A Wonderful Thanksgiving - From Start To End!!

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday - I pray you did too. Rob & Kaye were gracious once again to let us use one of their lakehouses for our family time. Mom drove to Rogers on Wednesday. Jeff's mother was suppose to come with her, but she had been sick for over a week with a virus, so decided she needed to stay home and fully recuperate. Kaye & Rob drove up on Wednesday as well from Conway. Carman had gone to Malvern and the Hot Springs area to have Thanksgiving with her family, but Andy stayed here to prepare for our Saturday church services. Mom treated us to a meal at Olive Garden Wednesday evening and then we all went to Bella Vista to the lakehouse. Thanksgiving day was a gorgeous day here........unseasonably warm and sunshiny.

This is us girls resting between cooking..........
Jeff & I were honored with the master bedroom -- so nice!

Another view of the master bedroom -- with a balcony outside those doors and the lake beyond. What a gorgeous site to get up to each morning!

Jeff & Rob enjoying the beautiful day.........

Mom and Kaye cooking!

Andy studying.......

Jeff & Rob watching football! BTW: WAY TO GO HOGS!!!

Sitting down to a delicious Thanksgiving meal
Kaye & Rob went home Thursday evening so she could cook for Rob's family and Matt & Kristin on Saturday (and Rob was going to the Hogs game in Little Rock on Friday). Rachel came up Thursday night after spending the day with Derek's family. Derek stayed in Conway so that he could spend the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend deer hunting with his Dad. Erika came over Friday evening for dinner. Her sister and family had spent the holiday with her, but had just gone home. Josh was in South Africa working (for Lionel Richey). Thankfully, as I write this, he is home safe and sound.

Eating spaghetti/rigatoni's and my homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs....
Playing canasta......

It's really hard to get pictures "in order" on this blog (very frustrating!). So the two pictures below were actually taken Thanksgiving day -- Mom, Rob, Kaye & I had taken a walk after our big dinner -- around to the dock of the lake.......


Saturday, Mom headed home and Rachel, Jeff, Andy & I headed back to Rogers. We enjoyed good services Saturday night at Metro. Andy preached another great sermon.

Sunday, we woke up to a wonderful treat - snow!! And it has snowed all day -- didn't stick to the roads, but sure was fun!


Rachel joined Jeff & I for the services at Pinnacle Hills this morning. Pastor Floyd preached on the subject of Israel today, which was so good, since we had just visited there this past Spring. They had a Jewish man post the flag with the National Anthem playing and pictures of Israel on the screens.

Then the choir did a stirring special singing, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

Pastor spoke of the importance of America supporting Israel, and about the heavenly Jerusalem, etc.

After lunch, Rachel headed home, arriving safely this evening.

My heart is full of thanksgiving. God has been SO SO good to us this past year. Thank you, thank you Lord for your bountiful blessings.

Connection Group Pictures

These are pictures of our Tuesday night Connection Group - hosted by Reid & Donna Fairchild and facilitated by Reid. A wonderful group of folks!!

More pictures of our Sunday night Group

At Russ & Kris Heithoff's beautiful home. Wonderful folks in this group too!! We still have a couple more weeks to meet - so please join us!

Catching Up!

Life has sure gone from 0 to 10 in busy, busy, busy and my blog is one thing I have neglected greatly! But it's all good and I continue to stand in amazement at God's marvelous blessings on our lives. Besides this posting, there are a couple more below this one in trying to catch up on what has been going on the last couple of months.

This picture is of the sweet gals I work closely with every day at FBC, Springdale. From left to right: Anita Stewart, Personal Assistant and "right arm" to Pastor Floyd; Kathy McClure -- it's hard to give a title to Kathy - she does so much from organizing all the food events; decorating for many events, also the church's wedding coordinator as well as working with Women's Ministries; the next in line is Sandra McCoy, Administrative Assistant to Andy Wilson who is Executive Leader of Administration and Operations; and then May Wheeler, who assists Anita and Sandra. These girls are all very godly women and such a joy and pleasure to work with.

The next couple of pictures are our Spiritual Development Team that my boss, Clint Smith supervises. We have weekly staff meetings in the North Conference Room each Tuesday and these pictures are from our meeting last week. Clint is at the head of the table; going right around the table: Gina Franzke, Preschool and Women's Minister; Chuck Butler, Associate Minister to Students; Ashleigh Raley, Girl's Minister in the Student Department. Going left of Clint is: Jim Hyde, Minister of Married Adults, Men's Ministry, Prayer Minister and Faciliites Manager; Chris Swain, Minister of Singles and College; and Greg Westmoreland, Minister of Children. Isn't that the biggest conference table you have ever seen!!??!!

