The Story That Never Grows Old ~ Hymn

The Story That Never Grows Old

O tell me the story that never grows old,
The story of One whom the prophets foretold;
The horn of salvation, the scepter and star,
The light in the darkness they saw from afar.

Refrain

It never grows old, it never grows old,
The story of Jesus will never grow old!

O tell me the story that never grows old,
The story the angel at Bethlehem told;
The Babe in the manger, of lowliest birth,
The highest archangel excelling in worth.

Refrain

O tell me the story that never grows old,
The story the Gospels repeat manifold;
The love and compassion in Jesus we trace,
The power and patience, the glory and grace.

Refrain

O tell me the story that never grows old,
The story the ages to come will unfold;
The kindness of God in redeeming the lost,
The death of our Savior in paying the cost.

Refrain

Words: James M. Gray, circa 1899.

It is a Good Day…

…to celebrate our lovely daughter in law, Laura!

Happy Birthday dear Laura! We thank God for bringing you into the world and for bringing you and Josh together. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have you for a daughter in law. We love you and always hope for the best for you and for you and Josh together. God bless your new year!

We’ve Gone Beyond…

…and back.

3 full shopping carts of goodies for Katie and Andrew’s Base housing. Katie had a pocket full of gift cards that she had received at Bridal showers. We spent it all. When everything was bagged up we had to lug 4 shopping carts out to the car. Today we continued our quest to get some essentials. The more we work around the house the more we find we need. You know things like scissors and trash cans

On Saturday we are driving to Raleigh to pick up a used car that Andrew’s step brother found for Katie and Andrew. We’ll pick up Dear from the airport and drop off our rental car. This next week we’ll be breaking in the used car and making sure everything works well.

Grateful!

We are so grateful that God brought us safe to Camp Lejeune and that Katie has her and Andrew’s keys to their new home.

It was no easy feat for the two of us to get all these suitcases off the luggage carousel at the airport, into the shuttle van, into our first hotel, into our rental car, out of the rental car and into the new home. We are both so happy to have that part of this journey over! Today we shopped till we dropped.

Tomorrow we have to attend a fire safety course on Base and try to get cable/internet services set up. Wow, we are heading into December already. Do you have your tree yet?

Before the Leftovers are Gone…

…I better share our Thanksgiving Day photos!

I was going to share photos of Andrew and Katie’s new home in North Carolina but I left my camera cord in the rental car downstairs and I’m too wiped out to head back down there to get it. Katie and I arrived safe and tired and muscle sore to Jacksonville on Tuesday. I’ll share more when I get my photos uploaded.

Even though we’ve moved on to Christmas joys I want share our photos from our Thanksgiving Time at our friend’s home with more than 50 people enjoying each other. We ate well, played games together, and ended the evening dancing off some of the calories!

On Wednesday Katie and I are looking forward to a relaxing morning before we do some more shopping for her new home. Hope all is well with you and yours!

All Packed and Ready to Go!

Katie and I are in the air headed to Chicago and connecting to Raleigh-Durham. We arrive close to midnight, or at least we hope that all goes well and we arrive on time. Here are some of our packing photos from Black Friday. My sister Lana is the master of packing. At the end of that day we were all wiped out!

I’m reading a Christmas Story by Debbie Macomber on the plane that will help me get in the Christmas mood. I’m happy to hear about what you are doing to prepare for Christmas. Blessings…

Advent Begins ~ O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

The first candle (purple) “CANDLE OF HOPE” means His promise and hope. We can have hope because God is faithful and will keep the promises He made to us. Our hope comes from God. (Romans 15:12-13)

The lyrics echo several prophetic themes. The title comes from the well known Isaiah 7:14: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Immanuel is Hebrew for God with us. The Rod of Jesse refers to Isaiah 11:1: There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse; Jesse was the father of David, second king of Israel. Day-Spring comes from Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, in Luke 1:78: The dayspring from on high has visited us. Thou Key of David is in Isaiah 22:22: The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder, which in turn refers to Isaiah 9:6: The government shall be upon His shoulder.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Refrain

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

Refrain

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Refrain

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Refrain

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Refrain

And That’s A Wrap…

or…the rest of the story. These are Polaroids taken mostly by Jamie, Katie’s Maid of Honor, at the shower. Before I show the rest of the photos here’s what’s happening around here and we’ll title it Yes, it’s possible to accomplish anything while feeling like a Zombie…

Thanksgiving: We had a wonderful celebration at Dave and Jody’s house with about 50 or so people. Pictures coming some time in the future.

Black Friday: My sister Lana and I continued our tradition of going to Goodwill on Black Friday. We had no problem finding a parking spot and we got some really good bargains. Everything was 50% off. My best purchase was a Tumi computer backpack (when new $260) used for $25. I’ll be using it for travels to North Carolina on Monday. Lana bought a beautiful Tommy Bahama linen jacket with the tags still on it ($160) for $20.

Packing: After Goodwill Lana started the daunting task of trying to pack 6 suitcases with all of Katie’s clothes, coats, shoes, hats, scarves, gloves, makeup, jewelery, etc. etc. My sister is a master at packing. We were able to get those cases as close to 50# each as we could. We have one more suitcase to go that I can put some of my stuff in, too. One of the 6 cases also has Andrew’s civilian clothes. Now we just have to figure out how Katie and I will be able to manage 7 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons, and 2 backpacks. I’ll be stuffing my pockets with cash to tip Porters!!

Mailing: Today we are mailing all Katie’s media to North Carolina. She doesn’t want to be without her favorite books 4 large boxes worth and her favorite DVD’s and CD’s 4 boxes worth.

Family: We are getting in as much family time as we can before Katie and I take off on Monday.

Cookbook: So much great cookbook news. If you’d like to enter to win a cookbook click on the link and leave a comment at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Lovella and Anneliese are demonstrating the Hazelnut Roll today at noon on Global T.V. in B.C. If you live in B.C. tune in!

Offline: I’ll probably be scarce around here for a couple weeks. I’ll try to visit and see how you all are doing…

Myself and Lana showing our guests where the food is…hilarious.

Katie with her brother, Josh.

Katie with our Daughter in law’s mother and grandmother.

Girlfriends since forever…Katy K., Jamie, Katie, Kristen, and Heidi.

Blessings on all your preparations for the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year”

I’m looking forward to preparing a place in my home to honor the King of Glory when I get back from North Carolina!

Photos Shared…

The following photos from Katie’s bridal shower were taken by her long time friend Christie. Christie was one of Katie’s friends from our church here in Seattle that we attended for 20 years. Christie now lives in Alaska with her husband and 2 little girls. She was in Seattle visiting family just in time for Katie’s shower. What a fun treat it was to have all Katie’s Sunrise girlfriends together with her on this special day.

Kristin, Christie, and Heidi. Jamie is the 4th girlfriend from Sunrise and she’s taking the photo. I’ll share more photos from the shower that Katie’s Maid of Honor Jamie took soon.