Graduation… a time to reflect on the abundant goodness of the Lord in the past. A time to evaluate your direction in life in the light of Scripture. A time to set goals and make decisions. A time to commit everything anew to the Lord, knowing that in His perfect sovereignty, He will work it all together for His own glory, and your best good.

By God’s grace, I walked through this door this past Saturday as we celebrated my high school graduation. Many dear friends and family members came to join the festivities, and the Lord gave us a joyful, tremendously encouraging afternoon and evening together.

An oh-so-extra-special blessing was having both grandmothers there, as well as a dear cousin who came all the way from NY at the age of 94 to see her namesake graduate! 

Family shots

Music presentation

Fellowship…  glorious fellowship!

Willing helpers

An emerging tradition – that of doing some shooting after the graduation — turned into a painful, educational, and actually quite hilarious experience. (That 50-caliber beast – an elephant gun for safari hunting that was loaned to us for the occasion – had the audacity to “scope” us!) Needless to say, for the rest of the evening, we sported beautiful cuts and goose eggs.

To God be the glory!

You know, there are times in life when you imagine something beautiful… something perfect… something romantic…… to commemorate, bless, or honor someone or something or some occasion… you just want to make things extra special. You imagine a peaceful atmosphere, complete with candles, a well-thought-out note of love, maybe even roses or daisies…

And (sorry to tell you this), there are times in life when your dreams of fun, fluff, and fantasy just don’t happen!

That’s when you get a prime opportunity to trust in our Sovereign, loving God and blossom right where He places you!

We let you all know about Sibling Appreciation Day, all the while mentally preparing for our own celebration (a lovely picnic by the river). Then……………

There was mulch to spread!

(A HUGE, double-load.)

We faced a choice. Not exactly whether or not to spread the mulch, but whether or not to spread it with joyful hearts, accomplishing the duty set before us with smiles and laughter.

By God’s grace, the Team collectively chose to do right.

Though the evening’s events were completely different than we had anticipated, we were all reminded again just how much we really appreciate our siblings (just you imagine trying to spread that trailer heaped with mulch all by your lonesome! ) and we really did enjoy the project. It was work… hard work… hot work… exhausting work… but it was rewarding work and quite fun as we did it together.

So, be encouraged next time your plans for something wonderful are altered… or maybe even blown away completely. There are treasures in the darkness… hidden riches in secret places… a delicious-grilled-salmon-rice-sauteed-asparagas-sweet-peaches-dinner-made-by-Jessi-at-9:30 pm (with chocolate-mint brownies for dessert!) awaiting you when your work is finished –  if you will simply trust the hand of God as He takes you through the process of life.

(aka 12 happy Neelys)

First moments – - spent in catching up

The fellowship continued!

Dad had to work, but we were able to meet him for a picnic lunch at a nearby rest area.

A couple rounds of “Bible Runners” – - and we must give congratulations, reluctant though they be, to the “secret police”! (who almost never win, but through an unusual amount of sneaky perseverance made this game one-of-a-kind!)

One of the biggest highlights of the time together was a late-night cousin prayer meeting in the woods. An excellent suggestion on the part of a certain individual led to a sweet hour of sharing requests with each other around the campfire and then presenting those needs to the Lord. What a privilege to not only have a close bond as family, but also as fellow believers! Praise the Lord! 

Thank you, Nana and Conns, for including us in your trip! May the Lord bless you as you continue to seek Him first, bringing Him glory in every endeavor. We love you!

The North Carolina FEW was the first of four planned conferences this year. We look forward with great excitement to the next FEW and the continued work of the Lord! May Jesus Christ be praised!

If you are interested in receiving information on upcoming FEW Conferences, leave us a comment and we’ll add you to the contact list.

With great anticipation we looked forward to a visit with them for several months, and finally, it happened! The hospitality of the Sorensen Lodge was incredible. We came away immensely blessed and refreshed.

