The Blanchard/McDonald Wedding - II

Yesterday was a big day in the life of many at Providence Church.

Pastor McDonald's oldest daughter, Christa, married Daniel Blanchard. This is the first wedding between church members of the Covenant Presbyterian Church. May the Lord be pleased to bring about many more such unions.

It truly warmed my heart to see our church community rally around this event. Let's see, where do I start...and I'm sure I will miss someone or something...

Most of the McDonald family was involved in the actual ceremony. Pastor McDonald gave away the Bride, preached a short sermon from Ephesians chapter five and presided over the vows. Tiffany, Melissa and Jessica were bridesmaids and sang towards the end of the ceremony. James VI was a groomsman and Caleb was the ring bearer. Abigail, Virginia Grace and Emma were the extraordinarily cute flower girls .

Elder Price presided over first part of the ceremony and David Price took somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand pictures. Anna played piano throughout the ceremony with Peyton Tosh assisting.

The Bandy family helped with the food (surprise, surprise). Ashton and Emil ushered the wedding guests in and out of the sanctuary.

Josiah Candler assisted in the ushering of guests.

As for the Evans family... Samuel Logan spent his time behind a couple video cameras and Colton James served as an usher. Kimberly helped out with the food for the reception and I presided over the middle part of the ceremony (my first wedding!).

All the church families pitched in with the clean-up afterwards.

This really was a special event. I look forward with great hope to many more such weddings.

Bryan

The Blanchard/McDonald Wedding

Bryan

Even More Thanksgiving Day Photos

Bryan

More Thanksgiving Day Photos

Bryan

Thanksgiving Day Photos

Bryan

Thanksgiving Day Feast

We had the Ben-Ezra and Lansberry family over for our Thanksgiving Day feast.

Before the feast Jacob Allen, in full Pilgrim clothing, read from the 1599 Geneva Bible then Jeremy Beach read the poem Five Kernels of Corn, Colton James read the two first hand account of the first thanksgiving, Samuel Logan read the names of the surviving Mayflower passengers and Kim read the poem Theres a Land of Beginning Again. James expressed his thankfulness for Margary Rose and Seth talked about his thankfulness to God for the fact that we were all celebrating together.

The menu consisted of turkey, venison, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, corn pudding, green beans with bacon (mmmm bacon!), apple cranberry salad, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing bread, dutch apple pies, oatmeal chocolate cake, icecream, pumpkin roll cake, homemade whipped cream, 6 different kinds of wine, 2 different sparkling juices and lots of really good coffee.

We rounded out the day with lots of conversation, sword play, shooting guns and playing mechtron.

We ending the evening with me playing guitar and singing psalms, hymns and...well...uh...old country songs. :-)

What a great day!!!

Bryan

Superwoman

This morning about 3:30am (as I'm driving my wife home from Peoria) the idea struck me that I might actually be married to superwoman.

Since the beginning of the week (Sunday) my wife has "cared" for a newborn baby while the infants mother had an emergency surgery. We left the hospital about 8pm Sunday night and returned the baby Monday around noon.

Then Monday afternoon/evening my wife secures and butchers a deer (see post below).

Tuesday evening we were scheduled for a wedding rehearsal in Glasford. We arrive at the church building around 7pm. As we are parking we get a call from a young lady who attends our church. Guess what? There's a baby on the way! She has asked Kim to attend the birth of her second child since her main midwife is on vacation. So we're off to north Peoria to deliver a baby (Joshua David)!

All of this in addition to her normal chores of feeding us and keeping us in clean clothes.

This is all in the space of about 2 1/2 days!

So I praise the Lord for my wife! I truly don't know where I'd be without her.

I love you Kim.


Bryan

My Wife Got A Deer...

...from her uncle.

A 200 pound buck! So, we spent Monday evening cutting up the deer and putting it in freezer bags.


The beast!



My wife the great hunter!



mmmmm...ground venison!



Jeremy doing his part.



Samuel Logan poking around looking for...uh...stuff. (he did eventually find the slug)


Faith Marie...helping?


Jedidiah Michael running the show.


Bryan

My Gracie...

...is growing up! This was taken during a recent wedding in which we took part.



Bryan

Covenant Presbyterian Church - News

Friday November 10^th Scott Price and I were ordained to the office of Elder in the Covenant Presbyterian Church (CPC). The CPC also received three new churches into the denomination.

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who lifted us up in prayer while we completed our exams.

My prayer is that we will continue to be faithful in our calling to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all that we do and that the Lord will continue to bless and prosper the Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Faith the Photographer

Pictures here.

(Thanks David)


Bryan

Stem Cell Research Success!

Two British scientists have grown a dime-size human liver from stem cells and predict that within 10 years it might be possible to produce a full-size one for transplantation.

It has not, however, attracted the attention of the major news media. Smith comments that it is “politically incorrect” because the cells came from cord blood, not from destroyed human embryos.

Bryan

Andy & Andy

Here's a video of my two favorite singer songwriters.

Andrew Peterson and Andy Gullahorn.

In the early 80's, Andrew Peterson was a little kid in Florida making up stories to tell his parents. Twenty-five years later, Peterson's love of storytelling has remained a vital part of his life. He's either huddled down flipping pages for his young sons Aedan and Jesse and their little sister Skye, or he's out on the edge of a stage, spinning tales as one of today's most prolific songwriters. With his sixth album releasing August 2005, Peterson invites us on yet another journey to someplace unexpected, The Far Country.

See it here.

Enjoy!


Bryan

Vote!

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" -- Benjamin Franklin

Information here & here.

Bryan

Ammo Day

Info here.

Bryan

Facing the Giants

We saw this film on Tuesday. All I can tell you is this...GO SEE IT!!!

More here.

Bryan