Pressing on the upward way.

Dear readers,

I am entirely thrilled right now about commentating you through our annual trip to Nashville for the Advanced Training Institute Conference(More commonly referred to as A.T.I.)! What a week! Of a truth, I am compelled to a new standard, a higher path to walk, and I'm excited! This conference is for home school family refreshment. But that is putting this conference in a box to say it is about homeschooling. It's simply wonderful, practical, challenging, teaching on Christian-life-living. I will share more at the end of what all God did in my life personally that wonderful week, but let me just say that it was not a easy-smeazy week of inspiring talk, it, on the other had, created a burning in my heart to do what I now knew was right. And the man behind all of this is the man standing in the picture below; Bill Gothard. I correct myself, for I'm sure that he would point his finger heaven-ward to give all glory to our most powerful God for any good that might come from his life. That's what this week is about,purely Jesus.

 I  begin with the highlight of the week; the final session! All the young people that attend the conference form the Choir and Orchestra for three powerfully arranged hymns! Over a hundered voices blending in harmony along with the ever so talented orchestra  make it a very awe-inspiring finally! Above: Mr. Gothard stands in front of the large choir of young people to address the tear-filled crowed after "It will be worth it all" for the last time that week.

Developing new relationships as we wait to sing.

I can't even begin to discribe the emotions that floods my body as I hear the familiar sound of the orchestra playing the entro to "It will be Worth It All." This song is sang every year without fail, the arrangment is wonderful and the saprono notes make my spirit sour! I felt ten feet off the ground when we sang the last few notes of that triumphant song that ends the conference every year.

Brothers add to the base section. They were splendid. Glad though, that they didn't try out for tenor, they would have simply been the backup vocals for the amazing tenor solo and never meet their true potential! He he! I'm sorry, writing inside jokes is a very mean and insensitive gesture, but after long days of sitting is sessions, almost all one can do is giggle,therefore we have many inside jokes from the week that kept us light-hearted,so I hope you will excuse me this once.

Soprano section lets out a few large notes! :)

I dare say that when you attend one of these conferences you must have strong hands, for one does LOTS of clapping and at least two standing O's per day is nothing unusal. It's simply wonderful, for it is giving honor to whome honor is due. I salute the man in the orange hair and tie! David, every time we picture him we must smile. He gives new meaning to the phrase "right hand man" which is his position to Bill. He is so engergetic and such a go-getter that one is sure to be inspired. And he can tell a mean story at the drop of a hat when called apon by Mr. Gothard. Bless his heart, he always makes the annoucments at the end of each session and half the people are leaving the autitorium without paying him mind and he continues on as vigorously and passionately as ever! :)

It was great to have the Duggars at the conference for most of the week. Here they are singing one morning session. For fellow A.T.I. attendents: "They're everywhere!" :) How embarrassing that was. 



Each afternoon all the "young people" gather in a red-carpeted room for inspirationally challenging student sessions. Mr. Gothard leaves the adults with other speakers and speaks to us in the catagory of "students". It puts him in his glory! Young unmarreid people are his passion! This is the minsitry God has laid on his heart at a very young age, and it's still as strong as a calling as it was then. He says "I love this sight! I love you young people, and the more issues you have the more I love you!" We laugh, we honor him in the highest. For most of us his influence has brought us freedom in many areas. A lot of people have a story of rebellion in their youth then a change of heart and speak to other youth in warning not to go there or to encourage them by how God changed their life radically after their rebellion. This is so wonderful, and each persons story is different, all powerful. I too went through a rebellion as a young teenager. All this to say that Bill Gothards story is slightly different, though he was by no means perfect, as a highschool student he was so busy creatively wittnessing to his school friends, and advancing Gods Kingdom, he only had time to attend about ten min. of one football game during his highschool years. This man was acting the way he should when he was a teenager, and it's a message that is so inspiring! Saying that now is the time to start advancing God's kingdom, not sew my wild oats and then settle down and serve the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind. and strength. If he would be teaching what he does as the 70 year old man he is, and only that, it would be hard to recieve sometimes. But no, the things he challenges us to do are decisions he made when he was our age and younger, and his life attests that it worked!




