Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Holiday trip!

I've just finished looking at my reports from the last few months and realize I have driven over 10,000 miles since August and that doesn't include air miles! We took a short break over Thanksgiving (which included another 4 days of travel!) and Cindy did a great job sharing photos of the trip on her blog http://www.cindybelleque.blogspot.com/ but I thought I might throw in some of my own comments as well - with pictures of course!
ENJOY!








One of the perks of traveling is seeing amazing scenery!






An awesome three generation photo!

Soon to be included in the holiday issue of GQ!





I put my stamp of approval on Thanksgiving dinner!



(Like my aunt and mom care!)






The best thing to do when it's cold outside! Uno attack!










Helping Granpa get the lights put up!






Note for next year - not so many!!






A special gift of a wedding album for Kris and Thomas!





Some lovely ladies!


From left - Donna Roberts, My aunt Anna, Ma Belleque and my sister Toenail!






My parents and our kids put on an early anniversary party for us!






Yep! Count em' - 25 years of wedded bliss!


Did I say that right Cindy??






Some goofy girls!






Back home we boys have our annual fight with the tree!






Finally we get it up!



We have to bend the top limb to get the topper on!


Thank goodness it's artificial!






Ta Da!





And of course while we boys manage to get one tree up


Cindy accomplishes all this in the next room!




On the way home we came across a huge fire!


It was a big harvester that had caught on fire and was


the side of the road!



We'll we all have our traditons and mine includes


the decaptiation of the first gingerbread man!


I hope your holidays are special too!





Friday, November 14, 2008

Winning isn't everything but it can be something!

My friend Karl Bastian put up a post about winning some cool Mt. Dew gear. You can check out his post at http://kidologist.com/2008/11/12/i-dew-win/#comment-2457. I was also a winner in that contest! It kind of got me thinking about how as a boy I (like Karl) felt like I never won anything! Now I know that's not true because I have ribbons and certificates and memories of contests but it seemed to me at the time that I never won a big prize! Funny how we think as kids! When I look back now I realize that I was very fortunate to occasionally win something!


I'm mentioning this for two reasons. First, I try to mention Karl's ministry and website http://www.kidology.org/ often because if your interested in kid's ministry you really should join and second I wanted to write about winning something at the Kidology University seminar held in October.


Like a lot of fun seminars they held a drawing at the end of the week for some really cool prizes from the vendors at the conference. In this case Kidology staff would throw paper airplanes into the crowd and if the paper airplane you caught had a prize listed on it you won! There were several fun prizes including a puppet and curriculum and lots of other fun stuff!


Now I have been to many of these kind of prize drawing and have occasionally won something. But as I sat in the audience I just felt like today was my day. I really can't describe it except to say that I just had that feeling! Maybe that's what gamblers sometimes feel when they think they are on a lucky streak! Anyway several prizes had been given away when Karl announced that the kidmo company was going to give away and entire set of their curriculum including DVDs, Cd's etc. All of the sudden I knew that I would win that prize!


Sure enough one of the airplanes which normally flipped and flopped and made circles in the air came straight at me and struck me in the chest so hard it hurt! I didn't even look at it before I stood up and began walking forward to receive the prize! I was so sure I had won! Karl was still asking who had won when I realized I had better open up the plane and make sure it was me. And it was! But I wasn't even amazed because I simply expected it to happen! Talk about weird!


I want to say thank you to Kidmo and Kidology for the prize. It is a really cool set of curriculum that I hope I get to use in the near future! If you get a chance make sure you take a look at their website. http://www.kidmo.com/ They have some very progressive products for reaching the TV and Internet generation for Christ! Thanks for listening to my story!


Thursday, October 23, 2008

Autumn Festival Parade

I hope you get a chance to look at Cindy's blog called "Life in a small town". The URL is http://www.cindybelleque.blogspot.com/. She does alot of fun stuff about our new home town. But I thought I might chime in here too! Here are some pictures of the Autumn Festival in Oregon, Illinois. I'm not even going to comment on them - I'm tempted to - but they speak for themselves!
































