Barn Dance!

Some of Rudy's small group members at the Barn Dance.

Our home group at the barn dance.

The girls in the leaves while we were raking this afternoon.

One other nice thing about the fall around here...you don't have

to bag leaves.  you just rake them to the street, and trucks come

by to suck them up.

Rudy and I both had rough work days yesterday, so we were a little grumpy and worn out on our way to the annual Cornerstone Barn Dance.  Let me tell you...super fun!!!  Everyone dressed up country style and headed to a barn about 30 minutes outside of Bloomington-Normal for a good old-fashioned hoe down.  About 80+ people showed up to dance.  We had an older gentlemen "call" the dance, the majority of which was square dancing.  We also did a "Barn Dance" and one or two line dances.  As usual, I was too self-conscious to line dance.  I know...I'm a total party pooper.  We had such a great time that we invited everyone over to our house afterwards, and the party carried on until about 2:30AM.  Needless to say, I'm pretty tired now, but it was worth it.  These Illini really know how to have a good time.  On a side note...we also found a great babysitter for Cornerstone events in the sweet high school senior across the street.  It's always difficult to find someone to watch the kids for Cornerstone stuff since our usual babysitters are Cornerstoners, so we feel really blessed.  Yea!

On another side note...I went to the kids' parent-teacher conferences yesterday.  They are both doing very well academically and socially.  Apparently Kyra doesn't even pick her nose and eat it at school.  Whew!  That's a relief!

Fall Arrives

The kids and several of the Cornerstone girls at the apple orchard.

Kelsie getting ready for the cold weather.

Our front yard with our huge maple tree that was just beginning

to change colors.  It gets more beautiful each day.

The view down our street from right outside our house.

You can see a few of the trees have changed colors.  I just

LOVE our street.

Okay...so my whole school age life I learned about the seasons.  I memorized the look of fall.  There were always pictures of kids playing in piles of colorful leaves, images of  bright blue skies and kids in gloves and hats running around joyfully, and pumpkins set against a backdrop of brown and orange.  Last week was ugly and cold, but this week is beautiful, real life fall weather.  I want to be outside all the time just to admire the beauty of the leaves and to enjoy the glorious temperatures (today it almost got to 70 degrees.)  We had to take some pictures on Sunday because Rudy and I are just blown away with our first real fall.  I know it's the lull before the storm of cold and misery, but it sure is a nice lull.  

We went apple picking a couple of weeks ago with some of the students.  Okay, so we missed church because we figured there were very few days we could go outside in the coming months.  We wanted to take advantage of the weather.  We had so much fun at the little farm about an hour away.  The kids were able to feed and pet some little ducklings.  They also had catfish feeding and little kitties all around to pet.  Plus the apples were yummy.  We had never been apple picking, so we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Work has been going fairly well.  After a few meetings, I think there might be an avenue for me to get into wound care in this town after all.  In fact, I think I might have a very exciting opportunity to assist with building a clinic.  We just have to get everyone else to see the potential:) 

The ministry is going great.  We have made so many wonderful new friends.  Several of these friends are brand new Christ followers, which is awesome!  Everyone has been very welcoming, and we are so grateful.  This Friday night we are going to a Cornerstone event that is supposed to be super fun--a Barn Dance.  I think the pressure is on for Rudy and me to have the best costumes, but we were never actually into cowboy hats.   We'll let you know how it goes.  We are so excited to have Austin friends and Rudy's mom coming to visit in November.  Hopefully we won't get too homesick.  