After lunch out in the montorhome I walked into the front lobby to find this beautiful sight of my friends gathered around hymn book and playing beautiful music.. Note; Another "They're everywhere" moment! :)




Oh, my dear friends Piano playing does me wonders.



In an effort to squeeze out every moment we could together ("We" being me and my Ohio Kindreds, with whome I've grown up with and have been attending A.T.I together the last three years. There was also some special guest from Indiana that we so enjoyed having with us.) I spent most evenings at the Hotel with my dearest friends. This is breakfast one morning before leaving for the activies of the day.

Three sisters all ready for a day of various activies and sessions! :)

Some manly men pose before embarking on the grewsome challenges of the Alert Cadet life! Truly, they're out in the very hot son all day and have activies that challenge character and streangth! :)

So sweet to sit in the van and hear little men voices practicing their verses for the day behind me..."..quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword....." (Hebrews 4:12)

Brother Eugene plays the authoritive role squad leader. It's so his thing. He was created to be in charge! And thrives in doing so. :)



Gracie and her little friends enjoy fun days of singing, crafts, skits, Bible verses with motions, and the highlight; naptime! :)



I take a deep breath.....when this amoutn of talent and passion is poured out on the piano, words can't express. Erin Bates is a personal piano hero of mine. I have her CD. She is the pianist at this conference. And if you've ever watched or heard of the Duggers, you've probably heard of the Bates family, the daughters being pictured above being theirs. I have five piano CDs right now from different artists...and they send me souring into a dream world and remind me why I keep playing, and  how I hope to play one day. Even though this "level 2b" I'm on isn't always as inspring, evening worship sessions with brothers on guitars and me pouding out the  cords I know (thanks to friends who have given me lessons on cording.)  to hymns and praise songs does most certainly inspire a body. A wise women in our Church shared with me that Psalms refurrs to "praise" as "playing on stringed insturments". I have found this to be so true in my life...wow....I am going to do a whole post on music sometime, Ok? I can't write a book in a "caption"! :) When this subject comes up in my life, sometimes I don't even try to expess the beauty of right music and the devastation of the opposit, it's a mysetry still unfolding in my heart, and I'm not always sure how to express the purest of bliss that floods my soul when the sweet symphonies of praise ring in my ears...ok....sorry...stop now Deborah....:)

A smile spreads across my face as I see the man in this picture. He was our weirdest speaker the whole week! ;) (I think though that the chocolate throwing party by the Speeds is up there in the rankings! :)) But in such a wonderful way! I sat in the afternoon student sessions with my body and mind tired but Spirit fully engaged and challenged, and then steps up Ken Peirpont with the duty of sharing with us how to engagingly share stories for the sake of the Gospel. All that need be said to those who heard him speak is "THE PIE!" :) I would venture to say that 10 min. after he told the animated version of his daughter making a pie for her boyfirend, me and Cherie were still trying with all our might to keep back from rediculously laughing and making a fool of ourselves! Our brothers sitting behind us laughing at our silly strugle. It was such an amazing session! Not life-changing, but the joy it still brings to my heart must have done something in my life. And it was indeed inspireing in the manner of how to creativly give spiritual parelles to stories in our lives.

I took 22 pages of notes that week! But on my heart was printed many more.

Mother grabs a picture of sweet friends from Indiana.

"We MUST do it Cherie!" We were and are so ready to do what the Spirit has been telling and laying on our hearts. We knew what He wanted, we didn't want to stand back and wait for it any longer, somthing new was starting in our hearts, and the adventure, we could feel, was going to be intense. But we must submit, give up, be willing, no longer qunch the Spirits promptings, to be abandant, deny our own lives, hate our lives as He asks. This all sounds great right? No, I have not done all these things since the passion was burned within me to do so. But an amazing thing is going on in my life, and things have changed.

