A few years ago, our dear friends the Staddons introduced a very fun game to us – Settlers of Catan! We first played it with their family, and LOVED it! Exciting…action packed…and of course a little friendly competition thrown it.  It makes for a great evening of laughter and fun with family and friends. Over time, we discovered other expansions/extensions/versions of the Catan game that can be played separately or together – Cities & Knights, Seafarers, Traders & Barbarians, and also a card version of the Settlers of Catan! We collected these over time for a discounted price at an Amish store in Lancaster county, PA. Recently, we got the newest Catan game Settlers of America, and have discovered that it is loads of fun! Each game is thrilling in and of itself, but when extensions and expansions are added, they make for an absolutely unforgettable evening! Trading…building…attacking and defending…strategizing as teams to obtain the most points as quickly as possible – when the options for getting there are unlimited! the Catan games are a Stelzl family favorite!!!

Team Green (Mommy and Josiah)  and Team Brown (Sarah, David, Bethany, and Timothy) were racing to earn the “longest road” card (a value of 2 points) which made for an unpredictable, adventurous time of strategic thinking and team planning! Team Orange (Daddy and Jonathan) had taken over the most profitable region of brick and wood, preventing some of the other teams from building much needed roads for expansion! Team Green built a settlement on the coast, thus obtaining a special trade deal which actually brought about their final victory of winning the game in the end! Congratulations Team Green!

Juice Popsicles and Chocolate Chip Cookies – a special family game night treat!

The scores were so close! The victory title went back and forth from one team to the next…suspense…strategy…Settlers of Catan!

Do you have a favorite family game? Why not add Settlers of Catan to your collection?

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend a very joyous occasion in Rocky Ridge MD. Our dear friends Joshua Wilkes and Lisa Butler announced last year that they would be getting married, and the wedding took place this weekend! Ecclesiastes 3:11 became their theme, as they comitted to wait upon the Lord, setting aside their desires and choosing rather to walk in the path God set before them. We were so blessed to attend as a family, and were greatly encouraged by the beautiful way that their wedding displayed the union between Christ and the church. Although the rain caused a temporary setback for their beautiful outdoor ceremony, God was gracious! Our family cried out twice on the way to the wedding, and a little while later we saw God part the clouds. The day was beautiful, the sky was blue, and the air was crisp and cool. Yet again, Josh and Lisa saw God’s beautiful work in His own perfect timing. As a family, we were thrilled to be able to fellowship with wonderful like-minded believers, and to re-unite with dear friends – brothers and sisters in Christ who exhorted us, blessed us, and encouraged us in every way imaginable!

We are so grateful to our friends the Normoyles, who graciously opened their home to us throughout the weekend, and hospitably served us in many ways. We had met them briefly at previous F.E.W. Conferences, as well as the Indianapolis ATI Conference, but this was an exciting time of really getting to know them better! We enjoyed every moment spent with them – whether gathering around the table for meals, talking late at night, playing games, or learning about goats and chickens as the they allowed us to participate in the exciting task of farm chores! As we observed various family members at work doing their assigned jobs, we had the opportunity to observe and participate in gathering eggs, milking goats, feeding chickens, and walking the goats around the yard. They also took us to Sugarloaf Mountain which is directly up behind their house. We drove the short distance up the mountain to a look-out where we could see the entire countryside… fields, farms, and beautiful open country! We stood on top of a Civil War rock fort, overlooking the other side of the mountain, just a little while later. During family devotions one morning, we divided into small groups of 2 and chose a verse (or several) from Romans 8 to memorize and illustrate with pictures. The Normoyle family is working together to memorize Romans 8 as a family, and has found pictographs to be extremelly helpful! We were thrilled to help them complete the first 16 verses, as each person and their partner thought up ideas of how to effectively portray God’s Word through visual pictures. On the last evening we fellowshipped with the Normoyles and some of their friends around a bonfire! We roasted smore’s and sang with the guitar well into the evening. It was a delightful time, and made for a very memorable family trip with dear friends.  

Our time in MD and VA was short but incredibly sweet and worthwhile. We are so grateful to God for bringing together two (Josh and Lisa) into a covenant of life-long unity, making them one. What a blessing it is to see God’s children, walking in His perfect will, choosing to wait upon Him for His best, rather than have their own way. Josh and Lisa’s lives portray a beautiful story of Christ and the work that He has brought about in His ideal timing. What a tremendous encouragement it was to witness this working in such a glorious way this weekend! (Sorry there are no wedding pictures! The Wilkes Team posted some beautiful pictures on their family blog though.)

Truly, “He hath made everything beautiful in His time…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a)

15 years ago, we learned of a home-schooling family in the area that was looking for a church! To make a LONG story short, we invited the Lauries over to dinner, and thus began a blossoming friendship between our two families! That’s the beauty of what God brings about… and when we least expect it! I was only 3 then, but I am so grateful to the Lord for allowing our paths to cross. Growing up, we did everything together! We played together, ate meals together, learned lessons together… we had the same interests, attended the same church, and learned music from the same teacher. We spent holidays together, wrote and performed plays, reenacted history in our backyards, and spent countless hours talking and planning, and thinking up great ideas (that weren’t always great!!!).  For a while, they had someone that was the same age as every one of us! God kept blessing us with more children, and God kept blessing them with more children! So many memories…so much fun!

It’s been 15 years since God brought our families together. With growing up and school, and the busyness of day to day life…we don’t see each other that often anymore. It’s a blessing to plan one of those “get together” days now and then. It’s nice to catch up, to talk about the past, and to spend some quality time together fellowshipping, laughing, and remembering. Today was one of those days! We piled into the van and headed off to make a day of it! Singing around the piano, photography, cooking and baking, games… fun memories!

