Teenagers & Family: Our last two weeks

It has been about two weeks since we last posted, and those two weeks have left us tired, but happy.  At about 8:00 a.m. on June 27th, we left the parking lot of Liberty Baptist Tabernacle in two vans loaded with 18 teenagers and juniors (4th-6th grade) and all of their luggage, which for some was hardly anything and for others was far more than desired!!  We drove about 6 hours and ended in Aberdeen, SD at Richmond Lake Bible Camp where we spent the next week.  We had a great and wonderful time, although I felt very tired by Tuesday afternoon!  I would love to post some pictures, but being the bright people that we are, Tyler and I left our camera at camp!  We will hopefully be receiving it shortly.  We had the normal bug bites, sunburns, headaches, and accidents.  I got a very painful sunburn on Wednesday, which I had to keep on covering in soothing aloe vera.  We had one teenage girl with 104 mosquito bites by the time we left for home.  One young lady got knocked pretty badly in the face while we were playing with a big ball.  Her biggest concern was that she could not feel half of her face for the rest of the day!  Another of my girls had back spasms...and the list could go on and on.  The preaching, which was the whole purpose we took the kids to camp, was great.  We heard from Bro. Torrey Jaspers and his father Dr. Glenn Jaspers.  The main theme of the week was that "Direction Determines Destination".  We were all challenged with the fact that decisions we make now will affect our future. Several of our young people made good decisions that we pray will stick with them through the rest of their lives.  I was delighted when Dr. Glenn Jaspers asked me if I knew the LaBates!  Of course I know them...they are from the church I grew up in!  He told me that Mrs. LaBate grew up under his ministry!!  There is so much more I could tell of our week at camp, but I will save it for the time when I can hopefully show some pictures.

We arrived home on Saturday, July 2nd, which was the same day that my family arrived from Indiana.  I was so thankful that my dear husband had taken the time to make our apartment as spotless as possible before we left for camp!  The week spent with my family was delightful!!  On July 4th they attended the "God & Country Rally" that our church holds every year.  They enjoyed immensely the music that was performed.  The rest of the day we spent with people whom Tyler and I call "Grandpa & Grandma Wells".  They are not really either of our grandparents, but we love them very much.  We did the normal things you do on the Fourth-eat and play games outside!  In the evening we watched fireworks in town--they were beautiful.  The night ended with Jennifer and Sabrina Damron, as well as my sister and sister-in-law spending the night at our house.  I was surprised that both a full and queen size mattress fit on our living room floor!!  Tuesday we went up to Hill City, where we rode an old train, called the 1880 train, through the Black Hills.  I was reminded again of what a beautiful place we live in!  Once we got of the train, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking through Keystone and looking at all of the little shops.  We finished the day by having supper with another set of grandparents that I have acquired at the church, the Maullers.  I ate buffalo meat, and it was delicious!  Wednesday was our day for Mt. Rushmore.  It was very, very busy when we got there, but we were thankful that the weather had cleared up from the rain that had been around in the morning.  Our last day together was Thursday, and I think it was the best day we had.  We spent our morning in the Badlands, which were amazing.  We could not stop taking pictures!  The afternoon was spent in Spearfish Canyon, where we hiked a little and saw two beautiful waterfalls.( I promise to post pictures of this later when I have more time)  We ended the day by having dinner at Pastor and Mrs. Furse's log home way up high on a hill.  While we were eating we saw turkeys, deer and a coyote out the big window. We had to say our goodbyes on Friday morning as we ate breakfast together...we miss them all already, and hope they will be out again soon!!

This morning started Vacation Bible School here at Liberty Baptist Tabernacle.  I am the 2nd grade teacher, and Tyler is the 6th grade teacher.  We will also be helping with "Teen Time" in the evenings.  I thought I would let everyone know, so that you will not expect any more updates during the week (not that we post that much anyway!)  We will try to also have some pictures of that to show everyone at the end of the week!  We may just have to have a post of all pictures!!!!!!  GOODBYE FOR NOW!!