A Day Filled with Thanks

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was so good to have Denise with us. We spent the day Wednesday baking and preparing and then Thursday more cooking and preparing and baking. I just love being in the kitchen with my family.

Micah did great chopping up the pecans for sweet potato casserole. This guy loves being in the kitchen too! :-)

The past several years Beth and Brenna have been my right hand girls in the kitchen. They join me and we all work together.

Callie had asked me the day before if she could help in the kitchen. She was so excited when I told her she could help peel potatoes. She's really growing up and learning how to do a lot although this year she ended up peeling more than just a potato. Poor thing had to wear a Band-Aid. She's learning!

Remember those abeka crafts? This year we incorporated decorating the table as well! These are first grade napkin rings that Micah cut out.

My turkey would never win in a photo contest. But I've been making Emilie Barnes' overnight turkey for over 20 years and we love it! It's so delicious and moist.

So thankful for friends that God has brought into our lives! And friends that bring chocolate? Even better :-)

A couple of hours after our big meal we invited Joshua, Tabitha, Liberty as well as Tabitha's family and grandparents to join us for dessert. It's such a blessing to get together, especially on a holiday!

 We had so many desserts. They were so yummy!

I think Liberty really loved Thanksgiving! She loved the pumpkin pie. She loved the bread. She just loves to eat! Sure do love this cutie pie!

What a wonderful day! A wonderful meal! And wonderful friends and family!

Twas the night before Thanksgiving

We have been so happy to be on schedule with school this year...well, almost.  We've been trying to do so well, but we are just a couple of lessons behind.  So, the night before Thanksgiving, we made a couple of crafts from the kid's art classes that have to do with Thanksgiving.  It was so fun to do it all together!
Since Denise is here visiting for Thanksgiving, we were able to have her join us.  It's so good to have her here!

One of the crafts was so adorable.  You tear construction paper and glue it down in lots of little pieces to form a thanksgiving pilgrim hat.

It made for a very cute way to decorate our door for our Thanksgiving!

An Emotional Night

Last night we had a sweet service at VSIBC.  Our service was moved to Tuesday night for the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Patrick asked everyone to come prepared to praise the Lord and to share a blessing.  For Patrick and I, it was quite emotional.  For his praise, he read our latest prayer letter, which is also our last prayer letter as Macedonia Missionaries.

November 20, 2018

Dear Supporting Pastors, Churches & Individuals,

                I would like to humbly begin this letter by saying, “Thank you to all of the faithful churches who have faithfully labored to keep us in the service of our Savior with the many prayers and financial support!”  We have seen God do so many amazing things and it is due, in large part, to our supporting churches.  

                Victory Springs Ind. Baptist Church is a young, thriving church that now supports 10 missionaries, is seeing people saved & baptized on a regular basis, and is adding daily to your account in Heaven.   The church still has much growing to do, but we are determined to stay on the Old Paths and we are seeing God bless in so many ways!  A mom from our bus route recently trusted Christ as Savior and is working on a discipleship course with my wife.  We have seen several more saved over the past 2 months and several have followed the Lord in believer’s baptism.   Also, we just recently baptized a young boy who came to church with his momma on the very first day we had services at VSIBC.  Now, his daddy and momma are faithful to church, help clean, sing, work in Junior Church, work in the nursery, and now their son trusted Christ and was baptized.  This is added to your account.

                With joy mingled with tears, I am writing what is going to be our final prayer letter.  It is sad that our time as Macedonia missionaries is coming to an end.  We are grateful for each and every one of you…the prayers, support, love and friendship have kept us on the field and in the fight over these past 12+ years.   We will officially be resigning with Macedonia World Baptist Missions on December 31, 2018 and will be ceasing all of our missionary support at this time.  Come January 1, 2019, VSIBC will be responsible for taking sole care of their pastor and we are excited about seeing what the Lord is going to do over the next many years. 

                 As I close this letter, I want to share one last prayer request.    There is a piece of property that has become available on one of the main highways here in High Springs.   It is 5.7 acres and is zoned Commercial.  There is already a paved driveway onto the property as well as city water-hookups.   We are needing $89,000 to purchase this property to become the future home of VSIBC.  Would you please help us pray for God to provide the funds needed?  Would you be willing to take up one last Christmas offering, not for the Gimenez family, but to help VSIBC and these young Christians to purchase this property?   Any offerings given can be sent directly to Victory Springs Ind. Baptist Church and sent to the following address: P.O. Box 539, High Springs, FL 32655.

                Thank you again and may the Lord bless every one of you.  Rest assured, that we love you all.  If you are ever in the North-Central part of Florida, know that you have a church to attend at VSIBC!

