Tag Archives: First Baptist Church Colville

Christmas Dinner 2025

On Tuesday night the 9th of December we enjoyed our Staff/Deacon Christmas dinner at our Pastor’s home. The food, the fellowship and the games were all fun and it was a great evening for all twenty one of us!

Greg and I each won our Marshmallow Pick-up challenge!

Oye, I forgot to take a photo of the cheesecakes I made for dessert.

Thank you to everyone who thought of me and said a prayer for my wee little surgery yesterday. Everything went well and I’ll be sporting a nice black eye for several days. I appreciated your kind thoughts and prayers.

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Last Wednesday evening Awana wrapped up with an award night. Our Grands both completed all their books and then some. Awana will start up again in September.

JJ will have another year of Sparks but Addy moves up to TNT.

Great job, Addy and JJ, store those verses from God’s Word in your hearts!

On Sunday morning we had such a beautiful start to the day and then on our drive home from church we had some beautiful views I couldn’t resist capturing.

 

 

 

Heading northwest on highway 395.

Heading north on our road home.

So thankful to God for his creation and the beautiful views we get to enjoy everyday.

The next ten days are busy ones for us with appointments, a ladies tea, Addy’s Dance Recital, Tae Kwon do promotion, a pastoral candidate coming to preach with meet and greets, a trip across the mountains, a Master’s University Chorale Concert in Marysville (our Grand Nephew sings with this group), a visit with our niece and grandniece, visits with our westside kids, and travel back home over the mountains. I’m a wee bit tired just typing all of that.

Our May is starting at breakneck speed but should end quietly, Lord willing.

Happy May to all of you!

Many Hands Make Light Work

…along with a lot of planning and organization.

I agreed to take on an event at our church for the sending off  and 10 years of service of our dear Youth Pastor’s family. They are heading to a new ministry in Georgia. The event was a three hour drop in event and I wanted it to be as simple as could be with finger food and no heating necessary but also have some elevation in taste and presentation.

This is the beautiful family we were celebrating.

Volunteers were enlisted for three shifts of service. My first 5 shift volunteers from 1pm until 4pm did all the peeling, chopping, mixing, slicing, stuffing, frosting, arranging and clean-up for West Coast Chicken Sliders, Veggie platters, and elevated brownie bites. Once the sliders were stuffed they were stacked in stainless pans between waxed paper and stored in the refrigerators for the event. Before the volunteers arrived I staged the serving tables with tiered servers and some sparkly accents and candles. My second shift of volunteers had the task of keeping the buffet tables stocked with the goodies we prepared. Husband, Greg, was in charge of the water and coffee. We had a third shift of two families who were in charge of the final clean-up, putting away tables and chairs and taking out the trash. The first two shifts of volunteers kept the kitchen clean-up to a minimum washing prep items as we went along. What a fabulous crew.

We will miss this dear family but send them off with prayers for their continued growth in their love for the LORD Jesus Christ and the Great Commission to go out into the world and make disciples.

I’m battling with Plantar Fasciitis for the first time ever . With lots of prayers on my behalf, I was able to make it through the event with little or no pain. As is the case with this condition after coming home and sitting for a while and then standing up again my feet ceased to function well. I’m trying some remedies to ease the problem along with good supportive shoes. I woke up on Wednesday with very little pain and am thankful. Hopefully icing, massaging, and doing a few exercises before I get out of bed will help the condition and make it cease.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Keepers of the Kingdom ~ VBS

Our annual Vacation Bible School was in the evenings the week of August 7th-11th. All the kids were divided into age groups with lessons appropriate to their age group.

The whole church was decorated to look like a medieval castle.

The lessons were all on The Armor of God from Ephesians 6.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Our daughter-in-law was a helper each night along with over 125 other volunteers and 218 children throughout the 5 evenings. I was the t-shirt sales lady.

Everyone was exhausted after the five night 6:00 – 8:30 fun and games centered around the Word of God. We attended the closing program on Friday night and volunteers stuck around to take down all the VBS decorations. Hats off to all the volunteers! It was an amazing time for our church family to love and serve our community.

Then on Saturday night the 12th of August we met downtown at the Spaghetti factory for a birthday party for our Grands’ Granny.

