Prayers asked for ---- for Rick

Our Son Rick is flying to Thailand today to begin a new page in his life. He will begin teaching at the Mahidol University which is located just outside of Bangkok. On of the classes he will be teaching is Comparitive Religion. He is excited and scared both. So if you could lift him up in your prayers we would appreciate it. He is the one on the far right - if you need a reminder :)

Thanks!
Gary and Barb

reminder

a quick reminder --- if you click on the photos -- they will pop up in much larger form.

:) Barb

90th Birthday Party was - GREAT

We had such a fun time at Mom and Alma's 90th "Birthday Party. These pictures are in helter skelter form.......... For those of you who missed coming --- You were missed!!....but we understand why you didn't make it. I hope these photos bring back some memories of past times for you. After the party I realized that I was having so much fun that I never filled a coffee carafe or anything -- OOPS!!! I guess Linda and Ethel did their part while I just had fun. SORRY!
Made me think of Mary and Martha -- no I wasn't sitting at Jesus' feet .....but I wasn't worrying about the kitchen details either.

This first photo is of Donald and Alice Verduin. Donald's father-- (Uncle Will) William Verduin was my Grandpa (Peter) Verduin's brother. Donald spent many years growing up in Todd County and shared some fun memories with us.


We had lots of lovely flowers thanks to many of you. We also had old photos of mom and Alma's younger years and each of their families.....these produced LOTS of fun!! :) :)










Ethel played "Happy Birthday" - I didn't know she still had it in her. Her son and granddaughter do --- but it was Ethel who did the playing.











These are the Post family -- Kathy, Sandy, Donna and Vi. There is never a dull moment when they are around.......LOTS of laughter! Growing up in Michigan we would always get together with them for Thanksgiving......now there is a summer picnic.....which I am sorry to say Gary and I always miss out on...... So it was good to catch up with them again.






All of our children were present and accounted for......and some of the little ones wanted in on the photo moment. Back row --- Clayton and Holly, Halle and Mike, Rick -- He came the farthest for the party --- all the way from the Netherlands (and then on the 31st of May he will fly to Thailand to take a teaching position in the Mahidol University----always moving further away it seems!!!) and then Marti and Oliver and Mom.




Mom (Edna Verduin) and Aunt Alma Post -- the two stars of the day. They both said that they had a lot of fun.....more than they had expected. So that made it all worth while. Those who didn't know Alma very good couldn't believe she was 90 -- said she looked 75. :) Sad to say her eye sight it not good at all.










I love this picture. Mom is doing very good for being 90. She doesn't get around so good anymore but her mind is still sharp as ever!!
She got lots of card and even 2 surprise letters from former classmates!!! Thanks Jean for putting her announcement in the Todd County Tribune!!

Our visit with our kids was maybe the best ever. Rick was home .....we went to lots of events - like Trenton's Birthday party - Austins "Authors Day " at school, Sidney's "girls on the run", Mike's 1st hockey game...(they won and we were the CHEERING section - you have to know Rick to understand that :) :), and we had "donuts at dawn" with Clayton at his school. We also got to spend some time with friends.

We came back to South Dakota and had 3 inches of rain in our gauge. WONDERFUL!! Of course, that meant the lawn needed mowing - but that was OK. Our garden didn't do too good. We must have had a hard frost while we were gone (and we just HAD to get our garden in before we left!). So --- we have to start over with the tomatoes......everything else survived....oh yeah my little flower starts died too.

Back to JDC last night. The boys asked about our trip and sang beautifully..... Jeremy - who is changing before our eyes - wrote on his prayer request - "I see love in me and in you -- see me"
Jeremy can't read (at 15) and his home life is VERY sad. But we are encouraged by what we are seeing take place in Jeremy -- PRAISE GOD!! Several of the boys were released and we hope and pray that they will be able to resist the temptations that will hit them. Dana has to "stay out of trouble" for 90 days and then he hopes to join the Job Corp. Would you please pray for him! He too is such a nice young man -- living in such a bad environment. Now - what about the girls??!! Well - for some reason we just haven't connected with them - is it that they don't trust us yet???? We don't know. The boys did the motions to our verse last night --- the girls just looked at us like we were looney! So pray for them also.....and pray for us that we can some how connect with them.