Thank you Laurie family for having us today! We treasure your friendship, and the wonderful memories made together!!!

Have you ever heard of Craig’s List? It’s an amazing website that might really be worth your time. Why not take something off your neighbor’s hands if you need it and they don’t? And why not get it for a great price or maybe even for free in the process?!!! We have checked it out from time to time, but recently we really began to discover some great deals!

About 13 years ago when we lived in Matthews, NC, we had a push mower. It reached it’s limit long before we moved to our home here in Waxhaw. Since then, we have hired a friend to mow our lawn for a good rate, but we’ve always had a desire to someday invest in a mower of our own… “Someday” finally arrived, about a month ago, when we found someone just down the street who no longer needed their John Deere riding mower. David and Jonathan were enthusiastic about taking on the task of lawn care, and wholeheartedly agreed to assume full responsibility for mowing, if we could find the right mower for an affordable price. God provided an open door! We made a family trip out of the research project, (well, almost the whole family went!) and drove down to test out the mower. After checking things out and getting to know the owners (a really sweet family!) we talked things over and concluded that this was the mower we needed. We were able to get a better deal than what we were expecting, and now we are happy owners of a new John Deere mower!

Another great deal David found on Craigs list for us, involved fulfilling a family project we had always talked about doing – another one of those “someday” things… you’re probably familiar with this…? We have a large yard surrounded by woods, with lots of little natural areas throughout the lawn. We have been hoping to group some of these smaller natural areas together into fewer larger ones, so that we will have less lawn to mow. Where to get enough mulch to do such a large project though?! The answer came through Craig’s list. We discovered a number of people offering mulch for free. One man enthusiastically agreed to save his entire pile for us, if we wanted to keep coming back to load our trailer. We enjoyed numerous conversations with him as we shoveled mulch from his 9 pine trees, into our trailer again, and again, and again… our yard is beginning to look quite nice! And what’s even better, it makes for many happy mornings and afternoons, working as a team to complete our family project! (Sorry for a lack of pictures.)

Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to attend the Indianapolis ATI Conference as a family! At the beginning of the year, Daddy had made plans to attend Big Sandy, Sacramento, and Nashville, but his schedule had conflicted with the Indy dates. We were surprised when he unexpectedly announced that it was going to work out after all…and the whole family was going!

Many of us had never been to Ohio or Indianapolis. We traveled through 5 states on our way to to the conference and saw some spectacular sights!

The country was beautiful, and we passed hundreds of farms like these in the pictures above.

Although the Indianapolis conference was much smaller than Nashville, we were blessed to see so many familiar faces and to make new friends.

At Nashville, we participated in the various programs – Alert Cadets, COMMIT, and Children’s Institute. It was neat to be able to attend the main sessions as a family and to hear enthusiastic speakers with wonderful messages!

Jody (above) served us breakfast every morning at our hotel. She is such a sweet lady that has an incredible love for Jesus Christ, and the joy on her countenance tells a beautiful story of her faith in God. Her curiosity about our family and the conference led to a sweet time of fellowship and prayer, as Hannah and I shared about our faith in God, and our family’s involvement in the ATI program. A huge smile lit up her face, when we told her that we were born again believers. She shared her beautiful testimony with us of her recent conversion to Christianity! That was the day we discovered that she was not only our friend, but our sister in Christ! We love Jody. She has such a servant’s heart and a selflessness that is truly a radiant example of her Savior and King.

We recently began a tradition of visiting Dairy Queen on the last night of the conference. This is the second time we have done so with the Staddon family! Several other families came along, which made for an exciting evening of laughter, fellowship, and catching up!

We were so blessed by the Indy conference. It was a joy to take time away from the busyness of life to be encouraged once again. What a wonderful finale to the conference season. Until next year…!

If you are interested in attending a 2012 Regional ATI Conference, visit the following link and watch for an announcement of future dates!

www.ati.iblp.org

The Third Conference in Sacramento CA took place in July. Our parents testified that it was a delight to attend! Unfortunately, the camera stayed behind, so we don’t have pictures. However, the seven of us that stayed behind took pictures of our week, which we recently posted.

Hannah had the privilege of attending the Big Sandy ATI Conference with our parents. At the conclusion of the girls’ Journey to the Heart program she joined some staff from the IBLP Headquarters that were driving down to Big Sandy. She took these pictures throughout the week, between various sessions.

As a home-schooling family of 9, we have been so incredibly blessed to attend one of the Regional ATI Conferences each year, in Nashville TN. The encouraging messages, sweet fellowship, and rich insights from Scripture that we have received again and again, have always made our trips to the conference a tremendous blessing! This year, Daddy was invited as a speaker! He was able to attend all four conferences around the U.S. and share two messages that have been on his heart for many years. He spoke to the parents on raising up children with an entrepreneurial spirit, and making wise choices regarding education, college, and business. He encouraged the young people in student sessions to consider 8 needs of the people around them, when building their own business. Mommy was able to go along with him to all four of the conferences, and the entire family to two! We would like to dedicate the next several posts to pictures and highlights from the conferences we have attended over the past 5 months.

For more information regarding the ATI/IBLP ministry, please visit the following websites:

www.iblp.org

www.ati.iblp.org

Waxhaw, NC - July 4th, 2011 - 8:00 PM

Weather forecast: 50% chance of rain

Current weather outside: Pouring rain, thunder, lightning...

Timothy’s prayer

“O God,

Give praise to God,

Stop the rain!

Roll away the thunder!

Roll away the lightning,

so we can see the fireworks,

the mighty power of God,

The armor of God and the shield.

Amen.”

We went by faith, and watched a fantastic show of fireworks beneath a clear sky!

Fireworks Video

“And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” – Matthew 21:22