It was a milestone birthday and we all enjoyed celebrating Linda.

JJ and Addy didn’t last long on the way home from Spokane and had a nice sleep as they were both exhausted from a busy week!

This week has been slow and quiet and uneventful which is a blessing.

Happy Friday everyone. The last couple days we have been socked in with smoke here in our area from fires mostly in Canada. Ash is even settling here. The air quality is not healthy and we have been staying in. Our Grands soccer and other outdoor activities were cancelled this week. We are hoping for improvement soon. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Back Then and Now Hodgepodge

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and I’m recovering from a full to the brim extended weekend of activity. Joyce From This Side of the Pond has the questions ready and also let us know we will take next Wednesday off. Thank you, Jo!

1. What’s one thing you’re excited about in the coming month? 

At the end of July we are traveling and joining several extended family members and friends to celebrate our youngest siblings’ 60th birthday. The party is at a ranch in Texas so we are getting our ‘yeehaw’ on and packing our boots and new duds for some line dancing and heat!

The picture above is of the twins at their 40th birthday celebration, a luau. That party twenty years ago was in Downey, California in our brother’s backyard.

My siblings and me twenty years ago in order of age. I’m in the middle in the dress. All of us but the brother in white will be traveling to Texas.

2. What was your life like when you were ten years old? 

The Spring of 5th grade and beginning of 6th grade was when I was ten. I skipped 2nd grade. John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president of the U.S.A. Things were a mess in the world as they are now, too. 5th grade was not one of my favorites. My teacher, Mrs. Helm, seemed to dislike me. I broke my first and only bone in the 5th grade at school and my mother had to get a taxi to take me to the doctor for x-rays and a cast on my wrist. My 6th grade teacher was kind to me. He got me a job as cafeteria helper and I enjoyed a free cafeteria meal each day for my service.  He also noticed that I was struggling to see the chalk board and suggested that I get my vision checked. It was determined that I was nearsighted and the distant world became clearer to me with my first pair of prescription eye glasses.

3. What’s something from your childhood you still enjoy today? 

Music, watermelon, a double scoop of ice cream.

4. What state (that you haven’t been to) do you most want to visit? Tell us why. 

I think it would be lovely to explore Maine and cross the border into New Brunswick and on to Prince Edward Island. From what I’ve seen in photos it is a beautiful part of our world.

5. Do you like to drive? Tell us how you learned to drive. 

Yes, I do like to drive. I honestly can’t remember who taught me to drive but it was probably one of my sisters. I was driving before I got my official license. After I had my license my brother, surprisingly, offered to teach me to drive a stick shift using his VW bug.

The VW above was the first car I purchased through my credit union and payed off over the course of a couple years.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We are recuperating from a wonderfully packed weekend of events and celebrations. The highlight was our family being all together in church on Sunday to see our sweet Addy May get baptized. A full post with lots of pictures will be coming soon. On this weekend of her baptism we also had a Pastor candidate preach along with several meet and greet opportunities with him and his wife. Our church body will be voting on July 16th as to whether we will call him to be our new Pastor.

Tea for Eight

On Saturday I cashed in my winning bid at our Missions auction for a Tea for Eight. I set the table and invited the guests and then was able to sit and enjoy being served along with my seven guests.

As my guests arrived they were invited to choose the tea cup and saucer from the tea cart. Once the choices were made and the headbands chosen we sat down for our first cup of tea before the Tea Sandwiches arrived.

 

Kathy, the gal on the left was the the cook and organizer and she brought along a helper.

Each sandwich type and quiche were delicious. Not sure what my favorite was. Cucumber Cream Cheese and Dill was delicious and such a classic. The artichoke sandwich might have been my favorite but then there was the Chicken Salad. Something else that was different besides the yummy artichoke sandwich was the Cream cheese, Apricot, Olive and Pecans. Would we have room for Scones?

Oh yes we had room and some of us even managed a second scone.  All the right stuff came on the luncheon plate for the scone along with fresh strawberries in a lavender syrup.

After our Scone course we decided that a little walk about would be good. Addy was really taken with the older girls and they were very sweet with her.

