missions conference

What a great weekend we had when we were at EBC's missions conference.  Matt was asked months ago if our family would be a part of the conference and we gladly said yes.  We went completely with the intention of being an encouragement to others.  We were totally surprised to find that WE were the ones who were encouraged!  We spent time with absolutely wonderful people, were treated like royalty, and left the conference feeling so full.  We don't have a team of people around us in the western part of MA and sometimes the loneliness (ministry-wise) is discouraging.  Feeling like we had people rallying behind us in support, prayer, and encouragement really made us feel "full".  

One kind of funny thing that happened was on the Saturday of the conference.  We had to be at the church early but I instructed Brianna to let Leah sleep as much as she could (she was getting over being sick) and then take her to the church when she was ready.  Matt and I were in the middle of our first seminar when I heard a child crying.  I could tell it was Leah so I left to find out what the problem was.  It turns out that when she and Brianna came into the church, a man greeted them at the door and told Leah that there was a real live Indian in one of the classrooms.  When Brianna brought her to the classroom and Leah saw the Indian, she burst into tears and grabbed onto Brianna for dear life.  There was a children's conference going on at the same time and "Chief Straight Arrow" was the main speaker.  He is the pastor of the church, but Leah didn't realize that and was terrified!  I calmed her down, explained that he was really very nice and was just dressed up in an Indian costume, and sat in the class with her.  She held me so tightly for the first half hour at least, but by the end of the weekend she said she actually liked him!  I explained to Chief Straight Arrow that our family just may have watched a little too much Daniel Boone :)

We had a welcome basket waiting for us when we walked into the ministry house we stayed at.  One of the ladies from the church had made little blankets for the kids.  Leah LOVED hers.  She even now takes it with her everywhere!  This is at the playground at the church.

 It snowed while we were there. This is Micah's reaction when he found a patch of it.

We are so thankful for the part that we could have at the missions conference and for the people who brought us so much encouragement~