I saw my sisters on our trip...

 On our way to Cincinnati, we stayed the night in Columbia, Mo.  My sister, Marlene, took us to Cracker Barrel to eat, and then we went out to "The Land" and saw my brother, Lyndell, Sharen, and Austin.  Lyndell had sawdust all over him, because he was cutting and framing in bedroom windows, and I didn't even get to hug him.  We didn't have our camera with us, because we had jumped into Marlene's car, so these cell phone pictures are all I have.

 Rowen, Sharen, and Marlene were watching Austin and Emily having fun on the 4-wheeler.

 Austin was pulling Emily on the magic carpet ride.  She loved it!

On our way from Cincinnati to Joplin, we stayed the night in Wentzville, Mo. at my sister, Brenda's house.  We got to visit a tiny bit with Charley, Leah, and Andrew, but Rebekah was at work.  Rebekah did allow us to stay in her apartment, and we appreciated the good sleep.

Thursday night before we came home on Friday, my other sister, Sherry, came over and spent the evening visiting with us at Tim's house.  I am so sorry we didn't get a picture of her, or her husband, Tim, and newly graduated daughter, Tasha, or her boyfriend, Griffin, who I had a fun time visiting with!!  I was glad we got to see all of them.  I love my family!

Anniversary of the Joplin Tornado

We were in Joplin a week before the May 22 anniversary of the tornado that killed 161 people and damaged so much of Joplin.  We took Quil and Micah to Cunningham Park, which has been rebuilt from its total devastation.  We didn't take many pictures, but just these few.  We are looking at pieces of miscellaneous debris from the tornado that have been embedded in three stones of memorial.

 Rowen and I drove around the main streets of the tornado devastation.  So much has been or is being rebuilt, but so much is still vacant.  A few ruined houses are still there, not taken away, a stark reminder of what happened.  I didn't want pictures of it; it is still very sad.

We saw this memorial in Cunningham Park, but I got this image off of Facebook, as we didn't take a picture of it that night.

I copied the following from Facebook, from Ozark Christian College's page.  This made me cry a year ago; it still does.  

NATALIA PUEBLA had just finished her first year at Ozark Christian College. A 4.0 student, Natalia often flashed her mischievous smile. She loved to flick the hat off her grandpa's head or offer her hand to shake, only to pull it back at the last moment with a grin.

Most of all, Natalia loved Jesus. She could not have known she was making her last Facebook post that Sunday afternoon, but she could not have chosen one more appropriate: the lyrics of 'In Christ Alone.' "In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song. This Cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm."

Natalia was in church when the tornado hit. She covered a seven-year-old child with her body and began to pray out loud. Her pastor said later he could hear her praying and then suddenly came silence. She died talking with the Lord she was preparing to meet.

After hearing of Natalia's passing. OCC professor Doug Welch returned to his home and glanced at a stack of final paper's still waiting to be graded. Natalia's paper happened to be on the top of the stack, and the topic of her paper: the resurrection of Christ. He wrote, "It's a good paper, deserving of an A . . . but she knows this truth far better now."

Copy from the OCC Publication: "In the Midst of the Storm."  Natalia is center in this picture.

Creation Museum

On May 11, we went to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.  Lisa and Simon went with us but didn't stay for the tour.  They mostly did the outside gardens and one of the multi-media movies inside.  This dinosaur was the first thing we saw outside of the museum.

This is the Creation Museum viewed from the garden.

 The garden was wonderful to wander through.  There were several different kinds of bridges, beautiful plants and water features.  There was also a petting zoo and camel rides.

 We enjoyed seeing this peacock wandering around.  Simon wasn't sure what to think of him.  The peacock did not spread his feathers for us, but he did cry his distinctive call for us.

 Simon loved the bounciness of this floating bridge!

 This is a suspended swinging bridge that was also fun!

 Some children getting a camel ride.

 Rowen and I enjoyed the day while Emily trailed behind us taking hundreds of pictures.

 The sun was bright!

 Another beautiful bridge

We took this picture of a strange looking tree to show Beth and Jason, who didn't get to go on the trip with us.

