October 22-30

We have been in charge of caring for these three grandchildren many times during their lifetime, but none of them ever turned out quite like this time. 🙂

I asked the boys (left to right: Jared, Jesse, and Ian) to pose for a picture this morning before church – to send to their parents who are on a working/vacation in Chile.

Cerwin took this one while I was taking a cell phone picture for Jere and Kristen.

The early part of the week was fairly routine – like taking them to their house to feed and water the chickens and gather eggs.

We enjoyed the flowers Jere brought – along with the boys clothing, food, and schedule on Friday, October 21..

Jared and Ian sharpened their hunting skills by shooting BB pellets at pesky squirrels and blackbirds.

Jesse works on his reading skills a bit each day.

They had a lot of fun with our great-grandson, Anthony, (their cousin-once-removed) on Tuesday evening when Nate and Abby went out for supper with friends.

A cell phone picture to send to his grandma Diane in Maine. It is so much fun having him stay with us on occasion. He makes me smile – and sometimes laugh.

On Wednesday evening Jesse and I went to Manheim Central Middle School to pick up Ian after band practice. Jesse was playing a game on his Tablet.

I enjoyed the sky and fall beauty around me.

Band practice is over

On Thursday evening Jesse made buttered noodles and hot dogs for supper.

Jared created this design with magnets we keep for the children who visit us.

Jesse likes to make rows with the dominos.

He is quite satisfied with himself when it works and they all fall – like dominos should.

Ian likes to make anything he can fry in our new frying pan – eggs, chicken patties, and home fries.

Doesn’t that seem like a fairly ordinary week of caring for young boys?

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The unusual part of our week began on Friday evening when we went to church for the beginning of our revival meetings. We went early for the prayer meeting that opened our ten-day series of meetings. Unbeknownst to us, it was during this prayer time that Jared knew it was time for him to make a decision to follow Jesus.

When prayer service was over, we went to the sanctuary and joined the others in singing. During the first song Jesse leaned over to me and whispered – I am feeling in my heart that Jesus wants me to make a decision to follow Him.

Because I wanted to make sure he knew what he was doing, I suggested that we call his parents when we got home from church.

Then when the sermon was over, and the visiting minister requested a song of invitation, Jesse was quite uncomfortable and asked me again if he could stand for Jesus. I told him that was up to him. About that time Jared stood to his feet to publically confess that he wanted to be a follower of Jesus.

Our congregation believes that it is important to make a public decision when responding to the call of God in our lives in order to “put down a stake” in our spiritual journey and tell others about our choice to follow Christ.

When he saw Jared stand to his feet, Jesse was quite uncomfortable, but I suggested that he should wait to talk to his parents. Oh, my, what a decision for a grandma.

After we got home they called their parents in Chile – who were anxiously waiting for the call – because Ian had texted them about Jared’s decision. This is when Jere and Kristen were praying with the boys. (I love modern technology.)

Ian made this decision on the same day – four years earlier.

Then I told them about Jesse’s desire to accept Jesus into his heart and told them it had nothing to do with Jared’s decision, but that God’s call to Jesse happened before Jared made his decision public.

They confirmed that Jesse knew what he was doing and encouraged him to publicly invite Christ into his heart.

Jesse made his decision to follow Christ this morning during the morning worship service. (I apologize for the blurred cell phone picture. I only took one picture so I wouldn’t disturb the meeting with two of our preachers – Ron and David.)

Ron and David did a fabulous job of asking Jesse to read scripture and confirm his decision to follow Christ. The preachers who talked to Jared – in the same room were David and Jon (no picture). I was also impressed with the way in which they used this time to “put down a stake” in this early part of his walk with Christ.

Cerwin took this picture of Jesse responding to one of Ron’s questions. Jared, Ian, and their sister, Jana, were also in the room.

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My heart is bursting with joy and gratefulness to God for allowing us to be part of this experience for Jared and Jesse.

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