I haven’t posted in so long, I’ve almost forgotten what you all know and what I need to tell you. Thanks goes to Bianca for keeping you informed.

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Do you know that I’m working on my last week of school? I’m so excited to be done! I feel like a bird in a cage and I’m banging against the edge of my cage. Like I’ve said so many times, I do enjoy school but the prospect of being done just tugs me.

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Graduation Dress Fabric!

Do you know that our possession date got moved 15 days? No, it’s not 15 days later, April 15 is the day we are planning on being possession of our long-awaited acreage! We praise the Lord for not only giving us an acreage but also for taking care of the details.

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Our Home-to-Be!

Do you know that we are planning on going to Oklahoma to visit Mama’s family? I guess I can count it as my graduation trip because we’re leaving a few days after I’m planning on writing my last tests.

I don’t know if you can imagine how happy I feel. Life is good but I feel like I’m entering into a new stage of life that’s gonna be extremely good. Sometimes I wonder how long such a happy time can last.

I have a 3-year diary and reading about last year this time, I don’t wish that time back. God has been SO good to us! He healed Mama totally and given normal life back to her. Back then, we didn’t know if such a happy time like this would ever be a possibility for us.

Our Big Red Barn!
Our Big Red Barn!

My Attestation of God’s Mercy

(I had to write an essay as a school project. Since my siblings and I started going to instruction class, I realized that not many people had heard my testimony. I -decided to make this essay do double-duty)
I thank the Lord for allowing me to grow up in a Godly, Christian home. From the time I was quite young, I knew I wanted to be a Christian and that I wanted to be a real one.
I committed my life to Christ at a young age. I remember vividly how I told God that I would die for Him: it was the epitome of surrender to me. The next few days were full of peace and joy. At first, I thought that now I was a Christian but Satan convinced me that what I had done wasn’t good enough. I needed to realize that I was a huge sinner before I could become a child of God. So I decided to wait for God to show me what a great sinner I was. Needless to say, I lost my peace and joy.
As a very conscientious person, keeping my conscience clear is a very important thing to me. I couldn’t see that I was a sinner because, after all, I had confessed all my sins. I blamed God for my not being saved and pleaded with Him to make me realize how bad I was. Sometimes I felt like just purposely sinning so that I would really know I was a sinner.
Because I didn’t want to look back with remorse one day, I decided to live my life in the character of a Christian. Sometimes I felt conscience stricken for being such a hypocrite but I could not resign myself to doing any other. Mama and Daddy encouraged me to keep my conscience unsullied and to do the next right thing. I clung to this and hoped for the best. Mama gave me a verse which has become one of my favourites. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phillippians 1:6)
As time went on, I got pretty used to ‘living as a Christian without being one’ but I hated revival meetings and such. I was sure determined that I did not want ‘to get saved’ on ‘high emotions’ and I knew that if I responded to an altar call, that would be all it would be. They always had me dubious and uneasy, and yet, mysteriously, I wasn’t really afraid of death.
Through our family devotions, I realized that salvation is way much more of a process than an experience. Although the experience is important (you can’t be a Christian without a starting point), salvation is really a life-long affair. I realized that some people are blessed with an obvious, dramatic experience that they can look back on, but that I was not one of those. Every salvation has a starting point and I believe mine was when I gave my life to Christ. Although this was not what I had expected, it came to me so gradually that I was able to get used to each new facet of it as it came. Once I accepted it, I also discovered the blessing. Those who had this dramatic experience have the temptation to say, “Oh yes, I got saved way back in —-. Now that I’m saved, I can live the way I want because I have that experience to prove that I’m a Christian.” Am I saying that those who don’t have dramatic experiences will not have this temptation? Absolutely ‘Not!’ In fact, from my observation, an obvious experience is a big blessing because doubt doesn’t have such a strong hold in your life. The blessing of not having that such a grand experience is that Ito realize more the importance of a relationship with God. I must spend time with Him and be obedient to His Word in order for Him to continue working in my life.
The climax of my Christian life came, ironically, during a series of revival meetings. One of Brother John Loewen’s last messages was about spending time with God. Although I don’t remember very much of the message, I remember being challenged me to a deeper relationship with God.
As I pursued a deeper relationship with God, I was astounded! God actually spoke to me through His Word! This had never happened before! I also felt fed after having devotions and I was able to recall it throughout the day. I could actually see spiritual progress. I was amazed! I now realize later was that God had been there all the time, waiting for me. As soon as I gave Him a chance, by spending time with Him, He came to me and spoke to me.
Another big confirmation for me came through a message by my Uncle Adolf. He preached on the verse, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:16) I had felt the Spirit witnessing to my spirit. This was infallible proof that I was a Christian! I was overwhelmed by the mercy of God. All those years that I feel were wasted, He never let me down. He faithfully did His part and waited for me to do mine.
God is still working in my life and will be till the day I die but I am overjoyed with the assurance of salvation and that I have a heavenly Father so faithful and so merciful. My heart’s desire is to serve Him and do His will because after all, my life is His.

