Typical!!

Make sure you scroll down to the very first post to start at the beginning.

This is typical of how we look. Always lost!!!
This was taken inside the corn maze.

Train ride

The top pictures are of the train ride where you can go through a little area and they have some cute scarecrow set ups. We did not take the ride but just walked along some of the path and took some pictures.

The boys were just acting crazy so I had to get a picture!!!

More pictures

I know I am doing this backwards but keep reading!

They have a HUGE pumpkin farm where you can pick your own pumpkins.
They have bakery, cafe, snack barn,wine tasting, gift shop, apple orchard. They have a fruit fling. They had a bounce area for kids. They have a big play area for kids. They have a train ride where you can go through an area where they have all kinds of cute scarecrows.

More pictures

The cider mill has all kinds of things for the kids to do. Most of it does cost money but they still have a blast.

Uncle John's Cider Mill

On Saturday we spent the day at a place called Uncle John's cider mill. We had so much fun. We got a dozen donuts, a gallon of Cider and polished it off right there on the spot!! :) What a day.
Its about a two hour drive from where we live but we have so much fun there.

The kids love to watch them make cider. They can spend hours just watching this. Maybe I should get one for my house!! LOL

My Brother's business!!

My Brother owns his own heating and cooling company. If you live in West Michigan or in the surrounding area check out his new webpage www.highpointheatingandcooling.com

He does a great job and is very reasonable!!

Caleb's song

Caleb, my 7 year old, has been working on a song for a long time. He did not want me to see it until he was finished with it. He was so excited when I typed it up for him.

The Vapors by Caleb Yonker

We got the soul
And we got the light
He is the Lord your God
He is the Lord oh yea
I love the Lord Jesus
For my God is the Lord.
You don’t need to do this
You save, I go with you,
I am a Christian man with faith,
You’re my Savior. I got a Lord
That saved our sins, and my life.
I won’t go away. I promise I won’t
Be bad. I want to be the best kid.
Thank you, Jesus!!

Prayer for a friend

Could you all keep a friend of mine and her family in your prayers. Because of certain things I told her that I would not use her name publicly but God knows who she is! She was just diagnosed with Lung cancer a few days ago. She has an awesome faith in her Lord and one of the best things she sent to me in an email yesterday was this:

"I have cancer, but cancer does not have me!! God is in control" Awesome!! She has the best attitude!!

Thank you so much!!!

Haiti church in Grand Rapids

God has us meet the coolest people in the some of the oddest places!LOL

Twice now he has brought us together with some good friends now that we have met in restaurants.

He led us to an awesome friend named Kaitlyn at an applebees over a year ago now and she is such a dear friend!!

Recently he led us to another young lady named Lynda. Actually I should say my in-laws met her first at an old country buffet and the we joined them one evening and the rest is history.

Lynda was born in Haiti - yes you can already see the connection! :)

Lynda told us about a church in Grand Rapids that was Haitian. Imagine our excitement!!

Yesterday a few of us went to this church. Diane and her family and my friend Tiffany joined Nate and I and the kids for their 11:00am service. It was incredible. It was just like being in Haiti!! They were soooooooooooo friendly and just truly welcomed us with open arms. Talk about being the body. They get it and shared it with us!

The Pastor had Nate come up 3 times to pray or talk (Nate just cannot seem to ever sit still in a Haitian church!!) The music was incredible. It definitely had that Island feel. It was hard to believe that after the service we were getting in our cars and not on a airplane.

After the service was was done in English and Creole they invited us to have refreshments with them. The refreshments turned out to be Creole chicken and rice and beans!!!!!!!!! Yum!!! Two of my favorite foods.

By the way on a side note, Cheri, the rice and beans you bought us was AWESOME!!!! Very good!! Thank you so much!!!!!

It truly was a blessed day and we have made some good new friends. We plan on going back with a bigger group so if you are interested let us know!!! We also found out they would love to join us on our mission trips so that will be great as well!!!

We also have decided that we will be flying to Haiti in late January/early February. This trip will be just Nate and I. It will be a discerning trip and a time to figure out what our next team trips will look like. Please pray for us as we discern our future!!!!

Update

We are home from the doctor and things look good!! Yeah! Praise God no bones broken, no little fractures. He does have a good sprain going and his foot is wrapped up but he should be able to go to school tomorrow! I am one relieved momma!!!

Thank you all for the prayers!!!!

Caleb

If you could say a little prayer for Caleb this morning that would be great!!!

