Minnesota in the Fall

Northern Minnesota was indeed a lovely place to visit in the fall! We shared in Karlstad, MN at David and Jen's church. Jen is the daughter of Houghton's high school pastor, Paul. Paul has 2 daughters we've visited now whose husbands are pastors. David and Jen have 4 very sweet kids: Caleb, Zach (who showed us all his breakdancing moves), Abby, and Grace. Jesiah and Gwen always love it when we can stay somewhere with kids they can play with.


After our presentation in Karlstad, we drove to Deer River and met up with Paul and Carol. Paul, who used to pastor in Fallon, MT, now pastors at Marcell Community Church in a rural retirement community in northern Minnesota. We ate supper with them and were introduced to our host couple - Betty and Harley.

Betty and Harley let us stay in their gorgeous lakefront house and we got to play a bit on Saturday. They had 2 four-wheelers so we all piled on them and checked out the forest trails Harley had leveled out in the 13 acres of forest behind his and others' homes. Gweny missed out on the fun during her nap, but Jesiah loved riding with Houghton and Gretchen. Sunday we presented at the Marcell church and enjoyed a potluck with them, getting to meet mostly retirees who visit on the weekends, but a few families as well. They had a missions emphasis Sunday so it was fun to hear about missionaries they support as a church body and what God is doing in them around the world.


Sunday night we left and stayed with Rick and Jamie, who are planning to go to candidate orientation this January with Biblical Ministries Worldwide, the organization I am affiliated with. They have 6 adopted children so Gweny and Jesiah could "let it all hang out" at their house and it was fun to see all the dynamics. They do a really cool singing and prayer time every night before the kids go to bed so they allowed us to participate. Here is the group singing "Countdown." Jesiah is the one in the Spiderman pajamas jamming out on the left "helping" Rick hold the song words. :)

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

We really had neat new relationships started on this trip and are so thankful to our 3 wonderful families who let us crash at their homes and fed us wonderful meals!