One tough little cookie!

Ok...I realize the last two posts have been about baby Elianna, but I just can't resist one more. Here is a little update on things. Mindy is feeling much better and is gaining her strength back. Ben is struggling with the effects of the flu so pray that he will get better soon. Elianna had her PKU test done today (which requires needles!). Mindy and Ben were prepared for a very unpleasent event but she is a tough little girl and slept right through it! Praise the Lord.

My sister Melissa and all the kids (except Reuben) came up this weekend to see the baby. They loved holding her and gave her plenty of loving. She has it made in the wonderful cousin department, that's for sure.

Thank you Lord for children! What a blessing they are.

Announcing...

Elianna Grace Caron

Meaning: God has answered me

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"I will praise Thee: for Thou hast heard me, and hast been my deliverance." ~Psalm 118:21

Welcome Baby Caron!

Today has been one of the most incredible days of my life. I was blessed to witness the beautiful birth of my dear little neice (she has yet to be named!). Starting at 4:00 this morning, Mindy began having contractions and at 3:58 we met the efforts of her labor...a darling baby girl, 9 lbs-8 oz. and 22 1/2 inches long. Mindy's labor was very intense and exhausting for her but she did so well. She was amazing.

Getting started

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." ~Psalm 127:3

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them." ~Psalm 139:13-16

Thank you Lord for this sweet baby girl. You are a good and awesome Creator!

Farm Life

Amelia and Tiger...the much loved kitten (maybe a little "too" loved?)

After Camp Grace I was able to spend a week and a half at my sister Melissa's home and help out around their beautiful little farm. Something about that rigorous, healthy lifestyle really appeals to me. All of the fresh garden vegi's and outside time felt so good. I am sure when you live there all the time it must become work but for a short week it was an experience to remember. Here are a few photos of my darling neices and nephews...I am very biased! :)

Sisterly love...Annika and Katrina

Katrina, Becca, and Charisma with the baby goat

little Erina Peace

Camp Grace

I had the privilege of counseling at Camp Grace once again this year. My nieces and nephew go to this camp and so I got to tag along to Teen Camp (Ben and Annika) and Junior Camp (Charisma and Becca). It was a great time for everyone to really learn how to love God by serving and worshiping Him. Here are some highlights…

Studying the Word of God during quiet time

Making new friends

...and more new friends!

Singing and testimonies around the campfire

complete with a good old fashioned marshmallow roast!

All together...a great week!

Berge Family Reunion

Ok...here are some pictures from our Berge family reunion. It was the weekend of July 14-16 and what a beautiful weekend it was! We spent a LOT of time swiming, canoeing and fishing in Grace Lake.

Becca gets a lesson on tying on a lure

Enjoying the lake with Amelia

We were also able to celebrate the upcoming marriages of two cousins, Krista and Delchi and Karla and Mike, by throwing a double wedding shower. It was was fun celebrating the addition of two more members to our family. Mike and Delchi are great guys who both love the Lord dearly. What a blessing to have them apart of the Berge crew.

Delchi and Krista

I am excited to travel out to Krista and Delchi's wedding come September 30th to participate in their special day. Their relationship is such a testimony of the Lord and His goodness. Praise the Lord for His great faithfulness to those who love Him.

"...His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." ~Lamentations 3:22, 23

Back Home...

I am sorry about the lag in my blogging. I am now FINALLY able to get on here after several weeks of crazyness. There was the Berge family reunion, then counseling at two camps, then 10 days with the Sahlstroms, and then our Family music festival, all back to back. I am excited to show you pictures from each of these wonderful events. I will post those soon.

Before all of that however, we were sad to say goodbye to two members of our family: my uncle Rob (Mom's brother) and my Grandma King (Mom's mom). They died two days apart quite unexpectedly. My uncle Rob was a generous man. He gave me his vintage Gibson four string banjo which he lent to me to learn a few tunes on. Pray for his family.

My Grandma King was a godly woman who loved to sing the old hymns and talk about her Lord. She was a blessing to me and I am grateful that I was able to know her. At her funeral a lady who lived at the nursing home with her came up to my aunt and told this story:

"I don't think your grandma even knew me but she blessed me so much I just had to let you know. Several times over the years I have struggled with depression and despair and all I had to do was roll my wheel chair back and forth in front of your mother's room and listen to her soft humming of those good old hymns and my spirits were lifted. I don't think she even knew I was out there but what a blessing she was!"

Celebrating Grandma's Homegoing

What a testimony of her life! Praise the Lord that she is with Him in glory.

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Home Improvement!

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For a long time we have been wanting to give the end of our garage a facelift. It is a place that likes to collect "stuff" and manages to slowly disintegrates into a mini junk yard all by itself (imagine that!). So finally we'd had enough and launched project "Fix-Er-Up!". It really was inspired by my brother Matt. When he was visiting from Texas a while back he did the preliminary landscaping but now it was up to us to do the rest.

