Military Ministry at The Lighthouse

Military Ministry at The Lighthouse
LEGO American Roadshow

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Josh's Mother And Sister Come For A Visit

Last weekend Josh's mom, Heather, and his sister, Rachael, came from Illinois to visit him. We had the privilege and fun of hosting them while they were here. Josh stayed over too.



Saturday night Yvonne made her meatloaf burgers for dinner, followed by ice cream. Then we taught Rachel, Josh's sister how to play Settlers of Catan! She caught on really quick!



Andrew Raffety and John Ortiz joined us for our activities too! John suggested playing Settlers. He wanted a "rematch" with Josh...and WON!


Little did I know that they are die-hard Chicago Cubs fans! So I ended up watching baseball after our normal Saturday night activities ended. Me watching baseball? Who woulda figured???



Josh's mom took the "baseball" opportunity to go upstairs and do some reading while Yvonne started preparing for Sunday's dinner.



Sunday Josh's family joined us for Sunday school and worship at church and for dinner.


But then it was Monday again and Josh's mom and sister had to pile into their car and head back home again. At least it was a beautiful day for a cross country trip!





Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Night of the Buckeyes and the Cubs!



This weekend started out kind of low key. Todd Willliams came to the house Friday night as he does every month for his Naval Reserve duty. He stays with us instead of hassling with the Navy's housing arrangements. Andrew had duty and John Ortiz had to work.

Saturday night Josh joined us for our regular activities. Todd loves playing "Apples to Apples" so that's the game we played. But to make things a little more interesting with only four players, we added a blind "banker" player that added a card to those selected. Believe it or not, the banker won! Go figure!

Then we decided to play a round of "Hot Dice". Two games in one night!

But finally, we got "gamed out". And it was only eight o'clock, I suddenly remembered that earlier in the week Todd had asked if we could watch the Ohio State football game. That sounded like a good idea to everyone and we transitioned into the living room. Josh mentioned that the Cubs were playing the Dodgers tonight too. Sure enough our television channel line up let us get that game too. So for the rest of the evening we kept flipping back and forth between the Ohio State game and the Cubs game.

Both of the games turned out to be really good! Edge of the seat nail biters actually.

But Ohio State won it in overtime. All of us had to admit they didn't play real well. Wisconsin should have actually won, because they played better for three quarters of the game! Ohio won with a touchdown in overtime.

The Cubs also won! The Cubs and Dodgers were tied three all going into the eighth inning, and the Cubs hit a grand slam with the bases loaded. Then in the top of the ninth inning the Cubs got another run which made the end result Cubs 8 and Dodgers 3. The Cubs are breaking a 108 year losing streak this year!

Both games were supposed to end and about eleven o'clock, but went on until twelve. Since Todd was staying over anyway, and Josh was going to be coming to Sunday school and church in the morning, we had him stay over too. Didn't make much sense to have him drive home a half hour just to sleep and then drive half an hour back in the morning!

The guys are starting to call this the "Wagner Inn" and the "J & W B&B"!

Sunday morning we had a new sailor in tow to church! James Lokey from the USS Bataan, who is brand new in the area, and a friend of Yvonne's cousin's daughter, came to Sunday school and church with us.and then joined us for dinner at the house. Andrew joined us for dinner too! We always miss him when he has the duty. But I'm sure we'll miss him even more when he gets out of the Navy in March.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Military Ministry During Hurricane Matthew?

Last week we got a text from Bob Kroeger, one of our sons who got out of the Navy and moved back home to Ohio:

"Hi there, do you guys have any out of the normal plans for this weekend coming up?"

In my usual jovial style I wrote back,

"Yes, we plan to have our house remodeled by a hurricane. Why do you ask?"

A few seconds later Bob wrote back,

"Oh crap, did not even think about it. I have a three day weekend and thought about taking a flight, but maybe you guys should fly here to get away from the crazy weather!"

No way we could afford that so I said,

"Sure, just buy us two tickets and we'll be right there! lol"

Then Bob posts a picture of two tickets that he found from Norfolk to Ohio and says,

"Don't tempt me I will do it!"

But as soon as we finished that conversation the hurricane trackers all said the storm would curve out to sea and not even get near us.

So Bob decided to fly on down on Friday and stay till Monday afternoon.

Bob set up a luncheon at a local restaurant with friends from church. Yvonne and I were not going to attend because Jacob had a baseball game. But it got cancelled.

When we go to the restaurant everything looked great! Although by the time we got finished eating and fellowshipping it got pretty cloudy and the wind was picking up - a lot.


Bob, are the ribs good?


"Say what....huh?"


Pastor Rodney, Angela, and Gloria Dudley...


And the rest of the gang...

Saturday evening we held our normal evening military ministry activities with Josh Ellinor, John Ortiz, and Bob Kroeger. Andrew decided the weather was too threatening and stayed in Newport News.


Nice looking group of men don't you think???


Mama with her boys!


OK, Bob just because it's Halloween month doesn't mean you have to make scary faces!


Can anybody guess what game we played????


Guess who won the game...AGAIN! Josh is getting really good at this game! The Chicago Cubs won their game too!

As the evening went on the wind picked up, and the rain began to come down in buckets! Looking at our weather apps it was becoming increasingly clear that the hurricane was NOT turning out to sea! Though many lost power, we never did...the lights just flickered  few times an that was it! Thank God!

