A Place All His Own

After spending 6 weeks "camping out" in our living room with books, Bibles, and a laptop for his office, Jason now has a place to call his own. The church people have worked tirelessly to get an office ready for him, and so many others have donated books, Bibles, commentaries, a CD player, coffee pot, a desk, money to purchase a laptop and lots more books, etc... THANK YOU to everyone who has been a part of rebuilding Jason's library! For you, I have taken a picture of his new shelves so you can see the beautiful books he has collected already.
Wednesday night after the business meeting, the decorating team of ladies presented him with a rug, which he had laughingly asked for to keep his "little toes warm." ha! ha! Here is the poem that was read as they presented the rug:
"An Ode for the Preacher" (by Karen Langford)
There once was a pastor in our little town
Who stood in his PJ's as his church burned down.
When the smoke and the water invaded his place
He knew that his books he'd need to replace.

Friends and family stepped up to the task with great speed
And they worked together to meet the pastor's need.
Books arrived by truck, by mail and by car
Supplies and more books came from near and from far.

Soon there were books on the mantle, on the couch, by the door.
There were books in big stacks and in boxes on the floor.
The pastor would study in the living room chair
It was crowded with six other people living there.

Some of his flock said, "This will not do!
We must find a new space for you!"
A building arrived and folks went to work
To get the pastor some space before his family went berserk.

As to color and furnishings they asked, "What do you think?"
Pastor replied, "I don't care. It can be purple and pink."
One request he did have and asked that we meet
For a warm, fuzzy rug where he could put his sock feet.

His shoes he removes as he prepares sermons for the fold
And he just can't think straight when is toes get cold.
So preacher remember this--while at your desk you sit.
Be careful what you ask for because that might be what you get.

The problem now with the office is that it is so nice and comfortable that I am beginning to wonder if he might never want to come home!! He has a great sofa, his own coffee pot, a full candy jar, his music, and the quiet when he wants it--what more could a pastor need?? Thank you, Church family! You are so good to us and we know we are blessed.

Spell "Perfectionism"

"P-e-r-f-e-c-t-i-o-n-i-s-m," spelled Lindy on February 5, 2013 to win the District Spelling Bee! Her daddy and I are very proud of her. Pictured with her are the 2nd and 3rd place winners (from Fulton City). In order to compete in the district bee, Lindy had to place in the top 3 in the Fulton County Middle School Spelling Bee. She did that, no problem. Actually, she placed 1st in the middle school bee. (Coming in 2nd for the middle school was another 7th grader and friend of Lindy's, Samantha McClure. Then 3rd place was taken by Connor Jackson, an 8th grader and friend of Taylor's.) Not only that, but she also placed first in her grade (7th) to even compete in the school bee. Wow! And if that is not amazing enough, she also won the Spelling Bee last school year for the whole middle school while she was only in 6th grade. When she then went to compete at the district level, she placed 2nd. She was disappointed, so this year she made sure to place first. Now what? Well, tomorrow she will compete in Memphis at the Mid-South Spelling Bee sponsored by the Commerical Appeal. She is a gifted speller, but I don't think she is too consumed with tomorrow's bee. We have heard that the people coming have spent hours and hours of practicing. . .a level she has no desire to get to. :) But today we will drive to Southaven, stay with friends, and tomorrow morning at 9:00 am let Lindy participate in an amazing opportunity for a middle schooler. I am proud of you, Lindy!

A New Beginning

Today was the third Sunday that we have been displaced.

It seems like a lifetime ago that we watched our church building burn, but in reality it was a short 2 1/2 weeks ago, January 23, 2013. It started off like any other school morning--the oldest two children were getting ready for school. Jason and I were up and quietly beginning our day, until I hear Jason shout, "Oh, my goodness!" "What?" I ask as I look out the kitchen window. I am looking for a crazy person or animal roaming around outside but I see nothing. By this time Jason is running into the kitchen, looking for shoes as he says, "The church is on fire!" Finally I see it--smoke coming up from the south end of our church. "Who do I call?" I frantically ask. "911!" as he runs out the door. In the few short minutes that it took for that dialog, for me to run get the phone and call, and for the operator to answer the phone, flames had begun leaping out of the sanctuary windows of the church. I yell into the phone, "The church is burning!!!"

