And the winner is....

Finally the book giveaway: The winner is Lori O and family,

CONGRATULATIONS May you be blessed by Mission As Life!

We are excited that some of you are interested in joining us for a FAMILY MISSION TRIP in the fall of 2011. Let us know if you'd like to be added to our update list!

If you would like a copy of the book we do have a few more copies let me know, or they can be purchased at www.missionaslife.com

Blessings on your week ~ may you share the love of Christ with those you meet wherever God has you right now!
The Quakflock

One more day....

OK we've been BUSY with the holidays and forgot to have the kids draw the winner tonight.... so you have one more day to enter :)

If you want a FREE copy of the book Mission As Life
(we will mail it so feel free to enter even if you don't live nearby!)
just comment on the original post (click here) by 8pm Sunday CST

May God give you an opportunity to minister to someone today ~ and may you TAKE IT!
Shalom,
Amy and the Quakflock

Hiking the appalachian trail

While on our mission trip we were able to take a little side trip to visit some old friends who we used to live down the street from, they now live in Virginia. It was about the end of the fall colors we were so awed to see the beauty God has decorated this earth with! We we so blessed to catch up with them as well as get a hike in on the Appalachian trail.

Deb and I talking and walking

Steve with the baby snug as a bug!

Kids lead the way

signing into the log book

the whole crew yes its a full dozen with only 2 families!!!
THANKS Maynards for blessing us with wonderful fellowship, comfy beds (even welcoming late arrivals!) and yummy food! We are so thankful for good friends and look forward to someday worshiping the Lord together!!!

Family Service highlights + BOOK GIVEAWAY

One of our goals for the week was to help figure out what it takes to make a family mission trip work with The Community Crossings; finding the right balance between work, fun, and making sure the family has time to grow together and deepen their walk with the Lord. Serving as a family has lots of benefits one that we felt is you all come home with a shared experience, able to spur one another on when you return to the hum drum of daily life back home. Also time away from typical schedule of life allows you to have time together that often is not taken when at home.

The above picture is of the Community Crossing facility ~ the old high school was given to them! Its a wonderful place where lots of ministry happens. (I am still bewildered at how school buses ever got close, the streets are SO steep!)

We are considering going back and would like to take a crew of families with us .... so if you are interested let us know... it would be fun to serve with a bunch of families! We would likely go again fall of 2011. If you are interested in going sooner or helping with donations please contact Community Crossing ph 304-436-8300 or let me know and we can connect you!

Daily we met with Randy Wallace from Mustard Seeds & Mountains ministry,another local ministry. He is the author of Mission As Life a great book which we highly recommend all families read! Especially if your family is looking for a jump start to service or ministry. We enjoyed spending some time with him and being encouraged to not leave serving in West Virginia but to take it home and continue on in our hometown. A few highlights:

• Commune with God ~ spend time listening to His word and what he wants us to do
• Community ~ we can serve right were we are, it takes time, make sure to schedule it in!
  
• Compassion ~ it takes a heart that is willing to put others first and self last then DO IT
  

We want to bless someone with the book MISSION AS LIFE-- so if you want to win a FREE copy:

• Post a comment (make sure your email is in your comment so we can contact you if you win).
  
• If you want to get entered twice post a link to this on your blog and comment here that you linked it.
  
• If you really want the book you can comment again for a third opportunity to win, with a story about a mission/service project you have done or one you hope to do!
  

We will draw the winner the 27th. Best wishes!
Thanks for all your support while we were off on this adventure! We pray that God continues to mold us into the servants HE wants us to be!

Supporting others - DAY 5

Final day to finish a few little week long projects:
#1 Final coat of paint in bathroom at clubhouse (where we stayed)

• WORKERS: Steve and Amy (a little)
  
• STATUS: DONE
  

This is the bathroom we worked on at the clubhouse done!

#2 Paint trim and install into bedroom and bathroom at the clubhouse

• WORKERS: Steve and all the kids
  
• STATUS: DONE
  

Looks very nice!

