Zoo

We hit the zoo Friday. Much fun. I especially appreciated this black bear posing so nicely on his wood stump for my picture. I couldn't have posed him better myself!

One of the coolest parts of the zoo is how the peacocks roam freely, as shown above.

FYI: peacocks love french fries.

Our kids' favorite part of the day??? Seeing the Dora and Diego 4-D movie. Ok, so it has very little to do with the zoo; however, it was the first time any of the kids had ever seen a 3-D (much less 4-D) movie. They almost lost their little minds in that 15 minutes movie!

The Cincinnati Zoo has, by far, the coolest carousel on Earth. While other carousels simply have horses, this one has all kinds of different animals, including the shark (above) that John is riding. (above) Christopher and I often get told we look alike. What do you think???

(above) This was all fun and games taking this picture. However, right before we took this picture, a little boy actually got his head stuck in the alligator doing what John is doing here!

Baby, if you've ever wondered....

...wondered whatever became of me,
I'm living on the air in Cincinnati
Cincinnati WKRP.

Anybody remember those lyrics from the 1980's tv show WKRP? (If you're younger than 30, you probably don't know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, the show opened at Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati. We happened to be there a few days ago, and we (i.e. - "I") couldn't help but get our picture taken infront of that famous fountain which says on the top front, Dedicated to the People of Cincinnati.

In case you want to take a trip into the past, here's a Youtube link of that show's opener. Tim and I laugh at how small the city looked back then!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAPhDxyIbNc

KLB

John's Birthday List

July 28th is John's 7th birthday. I asked him to make me a list of ideas of things he'd like for his birthday. It's a hoot. Here it goes, in John's own words:

Light up light saver

Looney Tunes movie

a hug

Dare Devil action figure

Darth Vator mask

Iron Man Mask

Raisin Bran

pizza

Chips Ahoey Chewy Gooey cookies

Oreo Cookies

A shirt that says I love my mom

Scorpion action figure

Shocker action figure

Craven action figure

Star Wars cake

fudge bars

peaches

A Star Wars t-shirt
stickers

a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese



FYI... We DO feed John. He honestly does not need to ask for food for his birthday. He just really likes food.

Other Johnisms As of Late

Upon getting out of bed: "Mommy, thank you for buying my soft bed. It's so comfortable. And it's a whole lot better than sleeping on the floor."

Upon seeing Mommy working at the computer, without wearing my glasses: "Mommy, I'm glad you're not wearing your glasses. I like your old face better."

Upon waking up in the morning: "Mommy, I missed you while I was sleeping."

Upon eating at a Chinese buffet: "I really like this food. I wish I lived in China."

Other Stuff at Clough

As we complete the clean-up from last week's flood, I keep coming back to God's incomprehendable grace saving us from a tremendous amount of destruction and money. It is uncanny to think that God allowed that muddy water to come right up to my front door, but then stopped it before a drop could ever come inside. Throughout the week, I've reflected on Job 38, when the Lord revealed his omnipotence to Job in vs. 4-11:

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stertched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together.
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
When I made the clouds its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling band;
When I fixed My limit for it,
And set bars and doors;
When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'

God is so good! Other than flooding, good things are happening...

Father's Day Sunday: (above) my crew. Christopher, John and Anna put on a play of sorts to give Daddy his Father's Day gifts. And (below) Noah, Daryl, and Haylee Bisig. Nothing says "I love you, Dad" like dressing like him on Father's Day. Awesome! We sure love the Bisigs...

Deacon Ordination of new deacons Jeff Mahaffey and Tom Ratliff, both of whom I'm sure will do a fantastic job as deacons. The picture below is of some of the sitting deacons praying over Jeff and Tom.

God was good in our flood!

On Tuesday afternoon, it began to rain. It rained and it rained and it rained. What was supposed to be "passing showers" turned into 4 inches of rain in 2 hours, an 85-year record of waterfall in Cincinnati. We watched the water rise quickly out of the creek, and began gathering our belongings (family pictures, home movies, computers, etc.). We stuck what we could in the cars, and put other stuff ontop of tables - we have no 2nd story. Simulataneously, the 1st floor of the church was being flooded, so Tim had to help Joe Wilmers and Tom Ratliff spare what they could. In the chaos, I was a little too busy during the peak of the rain to grab any pictures, but I did snap a few while the water was coming-up. In the end, God was incredibly merciful to our house: although the water came within inches of flooding us, the rain stopped, the water receeded, and not a drop came inside. What a mighty God we serve!!!!

(above) This was the view from our bedoorm window. Of great concern to us was keeping an eye on the children: that water might look still in the picture, but it was rushing.

The water kept coming.......and coming.

The church suffered minimal damage from the water that encompassed the back of the building; however, Joe Wilmer stopped by and came-up with the idea of putting sand in garbage bags and creating sandbags to stop-up the doors. It worked joyously! While outside the building, water up to the mens' knees pushed against the building, only about an inch came inside. Praise the Lord!

