Archive for November, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

November 24, 2012

Kent and I have so much to be thankful…Here are some of the highlights for each month of this year. Lots of other things happened in our lives but these are some of the highlights.

December 2011: All of our family had our Christmas together in Detroit with Josh, Teresa and Silas. Kara and Nick and Kent and I ended up being on the same plane getting there too. We had a great time together!

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Kara has so much fun with Silas too!Image

January…I was able to give a “once in a lifetime” gift to my husband for his birthday and Christmas. It was a ride in a Nascar racing car. Kent used to race when he was a teenager so this was a big treat. It was only for 6 laps but when you are going 120mph…it does go by fast. Doesn’t he look so handsome in this outfit?

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February…We were in Denver for a little over a week for a conference. We got to stay with Kara and Nick. But another blessing was that it snowed… a lot 24 inches and the last day of the conference was canceled and so we just got to hang out with Kara and Nick andourgrandcat “Beane”.. What fun! I love snow too!

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This was right before Kara thre Beane into the snow.. Beane promptly came back into the house! I think she had a an inkling of what Kara was going to do here.

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March… I had another trip to PA by myself.  My brother Merle passed away quite suddenly.  On his death bed, we believe that Merle came to Christ. I have been praying for him most of my life. . Here he is when he joined the Army in the 70’s

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April…Kent needed to go to Portland, Oregon for a pastors conference. We had some free tickets so I used one and went along and hung out with Kent’s sister while he was gone. I love having time with LeAnn and Ken. It was great to see where they are living now too.

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May…We left Phoenix and started traveling north. We had a tire on the truck blow out…but God was helping us, as we were able to get help pretty quickly. PTL! Kent was able to fix most of the damage done and so that helped us.

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By Mid May we were settled in Bellevue, WA at SAMBICA(a Christian camp) for another summer. Also we had three graduations in the family this month. Kara got her Master in Special Education. Josh got his Bachelors degree Cum Laude from Eastern Michigan University and Teresa got her Masters in Nurse Practioner. We are so proud of all of our kids!!

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June…  I planted about 600 flowers this month at SAMBICA.

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In June, we also helped Kent’s parent’s get to Seattle ariport and then back home.

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July… Josh, Teresa and 6 year old Silas came to SAMBICA. Silas went to camp for a week and had such fun! We had fun watching him as well.  Also he told me he had asked Jesus to be his savoir. PTL! We had a few days with Josh and Teresa as well to enjoy them.

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August .. Kara and Nick came for a visit. Kara came early and spent some extra time with us and with Kent’s parents.

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Jan got to climb the 45 foot tree that the campers climb. It was an event for her as she has always had a fear of heights.

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We all went to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Kara and I got to have High Tea at the Empress Hotel. I have always wanted to do this and it was so special that my daughter took me!

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We also had some friends stop by to see us from Spokane and they are now supporting us. Thanks Lippert family!

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We also had some fun days showing Seattle to dear friends from Phoenix.

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We went whale watching one day and saw many of them. Fun!

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September…. we flew to Denver to help Kara and Nick on a major kitchen remodel. It turned out beautifully but was a ton of work!!!!!

Before:

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Working hard in the process..Kara working right alongside her dad. I helped with whatever they needed. But the food was a great way to help. It wasn’t quite done when Kent had to come home.

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AFTER…Beautiful!

October ….we went to Mission Fest Seattle. We met some neat young people. We left SAMBICA and headed south. We ended the month by celebrating my birthday in Arizona and then had a few days of quiet out in the desert.

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November…we are once again settled in Phoenix and Jan is working for Arizona Christian University planting flowers. I have planted about 500 already. Kent and I had a ministry trip to Texas A & M for a mission conference. Over 6000 students came for the worship time at that conference. It was encouraging to talk to many interested in serving God. Thankgiving we were with friends from our church and small group.

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December…We are going to be with Josh and family over Christmas this year too. We are very excited about that too.  God has blessed us with many friends and wonderful children who we are so proud of. We wish we could be together more but are grateful for every time we do get to see and interact with them.