Thank you so much for the prayers that are lifted on our behalf! It is only through prayer that we are able to do what we do.....and God makes the burden light!!!

With thanks and love to all of you. Gary and Barb

p.s. (post script)

This is a photo of Garys' bridge. So now you know what we are talking about in the previous update. A 5 gallon pail will hang from the hook ....the pail weighs about 2.8 lbs. ...and then we will add water slowly until the bridge destructs. Should prove to be interesting.

later............ G & B

Last Release Time for the year --- and a Praise

We had our last Release Time today. Our lesson was on Jesus Ascension into Heaven. The verse was I John 2:28....continue in Him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. Last week we had 6 pray to receive Christ and today we had 2. We haven't been giving the invitation each week......and so now after hearing about Jesus all year ---- we felt the need to present it to them. These were kids that were new this year - so it was thrilling to see them accept Christ - and - to see that the ones who did it previously - remembered it!! :)

We had a meeting this past Saturday --- a planning session for Prairie Light Youth Camp. We are making some changes this year.....some out of necessity. With gas at $4.00 or more a gallon and a shortage of buses available - we need to make some cuts. We will be focusing more on the Lakeview School (Release Time) kids and the ones who have faithfully attended camp each year.

The church basement has gotten another repair job almost finished. The walls in the kitchen area were in real bad shape. Those walls were removed and now new drywall (it is called sheet rock out here) has been put up. Vern Walkling and his sons, Matthew and Dakota, were the drywall installers and it is looking good!! A little more "mud" and sanding and then some paint and.......soon we will have the carpet laid. It WILL be finished before camp starts!!! :) :) It is such a wonderful fix....the whole downstairs looks grand!!!!

The Juvenile Detention Center continues to be a joy. There is one young man there right now whose attitude has taken a total turn around. He used to be so negative......now he is full of smiles - like all the time! His prayer requests usually said "hello god I do not no you". Now we saw him write on the poster board we use in the room "we say HI love God". We know that God is at work in his heart. We have also gotten a couple of letters from one of the gals who used to be in the JDC....now in a placement in another town. This is what she added as a p.s. in her last letter ... "The first duty of love is to listen." I guess that is something that we can all remember and ponder....

As to ranch life......many of the herds are out to pasture - or will be soon, although the grass is not very good yet. We need rain badly, and it seems that we watch the heavy clouds go past us. We helped move Dwight's (my cousin) herd this past Tuesday. When the cows and calves can't find each other - they panic! and figure the other one is back there where I last saw her. Well, we lost one cow and 2 calves.......they can hardly move anymore - so tired from this long walk without mama/baby.....and then they can high tail it in the wrong direction literally with their tail held high and running faster than the horse. So it was----but we did make it and then sat on the hill side watching as they SLOWLY paired up. We haven't heard whether or not anymore found their way back thru the fence and the 4 miles to "home".....hope not!

We have one more item to take care of before we head for Michigan. The 7-8th graders (Release Time) were building a bridge out of thin wooden sticks (1/8 inch strips). . . . and Friday we will be going to school to see how much weight they can hold before they destruct. We have 3 bridges to test (they worked on them in pairs) so it won't take too long --- and the teacher gave us permission to come and have a little fun with it.

About supper time here --- so I better get busy!!!

See you soon!
Gary and Barb

A cowboy husband

This is the newest addition to our "herd". We now have one cow, one yearling heifer, and one newborn heifer. Moving right along with our "ranch". Ha :)

We started out the day with moving pairs for my cousin Dwight. It was actually hot this morning. But this afternoon for the branding at the Vander Wey ranch it turned cold and windy. But that didn't dampen the spirits. It was so much fun watching Gary drag some calves out for branding. It was totally different --- getting on a "not too cooperative horse" and trying for a real calf. The saw horses were much more cooperative - but he did accomplish what he set out to do. Hope the video is watchable. Otherwise, this snapshot is good. I was busy too...... busy with the camera - yes - but I also did all the "nose shots"....(should ask just what the proper term is for that). This afternoon we did a small portion of the Vander Wey herd and tomorrow we will finish with a much larger herd.
















