Our New Book Is Finished!

Our new book entitled "You Invited Me In...The Story of a Pentecostal Hospitality House Military Ministry" is finally finished and available for purchase on: Amazon.com

This is our story of opening our home to minister to young military men and women for the past 18 years. Our hope is that some who read the book will be inspired and motivated to replicate what we do here in other parts of the country.

I wrote the book because I believe God told me to through Habakkuk 2:2 that says, "Write the vision and make it plain on tablets so that he who reads it can run with it."

Yvonne and My First Rugby Match

September 8, 2018

Madison Cronin invited us to watch her Women's Rugby match today. Now, you have to understand Yvonne and I know NOTHING about Rugby! But we thought the invite was nice and decided to go.

Looked like a football game on steroids without the helmets and shoulder pads. Now we have to do a little YouTubing so we can learn a little bit about what we saw!

Dinner, Scrabble, and a Movie!

September 6, 2018

We all hunkered down in the house this morning while the Virginia Paving Company put new asphalt down on our street.

When they got done about mid-day Josh went on leave and went up to Washington DC...you know, for the Cubs game this weekend. Todd went to work.

Tonight we had salad with tuna for dinner, and tapioca pudding for dessert.

Then we played a fierce game of Scrabble with Yvonne winning - again.

That was followed by a movie called "Hidden Places" the story of a widow and her two children, an orange grove, and a drifter. It's a really good show with a happy ending!
                                                   

Skip-Bo! Game

September 4, 2018

Today Todd came home from work and we ate dinner (hamburgers). Then we played a rousing game of Skip-Bo. Yvonne won!





Josh went to work and will be going to see a Chicago Cubs game up in DC this weekend. He is a hard core Chicago Cubs fan!

Todd Williams Here For Reserve Duty

September 3, 2018

After going to bed after 1:00 this morning we all slept in today! It was, after all, a holiday right?

Josh, Yvonne and I spent two and a half hours having devotions together this morning. We were talking about being Christians being Perfect after watching a video about it on Youtube.

Had breakfast at about 2:00. Talk about a late start to the day right? Then we watched American Pickers all afternoon.

Todd Williams came in this evening for a week of Reserve duty. We haven't seen him in several months.

And here it is 9:30 pm and we just finished dinner - the avocado, tomato, cucumber, onion, and cilantro salad I posted on here a while back. I still love that salad!

Josh Is Back From Sea!

September 2, 2018

We didn't have our normal Sunday today. Yvonne and I stayed at church to join in the celebration of Pastor Steve and Annamaria Bergfeld's daughter getting ordained as a minister in the Church of God.

Josh Ellinor is staying with us between his underways for a few weeks. When we got home from church he was home too from the church he attended. We sat and watched the Chicago Cubs play the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cubs won 8-1! It was 2-0 at the top of the 6th inning. Then they scored 2 runs in the 6th and 4 runs in the 8th inning. Go Cubs!!

Then the DQ Blizzard commercials finally got to us. We went out to get ice cream. But the DQ we normally go to on Independence Blvd. had their ice cream machines down! So we had to go to the one on Holland Road. They were good - the new Reese's Blizzard.

The Yvonne suggested we play a game. We played Skip-Bo and then Mexican Train Dominoes. Finally, we found a movie that Josh hadn't seen yet - "Horatio Hornblower: Duty" with Ioan Gruffudd (he stared in "Amazing Grace" and "Fantastic Four").

By then it was midnight and we decided to go to bed.

Episode 1 Trailer: In The Beginning

August 20, 2018

John and Jass Ortiz and Jacob Lentz joined us yesterday. We ate roast beef, carrots and potatoes for dinner along with home made wheat bread. Then it was chocolate chip pie with ice cream and hot fudge sauce for dessert.

While we ate dessert we watched Superbook - episode 1 "In The Beginning". Watch the trailer. We had an interesting discussion afterwards about the origin of Lucifer and temptation. Definitely worth watching, and NO it isn't just for kids!

Care Package Heading to Iraq

August 17, 2018

Yvonne's at it again! Baking cookies for care packages. She loves sending care packages. This one happens to be going to Iraq.







I was her official "taste tester" and they passed inspection!

Celebrating Wilson Ramirez' Birthday

July 29, 2018

We celebrated Wilson Ramirez' birthday today! Wilson and Nancy, John and Jass Ortiz, Jaime Beer and Jacob Lentz (our grandson) joined us today.

Yvonne always tries to make a person's favorite meal for their birthday. After checking around, Yvonne found out for Wilson that was cheeseburgers and vanilla shakes. So that's what she made!

Jaime actually made the milk shakes...they were goooood!

Jacob, who is 8 years old, knew it was a "party" so he pulled out a lot of our board games and set them up all over the house for people to play. It was so cute! What a GREAT kid!!!

Jass played Jenga with Jacob while Yvonne was making the hamburgers.

John and Jass

Nancy and Wilson

We all sat down at the table...and trust me, the hamburgers didn't last long!

Sometimes I get tired of never being in pictures. So I had John take a picture of me trying to get my mouth around my hamburger. It was tough, but I got it done! :)

After dinner we watched the video of Nick Vujicic's testimony. He is the man born without arms and legs, but is so inspirational in the lives of so many others sharing his faith in Jesus Christ who gives him hope and purpose for his life! Awesome testimony!

After the video we prayed together and then Jass played tic tac toe and checkers with Jacob. John and I played our own game of checkers. Then after everyone left Jacob and I played checkers.

What a really fun afternoon!

2018 LEGO Americana Roadshow Virginia Beach

July 14, 2018

Micah Dudley and Josh Ellinor joined us for something totally different today! We went to Towne Center to see the LEGO Americana Roadshow exhibit. Really awesome displays of historical buildings in Washington D.C. all made of LEGOs!

But first we had to eat! Hot dogs and chips! Desert comes later!

The White House

The Liberty Bell

The Statue of Liberty

The Old North Church..."One if by land, two if by sea..."

The Supreme Court Building

Independence Hall

The Jefferson Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

 The Washington Monument

The Towne Center fountain (not made of LEGOs)

Then it was on to Coldstone Creamery for dessert - Ice Cream!