I need to take him in to get X-rays on his ankle and foot. He was playing on a neighbors tramp last night and another child in the neighborhood came down on his foot wrong and he heard something pop. It is not black and blue at all thank goodness but he cannot walk on it.

Thank you so much.

Not much new

Not much new going on. I was able to have lunch with a wonderful friend of mine today! Thanks Cheri I needed that today!!! We also had a wonderful day yesterday with our awesome home group!! I found this poem today and I really liked it so I am sharing it with all of you!!!

Save me

Save me from myself,

Lord;

Save me from my need

To always run my life,

Lord,To control my every deed.
Save me from my pride, Lord,

My focus on just me;

Help me learn to serve, Lord;

Show me how to be.
Save me from the world, Lord,

When tempting things entice;

Remind me of eternityWith You, in paradise.
I give my life to you, Lord

My every need you fill;

I’m resting in my faith, Lord

;You saved me, and you always will.
By Joanna Fuchs

30 hour famine

Thank you to everyone that purchased magazines from Nik's sale. He is so excited. He now gets to go to a big party at school!!

Nikolas will be participating in another fundraiser for church. It is called 30 hour famine.

You can read more at www.30hourfamine.org

In October they will have a weekend where they will fast for 30 hours and they go out in the community and collect food for a local ministry.

If anyone is interested in donating money towards this email me at telltheworld5@gmail.com

It is tax deductable and Nik will be happy to send you a receipt!

Thank you so much!!!

Unreached people of the day

I added a new side bar that I saw on my friend Jen's blog. What a great reminder that there are over 300 billion people on the earth that are not saved or have heard of what Jesus christ has done for them!!!! Thanks Jen!!!

You Alone - Hillsong

This song was the theme song for our conference!!! Our praise team learned it for the conference and they did an AWESOME job!!!!

Haiti Video

I just found this on youtube.

Haiti

My heart just hurts for Haiti right now. I want so bad to just be able to pick up and fly down there. I know I would most likely be in the way but some of the places that were hit hard were places where are teams have gone and driven by or know people in those areas.

It makes it even tougher.

This link will bring you to a blog called the Real Hope for Haiti. There is a place where if you feel called to donate they would be so grateful. they have an awesome mission and the work they do is tough, tough, tough. They take on the tough medical cases and run an orphanage.

Please keep praying that these people will feel Jesus. That they will accept Jesus and know that even though they are in the middle of a tough time Jesus in holding them close and that they would know that they have an eternity with Jesus waiting for them someday. Pray that they feel hope in the midst of this devestating trial.

Magazine sale

Ah my favorite part of school. Not.....

The fundraising begins. I usually do not send these out but Nikolas was so excited this year about his magazine sale and he asked me to put it on my blog. How could I resist that excitement. So here it:

BALDWIN STREET MS is currently running a fundraiser and needs your support! It’s fast, convenient and easy for you to help our group. When you buy, renew or extend your favorite magazine subscriptions or purchase music or book items from our online store, 40% of each purchase goes back to my organization!

Just click here and you will be able to view my group's web page, offering: - Over 650 popular magazine titles at savings of up to 90% off of newsstand prices- Hundreds of CDs and books - Online shopping available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Thanks, for your support.
Nikolas Yonker
BALDWIN STREET MS

The Isaiah project

Hard to believe its Monday. Troy is on his way home and sitting in Miami. He should be on his way to Port in about 20 minutes. It was awesome having him here again. Thank you Troy for everything. Shopping with you was a blast last night!!! I am still picturing you walking through the airports with you big tension curtain rod!! :) Thank you Tara for letting him come. It was a HUGE God filled weekend!!! I just wish you could have been here with us.


The Isaiah project itself was AWESOME!!! I cannot even begin to describe how wonderful it was. It was also very heartbreaking. The hardest part has been to see the glazed look in people's eye and the apathy we see in our own churches. When we have the Holy Spirit in us how in the world can we ignore that 300 billion people still have never heard of Christ
and NOT EVEN CARE. I just do not get it. I am not great with words but a very good friend of mine is so I am going to send you to her blog to read it. Please do it has a message we all need to hear if we call ourselves Christians.

This is what Diane wrote about the conference

As Christian we really need to open our eyes to EVERY person around us and wonder is that person saved? We cannot save them but Jesus can and its just up to us to tell them!! We HAVE to stop worrying about who we might offend when the awesome news we have will bring them into eternity....

These may be some tough posts to read but the truth is NEVER easy to hear.....

Update

I am very sorry I have not updated better. I really was not sure what was going on. At this point Troy is finally on his way to Chicago. However it doesn't look like he will be on his way to GR tonight. Looks like he will be arriving in the morning sometime early. The best part is that he will NOT miss any of the conference. He will not make the radio show but Nate will still be there.

