Prison Ministry

      A couple weeks ago, the man that takes care of our Prison Ministry at church came to me. He asked me if Mary would like to teach a Ladies Bible Study at our county jail. Quickly, Mary said that she would like to conduct the Bible Study. But come to find out, the Ladies Bible Study had been filled by another church or group.

      We were very disappointed, because it sounded exciting and it was another way to share the Gospel. But a couple days later, Mary was looking at the Jail website and saw that they had a volunteer opportunity for a Spanish Bible Study. We called them to inquire about the opening and they said that there was an opening.

       So, we are going through the hurdles to get into the jail. I will be teaching the Bible Study, because it will possibly have men and women. Mary will then translate for me! Praise the Lord!

       We are praying about possibly staring a Spanish Ministry in our church! The Spanish Bible Study will be a chance to get our feet wet! Please pray with us about this possibility as well as the Spanish Bible Study as it will be a big challenge to both of us!

SURPRISE!

I am thoroughly convinced that I have the BEST WIFE IN THE WORLD! Last Thursday, it was my birthday...23 years old! It was a normal school day and by the time school was over, we were both tired and worn out, so we did not really do anything! That evening, Mare was very bummed that she could not make my birthday a special day...I kept reassuring her that it was okay and I did not need anything special!  All the time she was saying these things, she had a surprise birthday party planned! She is pretty mischievous...but I like when her mischievousness is in my favor!

On Saturday, we went visiting for our bus route. After our bus visiting, I went with my dad to Mongolian Grill (yummy!!) and then went to Cabela's. Mare was at my parents house to "help around the house" or so she told on the phone! Little liar! LOL! After Cabela's, my dad & I headed home! The whole time, my dad was acting very suspicious, especially when he let me enter the house before him! He never does that! As I entered the house, I looked at the mirror that is right by the back door and saw a man from our church! Soon I realized my WONDERFUL wife's plans! She is truly the best!!

 Pastor Williams (left) and Tim Wells (right), a layman in the church

 My WONDERFUL wife and I! 

 Jolly Mrs. Williams, Pastor's wife

 We all sat around the piano for about 2 hours singing about our GREAT GOD!

 Mare being very naughty!!

 Part of the group singing!

 (Left to Right) Pastor Williams, dad & Mr. Mauller, my "adopted" grandpa and now Mary's too!

 There goes my diet! LOL!

The feast!

Pictures of Jonah

Today I was working with Jonah on his part for the school closing program, and I thought I would take the opportunity to take a couple of pictures so that you all could see him.

This was the first picture we tried.  I had to tell him that the point was not to be goofy but just to have a nice picture for other people to see.

He basically got the point of a nice picture here (I think).

He wanted to do a shooting picture, so I let him.  After the picture was taken I asked him who he was shooting, and he said that he was shooting me! (Thank you very much, Jonah)

 *Notice my school uniform:)!

This is him with the picture that he drew for me a few days ago.  You cannot really see the big "Mawwy" and little "Jonah", because they were drawn in yellow. 

