Seriously?!!! NINETEEN?!!!!

How is this even possible?

It was only yesterday I was in the hospital waiting on the arrival of our first little bundle of joy. I'm SURE it was only yesterday - or at the most a few weeks ago!!!

Hmm.... the word "little" is relative here.

Cameron weighed in at 9 lbs. 12 oz. He was no where near as big as I was at birth, but everyone was amazed at his size. LOL!

So, Cameron, today you are 19.

One more year of the teens left.

Two more years and you are a true adult in the eyes of the world.

You have brought many days of joy to our life.

We are extremely proud of the accomplishments you have made throughout your life - graduating with honors, becoming an accomplished musician, leading worship at Tabernaculo de Vida -

and in the last few weeks -

college and your first "real" job.

God truly has His hand on your life. We are proud to be your parents!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! WE LOVE YOU!!

CHAD IS 16!!!!

Today our "baby" turns 16!

Chad,

We are so proud of you and the young man you have become.

I can't imagine our home without you.

You have brought so much joy to our family.

I love talking football with you!! :)

Your worship is an inspiration to everyone around you.

God has big plans for you, and we are excited to watch your life develop.

We love you more than words can say!

Happy birthday!!!!!

Celebrate My Life

Several weeks ago a man in our church passed away. His wife asked for this song to be sung at his funeral. When I heard the words, I knew I had to share them with all of you. I always want to celebrate the lives of those who have gone on before us!

Don't cry for me 'cause I have gone to a better place

Try not to cry for me 'cause I see the Savior's face

Remember my smile and the things we used to do

How you were always there for me and how much I love you

So, celebrate my life

Celebrate the years

Celebrate our family and wipe each others tears

Celebrate the laughter

Celebrate the fun

One day God will wipe away your tears and sorrow will be gone

Don't cry for me 'cause I am home, 'cause I am free

Try not to cry for me just hold on; hold on to all our memories

Remember my smile and the things that we'd do

How you were always there for me and I love you

I'm looking forward to that wonderful day

When the Lord shall wipe all our tears away

Never again will we have to part

We will all have His peace and His joy in our hearts

Know that you will see me again so just hold fast to what is true

Remember to love the Lord with all your heart

And He will see you through

I have fought a good fight; now I've finished my race

One day we will greet each other with a warm embrace

So, celebrate my life

Celebrate the years

Celebrate our family and wipe each others tears

Celebrate the laughter

Celebrate the fun

Celebrate the promise that all sorrow will be gone

In a nutshell....

This has been one of the busiest years I can remember. We have had babies born, weddings, wedding showers & bridal showers, graduation, etc. We've had District Conference, Holiday Youth Convention, Camp Meeting, Youth Camps, South Texas Revival Conference. Several Community Days and outreach events. Hired an Associate to the Pastor - Dyron Adams. He and his wife, Tamberli, and their son, Zion, are in the process of getting settled into the routine of Wichita Falls & Life Tabernacle. They will, also, soon be welcoming a new member to the family, Malachi. He should be here the first part of November.

In February, Gene & I celebrated 21 years of marriage. We went to the Valentine Symphony in Dallas & stayed at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine. It was a wonderful, relaxing time.

I was asked to be over the music for Texas Women's Conference this year, so we flew Ronda in to play the organ. We sisters had a blast that week!

In April (I think), Priscilla, Gene & I went to Dallas to see Tony Bennett. Oh My Word!!! He was incredible!! AND.......

..... Kassie & Randy got engaged during the performance!! Kassie had no idea we were there watching from the balcony.

In May, Kyle & Jessica got married.....

..... we took senior portraits .....

..... and Cameron graduated!!!

Last week our family took few days off and went to Austin. We enjoyed the time away and had a great time seeing friends and visiting our favorite places. Mozart's .....

..... New Life Church .....

..... and The Domain.

We also went to the Round Rock Outlet Mall, Mellow Mushroom, Cheesecake Factory, drove through downtown, and through Pflugerville to see what all has been done there.

And now we are to August - gearing up for Kassie & Randy's wedding next month. This picture was taken at their Wedding Shower last week.

In the midst of all these events .... I have lost 50 lbs!!!!!

School begins next week. Chad will be a Sophomore at Rider High School, and Cameron begins his years of college at Midwestern State University.

We are excited about what God is doing in Life Tabernacle!! There is such an expectancy in the air. Every service is filled with the mighty presence of God. We have numerous visitors in every service, and God is changing lives.

What a great life!!

Gaither Vocal Band

The Gaither Vocal Band has hit it completely out of the park with their latest project!!!!

