SHIPSHEWANA FLEA MARKET

This past Tuesday the ladies all loaded up in the church van and took our annual trip to the Shipshewana flea market, in Shipshewana, IN. This was the third year in a row that we have gone. If you've never been there, you simply must plan a trip sometime! It was a blast. It is in the heart of Amish country. So cinnamon rolls, homemade bread, horse & buggies and bonnets were in abundance.

We arrived about 10:00 a.m. and the parking lot was already 3/4 full. We shopped for 2 hours and barely put a dent in the exhibits there.



Can you believe what some people will do for a buck? ROFLOL

We left there at Noon, and headed to the Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury, IN. It was only about an 8 mile drive.



This is my beautiful daughter in law, Monica (the one in the tent! LOL) and my beautiful daughter, Hannah. I was so sad that my oldest daughter, Sarah couldn't get off work for the trip.



This is our daughter Hannah with our Summer guest, Brittany.

The food at the Essenhaus is wonderful but WAY overpriced, especially if you get the family style. Granted, it is all you can eat. But ladies don't usually eat much more than a plate full. Since we didn't order family style, we could not make a reservation, so we had to put our name on the list and just wait for a table (even though there were 16 of us, they still wouldn't make a reservation for us). We had to wait nearly an hour on a table. It gave us a little time to shop around there though. We all decided the price was too high for family style, so we ordered off the menu. Many of us still got the broasted chicken that they are so famous for, but we didn't have to pay $15 for it! LOL Baptists do love to eat, but we're cheap! LOL Normally we go to the Blue Gate restaurant right there in town. It basically has the same food that the Essenhaus does, but it's closer.

We all decided that next year, we are going try eating right there at the market. There were 2 or 3 huge BBQ outfits there, selling BBQ chicken and it smelled heavenly!
We stayed until they close at 5 and then headed out. It was a HOT day to ride in a van with no AC. Before too long (20 min) the ladies were begging to stop for drinks. Well somehow that degraded into these HUGE waffle cones filled with ice cream! Now granted I DID stop at an ice cream shop, but it was to get "drinks!" *hehe*
We left there, happily licking our ice cream cones and got an hour down the road and realized that none of us had bought any water! So once again we pulled off to get drinks! LOL

On the way home we laughed and chatted and were already talking about the upcoming annual Ladies rafting trip. We go rafting on the Pere Marquette river in Baldwin all day and then we head to The Shack Bed & Breakfast to spend the night. That trip will probably take place in August sometime. July has filled up already!
Our rafting trip gets down right adventurous! Now, it's NOT an adventurous river, but the ladies in the rafts MAKE it so! They were already picking out their rafting buddies for the trip and breathing out warnings and threatenings! LOL It should be a fun time.
I told them I wasn't taking them rafting unless they all sign a contract stating that they promise to be NICE to their Pastor's wife this time (and NOT try to drown me!). LOL

We made it home about 8:00 p.m., tired from a busy day of WALKING and shopping.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship together.

JUNE MEETING - Lemons!

"WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS MAKE LEMONADE" was the theme for our Phebe Fellowship, for the month of June. We had a wonderful time of fellowship as we met at the home of Linda Syrjala, our lovely, hospitable, hostess for the month. She had the tables decorated so pretty with yellow tablecloths, napkins, cups & plastic ware, light green crepe paper and fresh lemons.


Here's my lonely Lemonade pie before all the other ladies got there with their goodies.
The ladies helped by providing light refreshments, sandwiches, chips, fresh veggies, lemon finger jello and Lemonade pie to go along with the theme. Then of course Lemonade to drink!

We had a good turnout, with about 30 ladies present for the evening. The evening started with a couple of fun filled games. Linda's cohort in crime was Bonnie Yager, who is always making people laugh. She is just a funny woman. To go along with our lemon theme, she came up with "Pass the lemon." A game where 2 lemons were passed going opposite directions, while a song played. When the music stopped, the 2 ladies holding the lemons, had to take a bite out of a lemon wedge and then pose to have their picture taken immediately. It was pretty funny. Some of them puckered up pretty nice for it....

While others did it without batting an eye!


After that, we were all given slips of paper and instructed to write a 4 line poem using the word lemon. Some of the poems turned out really cute and funny. Monica, our youth pastor's wife ended up writing a rhyming children's book about a child that hates lemons, and would rather take a beating than eat one! You can tell she's a Mom with 2 little ones, that's read one too many Dr. Seuss books! haha

We discussed upcoming events where the ladies help was needed. The Family camp out and Church picnic (June 13 - 14) and the Father's Day Brunch (June 15). (Both were a big success). Next on the upcoming events list is Summer camp - July 21 - 25. Many of the ladies like to come down to the camp and help out with the meals, which is a nice break for the preacher's wife.

Bonnie Yager did devotions on how to make "lemonade" when life hands you lemons.
It was so good, I asked her for a copy to share with others on our Phebe Fellowship blog.