We were blessed with wonderful weather while we were there. The boys enjoyed playing outside and even enjoyed some young playmates throughout the week who were kind in sharing their bikes :)

Then we were able to connect with 5 homeschooling families for gym time this afternoon. They loved Steve playing with them ~ helping them shoot hoops :) And we had a great game of kickball too :) Here Freddie is going to throw someone out at third! The enjoyed riding bikes inside as the roads are way to hilly outside! Bernie helps Eric go faster! Getting ready for a 4-square game...
Was that really out? are you sure???
We enjoyed a meeting this wonderful crew who has such an amazing heart to help this community. THANKS Wilson family for welcoming us and for blessing the many families you minister too!

We almost had a mix up... Ellie snuck into our car seat... since our little one gets car sick on the hills we were tempted to go with the switch! but decided we would both miss them too much!This was our helper all week - Kyler helped get us to our projects and made sure we had all we need -- THANKS for all you do for the ministry! You are an amazing young man!

Thanking Others - DAY 4

Today is Veterans Day. Small towns seem to appreciate our veterans more -- maybe its the closeness or the family ties, either way I like it!
The town about shuts down, so we joined the festivities attending the parade in the morning. Enjoyed some bands, some cool old cars, and of course candy which the kids enjoyed! (ok I did as well)
Here they are taking the flag down to present to the veterans.
Freedom isn't free. We are thankful for the many who have fought so we can have the many freedoms we do today. May we not forgot them or their families!

After lunch we were able to get a bit of the local history going to Coal Camp Creations which had a small display of the history of coal mining in the area. As well as a shop which makes creations out of - you guessed it COAL! We were able to watch them mix the dust, pour it into molds, and pop it out, the boys were pretty intrigued. They really like this mold of the Veteran.

This is what we enjoyed each day -- lots of coal trucks zooming by. Some of the roads don't seem wide enough to fit both the truck and a car - but they can. There is always a film of black dust on everything. We learned they are required to wash the road down after so many loads and daily a sweeper truck goes through too. Here is an old coal chute sending the coal down to trucks which haul it to the train yards. We learned alot about the reason so many moved to this area years ago, to work in the coal mines. We were amazed to see an area that at one time over 160,000 residents now only has between 20,000 and 25,000. There is your history for the day :)
We are thankful for the people who are working with the many needy people here, and thankful we were able to join and encourage them this week!
One more day....

Blessing others - DAY 3

One of the things we have learned is that when you intend to bless someone.... you are often the one who is blessed! That's exactly what happened to us today.

We are enjoying the amazing "hills" here well, most of us, the baby is not so fond of them and seems to feel better by emptying her stomach on the curves - poor thing! Actually poor siblings sitting next to her!
This tunnel was a hand picked tunnel -- (made by picking away at the rock!) pretty amazing to realize how hard it was to get around years ago and how much we take our modern roads, tunnels etc for granted! We are in coal country and have learned a lot about the hard life so many here have lived. The towns here are dying as the mining has changed over the years. So sad to see towns so vacant and falling apart.

Wednesday Project:
#1 Paint bedroom at home of the C's

• WORKERS: Q family and Mr and Mrs C
• STATUS: completed!
  

We were blessed to help an elderly couple today paint two rooms in their home. As we worked the children were thrilled that Mamaw (Mrs. C ) kept offering kool-aid and cartoons! They were great painters too. We got both rooms primed then painted (bright cheery colors i might add!) in less that 5 hours!


#2 Paint family room at home

• WORKERS: Q family and Mr and Mrs C
• STATUS: completed, with the exception of some trim which needed to be painted white yet - Mr C will finish that another day
  

The kids enjoyed helping but didn't mind when they got to take tv breaks -- a very special treat as we don't often watch them. Here they are showing off their work -- though this room was almost entirely painted by Mr C. He was such a hard worker! We could hardly keep up with him. What a lesson in hard work -- he has breathing issues (from years of working in the mines) but he wouldn't sit down and take a break! Perseverance we saw demonstrated before our very eyes today!
this is an old tool used long ago in the mines - Eugene or "Huber" as Mr. C called him :) worked hard to "dig" down with it, he did well too!
Here is the work crew. Mrs C loved having some girls in the house. We made some news friends today. We were there to bless them but their hearts and kindness blessed us!
Lord may we be thankful for what you have blessed us with, family, health and so many earthly possessions. May our eyes not get stuck down looking at all our stuff but may we look up to you and give you praise and honor and glory for the things of heaven which really mater! AMEN

Encouraging Others - DAY 2

When we moved we were blessed to have overwhelming assistance -- family, friends, new coworkers, not only to move but helping with the unpacking.

