A Legacy of Family

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of Gramp's (Bernie) death; August 30, 2011. His loss is still keenly felt by us all, but we know that he's in a much better place!

Gramps led a full life with family and friends. He loved fishing, golf, football and baseball.  :) Another one of his hobbies was eating. Gramps loved just about whatever you set before him!

Family: Make it count

Gram and Gramps spent several winters in McAllen, TX. We cherish fond memories of our time spent with them.

Gram and Gramps would drive their camper to our old Persia house and camp out by the second barn. I 

love reminiscing about our sleep overs with them. We'd sit around the table in the morning, chatting, while Gram would mix up the mug of ever present hot chocolate. Gramps would stuff us full of toaster strudels and pop tarts. Those were the days!

Gramps loved coffee! His travel mug was never far from him. Ugh, he grossed us out so bad! He almost never washed his coffee mug!

Gramps loved a good joke! He loved to tell them, but much to our dismay, he'd often forget the punch line!  Oh my, those of you who never heard Gramps laugh are missing out! He had the best laugh. One that, even if you didn't know what the joke was, you'd laugh just because Gramps was! 

He got such a kick out of sticking his false teeth out at us.

 I loved to hug Gramps. He always greeted you with a big grin and "Hi, pumpkin (babe or sweetie too)!" His bristly chin would always rub against my forehead, while the faint smell of cigarette smoke would drift into my nose. I know that might not sound nice to you all, but it was always how my grandpa was!

Gramps hailed from Kalamazoo, Michigan. He had four other siblings, Kent, Lynn, Betty Kay, and Larry.

Gramps passed away peacefully after a long fight with kidney and liver cancer. We miss him a lot, but his legacy lives on through his memories, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

We miss you, Gramps!

All Heaven Rejoicing!

I just had to share our family's marvelous news! There's been a death in the Grice family, but that death has brought forth a brand new baby...

Josh!

Yes, after years of prayer, our Josh surrendered his heart into Jesus' keeping Sunday afternoon. We are thrilled! More than thrilled, we stand in awe, watching as our mighty God worked that beautiful miracle in Josh's heart.

I'm sure your wondering about the circumstances that surrounded Josh's death.

Larry Zook was scheduled to come to our church last Sunday the 24th to go through some church meeting notes with our church. Dad asked him to share the main message.

When Larry began to describe the main thrust of his message, he broke down into tears. He said that his message was going to be directed specifically to the unconverted boys sitting in this room. "You know who you are and we know who you are." Larry cut right to the quick from the get go.

He shared his testimony; how, as a boy, it was pride that kept him from making that final decision. His testimony mirrored Josh's life to a "T"!

At the beginning of his message, Larry told us that he was going to give an altar call, using that beautiful song, "Shall I Come Just as I Am?"

What a powerful altar call! Abi didn't even sing during the call, she just started weeping. She told Josh that she'd go with him up there, but, Josh just looked at her. Abi asked him again, but he still didn't answer, so she told him, "Well, I'm going up 'cause I need to pray!" As she rose, Josh rose too, grabbed her hand and made that life changing walk to the altar.

As soon as we saw him, our whole row couldn't sing anymore, we just bowed our heads and wept. What joy! Oh what relief! Our Joshie had come home!

Dad and Edward prayed with Josh. When Edward came downstairs,  he asked me if I wanted to go greet Josh. Are you kidding!? I hadn't been able to think at all, much less eat the fellowship meal while I waited to hear the news.

I flew upstairs as fast as I could run, and met most of our family and a shining Josh at the top of the stairs. We had a regular family bawl together.

What a sweet, precious, wonderful day! But, also a sorrowful one. There are still boys holding out on God here at our church. I won't mention names, but I'm sure most of you know who I'm referring to.

I cry even now as I write this. Sometimes I feel like such a ninny, I can cry at the drop of a hanky, but that day and now, I really don't care! :) Some things are better expressed through tears. :)

"Jesus, we just want to thank you.

Jesus, we just want to thank you.

Jesus, we just want to thank you,

Thank you for being so good.

"Jesus, we just want to praise you.

Jesus, we just want to praise you.

Jesus, we just want to praise you,

Praise you for being so good."

Tragedy at the Rock Cut

Ryan invited Gavins and our family to the Rock Cut Monday night as a farewell party for Micky and Chloe. Mom road one of the bikes back to the river, so we had to get a picture. :) The mosquitoes were horrible! There were millions of the little things.

Ryan and Kels brought pizza rolls along as supper. Buggy loved them!

The Nishnabotna river was exceptionally serene looking that evening.

The water was up some, but it wasn't too high or fast. It flowed over the lower end of the rocks. Katelyn had fun playing in the water. :) She only liked the shallower water though, the rest of it scared her. :)

Some of the boys were skipping rocks across the river, when one of them went awry and hit Abi on her ankle bone.