Patrick Gimenez and Family

Many tears were shed.  I can't explain it, but I'll try.  It's sad that we are no longer "Missionaries"  Although we are filled with joy that my husband is now a "Pastor."  We are sad to be leaving the Macedonia World Baptist Missions Family, but are so thankful for the many lifelong friends we've made along the way.  We are sad that this stage in our life has come to end, but so excited about what the Lord has for our future at VSIBC.  So, this letter was a praise.  I praise God for always being in control.  I praise Him for my health.  I praise Him for being a wonderful God!

Pumpkin Pie Banquet

Last Wednesday my 3 little guys helped me decorate our Sunday School Class for our Pumpkin Pie Banquet.  They loved looking through the harvest box and finding lots of beautiful things to decorate with.  They did a great job!

Then on Sunday, it was our banquet.  Brenna and I combined our classes.  We had pumpkin pie, apple pie and Thanksgiving Punch!
The Punch actually was pretty amazing!  I loved it!

Thanksgiving Punch

2 64 oz. Apple Cider

2-liter of Ginger Ale

1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream

The kids ate and ate and we shared lots of blessings.

Then, I taught on the 10 lepers that Jesus healed and how that only one returned to give thanks.  I encouraged my class to be the one!

So thankful for this ministry that I get to serve in.  I love teaching my class and seeing them grow!

We even invited Liberty and Beth to come and have a piece of pie.  Liberty loved it!

Division and Tea

Third grade. What a terrific grade! It's a year where my Callie Grace is learning lots of new things including division. She's doing quite well but was just misplacing some of the steps. She wanted to know if I would sit down with her and just go through the steps again to make sure she's doing them right. What better time than to have a tea party with my girl as we went over division!?
 I've always loved Division and you know I've always loved tea so it was a perfect combo :-)

I know what to get him for Christmas!

 You know you have boys when...

 ...your phone is full of pictures of army guy battles!

 My Silas is loving his 4th grade US History class. Ms Amsbaugh is such a great teacher and he is learning so much! He has been setting up battles from the French Indian War and from the Civil War. Then, he asks to borrow my phone to take pictures. I now have tons of army guy photos on my phone!

So, I think I should get my boy the camera that he's been asking for for Christmas!

Puppies for Christmas?

 When we came back from our trip down south, we saw that Peaches had a friend. Joshua and Tabitha told us that they've been quite friendly with each other in the past couple days.

 We have never seen this dog so we wanted to be very cautious especially around our children. He seemed a little bit leery of us but actually liked the kids and wanted them to pet him. He was quite gentle and had such a beautiful coat!

He hung around our property for about 2 days and started to get attached to him . We named him Cobbler (peach cobbler :-) )

But by the third morning he was gone and we haven't seen him since. Peaches on the other hand has slept just about nonstop. Could she be expecting? It looks like we might be having puppies for Christmas!

Under the grandparents table

 I'm not sure when it started, it was probably about 20 years ago. But my parents have always let their grandkids write underneath their kitchen table.

 I'm not sure how it started. It was probably when someone found a really neat place to hide or maybe it was a time when my mom made a tent using the kitchen table, but the grandkids have enjoyed over the years signing their name and putting messages under the table.

 This visit back to my parents house was no different. Silas, Callie, and Micah wanted to make their bed under the table for the night and of course wanted to sign their name again.

 I climbed under and decided to read the names. I found all of my children along with all of their cousins. There were smiley faces and pictures and well wishes and happy memories.

 I don't know if my mom could ever get another table now! :-) I love the wonderful examples I have in my life on how to be a good Lolli to my Liberty Anne!

My Pap-paw's Bible

 I've heard the saying before that if you see a Bible that is falling apart, it is the sign of one who isn't.

While I was in Fort Myers a couple weeks ago I saw on my mom's bookshelf an old, tattered Bible. I picked it up and leafed through it and noticed it was my Pap-paw's Bible. It was a gift to him from my precious Mam-maw.

 Inside the Bible there was no markings or underlined verses.  The only writing was that of my Mam-maw when she gave it to him in 1961. My Pap-paw was not someone who took notes in his Bible, but you could tell this Bible was loved and read often. I can still see him sitting in church, following along with the Preacher and turning the pages of his Bible.

 My Pap-paw was a very loved man. He was definitely a manly- man that liked to take care of his farm and his family. But he was not one that was afraid to shed a tear over someone hurting. I used to love to go to church with my Mam-maw and Pap-paw and watch him go to the altar and pray. Then he would shake everyone's hand and hug them.  You could just see the love beaming from his face for his family and his church family.

My Pap-paw passed away a little over 16 years ago. He is truly missed. One day my three little ones that have never met him will meet him in heaven, all because they know the same Savior that my Pap-paw had. So thankful for goodly heritage.