The Neely Team

By the time you’ve finished reading this post, you should be well-informed as to what we’ve been doing…. At least for a few days…. until we go off and do something else. Sometimes you just never know what we’ll do next…. in fact, sometimes we don’t even know what we’ll do next. Who knows, we may decide to take a trip to the moon!! (Well, that is a little “far out” – literally, and there aren’t any plans right now to do something that drastic…. but then again, you just never know… )

The Monday following Christmas, the Staddon family came for an all-too-short visit. It is hard to accurately put into words everything that happened. There’s an old saying that goes something like, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” so we’ll just show you the pictures.

Next on the schedule was a trip to Bainbridge, GA to visit Grandmama (Dad’s mom)  and “Uncle Fudge.” Long-time friends of the family, “Uncle” Bill and “Aunt” Peggy Chapman, who we hadn’t seen in three years, were also there.

We had been asked to sing in two churches down there, one pastored by one of Dad’s science teachers, and our aunt, uncle and cousin go to the other. Both services went really well, and we praise the Lord for the opportunities to minister!

We also did some hunting while we were down there, but unfortunately did not have the opportunity to pull the trigger, except on a couple of armadillos. Oh well…. maybe next year….

We are disappointed to not have any pictures of that eight-point buck, or even a nice doe, which we were really hoping to see…. but we do have some pictures of the times that we weren’t in the woods. It was truly a wonderful time to visit with friends and family for a few days!!!

We were home for a couple days, and then friends from Atlanta, the Barnes family, came for two days. And it was a great visit! We even got to go sledding… with snow and real sleds.

Whew! Now I think you have been pretty much updated… oh and two weeks ago all of us had dentist appointments, we got a foot of snow, and Mom and Dad went away for the weekend and left us kids home with a friend. This week we’ve had more doctor’s appointments, and day trip to Greenville, and more company… life moves on. We look forward to what the Lord will bring across our path in the days to come… and hopefully we won’t fall too far behind in our blogging!

Well, it has been a while since we’ve posted anything. The Lord has opened several doors of opportunity for our family, and with any opportunity comes responsibility. It has been a busy winter season, but it is definitely well worth it!!

Enough introduction…. here’s a brief summary of recent happenings….

We were blessed to be asked to present a Christmas program at a local church in early December. It truly was a blessing to fellowship with other believers!

The Hynes family came for a brief visit at the beginning of December. We had a delightful visit with them, which included snowball “fights” and photography talk, and many games of Checkers.

Next on the agenda was a much anticipated trip to Louisville, Kentucky to minister in music at Landmark Independent Baptist Church. It was a fabulous trip, leaving us uplifted and encouraged. Matter of fact, we had such a wonderful time, that we neglected the camera, and ended up with a select few pictures. Oh well… the memories are still sweet! Here are some of the pictures we did get…

We got home from Louisville on December 20, and quickly began doing last minute Christmas preparations. We also went to a Christmas program at a friend’s church, which was very well done, and a huge blessing! On Christmas Eve,  we sang at our local nursing home, then went caroling through our neighborhood. Christmas day was quiet, but very restful, allowing us to focus on the Reason of Christmas and to enjoy time together as a family.

Part 2 coming soon!

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!

This weekend we enjoyed the blessing of having the Stelzl family here once again!! With every visit from friends, I am discovering anew the manifold beauty, richness, and delight of fellowship in Christ!

A couple highlights: practicing music as a ten-person (and three-part) ensemble and then singing two arrangements together in church on Sunday, hiking a beautiful, sometimes thorny trail up a mountain at Fires’ Creek, taking a tour of the gun stock plant where Dad works, listening to harmonizing pennywhistle duets and trios, and playing Football Freeze Tag. Wherever we were, though, edifying conversation flowed freely, and it was GLORIOUS! When the weekend was over, we sat down as a family and discussed the ways we had been encouraged by this dear family. A few things that particularly stood out to me were the Stelzl’s passion to share Christ with the world, their heart for discipling others, their servants hearts, and the joy that was manifested in SO many ways. Whether they were clearing the table, about to tag you for the third time in freeze tag, teaching younger ones how to draw, eating chocolate caramel ice cream cake, or relating a story of how God is at work in their church and community, smiles lit the faces everywhere. Joseph Addison was right when he stated: “What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. They are but trifles, to be sure, but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.” You just can’t help but come away encouraged when you are around someone who faithfully practices this fine art!