Over the next few hours, we watched as years of hard work and lots of memories go up in smoke. The sanctuary went down fast. I have never seen anything so powerfully out-of-control. . .but no one could stop it. I kept repeating, "It's gone! It's all gone! Oh my gosh! The church is gone!" We cried as we watched the stained glass windows shatter and flames consume our beautiful sanctuary. Then the fire reached the front doors and I cried as I watched them melt down from the heat. In the end, 3 different towns sent fire trucks, manpower, and equipment to fight the fire that would leave our beloved building in ruins. Eleven hours after it started, the last fireman left. . .but they were called back in a short time and hot pockets kept flaring up throughout the night and even the next day. The annex is the only thing left standing but it has so much smoke and water damage that it is a total loss, too.

The morning after, reality began to sink in as Jason and I stared at the burned remains of our first pastorate, the church 4 of our children were baptized in, the building where so much of our service to the Lord and this community has taken place. Then Jason remembered--all of his journals were in his office. His office was on the top floor at the opposite end from where the fire originated, but it was where the fire lingered so long. The day after, a fire truck came back and continued to unload countless gallons of water into his office window. "Please stop putting more water in there and let us see if we can recover anything!" was the cry on my heart the day after. Anyone who would listen to me, I would say, "Jason lost everything! His Bible, all of his library, his kindle, and years of journals." By that afternoon, the fire marshall went in Jason's office and handed out the window everything he could find that looked salvagable. A couple of journals, several calendars with lots of personal notes, church records, and Russian books from Moldova. That brought some relief to my heart but to Jason, it was reminder of all that he lost. I worked to save what I could by placing papertowels between the sheets of his journals and calendars. Other papers we laid out flat to dry. They may always look and smell burnt, but we still have some of his thoughts from years past.

Over the next several days, other items were pulled out as Jason went in looking for more church records and his Bible. Most everything was burned or waterlogged, but every now and then--a little treasure. Just a few days ago it was the small photo album of Taylor between the ages of 5 and 8 from his many fishing & hunting trips. It wasn't very hard to unstick the pages and I hope to get it reprinted sometime. Precious! The investigation is still not over and we hope that next Wednesday, the 3-week marker, will bring some closure for us. A big meeting is planned here at the site with insurance investigators, insurance high-ups, lawyers, and such to wrap up this investigation. This is necessary before we can move on at all. The state fire marshall has been ready to wrap up her investigation within 2 days--she could tell where the fire originated and doesn't believe there was any evidence of foul play. The insurance investigator wanted to be more thorough (although we haven't seen him in 2 weeks!) because there is a fairly hefty insurance settlement at play here.

So, we have grieved the loss of a friend and are now ready to figure out how to continue the ministry God has called us to here in the community of Hickman. We are in need of a more "permanent" temporary meeting place and finding one large enough for us is a challenge. We run about 120 in morning worship and have need of 10 separate S.S. classrooms. For the time being, we are meeting in the middle school gym for Sunday morning service and use their classrooms for S.S. Each evening service (Sundays and Wednesdays), we continue to use the Methodist Church facilities, since they don't have evening services. We would like to find something more suitable in the next few weeks, but we are very grateful for everyone's hospitality during this difficult time of transition. We are eager to see what God has in store for His people as we come to together in love and unity to make His name famous in Hickman, KY!!

Forever Friends!

Monday (Jan. 21) was one in a million for the Sipes children! We got up early and headed to Southaven, which for my children is the land of dreams. So many fun things to do and "toys" for all ages, including access to a very cool 4-wheeler. The best part about our infrequent trips to Southaven is the awesome friends we have there. The Penas will be family friends forever, and that's not an exaggeration. God knit our hearts together while we served in Brazil side-by-side(the bonding started before that but was cemented during our short year together south of the equator). Several pairs of friends exist between our family and theirs, starting with the parents. Tim and Jason were on staff together at Broadway Church about 15 years ago, and Cara and I had a few conversations once I stayed home with my little ones. Our time in Brazil together drew Cara and I close so that we understand each other's hearts. Much time goes by and we don't talk as much as we'd like, but the depth of our friendship keeps us coming back together.

