Be Not Afraid

These are the lyrics to the song that Gram played at Bible study Saturday morning. 

Be Not Afraid

You shall cross the barren desert,
but you shall not die of thirst. 
You shall wander far in safety
though you do not know the way. 
You shall speak your words in foreign lands
and all will understand. 
You shall see the face of God and live.

Refrain:
Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me,
and I will give you rest.

If you pass through raging waters
in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames,
you shall not be harmed. 
If you stand before the pow'r of hell
and death is at your side,
know that I am with you through it all.

Blessed are your poor,
for the kingdom shall be theirs.
Blest are you that weep and mourn,
for one day you shall laugh.
And if wicked men insult and hate you all because of Me,
blessed, blessed are you! 

Bob Dufford

Another song that came to mind in regards to Don's topic was a song called "Shelter Me."

When I cannot close my eyes,

And the night goes on.

Troubles taunt on every side,

And my doubt is strong.

Shelter me! Shelter me! Let the thought of your compassion be my strength. 

Prince of peace, shelter me from tempest of my unbelief. Mighty God

Who calmed the sea, come, and shelter me.

Do Your promises still stand?

 Does your mercy cease?

By the power of Your hand,

Grant me my release.

Bruce Carroll

Great Fire of The Grice Farm

The boys had started the burn pit quite awhile ago. Every once in awhile, we noticed it smoking, but one windy night, it fanned itself up. All of us but Mom and Nate ran out to watch it.

The fire on the changing tree was so pretty!

DeeWee was scared up a tree by the fire so I coaxed her down and held her.

The sparks were flying all the way over the barn!

Abi had us pose like this. I'm not sure why. :)

Some of the grass caught so we had to quickly fill 5 gallon buckets of water.

Daddy just stood there silently while the rest of us gyrated around.

I can't even begin to imagine what Hell will be like! Fires like this are a reality check.

The fire burned itself out pretty fast 'cause everything was so dry. Thankfully, nothing else caught fire except for that one patch of grass.

Nebraska City Trip

Our family loves going to Nebraska City in the fall. When Gavin's lived with us and even after they moved out, we'd pack into our 15 passenger van, bound for a day of yummy food, beautiful trees, neat places and great family time. 

Those were the days! Now, the boys really couldn't care less if they ever went back to NE City. We girls are way more nostalgic than they are. :)

Anyway, back to what I was saying... :) Gram, Mom, Abi and I planned a day out in NE City a couple weeks ago. We took some pictures, but not a ton. In between the pictures, we stopped at both apple orchards, Union and Kimmel. They have the yummiest apple cider donuts! :)

We found this "Janie's Confections" online. It sounded nice so we went to it. 

It was tiny inside, but everything was yummy!

I couldn't decide between the pumpkin latte or the snickers mocha. I wish I'd gotten the snickers.

They had 11 different cookie flavors! The chocolate crinkle was the best (we each picked a cookie to eat later :)). We ordered a breakfast croissant with egg and bacon in it. Was that ever scrumptious! I don't know what they did to it, but I've never had a breakfast sandwich that good before.

Abi set the camera on the car for this picture.

This picture almost doesn't look real.

We pulled into Arbor Lodge park to take pictures.

I love brick paved roads!

This is Arbor Lodge, or Morton Mansion. We loved touring this place when we'd come here. Sadly, it was closed for the season.

A little info on the Mansion

This cheeky little fella sat there flirting his tail at us and watching us. 

If you ever find yourself in NE City, you need to stop at Arbor Lodge!

Our next stop was the Whispering Wall. We have a picture of Nate posing at this exact place, just like I am. That was probably 3 or 4 years ago, though! :)

I took a video of Abi and I whispering along the wall. Keep in mind that we are actually whispering!

Gram and Mom went on a little walk while we played around at the Wall.

There was a tiny cabin that one could explore.

This is the view from the Arbor Lodge hotel and event center. We like stopping there just to go out on the balcony to see the view.

That's the Arbor Lodge Mansion

We took the time later to just drive around in the city. They have such beautiful homes!

Our last stop was the Lewis and Clark museum.

The mighty Mo!