Update

I just got a call from Nate. Troy just called him and he is sitting on the plane ready to take off!! Yeah!!!! Troy will call him when he reaches Ft. Lauderdale!!

Thanks for the prayers everyone!!

Troy's flight

So far I just checked AA for Troy's flight and so far its showing on time. While I know he doesn't actually leave Haiti until noon our time just that fact that is showing on-time makes me happy for the moment!! :)

Also for those of you who are interested you should be able to hear Troy and Nate on WJQ tomorrow morning. Not sure what time yet but I believe they thought it would be around 8:00am EST.

Here is the link to hear it online:
http://www.jq99.com

I will update on Troy's flight as things progress so check back later. Probably around 12:00 and after!

Prayers needed!!

Please keep Troy in your prayers. He is supposed to fly into Michigan Thursday late. However with 1 hurricane hitting Haiti and one more on its way the airport is already closed for tomorrow. What that means is when flights are cancelled it makes the port-au-prince airport a nightmare. Pray that the airport opens and flights fly out on time tomorrow and Thursday. Also pray that Florida is NOT hit as well as that is Troy's first stop!!!

Thanks for all your prayers!! I knew I could count on you all my blogging friends!!!

Also pray for Tara and the kids back in Haiti. I know this is not easy on her with Troy coming here until Monday.

Camping and other things

We went to a place called Pentwater this weekend. It is a state park on a beautiful beach!
The weather was perfect and we had a great time. These pictures below are not mine. I brought my camera but I never got it out. I know the rest of my family took tons of pictures so will post some of those when I get them.


This is going to be a big week. Our Isaiah project is this weekend so please pray for good weather and that everyone is blessed. We have Troy who will be flying in from Haiti so please pray that he has very on time flights. That is not very normal for Haiti but God does do miracles!! :) We also have our speaker from Gospeal for Asia flying in on Friday so pray for on time connections there as well.

Troy and Nate are going to be on our local Christian radio station on Friday morning sometime between 7-9. for those of you in the area it will be on WJQ 99.3
For those of you not in the area and you want to listen you can click on the highlighted portion above and click on listen live at the top of the page. For those of you from Lighthouse Sango and Mama neuman will be on today same time and Dan smith from Paradise bound will be on the air on Wednesday same time. Remember Friday morning sometime between 7 and 9 am!!

Graduation pictures

People have been having so much fun putting yearbook pictures that they had made up that I thought I would add a couple.

This is the one that I made up!

Here is my actual graduation picture:

Its crazy how close the hair style is! LOL

this is actually to go with the other post today on Nate and I. This was our engagement picture:

Getting to know us!

Nate and I in Haiti! Thanks Tammy! I saw this on my friend Mari's blog and thought it would be fun.

1.Who is your man? My husbands name is Nate. He works for Godwin plumbing and has been there almost 15 years. It has been truly awesome to watch is faith grow in the last 4 years and to watch him stand up for truth even though its not an easy path!

2. How long have you been together? We will be celebrating our 18Th anniversary at the end of October but we have been together for 21 years!!

3. How long did you date before you got married? We dated for almost 3 1/2 years.

4. How old is your man? He turned 39 in June

5. Who eats more? You wouldn't know it to look at us, but he does. I have no idea where he puts it

6. Who said "I love you" first? Probably me! :) However I cannot remember.

7. Who is taller? He is. He is 6'1" and I am 5'1 1/2". He is about a foot taller than I am.

8. Who sings better? Definitely Nate!!

9. 9. Who is smarter? Nate

10. Whose temper is worse? My temper is worse. However its a quick one. I do not hold grudges

11. Who does the laundry? I do

12. Who takes out the garbage? He usually puts it out on trash day. As far as emptying the wastebaskets and bringing it out, it's either one of us.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Nate

14. Who pays the bills? Nate

15. Who is better with the computer? I am but Nate is catching on fast

16. Who mows the lawn? He does - I do it when he is too busy.

17. Who cooks dinner? I do - unless I ask him to grill something.

18. Who drives when you are together? Nate

19. Who pays when you go out? Nate

20. Who is the most stubborn? I believe it is both of us equally

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me - Like I said I can only stay upset for so long.

22. Whose parents do you see most? I think its pretty equal.

23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first.

24. Who asked who out? Neither one of us did. It just kind of happened as we were good friends before we dated.

25. Who proposed? He did

26. Who is most sensitive? Me - sometimes I'm upset about something and he doesn't have a clue!

27. Who has the most friends? We are each other's best friends, and the people I'm friends with, he is too. I think we have the same amount of friends.