We are also very grateful to all the friends that support us! Many people support us financially, prayerfully and in friendship. All of these ways support us and allow us to keep serving God in missions. THANKS!!!!

With Very Grateful Hearts,

Jan for the Roaming Reimers

Posted in Holidays | 1 Comment »

Remembering a dear friend

November 21, 2012

Last Thursday as we were about to board our plane from Houston back to Phoenix, I got a text from my niece, Jana. Her mother, my sister-in-law for 28 years and my friend had just passed into eternity. Even as I type that I find it hard to believe. The family buried her on Sunday and I wasn’t able to get there for it nor even to say a final goodbye. I last saw Sis in March when I was in Pennsylvania for my brother Merle’s funeral. Not the brother she was married to.

Some of my memories are:

Sis was a nickname for Carolyn. She was the oldest daughter of a neighboring family to my family growing up. So when my oldest brother and she got married it seemed natural to all of us. Sis and Rueben lived in rooms in our house that were made into an apartment for them. I was glad to have Sis nearby and especially so once her children came. I was only 10 years old when Jana was born and then I think about 2 years later Brian. Jenny came several years later. But I babysat for the kids a lot.

I remember going to her apartment when there was a thunderstorm with linghtning especially. Sis told me about getting hit by lightning once. No wonder she was a bit of afraid of it.  I have respected lightning ever since.  Sis was sort of a second older sister to me.

I remember one time during a summer that Sis and Rueben lived in the apartment. We kids were home form school. My brothers didn’t want to do the dishes and I was tired of always doing them for them.  So I refused and one of my brothers shoved me to try to force me to do it, well I hit a wooden piece on the couch and cut my forehead.It  bled a lot…and Sis heard the screams and came running to see what was wrong…when she saw the blood she said “You killed her!” There was a lot of blood but thankfully I wasn’t dead. She then took me and cleaned up the wound.  I think she looked out for me a lot.

As an adult after I got married  we had another fun memory. We were packing our things to take to Brazil as missionaries. We had to name and give the value for each item that we took and we had to have an itemized list to take with us.  It seemed like a job that I never could get done..but when Sis heard about it. She offered to help with typing the list. That was such a big help.  That was when I found out that she liked Country music.  We all listened to it while we worked.

In these last years since my brother and Sis divorced,  with the help of Jana I was able to maintain a relationship with Sis. Jana kept in touch with us and when we came to town we all got together.  I am so glad for that.  I considered Sis still a part of my family and my friend.

One of the last times I saw her.  Sis, me and Jana

Thanks Sis for being my friend and for all the memories. I miss you already!

Love,

Jan for the Roaming Reimers

Posted in Family, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

Ministering in Texas

November 18, 2012

On Tuesday this week, Kent and I flew to Houston, TX and after meeting up wtih our 4 team members we all drove to College Station and Texas A & M campus. There is a ministry there that was hosting a mission conference. Breakaway is a neat ministry on campus. Kent and I have been there years ago for this conference, so it was fun to return and see how the ministry is growing.  It is a one of kind ministry on a secular college campus. Check out this ministry: breakawayministries.org/

We got to Kyle Field which is their football field and stadium and we set up our booth outisde alongside many other ministries. There were about 5,000 students expected. We were just seeing hundreds of students start coming by the booth when there was a freak thunderstorm and lightning very close by.  All of us had to run for shelter. So we all huddled under the edge of the stadium…Kent found people to talk to while we waited.

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and just when the speaker was showing up…the rain which had been pouring had stopped.

We had a great time of worship with the contemporary Christian group Shane and Shane and then Louie Giglio spoke. By the time he spoke there were over 6,600 studnets there. And yes, it was cold after the shower but they stayed and listened to God speak through this speaker. It was amazing!

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The seocnd night was held in a church where we all had many opportunties to share with students. We saw hundreds of students this night as well.

