My family and I have been attending Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Simpsonville for about a year or so now. I'll admit that I wasn't a happy camper to begin with....after being at Iglesia Bautista de la Fe all my life I really didn't want to leave. But God knows best and I just have to share with y'all what a blessing it has been for me and how much I have grown spiritually through the teaching we are receiving. Not only have I been encouraged-- and stretched-- spiritually but I've also been able to see first hand God's work in my family. My sweet brother, David, came to a personal, saving knowledge of God a couple months ago and was baptized a few weeks ago and became a member of the church 2 weeks ago! It has been such a blessing to see God working in his life and see him striving to live a life to glorify His Lord and Savior.
Love you, kiddo! Can't wait to see how God continues to mold and use you!!!
I am pleased to report that I finally have photos from the 4th of July and can now share our fun day with y'all. This year our church hosted the 4th at the Greene Acres event barn, owned by our dear friends, the Greene family. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and games, and TONS of food--including a roasted half hog : ).
About a week before we headed out to "the barn" to make some decorations and help sweet Charity with prep work.
Charity is a WONDERFUL coordinator and party planner and it was a real joy to help her out.
Isn't it just lovely?!?!?!?!
Charity asked me to do her a special favor and write out the Declaration of Independence on a large chalkboard to hang up in the barn. I quickly agreed and then had to sit and think "how in the world am I going to do this????." Nonetheless I tackled the daunting task, deciding to write it out as an exact replica of the real document.
And here it is!!! 3 days of steady work, lots of erasing and redoing I finally completed this enlarged copy of our Declaration of Independence. It was a HUGE--and somewhat daunting--task but it was so much fun to stretch myself and learn some perseverance.
And here's how it looked hanging up : )
Now if y'all ever need to host a large function, Charity is the person to go to. She is so talented! Her decorations were so cute and she was so organized. She definitely knows how to throw a party : )
Well now that y'all have seen the preliminaries let's move on to the actual 4th. Seth and Trevor were p at 3 AM to begin roasting the hog and were going at it all day!! Thank you, guys! It was DELICIOUS!!! We all began to arrive around 2 PM and spent time playing games, wading in the creek and catching up with friends before the meal.
Playing water balloon toss.
Sweet girls : )
Having fun with the piñata.
About 5ish we all headed in to feast on delicious, tender barbecue and all the fixin's that go with it--boy, oh boy, was it good!!! The best pork and barbecue sauce I have ever eaten!!! I'm getting hungry just writing about it : )
We also had a good ol' fashioned pie contest with quite a few pies entered.
Here's my pie, an All-American Berry Pie
Our pie judge!
Elizabeth
After dinner we all prepared for a patriotic program, with lots of music and even a short play.
Reading the Declaration of Independence
"Mamie"
"George Washington"
and "Betsy Ross"
Haviland, David and I singing "Patriot's Honor"
The girls singing "Turn the Tide"
We had LOTS of other music but I haven't uploaded them to youtube yet so I can't post them here but I think you get the idea. All in all we had a wonderful time of fellowship as we celebrated the Independence of this great US of A.
I have a 4th of July blog post in the works -- but am still waiting for some pictures to add to it so I am afraid it will be a little while longer before I get around to posting it. In the meantime I wanted to share what I was up to last week. Franky and his family have been down for a couple weeks and I got to spend some wonderful time with all the li'l chillens.
Yours truly and little baby Cameron--although he isn't really a baby anymore!!!
The whole clan -- aren't they just precious?!?!?!
It's crazy how fast time flies! These boys have gotten so BIG!! They make me feel old lol. I love them so much and pray that God would preserve them and bring them to a saving knowledge of Himself at an early age.
Our neighbors were out of town for the week and very kindly left us free access to their pool so we packed up the whole crowd and headed over to their house for some water fun.
With as many kids as there are in our family we had a very full pool : )
All my precious nephews and my li'l niece - - an all us kids as well.
Today I want to share a song that I love to play on the piano. I love soft, pretty, instrumental music -- preferably in minor keys lol. I hope you enjoy this peaceful song today.
For those of y'all who know me, you already know that I am a die hard Southerner. I'm "Southern raised and Southern bred, and when I die I'll be Southern dead." Now please, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the USA - our beloved UNITED states. However, I firmly believe that history should NOT be re-written to fit the politically-correct agendas of our current government. As I've written on my historical blog: A Southern Gal's Heritage there are many lies, rumors, and misconceptions surrounding the true fact of the Civil War and the South in general. Personally I'm tired of being considered a radical, conservative, racist simply because of my Christian beliefs and my stand on politics. Nonetheless, I'm willing to undergo this type of slander because I am not willing to compromise. When SC Governor Nikki Haley announced the move to remove the Confederate battle flag from State grounds I was livid!!! (OK y'all that is an understatement- I was beyond livid, as my family could tell you.)
Why is this such a big deal?? Well first, because the Rebel flag is NOT a symbol of racism. The Southern Cross has long held a strong Christian significance and symbolism and if people would stop condemning it long enough to actually study it's origins they could actually be enlightened. For more information on the flag please read my post here.
Second, this is a big deal because this flag is part of our culture and heritage. Removing the flag is to deny part of our history (granted most people don't know the true history of the South, but still.) As Southerners, and more importantly as Christians, we should be proud of the rich heritage our battle flag represents. Our forefathers fought for honor and right in the Civil War and we should be rising up to honor the Godly heroes, such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson who fought to defend not slavery but the biblical convictions of most Southern states. Dear readers, we must stand up and fight against the removal of our battle flag! If we allow the government to dictate what symbols we are allowed to fly (or wear) in this matter it will not be long before the government is taking complete control of our lives and taking away our freedoms. If they ban the Southern flag now, what's to stop them from banning the US flag later on??? After all, we don't want to offend people, right? We already have the government over stepping its bounds and overriding the sovereignty of the states in legalizing homosexual marriage! As Thomas Jefferson so aptly said in the Declaration of Independence "...it is our right, it is our duty to overthrow such government." We must stand up and defend! We need less people that are politically-correct in government and more people that are Biblically-correct in our government. I love my country and pray that God would "turn the tide" in our Nation and bring us back to Him.
