The Neely Team

Have you ever considered that fellowship with other believers is sort-of like an energy swap? The power and joy of the Lord working in the lives of His children generates this unique, beautiful strength, and so when families get together for small periods of refreshment, and each individual has a focus first on Christ, and then on how he can bless those around him, the possibilities for the ways this energy can be exchanged are immeasurable!

What a privilege to have the Wilkes Team here for a few days!! The entire visit was truly one ginormous energy exchange (cross between ‘gigantic’ and ‘enormous’ ), as each individual shared freely from the abundant stores God has given. Gifts of testimony, praise, song, creativity, enthusiasm, and service were unrelentingly passed from person to person, until, in the end, we all came away completely filled up and ready to press on in life’s race.

One particular highlight for everyone on this visit was the night when our wonderful parents took the opportunity for a “double date,” leaving the other 19 of us at home alone. We declared it to be National Opposite Night, where we ate piping-hot soup from a cup with our least-trained hand, drank from bowls, and ate dessert on the kitchen floor. Ahhhh…. memories!

Another important feature of our days together was all the time we spent reading the Word, discussing what we’d read and many other aspects of the Christian life, singing the praise of our God, and coming before Him in prayer. These four elements helped to keep His goodness continually before our eyes, and kept us acknowledging Him in all of our ways. (Proverbs 3)

Thank you, once again, Wilkes Team, for being so willing to let the Lord use you to influence, encourage, and refresh us. May we all go forward with the mindset of being fountains of energy, bubbling with the joy of Jesus – so that others will be drawn to Him, and He gets the glory!

My, how time flies! We love keeping in touch with so many of you… leave a comment!

On the day after Thanksgiving, we had the chance to go on a family hunting trip in Georgia on some of our relatives’ land. When we got there, we sat in our 12-person, brown hunting-blind in the middle of the hay field. Daddy had a gun, and the rest of us watched for deer.  During the afternoon, we killed two deer and a pig!! When Daddy shot the gun, he was out of the van,  and for the second deer and the pig he propped his gun on one of the hay bales in the field. With the deer, he didn’t take any extra ammo, though, so he ran out! He signaled to Mommy and she went softly scooting toward him with more. The rest of us were still sitting in the van watching the whole thing, and we thought that she looked like a pioneer woman from years ago, helping her husband kill food for the family.  The deer ran away when he shot it, and it was almost dark, so we had to track it with flashlights. We had so much fun! Daddy, Mommy, and the little ones gutted it, while Amanda, Jessica, Kathryn, Victoria,and I walked in the dark back to where the pig was. We took a strap and tied it to the feet. Amanda, Kathryn, and Victoria had fun dragging it while Jessi took pictures and I guided them with the light.  When we got it there, we wrapped it in a plastic raincoat and put it in the back of the van. We had to put the two deer on top of the van!

I am glad Daddy had this wonderful idea! We enjoyed the trip getting there, and LOVED hunting together. (Gutting the deer and having a science experiment was fun too! ) I can’t wait to get to do it again!