Troy, Ohio - I can't believe I'm in OHIO!

 I can't believe I'm actually in OHIO!  I guess ministry

just takes you everywhere, though, even to places like

OHIO! ;-)  We had a lot of fun with the church people

this week, though.  One man even threatened to burn

the pews that we sat on! ;-)  The team rivalry is great! :-)

We really did have a great week!

And we even had fun in OHIO! (gasp! :-))

Michigan is still the best, though! :-)  GO BLUE!!!

 Here's the mission house we stayed in this week.

It was very nice to have a house all to ourselves!

 And here's the car we used :-)

Thank you for letting us use your car, Pastor Mulvane!

 

Even Ohio recognizes us as a great state! :-)

 Ariel & I went by this awesome building on our way

home each evening.  It was so cool!  Just had to get

a picture, of course!  I think it is the court house.

And Pastor Foster said that the man who designed

the state capitol also designed this building.  Pretty neat!

 We went to lunch on Sunday afternoon to Logan's Roadhouse.

Actually, Alex Sargent (who traveled on the team last spring)

took us out to eat.  It was very sweet & sacrificial of him!

It was very yummy, too!  Mrs. Van & I both got Teriyaki

chicken and they came in the shape of a heart!

I thought that was pretty awesome! :-)  Maybe it means something...? ;-)

 The youth room was decorated so uniquely.  It had

all sorts of different colored chairs and various sayings

all over the walls.  I thought this saying was pretty good!

 The church provided us with SO MUCH food this week!

It was so sweet, generous, and thoughtful of them!

Now can you understand how hard it is to stay thin while traveling?! :-)

 Children's Meeting

This was probably the largest children's meeting this semester!

I think our high was almost forty kids!  That's a lot of kids! :-)

Here's Devan.  He & I had a lot of fun :-)  He's autistic,

so we had to find things to do to keep him entertained.

We played hockey with ice, took walks, took pictures, looked

at pictures (he LOVED that!)... we had fun! :-)

Ulyana & Emily

Puppet Show!

Kids love this!  Devan especially loved it! :-)

Parker & Illia

Parker's name is actually Parker James (Dr. Jim's

name reversed!).  I wanted to get a picture of him

and Dr. Jim but that never did happen! :-/

L to R:  Lauren, Charity, and Grace

Both girls on either ends are Mike Foster's daughters.

They are so cute & fun!  I really enjoyed getting to

know Pastor Foster and his wife better this week!

They're really sweet & a lot of fun! :-)

Slava with his note pad

He took notes diligently to be

prepared for the review game! :-)

And his hard work paid off! :-)

This family is so precious!  They have eight kids,

five of which have been adopted from Russia.  I really

enjoyed getting to know them this week!

L to R (back row):  Slava, Illia, and Ulyana

L to R (front row):  Hudson, Olga, and Anastasia

(Hudson is the only one in this picture that isn't adopted.)

We had a youth rally on Saturday!

We had about 80 teens!

I believe the Lord really worked in some hearts.

We had four major competitions throughout the day.

Janna and Stephanie (and Leesie some) even got to get involved!

Tube Tug!

Janna was... Janna! :-)  Aggressive and relentless!

The kids found a kitten around the church.

They enjoyed playing with it, holding it,

feeding it, and giving it a bath!

We had pizza for lunch!  Yummy stuff! :-)

Slava putting the kitten to sleep :-)

Tim & Christy Roberts came to help out!

As did the Fisher family!

Matthew & Megan Webber also came to help,

but sadly I didn't get a picture of the two of them!

It was fun to catch up with friends! :-)