At the other end of the table is Cameron Bowman, Associate Minister to Children. On this particular day, we were missing Shawn Smith, Minister to Students and Bill Trueblood, Minister to Older Adults. This is a great team and also a pleasure to work with.


CONNECTION GROUPS

A couple of months ago, we got involved in our first Pinnacle Hills Home Group led by Reid & Donna Fairchild (their picture is to the right and this fine couple have already reached out to Jeff & I with love and friendship). I will add pictures of this Home Group soon.

Small Groups/Home Groups have always been very dear to Jeff & I's heart. The Church Planting Model that Jeff wrote while working in the Missions Office centered on small groups. Jeff led a Wednesday Night Home Group for 8 years while we lived in Conway and those folks remain close friends to this day. While pastoring FBC, Red Oak, Jeff led the church in beginning a Small Group ministry and we belonged to a wonderful group there. So we were definitely missing that "connection" when we first moved here. Once we joined Pinnacle, we immediately started visiting the Connection Groups that were offered. It didn't take long to know where we belonged - and that was in the Tuesday night Fairchild group. We have been studying the book "One Month To Live," which has been good and this group of folks are very loving and kind and have become dear to our hearts.

About a month ago, Jeff was asked by the leadership at Pinnacle to begin facilitating a Sunday night group which after prayer, Jeff gladly agreed to do. Jeff is teaching in the book of Philippians and we are loving the good folks in this group as well. Below are a couple of pictures of our Sunday night group. We appreciate so much the 3 couples who have graciously opened their beautiful homes for our group to meet: Russ & Kris Heithoff; Gary & Pat Phillips and Jeff & Carolyn Brown. These pictures were at the Phillips:



Jeff has been asked to do some writing for next year's Connection Groups' studies for both campuses (FBC and Pinnacle), so this is exciting and a major blessing! God didn't open the door for the JBU/CRE position and yes, we were disappointed for about 24 hours, but quickly was reminded that God knows best and will open the "best" door when the time is right. We are trusting Him and know He will not fail nor forsake us! For now, I'm lovin' having my husband home to keep the house cleaned, the laundry done and, many times, supper on the table -- can't beat that!!! :-)

With the recent tragic death of one of the sweetest gals I have ever met....Jill Attebery (pastor's wife to Scott and mother of 3 month old baby Bryce).....I am counting my blessings and working hard at being grateful for each and every day that God gives me and God gives each of my loved ones.

Thank you Lord for life and for each person in my life that adds love, joy, and fullness. God bless each reader and I am praying His richest blessings on your lives!

Church Families

OUR CHURCH FAMILIES......

John Roller and Jared Watson leading worship at Metro - the new church plant that our son, Andy is leading. We worship with this family on Saturday evenings. Please see the link to Metro at the side of my Home page on this blog........

This is our oldest son, Josh, playing the drums at Metro..........
This is Andy preaching.........

We am so proud of all our children
and their desire to serve the Lord.
Rachel is active at Antioch Baptist in Conway,
helping with the Youth each Wednesday night
and now serves in the church office too.

This is our church family at The Church of Pinnacle Hills where we worship on Sunday. This is Pastor Floyd preaching.........
This is Josh Stanbery leading worship..........

This is the choir...........

And I also feel very much a part of the family at First Baptist, Springdale. Thank you Lord for allowing us to be a part of several great groups of people that love you and love each other!

Fall Fun With the Family

Last weekend, Kaye & Rob and Keith & Wilda were at the lakehouse. Kaye had flown to KC earlier in the week to get Lincoln and take him back to Conway and keep him for a few days. So he was with them on the weekend in Bella Vista. We joined them on Friday night in taking Lincoln to a Fall Festival at a local church here in Bentonville. Kaye had bought him a "sock monkey" outfit - he was just too cute!!

He took off his hat and put it on Poppa's head :-)
He was Little Sock Monkey a.k.a. Scarface....he had taken a tumble that day and scratched his face - but sure didn't seem worse for wear : -)
On Sunday, Kaye, Rob, Lincoln and his momma and daddy, Mike & Adrienne (who had come down from KC for their anniversary and to pick up their little boy), and Josh & Erika and Andy & Carman all came to our home for Taco Soup and Potato Soup. It's always so enjoyable to have the family together!
As you see, it was a beautiful warm day - we even had our windows opened!
Lincoln liked Aunt Debbie's potato soup!
Carman and Andy had him for a "minute!" He's on the run here.....



Josh has lost over 60 lbs in the last 4-5 months! Way to go, Josh!