Fall leaves

Wow, the changing of the seasons is just awesome. God's color scheme is incredible. We are truly enjoying each day. Jacob, since he is experiencing the first fall he really remembers wanted to rake the leaves in his grandparents yard. Now my parents purposefully don't have leafy trees so that they don't have to rake. Jacob raked up the leaves that blew into the yard. It was something he had never done. He was SO excited, he got one grocery bag of leaves.

Missions Conference

The kids try to spin the top, they don't know you need a string...yet

David is so great with the children

Wow, Mr. Stilwell is spinning the top in his hand!

We are enjoying the missions conference here at Martinsville Baptist Tabernacle in Martinsville, IN. It began on Saturday and will end tomorrow (Wednesday). We have been in many different classrooms at the school and Sunday school classes. I attended a ladies missionary tea with an oriental theme. Tomorrow I speak at their ladies Bible study. David will preach tomorrow night. They are a VERY generous church to their missionaries. Since I am on the old laptop I can't upload the pictures so I will do that later. You will enjoy them. David uses a top from Peru to do an object lesson. The children (and adults) LOVE to watch him spin his top. I never tire of it after all these years.

Most Improved

The team around the fire. They were crazy and wild tonight! :)

Abigail and Mrs. Heusigner (the coach) when she received her award.

Abi shows off her plaque. Way to go girl!!

Surprises of surprises. This afternoon and evening the jr. high volleyball team had their party. They played games, had pizza, smores and awards. Each girl got a certificate and heard comments that their team mates wrote about them. That was fun. Then during the awards ceremony Abigail was given the plaque for most improved player. She was so surprised! The girls had voted for who they thought should have the award and they all chose Abi. We are very proud of her. We did she great improvement in her volleyball skills over the course of the season. She is disappointed she won't be able to continue playing next year. The team finished the year 12-2. Not bad!!

Soccer Guy

Here is Benjamin in his home uniform. He also took a picture of both of his uniform shirts. I really like the burgandy one, both are worn with white shorts and socks.

Bowling

The Stilwell bowling league

What an arm!
Great form
Oops, that ball threw Jacob too far down the lane and he went splat!
Nice!
Abi threw her whole body into it.

Thursday and Friday are fall break days at school here at Faith. We have done many things together as a family such as the dairy farm yesterday, in the previous post. Today we went bowling in the morning, fishing this afternoon and played a new table game this evening. We are loving being able to do things without a time table and without being rushed. The first bowling game wasn't too great for Jacob and Abigail so we had them put the gutter bumpers on so that there were no more gutter balls. It was a lot of fun. Fishing was VERY bad this afternoon. I was surprised to see my brother Chris at home when we arrived. He was helping my dad change his brakes.

Utterly Moovelous Good Time

If you haven't been to Fair Oaks Dairy you HAVE to go. It is an amazing place. Here they have 29,000 heifers that calve 80 calves a day! If a boy cow is born he is sold, they only have the girl ones :) My girls thought that was pretty cool!! They have 19,000 acres of land where they grown their own corn for their feed, the waste from the cows is processed into methane gas with which they power all their own buildings. Some waste is processed into fertilizer for the corn. Nothing goes to waste here. They milk 72 cows at one time on a round rotating table. Each cow (that is giving milk) is milk 3 times day so it is a 24 hour process. Each cow also has a computer chip in her collar with her number. When she gets on the milking wheel the computer checks out how she is doing. It shows how many steps she takes each day! If she is taking less steps than she normally does they take her out of the milking circle and check her health. If she is taking more steps than normal that means she is in heat. So cool! We watched them process some milk for bottling and also had some of their delicious cheese and ice cream. Yum! We saw 3 calves being born, awesome. They have lots of learning and hands on activites as well. Some play areas too. So...you can see we well enjoyed this place. It is $10/adult 13 and older. $7/child 2-12. It is just off I-65 N at exit 220.

XYZ means...

Xtra Years of Zest. This is the group of retired folks here at our church in Lafayette. They are a great group of people and we also enjoy our time with them. Of course they always bring such tasty foods to eat :) David took them on a trip to Peru and gave a short challenge. Thanks XYZers for the great time.

Yesterday

Yesterday (Sunday) we presented our Peru field report in our adult Bible fellowship, the Proclaimers) and also in that spanish ABF that we also attend on Sunday morning. It was a nice time. For lunch we joined the Svensons, McCails and Hornbrooks for lunch. It was a great, relaxing time. In the evening family time service we, I guess I should really say David, had 10 minutes to present Peru. It was a great time overall. He really encouraged the people to come and visit us. We love company. Hopefully we will see some fruits from those presentations. Beginning next Sunday we will be on the road for Wednesday and Sunday services. We won't really be "home" again until after Thanksgiving.

The Season is Over

The Jr High Volleyball season is now over. We are sad and glad at the same time. We have been running around like crazy to games and practices but at the same time we are disappointed. Disappointed that we don't get to do all that stuff anymore. We have enjoyed watching the girls play and, boy, have they improved!! They ended with an 8-2 record. Abi commented that they games always go way to fast. She has enjoyed playing so much. It has been good for her to get out of her comfort zone, play and make lots of friends. For those of you who don't know who Abigail is, she is number 4 in these pictures. Yep, the shortest one :) She did the bumping up so it could be set, she even learned to serve it over the net!