Yesenia

Cousins Photo Shoot

Last Sunday, my sister and cousins had a delightful time taking pictures. The girls were very patient with me and stuck at it even if it started to rain. But who wouldn’t be if they had a big yellow umbrella:) Sadly, the pictures including it did not turn out very well, but the girls had fun playing with it.

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Natalia and Elfrieda

 

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Of course we had to include Brooklyn, Natalia’s sister. Isn’t she so cute?

 

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Aren’t they sweet?

 

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A happy ending.

IMG_8309 -Bianca-

 

 

 

 

Last Summer

While sorting pictures some time ago, I came across some really nice ones, but realized that they had never been posted. So I decided to put them on our blog despite the fact that they were taken last summer.

This photo shoot was taken with our cousins when they were staying at out house. We had a really good time.

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Getting ready

 

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Abigail and Janaya, sisters

 

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I forgot it could be that green!

 

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Our sweet Elfrieda

 

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This is not a great picture, but I thought it was kinda neat.

 

 

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Dear Danielle

 

 

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Can’t you just see the connection?

 

 

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This is my favorite.

 

 

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This looks more like a painting, but I think I like it.

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IMG_0869Janaya. Isn’t she so cute?

-Bianca

 

“Spring” Joy

Okay, so it isn’t spring. But it feels like it and we’ve been enjoying it. I had a blast taking pictures and here are some of them. Actually, there are more than just some. My siblings are such good posers and are fun to work with.IMG_4090

Samuel: our dam builder.

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Not his regular occupation but…

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Doesn’t she have the sweetest smile?

A few days later…

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Our cute little brother

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This is what Elfrieda does every chance she gets.

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Leandro dosen’t seem so enthused about this hug.

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Having fun, mud and all. (I’m wondering if they aren’t giving the photographer a thumbs up. 🙂 Yesenia)

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Don’t you just love his expression?

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Two friends

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Notice the acreage in the far background? That is the acreage we bought and the lane the children are on is the only way there. (In other words, it’s almost ours ;-))

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Back into town, back home.

-Bianca

P.S. By the time this post was published, we had a layer of snow again.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

When I tried thinking of a title for this blog post, a lot of things came to my mind. “Glory to His Name”,  “Praise the Lord!”, etc. But the one that fit best was simply, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness!”, and it’s the one I chose. I started our blog, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” as a place to share, not only the things that happened in our family, but as a place to share how faithful God is to our family.