I have to admit - when I heard Guy Penrod and Marshall Hall were leave the group, I was not a happy camper. My first question was, "How in the world does Bill Gaither think he's going to build a better group than this one?" I even thought I might be done with the GVB. As much as I have LOVED Michael English and David Phelps through the years, I just wasn't impressed with a re-creation of what used to be. I figured we'd just be hearing a LOT of the OLD music again - not that those songs weren't good - but I get tired of remakes all the time.

Well..... they have totally surprised me with this latest release!! "Greatly Blessed" was released to stores yesterday. I bought it online last night and listened with awe to what has to be the most current, up-to-date music the GVB has ever done. The vocals are crazy!!!!

There's a ukelele on "Better Day," then they turn around and use "Canon in D" as the background to "You Are My All in All," then they have this Norah Jones-like piano sound going on with some unbelievable vocals on "Clean." They've done an easy-listening, jazz-like remake of the old song "That Sounds Like Home to Me." Beautiful!! And of course there's the good ol' southern style on "When He Blest My Soul." Even the OLD songs have a NEW sound! Awesome!!!

If you are a Gaither Vocal Band fan - JUST BUY IT!! Enjoy!

(just in case there is ANY question - this post is by KARLA)

January, 2010

Does anyone know where January went?!! I KNOW we just celebrated the new year a couple days ago and now here it is February 1!!! Wow!

Here are the happening from January, 2010:

We attended the beautiful wedding of Josh & Shelly Youngblood. Shelly was one of the young ladies in our youth group back in the day. She was a beautiful bride, and we are happy for them.
Cameron and Chad got their report cards for the first semester. Both of them did incredibly well. We are so proud of our boys and all they are accomplishing in their lives. God has BIG plans for them!!
Life Tabernacle was approved for our first daughter work!! Tabernaculo de Vida will launch this coming Sunday (February 7). We are so excited to see what God is going to do through our Spanish ministry. The miracles that have already taken place in this process are amazing.

Gene & I were privileged to attend Because of the Times in Alexandria, LA. We are always blessed to be a part of this conference. Everything is always top shelf - this year was no different. Govenor Bobby Jindal spoke to us briefly one night. The preaching and music was awesome!! And, of course, being with friends and family is what makes it even more fun.

During the month of January we have been focusing on prayer. We've had several different times of gathering as a church family to pray. It's been wonderful. Last week we had prayer revival at 7:30 each night. I loved the times of focused prayer. We are expecting great things this year.

To end our month, Life Tabernacle welcomed our newest member this year: Remington Keith was born January 31. He is such a cutey!! We are very happy for the proud parents, Zac & Amber.

Let's Finish out 2009!

I think it's a good time to go ahead and finish out 2009 so we can move into 2010. LOL! So... picking up where Gene left off, here we go.

In October we celebrated Cameron's 18th birthday.How can that be? I'm not much over 18 myself. HAHA!! It was so much fun! We surprised him a couple weeks before his birthday with a weekend to celebrate. Sis. Bernard & Lindsey came in on Friday and completely shocked him. Then on Saturday we had a party at our house & surprised him with a car from us and Grandpa & Grandma.I was quite emotional.... It was definitely a day he will never forget!

We were so blessed to attend General Conference in St. Louis. I always have so much fun seeing friends and family.
When conference was over, we took a few days in Branson with Wendell & Linda and Nathan & Ronda. We had a blast!!!! I LOVE laughing with family........there is nothing like it!

At the end of October, we had our Fall Blast weekend. We had somewhere around 400 at our annual festival on the 31st. It was so awesome! Bro. & Sis. Borlik, children's evangelists, were with us for the weekend.

In November....

We attended the wedding of Kristopher & Ashley Prince. Cameron was the bestman. It was a beautiful wedding.

Evangelist Mike Easter was with us for a week of special services. During this week we had a Community Day at Spudder Park. There is so much to tell about this event. God spoke to Gene through a man who was there - he told us to keep doing what we are doing; we will see the vision fulfilled; keep reaching out and they will reach back. It was just incredible. Also, we had a door opened to us in to the Police and Fire Departments of Wichita Falls. Can't wait to see what God does through these efforts.

Of course, once you get past the middle of November all the holiday celebrations begin. We had a great time through December.

We had the largest crowd ever at our annual Christmas Concert! They even had to put out extra chairs. Word is getting out in Wichita Falls!!! We had one church that brought their college & career group to our concert as part of their Christmas party. Another church dismissed their evening service to come to the concert.
Our family had a great Christmas time with Dad & Mom Holley and Wendell & Linda. It was quite different this year because there was so much snow! It was unbelievable. Not sure I'll be "dreaming of a white Christmas" for a while. LOL!

All-in-all, 2009 was a fabulous year. Life Tabernacle has grown and many things are happening! God is blessing! I'm so glad to be part of what He has planned for us this year. I hope you all are enjoying the wonderful move of God wherever you are. We're moving forward!!