A few interesting incidents

It was another busy weekend with lots going on. Just thought I would write about a few of the more interesting incidents from the weekend.

On Saturday we went to another wedding. This was a little different because the bride has a Jewish heritage. She and her family have accepted Christ as Messiah and Savior, but wanted to honor their heritage and incorporate Jewish traditions into the wedding ceremony. They were married under a canopy, the bride circled the groom seven times, they read a wedding covenant, and had a few other Jewish traditions. It was so interesting to see the various items that take place in a Jewish wedding ceremony. The program detailed what the different traditions meant and the man conducting the wedding ceremony explained things as well. It was so fascinating.

The reception brought a few more fun traditions - our favorite being traditional "bottle dancers" just like Fiddler on the Roof. They were amazing and so fun! This pictures wasn't the real thing, but it looked very much like this. Cool, huh?

We had a meeting for our church right after the wedding, but we had forgotten a few things at home. We hurried home and Saul dashed inside to get the stuff. I was driving and in my hurry, I backed out - a little too quickly. Someone was coming down our little lane and I didn't see them until it was too late. I didn't realize what happened until I heard the little crunch. Thankfully both cars were going less than ten miles per hour (the other car was turning into the driveway across from ours), but I was still pretty shaken. I've never been in an accident before and was so frustrated with myself. Everything worked out ok and there was barely any damage. The police took their time coming, so we were majorly late to our meeting. We are just so thankful that no one was hurt and that there was barely any damage at all. Praise the Lord!

After our church meeting, we headed over to my parents. My brother was the best man in the wedding and he and my sister-in-law stayed around until Sunday We all watched the Chicago Blackhawks game together, then played a rousing game of spoons. It was fun to be with family, as always.

On Memorial Day we relaxed at home for the first part of the day. Since Saturday had been so busy, it was nice to just relax at home. I did a little bit of couponing and deal searching (a few deals, but nothing major to report - yet!). We went over to my parents for dinner and had a feast - stuffed hamburgers, brats, corn on the cob, deviled  eggs, fruit salad, chips, veggies, baked beans, etc. It was wonderful. For dessert, my brother's girlfriend made a strawberry pie and a chocolate pie. My sister's friend also brought yummy brownies. So much for a healthy meal plan this weekend!

Wish I had pictures to share, but this was when my camera was still having issues. Bummer! Hope you all had a great weekend and Memorial Day. I am so thankful for all of those who have served our country - and for the sacrifices of their family and friends!

Kathryne

A Beautiful Wedding

My big brother is married. I love it!! We are so excited that Christopher found the love of his life, that God brought such a perfect girl for him, and that God brought them together in such a perfect way.

It has been so wonderful to watch their relationship grow and to see how well they compliment each other. We are excited to welcome Jen into the family! She is such a sweetie and we love her already.

Everything seemed to go extremely well with no absolute craziness on the day of the wedding. Jen did wake up with a broken blood vessel in the corner of her eye on Friday, but she was still able to wear her contacts for the wedding (a huge praise) and you really can't see it in the pictures.

They both love music, so we thought this picture was so pretty, especially with the reflection. Jen teaches piano and Chris plays several instruments, thus the following sign that was made for one of their showers and then used at the rehearsal dinner and reception.

Like I said in my last post, one really neat part about the wedding was seeing so much of my family. Here is a picture of all of my immediate family (siblings and grandparents). 

This is everyone except my sister-in-law Abbie (We missed you Abbie!!). I am one of six children - (1) Christopher - the groom (2) Kyle - far right, his wife was the unable to come (3) Me and my handsome husband (4) Kirk - far left, with his wife Kelly (5) Carlton - far right on the top (6) Carolyn - the cute girl on the front right. My mom's parents are on the front row and my dad's parents are right behind them. Such a cute family, huh? I love them so much.

The next picture has our whole family and Jen's whole family too. 

 The Ceremony

The vows were conducted by Jen's dad who is a pastor. It was very sweet.

The Kiss! Finally husband and wife!

A few more pictures

Beautiful bouquets 

The floating unity candle. So pretty.

The guest book table. The Guest Book was a scrapbook that Jen made full of engagement pictures. It was so nice for family and friends to write notes of advice in.