Jonah

      Hi!  This is Mary!  So far, Tyler has done anything and everything with the blog, but I had a little bit of time this evening, so I thought I would put my two cents in:)!  I pondered for a little bit what or whom my first post would be about, and finally decided on writing about a little guy that I have come to love very much.  Let me tell you a little about him.  His name is Jonah, and he is in Mrs. Brock's class, in which I spend a lot of time helping.  Jonah is 11 years old and is in third grade.  He is not like any other little boy, though, because he has Down Syndrome.  It is that fact that endears him to me.  He is the sweetest, funniest little guy, and he keeps me laughing.  He is VERY smart, and that is part of what makes him so funny.  He amazes me with all that he can do, even with Down Syndrome.  When I say he is in third grade, I mean that he can do basically what any other third grader can do.  He can do "take aways" (subtraction), addition of two numbers that each have two digits, he has gotten through all of his cursive letters in English, he studies and does well on his Science and Social Studies tests, and got a 100% on his last Word Building test, which involved 40 spelling words.  When I say spelling words, I mean words of up to 7 letters!!  Yesterday I was practicing spelling words with him and called out the word "help".  He wrote it on the board and then looked at me and added "ful" at the end.  He proceeded to tell me that I could expand the word "help" into an even larger word (helpful) if I wanted to (thank you, Jonah:)!
      I look forward to his greetings every morning.  Most of what he does is with a burst of energy, unless he is upset or sick.  He will come running in the door with a bang that makes me turn around from whatever I am doing in my office.  As soon as he sees me he will shout out, "HI MAWWY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  He then proceeds to run over and gives me a hug that sometimes squeezes my neck so hard that I think he is going to choke me.           The first time I realized how smart he was was pretty soon after I had started working at the school.  I was at his desk studying his spelling with him. I was holding his PACE and told him to spell the word "basket".  He got a little, sly smile on his face and started giggling and pointing at the back of the PACE I was holding.  I turned it over and saw that in the middle of the page full of sentences one sentence had the word "basket", and he could see it.  He thought it was the funniest things and just could not stop laughing at "Mawwy".
      Last week during music class, which Tyler and I teach, I told the kids to turn to a certain song in the book.  One of the girls in the class went to help Jonah and he snatched his book away from her and said, "No! Mawwy hop(help) me!!"  He came running up to me, only wanting me to help him.  It seems to be that he always wants me to "hop" him.  As soon as I walk into the classroom he will put his question flag up and without permission to talk will look at me and say "Hop!! Mawwy!!"  Mrs. Brock and I have figured out that he acts like he needs help most of the time because he just wants me to be with him:)!  I found out recently that he has a sister named Mary whom he loved dearly because she helped him a lot, but she had to go off to college.  I think that is why he likes me.  He often will point at a picture of her that is in his classroom, point at me, say "Mawwy", and then point at her and say "Mawwy".
        One day I was at lunch and I started to tease Jonah a little to make him laugh.  Then I started singing the "Patch the Pirate" song about Jonah.  He was laughing and laughing.  At the end, I started to walk away and as I turned around to say goodbye, he shouted out "I lub you, Mawwy!!!" and then blew me three kisses.  A few days after, though, he was very upset with me because I got on to him about coloring instead of working.  He looked at me with a very sullen face, crossed his arms, and firmly shook his head when I told him to work on math.  I ignored him for a little bit, and then went back and started to "hop" him and showed him that he was really very smart and could do the work all alone.  After he had finished I let him go back to coloring for doing a good job.  So what did he color?  A picture for me--there was blue sky above, green grass below, a BIG yellow person and a little yellow person.  The big person had the name "Mary" written above it, and the little person, of course, had the name "Jonah" written on it.  He was so proud when he presented it to me:)!
      I have many more "Jonah" stories I could tell, but I will save them for another day.  I am so glad to be able to work with him.  I think I have learned more while helping him than he has learned from me.  He is a reminder to me that every person is precious in the Lord's eyes.
   
     
   

Our Honeymoon

Well, after much deliberation, Mary & I decided on the destination for our Honeymoon! My first thought was possibly a cruise! But the LaBate Family went on a vacation to a place called "Tybee Island" near Savannah, Georgia. Just the name stirred our curiosity and in the end, we decided to go to Savannah, Georgia and stayed in a little cottage on Tybee Island.

Here we are on the Island!

Our little cottage with the rental car!

It was a neat cottage...there was a gate, which we had to go through in order to get the cottage.

The Cottage was about 10 feet from the beach and it was off-season, so there was practically no one on the beach!!

This is at a weird little shopping place. As Mary said, "It looked like it was run by hippies." We bought some hoodies for $40. By the way, when we bought these things and spent our money, I never once thought about how much I was spending!! Now, we are on a budget!! YEAH!!

On top of Fort Pulaski! What a beautiful young lady beside me!

 On top of Fort Jackson, which was the place where General Sherman ended his path of destruction across the South during the Civil War.

On top of the Tybee Lighthouse! Beautiful! 

 On the top of Tybee Lighthouse...you could see the perimeter of the whole Island. We walked up 175 stairs to get the top!

 At Five Guys! I love their double sized fries!

 At Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We went to this restaurant and did not realize that the menu was "A la Carte", which means every entree is a separate cost. After having a steak, chicken, a side of broccoli, a baked potato, an appetizer, a salad and a bowl of soup, our bill was $130. That was expensive night to say the least! We just looked at each other and said, "It is our honeymoon!"

 This is our Tour Boat, which took us up and down the canal in Savannah, Georgia and told us about the history of Savannah, Georgia.

 On the Tour Boat!

 On a little "Skipper" boat on the Atlantic Ocean near the Island! We were on our way to "Little Tybee Island".

 Mary stealing a kiss!!! I love it!!

 A message in the sand...it was there when we got to the Island!! LOL!

 Another picture inside Fort Pulaski!

  A beautiful sun set on the beach! Goodbye honeymoon! (By the way, the temperature went from 70 when we stepped on the plan to NEGATIVE 7 when we stepped off the plan in S.D.! Welcome to S.D., Mary!!

When we got back from our Honeymoon, the church had filled our apartment with tons of food!! This is just a small portion of the food!! Praise the Lord!! What a blessing!!