MAKING LEMONADE OUT OF LEMONS

I Peter 1:6-8 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"

Once while sitting in the dentist chair I saw a wooden sign on the wall tha read: "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." In others words, make something good out of something not so good. I got to thinking about lemons. I know they are yellow, and I know they grow in CA, FL, and TX. I know they look better than they taste. What one of us would like to peel a lemon and eat it like we do an orange? I wouldn't! They are very sour! Just tasting one, we make an awful face. Well Christians sometimes turn sour and even bitter when things aren't going just the way they'd like them to. Sometimes our plans break down and our efforts fall short. When our plans falter, we need to make something good out of it. We need to keep on praising and lifting up Jesus. It's all about Him anyway. When a battle is raging, pour out your soul before the Lord. Don't get all upset and turn sour like the lemon. Romans 1:21 says: "Because that when they knew not God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
The Lord wants His children to be full of joy. Some grouchy Christians haven't known the joy of the Lord for a long time. They've become sour like the lemon. They go around sniffing all the time. "The board of deacons doesn't smell so good and that preacher doesn't smell just right either!" This person has wronged me and that person didn't do right by me. Sour as a lemon they've become. When someone has been bitter and sour for a long time, they pity themselves and think they are the only one who is of importance. II Cor. 3:18 says: "Let no man deceive himself, If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise."
Here is an article about a church that needs to make "lemonade!"
The typical Sunday morning in Most Miserable Baptist Church

Welcome to the most miserable Baptist church. I am Pastor Limited vision and I expect God to do nothing for us today. Our funeral-like choir will sing mournfully, my sermon will be dead and dry, and the ushers will wake you up for the dismissal. If you feel you are about to expire, please raise your hand. Last Sunday the EMT's had to check seventeen people before they found the one that had actually died. Be reminded that we have come to sit, soak and sour! We ask that you please do not smile, or speak or show any outward emotion, as this tends to take away from the reverence of our worship. We long ago quit being fishers of men and have become nothing more than keepers of our leaking aquarium.

Sour like lemons - I hope we don't become like that! We must remember who we believe in and serve. He is the Son of God, the Lamb of life, the Lily of the valley, the Bright and morning star, the Light of the world, the Altotgether lovely one, the Faithful witness, The Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and the end, The First and the last, The Great Creator, Savoiour, Redeemer, The First begotten of the dead, The Intercessor, he is the one who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own precious blood. Those who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, will also be looking and longing for His return. They will be rejoicing with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." No matter how difficult the present circumstances may be.

How can Christians turn sour and bitter when they serve such a great Lord? Discouragement comes when the circumstances seem to outweigh the situation we are in. Remember our great God never made a duck that He didn't provide a pond for. He never produced a pig that He didn't provide a mud hole for. He never called a preacher that He didn't also provide a place for him to serve. We must strive to make lemonade out of the times life gives us lemons. We should always be kind and loving. Kind words are the brightest flowers of earths existence. They make a paradise of the humblest home. Use kind words especially around the family fireside. They are jewels beyond price and more precious to heal the wounded heart and make the weighed down spirit more glad, than all the other blessings the world can give.

When life is giving you lemons, don't go sour and forget what God has done for you. Here's some ways to make something good out of it and make lemonade:

1. Smile
2. Call someone who's lonely
3. Put a love note on the refrigerator for someone
4. Send out a thinking of you card
5. Take time to play with a child
6. Give someone a warm hug
7. Take time for someone each day
8. Let someone in line ahead of you
9. Do a good deed anonymously each day
10. Always be ready to forgive
11. Take Grandpa and Grandma out for dinner
12. Always be ready to say "I'm sorry
13. Pray often for others
14. Extend hospitality to a new neighbor
15. If someone is sick, volunteer your services
16. Call someone you haven't talked to in a long time
17. Do something nice for your mail carrier
18. Take an old friend to lunch
19. Call your Pastor or his wife and ask if there is anything you can do for them today
20. Offer to babysit for a young couple so they can have some time alone

We ended our evening with a sweet time of prayer for our missionaries.
Then Linda sent us all home with a lemon drop and a smile! THANKS Linda!

The July meeting (July 8) will be hosted by our youth pastor's wife, Monica Tharp. I heard a rumor that she is doing an Italian theme. I'll post more about that one later.

May meeting - Seeds of Kindness

What a blessing our Phebe Fellowship was for the month of May. Our theme was "Seeds of Kindness." We began the evening by planting flowers outside the church in the big flower box.

It's easy to see who the "real" workers are here! Darlene! haha

The flower box filled in quite nicely and I know it will only get prettier as the Summer comes along.


After we planted flowers and got cleaned up, we moved inside for the fellowship time. Everything revolved around flowers and it was so cute. Our hostesses for the month were Carmen Iseminger and Amanda Dykstra. They decorated the tables with pretty yellow, Spring flowers, and different gardening items like gloves, trowels, rakes, and cute little hand painted watering cans. Then they accented that w/ packets of flower seeds.

Several ladies helped provide the refreshments of sandwiches and fresh fruit . Then Amanda made up a "dirt cake" in a clay flower pot. It was kind of comical, all the ladies passed right on by it, because they thought it was part of the decorations!