The strawberries for the reception. Yum!

Chris and Jen, we couldn't be more happy for you! We are excited to see how God will use you! Thank you for your God-honoring wedding. We love you!

Kathryne

A Trip, A Tick, Some Treasures, and Terrible Temperatures!

This weekend was another full one!! Whew, what a weekend!

First, my oldest brother Christopher got married!! We are so excited for Chris and Jen! (More on this later.) So, on Thursday evening, we packed up our car - along with my dad, sister, and brother - and headed to Wisconsin. Chris and Jen live in northern Wisconsin near the Upper Peninsula. It wasn't too bad of a drive, but we were way more packed than we had originally though. It was good to catch up with my brother who has been at college and just spend time with some family. We didn't get into the place that we were staying until around midnight, but we made it safely.

Here is a sneak peak of the wedding. Like I said, more pictures to come!

On Friday while a bunch of the girls were decorating for the wedding, Saul, my dad, and some of the other guys worked on some stuff at my brother's house. Saul and my dad installed a closet door and then worked with some brush outside.

On Saturday morning Saul woke up and told me that he felt like something was eating at his leg. I took a look, and sure enough, a tick was buried in his leg - ICK!!! I was going to put a picture on here, but I think I'll spare you! = ) I got some peroxide to pour on it before taking it out and while that didn't kill it, I was able to get the entire thing out of him. Nasty!!

The next "T" on the list is treasures. It was such a treasure to be able to spend time with family. Other than my parents and my brother and sister (when they aren't at college), all of my family lives out of state. It was wonderful to see all of my siblings there (minus one sister-in-law), all four of my grandparents, some cousins and aunts and uncles!!! It was so great to see and spend time with some of them that I hadn't seen in awhile.  Here are a few pictures - again, I'll put more up later this week.

Three generations on my mom's side. (Can you tell it was so bright outside?)

Two more cousins from my mom's side.

With some of the guys in the family -

Kyle (my brother), Carlton (brother), Saul (handsome husband), Josh (cousin's husband), Joanna (cousin), and me

Our camera broke a few days before the wedding, so I am waiting for people to put pictures on facebook so that I can get a copy. I'll have to post more pictures of my dad's side of the family once I get my hands on them. = )

The final T's are for Terrible Temperatures! It has been pretty cool here in Chicago and we haven't needed to use our air conditioner yet because it has been cool. Because we had been out of town, we didn't realize that the forecast for Sunday included upper 80 temps. We had a busy, but great, day at church on Sunday and knew that we would turn the air on when we got home since it was so hot outside. Plus, my parents, grandparents, and sister were all coming over for dinner on their way back from Wisconsin and we wanted it comfortable in the house for our company. We ended up getting home from church about thirty minutes before everyone arrived and immediately turned the air on - only to find that our air conditioner wasn't working!!! Ugh!!

We purchased our home in December and there was no way to test the air conditioner at that point. Thankfully we were able to work out a deal to include the air conditioner on a home warranty paid for by the seller. Needless to say, that home warranty is going to be put to good use (for a second time) because although the fans were blowing, nothing cold was coming out of the vents.

So, here we were in a second level townhome with upper 80 temperatures and the oven on to make homemade pizza plus a house full of guests! I felt awful that it was so hot in there, but other than leaving, there was nothing we could do. We pulled out our one fan and had it going to at least circulate the air. Our townhome also has a "whole house fan" that helps circulate the air as well, but our thermostat still said 91 degrees while everyone was there! Everyone was so gracious about it and said it wasn't too bad. As a hostess though, I felt terrible. I was going to make some cookies, but decided against it so that we could just turn the oven off. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience.

Again, once I can get pictures from my parents from everyone's visit, I'll post them.

So, that was our weekend. It was a great one full of many memories. I love my family so much and was so thankful to spend time with them.

Kathryne

A Whirlwind Weekend!!

Whew!! What a fun, but crazy weekend! We hit the ground running on Thursday night and are now enjoying an evening of doing nothing after a whirlwind weekend!

Thursday night started with Prayer Gathering - which is always a great night of prayer, fellowship, and encouragement. We stayed so late and enjoyed the fellowship with all of our friends from church. I don't think we left until around 11:30!!

