The Old House

Well this weekend two of our cousins (and our uncle :-) came and stayed a night with us! Also our cousin who lives next door got hang out with us some too. We played basket-ball and soft-ball and board games and ate sandwitches and bananabread and drank lemeonade, and talked quite a bit and played "Keep Up" with baloons. Now it didn't happen this time (but I think it was because we didn't have a whole, whole lot of time together) but many, many times we've had some sort of adventure together whether were trying to walk all the way around the pond or exploring trails that we can't remember where they lead, or finding snakes or, "Hey y'all! Whatch this!!!" (KRACK! SPLASH! Ha ha ha :-) We all ways have tons of fun together. But this is a story that I wrote and put in the county fair and its the story of what happend one time when we were all together...

Once Laura and my brother, Luke, and my cousins, Carmen and Adam, and their dad, Uncle Roger, and I went in the Old House on Grandma’s property.

We climbed up on the front porch. It was about three feet high and the steps had rotted so it was kinda’ hard to get up. Once we were on, we could see in a big window to the left. The glass was gone and there were no in between metal parts to hold it there. Inside the window you could see faded rose wallpaper. And I thought it was a parlor or something ‘cause the window was about four feet wide and about the same high. It wouldn’t seem to work for a bedroom. But Mama remembers and says it was a bedroom. In the center was an old screen door. To the other side, I think, was a smaller window.

Uncle Roger went first ‘cause he was the heaviest, to make sure the floor wasn’t rotten. We had to follow him real carefully to be sure we did not fall and break a leg or something. We were only able to go in two rooms, (because of large holes in the floor) but we could see into other rooms, and up the stairs, and down into the basement, that had blue-gray water in it. When us kids were standing there looking at the water, Uncle Roger stomped loudly, and heavily, and yelled, and scared us out of our skin! (We had a video camera running.)

Well, after looking around a little more we figured we should go. We then decided that it might be a good idea if we cleared out around the back so we could walk all the way around the house.

We were able to push and chop and clear the thick, tangled brush and get to the south side where the back porch was. We looked through the open back door and written on an inside door, in white chalk was:

I

vas

here

It was weird. (And kind of creepy.) When we were inside it was on the other side of the door and we never knew it. Half of the “w” was erased so it looked like a “v”. We figured that it was another of our cousins. She had brought some of her teenage friends to see the old house and one of them must have done it. :-)

We had a LOT!!! of fun that day! We showed the tape to everyone when we got home. I hope I never forget that fun time!

True Story :-)

Anna

Hymn of the Month and Other Things

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Revelation 12:10

I must apologize for not posting much for awhile, but I shall make the excuse that most everyone can always make: "we've been very busy." Between school work, house work, the movie and its premier, we've had lots that needed doing.

The movie and bonus features are finished and Anna did a stellar job with the video editing. I think Daddy's going to put the movie up on YouTube or Vimeo soon. Saturday night, May 1st, was the premier. We had almost 50 people there, and of the 15 kids who made it (12 actors, 3 crew members) only 2 were unable to be there. I was very nervous before we watched the movie, while we were setting up and eating, since I was going to be introducing the actors and making a thank you speech, but it all went really well. Everyone laughed and enjoyed it, including me. Anna and I had not laughed at it in weeks since we'd watched it over and over and over during the video editing process. God has worked so many things out during this entire process I feel like I can't give thanks enough (and I can't). We kids are already talking about the second movie of Ad Libbia Production's: something of a mystery, with home-alone homeshcoolers, greedy land developers, homeless people and donut eating police officers, it's still very much a work in progress.

I've also been wanting to talk about what we've been learning on Sunday mornings. One of our elders has been preaching through Genesis, and it has been wonderful. We've just gotten through tracing the "Marriage Union Metanarrative" from Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 to the Bride of Christ in Revelation. There is something beautiful to a young girl's heart in the story of ancient Jewish, courtships, betrothals and weddings. And there is something beautiful, and applicable to a Christian to learn about our Bridegroom's redemption, and love gifts and promised return. It was so amazing to learn, we are in the midst of the betrothal-separation period, and what ancient Jewish brides-to-be would do during the time when they awaited the return of their bridegroom was purify themselves. We have discussed our bride-price, Jesus blood, our dowry, the Holy Spirit, our marriage covenant, Scripture. And you know the place Jesus was going to prepare in John 14, it is not a "Mansion over a Hilltop" but a bridal chamber, the heavenly realization of what every bridegroom-built bridal chamber typified.

There have been many more things we have been learning about the Church and I could go on and on. But I wanted to mention what was in our sermon today. We started Genesis 3 today doing a sort of brief survey of verses on Satan, and went through Revelation 12. I heard someone say once Revelation was written was to comfort persecuted Christians. The way it was explained to day was comforting and if I was a persecuted Christian it would have been even more so, about the defeat of Satan by Jesus on the cross and God's provision for the Church in wilderness.

It is also time for the hymn of the month. I thought I would post one of the greatest hymns of all time, we sung it this morning in our service.

1. 
   
2. It Is Well With My Soul
3. By Horatio G. Spafford, Music By P. P. Bliss
4. 
   
   When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
   When sorrows like sea billows roll;
   Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
   It is well, it is well, with my soul.
   • Refrain:
     It is well, with my soul,
     It is well, it is well, with my soul.
5. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
   Let this blest assurance control,
   That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
   And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
6. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
   My sin, not in part but the whole,
   Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
   Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
7. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
   The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
   The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
   Even so, it is well with my soul.

This song mentions "though Satan should buffet . . . Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed His own blood for my soul" and it says in the glorious last verse "the trump shall resound" like the trumpets blown through the ages by groomsmen coming with the bridegroom to whisk the bride away to the bridal chamber.

This is just a couple of things that have been going on in our life and going through my head.

Laura