KTCANADA

Friday, April 27, 2012

Spring in Kentucky

Life has kept up a frantic pace in our house and summer is approaching quickly! Here are a few pics of life in Kentucky at the moment. We are certainly blessed by our church and school friends.

Luke's class trip to Frankfort, KY

Inside the Capitol Building

Rub Abe's shoe for good luck!

sweet sisters

Megan's Classical Art Class

proud mommy :)

Ellie singing and playing at the SCA concert

Megan's butterfly drawing

Luke fishing with Hunter

watching U of L and UK NCAA game

Zoo day with many friends!

My dear friends from church

Spring Flowers- dogwoods

Saturday, April 14, 2012

A slight change in plans and MORE....

Well.... we have finally discovered the limit for course load, family life and ministry commitments. We're human and Keith is definitely not a super-human! Seminary school plans have changed for us as life has become intensely busy and Keith's schooling was suffering. We had figured that Graduation was within reach, but unfortunately he had to drop 2 courses to stay sane and keep his grades with the classes he kept. So... Keith will graduate in December 2012. A bit of a disappointment for Keith, but I am thankful for a husband who puts his family first and keeps truly important things in perspective. The Lord had really allowed these changes in our plans to be the best set of plans - God's plans!

Now- the exciting news in all of this is that Keith will be traveling to Iasi, Romania (pronounced Yosh) this summer with Training Leaders International to teach Romanian pastors a Hermeneutics course. (FYI- this means he will be teaching on Biblical Interpretation) The team he is going with will have 10 other members of pastors and seminary trained men, who will also teach this TLI curriculum to Romanian pastors through translators. The individual groups of Romanian pastors will hopefully be small enough so that Keith will be able to develop a relationship with them and he can benefit from learning about their years of ministry as well. TLI is an exciting ministry that uses seminary trained men to teach pastors in unreached parts of the world while having these foreign pastors impart "real-life" experiences to the TLI teachers.

Training Leaders International trains, equips and empowers local pastors who lack access to formal theological education by mentoring, preparing and sending U.S. seminary students to serve as teachers.

This 2012 Romanian team also has 3 women going who will be teaching on Biblical Womanhood, Life as a Pastor's Wife and Evangelism. I had originally planned to go with the group and teach on Biblical Parenting, but the trip was going to be too long to leave the kids :( Hopefully I will go next time!

TLI has encouraged Keith to recruit some prayer and financial support in this endeavor. If you feel lead to help us out with much needed PRAYER or financial assistance please contact us for the details. I will be putting a prayer letter together and Keith will hopefully give updates from Romania on the TLI website- so let me know if you want to receive these :)

Thank you all for your prayers and support over these past 3 years of Seminary schooling. It has been a time of intense growth for our whole family and we certainly are trusting the Lord for the next phase!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

One more year older for Meggy

This week we celebrated Megan turning twelve! One more year until we have 2 TEENS! Yikes :)

Keith and I are worn out after a really fun weekend celebrating- we now know that we cannot act like teenagers without consequences.... We need a week's worth of naps and many laps of running around Seneca Park to re-adjust to normal.
But it was so much fun to spend time with dear friends in Louisville and see Megan love every moment! We bought her a Kindle Touch so that she can read, read, read. Her friends bought her loads of duct tape- which she is rather thrilled with- and her grandmas just spoiled her with girl stuff :)

We are truly thankful for our sweet Meg and all that she means to our family- she is growing up so fast and changing all to quickly. We try to hug her as often as she'll let us and keep her growing in the Lord.

Here are a few pictures of this weekend- as you can see it is NOT winter here- not complaining at all!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

On the Home Stretch to Graduation!

As our family begins this new semester (Keith's last sememster before graduation) there are so many things up in the air for us! It is truly a time to grow in faith and trust the Lord with everything. Keith has a heavy course load this term so we are trying to batten down the hatches so to speak, and get things done one day at a time. Please pray for Keith as he leads our family, serves as an elder, leads our community group, studies hard, and (most importantly) as he seeks to glorify God in all he does! Thank you for praying for us!

So far this Kentucky winter has been the non-winter. In January there were 9 tornados that touched down in the area along with some stong winds. Now that February is here my rose bushes are beginning to bud not to mention our grass that never died and it now growing again! Today it looks as though the clouds sneezed with a light dusting of snow, but nothing major. I am paranoid about losing my roses so they are all under cover just in case. I'll take this kind of winter any year, but we could be in for a wild spring:)

Ellie and Luke are in the midst of basketball seasons and Megan has her Classical ART class to keep them all busy. Ellie won a tournament All Star award this past weekend- well done. I am making another quilt in my spare time (HA!) and keeping the house from spinning out of control. I have been thankful for the nice weather so that I can get out and exercise often. The most amazing thing of late is that Keith has started RUNNING!! Yes- running. He detests running and I have never been able to get him to like it, BUT he has a persuasive and persistent friend who has him running 4-6 miles twice a week. You read that right!!! CRAZY! Now I know that pigs can fly!

