Seventeen Children attend Redeemer's VBS

Thank you all so much for praying. God blessed our first VBS( Vacation Bible Saturday). John was Noah and we had a great balloon rainbow. When my new friend, Sandy came at 7:00 am to assemble the rainbow, she decided to donate it to the cause. Two little nine year olds were the puppet voices of the animals on the Ark. It was their first puppet show performance. We were all amazed. We had twelve volunteers who worked faithfully all day. Then John recruited the men's Bible Study to come and clean everything up. We know at least one new family with two children who will be coming to church tomorrow. It was so much work since John and I created the materials. It was well worth the effort. One of the teachers donated all the materials. Thanks to Oriental Traders and the Lord's great mercy, we pulled off a marvelous day.

Recruiting for VBS in California- August 25

Today, Sam, a sixth grader in our church, and I passed out flyers in close neighborhoods to the church for our VBS Saturday. Yes, I see these vans driving to the beach, but this one was parked in the driveway of a house we left a flyer at. Sam and I had a great time. Please pray for children to come. The church has not had VBS in three years. We are asking God for 25 children. We only have about 4 school age children whose families attend regularly. We are prepared for 25-35 children. Let the little children come!!!!!!!

My Texas Cousin's Reunion

The guys went boating and the girls went shopping.

The First Annual Opal Reunion

At Heather and Troy's wedding, two of my cousins decided to have a cousin reunion. There are 10 of us and we have never gotten together. Seven of the 10 were able to meet in Boerne, Texas outside of San Antonio, Texas. Jill and Mike Keith, the youngest cousins hosted this wonderful reunion. All my brothers, their spouses, and my mother were there. John had to hold down the fort in California.
My brother Pat made his famous margaritas. Jill and Mike, along with the great help of Jill's mom Mary, gave a Texas style Barbeque. It was fabulous. The children of the cousins had a blast. It was their first time to be together.
We plan to make it an annual event. Next year it will be in Kemah, Texas at my brother Mike's house.

Nephew David and Rachel's wedding

This past weekend our famiy all met in Dallas for yet another family wedding. David and Rachel both went to my University of Texas. The wedding was complete with an amazing groom's cake. David led a group of french horn players in a beautiful rendition of "The Eyes of Texas." David is the one who arranged all the music for Heather and Troy's wedding. We are all staying in Troy and Heather's one bedroom apartment. They have been amazing as newlyweds to just let us all move in. The grandchildren are sleeping well and Mark is entertaining us all.

Jenna and the Water Table

Jenna and I have been busy playing in the water and cutting wooden vegetables that I brought her from California. Enjoying the pleasure of the simple life is what grandmothers are supposed to do, right?

My Colorado Treasures

Yesterday I few back to Colorado Springs to see Corrie, Mark and the girls. It is great to be back and to see the beautiful puffy clouds over the mountains. Jenna is talking so much. She knew me and ran to meet me at the airport. Talk about a heart stealer. John will join us all in Dallas for our nephew's wedding next weekend.

Krishna

Krishna stayed with us for 3 days. She is moving to this area from Fresno and was looking for an apartment. She was attending school in New Orleans when Katrina hit. She said the apartment manager made them all leave. When they returned,everything was moldy and lost. She finished college in Austin, Texas. Now she and Margarit will room together. She will be working on a Masters in environmental biology. She is a strong Christian and very active in the church her grandfather started. I am praying she'll become a regular member of Redeemer. WE had an instant bond.

Moms and Tots

We had our first Moms and Tots program today. Four little ones and their moms came. We sang songs, jumped around, and had a little Bible study. We are praying it will grow. I just love having these babies in my life. I am trusting God to add children to our church. That is so important to me.

Japanese Barbeque after Church

A group of us went to this great place after church. It was my first experience to grill my own food, including squash.

Our First Wedding

Flower assembly party at my house on Thursday before the wedding.

John did a beautiful ceremony. I decorated the church in Long Beach.
Our Redeemer crew put all the table cloths and chair covers on after the wedding and before the reception. We brought all the flowers in John's jeep.

Frank and Mayra were so appreciative of all we were able to do.

Here's Mark

Yes, Mark is alive and well in Colorado Springs. He is living with Corrie while Sean is deployed. He continues to work with Tees'nTime as their graphic artist. He stays busy doing freelance projects, improv and entertaining Sophie and Jenna with his ukuele. He is planning to return to college as soon as he gets some life experience under his belt. He just turned 22 this summer. Hard to believe.

The Newlyweds

Many of you have asked about Heather and Troy. They are living in Grapevine, Texas near Dallas. They are very happy. Troy works as a bond trader for TDAmeritrade. Heather gets to stay home and work in the nest. Troy loves to read Greek and Hebrew in his spare time. A match made in Heaven. We are going to a nephew's wedding in August in Dallas and look forward to being with them.

Our Garden

Our First Beach Bash

Yesterday we had our first beach party. We had ages 21 months to 85 years attending. It was so great to see such an intergenerational get together. Some of the older ladies even played water balloon volleyball. This is definately the place to grow older. John pulled off his normal great event planning and everyone had so much fun. It's amazing to chase your pastor down the beach with a water balloon on Saturday and then listen to him the next morning in a robe teaching God's Word.

Beautiful Granddaughters

Sophie and Jenna are so much like Corrie and Heather. It is so much fun to repeat our lives again with these beautiful children. Sophie is almost 8 months and Jenna is two. They are a handful for Corrie with Sean deployed. She is doing a great job.

Shopping for Flowers in Downtown LA

Mayra and I went at 5:30 am with a friend who got us into the wholesale flower distributors district. We are using all cala lilies for her wedding. I am going to learn how to make all the corsages, bouquets,and arrangements for the reception. We'll have an assembly line in my garage the day before the wedding. A group of women in our church are going to put all this together.

Sunday after Church

We had a great picnic in our backyard yesterday. A family from Chile has visited our church. We invited 13 of them and some of our Spanish speakers over. John and Margarit were the only non-Spanish speakers.

Our backyard is so perfect for large groups. We had 21 all together.
After lunch we had a singing time. They were great musicians. When John ran out of Spanish hymns he opened up with "La Bamba". They loved it.


My precious Margarit always finds her way into the kitchen. She loves to cook and to clean up. She has become my California daughter. She has Mark's personality and never meets a stranger. Talk about joy in my life.

We hope to see our college group grow. We have about 4 right now.

Last week at our house

This is a new family that has started going to our church.Irene, Timothy's mom is a lawyer and graduate from Pepperdine. She grew up in a Korean church and is very comfortable at our church. Her husband, Concensio is a director of a nursing home and grew up Catholic.

I invited Lauryn and her mom, Carol,over for lunch.These two children played so great in my backyard.