The Jones family was successful in finding a house in Wausau to rent. It was a reasonably priced brick house, with four bedrooms, a nice large basement, and located very near the church. Please continue to pray that the Lord will continue to make their way straight. Change is hard but exciting! And, while you have the Lord’s ear, please bend it just a little longer and ask that He sell ours quickly so we can embark on our own hunting expedition!
Category: My Kids
It’s stuff like this that makes my day just a little sweeter. Below is an email I received from Jillian tonight.
It is a good thing to be proud of your daughter.
Mom,
I met a girl from Japan today that is in my keyboarding class. She was amazed that I didn’t treat her differently like other students did. She said it was like I didn’t see her skin or hear her accent. I laughed at her and told her that I was different too and that I knew what is was like to be different. Then I showed her a picture of the boys and me. She was ecstatic, and had to show all her Asian friends. So now I have an Asian family. 🙂
Adam has been called to be the pastor of Harvest Baptist Church in Wausau, Wisconsin. He was unanimously voted in without any formal candidating. In a couple of weeks they’ll be traveling back to look for part time work and a place to live. Please be in prayer as they make their way into their new ministry. So many exciting things have been happening in our family! We are in awe of our wonderful God.
Pastor Ron gave me a CD with some old pictures on it. This one is of Mollie, Jillian and Amy at Amy’s birthday party. This was taken 8 years ago when the girls were in fourth grade. All three of them graduated this past May. Where does the time go?
Our son, Nathaniel, graduated from “A” school Avionics Intermediate Level in Pensacola, Florida on March 5, 2008. From there he went on to graduate from “C” school at Camp Pendleton in California on June 12, 2008. He is now certified to work on CH 46/CH 53 Rotary Wing Electrical and Weapons Systems. He also earned his gray belt in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program on June 5, 2008. It is his desire to advance as far as he can in the Marine Corps. In the Marine Corps, you can advance quicker if you are deployed over seas. Nathaniel is hoping to get a tour in Iraq some time in the next three years. On July 9 He will be flying out to Permanent Duty station MCBH in Kanoche Bay, Hawaii. Congratulations, Nathaniel on your accomplishment and thank you for serving your country.
Devin and Scott have been married a little over a year now. They live in Indiana in a cute little apartment close to where Scott works. Scott just got a new job where he’s been working for ABC and NBC at Indiana’s News Center (21 Alive) as a video editor for the past year. Our family recently went to his job site where we were given the 25 cent tour. It was very interesting! He has just received a promotion as head of the Web Production Department. The job entails on-air reporting and online management. On the side he will continue to do some video editing for the evening anchors.
Jillian and I enjoy talking with Scott about the things he works with since we both are dabling in visual communications ourselves. It’s not unusual for us to be shooting the breeze over one of the Adobe programs that has us stumped. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts a little over a year ago with an emphasis on Computer Art and Design. He’s our resident expert! Last time Devin and Scott came up to visit they brought their Wii. While Devin and her dad were playing Cow Racing, Scott and I were chatting about our mutual interest – which is anything to do with computers. With a little coaxing, we even had Grandma playing the Wii! Devin had made me a terrific birthday lunch and brought accessories for Jillian’s senior banquet. April and Adam and the boys came over and we had a very nice cookout that evening.
It is such a small world. Who’d ever imagine we’d have a son-in-law that has a degree in the area that Jillian and I are so interested in. Devin and I were laughing about how much Scott is like Dad. It really is true about daughters finding someone to marry that are like their fathers. She is fortunate!
Mollie is graduating May 25 from Lighthouse Academy boarding school. 
It’s her plan to eventually go to college for writing. Since she’s not had opportunity to earn college money while in boarding school, it is our hope that she’ll join the military where she can go to school on the governement’s dime and serve her country at the same time. Please pray that she will allow God to direct her future.
