Grace Notes

Miscellaneous

Malaysia Planning Meeting

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Left to right: Chrissy Baskerville, Me, Rebekah May, Elyssa Ertz, and Nickie Biegler.

In a couple months we will be boarding a plane to Singapore and Malaysia where we’ll be doing 2 Bright Lights conferences and one Bright Lights Leaders Training. There’s lots of planning to do! Most of the night tonight we spent dividing up teaching, planning skits, filling Elyssa in on what it’s like over there (since she is the only one who didn’t go last year), and discussing lots of miscellaneous details. We are all excited. 🙂

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Since it’s Nickie’s 20th birthday, we surprised her with an ice cream pie. Happy Birthday Nickie! 🙂

Bright Lights Local Group

Bright Lights Outdoors…

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Yesterday morning about 30 girls ages 13 and up from our local Bright Lights group gathered in a quiet park outside of town to spend the day seeking God. We had lots of time set aside for individual Bible study and prayer, and it was so refreshing to “come away” to a quiet place in the park to be alone with the Lord. We each found our own grassy area where we laid our blanket and followed outlines Sarah had given us…studying Psalm 119 and various New Testament passages, memorizing, self-examination before the Lord, studying various “hearts” in Scripture, studying the names of God, and personal prayer and worship.

We also came together as a group several times for sharing, (both about what God was teaching us and about how many daddy-long legs crawled unto our blanket in the last hour…), singing, lunch, and ultimate frisbee.

Almost everyone shared special verses that the Lord had given them during their time alone, and it was encouraging to hear many of the girls share the same report: how they had been impressed with the desire to seek the Lord not partially, but completely – with all their heart.

We also divided into smaller groups for prayer and for one-on-one sharing. We concluded with a pizza party in our church basement. It was a great day!

Family News

Bikeride and Breakfast

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It was a perfect breezy summer morning last Wednesday and my dad and I rode our bikes to a coffee shop. It was great to have some time to plan, discuss future goals, and study the Word together.

Creation Museum/Miscellaneous

We visited the new Answers in Genesis Museum!

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We visited the Answers in Genesis Museum 2 weeks ago as we were passing through Kentucky. Our experience there exceeded our expectations, and our expectations were already high!

The first thing we went to was the “planetarium”. As we entered the dark, round theater, I learned that we’d be reclining in our chairs and watching the ceiling! The 15-20 minute show on stars and galaxies was really incredible. I knew the universe was huge and immeasurable, but seeing this mathematical and visual description of the universe caused me to grasp how amazing and beyond our comprehension it really is, bringing much glory to it’s Creator. And Genesis records their creation in only 5 simple words! (“…he made the stars also” Gen. 1:16)

Next, we went through the “Men in White” special effects theater, which was a lot of fun. In a lighthearted way it clearly presented many answers to the questions and objections people face in school and in everyday life regarding Creation science and the purpose of man.

From there we started our “walk through history”. It began with a look at the current state of brokenness and suffering in families and nations. Then it jumped back in time and walked us through the Garden of Eden, the fall and it’s effects, Noah’s ark, after the flood, Tower of Babel, how mankind then spread through the earth, etc. The museum holds up God’s Word as the all-time source of infallible truth and illustrates how clearly science does confirm Genesis in every way. It teaches thousands of interesting facts and evidences via videos, posters, scaled-down models, and life size displays. It’s amazing how much you can learn after spending one day there! There were anamatronic dinosaurs (kind of scary if you get close to them while they roar at you 🙂 ), and many realistic looking sculpted people and animals.

Near the end of the museum is the “Last Adam Theater”, which was one of my favorite parts. After coming out we ate a great lunch at the Noah’s Ark Café, and looked through their large bookstore. We walked back to the van through the nicely landscaped trails and the bridge over the lake.

Some say it’s hard to believe they made the whole museum for only $27 million. They obviously didn’t “cut corners”.

Creation Science is such a key battle of our day. I’m grateful that Answers and Genesis is impacting the world with the truth of Genesis. We need to keep them in our prayers! www.creationmuseum.org

Miscellaneous

Friends in Florida

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Relaxing and talking with the Mostert Family.

Mr. Mostert has been a huge help to our family as he’s made lots of contacts for us…from arranging harp/chalk programs and Bright Lights conferences to meeting our lodging/food needs while we are in Florida.

About two years ago the Mostert family met a 19-year-old girl named Chelsea at a homeschooling event. They were immediately impressed with her radiant countenance and maturity. Since they had been looking for someone to lead a Bright Lights group in their area, they asked Chelsea if she would consider the idea.
God, who amazingly works all things together, had already laid a desire on Chelsea’s heart to start some kind of a discipleship ministry for younger girls, and she told them that she was interested.

In God’s plan, our family came to Florida around that time and needed a place to stay. Chelsea’s family graciously offered their home and we became good friends with their family (the Owens). Sarah and I explained about Bright Lights to Chelsea and not long afterwards, she started a Bright Lights group. The group has been going very well and we often hear good reports!

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Our family eating dinner with the Owen Family in Clearwater, Florida

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From left to right: Chelsea and Delaney Owen, Sarah, Jessica and Tara Allman

Sarah and I went to Starbucks one evening with Chelsea, her sister Delaney, and two older girls who help in their Bright Lights group, Jessica and Tara. Since we hadn’t finished talking when Starbucks closed, we moved to the bed of Chelsea’s truck. 🙂

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Tara and Jessica Allman, Delaney and Chelsea Owen

Strong in the Lord Conf.

Future Bright Lights Conferences in Florida

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Here we are visiting one of the churches that is hosting a Bright Lights conference this November. We are taking a team of about 20 girls down to do 4 conferences. The plan is to do a Radiant Purity conference in Clearwater on October 30-31 (Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday) and a Strong in the Lord conference on November 2-3 (Friday evening and all day Saturday), both in Clearwater. We are hoping to repeat that schedule the next week in Jacksonville.

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The Russell Family is working on details for hosting one or two Bright Lights conferneces in Jacksonville, Florida.
We stopped to meet the Russells and tour their church as we were leaving Florida. We were encouraged by their helpfulness and enthusiasm.

Family News

Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

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Since we are traveling, the three of us kids went out to eat tonight with my mom and dad to celebrate their anniversary. Wow! How many kids get to do that?

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Yes, my mom is laughing, not crying. At the resturant tonight, it wasn’t very easy to get a good picture of mom and dad. We showed mom the first picture we took, which was a really bad/funny picture of dad. She couldn’t stop laughing after that. Actually, none of us could. I think we made quite a scene in the resturant.