After our walkabout we enjoyed a piano interlude from the girls.

The Dessert Course. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I think the youngest guest thought the dessert course was the best!

Addy and Auntie Lolo.

Addy’s great aunt Rhonda bought this tea dress for her. If you look closely the skirt has teapots and teacups on it.

 

I got the cutest thank you card from one of the young girls in my box at church on Sunday. She thanked me and said she thought the tea was excellent!! It was a wonderful treat to be served tea in my home with my guests using my dishes. We were all thankful for air conditioning, too, since we reached the upper 80’s on Saturday.

Happy Summer everyone! Summer is coming in hot for us here with 3 digits predicted for the end of the week!

It started with a Crash!

We marked our driveway for our First Baptist Colville Senior Summer Social. When it was time for everyone to arrive there was no problem slowing down and finding our address since a Sheriff was right in front of our property with his lights flashing because of an accident right at our driveway. The person who caused the accident was in a hurry and tried to pass someone who was turning into our driveway. He ignored or didn’t see our guest’s left blinker flashing and came around them and tried to pass while they tried to turn into our drive. No one was hurt but our guest’s vehicle suffered lots of damage and had to be towed away. That was a bang of a start to our social.

Most of the 31 folks had never been to our home before and we only knew a handful by name.

By the end of the evening we became familiar with many more and enjoyed conversations with a few.

Our back acres proved to be an ideal picnic spot in the evening since the sun goes down behind our mountain at 5:30. Since we were in the upper 80’s or low 90’s being shaded from the sun was necessary.

One of the gals from our church walked about our property with me and identified several plants by name. I was very appreciative of her knowledge. Come to find out she’s a master gardener. She told me how to cut back and what I could pull and what are weeds. I wish I had a pad and pencil on me when she pointed out the plants and named them. Our huge bush is a variegated willow. That one I remember.

The morning after when I pulled up the blinds in our bedroom these fawns were just outside our window frolicking in the yard.

And then daddy showed up, too.

He sensed us through the window but couldn’t see us.

I did not turn my computer on yesterday and just turned it on at 3pm today.  We are recovering from last evening. Hope all is well in your corner.

Entering the Season Five…

Looking back at the last 7 days and thanking God for all He is doing and allowing in our lives with Friday’s Fave Five. Here are my five.

1. Dear and I really enjoyed watching the eagles soaring and sitting in the trees right in our own backyard. This happened on Saturday.

2. The Right Hand of Fellowship: Many churchgoers are familiar with the term “the right hand of fellowship”. What was the purpose or significance of this act? By giving the right hands of fellowship, believers were agreeing to serve God together. On Sunday we became members of First Baptist Church of Colville. The photo above is of our new church.

3. Lana G! Looking back at her blog and stealing reviving some of my memories with her photos, collages and prayers. Lana used photos from our sister trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island back in 2011 for this collage. Lana is not blogging anymore. Insert sad face. 😦

4. Time spent with Miss Addy. Oh how I love to see what new things she is learning. Last night she showered me with hugs and kisses. Soon she will be 2 and we will be celebrating. On Tuesday she informed her mommy that she would be seeing Baba and Gramps in 2 days and even went to the calendar to count out the 2 days so mommy and daddy invited us over for dinner for Thursday. (Thanks Addy!) We chase each other and play “throw all the stuffed animals in the crib” and rock our babies. No new photos. When I pulled out my cellphone to try to catch a photo of her she let me know that I should put that phone in my pocket. Pocket…pocket…pointing…

5. Entering the season of Lent and preparation for the greatest celebration of the year, Easter. I shared this video yesterday and am reposting it here, too. Our sister in law Kelly, has spent hours developing these videos/art course of a visual walk through the season of Lent. I’ve already learned new things just by watching the first video which is available for free. I’ve signed up for the whole course, too, and am looking forward to completing it and being enriched by it this Easter season.

I’m linking up with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday’s Fave Five.

Later this morning we might drive to the Chewelah Golf Course to do some snowshoeing. We found out this week they are offering the golf course for snowshoeing and cross country skiing for free. We think the snow is beginning to melt so we want to get there before that happens. I’ll take my camera and hopefully share some photos of what we see. What are your plans?