Today we were able to bless a family who is trying to uncover the floor from the myriad of boxes which are still covering it since recently moving! This lovely family has 7 children ranging from 10 months to 10 years and a wonderfully resourceful mother who homeschools them all.

Tuesdays projects:
#1 Complete painting of front porch

• WORKERS: Steve and Chuck
  
• STATUS: scraped, painted DONE :)

#2 Assist Mom as needed with unpacking

• WORKERS: Amy, Tutu, Ria
• STATUS: Amy was able to help mom sort clothes and we made some good headway! Getting things sorted by size and put in the correct room (clothes get overwhelming for me with only 3 boys and they have 5!)
  
• STATUS (GIRLS) they were able to help the 2 girls in the family organize their room also sorting some clothes. They had plenty of breaks to just have fun and play as well!
  

#3 Keep 5 boys busy so the rest of us could get things done :)

• WORKERS: Bernie and Eugene
  
• STATUS: Enthusiastically completed! They had lots of fun on the tramp, tire swing, with Lego's and Nerf guns, with squirt guns and exploring, and even sledding ~ no there was not snow but a GREAT hill and it worked fine even without snow!
  

When asked how their "work" was today, they replied "We didn't work today, we got to play"!
We made some wonderful new friends today. God reminded me that often its just as much about getting something done as it is about encouraging one another. We pray they were encouraged by our time together ~ I know we were!

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:3-12

Serving others - DAY 1

Well, day 1, here we are, up early and ready to SERVE.... and wondering how we will be used this week. The organization we are working with is called Community Crossing . We are here as a family to see what mission trips can look like for families (verse the typical trip of youth groups). Here we are with 6 kids who traveled more than a days drive to serve, wondering can we really get anything done to be of blessing to anyone?

YES WE CAN!

Monday we had 2 projects to complete:
#1 Finish some painting and replace baseboards after painting at the "club house" where we are staying.

• WORKERS: Steve, Chuck and Tutu
  
• STATUS: painting - done, baseboards - in progress
  

#2 Help with some winterizing at a neighbors home.

• WORKERS: Amy, Ria, Bernie, and Eugene
• STATUS: discovered lack of some supplies at work site, modified plan did some cleaning, organizing and fellowshipping with the Grandmother and Great Grandmother.
  

Blessings went both ways!

Our evening was a time for family fellowship, fun and games.
this is our "mess hall" where we eat, play and share.This is our sleeping quarters - where we yes sleep! plenty of top bunks so everyone can have a TOP well not Dad, Mom or Baby!
¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5: 14-16

Praying our light will shine and as we love the people here they will be not only blessed but encouraged in their faith walk!

On the road again but this time on a MISSION

We are setting off on an adventure... its been our desire to do a family mission trip for a while now. And God has finally brought all the pieces together! We are heading off to serve a poor community by ministering to the people through varrious small projects we can do as a family.

We were able to spend some time on our way there marveling at God's amazing creativity! We stopped at this natural bridge.... It was a nice hike to stretch the legs a bit! This is the view from below, over 85 feet high sits a 65 foot rock bridge.

The amazing ~and scary~ part is you can walk right over top of it....

and sit on the edge!

(OK, just so you know there is a small ledge below the children I WOULD not let them sit right on the edge!!!)
This was back at the base, it was incredible to enjoy nature all around us and marvel again at how God has created all things for his glory. How far and wide is His love for us!
We are so blessed to have this opportunity to grow as a family while we serve the Lord. More updates soon!

"What does the Lord require of you?
To act justly,
to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:8