Sweet Fellowship

Although our revival ended a week and a half ago and the Brackett's

moved on to their next meeting, we still have been able to spend some time with them.  Saturday night they were traveling through  from Salt Lake City and we met up for dinner.  We had so much fun talking and laughing and laughing even more and just throughly enjoying the bond we share together in Christ.  After dinner they took off again for

 a Sunday morning meeting in Douglas, Wyoming.

 

Last night they were again passing through and we all were invited

to one of our members houses where their kids could ride horses. 

The kids had such a good time and rode for several hours!

 

 

Brother Scott barbecued for us and it was so good! 

 Again we enjoyed such sweet fellowship together and we were sad to see the night end and to have to say goodbye to the Bracketts one last time.  We truly love the Brackett family and we are already looking forward to next year when they come out again for revival services.  (Also looking forward to our late night Sonic runs for milkshakes, singing southern gospel music all night and our fabulous Farkle games!! Yea, we definitely love this family!)





Star of David

I think the bus captain must of fed all the kids sugar

on the way to church today because everyone was bouncing off walls in Jr. Church!  Jr. Church was so loud and I really had a hard time keeping everyone quiet, sitting still and being focused today.

 

We started a new study today on the Jewish people and where they originated from.  We had lots of fun looking up verses in the Bible starting with Abraham and going through Joshua as they led the Jewish people into the promised land.  We looked on a world map and found Israel, the place where over 6 million Jews live today and learned about the differences between Jews and Christians.  We also talked about how the cross is a symbol of Christianity, while the Star of David is a symbol of the Jews.  We then took marshmallows and blue pipe cleaners to make Stars of David.

 

 

 

For services tonight, Chep preached a wonderful sermon

on Psalm 23:1 and the Lord truly being our shepherd and the Lord of our life.  It was a powerful sermon and during the invitation two people came forward for salvation and got saved!  I was blessed to be able to talk to Halee and show her out of the Bible God's plan of salvation and it was exciting to see her shed tears of joy as she gave her life to Christ. 

 

It has definitely been another wonderful day to be in the Lord's house!  

Celebrating 21

 

My very handsome and extremely funny son turned 21 today

and he is thrilled as he is finally of legal age to apply for his Concealed Weapon Permit.  I am thrilled as I have loved watching him grow into an amazing man of God and lead his family in that same way!

 

For his birthday, all he wanted to do was take a picnic to the park

 and enjoy the weather.  As we were leaving the house my husband commented how the wind was starting to pick up, when we got to the park the wind was really starting to blow and the clouds were turning dark.  A few minutes later the skies opened and nickel sized hail rained down.  We ended up running for the car and having our picnic at home!  As always, it doesn't matter what happens as we see the comedy in everything and we ended up laughing and enjoying every minute of our time together. 

 

Happy Birthday baby boy, I love you and am so excited

to see where God leads you in the next year.

 

 

 



Something In Common

These boys are such good friends at church and now they have something even more special in common.  Tuesday they each got saved!  One of the boys was very convicted by the revival preaching and even though he had "said' the sinners prayer before he was not sure of his salvation.  Pastor Chep talked to him and told him that saying the words of the sinner prayer does not save a person but that it is truly believing and accepting what Christ did on the cross and repenting and asking for forgiveness.  The boy got saved and the glow on his face was amazing when he came out of Pastors office!  His brother was also at the church that day and even though he said he was saved his mom wanted him to talk to Pastor too.  Again, he had said the sinner's prayer when he was younger and then last year at camp had been convicted he wasn't truly saved but because he had told everyone he was saved he was embarrassed to admit he really wasn't.  Pastor Chep showed him several things in the Bible to answer his question and he too got saved!  Later that afternoon we had another boy come to the church and as I was sharing how the other two teens had gotten saved he got a funny look on his face.  He too had given a testimony of saying the sinners pray when he was younger but when I asked him if he knew he was saved, he said he knew he wasn't.  He too went into Pastor Chep's office and after being shown out of the Bible how to get saved, he bowed his head and asked Jesus into his heart and life!  Such an exciting day to see these young men come to a saving knowlegde of our Lord and Saviour!  

