Revival at Wesleyan Bible Church in Lakewood

Hi, Beth here!
We really enjoyed attending three services of the Wesleyan Bible Church in Lakewood, CO this past weekend. We went Friday night, and of course the dear people of the church wanted us to come back for Sunday.. so we did.. and we're glad we did. After the morning service we participated in a potluck at the Esparzas' home with the Esparzas, the Battons, the Kearneys, and Knox Bullock, who was the evangelist. The food was good, the fellowship was good, and we appreciate the Esparzas opening their home for that meal.

Pictures at the Esparzas:

Rev. Knox Bullock, Beth and Rev. Dan Batton (Beth is Knox's sister)


Cindy and Steve Kearney and Daddy and Mother


Jeff, Jason, and Emily


The Esparza family L-R: Alex, Heather, Jerry, and Jenae
(their older son Brandon is at college)


The Batton family L-R: Dan, Jill, and Beth


The Kearneys invited us to come to their house and stay for the afternoon so that we could be in the evening service. Everyone but Mother (she didn't have on her walking shoes) went on a ~2 mile walk with the Kearneys. It was a beautiful day for a walk. Then we visited for the rest of the afternoon and went to service that evening. It was truly a delightful day.

November non newsy news

This is the brand new fishing dock at the west end of Johnstown Reservoir. There is a walking path all around the lake where we often walk. This picture was taken on our Sunday afternoon, pre-nap walk, November 2.

On Election Day, Jeffrey and Janet were election judges at the Johnstown Vote Center. In our county, you can vote at any one of 34 vote centers. So we had voters from around the county, not just Johnstonians in our vote center. At our vote center, McCain/Palin won, and all the Republicans also won. Also, now the statistics have been published for our town's votes, and the Republicans won every race quite handily. Sorry it didn't carry over to the rest of our county, state, etc.

In our vote center, we had 1053 voters use the electronic voting machines, and 75 used paper ballots voting provisionally. We also had lots of other people come in, who we directed to go to Larimer County to vote (as that was where they were registered to vote), or to go to one of two places where they could emergency register (change their registration from another county from which they had moved) and vote.

When we opened the polls at 7 am, we had a long line waiting. It was 11:30 am before the line was no longer stretching outside the building. In the afternoon, we kept steadily busy but only for a short time did we have another long line. In Weld County, 70% of voters had either voted mail-in or early voting, so it made Election Day much for bearable for all the vote centers.

We had no problems throughout the day with voting machines or computers or people! Thank the Lord!

Other than the election, and school, school, school, we haven't been having too much excitement. We did have Mike Durkee visiting last weekend, but we didn't "shoot" him. We were thankful we kept him late enough playing "The Ungame" Sunday evening, that he missed the multi car accident on I-25 on his way home.

We got a dusting of snow this morning: our first for the season! This is our deck on the south of the house. It always gets more snow than the front yard.

We are doing various projects getting ready for Randy, Joy, Quil, Tim, and Brenda coming for Thanksgiving week. We are trying to get all the presents ready so we can celebrate Christmas with them at the same time.

Tim is 21 now!

Yesterday, our second born son, Tim, got to be a real adult! He is now 21. He is married and lives in Joplin, MO with his wonderful wife, Brenda. He and his big brother, Randy, work together every day as they did for years when they were still home, only now they paint houses for a living, rather than mow lawns.

Tim is a blessing to all of us. He is fun to be with and is so smart about thinking things through and problem solving. He is serious about his relationship with the Lord and being a godly leader for his wife.

I remember when he was born. He aspirated some fluid into his lungs during the birth and within a half hour or so was taken from us by a concerned nurse who tried to keep us from knowing her concern. When I was taken up to my room a little later, a portable x-ray machine was being rushed down the hall to the nursery. I said to Rowen, "Some little baby is sick and having to have an x-ray." We found out later it was our baby.

He was on oxygen and we were not allowed to hold him or hardly be with him for about 24 hours. During that time, we gave him completely to the Lord, knowing He knew what was best. I remember the peace that came from surrender to God and I sang in the hospital room shower, 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus'.

God helped "Timmy" to get well very soon and we were home in a couple of days. We have always been thankful for the gift he has been to our family.

Even today to think of that song or to sing it brings back the gift of peace and love that God gave me that day. It was such a blessing that at Tim's high school graduation, 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus' was the congregational song at the start of the service. How appropriate it was, though the ones who planned the service did not know the significance to our family!

We miss having Tim in our home, but we are happy he is following God's will for his life. We raised him to send him out to serve the Lord and have his own family. We are so happy that he is diligent in his work, and his efforts for God's kingdom in children's ministry.

Other pictures from our trip to Joplin

You have been looking for more pictures from our Joplin trip besides the anniversary ones, right? Well, here you go!

Here is the start of the job we thought Rowen would complete while we were there, but the time in Branson did not leave time for any more working. He got the shower tile grouted, but not the floor. This is going to be the master bathroom in Randy and Joy's house.

Tim and Jeffrey helping clean the tiles.

Grandpa Rowen holding Quil shortly after he woke up in the morning. Quil still looks sleepy.

Quil playing ball!

Aunt Emily loving her time with Quil.

Aunt Beth reading to Quil. He does love books!

Janet modeling the apron Rowen bought her in Branson. It is made from a pillow sham!