As you can tell from this interesting picture taken by the talented Christina, the conversation was intense.  I can't even explain what all was going on in our hearts that were compelled for further and higher way of walking then we were.She so inspires me, so glad to have her wisdom and kindredness in my life.

The second to last session was filled with short programs of the childrens activity thoughout the week. Above you can see (but can't hear) the amazing entrance of the Alert Cadet guys! They all came running on stage yelling loudly in manly tones....and they kept coming, and coming....the crowed erupted....I think for some reason tears were being shed over this strangly sentimential moment of men being men.

Then they sang manly songs and quoted manly verses: "Stand up, Stand Up for Jesus. Ye Sholders of the Cross..." they sang in their monitone maturing voices.

Eugene carrying his authority well. :) I love Mr. command man brothers. "Mr.command man" refirring to the personality that always remains in command. This term is used so much in our home, for our father is the essence of it's meaning, and brother #2 is his complete reflection.

I had no family member in this class, but I well remember being in that sweet group of girls. So excited to see a generation of godly women coming up huh?



Childrens Institute songs and memory verses were so sweet. Why is it that me and Cherie got emotional over all these programs when the children in them were not even our own children!? The whole ceremony was just inspiring as you watch small children begin to develope values and memorize things from His word. And well, they're just so sweet and darling!



I was sitting in the front of the motorhome beside Father when he asked "What did everyone in the audience do when one of the classes walked in the auditoriam?" I thought a moment, then Mother chimmed in behind me: "Looked for their child!" It's so true, it didn't matter how many adorable little children came in before and after, your eyes were glued on that special little one you call yours. Having the preacher heart he has, Father says, if given the opportinity he wants so preach a sermon on this. :)

Ah ha....we decided that we must grab a few offical photos of our A.T.I "group" that walked from session to session together, sat togeher, discusssed together, lauphed togeher, and years before A.T.I conferences our parents were dear friends, and we gladly follow in their footsteps. Meet "the brothers". They create interesting and inspiring moments! Here they are, well... debreafing after a session, by a handicap sign....

Here is most of our black and white group. Me and Christy (on the right) had to run a short distance after putting our cameras on self-timer. Christy still looks a little "put-out" after her little exercise! :) Derek and Alex stand beside us, then Zack and Kelsey beside them, and Cherie and Kaitlyn are on the very left.

Sisters have no greater joy then to have such noble brothers who escort them around the conference! ;)

They're just so weird tegether. :)

All the guys posing just before the last two sessions.

Weird angles. :)