Thank you, Stelzl family!

After a long six months of waiting, the Wilkes Team was finally able to make it   down to North Carolina! The meeting, after  so long, was, on a small scale, what our meeting in  Heaven will surely be like  when we meet all of  our loved ones, and most importantly, our dear Savior! We are thankful for such encouraging, uplifting friends with whom we can fellowship.

  One of the blessings of being around the Wilkes Team is their constant pointing  of everything back to the Lord. In our fast-paced world, it is very easy to take our eyes off Christ and become distracted with temporal cares. They are a living example of the  principle found in Proverbs 3:6 – the command to acknowledge God in everything we do. Even in games, at the table, or just simply laughing over a funny incident, when we are with the Wilkes Team there is almost always a   comment, story, analogy, or special insight that  turns everyone’s hearts and minds back to our all-mighty Creator. What a  desirable testimony to have!

Much of our time during the weekend was spent praying about and planning for NC Family Encouragement Weekend conference,  which will, Lord willing, be taking place near our home on March 26-27. What a blessing it was to give ideas, plan, organize,  and just work together to accomplish the common goal  of getting everything in order for this upcoming ministry opportunity.

One of the fun points of their visit happened rather unexpectedly on Saturday afternoon. Someone came down after looking out our upstairs window and announced that something had been caught in Herman’s live-trap. Several went and looked again, discovering that it  was a cat. Upon  closer observation, it was  realized that we had actually caught a young female bobcat!! We enjoyed looking at it, hearing it growl and snarl a gracious plenty for our liking. A little later, a trapper/friend who sells animal pelts  came and took care of it for us.

  Sunday evening all of the young people worked together to act out a silent  demonstration of Daniel and the Lion’s Den for the parents. Complete with  everything from  nobles, townspeople, a king, the king’s page, soldiers, and even lions, we had a blast and made quite a few side-splittingly-hilarious memories.

We love you, Wilkes Team, and pray God’s richest  blessings on you for your faithful service to Him and  others. Looking forward to many more such times  together!   

As an excellent conclusion to our week of blessings, the Barnes family came  for a wonderful time of fellowship! Target shooting, playing in the freezing outdoors, working jigsaw puzzles, looking at the amazing pictures from their  trip to Yellowstone this past summer,  playing PIT, making music with the guitars, etc., filled our time and brought great joy! They were able to stay for church on Sunday, and Wesley  helped us praise the Lord in song with his guitar. Our time together was exciting, encouraging, and lots of fun – we’re looking forward to next time!! Thank you, Barnes family!

About 28 hours after the Conns left, we had the joy of hosting the Staddon family for a few days!! While passing through on their way back to West  Virginia, they blessed us by spending their New Year’s Eve with us! It would take hours to tell about all of the JOYFUL activities that took  place; but we’ll spare you the time and just give a few highlights.

- watching “The Star of  Bethlehem” and then discussing the incredible power, sovereignty, majesty, and wisdom of our Creator

- playing many games, including Dutch Blitz, Occupation, Catan, Duck-Duck-Goose, Swap, Kings-and-Peasants, etc. 

- listening to the Staddon family practice beautiful family harmony – with voice (esp. the quintet ), piano, violin, and handbells

- getting to feed many large appetites

- spending quality times around the table, reading the Bible, relating our most embarrassing moments, sharing spiritual insights, singing, laughing, writing  lists of everything else we wanted to do, etc.

-gaining experience and knowledge regarding photography and operating a website and blog (special thanks to James and Robert!)

- staying up to a record time of 4:00 a.m. on New  Years  Eve

- blowing up our gingerbread house

  Well, needless to say, when the “Staddon  Wagon” pulled out of our driveway on Friday, we were left with a sense of loss but also one of having been wonderfully refreshed! One   particular thing we appreciate about the Staddon family is their constant JOY!! (That comes from having Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself last.) Whether in helping prune our fruit trees, eating a peanut butter ball, helping  clear the table, or playing Catan, they constantly had smiles and words of encouragement!  Thank you, Staddons!

Note: For more stories and  pictures, please visit the Staddons’ blog!! (We promise, it’ll be worth it just to see the incredible gingerbread-house-explosion shots!!!)