After our activities John decided to brave it and head back to Norfolk Naval Station. We offered to let him stay over, but decided he could probably make it, he did, and safely too. Josh on the other hand, got a text from Tristen, his room mate, that said, "Stay put. Oceana is under FOUR feet of water. So Josh and Bob both spent the weekend with us.

Sunday morning we watched the Chicago marathon and the Chicago wheelchair road race which Tetyana McFadden won! She is my new athletic heroine! I started watching her race during the Paralympics in Rio. She is awesome! And it was so cool to see her take pictures with two little girls in wheel chairs after she won the race!

We got word that church was cancelled so we had church here at the house. We pulled out our hymn books  and sang some familiar songs, prayed for everyone affected by the hurricane, and literally spent hours discussing and studying the last three chapters of Revelation!

Our study was interrupted only when Yvonne called us to dinner - her famous spaghetti and for dessert chocolate and vanilla ice cream! After we ate we all went back to our study.

Then we started watching movies. The first one was on the Hallmark channel "Autumn in the Vineyard". You could call it a chick flick. So you know two grown guys love you when they watch a movie on that channel with you! But the next movie that came on they said, "NO! Not another chick flick!",  So we changed the channel and watched the old film, "Driving Miss Daisy". They all agreed to that one! Then we watched a movie on Pureflix called "Saved by Grace".

Personally, I was enjoying this. Like I posted on Facebook, "So this is what it feels like to have two grown sons! Hmmm, not bad! "

Then Monday rolled around and the sun was out and everything looked pretty safe. Josh had to go to work so he went back to Oceana. and Bob wanted to go to the Naval Base and see his old ship - the Oak Hill. 




On the way we saw some of the damage from the hurricane that never went out to sea!







At the NEX we decided to have some lunch at the food court and ran into Robbie and Kari Howell and their little baby. We sat and ate with them! Yea!




Finally we took Bob to the airport and Yvonne and I went on to our doctor's appointments.

All in all, it was a great weekend for military ministry! Go Matthew!!!

Time For An Update On Our Military Ministry!

Before those of you who follow our blog get tired of waiting for something new and forget where we live out here in the "blogosphere" I will catch you up on our activities for the last eight weeks. Don't worry, I will make it brief and it will be mostly pictures!

I had back surgery two months ago and have been recuperating. Going to physical therapy three times a week and getting stronger. Yea! Walking 1/2 mile a day and seem to be doing well with it. Ill have to kick it up by another 1/4 mile soon. It's mostly a mental struggle. Actually, it's a lazy struggle...but I won't go there.

We've never stopped ministering to the servicemen that are coming over to the house, even during my recovery period. Yvonne is terrific! She cleans the house, cooks for the guys, and gets me stuff too. But that last part is rapidly coming to an end. :)

OK, I promised this would be brief and that wasn't "evangelistically speaking". So let me show you some pics of what we've been doing that I promised.




Our favorite game! Settlers of Catan...My cell phone takes better pictures than my old Nikon camera.


 The young lady on the left is Diane, Yvonne's sister. And no, she's not in the military. Look close at Josh's head...notice anything growing?


Pretty cool family huh?! My wife, my sister-in-law, and my boys!


Guess who won this game...AGAIN!


OK, they made me do a selfie with them to prove that I was still alive and there!


Todd, would you STOP pinching my cheek!!!!

And now on to another week...RISK...the game that brings out the true competitive spirit! If you look close at the board you will see there are no red pieces. That's because the guys decided they were going to take me out of the game in a hurry, so they ganged up on me! But you will notice who is standing up and on a major campaign...YUP! Yvonne is on the move!






Black is always the color that Yvonne picks when she plays RISK! She's sweeping the board!


OK, so here is John Ortiz' new toy. He decided to bring in the heavy artillery!


And Yvonne says, "Yea, but I'm still going to win!"

And then there was the week we played UNO ATTACK!




Hi!


Caught in the act! Reaching for his cup of raspberry iced tea! And, no, it wasn't in the freezer this time!


Again Yvonne wanted to make sure she had photographic evidence that I was there!


You're not seeing me...


Ah Ha! I see you!


It spit how many cards at you!!!???? Wow!

So, after a few weeks, the weather was beautiful and I felt good enough to try going out. I suggested we go MINI GOLFING...and of course, before we do that we have to go eat pizza!


Yvonne suggested trying CICI's Piza instead of the usual Pizza Hut.


Wow! It was really good! Can you tell?


Come on John, smile! OK, here's my smile without the painful grimace. OK, the painful grimace wasn't because of my back. It was because I ate too much!


But, notice who has her plate full of pizza? Yup! Yvonne likes it too! I think we'll do that again!


Here we are...guess what Yvonne made us do...


From the right - see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.


And on the back nine...It is Andrew ready to put his ball in the cup! And finally, we HAVE to go to Dairy Queen for dessert after we have a hard game of miniature golfing. It's all about getting our energy back!


Finally, since we were pretty active this week, the next we played HOT DICE at home.




Todd was with us again, and volunteered to keep score. He stays with us when he comes to town for his reserve drill weekends.




"Come on," Josh says as he shakes the cup, "give me something I can work with!"


"Yea! You did it!"


"Yup! I was here! With my trusty Batman shirt!"

I promised you I would be few in words, and mostly pictures and I kept my word!