The Wilkes Team

Spending time with a parent or sibling is a time to never ever take for granted. I am realizing this more and more as the days go by, and hope for many more opportunities to spend time with my wonderful family members.

Recently, Dad asked me if I would like to go out with him and be his official secretary. He didn’t have to ask me twice: we quickly jumped into the car and went to one of his client’s house where we purposed to shine the light of Jesus. I appreciate Dad’s focus on meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of his clients.

After finishing up there, Dad surprised me with a trip to a putt-putt golf course. I love playing golf but haven’t played in years. We really enjoyed our time together as father and daughter. God drew our hearts closer to each other and closer to Him, as we spent that precious hour together.

Yes, playing golf is fun, but it wasn’t so much the activity as it was the building up of relationships between a father and daughter that was important. Thank you Daddy for giving of yourself to spend time with me. This will be remembered for years to come. I love you!

   

3 Comments » | posted in Family News

One of my many favorite traditions to do around Christmas time, is to go with my family and pick out our Christmas Tree. We usually go in the evening when all  the Christmas lights are on in the neighborhood and when the busy-ness of the day is past. This year we decided to get our tree at the wonderful store: Home Depot. Upon arriving, we invaded  the place in search of the best and loveliest Christmas Tree for the Wilkes team’s home.  Looking, seeking, peering, and trying to find a tree isn’t an easy task for a family of eleven . When someone would think they had the right one, we all would  gather around and inspect it, but none of them were quite right. What could be our problem?

  

Finally after looking at ten to fifteen trees and about  thirty minutes later the answer came. One of the employees came to the rescue. He seeing that we were in need of a tree, went to work on finding one. All of us stood back wondering if he would be able. To our amazement, he chose the best one for us out of the many long rows of trees. Cheers rang out as he showed us the perfect tree that would soon be in our living room. Quickly and happily we all piled back into the car with the Christmas tree and drove home.

9 Comments » | posted in Family News, Sunny-Side Up

In days gone by, when a farmer had a need for a new barn, friends and family from all around would rally together for an old fashion barn raising. The amount of work accomplished in so little time was remarkable as time was willingly sacrificed out of a desire to serve.

So..in the spirit of the good old barn raising days, our church family, last Thursday, had a wonderful opportunity to practice working as a body.  We came together for a work day at the Thrash family’s house.It started around 10:30 in the morning and went all day.     

  

  We were able to chop fire wood, landscape gardens, work on a shed, and clean the house.  The sticktuitivness I saw in each person as we worked was very much a blessing. Over the loud poundings of hammers and both electric and gas machines you could hear laughing, singing, and joyful voices everywhere. To name a few of the projects: the house cleaners cleaned 28 windows inside and out,

 

  

the wood choppers chopped 3 cords of wood, and all the footers for the Thrashes’ shed were dug out.

We all learned that we can work together very well even admist all the different giftings, abilities, and opinions .
  I know I could say this for each person that we are looking forward to many more days of working together.

7 Comments » | posted in Family News, Ministry Reports

Do you know what one of our family’s favorite sounds is? The cries, the coos, and the giggles of a baby.

Over these past ten days we had a dear, dear family from Texas come up to the  Northern Virginia area. We hadn’t seen this  family for over two years. How fun it was to have Team Southerland come to visit.  We enjoyed our time so much with all 1/2 a dozen of them, especially those babies . One thing that really encourages our family is their joy in serving Jesus. Its hard not to smile when they are around.

We enjoyed talking about what the Lord is doing in our families, playing army men wars, having entrepreneurial conversations, and of course holding little Joshua and baby Ezra.

The Bible says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for  brethren to dwell together in unity (Ps 133:1)!" This definantly was the case for our time with Team Southerland. Thank you Team Southerland for being an inspiration for joy!

10 Comments » | posted in Family News

I have been learning in science about fungus. It has so fascinated me that I would like to write about my experience.
Sometime fungus may seem pretty gross but instead of focusing on the bad part let’s look at the way it is formed and how it stays alive. God has made some species of fungi that produce up to five different kinds of spores. Spores are involved in reproduction and survival through unfavorable growth conditions.

I started studying about the Mushroom, since it is a fungus. The main parts of a mushroom plant are, the cap, the stalk, and the gills which hold the spores. I really enjoyed finding fungus and showing it to the family. One day this past month I was playing outside with my younger siblings and found a mushroom plant. It was living during the middle of winter. I was so excited and brought it to the house. The mushroom was pretty large. It was fun to find all the different parts that I had learned about, and then show everyone where the parts were located.
I am glad God created and formed even the ugly mushroom. An encouraging thought about the mushroom is how it endures through hard growing conditions and continues to send out spores to produce new life. When we, as Christians, endure hardness, God gives us testimonies that will encourage other believers to persevere.

8 Comments » | posted in Book Reports, Outdoor Adventures

Earlier this winter, Mom and I found a home made hot cocoa recipe. We tried it out on the family and there were oohs and ahhs over the delicious taste. After a snowy adventure or game of soccer in the cold outdoors, this recipe is one every one will definitely enjoy!

Homemade Hot Cocoa 

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1 cup of sugar

2/3 cup of cocoa

1/4 teaspoon of salt

8 cups of milk

2/3 cups of water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine the sugar, cocoa and salt in a large pan. Stir in milk and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and stir in extract. Serve in your favorite mugs with a few little marshmallows on top to finish it off. Yields: 10 servings (some of you may have to double it )

10 Comments » | posted in Recipes

 The Neely Team arrived at our house on a late Friday evening. It was such a blessing to have them here. Every time we’re with the Neely Team, I ‘m encouraged by their joyful servant spirits. They know how to make hard tasks a lot of fun! We took them to one of the famous hymn sings put on by the Hynes Family. It was a joyful time of singing and playing music to the Lord.

Whenever we get together with the Neelys, there is always music. One of our favorite things to do is gather around the piano and sing all together. We also had the joy of hearing a wonderful report on their recent family trip to Lithuania for mission work.

The Bible says that where two or three (or twenty-two) are gathered together in the Lord’s name, He is there (Matthew 18:20). The Lord was there and richly blessed our time.

8 Comments » | posted in Family News