Dear Me 20 Years Ago,

October 31st we held our first ever T.H.I.S. Carnival. T.h.i.s. is the name of our youth group, it stands for True Hope In Scripture. Our youth helped us put on a carnival for the community at our church. It was a huge hit! We had between 65 and 70 kids come and all of them heard the Gospel as they had to have their hand or face painted before they could get a pass to go play the games. Some of our Christian Youth in Action teens did the painting and they are trained to share the Gospel while painting using the colors of the paint to do it. They did a great job and we had a couple decisions that night. At the carnival we had games , inflatable games, free cotton candy, a cake walk and they each got a big bag of candy as they left. It was a great time and an opportunity to bring some light to a night that has much darkness. It is Todd and my conviction to try to do something to bring God glory on Halloween. We have heard of the great acts (and there are many!) of darkness that take place on that day and the night before and we want to see it be a day that Christians claim for Christ. There is a lot of evil(I am not referencing kids trick-or-treating, but acts of pure evil and satanic intent) that goes on and I am sure Satan just loves it but what a slap to the face when the Gospel gets shared with 70 people on that night. So hats off to all the churches and believers out there who instead of just shaking their heads at it, complaining about it or just thinking nothing of it, are instead shining Christ's light boldly on that night every year, or partaking in something that does so.

Here is our football and baseball players.

Lots of fun games, the youth did a great job!

Here is the 16 foot slide that had a long line all night.

Bath buddies, the "big" boys were pretty excited to have little brother join them.

This last weekend I went to visit my parents in Minnesota. We had a great time. My brother and his family were moving into an apartment so we were able to help with that. We got to visit with my grandparents before they left for the winter and we got to hang out with my parents which is always a treat. On fun thing we were able to do was go to the play "Grease" at the local high school. My second cousins had big roles in it and did a fantastic job. It was so fun to watch. We also got to see the first snow of the year as we woke up to white ground the morning we were leaving. The boys were super excited. Thankfully it snowed here Thursday morning so they got to play in it a little since we had to go and couldn't play in it that day.

Not a great picture but this is the play and both of my cousins are in the pic

Sweet times with Grandpa!

Saying goodbye to Great Grandpa and Grandma

Snow! Oh how I love it!