They kind of "tag teamed" the devotions. Using the letters in the word FLOWER, they gave a word and Scripture verse for each letter.

F - Friendship - Proverbs 17:17
L - Love - Galatians 5:14-15
O - Others - I Corinthians 13:2
W - Wisdom - Proverbs 4:7
E - Everlasting - Jeremiah 31:3
R - Rejoice - Proverbs 5:18

They did an excellent job on the devotion and I know it really spoke to my heart.

When they started the game time I was all gung ho, trying to be upbeat so everybody would join in. But we all ended up with our mouths STUFFED w/ large marshmallows, and attempting to say the word: Crysanthemum! I had to stop at 5! But one of the young ladies was able to accomplish it with 7 of them in her mouth!

Then we played a quick game of the Price is Right and I almost ended up at the end as one of the original players on contestant row! But thankfully, I pulled off a decent guess the last time around! I won a pretty new pair of gardening gloves for my effort too! I'll be putting those to good use here in the next several weeks as I work on my own flower pots and plantings in the yard.

I followed up the games with a few announcements and reminders. The next thing on the agenda is our Mother Daughter banquet on May 24. We will be joining the ladies at Calvary Baptist church in Gobles, MI for that event. I have been asked to speak and bring any ladies that would like to come along. The theme is Friendship dipped in love.

Then as soon as June rolls in we will finish up plans for our Family camp out and SS picnic on June 13-14. That is always a lot of fun! Everybody brings their camper or their tent or they stay in one of the bunk houses available at the little Bible camp we use. We get together around the campfire and roast weenies and munch on S'mores and just enjoy sweet fellowship together. The next morning everyone hovers around the coffee pot and the men gather around the huge roaster and watch Pastor baste the hog. Truthfully, I think most of them are just waiting for a snitch of that slow roasted pork! That is always such a fun weekend for everyone.

The following day - June 15 is Father's day and we'll host the Father's day brunch for the men again this year. What a yummy treat that is for them! I know some of our ladies that are already trying to get ALL their children to attend church that day and stay for the dinner w/ their fathers.

We ended our evening with a sweet time of prayer for our missionaries. Everyone said their Good nights and headed home.

The June Phebe Fellowship will be "When Life Gives you Lemons." This theme will revolve around making the most of our circumstances and I'm sure it will be a tremendous encouragement to those that attend.

Phebe Fellowship - Spring meeting

I'm so excited to have our Phebe Fellowship underway again for the year! We take the Winter off here in cold and snowy Michigan! Yes, we're big chickens! Our poor ladies don't like to drive on the snowy, icy roads in the dark and I don't blame them. Our first meeting of the year was in April and we hosted a baby shower for the Levine family - they are from our home church and are missionaries on deputation to Tibet. They just had a sweet baby girl - Abigail Noel. The Levines weren't able to be here for the shower since they are finishing up missionary training school in TX. But the ladies brought in some really cute things for the baby and we had fun oohing and aaahing over them and then wrapping them. We had close to 30 ladies present for the first meeting and we played some funny games! I felt sorry for the poor ladies that volunteered in good sport and then had to end up eating a COLD Jr size jar of chicken & rice! Poor Jane's taste buds will never be the same!


Then we played a hilarious balloon game where you had to pair up with another lady and try to pop a balloon using only your behinds! I think there are pictures of that game too, but they are too scary to post! It was sure awful funny though!
After that game, surprisingly enough we actually had more volunteers for the next game of one handed baby diapering and dressing! They did it quite swiftly too!
















The ladies had a great time and really got involved in lending a hand with the food. I had several helpers that brought in yummy sandwiches, tasty salads and tempting desserts. Carmen brought cream cheese filled strawberries! My soul were they ever good! Amy brought a beautiful looking chocolate trifle! I gained 5 lbs just looking at the dessert table!

We were able to take a few minutes to look at our Spring / summer calendar and talk about some of the areas where help will be needed. We're joining with a sister church on May 24th for our Mother - Daughter banquet this year. That should be fun. The theme is "Friendship dipped in Love" and I have been asked to be the speaker for that. The theme is going to revolve around chocolate! YUMMO!

After that we have our Family camp out and SS picnic on June 13 & 14 (my Birthday!) at a nice Bible camp not too far from here. Then the very next day - Father's day - June 15 we will be hosting our annual Father's day Brunch! The men LOVE this event! We lavish them with pancakes - cooked by me, their loving pastor's wife! :) sausage, breakfast casserole, hashbrown casserole, ham, bacon, chicken wings, biscuits, sausage gravy, bacon gravy, cinnamon rolls, muffins, coffee cake, etc.... the list goes on and on. Our ladies really spoil the men that day.

Since this was our Spring meeting, I gave devotions on having a "Spring in our step" and shared some ways that we could do that. We ended the night with a sweet time of prayer for our missionaries.

I love hearing our ladies laugh and fellowship together. I think it's healthy for a church family to do that. They were excited about the meetings starting back up and were already talking about the May fellowship meeting - "Seeds of Kindness." That one will be a flower theme, since we'll be planting flowers all around the church that night.