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Back when I started the blog, we were already dreaming about an acreage. Those of you who know us well (and even those who don’t know us quite so well), will know how many acreages we have looked at in the past 2-3 years. You will also know how many times we were disappointed when things fell through. Sometimes the doors were all closed. Sometimes, there was only one door shut. Usually, that door was the fact that our house just would not sell! We tried, every different way. And we always prayed. Every evening, praying together as a family, more than once, “And please sell our house so that we can move to an acreage.” Sometimes it was ‘an’ acreage and many times it was ‘the’ acreage. Lately it was ‘Kelly and Donna’s acreage’. This place is located just a half mile from our current residence. We live a block and a half from the outside of town and if we continue down our street, make a small jug to the left, and keep on going, we drive right onto the yard. A place in the country. Although the house is a bit smaller than we would have liked, it is newly renovated. The yard is our dream. A shop for Samuel’s woodworking. A big old red barn for animals (and photography :-). A huge lawn to play on. Trees to climb. A garden to grow things in. Corrals to raise animals. What more could we wish?

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Daddy and Kelly are friends and last spring, I think it was, Kelly offered us their place. We were ecstatic! It was the dream place! But when we heard the price, we realized it was probably an impossibility. Especially if our house wouldn’t sell. We dreamt about other places and even tried to buy them. But when they didn’t work out, our thoughts went back to “Kelly and Donna’s acreage”. They would go on trips and ask us to do their chores. I don’t know if they planned it this way or not, but every time we went there, our dreams were stirred up again and our ties with the place, grew. We looked at the house late summer/early fall. Since we were still not done with our basement renovation, we couldn’t put our house up for sale but neither could we buy the place without selling our house first. We committed it to God in prayer again. “God, if you want us to buy Kelly and Donna’s place, please sell our house.”

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Around 2 1/2 weeks ago, we finished our renovation! Daddy put up the for sale sign and we waited. We got one call. Then on Friday evening, we noticed somebody was writing down the number. Even though we’d been disappointed so many times, our hopes couldn’t help but nudge their way in. Next thing we knew, they were at the door. Could they just have a look at the house? We had just cleaned the house but our laundry was on the table and supper was in the making. But why not? We showed them around. They just loved it! The lady was planning out the rooms and exclaiming about everything. This had never happened before! She even told us that every time they had driven past, she had told her husband that if this place would ever come up for sale, they wanted to buy it. (Obviously they haven’t lived in town for very long. :-)) She loves our big windows up front especially. Daddy wasn’t home so, before they left, they said they would ‘reserve’ it and talk to Daddy the next day. I was so excited!

The next day was Saturday and I, with my cousins and some youth, went to Hidden Valley to snowboard. That is another story in itself. Putting it simply, if my last run hadn’t been so very fun and had such a humorous ending, I would not have enjoyed the day that much. My legs hurt so bad!

On Monday, we agreed on a price and got the paperwork rolling. We had signed a contract for the acreage a while back so as far as we know now, our house is sold, and the acreage is ours! Things happened so fast, and went so smoothly, we just know that God sold our house and helped us buy the acreage! Great is His faithfulness! Now our days are filled with dreaming and waiting. May 1st (possession date) seems such a long ways away! Seed catalogs become quite a bit more interesting and school days are counted to make sure we’ll be done by the time we move.

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Talking about school, rejoice with me. I was planning to finish school by the end of March. But, I had so many Physical Education hours that I still had to finish that I didn’t know if it would work. I prayed about it but I couldn’t seem to get through. And doing almost an hour a day! I hoped not. Then I remembered that I had done quite a bit of painting this summer. I asked if I could count some of those hours and found out I could. Yesterday evening, I added them up and guess what? The amount I can count and the amount I have left, corresponded almost exactly! Praise the Lord! No more worrying about that! And I can use that time to (write blog posts :-P) do more of my school.

This incident got me thinking. Are there more areas in my life where the solution is lying but a few inches from my fingertips? Am I worrying and stressing about something that is already solved? After all, these hours were just laying there and I knew I should ask about them but I didn’t get around to it. Instead, I forced myself out of bed and through exercise after exercise. And all the time, God is just waiting for me to take the time to use the solution He has already given me!

In Him,

Yesenia

P.S. As I edited this article, I realized how ironic this last paragraph is compared to the rest of the post. However, I decided to leave it as an example. First of all, of the Almighty’s sense of humour and secondly, that we can’t always predict how our prayers will be answered. One fact remains:

“Do the next right thing (the thing you know you need to do) and God will take care of the rest.”