On Friday morning we got up bright and early (actually it wasn't even bright out when we got up!!). We met my parents and rode with them up to MBBC for my "little" brother's college graduation! We are so proud of you, Kirk!!

Thankfully the graduation was inside - because it was freezing cold and raining. Kirk graduated with a degree in physical education. He finished his student teaching in January and is happy to have school behind him.

My sister-in-law Kelly and brother Kirk

Kirk and Kelly with my parents

While we were taking pictures, I met up with this blogging friend!! We were actually best friends when we were in elementary school, but hadn't seen each other in ages. She actually found my blog through the Ultimate Blog Party!!! Crazy, huh? Anyway, it was great to see her again!! Wish I would have thought to take a picture!! (As you'll see, I didn't think of pulling out my camera very many times this weekend at all. Oops!)

After pictures we headed over to Kirk and Kelly's place and had a great "cook in" there. Thankfully they had enough room for everyone to eat inside since it was still raining - and freezing cold!! Kelly made a delicious fruit salad and we had tons of wonderful food! It was fun to spend time celebrating with a group of family and friends. We got home around 9:00 and I was exhausted. We tried watching a movie, but I lasted about ten minutes before crashing!


It was nice to be able to sleep in for a little bit on Saturday morning. I woke up early but stayed in bed and read while Saul slept for a little while longer. My grandparents gave me this book and this book  (from the Acts of Faith series by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke) awhile ago and I never had time to read them. I picked the first one up the other week to read while waiting for my aunt at the airport and now I'm on the second one. I am thoroughly enjoying them! I hadn't read a book in ages, but after finishing the first one, I immediately wanted to start the second!

Because we took our time in the morning, we ended up rushing to arrive on time for a friend's wedding in Indiana (about an hour and fifteen minute drive). The wedding was beautiful and the bride and groom were beaming! It was wonderful to celebrate with our friends. Again, I totally forgot to take pictures. Ughh. The reception was at the groom's parents home - a beautiful, Victorian home. There were planning on an outdoor reception, but it was again rainy and cold, so everyone squeezed inside - and it was a squeeze. Even though the house is large, it was wall-to-wall people! The groom's mom thinks that around 500 people came throughout the afternoon! Again it was delicious food and fun fellowship.

On our way back, we caravaned with our friends Phillip and Lydia from church. We ended up stopping at Starbucks when we were almost home just to chat. It was great to get to know them better and also see their sweet baby girl Elizabeth who is six weeks old! Unfortunately, about halfway through our time at Starbucks baby Elizabeth decided that she'd had enough partying and was ready to go home. = ) We had a great time with them and are looking forward to going out again! It was 9:45 by the time we got home, so we got things ready for Sunday and headed to bed.

Today was a great day at church with a special dedication to mothers and a message on resisting temptation. I'll try to write more on that later.

Right after church, we headed over to my parent's for lunch. My dad made lunch since we weren't there to help prepare. I felt terrible that I couldn't do more since it was Mother's Day! We had a yummy lunch with my parents and sister Carolyn who came home from college on Friday. It was fun to catch up with my mom and sit and chat while Dad and Saul played ping pong. It was a fun day.

So, we are home now, relaxing after a weekend full of travel, family, friends, and fellowship. The whirlwind of a weekend was well worth the memories and fun times.

How was your weekend?

Kathryne

New Life Easter Service 2010

Easter was an amazing day here in the G. home! The Easter Community Launch service for our church went wonderfully! We are praising the Lord today for the people He brought our way and for what He did in hearts in the service. We had a wonderful time.

The day started at 8:30 with all of the "core team" meeting at the school where we meet to unload all of the church materials. It took awhile, but thankfully we had everything set up in time for our first guest.

Because we meeting in two school gyms right now, we had to make a portable nursery. As I mentioned in my last post, a man in our church ended up making the whole thing out of PVC pipe and his wife sewed curtain walls. Our pastor's wife found interlocking floor mats with colors on one side and a car mat on the other side! Too cute, huh?

