Prairie Oak Homestead

Thanks to the generosity of several donors and the generous tripling of donations from another donor, WE MET OUR GOAL! We are so excited for this mission trip to Venezuela! Even in my weakness, these are exciting times for me. I look forward to learning more about the culture, being part of a team that is serving Him, helping with building a place to worship, being a witness for Christ, and seeing another part of the world that God created. The joy that this brings me helps me forget how much pain I'm in, how weak I am, etc. :) I will do what God ables me to do and do it with joy in my heart!  Hurry up October! :)

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1). The question often comes, "Why didn't He help me sooner?" It is not His order. He must first adjust you to the trouble and cause you to learn your lesson from it. His promise is, "I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him." He must be with you in the trouble first all day and all night. Then He will take you out of it. This will not come till you have stopped being restless and fretful about it and become calm and quiet. Then He will say, "It is enough." God uses trouble to teach His children precious lessons. They are intended to educate us. When their good work is done, a glorious recompense will come to us through them. There is a sweet joy and a real value in them. He does not regard them as difficulties but as opportunities. --Selected. Not always OUT of our troublous times...

Hmmmmm....what do all those things have in common? Vow renewal! My husband doesn't know it yet (don't worry, he NEVER reads my blog lol) but we will be renewing our vows in Venezuela for our 15th wedding anniversary in October. Our anniversary is October 19th. I wanted to surprise him with this as he would never expect me to do something like this.  We have come very far in our marriage and I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man. A man who has grown so much closer to God in the past few years, even the past few months. I wanted to celebrate our love by renewing our vows and rededicating our marriage to God. What a blessing to do it while we are serving Him in Venezuela. We are so blessed to have one of our best friends to the honor. I called our friend who happens to be the pastor that is taking us on the mission trip to Venezuela and asked if he would do the ceremony for us. He said yes. :) We get to renew our vows in front of our friends on the mission field...

It's that time of year again. :) We are gearing up to start back homeschooling on Sept 6th. I'm pretty excited about this year. It's our 9th yr homeschooling and Hunter will be in the 8th grade. My how time flies! My husband will be more involved this year, which excites me. Because of my declining health at this time, he has stepped up to help me with lesson plans and other ideas to implement. He will be doing wood working with him and helping me with experiments. I love how flexible we can be with homeschooling. He can visit the widow up the road in the middle of the day and help her with things around her house, we can take vacation whenever everyone else is in school, and are free to go on mission trips without disrupting school. :) I am thankful for a husband who cares deeply about us and is willing to take time and help us keep going with schooling during this difficult time of my health. On that note, I have been resting quite a bit this week so far (hard for ...

My health is declining and I will soon need to make a decision whether or not to start treatment or continue without it. Treatment consists of a small dose of chemo to suppress my immune system and it makes me feel yucky most days. No treatment will probably mean a declination in progress, continued progression of weakness (diff to hold phone up, swallow, sit up at times, etc), muscle atrophy, and fatigue. I am functioning ok right now, but I am extremely weak and tired. Normally, I would be admitted to the hospital for a treatment, but I cannot tolerate them anymore. I have adverse reactions and have previously lost my sight, had heart issues, etc with them. I need prayers for wisdom of what God would like me to do. I go back to the doc on Sept 2nd and have another test to see if I have another muscle disease. I would like to be prayed up to be able to tell him what my choice is. I know He has given me strength enough to go to Venezuela and I am looking forward to serving there i...

We were given these and many more yesterday from a neighbor at the farmer's market. I was happy to have them. :) Our garden has failed and I have failed in keeping up with it... My husband took these and some peppers and onions and turned it into salsa.  A whole huge stock pot of it! We will freeze that and be able to enjoy it over the winter. I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend. :)