A Yard Full of Cactus

 

I spent several hours this morning combing the yard for and digging up cactus.  When we moved here, we were warned that the cactus were a problem and they needed to be constantly plucked up and rooted out or they would spread and spread.  Digging up cactus has been low on our list of things to do and because of that, there were cactus everywhere! I seems would dig one up and turn a fraction of an inch and see five more!

 

As I was digging these up, I thought how this is just like our lives. 

When we let one little bit of bitterness, hatred, discontentment or any other sinful emotion in our lives and do not immediately remove it, it starts to spread and spread and spread.  Pretty soon we are a very angry, discouraged, and unhappy person and it sometimes takes a lot of work to get back to the place where our Spirit is right with God again.

 

 

 

Just when I was starting to get discouraged about the number of cactus, a few of our church ladies and kids showed up to help me.  What a blessing!  Again, this same thing is true with our spiritual life.  When we are feeling down and discouraged, it helps so much when a fellow Christian comes along and helps to pick us up and encourages us when we are struggling.

 

 

It is also important that from a young age, we teach our children to daily search their hearts and make sure that their thoughts are pleasing to God and to remove anything that could harm their walk with Him.

 

We ended up filling a 5 gallon bucket three times full of the prickly things. 

I think in the future we will definitely do better with plucking up and rooting out the cactus in the yard.  It is easier to keep all the pricklies from growing then it is to take so much time and effort to remove them!

 



Who Doesn't Love Bull Riding?

Chep left early this morning to go to the Capitol and talk to and invite people to a new Bible study he is starting on the grounds there.  This left me with some extra quiet time to study and pray and to also clean my much neglected house.  When Chep got home he said we were going to go run away for a little while and go to the rodeo.  Yeah!!!

 

 

Although we have been in Cheyenne for three years we have never been to the rodeo at Frontier Days and we were so excited to be able to today. 

It was absolutely awesome and we loved every minute of it. 

Saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling are a few of my favorites but I absolutely, absolutely love the bull riding!  The riders were great today and showed such skill and talent and gave some really great rides.

 

 

There was also an trick roper and rider that was amazing to watch.  

After the rodeo we walked around the fair grounds and decided not to waste money on any overpriced food there but called Little Man's parents and asked them to meet us for dinner

 

We headed to the Mongolian Grill and Little Man shared a bowl with me. 

He loved it and was smiling as he shoved more and more noodles in his mouth.  We got an emergency call during dinner so we kissed Little Man goodbye and we rushed off to offer encouragement and help to a family in need.  It seems our time at the rodeo was to be our only rest today as it seemed the evening again filled up with a few urgent phone calls and texts from our church people.  Another late night to bed but everything is worth it when you are doing it all for God and His people. 

 

  



I Love Revival Services

I was up early this morning getting ready for our potluck after revival services this morning.  Yesterday I did a bit of baking and then this morning I threw some baked beans and a turkey in crockpots to cook while we were in church.  It seems like there is so much to do and organize before church to make sure everything goes smoothly during the potluck.

We had a full class for Jr. Church!  For the last five weeks we have been learning Bible stories that coincide with the story of Pilgrims Progress.  The kids have really loved it and have been excited to come back each week to hear the next part of the story.  This week we learned how Ignorant thought he could get into the Celestial City his own way but in the end he was turned away because no one can get to heaven their own way.  We then learned how Cain tried to worship God his own way too when he offered an altar of vegetables instead of a blood offering as God required.

 

 

For craft time we did black scratch crosses I picked up at Hobby Lobby. 

The kids loved them!

 

 

 

The kids love it when we have potluck and spread out

 all over the church lawn to eat. 

 

It was a beautiful day so we set up the table and chairs outside and everyone had so much fun laughing and eating and fellowshipping.

 

 

Some people thought it was too hot outside so they sat at the preschool table which was conveniently located next to all the food!

 

Mason was home for the day and the kids loved crawling

 all over him and getting all his attention.