The guys in the parking lot wore their orange vests to help let people know where we were since the school has asked us not to put up signs on the property. The core team also had name tags with our church logo on it so that people would know who to go to with any questions. Everyone in the group did a fantastic job of making people feel welcome and the service went so smoothly.

Pastor preached a wonderful message on "Life's Story" with an overview of Scripture from Creation to the Empty Tomb. It was a wonderful message full of hope and victory in Christ. What a joy to know that my God is not dead - He is alive!!


One of the neat parts that we love about our church is that we have lunch together each Sunday. Eating together gives us a great time of fellowship and we really have an opportunity to get to know each other and our guests. We were so excited that almost everyone stayed for lunch! It did help that we had a delicious meal - spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and a feast of desserts! Normally we pick a theme and everyone brings a dish, but yesterday one lady in our church made a lot of it ahead of time and we all brought desserts and drinks. We had a lot leftover, but we always break out "to go" containers and everyone takes some home.

Our small church almost doubled in size yesterday, for which we were so thankful. We weren't sure how many people to expect, but God brought us the perfect amount. We finished out the day with 64 people in attendance! It was a wonderful day of celebrating our Risen Savior and also celebrating this new church! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!


Kathryne

Easter Sunday 2010

Although I loved being part of the Easter play that I was in last year and shared about yesterday, I am even more excited about the ministry opportunity that we will a part of this year.

Back in October, Saul and I helped start New Life Baptist Church in Glenview, IL. It has been a wonderful experience and God is teaching us much through it. We love our small group of believers and it has been exciting to see Christ truly build His church over the last several months.
When the church started in October, we started in our pastor's home. There were only fifteen of us, including children, so we really didn't have the necessity to rent a place. We passed out some flyers to the surrounding area when we first started, but we really didn't do too much at the beginning to invite people to come. But, God started drawing people our way - every week! By the end of the year we had about 35 stuffed into our pastor's living room each Sunday for our morning service and for lunch. We were looking for places to rent, but nothing was working out.

Finally, in the middle of February, it worked out for us to being renting a gym at a school down the street from our pastor's home. We love being there.

Anyway, all of that to say that for Easter this year our new church is hosting a "Community Wide Launch Service." We sent postcards to 20,000+ homes around the school that we meet at and have been actively inviting people to come visit our church. Our church family is also working hard to invite personal friends and contacts. Our group of 40 may perhaps double next Sunday!

There are lots of little details to work out and lots of hurdles to overcome in regards to having the special service, but it has been exciting to see things start to come together. The school that we meet in is pretty strict about where we put signs, so we have had to be creative about letting people know where we are. We ordered bright orange vests for the people who will be parking lot attenders and my brother Carlton put the logo on the back of the vests. We thought they turned out great!

Up until this point, we haven't had a nursery because we haven't had space for one and haven't really needed one. But, with having guests, someone is bound to need a nursery. We are only allowed to rent the school's two gyms, so we had to be creative on this one too. One of the men in our church is great with building things and ended up building a nursery out of PVC pipe and fabric. I'll have to take a picture of this on Sunday so that you can see. It is pretty cool.

We are exciting to see who God will bring us on Sunday. God is so faithful and has been so good to His little church in Glenview. If any of you reading are in the area and would like more information, you can visit the church website or leave me a comment! If you are reading and would pray for us on Sunday, we would sure appreciate it!

Looking forward to our 2010 Easter service,
Kathryne

Last Year's Easter Service

I am very excited for Easter this year! Easter has always been a special time of celebration and I look forward to it with anticipationg each year.

Last year our church put on a passion play called "God's Masterpiece." Saul and I were both in it. It was an amazing thing to be a part of. Saul was a Roman soldier and I was in the choir.

Saul is the handsome one on the right.

I'm in the bottom left corner of this crowd scene.

The play focused around the different aspects of the disciples. "The Last Supper" painting was portrayed several times throuhgout the presentation.

It was an amzing play to be a part of. The church is actually putting it on again this year, but because we are now working with a small church plant, we will be in the congregation instead of actually in the play. If anyone reading is in the Chicago area, I would definitely recommend going. You can get more information here.

Tomorrow I will share the exciting event that we will be participating in for Easter 2010. The rest of the week I would like to share about why Easter is such a special celebration.

Kathryne