Here's some of the inside damage. Wherever the floor looks shiny, that's water.

Flash Flood Video: Check this out!

Click on this link, and then hit "video:"

http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Clermont-County-Bridge-Washes-Away-Residents/BQTYqm_vtkC7DTSftCxIZw.cspx

Check-out the above link see our church (and my husband) featured on a local news story last night, after a flash flood almost did our church in! Thanks to a merciful God, though, and some hard-working church members who came in the middle of the storm - kudos to Joe Wilmers and Tom Ratliff - and fashioned sandbags out of garbage bags and leftover construction sand, our house was totally spared, and the church only suffered minimal damage.

Kara

VBS 2011: Beach Blast

(below) Jennifer and Lou Schott, who are always so very faithful to whatever is needed in Bible School...

We had a BLAST at Beach Blast, our VBS at Clough Pike in 2011! Arguably the best Bible School I've ever worked, God blessed our church in every way imaginable this year. Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful weather 5 straight nights (upper 70's to low 80's, no rain), for a multitude of workers, and for 136 children entrusted in our care. Thanks especially for the professions of faith those children made and are continuing to make during follow-up!

OK. I have to start-off with my favorite part of VBS, the Baby Shark song. Remember the Baby Shark Song? (Baby Shark....Doo Doo Doo Doo Do Doo, Mama Shark...Grandpa Shark...etc.) Well, we had a group of guys be our Land Sharks and act-out the song. Histeria.

Our guys would sneak around the worship rally with water guns and squirt innocent workers and children.

One of our Land Sharks happened to be married to our VBS director, and always went after her! Remember the part of the song where the guy tries to swim back to shore but it's too late? At that point, Dr. Lou Schott - dressed in his actual lab coat - bounced out of the audience and performed fake CPR on Tim, but failed to revive shark-eaten Tim. Tim then stood-up, faked having wings, and went to Heaven.

I taught the 2 and 3 year olds. We had a great group of 10 boys and girls who - for the most part- were extremely cooperative and attentive. May God richly bless the man/woman who created flannelgraph! Even in a video-game, TV-centered world, nothing captivates a 3-year-old like a flannelgraph Jesus.

(above) Katie Withrow to the left, and recent-breast-cancer survivor Linda Lindsay! Hooray for Linda!

(below) Christopher's favorite recreation of the week, crab-walk soccer.

(below) One of the coolest things of the week were how the audio-visual folks did all the motions and songs with the kids.

(below) Every year, we are able to rent a public school bus every VBS so that we can pick-up children from a local housing project. It's amazing to have the same children year after year come from that project, and to watch them grow. For most of these children, this is the only time they are in a church all year (many of their parents won't let them come on Sundays, but will let them come to a VBS). Unfortunately, we didn't have as many of those project children as we normally have, although we praise the Lord for the reason: a sister SBC of ours was also running a bus to the same project for their Bible School this week! The more churches, the merrier! (below) Our courageous directors, Miss Becky and Miss Janice.

(below) These next pics were the workers that Tim prayed over on Sunday morning before VBS started.

(below) Tim always has a persona for VBS. This year he was "Stitch Buchanon," a take-off of Mitch Buchanon from the 80's show Baywatch. Believe it or not, but our little John did not understand that this was his dad! He thought it was a totally different person!

(below) Closing program. This was John's class, although you can't really see John because he was on the back row.

(below) Christopher's class in the closing program.

(below) Anna's class. We only had 3 children who wouldn't sing. My helpers and I considered that a success. (I was in the front of the kids leading the song, which is why I'm not photographed here.)

Family night was awesome! The snack folks fixed everyone a dinner fo chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, carrots and cookies, and had punch and ice cream for dessert. They stretched beach towels and lawn chairs around the property for everyone to sit on, and we had a wonderful picnic. God even kept the bugs away!

The offering this year went to SBC disaster relief. The girls brought-in more money than the boys, thanks to a generous donation of $100 on the last night by someone who undoubtedly wanted to see their pastor in a dunking booth! As Tim prepared to enter the dunking booth, the kids and parents all began chanting "Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!"

We want to shout-out a HUGE thank-you to the Greater Cincinnati Association, who loaned us their block party trailer. We were able to turn our parking lot into a carnival. The kids LOVED the blow-up jumping and sliding toys and water slide, cornhole games, and dunking booth. All of this stuff was parked right outside our driveway: What great memories are my children going to have of growing-up at a church?

Below are my co-workers: Sonya Coppedge (middle) and Betty Howard (right). Betty is 74 years old, and has worked with pre-schoolers most all her life. I couldn't keep-up with her! May I have that kind of energy at 74!

(below) Tim chats with Youth Pastor Jeff.

(below) Ralph Farmer to the left, Tim.....urrrr....I mean "Stitch" in the middle, and Association Missionary David Coppedge to the right.

(below) Check-in workers in the lobby: JR and Stephanie Bishop and Stacy Graham.