Playing Airsoft and walking the perimeter of their property:

Fun with the swing:

The Sorensen’s treated us like royalty. On Saturday, we took a trip to a local bowling alley for an afternoon loaded with strikes and spares… well, not exactly. A sparing few were so blessed, but the rest of us just realized how strikingly rusty our bowling techniques are. At any rate…

Then… they took us to a Japanese Steakhouse for a special birthday celebration. Most of us had never visited one before, and what an interesting, delightful meal awaited us!

On Sunday, we attended church with them and were privileged to be there on a week when Mr. Sorensen was preaching. He spoke from the life of Peter; we saw the perfect timing of the Lord played out again as the message seemed tailored to the current events of our lives. Praise the Lord! Thank you, Mr. Sorensen, for letting the Word dwell in you richly, and for standing boldly to make an impact for the Kingdom of God.

Thank you, Sorensens!

Please be in prayer for our family, as well as for the Wilkes and Staddon families, as we prepare for the 2012 conferences. Pray that God would grant us wisdom, direction, and unity; that the He would go before us and work out every little detail in His perfect way; that we would trust in His sovereignty; that families would be encouraged,strengthened, and drawn closer to the Lord; and most importantly, that Jesus Christ alone would receive the glory and honor due His Name!

“But thou, O man of God…follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith…” 1 Timothy 6:11-12

If you would like to receive more information about the FEW Conference ministry or about upcoming conferences and locations, please contact us.

Thank you, Mrs. Tammy, for so willingly giving of your time and expertise! You truly model the verse from Matthew 10: “… freely ye have received, freely give…”

101: Practice with the mannequins

By the way, your victims must have names, so let me introduce you to Ventura, Charalina, and Jemima.

102: Practice with the mannequins and the live mannequins

(Special thanks to our dear brothers for being such great guinea-pigs! )

A few weekends ago we were blessed to experience this again with a visit from our friends, the Barnes family. We had a load of fun, played hilarious games, made music, put together jigsaw puzzles, blew up our gingerbread houses, and laughed a ton in the process, of course, but the highlight for most of us was the discussions and times of fellowship that were shared. Things the Lord is teaching us, what we are learning from our devotions, favorite passages of Scripture, meaningful insights, prevalent and troublesome issues of today that must be combated with Scripture, and more were shared and discussed. It was a time of exhortation and encouragement, and we came away tremendously refreshed.

And, by the way, our discussions were far too interesting to take the time to jump up and get the camera – - thus the lack of pictures of the afore-mentioned activity!

So, be encouraged if you desire to see a certain relationship in your life brought to a new level. Seek Christ through His Word, pray with diligence – - and watch and see what the Lord will do.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another…” 1 John 1:7

We’re back-tracking in time, because we just realized that, due to the craziness of other things going on at the same time, we never wrote anything about a very important event that occurred last fall! But, keep in mind, that the timing of this post has nothing to do with it’s importance in our lives!

This “event” was a much-anticipated Hymn Arranging Seminar, put on by our wonderful violin teacher, Mr. Pinner (with Pinner Studios). Seeing our interest in learning more about writing, composing, and arranging music, Mr. Pinner graciously put together an exciting weekend for us, complete with sessions, master class opportunities to have our pieces critiqued by guest clinicians from Bob Jones University (Dr. David Rasbach, Mr. Duane Ream, Mrs. Joan Pinkston, and Dr. Dwight Gustafson), productive Q & A, a choral concert written and directed by gifted composer/publisher Craig Courtney of Beckenhorst Press, and a whole morning in the BJU computer lab working on Finale software with Dr. David Parker! We were humbled… honored… amazed by all of the opportunities that weekend presented. The things we learned were tremendously helpful and we look forward to doing more in this field of music in the future. We also came away encouraged by the focus of the clinicians. In everything they did, they stressed our purpose in life: to glorify the Lord.

Thank you, Mr. Pinner!!