Rowen reading to Quil while people were finishing getting ready for church.

My parents, Rex and Wanda Scoles, in the back of the Joplin church.

Tim and Brenda wore matching colors on Sunday.

Randy and Joy, David (Joy's brother) and Jeffrey relaxing at my parents' house after Sunday dinner. David lives with Randy and Joy and works for ABE Painting (Randy and Tim).

No Matter Who Wins...

Top 10 Predictions no Matter Who Wins
The Presidential Election:


1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
2. Prayer will still work.
3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.
6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
8. There will still be room at the Cross.
9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost.


Isn’t it great to know Who is still in control?

25th anniversary celebration week

We had a wonderful time last week when we went to Joplin, MO to see our kids for our 25th anniversary. On Thursday morning, we were given this Pontiac Solstice to drive until Saturday morning! Our kids were all in the green van in the picture and we followed them, "not knowing whithersoever we were going."

Here we are in traffic. I was reading our love letters aloud to Rowen full-time! We still haven't finished them. We had a long distance relationship before we were married and had spent a lot of time writing those letters and getting acquainted through them.

Around lunchtime, we arrived in Springfield, MO at the Lambert's Cafe: The Only Home of Throwed Rolls. We got plenty to eat there and enjoyed ourselves. One of the waitresses took this picture of our family.

We continued down the road and ended up in Branson. After driving 'round and 'round Branson, we ate some yogurt ice cream at TCBY.

Randy, Joy, and Quil

We ended up at Sights and Sounds Theater, a new and wonderful attraction in Branson.

Everybody was taking pictures by this lion and lamb, so we did also. The sun glare was fierce! I am glad for my dark glasses, so you can't tell my eyes are shut! A passerby offered to take this picture. It was funny, as he was getting ready to take the picture, another passerby offered to take the picture so the photographer could get in the picture with us!!

Here we are inside the theater. We saw the "Noah: the Musical." It was amazing and fantastic!
There was a powerful gospel message at the end.

After the musical, our kids presented us with a gift, as if they hadn't done enough already!

In the box was the paperwork for a cabin we were to stay in Thursday night through Saturday morning! It was a wonderful cabin with everything we needed. (Beth had packed everything personal we needed and brought it along in the van without our knowing.) We enjoyed our stay there so much!

It had a fully equipped kitchen.

Here I am standing on the porch before taking off on our fun Friday Branson adventure. We listened to a sales pitch in the morning in order to get free tickets to go up Inspiration Tower at Shepherd of the Hills and to see "The Promise" at the Mansion, a musical about the life of Christ. It was very well done. We also roamed a mall, saw lots of quilts, and some other things.

Meanwhile, our wonderful children and daughters-in-law were slaving away making food for the Saturday party. Tim loved using the Pampered Chef Crinkle Cutter on the ham!

Randy grilled some chicken and seasoned it in a very yummy way.

Jeffrey cooked up a lot of hamburger meat for taco salad.

Quil enjoyed the well-toy-stocked nursery at my sister, Sherry's church. Emily played with him and kept him safe.

I guess someone was wandering around terrorizing people with the camera.

This is the chef salad bar on Saturday. It had about everything you could want on a chef salad, except for peas, which Tim said would have ruined everything! :)

My sister, Marlene is helping in the background.

The next few pictures are of the decorations on Saturday. This is our unity candle saved from our wedding. There are two original napkins from our wedding, also.

The bulletin board was decorated with ribbons left over from our wedding and pictures of our family through the years. Beautifully done by Brenda, our daughter-in-law.

This picture shows the unity candle table and the bulletin board. My bridal bouquet, our wedding book and albums were also displayed on this table.

This quilt was an anniversary gift from my sister, Marlene. She used the leftover bridesmaid and mothers' dresses fabric for the hearts. It is a beautiful quilt. Also there is a modified bridesmaid dress on the table. I wore it early on in our marriage, and Beth wore it on our anniversary the last 2 years, but she outgrew it this year.

This is the wedding dress I wore 25 years ago. I had borrowed it from my sister-in-law, Sharen Scoles, and she graciously allowed Marlene to bring it to our party! I was surprised and blessed to see it again, and amazed at the thought I used to fit in a dress that small!! It was really special to me to have it there for the party. Thanks, Sharen and Marlene!

After a wonderful meal of taco salad and/or chef salad, the guests and our family went to the sanctuary for a vow renewal ceremony. My dad, Rex Scoles, officiated for us, as he did with Rev. Omar Lee so many years ago. We had all of our children stand up with us.

After our vows, Rowen and I sang "Each for the Other and Both for the Lord" with revised words to reflect the years that we have been married.

After the ceremony the children all said nice things about us and thanked the Lord publicly for our marriage. Here Rowen is thanking them for all they did for us and thanking the friends and family who came to share the day with us.

My niece, Leah Owens, made the beautiful cake for the occasion.

The heart on the wall, the cake topper, and the goblets were from our wedding.
My "going away" corsage and Rowen's boutonniere were also from our wedding.

Cutting the cake.

We've gotten wiser in our aging and used forks to feed each other!

Here is our family picture made after nearly everybody had gone, except for some of the hard working cleanup crew - my dear sisters and their husbands.

We were truly blessed by the Lord and our children, family, and friends to celebrate our 25th anniversary together. God has been so good to us!

Thanks for persevering to the end of this long blog post!