Heading to AFRICA

We are so excited!  In case you haven't heard Maggie and I (Amy) are going to Kenya Africa for a missionary conference.  Why you ask?  We are blessed to have been asked to help encourage these families who give so much full time!  I will be sharing with the homeschool families ideas, tips and encouragement while Maggie will be helping run a childrens program for the young ones -- 

so they don't get eaten by lions as the coordinator says! 

 

So we would appreciate your prayers for us as we  prepare to travel out of the country next month!  If you are interested in more information send us an email and we will put you on our email list.  We hope to post updates here about how God works in our lives, we are trusting as much as we desire to go and bless these families that He will pour blessings on us as well!
THANKS in advance for your support!
Amy and Maggie

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!!!

Welcome to Whit's End

If you aren't familiar with Whit's End then you have never listened to Adventures in Odyssey! From the time we talked about working the CO convention the kids were hoping to visit Focus on the Family while we were there, thankfully it worked out! We ended up spending almost 5 hours there! Into the IMAGINATION STATION (aka elevator!) when we got out we had traveled to a wonderful place.... Whit's end :)
There was a great toddler room where the little one had lots of fun too!

Here the kids are in Whits office

One of the highlights was getting to record their own Adventure in Odyssey
(about a mystery in Whits office)!

Here is CASEY one of the characters in the storyAnd this is JAMIE they both did a great job with the help of the sound crew who, got to make lots of sound effects: horses galloping, doors shutting, drawers, pencil sharpeners, sidewalks, gravel and more!
They would be happy to let you borrow "their" CD anytime ~
(then we could listen to something else!)

We also got to go through the wardrobe....

Into NARNIA!!! thankfully we found the lamp post so we could get home!

And last but not least was a stop at the Soda shop -- Y U M! Tutu even got the got the "to die for" Wodfamchocsod :)
(though we must not have gotten a photo of it - guess we were all busy eating!)
and if you are wondering....it stands for World Famous Chocolate Soda.

Make Your Own Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod

Eugene -- meet Eugene :) We were happy he just ate and didnt talk our ear off YEAH!

Yes, we shared a Sunday which made for a scrumptious end to a wonderful day!

We are so thankful for organizations that support families in a time when so much works to tear them down. Praying God blesses your family today too!

Joshua 24:15

¹⁵ But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Rocky Mountain Splendor

Wow. That is an understatement, in trying to sum up how blessed we have been traveling around this great country God has made! To see the mountains erupt from farmlands and then come down from the tundra of the mountain tops to the sun scorched land in the south was truly incredible to witness God's creative hand all over this great land.
We traveled to Denver CO, the mile high city, while there we squeezed in a trip to the Denver Mint getting a tour of the only US government department that MAKES $ (ha ha) We also toured the capital building, including a tour of the dome (yes up there ~ see the tiny spiral staircase? no we didn't climb that but we were right next to it!) From there it's an amazing view of the mountains!
After the homeschool convention, we spent Father's day in Rocky Mtn national park.
This had been a lake higher up on the mtn which broke through and is now a river; amazing the power of water, the boulders it moved were HUGE!
Ahh the view is just spectacular ~ yes I was just a wee bit nervous ~don't worry there was more of a ledge beyond them :)
Even Chuck did pretty good being up so high As we climbed higher and higher we were so thankful for a vehicle that could transport all of us. The thought of being in a covered wagon and attempting to cross these mountains is about impossible!
We made it to the highest point 12,000 something and enjoyed the snow at the top :)
Yes, snowballs were thrown and no, I did not get hit since I stayed in the van on baby duty!
And the camera specialist went for a few more optical illusions:
Lean on the mountain.....Hang on for you life! as we began to descend many of us suffered from the usual altitude dizziness and headache however when we got down everyone was feeling fine, with the exception of mom :( Maybe it was being overwhelmed with gratitude for all the modern conveniences that we have, or the grasping of this incredible blessing our family has to do all this traveling in between working or maybe it was just a plain old case of altitude sickness but I was knocked out the whole ride back to Denver, moaning along the way and wishing we had a bed in the van! when we finally reached the hotel the kids enjoyed dinner and a movie in the hotel "living room" while I crashed in our room! Didn't wake up really until morning at which point I felt MUCH better!
Especially knowing the history of this song.... it seems very appropriate to close with it.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
(to see more verses click the link on the first line)

A Little Bit of History....

The lyrics to this beautiful song were written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) an instructor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, after an inspiring trip to the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 1893.

H2O

1 John 5:6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

John 4:14
But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

A day of work

Here is a picture of our family in front of the My Father's World booth -- that is what we do! Drive the van and a trailer to different homeschool conventions, set up the booth (its like a puzzle!) share with customers, and then drive home or onto the next one!

This year Chuck assists Steve as a second cashier what a help!

One of our helpers, Kim Reiffer, getting her order before the doors open

Eugene likes showing the demo of the foreign language program Rosetta Stone

Here we were at the Naperville, IL convention.

We are thankful to be a part of a company that has the mission of RAISING UP GENERATIONS OF GODLY FAMILIES WHO SEE THE WORLD THROUGH GODS EYES AND LIVE ACCORDING TO THAT KNOWLEDGE. Its a blessing being a part of something that is an encouragement to so many families and is also passionate about missions!

After a long day of work it feels great to sit down and eat some food! Cracker Barrel is one of our new favorites. Thanks to many of you who bless us with home-cooked food while we are on the road it is a much appreciated treat!!!

We are happy to be home for a full week! As I am wondering why I feel so busy, I realize that we are squashing into one week all the stuff we usually do in a month! It makes for a busy season but we really enjoy it! -- well most parts of it :) As we prepare to head to Denver,CO and then Austin, TX for over 40 hr in the car the next two weeks ....the driving part we could skip!!

We appreciate prayers for safe travels and that we would be an encouragement to the many homeschoolers we come in contact with!
THANKS! the Quak Flock

Life on the road...

After 2 weeks on the road ....the van is pretty messy and kids are pretty tired!

Going from MI to WI via the U.P. where we were blessed to visit old friends, Cuthbertsons - THANKS for a fun night and a MUCH nicer "hotel"! A neat but fast trip.Our hotel in WI was very nice and clearly also a MESS! -- I guess I should say lived in :)
As we were trying to figure out where 2 cots and a portacrib were going to fit Tutu toured the porch and said "how about out here?" It worked great... well until it rained .... they only got a LITTLE wet! It was very nice to have the hotel attached to the convention center so the baby could get some good naps!

After our two weeks out we returned home for 5 days. On the way back from WI we had met Gr and Gr K who picked up Chuck for a week with of fun and work! It was different not having him around for the week!
More on our adventures to come!
Grateful to have the opportunity to travel and visit new places and meet new friends!