Farewell to the Martin's

The Martin's came to house sit for us 3 1/2 years ago when we went to town to have baby Sarah.  They decided to stay and join our fellowship.  It has been a wonderful time of friendship and spiritual growth for both our families.  Now they feel that Yhwh is moving them on to the next step.  They're moving to Wasilla and we will sorely miss them.   Below they are packing up the plane to leave.

 Teri, Gilana, and Kinsey

 One of the most obvious ways we will miss the Martin's is in our worship and fellowship time.  David, their oldest son and a wonderful musician, has been leading our worship.  We have enjoyed the times of worship and are always excited to hear his latest new song.  We have learned so much from him and we are very grateful for the time he spent teaching us to play better.
Before he left we recorded our worship time.  The first song below we learned while we were in Israel.  Lavonne is running the slideshow of words with one of my favorite freeware programs http://www.zionworx.org.uk/

The first clip is from Yariv Goldman's song "Ma Yedidot".  It's in Hebrew.  We've all been studying Hebrew and my favorite way to learn is by learning worship songs.

The second clip is "Be Thou My Vision" by  Dallán Forgaill

Already the kids are stepping up to fill David's shoes.  While Paul and the big kids were gone last week, Anna & Joshua volunteered to lead our worship time and they did a good job.

Joshua's Birthday

Joshua, my talented middle child, turned 11.  He loves to draw which inspires my younger boys to draw along with him.  He's been playing the drums and has just started playing the bass guitar.  Twice now in the last month Paul and the older kids have gone on a trip.  Joshua has stepped up as the man of the house, making sure we have enough wood and helping customers pick up their ATV's that Paul fixed before he left.

He got a box of Legos for his birthday.  He loves creating things.

Anna made a pinata for his birthday.  Below he's helping Hazel get a good hit on it.

After Hazel Joshua got to take the first hits at the Pinata.  Quentin made sure they weren't very good hits.

Anna made a cake and Josh A. made a cake.

The kids bought some trick candles while they were in Anchorage.  Joshua finally blew them out much to the amusement of his siblings.