word in our Sunday morning and Friday night Spanish Bible Studies. His son sang a solo in the Children's Choir this past Sunday night. We can envision this ESL class growing into a training center with many classes to meet this great need!

Children and Youth Events

Our children and youth are very important to our church family. We took a Sunday night to celebrate the accomplishments of our Sunday School classes and teachers. Promotion Sunday 2009 was a service led by the children. Praise singing, choir, offering, and special prayer were all done by the children.

The children who were advancing to the next class were promoted during the service.

Joseph Ouellette, our children's minister, was the speaker for the service and he spoke on the subject, "Who's your Granny?" A very moving message... although the title would never seem that way!

All of our teachers and their families were honored with a dinner and time of fellowship following the service.

Sharon Bivens and my wife were surprised by a visit from Danny and Tommie Kay Stephens, their youth leaders from YEARS ago! :)

"Preparing for the King" was an all-day event held on a Saturday for the young ladies to encourage them to dedicate their lives to the service of God and let their life show His glory. Kaspri Photography took pictures of the girls after they had dressed up for a banquet escorted by their Dad's or family member. My wife was their trial run for lighting and such — after a lot pictures were snapped, she put on a crown...

It struck her funny! As you can see below, she is a beautiful example of His glory (and I am a little partial!)

The End of August...

First day of school...

Cameron is a senior this year and Chad is a freshman. This is the first year since Chad was in the third grade that they are in the same school. It is amazing how time flies and the little children grow up. I wouldn't want them to stay little forever, but slowing it down wouldn't hurt! Oh, well, we are enjoying every stage and year that the boys go through. They are great guys and we are proud to call them our own. Perfect? No. But neither are we!

Chad's 15th birthday was August 30th and we had a party this year. The whole youth group was invited and the house was full! We had a great time...

Digital drums from Grandpa and Grandma... a gift to everyone in our house as well!!!! Silence is golden.

Alayna and Ashlyn, Andrew and Mandy's girls, had a great time tickling the boys! They are so sweet.