Last weekend we had a mission trip training day with our students that will be going on the mission trip to South Dakota this June. We went to a place called Camp Reveal which has a low ropes course. I was anxious to see just how well our students would work together and I must say I was very impressed. It rained pretty much the entire time we were there except for about 1 hour. Our students were great about it and I didn't hear one person complain. It definitely added to the difficulty of completing the tasks as a team. We were split up into 2 groups of ten. The first challenge my group had was to get every team member over a bare wall. This was my favorite part of the day. I was so proud of our students. At one point I was about to start crying because of the encouragement they were giving and how they were working together and helping one another. I don't see that often in the everyday youth group stuff. I have no doubt that when we go on the trip our students will be there for one another and getting the job done. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lord works. We took a break for lunch and then my group went to another challenge involving 2 ropes, 3 cables and 3 trees. It was pretty tough. Neither of the groups were able to accomplish it. The man in charge said that it took the engineers from Toyota 6 hours to complete that challenge. Crazy! We didn't have that kind of time. Before we left we were able to do the zip line for something fun. The students really enjoyed that. I wished we would have had more time to do more challenges but it was a great time and I was definitely ready to get out of the cold and rain!


Enjoy the slideshow of pictures from that day!

This past weekend Aaron and I had a youth event called Breaking Away. Check out his blog to read about it and see pictures! http://aaronzehr.blogspot.com/

This past weekend my great grandma Mabel passed away. Sunday morning at church was really hard but good at the same time. During Sunday School the lesson was in 2 Corinthians where Paul talks about doing things on earth of eternal significance and how our bodies will be new in heaven. I just kept thinking about grandma in her new body and receiving rewards for her work here on earth. In the service we sang Above All and the sermon was on salvation and we took communion. I was so overwhelmed with sadness, peace, and thankfulness. I missed grandma but I was so thankful to Jesus for what he did so that she could be in heaven at that moment and for the assurance that I would be with her again. I don't think communion has ever been more meaningful to me. We left right after church to drive home. We made it in time for the second viewing. The funeral was Monday morning. At the burial I kept thinking about my grandpa as I looked at the grave stones of his mother, his wife, and his son. My grandpa is such a strong man and I have so much love and respect for him. He is a great leader for our family. I appreciate him so much. On the way home I had a little break down moment. I thought of all the things that grandma was and all that she did and how I won't have those things in my life anymore. She always showed me how much she loved me and she was always so supportive and proud of Aaron and I being in the ministry. I will miss her dearly. I wanted to share with all of you the memories I have of great grandma Mabel...

Her letters
Her homemade ice cream
Playing hide the thimble
Reading books with her
Playing games
Word searches
Being in her Sunday School class
Her corn and mashed potatoes
Playing in the barn with her cats
Taking walks down CR 50 to pick up trash
Eating the mint leaves on own walks
She knew the name of every flower
Volunteering with Red Cross
Doilies and covered hangers
Working with her in the gift shop at the hospital
Her special knock at the front door
“Oh, come on, you can eat a little more. I don’t want leftovers!”

*When I was little I would spend the night at Grandma’s and I would sleep in her bed with her. I always thought she was going to die in her sleep because she was so old! I was afraid I would wake up and she would be dead lying next to me, but every time I woke up she was already downstairs with breakfast ready.

*One year over Spring Break, Mom and I went to Florida and we took Grandma with us. At the airport she kept making the metal detector go off. They made her stand over at the side with her hands up in the air to scan her with the smaller one. She just laughed with us! Seriously, what is a 94 year old lady going to do?! After all that we got to be the first ones on the plane, thanks to Grandma.

Thank you, Grandma, for your constant love and support for me through everything I’ve done. You will always be special to me and I will miss you greatly. I look forward to playing games and
taking walks with you in heaven.

My Spring Break started on Good Friday. Saturday morning at 8:00 Aaron and I were at the church to get ready for the Easter Egg Hunt. We asked people in the church to donate filled eggs for the hunt. We opened it up to those in the community so we hoped to have a lot of kids there. Seeing as how our church always gives big, we ended up with over 800 eggs! The grass was pretty much covered and we hid as many as we could. We only had 10 kids so they could definitely fill their buckets! Easter Sunday was wonderful and it was great to see our church filled with people! We had a sunrise service and breakfast too.



Monday morning Aaron and I drove to Brown County for a pastor's/spouse retreat for our church conference. It was only a 24 hour thing but we enjoyed it. Throughout our time there we had 3 seminars where the bishop spoke. We walked around the town to see all the tourist shops, played games, and ate meals together. This picture is of us with our pastor and his wife, Don and Carla Fausnaugh at the retreat. On the way home we ate lunch with them at Olive Garden and then did some shopping.




Thursday afternoon we left with two students from our youth group to go to Indiana Wesleyan to visit. That night we watched a movie in the on-campus theatre with the youth group from Brookhaven Wesleyan, where we used to go before we moved. Saturday we visited some friends while the students went to a couple classes. Aaron's cousin and his fiance also spent a lot of time with us. That night after supper we went to Ivanhoes and played games. Saturday morning we played racquetball and ate lunch before we made the drive home. It was so much fun to be back on campus and see old friends. We really enjoyed being there with our youth kids too and seeing Aaron's family.



I wanted to show all of you the recent addition to our apartment (because I know some of you are interested in ANY change that is made!) Aaron used some of his birthday money to buy some plants. He is going to be in charge of them because I kill plants! Here they are...