Where in the States are the Amors? Indiana, Part Two

After our time in Winona Lake, we headed on to Anthony’s grandma’s house. We got there in time to unload a few things from the car and get the kids beds set up, and then off to Koontz Lake Missionary Church where Anthony’s Aunt Kristie had organized a little get together for us to share our ministry at. It was a nice evening and great to catch-up with people.

Next day we went back to Winona Lake to have lunch with my oldest friend. Nicole was our next door neighbor from when we were babies until I was 6 when we moved to Ohio. Our mothers did a great job of helping us keep in touch and see one another through our school years. As adults we rarely get to see each other, but when we do, it is sweet! So, we got to spend a few hours with her and her mother and it was wonderful.


Then, back to Anthony’s Aunt’s house for an Amor family BBQ. It was so good to see everyone and catch-up.


Anthony’s cousin’s daughter is just a month younger than Alethia and the girls had such a great time together. I wish the world was a smaller place and these girls could play together a little more often. Alethia has been asking to play with Allison since then.

We left the BBQ around 10:30 that night and headed up to Wisconsin. We made it in an incredible 3 short hours! It was just a week ago that we drove through the Chicago area and the traffic made a 7 hour drive take 13 hours (at least we had good company since we were transporting our Malachi pals, Rich and Melissa)! So we felt incredibly relieved to make it in such a short time. Especially since we had to be up early the next morning because Anthony was preaching! More on that next time…

Where in the States are the Amors? Indiana, Part One

We drove down from Michigan and made it to Winona Lake in time to meet TK and Dana for lunch. TK and Dana were my leaders the summer that I was on Operation Barnabas. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here is a quick synopsis: Operation Barnabas is a ministry that CE National does every summer where they put high school students from all over the country on ministry teams of about 30 and tour the country for 6 weeks. The students develop a heart for ministry as they go from church to church doing work projects, evangelism, outreach programs, and kids programs. Words aren’t really adequate to describe what this ministry meant in my life.

When I went on Barnabas I think I really was at a crossroads in my life of deciding if I would follow Jesus whole-heartedly or continue to seek relief from this painful world through my own inadequate means. I found myself surrounded by leaders who loved God and loved me where I was while still calling me to something greater and by peers who encouraged and supported me giving me hope and belonging. Operation Barnabas is what solidified my relationship with God and deepend it. I made a decision that summer that I would answer God’s calling on my life to go into full-time ministry and now here I am…13 years later and celebrating 7 years of doing ministry with military teens.

The cool thing is that my parents led Barnabas teams before kids and then the first few summers of our lives. My sister went on a Barnabas team, then I got to go the summer before my senior year of high school. And I went back as a leader the summer before Anthony and I got married. I dream of going back and getting to lead again but with Anthony this time. I don’t foresee an open summer in our future that is just free to take-off, though. So, I’m settling for trying to get them to send a team to Germany one of these summers to minister on the military bases. We will see…

All of that to say that TK and Dana (as well as my entire OB team) are incredibly dear to me, and I was so glad to get to see them for a couple of hours. Plus I got the added bonus of seeing another one of my leaders, Bob, for a few minutes later that afternoon. And I am really excited that I have the opportunity to connect with some of my Barnabas friends in Pennsylvania next week!

**I am really trying to do a better job this trip of getting pictures with everyone we see, however, I totally blanked and didn’t get any with TK and Dana. So, I’m sorry; no picture. If I was at home, I could scan an old Barnabas picture in and post it…maybe when I get back.

Pretty Toes

I have been putting off painting Alethia’s nails because I did not really believe that she could sit long enough for the polish to dry. Once in awhile I will color her finger nails with a marker, and she really likes that. However, when we arrived at my sister’s house a couple weeks ago, Alethia quickly noticed that her cousin, Lucy, had yellow painted toe nails and immediately thought “I want yellow toe nails too!” Alethia asked and reminded and pestered Auntie until she had a moment to sit down and paint those toe nails yellow. Alethia was thrilled and very proud of them. She pointed them out to everyone when she met them. “Hi! I’m Alethia. I have yellow paint on my toes!” Unfortunately, I did not think to get a picture of her fun yellow toe nails. Well, they were starting to look a little ragged, so I asked Alethia if she wanted to go to the store and pick out a new color to put on her toes. Of course, she was ecstastic and kept reminding me that we needed to go shopping until we were in the car. Once there, I showed her the row of “insta-dry” nail polish and told her to pick a color. Of course, she wanted yellow. I convinced her that toe nails could be any color; they didn’t have to be yellow. She settled on two colors and told me that she could have red today and purple tomorrow. I was not about to commit to repainting her nails every day, so we compromised…

Luckily, Dikke was there to keep her preoccupied and sitting still so I could get the job done. They told each other stories while the polish dried.

On another note, my mom and I also decided to get new color on our toe nails. We went for pedicures together. The girl doing mine asked if I wanted another flower. As I hesitated, she promised that it would be prettier than the one I had before. I thought the one I had before was pretty great, so I doubted that it could get much better. However, she did make them pretty extravagant. What do you think?...