The catering and some sunset pictures...

Here's a quick look at one of the jobs we have working with the restaurant... we catered at a wedding for some friends, making all the food, serving it, and cleaning up. It was very enjoyable! We got to put tracts on all the tables and had some good opportunities to talk to people about Christ. 

The food line at the wedding!

We prepared for about 200 people.

Ry and Emmie working away in the kitchen.

Sam helped scoop margarine...

Reminded me of a famous saying...

"I can only eat margarine..."

:) :)

I thought this was nice- it's almost an advertisement for the fire extinguisher!

I really felt compelled to use it, but the need never arose... :)

During a lull, the hamsters helped themselves to a game of cards :)

Another piece of emergency equipment found in the building... 

The food is almost ready, the guests are almost here!

The salad bar! Looked good enough to eat, if I do say so myself...

The spread:

First, roasted carrots, stroganoff meatballs, sliced roast beef, yukon gold mashed potatoes, gravy and the salad bar... it was all very good :)

Ry and Kels- matching very nicely- were responsible for the drinks: water, tea and 2 kinds of coffee.

The main reception hall...

I didn't get any pictures of the wedding reception itself, because we were very busy and I didn't have time to grab my camera :) It went very smoothly though...

We got out of there around 10pm.

Next are a few random shots...

A beautiful sunset at the siding job we finished up Friday evening.

It was one of those breathtaking "wow" kinds of scenes...

Harkening back to the "hall of shame" on the Haiti blog, here is one of those "nice" picture a little sibling snapped of me :)

Thanks to those of you who prayed for me today- service at church went very well! Tonight we have Ryan and Kelsey over for supper...

Hope all is going well with you all, dear readers! Keep on seeking God!

-nate

The weekend has come, and we are glad...

Yes, today is Saturday... the weekend has come! I know, it's mostly just another day of the week, but in many people's eyes the weekend is their day or two to relax, do some hobbies, have some fun and recuperate from the long work week. I suppose that's the way it is for me also, to a greater or lesser extent: today I've been able to get up a bit later (6am, as opposed to 5:30), have a good long devotion time, spend some time on my computer checking emails and news, went over to Gram's place to help with some computer problems, looked at some of her Ireland pictures, visited with Aunt Carol and her children, came back home, did some reading, cleaned a bit in the studio and just came in for lunch. Within the next 40 minutes we're leaving to help Dad cater at a wedding... so, maybe you wouldn't consider it as "relaxing" but I really do enjoy doing all these things- so it is therapeutic for me :) :)

We've been working hard on a siding job and finally finished last night- at 8 o'clock :P :P Ry and I decided to just stay and complete it so we wouldn't have to go back today or Monday. So, we pushed ourselves and got it done. It was very satisfying to do that. :)

Well, if you all could pray for me, that would be great... I was asked to do some preaching on Sunday, and that's always enjoyable- but I want to be prayed up well, and ready to share. So, prayers are always appreciated when you all join with in the preparation!!

The siding job...

More pictures...

A wonderfully beautiful and majestic sunrise Sunday morning.

Ry, Aaron, Caleb and myself all spent the night in the tent. 

In the morning I wandered out onto the empty street and grabbed this shot.

Our "family" singing group on Sunday afternoon.

We sang "Sin will take you farther than you want to go" and "How deep the Father's love for us"

Sunday afternoon there was a baptism out in front of the church.

Joel Martin had recently accepted Christ, so he was baptized :)

It was wonderful!

After the the baptism, it was time to clean everything up!!

The little guys were "helping" too :)

Aunt Carol (holding Rhoda Martin) talking with Ellen Miller before the evening meal.

That evening the sunset was just about as good as the sunrise.

Ultimately, the meetings were a wonderful encouragement to me. There were so many things that happened (besides the sermons and such) that were either really stretching, or challenging, or encouraging- my heart was so mixed up with conflicting emotions I just kinda had to let it all out... So I had a really good talk with Dad and Mom Sunday night. It was ultimately all very good for me, though.

:)

Monday we worked on that garage-- again...

And today...

We installed 5 windows in this house.

Arrived at 9:30am, left at 3:30pm... had a problem with our foam gun and had to run to town... but other than that, it all went smoothly... 

Tomorrow we install more at another place and pour another side walk :)

Praise the Lord for work!! :)

The finish of a long week...

The tent meetings are now over... here are some pictures!

Before the meetings we did some remodeling in the church, adding another bathroom in the back.

I helped install the vanity, run some pipes up through, etc. It was fun :)

When I got into the tent and got the audio stuff ready, I was greeted by all the contents of the tract table strewn about by the wind :) After about 5 minutes it was all cleaned up though, so it wasn't too bad :)

Looking across the street to church.

A hamster got ahold of my camera and snapped a picture of me getting the cables in order...

What are we going to do with our hamsters?? :)

Brother Todd, preaching :)

Abe Pratt, one of the faithful crossing guards...

Some boys playing around after service- and some older people talking :)

"The elixir of life", as it's been called :)

I lived off this for a few days this week :)

The week in perspective...

Ah, the week is almost over, and I have neglected my blog here... sorry about that, dear readers. I trust none of you are missing sleep over my negligence... if you are, I appreciate your concern, however, there's probably something wrong with that, and you should get some help-- what kind, I'm not sure, but try getting something :-/ :)

The meetings have been a real blessing thus far. We've been really busy and I've had no spare time to really speak of, so I'll just be posting pictures with captions...

Ry and I worked together several days this week.

Our work truck and dump trailer...

We knocked out several small jobs this week;

This one simply involved scraping and painting some facia.

I guess we also had to replace some rotten pieces, too...

The same day we also tore out and poured a sidewalk. 

I finished the pad while Ry and Josh went to another job site for another cement pour.

We were pretty worn out by the end of the day!

An evening scene along main street in Griswold.

You can see the tent on the left, squished between two storefronts.

Dad preached last night-

His sermon was "What is Revival?"

Special visitors last night after the services!

Ry and Kels came to our house for popcorn and fish :)

Ah, a beautiful, crisp (rather, COLD) and fresh Iowa morning!

Today Ryan and I worked on two jobs- one with 3 windows to install,

the other with 4 windows to install.

Tonight Elvin Martin came and preached.

His sermon was based on Luke 7, where Jesus raised the widow's son from the dead.

Fellowship after the service.

Marcus Zook- he broke his wrist last week and his dad asked if I could snap a picture of him :)

Cute little hamster... :D