The month of February is going to be a full one, but we are truly excited to see the Lord work as He answers prayers and leads us! ONE DAY AT A TIME! Here are a few pictures from Christmas and this "winter."

love to you all :)

Merry Christmas kids!

Uncle Pete and the man with the pipe!

celebrating with Pete and Katie

May the Norse be with you!

cozy Meg

sharing Christmas with the grands via Skype!

Winter Dance

our gorgeous girl :)

Her handsome date!

Monday, January 23, 2012

New Link to Immanuel Baptist Church

Click on the link to the "Salvation by Grace Testimonies from NZ" January 22, 2012! Excellent to listen to :)

Immanuel Baptist Church Sermons

Sunday, January 1, 2012

2011 in Review :)

So as it turns out- I am a lousy blogger once my plate gets too full! I have been a stalwart over the years as I've sent out a yearly Christmas letter and family photo- this is the first year in a decade or more that there will be no letter to go with the family photos! I'm tired- and over the holidays I've decided to nap more- there you go- I'm human and old!

This blog entry is my "better late than never" attempt to catch y'alls up on our news and send out a letter of sorts.

2011 has been full of opportunities to grow in faith, knowledge of God's word and service to the body of Christ. Louisville has become our home in many ways and I cannot imagine how hard it will be to leave once Keith completes his schooling. We love our little Louisville house and the neighbours we have come to know. Our church has taught us more than seminary in many ways. The kids' school has been fantastic for causing the kids to learn how to study hard and apply themselves to the rigors of classical education. We have a lovely Gospel Community group that is becoming more and more like a family to us. The Lord has provided abundantly and we praise Him for His faithfulness to us.

Keith ALWAYS loves his classes and continues to excel. Although there have been many opportunities to remain humble- he has been asked on a few occasions if he is the prof:) He will have enough credits to graduate in 2012- we are still not sure whether that will be in May or December. He plans to apply to extend his schooling -Lord willing- for another year so that he can complete a ThM- which is like a second masters, but with more writing and PhD level classes. He wants to take more Greek and Hebrew exegesis classes- yes- he really does! Keith is also one of the pastors at our church and he thanks the Lord often for the men he serves with- he has learned so much from the guys! He had the privilege of performing his first baptism and wedding this fall as well.

Ellie just turned 14 yrs. and would love to grow taller than her mom- we don't think it will happen- unless I shrink:) She loves volleyball as much as her mom- which has been so fun. I helped coach her school team for the fall season and now she is playing basketball. Kentucky is ALL about basketball! We get a lovely music concert every morning from Ellie or one of the kids as they all still play the piano. I have them with the same teacher this year and she has pushed each of them - in a kind way- to love their music and play to the best of their ability! Ellie would read for 10 hours a day if we let her and has plowed through MANY books this year. We bought her a kindle for her birthday and that has opened the door for many free classical downloads- therefore more reading!

Megan will turn 12 in February- she keeps her siblings on track and in line! Meg has really matured this year and has become independent with most of her schooling- YAY! I love her sensitive spirit and witty sense of humor. She played volleyball on the middle school team and loved playing- a girl who knows a good sport:) Meg also has the reading bug and will get caught up in a book for WAY TOO LONG!!!! I don't know how I would manage this house without the girls' help!

Luke- the young man of the house has GROWN out of a pair of shoes every 3months this year. He is now into size 8 men's shoes. He has a crooked toe- that I feel awful about- because his feet grew so fast and I did not get him new shoes in time. I bought the 9 year old child size 12 pants and Keith informed me that they were too short- I had not washed them yet either! Good grief! I had a young man recently inform me that the eating trend and growth trend will get worse before it improves! Luke loves playing basketball and hockey- I am thankful he can burn off some steam and energy :) Luke has been incredibly blessed with some wonderful guy friends and a young newly married fellow who took Luke gigging (frogging in the dark) this summer. All the men ate deep fried frog legs... thanks to the mighty frog hunters :)

As for me I've loved teaching Sunday School for 5 year olds, assisting Keith with organizing our new Gospel Community Group, coaching volleyball, keeping up with the laundry, being a part time taxi driver, homeschooling, Seminary Wives classes, Women's ministry, and staying sane! I've kept up with some sewing projects while Keith studies in the evenings and I've been able to return to regular running!! I do miss working as a Pediatric PT and with Keith extending his schooling for another year it will be tough to retain my license. I am amazed at how the Lord has changed my heart toward working especially as I see how the Lord still uses my "work brain" in ministry opportunities.

Both Keith and I turned 40 this year! Oh my:) Keith celebrated in March with an "Older than Dirt" party and then he took me to Mexico in December for a WHOLE week! This was the first time we left the kids in 14 years- why on earth did we wait this long??? It was awesome! My parents came and looked after the troops - they were pretty tired after a week of homeschooling, piano and basketball games, BUT I think they would do it again:)

With 2012 coming fast we are ready for more learning and growing! We praise the Lord for saving us every day and giving us the grace to see our sins and then rely on Christ more.