28. Who has more siblings? I have 1 brother, he has 2 sisters and 1 brothers.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Nate does. Thank goodness! :)

30. How did you meet? We met at a friend's graduation party. I was just going into 10Th grade and he was just graduating!

Hope you had fun reading this. I'd love to see you do it too!

Thoughts

I have had so many thoughts since we came home from Haiti a few weeks ago. Can it really be about 3 weeks since we came home? Wow, amazing.

I know there are quite a few people out there that just do NOT get my love for Haiti. It is truly a love that has come from the Lord. He put this place on my heart as it is somewhere I never in a million years wanted to go. I grew up thinking of this awful, evil place.

It is NOT like that at all. It is a place where I truly feel and rely on God. I have a hard time doing that in the US. I LOVE my savior with all my heart but there I feel so free. I feel such a passion. People here just do not seem to need God. We seem to have it all. This is truly a blessed Nation and people still do not get it. It breaks my heart. We are blessed so we can be a blessing to others. I am so tired of the need for stuff and more stuff. The people in Haiti do not have stuff and they do not miss it. They are happy without it. I want to be that way.

I have had several people tell me lately that I must be so happy to be home. I have to be honest and say I really am not. I miss Haiti something awful fierce. I know I have a few team members that totally understand that. When I flew into Haiti this past trip I actually had tears knowing I was coming to a place where I loved and I feel God completely.

I am happy that God has called lots of you to different places and different things. I pray that you will follow God in everything you do and I pray that a passion fills all of your hearts to spread the name of Jesus everywhere you go.

There are some exciting things coming in the near future. It is still on God's time frame but we can see doors opening to a start of a new mission project that will be modeled after Gospel for Asia. Troy L, One of the people we will be working closely with will be here in a few weeks to speak at The Isaiah project. I hope and pray that those of you in the area have really prayed about whether to attend or not. It is truly going to be a time of giving Glory to God. It is NOT just about mission but is is our Response to our Father in Heaven, Our Abba, our Papa! that is what mission work is. Giving back to our awesome savior!!!

Troy will be spending the weekend with us and on Sunday afternoon we will be sitting down and figuring out exactly what this mission will look like and what we need to to do to get it off the ground. Please keep us in your prayers that we stay aligned with what God is showing us. What He has shown us so far is AWESOME!!!

Now do not get me wrong. I love my home, my family, my friends. You ALL mean the world to me in ways I cannot ever express fully.

It truly amazes me to this day how God has brought all of you into my life for a time such as this. This network of friends He has given to us just brings me to tears when I fully think about it.

This is the video that we showed on Sunday night at our Haiti testimony time. Thank you to all those that were around that were there to support us! It means more than you know!!! :)

what kind of blogger am I?

I will be hopefully posting soon. Have not had a ton to say. Or I should say I have but not sure its blog worthy yet.

I saw this on Diane's blog today so thought I would give it a try.

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofbloggerareyouquiz/">What Kind of Blogger Are You?

more birthday party pics!

Katie and Heather 10th birthday party

Katie was born in June and Heather was born in November!
The kicker is they were both born in 1998! So this past Saturday
We did a 10 year old birthday party for the both of them.
We did this at a local hotel and they had pizza, birthday cake and were able to
Swim for almost 3 hours!!! They seemed to all have a lot of fun!!!
A huge thank you to Nate and my friend Tammy for sticking around to help me
out!!!

More Cottage fun

Reposting these pictures!

Cottage fun

A few weekends ago we went to some friends cottage for the day. The kids had so much fun. We actually did as well!!!

This is Susan

This is her husband Jim.

Caleb playing with their son James. Caleb for some reason just love hanging
with the older kids!! :)

Your love oh Lord!

This song will forever remind me of Haiti now. We sang it once up at the rock during prayer/devotions and then we sang it again at the Port-au-prince fellowship church where Troy and Tara go. I thought of the words when I was up at the prayer rock looking at the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other and it was breathtaking!!

Pray for our Guatemala team

I just got a call that the Guatemala team is stuck in Detroit. Their is a hurricane that hit Texas today and is affecting the Houston airport. Planes are still flying in but the flight the team was supposed to take they couldn't get on because for some reason it was full even though they were booked on it. Hotels are getting booked and flights are starting to back up in Houston but please pray that the team can at least get on a flight to Houston today yet even if they have to spend the night in the airport. Pray for a calm and a peace and an understand to why this is happening to the team and God's has in store for them.