But our whole team had many opportunites to share with students and to pray with them.

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All of our team felt we has a good time of ministering together and that God used us all there.

Thanks for praying for us as God uses us to reach many who will reach others. We are so grateful for these opportunies!

Jan for the Roaming Reimers

Posted in Ministry | 2 Comments »

Planting Flowers in November

November 12, 2012

Yes, I have been busy planting flowers since we arrived in Phoenix last Tuesday.

I was glad to get to work right away. Our weather has been so nice and warm in the high 70’s and even some days in the 80s. Then we had a night of rain and the temps went down a bit. So I was planting to get the flowers into the warm soil. I got 420 flowers planted since Wednesay. I am glad that much is done. I do have to buy some more and put more in. there are pots all over the cmapus and I had forgotten all the places to put in flowers.

I do need a bit of time to decide what to put into some of those pots that will look good for the kind of sun and water and shade they get. So I do need to think a bit now.

Kent and I went out with our dear friends the first night we were in town. And on Sunday we saw lots of other dear people to us. It was good to see these people that have been friends to us in our small group, in our church and at the college for over 5 years now. We are grateful that we are able to park in the same place now for the 3rd year in a row too. We have good neighbors there as well. God has blessed us in these many relationships.

I will have to get back to the planting soon . I will try to take some more pictures.

Love,

Jan for the Roaming Reimers

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Solace in the desert

November 5, 2012

Kent and I felt a need for a quiet retreat away. We especially like going to the Arizona desert and this fall found it so restful. So on our way to Phoenix, we decided to take a few days relaxing in the desert. It didn’t cost us anything to stay a few days here, so a very cheap vacation!

Now when I say desert you might be thinking of sand in every direction, this picture demonstrates more what you find in this part of Arizona.

We usually look for a small tree to have a bit of shade.  Rocks…yes, rocks of all sizes. But underneath is sand but it has been beaten down for a long time the rocks come to the surface.

Rocks in every direction

What do we like about the Arizona desert? Well, at this time of year the solitude and quiet! Our closest neighbor is 1/2 mile away.

In January and February it is very busy here in the Arizona desert but now it is not.

There is no other RV within seeing distance. Although there are a few close enough if we needed help we could get it. We aren’t too far from a road but you can’t see it from our house.

We like the quiet lazy afternoons in the sun..oh yes..the sun! We have plenty of it and are running on our solar batteries entirely. We are in temperatures in the 80’s in the day and 50s at night so it is very comfortable and no need of heater nor air conditioner.

It is also very quiet. We sit in the shade and read in the afternoons.

We make a campfire and sit by it until after the sun has gone down in all its beauty.

This was supper one night.  Baked macaroni and cheese , spam and cooked peas. For dessert we made an apple crisp…All very good. I normally don’t like spam but this way it was good.

Here was our susnet one night…look for our smoke stack on the truck and you can see the Rv a bit in the shade of the sunset..

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Last but not least

We watch the stars come out…and boy there are thousands that you don’t normally see in the city. We can see the Milky Way. We love this.

It is so peaceful. We do use the computers and phones to keep in touch and Kent was still working…but nothing extra..so it gives us some time to reflect and pray and sit and rest our souls and read.

We have also gone for walks. It isn’t too easy to walk on those rocks so we hike over to the nearest road…1/4 mile away and walk on that for a few miles to get some exercise. There were only 3 cars that passed us whle we walked 3 miles this morning.

We went to a church in the closest town, which was 5 miles away on Sunday morning. It was a small church and reminded us of a different time. Lots of hymns and the pastor gave an old fashioned altar call and a good Biblically centered. It was very refreshing to our souls.

Maybe now you can understand why we were glad to go to the desert. I hope you have a place to find this kind of solace in your life. I always feel uplifted by being in God’s nature. Thank You Lord for giving us this beautiful world to enjoy!

Love,

Jan for the Roaming Reimers

Posted in Rest and Relaxation, Scenery | 1 Comment »