Ty and Taylor are great friends who seem to have so much in common, except where they live. :( They both love to play football and basketball and love all kinds of hunting and fishing. They never have enough time together. The past couple of summers they have worked out a way to spend a week together by going to camp or World Changers together. This summer we're hoping Ty will be able to go to FUGE with our church. Ty's sincere heart and love for the Lord make me so grateful Taylor has him for a friend.

Tate and Lindy have always been friends, but not quite as easily as the boys. Yesterday as I looked at just how different they are and wondered what they find to talk about. . .I remembered the rocky start their friendship got off to. They were both two years old when the Penas came to Brazil. Lindy was still the sweetest child ever and didn't know yet how to be mean. It didn't take her long, however, with Taylor for her big brother and Tate for her only friend. The poor child eventually learned to defend herself. One Sunday night in particular, we were at the Penas for our weekly pancake supper after church when somehow Tate ended up on top of Lindy biting her right around the nose! Lindy ended up with a full set of teeth marks around her poor little nose! They got past that, though, and have enjoyed a fun friendship over the years. They stay in touch via instagram mostly but now they both have cell phones, texting is easy. They have very different personalities, but due to the length of their friendship, Lindy still calls Tate her BFF.

Marlena does have a "Pena partner" in Rowdy because he is about 7 months older than her, and when they were small, they were friends. As they have gotten older, they cease to pay any attention to each other, and Rowdy joins the play with Taylor and Ty as much as he is allowed. Marlena hangs around Lindy and Tate until the Smith kids come over. (Christie Smith was a "Gross" and was a good friend of mine when we lived in Southaven.) Her daughter Jordan and Marlena have found that they enjoy playing together during our last few visits. Yesterday they spent most of their time outside in the creek!

The pair that are the closest in age would be Jay and Hudson; they are only 6 weeks apart! They have always enjoyed our visits, although they never lived in Brazil together. The first year of their lives we were nextdoor neighbors in Southaven after Brazil, but they were a little young to play together much. Through all of our visits and lunch dates at Chick-fil-A in Jackson, these two have become good friends. Tal usually runs around with them, too, since he is only a year younger but somehow I missed him during my photography session yesterday. They were jumping on the trampoline with Jordan's little sister Josie at the time.

Schaeffer is the one who does not have a close buddy because as of yet, he and Treader have not hit it off well. Treader seems to be quite a perfectionist when he plays and Schaeffer isn't at all. I think one day they will learn to play together. Schaeffer did play some with one of the Smith boys, Jeven, and they had a big time near the creek. (The date that we went to Southaven was MLK, Jr. Day, Monday, January 21, but this blog did not get finished until Jan. 24.)

To Present Small or Present Big, That Is the Question!

Our children's choir Christmas program went over better than I could have imagined! The kids were excited about doing it, and it showed. The expected mishaps were not distracting (lapel mic falling down, major scene skipped over, etc..) and the characters seemed written for our children. People laughed and were blessed. One man was even quoted as saying, "THAT started Christmas this year!" Jeff Slaughter's "The Christmas Shoe Tree" was such a hit that I've already been asked how I plan to top it next year. I have no idea! No one seems to be able to write music and dialogue and movements life Jeff does. Not only that, but the children collected over 350 pairs of shoes to be donated to Soles4Souls ministry!

I am so proud of them for that. It was the biggest production that I've ever attempted and at times I was afraid it was going to be too much. However, we made modifications when necessary to accommodate our smaller church and when it was all said and done, it was great! The DVD is ready to be picked up today and I am eager to watch it with my kiddos. All 5 of my children took part in some way that night so it will be fun having the dvd as a keepsake. Now that it is over, a decision about what's next has been looming over my head.