Mollie is gifted in the area of music. Many times while she was still home, she accompanied our church choir. I really miss listening to her while she worked on perfecting her specials on our living room piano. Her piano teacher told us that she has perfect pitch just like her brother Nathaniel. It would be great if she could further develop this talent for the Lord.
Levi has become quite the artist these days. For the past couple of years he’s sketched a few things here and there but hasn’t put much effort into it until recently. It was obvious from the beginning that he had some real talent. He’s never received any formal training, yet lately he’s drawn some pictures that have amazed us all. Pictured here is the 300c that he drew for this year’s MACS Competition (Michigan Association of Christian Schools Fine Arts) and received an honorable mention for his work. We’re all hoping he’ll go to college for formal training since he’s obviously been blessed with a great gift. He and brother Jacob, another budding artist, are working on putting together a comic book. He plans to be trained in architecture at Pensacola Christian College.
Jillian is graduating this May from Prairie Baptist School and going on to Pensacola Christian College to pursue a Visual Communications degree (graphic design, WEB design, etc.). Her journey began about six years ago. I had an interest in Graphic Design, so I took over the school yearbook position at PBS. I taught myself the Adobe InDesign and Photo Shop programs because I didn’t like the canned yearbook pages that so frequently adorn high school yearbooks. I passed on my knowledge to Jillian when she joined the yearbook staff a couple of years later. From scratch she and I learned to design professional pages, bringing our yearbook up to industry standards of professional design. She is amazing and can whip something together in just a few moments. My student has turned teacher and has gone beyond what I have taught her. She is now showing me how to use certian elements in the programs. I am anxious to gleen from her all the new information she’ll be receiving at PCC.
I’ve teased her that when she graduates and opens her own graphic design firm she’ll have to hire me – and that I can do anything I want because I’m her mother and she can’t fire me! It excites me to think that she’ll be trained in what I love – to put together professional publications for ministries. She’s hoping she’ll be apart of a missions minded company that will allow her to take short term missions trips to meet the publications needs of missionaries. She calls it “Traveling Missions.”
A few months ago, Jillian took her first missions trip to visit the Secrest family in Uruguay. The sole purpose of her trip was to take a look at how she could serve missionaries in the area of publications. For two weeks she spent most of her time designing a billboard for the church (to be placed in Montevideo), flyers, logos, letterheads, tracts, and anything else the missionary thought up during her stay. We are praying for the Lord’s leading – this could be such a grand adventure for her to be able to use her God given abilities for missions.
This year Jillian submitted the publications that she designed for the Secrests, missionaries to Uruguay, to MACS (Michigan Association of Christian Schools) Fine Arts Competition and won first place in Graphic Design. The judge told me that “They were blown away by her work.” I am very excited to see where this might take her and hope that I will be able to join her on her quest. Regardless of where God takes either of us, through the use of the Internet we’ll be able to share projects and help each other in ministry.
Jillian has two blogs, one a cheerleading site called cheer4life, and a personal site called, luv4him. Both are on my links listing.
Andrew
Daily my thoughts turn to my son, Andrew, who’s serving in Iraq. He joined as a Marine reservist the summer after his first year in college. Little did we know that just a couple of years later he’d be sent to Iraq to use all that training he received from the military. I am thankful for his desire to serve his country and I am also thankful that God has been working on him. He’s in a barren, broken down village where all there is to do is patrol, watch for dissidents and play movies on his 15″ laptop. His latest quest for entertainment took him and his fellow Marines out to the countryside to throw rocks at cows. He’s definitely going to hear God speak to his heart if He hasn’t already. There’s lots of down time and little entertainment – so there’s little to distract him from the quiet voice of his God. I am hoping that his quest for manhood turns into a quest to know God better. In doing so, he’ll end up with both. My prayers often fly up to my God requesting safety for my son. I am proud of him and his desire to serve our God by serving his country. Though I miss him and am concerned for his safety, I am glad he is turning out to be the man I had anticipated so many years ago. When I first saw the picture of a little orphan boy from Korea, little did I know that he would turn out to be one of America’s honored men. God is good.