Happy Thanksgiving!

What a beautiful sunny Thanksgiving day it was, and we have so much to be thankful for.

Here is Will while he was still happy, just before the death of the ancient electric knife which his mother handed down to me 23 years ago. While demonstrating his turkey carving techniques to Tessa, the Korean foreign exchange student hosted by Doug's family, and who had never eaten turkey, the electric knife gave out. He had to send Nick out to the trailer to get the knife sharpener before turkey carving could continue, because he never believes I keep my knives sharp enough.

We enjoyed a traditional fabulous Thanksgiving feast. We missed Craig, who I believe was traveling to Barcelona that day, but we are very thankful that he is where God wants him to be. I asked those around the table to try to look natural and unposed with their faces toward the camera. This is what I got.

Will always gazes at me adoringly just like this.

Will got called out on a search in the Quartzville area just as we were serving dessert. Fortunately the people were located unharmed a few hours later and he got to return home to enjoy the evening snacks and pie.

In the afternoon, Anisa and I took a walk and watched our boys play some basketball. Way to go Duane!

Venisa experimented with cutting Duane's hair for the first time. As long as Guitar Hero can go on he is unperturbed by it!

Unfortunately, we couldn't get Nick to agree to a haircut, even though Will is offering to buy him a tank top and short shorts so he can look just like Richard Simmons! If he is going to look like Richard Simmons, I am hoping he will adopt the cheerful exuberance as well. Although I am told by the McAnulty men that they are incapable of such a personality.

Doug managed to struggle through the afternoon in front of the football games without Will.

Anisa and I did a little scrapbooking on Dad's 80th birthday scrapbook. Now that was a project, just getting the pictures for it! I downloaded the pictures from the cameras of Galen, Doug, Dawn, Mom, Tom, Jean and of course myself and then got to figure out which ones to print out of all of them. What fun! The scrapbook is going to be much bigger than I first invisioned!

Now I am going to spend the afternoon working on it. Nick and Will took off geocaching, Eric is working, my house is tidied up and my laundry is going. I shall pour a cup of my caramel truffle flavored coffee and enjoy being absorbed in creating an album. The perfect afternoon!

Lance Cpl. Tyler John Troyer

June 7, 1984-November 19, 2005
Gone but not Forgotten


Two years ago today, Tyler left this earth for a better place. Please pray for his family during this difficult time of year.
"My grace is sufficient for you; my power is made perfect in weakness." (I Cor. 12:9)

Family Scrapping

The past two Saturdays, I've had the privilege of joining with other family members to do some marathan scrapbooking of family pictures. (I shared some of these old photos here a couple of weeks ago when we were in the process of organizing them.) We ended up with files of old pictures of my dad's growing up years, the early years of our family up through about 1977, separate files for each of us kids from babyhood through all the portraits of children and grandchildren (for the two oldest!), files for each of dad's brothers and sisters and their families, and also files of Troyer family events.

Last Saturday we had a good turnout and got the old ones taken care of, all the way through the aunt and uncles files. Galen was our VIP, with his vast knowledge of the past. We kept him busy labeling and writing about the really old pictures. It's really good to have an old guy around.

My sister Jean and niece Melissa did a great job at their station with the aunt and uncles pages.

I was so please that my beautiful"quilting glasses" were still at the house and Mom knew just where to find them. We had a good system going, where one person would lay out, one would tape down, and one would write. I do hope Mom isn't too terribly disappointed that she was out of her seat when this picture was taken. As you can see, she provided us with wonderful snacks as well as a delicious lunch, with our choice of two kinds of pie for dessert.

All the little boys were perfect as usual, entertaining themselvess and having a great time.

Yesterday there were just three of us, so we didn't get quite as much done, but the end is in sight! It was really fun even though I was rudely insulted by my little sister. I was laying out some pictures on some pretty blue flowered paper, which perfectly matched my bridesmaids dress when the folks got married back in 1973. Jean looked over my shoulder and cracked up laughing. "Mom and I noticed that paper and we thought it was weird looking - it reminded us of wallpaper. And here you are using it for her wedding!" We had a good laugh over it. I liked the way it looked, and the rebel within me made me stick with it! I enjoy reliving the past through pictures, or at least most of it. We agreed we wouldn't want to relive parts of it. Thank God, He always gets us through the rough times!

A Year Ago

A year ago on November 6, I got up early in the morning, made myself some coffee, and sat down to check my email. Ten minutes later, I was was sitting in front of my computer crying, re-reading an amazing, unexpected, inconceivable email, at last feeling some hope for my lost son Craig. Craig's friend Nathan Riley, YWAM missionary in Hurlach, Germany, had written a lengthy letter telling of his burden for his friend Craig, and how God was directing him to come here to offer Craig the opportunity to come work for room and board at the YWAM base in Hurlach, Germany. A year ago today, Nathan emailed again with the news that he would arrive here on November 18 and offer Craig a plane ticket to return to Germany about 10 days later.