 Inside the museum, a large aquarium with turtles

 An exhibit about digging for fossils

 One of the friendly dinosaurs God created on Day 6 of Creation.

 A display about the ones who wrote the Bible

 Rowen and I reading signs while Martin Luther posts his 95 Thesis on the door.

 A walk through Creation, well done and beautiful

 Adam naming the animals

 A not so friendly dino who had killed his lunch.  Obviously it was after the fall of man into sin, because there was no death before sin.  This dino was moving and roaring quite convincingly.

 A display in which Methuselah talked to us, telling how things were when he was living his long life.  The figures were amazingly lifelike and when they talked, their eyes moved and blinked, and their heads and hands moved.

 Noah and one of his sons working on the ark.

 We ate lunch at Noah's Cafe out on the deck where we could enjoy the view of the beautiful garden.

These pictures are just a few of the 200 or so that we took, but I think you can get the idea that this museum is very well done, interesting, and worth going to!  There are two planetarium shows, one of which we had time to go to, and it was excellent!  There are workshops, concerts, a gift shop, and three special effects theaters.  You could spend the whole day there, but we only had time for about four hours.  This museum is trying to get across the truth of the Bible: we were created by an awesome Creator who made everything in this world in six days and He rested on the seventh day.  People can take the same fossil record and scientific evidence and come up with evolution, because they do not want to admit there is a Creator Who has the right to tell us how to live.

More God's Bible School pictures from our trip

Here are some more pictures of our time at God's Bible School.  The first picture shows the Chapel/Classroom/Boys' Dorm building on the left, the Girls' Dorm in the very back, and the Administration Building on the right.

 Another view of the Admin Building, and to the right is the library.

 The Music Building which is across the street from the chapel.  Secured parking is behind this building.

 President Michael Avery, a wonderful man of God with a heart for the students.  Because he is a detail-noticing man, and he knew Jeffrey was also, he added to Jeffrey's work duties to find any details that needed to be fixed on campus:  light bulbs to replace, binds that didn't work, loose screws, black marks on floors, etc.  Jeffrey took it seriously and worked hard.  The whole campus really looked nice!  All the students work together to make the campus wonderful.

 Inside the empty chapel.  This was taken on our tour of campus.  During the camp services, it was very full of up to 900 people.

 We hadn't seen the Richard Owens family since their kids were small.  They are from New York, but daughter Rachel is in school at GBS.

 Jeffrey with a few of his friends: Brandon, Rachel, and Amit.  Amit took us out to eat on Saturday.

 We have been cyber friends with Nikita, from Grand Cayman, for probably five years.  It was a blessing to finally meet her in person!  She has been an "adopted" daughter through video chat!  She has two more years to go at GBS.  She gave Emily and me a tour of the Girls' Dorm.

 I was visiting with Martha Glick, while Rowen and Jeffrey talked to Dr. Dan Glick.  Dr. Glick is a friend, adviser, mentor, professor, and pastor to Jeffrey.  We appreciate his investment in Jeffrey's life.  We first met the Glicks at McPherson Holiness Camp in 2002.

 Another picture with Seth and Alesia, including some Albertsons.  Seth is one of our "adopted" sons, and also our daughter-in-law, Brenda's brother.  Since we were so close to Kentucky, where they live, we asked them to meet us for a meal.  They were willing to drive two hours to get to see us!

 Here is the only picture we took of our nephew, Adam.  He was supervising Aubrey's play.

 This is the dining hall, which had some stuff sitting around for the graduation receptions that were going to take place there.  Between our nieces' homes and the friends we ate out with, we only ate in the dining hall once.

The picture below is cropped from a choir picture, just to show a couple of Jeffrey's friends.  The left arrow points to Andrew Blankenship, Jeffrey's roommate this past year.  The right arrow points to Jeffrey Paulus, a good friend who plans to room with Andrew and Jeffrey next year.  It might get confusing with two Jeffreys in the room, but they are good friends and are all serious about serving the Lord.