I had two options I was considering, one very simple for Easter--no skit or drama, just narration. The other slightly smaller than the Christmas production but still containing a skit as well as songs to be sung, signed, and/or interpreted with movements. My tiredness after the last production was saying, go simple. Summer camps and their fund-raisers are just getting underway. Go small this spring. THEN. . .after church yesterday morning, Mr. Kenneth told me that someone has donated $1,000 to my children's choir fund! What?!? I could be wrong, but it says to me that someone likes what we're doing so much that they want to make sure we keep it up.

Small and simple are out. The pressure is on. I get online and spend about an hour and a half looking through children's musicals until I am thorougly confused. Then God in His graciousness leads me right back to the original musical I had begun with--"I Can Only Imagine" by Brentwood-Benson. I love the music; I can use the middle school girls AND the high schoolers, too!

The script isn't overwhelming for my choir (now that the 7th grade girls moved on after Christmas, we have a smaller group to assign speaking parts to). The great part is that it is not an Easter play so we can wait until the end of April if we want to, plus we get to have many good discussions about heaven as we work on this musical about heaven! I don't want to miss opportunities to teach the children while we are working. Sometimes I miss the most important for all the details in front of my face. I have been encouraged by the generous gift and inspired to keep plugging away with these precious children God has placed in my care.

Christmas at the Farm

I don't really like New Year's resolutions, but one of my little hopes for this new year is that I'll be more faithful to blog briefly several times a week. I want this to be a story of our lives but when things get busy, I forget to write. I'm going to take the next few days to write about the past couple of weeks since a lot was going on and I don't want it to be left out of our story. By the time our children's choir Christmas program was FINALLY over (that story will come later), there was one shopping day left before Christmas dinners began. The first dinner was held at the farm on Saturday (22nd) by Nee-Nee and my mom's siblings and their families. Like always, we ate well, visited briefly, opened kids' presents, and said "good-bye" for another year. It always feels rushed and that bothers me. Why do we hurry through time with our family? Maybe we don't care enough.

On a good note, my siblings and their families, along with my parents stayed at the farm for several days where we had a great time eating and visiting together! I always look forward to this, but Richard and his family didn't come this year. I love that there's no cell service and no internet, which helps us stay focused on each other. There IS t.v. but that's okay. We do lots of visiting and playing games which is so refreshing to me.

Schaeffer and Landon love playing together and do a lot less arguing the older they get. Alanna had everyone eating out of her hand--or at least pretending to--with her constant tea parties. She is such a little prissy thing and so adorable that it's hard to say "no" to her! We are hoping that by next year the Gottschall clan will include a little fellow from Bulgaria. We're praying for him already! Also, little Dean will most likely be at least 10 months old already! We can't wait to meet him, too!!

Thankfully we got our annual family picture the night before Megan and Aaron had to leave because Christmas Eve dawned with Marlena and me feeling quite sick. Not a fun start to the day, but it got better! For a few hours we had everyone there together except Richard and his family. I guess since we live away, we treasure the times we do have with our extended family. God has so blessed us with godly family--I love for my children to be around them.

The Big Snow!

We made our annual trip to upstate New York on Dec. 27 and were thrilled to find over a foot of snow recently fallen! Schaeffer and Marlena insisted on going out in it the first morning there, although I tried to tell them we weren't prepared with good snow clothes. Poor Schaeffer "got stuck" past his knees and had to be "rescued" by big sis!

We stayed in a vacant house owned by one of Jason's aunts and what a view out the back door! The house sits right on Sodus Bay and we never got tired of looking at the gorgeous water, especially when the snow was falling.

The next day we went to Fairhaven to visit the Burgess cousins. They found enough snow gear for our kids, and we didn't see them for several hours! Poor little Schaeffer, by the time he came in and started warming up, his feet hurt so badly he cried and cried!

The girls teamed up against the boys: Lindy, Abbie, and Marlena vs. Taylor, Jay, and Caleb. They built opposing snow forts and many snowballs were thrown back and forth.

Fun times for the Sipes kids! We were glad to get there when they had lots of snow because we never see anything quite like that down here in Kentucky.