Yep! That's life in a small town! Your comments are encouraged!



















Thursday, October 16, 2008

A trip to Grace College and Seminary!

October 6-9th I represented AMF at the Grace College and Seminary missions conference with AMF partner Brad Lambright. It was a great time connecting with students and being in "college" again! Here are some photos!




Our displays were set up in the Orthopaedic Capital Center


a beautiful new sports center on campus.




My display. Exciting isn't it?!?


The candy bowl was quite popular!




The college is located in Winona Lake, Indiana.


It was a very popular Bible conference location for many years.




This is Winona Lake today!


This is how it looked years ago!



They had an awesome "Taste of the World" event.

I got too full to eat at all the tables!


A couple of beautiful Israeli Girls!


The students worked really hard to provide information
about each country and food as close to authentic as possible!

This is one of the growth groups I had the opportunity
to speak too! The students were awesome!


College has changed somewhat since I was there.
For instance there were no dinosaurs

and this room was amazing! It even had a washer and dryer!




And of course some things never change.
This is the room I stayed in in the boy's dorm!


I really enjoyed my visit at Grace college and we had some awesome discussions with students about missions and ministry in the US!

A big thank you goes out to all those who worked so hard to put this conference on and a big thanks to Samuel, Andrew and Kaleb who shared their room with me!!! It was a very comfortable couch!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Check out Wordle!


Our friend Karl Bastian pointed out this website from his friend Henry Zonio's blog. It takes words and makes interesting graphics of them. You can play at www.wordle.net. I am behind on blogging and will try to catch up! This "wordle" I made using AMF's motto and ministry points.!

Monday, September 22, 2008

An Extra Trip!

As many of you know my Dad, Ed Belleque, has been dealing with a form of Parkinson's Disease for several years. Last week I flew with my parents to Naples, Florida where Dad received treatment at the Pearlmutter Clinic. I was the official navigator through airports, hotels and freeways!

The clinic treats many types of brain disorders with an infusion treatment that also involves diet changes and hyperbolic chamber sessions. We spent the week there with dad having treatments and doing a little sightseeing when he wasn't too tired. Dad is progressing with the treatments and we will know in a few weeks just how much they are helping. We appreciate your prayers for both my mom and dad!

Here are some photos of the trip!



This mother duck and her brood adopted me while I was
walking around the clinic grounds. They have funny looking
ducks in Florida!



This may have been the daddy!

This is the Pearlmutter clinic where dad received his treatments.
It is a world famous clinic.

I learned that everything in Floriday is surrounded by water!

Dad got to meet his "idol" at a place called "Shell World"!




We found this fella on the side of the road in the Everglades!
We called him "Lefty" because he was missing his left foot!

He was very much alive!


Dad watches "Lefty" really closely!


Since we were in Florida we had to have seafood!



A beautiful Florida Gulf of Mexico Sunset!

It was a good trip and a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my folks. We are hoping and praying that the treatments will help dad reclaim some mobility to make his retirement a little more enjoyable! I am very greatful for my wife Cindy who covered the office for me while I was away! It is a bit difficult to do the job with only a cell phone and laptop!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

AMF Tri-Regional Conference

Okay, so I could tell you about the great speaker, good home office sessions, times of prayer, worship and fellowship. But instead I think I'll show you some photos of our missionaries doing something they don't often get to do - Having fun! Wish you all could have been with us in Rapid City!
First we hit the mini-golf course!!


Fishing for strokes!






Stroke penalties are serious at Pirate's Cove Mini-Golf!





We also shot a few pidgeons - Clay pidgeons that is!


Bill shows us his technique!




Our new Director of Ministry Resources takes a turn!



My first time shooting traps!

Congrats to Mark and Lila Hutchins 20 years of AMF service!

And we picked up our 10 year service award too!