Now ---- what is happening with Release Time and the JDC. We will only have 2 more weeks of Release Time. We just did the Easter story of Jesus great sacrifice.....and we will finish with the Ascension story. The kids listen so attentively and remember hearing the story last year and also at Prairie Light Youth Camp. So the message is getting to them.

There are about 20 kids at JDC right now, so we do the lesson twice. This past Thursday was great. You just can't figure the kids out. Lately the singing had really been poor. This time almost all the boys were singing - it was great. We had one girl pray to receive Christ - with Julie L. (as we did the next group Julie went with Chelsey and helped here accept Christ as her Savior). We will meet with another girl - Serena - on Sunday - she indicated that she also wanted to accept Christ into her heart. So once again we are encouraged.

We do have a prayer request. Riley --- a young man that has been in JDC for a very long time and most of the time spent in MAX. Riley has a temper that will flare up all of a sudden (never in our presence!). We weren't told what happened - only that it was "bad". Riley has been sent "away for 2 years" according to some of the other boys. We had been visiting with Riley on Sundays and he has such a good mind to memorize Bible verses. He could remember Psalm 34:1 - and recite it for 3 weeks in a row. We feel real bad that this has happened and yet it doesn't surprise us. We just hope that this new place (someone said the words "boot camp" ---?? we don't know that for sure)......will be able to help Riley!!! I'm rather doubtful that there will be any Christian influence there.....but we can hope!!

We will be back in Michigan around May 14 -- and stay for a little over a week. Looking forward to seeing our family again -- and good friends.

Love to all,
Gary and Barb

Winter is Back!!! :(

Last week on a beautiful sunny day we sat out on our back deck and watched wave after wave of Sandhill Cranes fly over. There were 1,000s of them. It looked as if they were gliding on the winds.......their wings were not flapping. We decided that they find air currents and air thermals (is that the right term???) Anyway, they would glide along and then begin to circle and rise up and up....we figured they had found a current that would take them back up to the higher altitudes.

The other day as I was driving to my cousin Dwight's ranch -- I suddenly spotted a flock of Black Birds....and along with them were some of the Yellow Headed Black Birds --- If you have never seem them you are missing out!! Bright yellow heads and the rest of their body is black. Again we are amazed at God's creativity!!!

This picture is kind of dark.....but you do get the picture.....winter came back!!!! This is our front door. A batch of the wet stuff fell off the door and onto the floor when the door was opened. They predicted right this time. We got about 5 to 7 inches of the white stuff overnight. But they were wrong about the wind. It is windy today but not the 60 mph that they talked about. As I am writing this - the sun is shining through some light clouds. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 40's . This was much needed moisture for the grasses and hay lands.....so no one is doing much complaining. Besides--- we know that SPRING will win!

We are doing Easter lessons for the Release Time group and at the Detention Center. Gary gave the lesson of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. This past Thursday went much better at the JDC. We seem to have the group split up in the right way. One young man really never filled out a prayer request sheet.....and then all of a sudden he started writing one out. We were very happy with that. He has been there a long time now. But then suddenly the requests stopped - he wouldn't even take a sheet of paper. We decided that one of the new (repeaters) boys was the cause. And now that we have separated the boys into 2 different groups --- he is once again filling out a prayer request. Could it be that they are in opposing gangs?!?!

We will be heading for Michigan mid May. My mother turns 90 this year and that is cause for a celebration party. Our son Rick will be back from the Netherlands also for a short visit....and then he will head to Thailand. He will be teaching at the Mahidol University just outside of Bangkok.

Thanks for your support and interest!!
Gary and Barb