RYS Convention at Asbury University

 This year our church took twenty-one youth group members and four leaders to the RYS convention held at Asbury University. We flew into Nashville, TN Saturday evening and drove to Wilmore, KY on Monday. We stayed in Murfreesboro for two nights at an Airbnb that actually slept 24--perfect for our group. Our youth group kids had so much fun together over the weekend before we even arrived at convention!

Hanging out at the airport through our six-hour delay.

Thankful for a late-night Dominos pizza!

Sunday church service at a PCA congregation that met in a funeral home chapel.

A little Civil War history 

A rousing game of wiffle ball into the gloaming hour.

Finally at the RYS convention!

The day away for some of the students was the Ark Encounter.

All gathered in the same chapel where the revival that made national news took place this year.

Russ and I both gave workshop talks on "Identity"--Russ to all the guys and me to all the girls.

As usual, we came home exhausted, but so thankful for a week of solid biblical teaching for 700+ high school students!

July 4 and Other Summer Fun

We began July 4 with an early morning hike on Bogus Basin with friends from church. Afterward they all came to our house for brunch. We let our food settle a bit then headed to Kleiner Park to play  pickleball and disc golf. We grilled brats for supper and later watched all the fireworks around Boise. 

We tried something new and went to Opera in the Park at Julia Davis Park in downtown Boise.  It was a beautiful night for beautiful music! The singers sang selections from well-known operas, musicals, and other "pop opera" songs.  Anna, who has always been an Il Divo and Josh Groban fan, has decided that she needs to marry a tenor. 

 

Anna and I were driving home and were just a few blocks from our corner when we spotted several very young ducklings on the side of our busy road. I turned onto our street, pulled over, and Anna ran out to save them from getting hit on the road. Although all ten babies survived, Anna saw the mom mallard get hit by a car. Another older gentlemen stopped to help Anna collect them into a satchel/dufflebag. We relocated them to Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve just a few miles from our house. 

We came back a few days later and saw these little ones with a mommy mallard and are hoping they are the same ones, adopted into a new family.

We found a Karie Anne's dessert truck just a few miles from our house, and now we have a new favorite place to buy a summer treat. They make their gelati layered (Italian ice, custard, Italian ice) and it is so yummy!  We'll have to make a few more trips before the girls go back to Dordt.

After a twelve year hiatus, the Family Ties VBS event returned to Cloverdale URC. Those that had grown up in the church had wonderful memories and spoke fondly of these Family Tie events so decided to get it back up and running this summer. The event ran from 6-8:30, Monday-Thursday evening. It began with a dinner followed by a time of worship in song, then the kids went to their VBS classes and the adults also had their own teaching time (led this year by Dr. John Sittema). We all met up for dessert at the end of the evening. What a great time of fellowship!  Here are just a few pictures of the awesome decorations for the Route 66 VBS theme.

Church Family Camp 2023

The weekend before the church family camp, I traveled with Russ to Sunnyside, WA where he preached at the URC that Sunday. It was such a beautiful drive I had to take a few pictures from the car window.

After we returned from Sunnyside, we spent a few days preparing for church camp including purchasing all the camp groceries for the 100+ people, and then headed to Faith Heights camp in Donnelly, ID on Wednesday. Anna and Lydia had to work so they came up in time for the first main session early Thursday morning. Pastor Todd Joling from the Salem URC gave four messages on the first four chapters of Daniel, applying what it means for us to live in a kingdom to which we don't belong. Between the sessions, we had a great time of fellowship.  The talent show on Friday night was a highlight with tons of laughs....even (or especially?) the skit roasting Pastor Russ.

A young gal at the camp did this pencil drawing of the lake in front of the camp and gifted it to Russ and me.