Amazing Weekend

I am feeling blown away by this past weekend. Cornerstone Christian Fellowship always hosts its Fall Retreat at this time of year. Everyone said it would be amazing, but I didn't really know what to expect. I wasn't too optimistic. One of the first things I found out upon getting in the car after a long day at work was that we forgot to bring Kelsie's shoes. I stayed up until 2AM packing most everything we needed on Thursday night, and we forgot her shoes. She had only a pair of mismatched plastic dress up shoes to wear all weekend. Then we pulled into McDonald's for dinner just before arriving at the campground, and we accidentally ordered me the wrong meal. Then I noticed the kids weren't dressed appropriately for being outside in Illinois at night. Between all those things and feeling terribly tired, I had a bad attitude. I began to soften when we arrived at the retreat and were greeted by students and other members of Cornerstone clapping, yelling our names, and giving us goodie bags. I softened more after worshiping in the opening session with the super great Cornerstone band. I softened a lot more after I got the kids to bed in our little cabin, and 7 people came over to play Epic duels, keeping me company while the kids slept. (I can't believe, by the way, that those kids slept through 2 hours of Epic Duels with 8 people 5 feet away from them!)
We prayed during the opening session that God would meet us at Camp Cilca, and He answered! Rudy and I alternated attending teachings for the weekend, and God showed me so much through John Drage, the pastor from Missouri we invited to teach at the retreat. I was overwhelmed by the number of students who attended. 87 people came out for the retreat, and at least 50 of these were students. I felt a little nervous about seeing John because he asked Rudy to move to Missouri to help out with the GCM ministry there when we let him know we were planning to leave Austin last summer. Of course, we decided to move to Illinois State University instead. John more than confirmed our decision. He said it seemed we were right where we belonged with Rudy using his gifts to the fullest and having a huge impact for the Lord. He also said the most people they have ever had at a Fall Retreat at Mizzou was 117. Mizzou has been considered one of the most successful campus ministries in GCM for the last 10-15 years!
Anyway, it certainly wasn't just about the numbers. We just feel so amazingly connected to the people at Cornerstone. I finally got a shower on Saturday afternoon and was putting on my make-up in the girls' bathroom when one of the students we have befriended told me she accepted Christ the night before. I talked to another student about her life decisions Saturday afternoon on the way to the (cold) lake baptisms. I had a beautiful conversation with another student for hours by the bonfire Saturday night. Several parents came to the retreat to see their children baptized, and I felt connected to them, too (probably because we're about the same age:) At the bonfire, student after student shared how they have been affected by the retreat and Cornerstone for 3 plus hours (interspersed with worship and s'mores.) People loved on the kids all weekend, so the little Riveras had an awesome time as well. God was even sweet enough to have John bring his 10 year old son with him so Naaman had another boy to hang out with. Kelsie's feet barely touched the ground since people scoop her up and cuddle her as much as possible. (She is pretty cute.) And Kyra just loves hanging out with those Klunke girls.
God is so cool! I am so glad he has eased our transition here by making it all feel worth it. Rudy has shared the gospel a ton this semester--at least twice just this week. His small group is going great and is full of people who want to meet with him one on one to discuss their spiritual interest. His freshman leaders group has been amazing as well with these new students expressing ownership of Cornerstone as they are envisioned for a future of reaching people for Christ. Home Group has been great, and I have even been able to feel connected since it's at our house on Thursday nights. I just love these people and am so glad we live so close to campus and have students around all the time. I have to confess that life is a little crazy and a lot exhausting with tons of late nights, my 3 day a week job, getting the kids involved in activities, etc. but I'm having so much fun! God really told me something about myself this weekend, too, and I feel like a changed person.
Okay, I'll stop there. My heart is just so full of love and gratefulness to God. I even feel grateful to God every time I drive onto our beautiful street and see our cute little house intermingled with the trees that are getting ready to change colors. By the way, the weather here has been amazing. We've had highs in the low 60's, and I have the heat turned on tonight. It's quite daunting, though, to think that it won't probably be hot anymore until May. I've packed away most of the shorts and gotten out all the long pants and jackets. Pray for us to not freak out this winter. I heard the windchill was -30 degrees some days last winter. Good thing my mom is treating us to a nice Disney vacation in December. I'm sure we'll appreciate the break from the cold.