No excuses…

No, at least I’m not planning to go on and on about excuses for not posting. To get to the point is my intent.

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Life has been busy and fun for us as a family. Because it’s the biggest thing on my mind these days, I’ll tell you right away: My cousin Joshua (may I add that he is like the older brother that I don’t have?) has asked for a girl’s hand in courtship, and she said, ‘Yes’! I’m so excited for them! Although I didn’t know who he had in mind, I knew he was going to ask a girl soon. And when I heard that it was Aggie, I knew it was the perfect match! They’re the only couple in our youth group right now so they ‘enjoy’ a fair amount of attention and teasing. We all hope that it’s the beginning of… (you fill in the rest)

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Speaking of the youth group, part of my busy-ness comes from our weekly practices for a Christmas program. I enjoy singing with a big group and practice has been the highlight of my school weeks. We are planning on presenting our program next Sunday, December 21st in the Cherry Coulee Gym here in Bow Island. Those of you in the area are welcome to come. The program starts at 6:00 p.m.

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Quite a number of our youth went to the Bible School that the church in Rexford, MT hosted. They came back inspired and changed. I didn’t go and once they got back, I was almost sorry I hadn’t gone. But I praise the Lord for the work He did and keep praying that it will keep going.

Christmas is definitely in the air even though our weather hasn’t been showing it. We enjoyed a few days of spring weather this past week but it all ended today in a perfect ‘Christmas-season’ snow fall.

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We’ve been keeping plenty busy this winter. We painted the basement of Horizon’s spec house and that led to trying to catch up with school and housework at home. We’re also preparing for Horizon’s Christmas supper with the employees. I really enjoyed my role as gift-buyer for the ladies involved. My sisters and I had a wonderful time in —- picking out the gifts. Once we got to the car, I realized that it had been running the whole time we were in the mall! One of my ‘slip-moments’ after piano lessons. 🙂

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I had to include a picture of our cute little ‘Skimittles’.

School and piano keeps me busy from dawn to dusk (and often further in this northland). I’m getting quite excited about graduating this spring. I can hardly imagine life without school! But the fact that we’re hoping to move to an acreage in spring as well, will definitely help keep me busy! We’re praying that our house would sell so that we could move to this beautiful place just down the road yet out of town. As we have found out very clearly, our house will not sell unless God wants it to. Therefore, we pray that our house would sell so that we can move.

“God will wreck your plans when He sees your plans are about to wreck you.”

  Besides country living, secretary work for Daddy and giving piano lessons should keep me just as busy as being a high school student. Through all this, my goal is the will of God. If He wants me to do something else, I want to be open and willing.

This goal is so easily lost when I’m so busy. The things of the Lord take second place and all I can focus on is getting another day of school done. But when I put my focus back on the long-term goal, I realize how sweet the fellowship with my Heavenly Father really is, and I wonder why I didn’t take the time for it, in spite of the busy-ness. A quote that Missie posted a while ago meant a lot to me.

“If you don’t have time to pray and read the scriptures you are busier than God ever intended for you to be.” 

Another one:

“Never forget that all we can really take out of this life is relationships. First with God, and then with people.”  -Dan Leetch-

(Check out Missie’s beautiful blog at missiedphotography.wordpress.com for these quotes and more on beautiful plaques.)

May God bless your Sunday,

In Him,

Yesenia

Snow!

Playing in the snow is always so much fun. The boys had made a sledding track, so we spent most of the day playing on it. I, who thought I didn’t play in the snow anymore, found it to be very enjoyable. So of course I had to take some pictures and share them with you.

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Leandro on his snow scooter.

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The beauty of snow. Only God could have thought of it.

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Elfrieda really enjoyed the snow-spiders.

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Our yard decoration.

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Trying to catch the snow.

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Aren’t they cute?

-Bianca