Gospel Singing at the Baptist Thrift Center!

Today (Saturday), we were able to supply the special music for one of our supporting churches: Estero Bay Baptist Church. 

However, this wasn't your normal church service.  They run the Baptist Thrift Center whose main focus is giving out the Gospel!  Their proceeds are used to support missionaries and mission projects and the volunteers who work at the Thrift Center give out the Gospel to the customers!

This was their 3-year anniversary and they celebrated with a 50%-off sale, a free lunch of hotdogs & BBQ sandwiches, and 2 hours of special music by the Gimenez Family!

Kami, Joshua, Elisabeth, and Brenna all worked hard to be ready with enough music to cover the 2 hours of singing!

 

Kami has also worked hard to be able to play much of the music.  She has been practicing and practicing to play w/o pain to her finger.  She had 1/2 of the stitches removed this past Thursday so that her finger would be able to bend and thus allowing her to play the piano easier!

 

I thought I would put in a picture of her finger...for the "faint at heart"!

 

Brenna took over at certain times to give Kami a rest. 

 

Callie is showing us her free hotdog...She ate 3!  The BBQ pulled-pork sandwich was also amazing!

Folks stopped by throughout the morning...ate a free lunch...enjoyed the music...and were invited to a good Gospel-preaching Baptist church!  It was a great day indeed!

Our College & Career Murder Mystery!

Our College & Career class planned a murder-mystery dinner this past Saturday evening. 

For those of you who don't know, a murder mystery is where the participants come dressed as a character and play the part of that character throughout the evening.  Our mystery was set in the western town of Mitchido in the mid-1800's! 

 

A local landowner was shot on his way riding to town and each participant must ask questions and inter-mingle with each other to find out clues and solve the mystery as to who committed the murder!

Enjoy the Pics!

This is Bro. Fred & Sis. Kelly Edman.  [aka: Wally and Dorothy] They graciously opened their home for our activity and actually moved their furniture to be able to fit all of these café tables.  Our mystery took place at the Bad Luck Café of which, Mr. Wally is the owner!

 

Kami and I had the parts of the town seamstress (Ellie) and the town blacksmith (Thomas)!

Joshua was Sami Suds the orphan dishwasher!  Elisabeth and Brenna worked as waitresses at the Bad Luck Café!

 

We had a great turn-out!

 We had ladies who either made their costumes, purchased them, or rented them!

 

 

Working hard at figuring out the clues!

 

 



The Bad Luck Café waitresses did a great job!

Our meal was awesome and we had more desserts than we could possibly eat!

 

 

We had a great time and the killer was actually the murdered man's daughter!  (Sydney - aka Annabel Woods)  She doesn't even look disturbed or remorseful as she dips in to her dessert!  How can you eat after you've committed a murder?

 

 

 

 



Recovering...

We were able to accomplish several things yesterday.  Most importantly, Kami finished 2 of her 3 needed MRI's.  The third one will be next week.  These were ordered to help diagnose a "spot" on Kami's pancreas and hopefully the results will be ready by end of next week.

Yesterday afternoon, we arrived at the hand specialist for surgery at 3:15 p.m.  The doctor had us wait so that Kami would be his last patient.  This would allow him to concentrate on Kami and not "rush" through the surgery.  He seemed concerned with the "mass" growing in her finger.

I was able to be present in the room and to observe the surgery first hand.  The doctor quickly removed the two tumors in her forearm and emphatically stated that these were NOT cancer.  We praise the Lord for this!  He quickly stitched up the two spots and moved on to Kami's finger.  When he sliced open her finger, he seemed a bit alarmed at the quantity of the "mass" he had to remove from her knuckle.  In his words, "This isn't supposed to be here and there is a lot of it."  It seemed that the cut in her finger got bigger and bigger and he cut-away! 

He isn't sure what this "mass" is and is having it sent to a pathologist for testing.  The results will be ready in 2 weeks.  (Throughout all of these trials, we seem to constantly be waiting and waiting for results...isn't there something about tribulation working patience?)

Thank you all for praying.  Kami has been in a lot of pain and had a rough night last night.  Hopefully she will feel better after a good day's rest!

Surgery ahead...

Well, Kami had a doctor's appointment this past week with the hand specialist.  This visit was concerning the "lump" that had developed in one of the knuckles on her hand about 6 months ago.  The doctors at the Mayo Clinic didn't seemed too concerned with it nor with the 2 other "lumps" that had developed in her forearm.  They had informed us that these were small blood clots that resulted from being poked by a needle so many times due to the amount of blood draws and tests Kami has had done.

This week, we were informed that this nodule on Kami's finger is indeed a tumor and has showed up as a "hot spot" on the latest CT scan.  The doctor has scheduled her for surgery to remove this tumor and to have it tested to see if it is benign or malignant.  The surgery is scheduled for January 23rd in the afternoon.

Of course we do not know if this is connected to the "mystery" illness but all of this seems to be happening at the same time.  We have had so many opinions and diagnosis that we aren't sure what to think!  But one thing rings true....God is still in control and has us going through this "trial" for His glory and our gain!

Kami has been in a great deal of pain this week but yet has such a sweet spirit and joy that only God can bring.  Someone asked me this week, "How can Kami keep such a smile on her face and be such a blessing to others while in so much pain?"  The answer is that she loves the Lord with all of her heart and has allowed her joy to be greater than her pain. 

Thank you to all who continue to pray for our family...