I can see that this collage could create some questions that I shall answer for you now. Mr. Gothard has, for a very long time handed our doller bills to little children who will tell him a Bible verse from memory. And during our student sessions he began handing out five to twenty doller bills for those who would answer one of his questions. During one of these generous give-aways there was a girl up front answer a question a deffinition according to what she had experienced in her life. After she gave her answer Bill asked "Can I ask you a personal question?." She stood before a group of about a two hundered young people and said "Yes." "How many friends do you have on facebook?"  Mr. Gothard continued. "About five hundered" she answered eaisly. Mr. Gothared went on graciously "OK, and how many people are you discipling right now?" The sweet young girl understood imediately, and we all knew this question was not just for this girl, for some of us have even more friends then that on ours! He never said facebook was wrong, he reccomended some ways to disciple on facebook to turn our five hundered friends into a discipleship group. But all of us saw that this was not what we were using facebook for and that most of our five hundered friends would block us from their sites! :) Not that that would stop us, but  none of us wanted to use facebook as our disciplship ministry. And I think this was his point, if you NEED to have facebook, (which probably means its a thing over-done in your life) then I guess you could make some good come of it since you have so many people at your finger tips. But I knew there was a more noble way to disciple, and not my calling to evangalize facebook. Further more, something that also stuck out to me that week is that we are called to make disciples, not "friends", so our friends should be people who encourage us in discipling, not friends that we are discipling, Because when someone is your "friend" they want you to accept them for who they are, and will become turned off if you try to disciple them. The Lord had been laying on my heart to rid myself of facebook, and I really wasn't spending much time on it, it wasn't like it had a hold on my life, but there was simply more harm then benefit in it for me. So this challenge of Mr. Gothared was my final affirmaton that it was time to say "bye, bye" facebook, and perhaps get my "face" in His "Book". And to spend more time making disciples then seeing what my "friends" were up to. During this session I leaned over to Cherie (Who had gotten rit of facebook several months ago) and said "Tonight when we get back to the Hotel, I'm going to get rid of facebook." She smiled a supportive friend smile and we followed our plan that night. Christina was the last of the group to have facebook in her life. I was sharing the excitment in my spirit I felt after I made my choice, when She too decided that she wants to de-activate her facebook, for the sake of  Jesus and His Kindom. So hence the collage above. You should have seen Christy's "letter" as she was answering the question in the de-activating process as to why she is getting off of facebook. Te he. It was an exciting evening. It wasn't so much that facebook was out of our lives, but that the Lord was showing us to make our whole lives revolve around discipling and a relationship with Him. We were not forced into this, but, when the Spirit so clearly shows you, it would be direct disobedience to deny Him this part of our lives. And it was a complete joy to do so for His sake. You make your choice according to the Spirits promptings.




Prayer and discussion times with these ladies are so sweet.



Lovely young ladies after a day of imput.



The last picture of the week has been taken. And I give it to you now. On the right: I was so delighted to see this lady walking up a flight of stairs to get to her seat on the first evening! Miss Anna King, sweet friend I haven't spent time with in so long, and was so glad to have her there all week.(And watch her play beatuifully in the enchanting ochestra.) Then it's Me, Kelsey, and Cherie, with Christy at the front. :) What a blessing they all are.

   I promised you more of what happened in my own life that week. So here I shall share. My theme?: Wittnessing. That's the thing that seemed to come out of sessions that had nothing to do with wittnessing, so obviously God was laying this on my heart. Being very willing for my King to share His life though me to strangers I meet when He gives me the open door. Each year there is so much good stuff taught, but usually one thing is really life changing. Last year it was the music I listen to. Other years it's been giving God a certain amout of single years of my life before any "relationship" comes serving him singly and fully, and also years of being more inspired for the vast vision that the Lord has for each of our furtures, and to dream big about them, for God dreams even bigger. Along with wittnessing, understanding God's scrpitures in a new way and meditating has been burned on my heart anew. And God is putting in my heart new vision for the next few years of my life, and showing me ways to disciple and be discipled in bigger ways! And I await Him to continue to give me more direction and chastening. Just tonight I was lamenting (again) my undoneness to my parents, and their words of wisdom did cheer my vunerable heart, that seems to change daily. So glad for a God who works in steps, eh?

   Thank you for letting me share with you the new things God is working on in my heart. And I thank Him for using this conference as another tool to further my walk with Him. Blesss you dear brothers and sisters in the faith as you continue on this journey each day.
Deborah Isabel.

An array of memories..

Greetings! Here I am again...catching up on memories-past that have still not been posted! So here is a combination of PA kindreds coming to our house to visit (And somehow in the uploading process, these pictures are in the beginning and end of the post, with Iowa thrust in the middle...don't ask me how to fix this problem. Sigh) and a wonderful week of revivals in Iowa.

I sart with a picture of Miss Allison and I! What fun we had that week in Iowa. Long talkes down their dusty road, cooking healthful meals in the Bontrager kitchen, coffee shop time, sleepover, and the evening church service nightly.

Wow, it was such a pleasure to have these dear friends come all the way from PA for the weekend. It doesn't happen like this very often! Most times we are in other people's houses, in other states, eating other people's wonderful meals!Now they came to see us! It was a delight to have them!