That first email ended with, "That is the plan all in a nutshell. I hope the world for Craig, and I desire that he would come back to Lord. I believe this is what should happen. I hope you are in agreement, because I would not like to do something so big without your blessing as his parents.... Above all else, let’s continue to lift him up in prayer and place him in God’s hands. I am anxious and excited to see what becomes of all of this and I hope that whether Craig comes or not, he will still see that there are people who love him dearly, and that God is behind it loving him most of all."

Who would have thought that one year later, Craig would be serving Jesus as a YWAM missionary in Amsterdam, ministering to the homeless and addicted on the streets there. Here is a quote from the update Craig sent out to his prayer supporters last week:

"I felt it was needed to touch bases with all from the homefront and tell you first and foremost THANK YOU! Thank you for your prayers, thank you for all the ways you have backed me up. It feels good to know that even though I am halfway across the world, I am absolutely not alone and there are people back in my homeland that love me in a very practical and real way. I am excited to write more and provide clearer information as I learn more of what the need over here really is. I love that so many of you have joined me in building God's kingdom in the heart of Sodom. "

Craig is part of a team that is preparing to establish a mission base in Curacao, an island in the Dutch Antilles where he spent part of his Discipleship Training School outreach. You can read more about this team at a blog created by the team leader, http://www.curacao4jesus.blogspot.com/

I stole this picture of the team from his team leader's German blogsite.

Craig's story shows a beautiful picture of the Good Shepherd going to great lengths to seek out, rescue and restore his beloved lost sheep. I firmly believe God has a plan to rescue and save all of his lost children, and when he asks us for our help, we need to be willing to obey! My appreciation for Nathan's love for his friend and his obedience to God knows no bounds, and it is a challenge to me. God hears and answers our prayers for our children and our friends!

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death." (Psalm 68:19)

The Men Cook

This morning while I was backstage second service, waiting til it was time to go back on the platform with the worship team at the end of the service, I suggested to Will (who had returned home after first service) via text message that perhaps he would like to get creative with the hamburger in the fridge for lunch.

When I walked in my front door, I was greeted with the heavenly smell of beef and onions cooking. He and Eric had made oven hobo dinners, one for each of us. I had purchased a family pack, about seven pounds, of hamburger at Costco, and I asked Will what he had done with the rest of the hamburger.

"What do you mean, the rest of the hamburger?" he asked. I couldn't believe it! "You mean you used it all??"

"We are meat-eating men in this house," he declared. "We like our meat. You didn't say anything about how much hamburger I could use."

He let me rant and rave about how that hamburger should have provided a week's worth of meals for this family (not that I would use hamburger at every meal for a week) and I couldn't believe they would even think of using the whole package for one meal. He tried to appease me by saying that there would probably be leftovers.

Then I opened the fridge to prepare a healthy salad and saw the rest of the hamburger sitting in there. When will I ever learn not to fall for these things?

A Weird Work Experience

It was late afternoon, that lovely quiet time of day when the students and most of the teachers are gone and you can actually settle down and get some work done. I was enjoying this quiet time when an elderly woman burst in the door and, ignoring the front counter, headed straight for my desk, holding an open wallet. I stood up and guided her gently to the front counter, where she remained on my side of the counter as she handed me the wallet. Excitedly, she told me that she had been walking over at the track at the West Albany stadium when someone came up to her and asked her to turn in this wallet to Memorial. The wallet was wet, and I set it on the counter, commenting that the picture looked like one of our students. She said, "The person told me he found it in the toilet." I perhaps screeched something like, "You just handed me a wallet that was in a TOILET! Excuse me while I go wash my hands!" I quickly went to the next room where I thoroughly soaped and scrubbed my hands.

She was still standing at the counter going through the wallet when I returned, apparently completely unfazed about handling a wallet that had recently been in a TOILET. "Look, there's no money it it. But there's an ATM card. Why would such a young person have an ATM card? And isn't it strange that the young man who gave it to me asked me to bring it here instead of bringing it himself. Don't you think that's strange?" She kept talking and going through the wallet, which rested on the front counter where I stand and do business every day. I could hardly stand it that this toilet-water wallet was on my countertop.

I noticed my friendly fellow secretary trying to sneak out of the office and I quickly asked, "Helen, what do you think of this?" "Helen, how are you," our voluble uninvited guest chirped, delighted to see an acquaintance. They got involved in conversation and I snuck away to spend some more quality time with soap at the sink.

Finally the dear old lady departed, apparently satisfied that she had thoroughly investigated the contents of the wallet and had puzzled long enough over the mystery of why the young man chose her for this important errand. Helen immediately scooped the wallet into a plastic bag, I got out the disinfectant cleaner and spent some time thoroughly cleaning the countertop.

This, my friends, is one more reason to always shop at a store that provides disinfectant wipes next to the shopping carts, and always thoroughly disinfectant-wipe the handles of your shopping cart!