 

I was totally blessed by one of our sweet ladies who gave me these

 beautiful flowers and told me she appreciated me and all I do. 

How so very sweet and such an encouragement!

 

Our evening services tonight were totally amazing and the altar full at the end of services with people recommitting their lives and hearts and talents to God.  I thank God for this week and the many ways He has touched my heart in several areas and challenged me to deepen my devotion to Him.  I love revival services!



Cheyenne Frontier Days

Today was the start of Cheyenne Frontier Days. We braved the crowds early this morning and took the Brackett family to the CFD parade.

 

 

Kristy Brackett and Vickie waiting for the parade to start.

 

 

Our course because the main event of Frontier Days is the Rodeo, the parade was filled with horses.  We tried to count the number of horses in the parade but lost count as there were so many!

 

 

It was fun to see  all the old buggies and stages and the people

 dressed up in attire from the 1800's.

 

Keith was enthralled with all the horses!

 

The Bracketts asked us to take them to lunch at a place that said "Wyoming", so we took them to the Terry Bison Ranch.  Everyone at our table ordered everything from Buffalo Burgers to Buffalo Meatloaf to Buffalo Chili with cornbread!  Everyone loved the food and we left stuffed!

 

 

We then headed to Frontier Days and spent some time

looking though all the booths.  So many cool things from jewelry to

buffalo skins to cow horn chairs.

 

Chandler and Saraina took Keith to his first rodeo and bought him his first cowboy hat.  Now all he needs is a pair of cowboy boots!

 

We got home in the late afternoon and I rushed to get everything set up for everyone to enjoy the evenings stone soup and also cooked several dishes for the potluck tomorrow.

 

 

Mason and the rest of the camp staff also were in town enjoying Frontier Days and stopped by the church for a few minutes. 

Two weeks of camp left and Mason will be home!



To end our fun filled day we had another awesome night of Revival!  God is amazing and speaking to so many hearts during service!  Tomorrow promises to also be a very busy day but we are praying that we will contiue to see hearts touched, lives challenged and changed and praying for someone to get saved tomorrow!



Revival Tiime Again!

 

We are so excited to have Micah Bracket with us again this year to preach our Revival services.  Brother Micah is an awesome preacher and full of such fire, I am convicted and challenged after each service.  Love it!

 

I am so happy to see Bro. Micah's wife, Kristie, as she is such a fun lady!

 

 

Of course we are doing stone soup again and everyone
is loving being able to come and eat before services.

 

 

 

After services we gathered around the fire pit to sing

 songs and give testimonies.   

 

 

I don't know who had more fun making smore's, the kids or the adults! 

We still have two more days of Revival and we are excited to see what God will do in the hearts and lives of our people!

 

 

 



 



Summertime is so Busy!

We are still here, really we are, it just seems like summertime hits and we are so busy!  The ministry never slows down and between church, church activities, counseling people, visitation and the hundreds of other things that need to be done I have not had a lot of extra time to blog.

 

What have we been doing so far this summer?

 

 

We painted a rainbow table for the preschool class.

 

 

Lots of fun lessons and activities for Jr. Church



 

Working on the inside of the building

 

 

Drowning and killing prairie dogs and working on the lawn

 and all the weeds and cactus! 

 

Ladies G.A.B. Night and crafts.

 

 

 

Digging and building a new back porch.

 

Someone fell through the ceiling while fixing the electrical which brought down two feet of fluffy insulation to cover every surface in Chep's office.

 

 

Having missionary families pass through and getting  the privilege of fellowshipping and serving them.  Brother Tim and Cara were so fun and even went up to Camp Grace with us for the day to meet and encourage Mason.  (I still say Bro. Tim is Mason's twin!  Scary how alike they are!)

 

 

We were able to sneak away for one day and headed to South Dakota to get my brother's cats for him as he continues to serve in Afghanistan. 

 

Of course this is just a very small peek at the busyness of the last month and we loving all God is giving us to do as we continue

to serve Him here in Wyoming!