Meet family number one: The Esh's! John is chairaman of our PA auction bord, and we have come to really appreciate our friendship with this exciting,wonderful family.




I give you, the Kings.




Here is all twenty two of us! It was a crazy weekend of music, talks, food, and laughter.




The word crazy keeps seeming to come up through this whole ordeal! Smiles. We so love these people. There's nothing like Kindered spirit fellowship, but after twenty two people in the house for three days, we also understood there's nothing like just family! :)



Here is just some activity at home. Daddy's Birthday gift from me was an hour massage. So our dinning room was transformed into a candel-light massage parlor.



Back to Iowa again, sweet Gracie and Elizabeth join us older girls for coffee one day!




Random shot of my Kindered that made me smile. According to Chelsie, we have run out of things to talk about and continuially talk about the same things we are passionate about and don't tire from it! :) So alike in personality, it's so good to have good friends.



 We talk colors, health, brothers, dads, creative indeavors, personal struggles (and victories) we both wonder and ponder on our futures, and try to counsel each other when we aren't both sunk in the same boat of our visionary/dreamer way of thinking! :)



Our sweet, virtuous mothers. We enjoy talking with them too. They power walk and talk untill they miss supper. But appoligize by doing the dishs for us! So we don't mind! :)






Brother speaks life to Sister during blessing time.



And, of course, being in Iowa,  we had to have a late night at John and Lillies" before we head out. Such good friends they have been ot us! I still have sweet memories of me as a little girl playing at their house. First they were the "hot chocolate people" (We often have little things to remember people by as we travel.), because the first night we came to their house, very long ago, they served us hot chocolate. Then they were the "baked potato people", because they faithfully have baked potatoes evey sunday lunch (to which we were happy victims.). Now they are sweet John and Lilly, that we love. There is always places that seem like a second home as we travel the states. This being one.



Returning to our PA invaiders...we have all the youthful aged people pose together.



On Saturday morning after breakfast, we all sat around for a time of sharing and prayer. Then we got out the guitars tickled the ivories, and all sang praises. We stayed at this for quite some time...and it seemed at almost all moments (except for meal time, of course.) there was some manner of playing or singing in the house on that weekend.




Rainy walks with sweet laides.




Food was eaisly devoured all weekend. But even the men pitched in  making salads or loading dishs! :)

 I dare say that one might be confused at the muddled arrangment of post, quotes, and musing, in random spntanious order when reading my blog. So if I'm not making sence, I do apolagize.
   Perhpas you wonder at the "Amish people" visiting our home, posing in pictures, and have ofspirng being Beachy. This is part of the amazing thing in these friendships. They are very non-typical Lancaster County Amish to say the least. Since both my parents came from the Amish, it simply feels like ex-Amish or currently Amish people create such a bond in relationship. We feel we can understnad,relate and relax therein. They are born again and Holy Ghost filled people that exhort us as a family in amazing ways.They feel called to stay right where they're at in the Amish culture, respect their authories, and be an example. But bless their children to perhaps live in a slightly different culture, though the honor an respect between the parents and children remains. Beautiful. They are passionate about their Savior. And their fellowship is inspiring! And they have Childen in our age that we have such great times with.

   And the Bontragers. They are such a blessing. Since both our families travel, there is much to relate to. And much to inspire each other about. We did not live at their house while we were in Iowa, but were grateful to have several meals with them and quality bonding time.We were glad they weren't out of town when we planned meetings in their area.  



   And the privlidge of having revivals in states across America, is so sweet I can't even say. Such a blessing and rewarding place to be. The church in Iowa blessed us so much with gifts, prayers and friendships. Beautiful and wonderful people.

 Praise You Lord, for Your Creation of human fellowship with the saints.

 



The week of meetings we had at SunnySide Mennonite was so sweet. We had such a good time meeting new people, and fellowship with the leadership each night at supper. After the night on the family, there is time of blessing. So here Gracie blesses Daddy,





Deborah Isabel