Josh cut a strip off the bottom of his shirt to make a makeshift tourniquet. Ben cut some of his t-shirt off too. Later, Abi said that they tied them so tight that her foot was tingling. Mom decided to take her home so that we could assess the situation before taking her into the ER. Thankfully she didn't need stitches, but she has had one sore foot!

Josh's shorn shirt

The mosquitoes were a nightmare on the way back too! Since we had to push the stroller, the going was slower, which, in turn, gave the buggers a longer time for feasting!

Abi's cut after getting it cleaned up.

I got one or two mosquito bites in my ear. They were swelling so much that my hearing was starting to get muffled! I ended up grabbing a bag of frozen blueberries to put on it.

The bloody tourniquets

The wound kept seeping, so Dad was having fun making designs with the blood on the paper towel he was using. :) What an exciting night!

Abi's foot is well on it's way to being normal again. It's still sore, swollen, and bruised, but she can walk now! She spent the first couple nights down on the couch because she could hardly walk upstairs. :) Poor, Abba.

Tent Meetings 2014

This year has flown by like the speed of light! Our church's annual tent revival meetings came knocking at our doors almost before we were ready! Despite our crazy schedule, I enjoyed basking under the preaching of the Word of God for four days straight. That's a blessing that one usually has to wait for Bible Schools to do. Yes, we enjoy God's presence everyday of our lives, but who gets to go to a revival meeting everyday?

We've been putting up a lot of sweet corn lately. This is one cob from our garden that didn't quite make it...

I think that we finished the last of it the week of the meetings. We borrowed the Chupp's corn de-silker, which was fun to use. :)

Don't play with firearms, my dear Watson!

Our family arrived about a half hour early Wed. night to do some last minute set up, like carrying the hymnals out...

...setting up the white board...

...setting out the hymnals...

...and making numerous trips across the street.

The sound tech.

Abi's poor disgusting finger. It makes me feel squeamish every time I see it. :)

Ryan and Kelsey did the meals for the meetings. Here, the coffee was brewing with a characteristic reminder from Ryan that it wasn't ready for consumption yet. :)

The sun shown intermittently all day Sunday.

But, it rained for the most part. Brie, several other people and myself waited for the cars to clear on the road, then made a dash, jay walk style, to the tent. It was pouring! As we neared the tent door, we could hear people cheering for us. Unbeknownst to us, there was a crowd watching the show. :)

Go, Markie!

Run, Jason and Amy!

You can see Caleb in the background with a bag over his head. Didn't your mother teach you that it's dangerous for children to put bags on their heads? :)

Gathering in for the drippy Sunday morning service.

Leon led the singing for most of the week.

Tract table

Dad gave the opening. I was so happy to learn that Dad didn't have to preach any major messages. He was able to just sit back and be blessed. 

Brother Mike Mollman from Cheyenne, WY preached Friday night, both messages Saturday, and two messages Sunday. We were very blessed to have him here again!

After all the company left, everybody pitched in to help clean up. 

The boys carried most of the sound stuff over piled on tables.

Sweet Jophus

Uho, Lynna definitely enjoyed her chocolate cookie!

Nate was so tired he crashed on the rocker that Ry had set up for Kels in the kitchen. :)

Ry and Kels went all out this year- iced tea, lemonade, leaded and unleaded coffee, etc. You guys did a great job!

This'll give you nightmares for a week, at least.

Visiting after the meetings are over is one of our favorite events of the week.

:)

Abi had gathered all the unused cups from the tables. :)

We tried to get a church picture, but all of them didn't turn out. Somehow, our camera got set on a setting that makes the pictures look like watercolor paintings. :)

 

Gram took family pictures for next year's church calendar.

After a couple attempts, she finally got a picture with no funny faces.

Please, don't even ask me what Shawn was doing. I haven't the slightest clue.

Annabel, Nate, Caleb, Irene and I worked on getting the kitchen cleaned up... Not an easy task!

Those roasters were almost impossible to scrape out!

Visiting

Mabel wrestled an apron on Caleb. :)

We tried to get one on Nate but he wouldn't do it. To compensate, he held one up beside him to pose for the picture.

I love this picture! Brie finally got it slipped on! :)

All of us girls wore our matching pink dresses so that we could get a picture of all of us, but due to the rain, we weren't able to. Dad did get one of all the little girls though! :)

I'm sorry that this isn't as detailed as past posts. My memory has simply flown the coop! (You'll prob'ly have to look at the Martin's blog to get a full account.) But, I can tell you that the messages were very encouraging, challenging, and step on your heart good! 

As an added bonus to the week, Michaela Smith gave her heart to the Lord! Mom had been praying that she could help to lead someone to Jesus that week. Sunday afternoon, Mom was able to be there as Micky was ushered into a new and everlasting life! What an answer to Mom's prayer and all the prayers sent up for the lost that week and previous weeks!

Praise God!!!