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Dad had a load of rocks delivered and he then proceeded to build the neatest looking rock retaining wall. It really is a work of art. I don't know if you all realize it, but my dad is quite the artist. I really enjoyed watching him pick out just the right rock and set it perfectly into place.

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He even let me try. Scary, isn't it? Nothing is safe now!

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Here is the before picture.....

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And after!...

We are still working on filling it up with some flowers so I think by next year it will really be beautiful. You will have to stop by and see it for yourself!

Happy 4th of July!

*Righteousness exalteth a nation:

but sin is a reproach to any people.

(Prov. 14:34)

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Our Father's God to Thee,

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing;

Long may our land be bright,

With freedom's holy light,

Protect us by Thy might

Great God, our King

~Samual F. Smith (1808-1895)

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"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,

but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves"

~Phillipians 2:3

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I have to admit that I have been suffering from a mild case of "poor me" syndrome over the past while. Sometimes life just seems to get busier and busier and gets to be too much too handle. Well, at Bible study this morning I suddenly realized what was wrong with my crummy attitude. I have been making it all about me. In my mind I was thinking that this is my life and I wasn't enjoying it as much as I thought I deserved. So as I was reading through Philipians 2:1-11 I was seriously convicted as I saw how Jesus lived His life. He emptied Himself and took on the form of a bondservant.

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He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:8)

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Well that really put it all into perspective! I can be so selfish sometimes. And you know, I am finding that the more I serve others with a grateful heart, the more I find joy and satisfaction in life. True joy and fulfillment isn't found in a day filled with serving myself, it is found in a day spent serving Jesus and investing in eternity.

I guess that is a foundational truth but sometimes I just have to re-learn the obvious!

Musical Blessings...

It was great having the Wissmann Family stop by on their way up to Canada this Monday. They even sang and played some songs for us. Our very own private concert...it doesn't get any better than that! If you would like to get to know this delightful family better, go here.

Jamming in the living room

We also had the priviledge of hosting the Dan Utz family at our house this week. They ministered at our church on Tuesday and refreshed our spirits with their sweet voices and servant's hearts.

Dan with all his girls...cheerful morning faces!

"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth:

make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise." Ps. 98:4

Vacation Bible School in Ponemah Minnesota

This last week I was blessed to be able to join a group of believers up on the Red Lake Indian Reservation teaching VBS. Our theme was the Lord's Prayer and we studied all of God's amazing attrributes.

Carli, from Michigan, sharing the wordless book with a group of children

My little buddies helping with flag duty

You never know how the seeds will grow that were planted. Pray that they would flourish and be fruitful in the lives of those precious children. Each one it seemed had a sad story to tell whether is was a divorce in the family or drunken parents or abuse. They really need the love of the Father to survive up there.

"...Be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things."

~Joel 2:21

The Best Dad in the WHOLE World!

I have been supremely blessed to have been given such an amazing father. He loves and honors God with his life and lives his life above reproach. He loves my mother dearly and serves her and us so faithfully and without complaint. When I think of the many late and long hours that he has put in so that he could provide us with a comfortable and cozy home, I am amazed and so thankful. He has always been willing to sacrifice his own comforts and desires in order to put others first.

One example can be found in the picture above. "Hate" may be too strong of a word, but Dad really doesn't like puzzles. The logic of spending hours and hours placing a bunch of small pieces of cardboard together and then eventually putting them all back into a box, escapes him. However, my mother really enjoys puzzles--because of the wonderful times of fellowship and togetherness that puzzles often encourage. SO, Dad, sat down with Mom and put in some pieces just so that they could be together. Of course he did make a big deal of it and we were all aware of whenever he found a match, but regardless, he did it and that was pretty sweet. So maybe that wasn't his crowning moment of self-sacrifice, but that is just one small example. Anyway, I think that he definately is the greatest dad in the whole world!

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I love you,
Melanie

Be Real

God has been teaching me about the importance of being consistent in my life. Not only in my quiet time with Him but also in my heart’s condition. So many times I know that I have given the appearance of a good “sweet” girl all the while my heart is in a nasty and dreadful condition. What hypocrisy and a stench it must be to God—it is nothing but noise.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Cor. 13:1)

“God needs me to be real. He can’t change me into someone I am already pretending to be.” ~Jim Newsom

A Trip to The Cabin

Our whole family was blessed with the opportunity to spend Memorial Day weekend at a remote cabin up north near Voyagers National Park in northern Minnesota. The only way to get in to the cabin is to take a boat across a large lake, up a river, and through another lake. There it sits, high above the lake on a rock over-looking the wonder of God's amazing creation. It was a wonderful, refreshing time to spend together as a family and in the presence of God. He is so great and mighty!

Mom and Mindy waiting for the guys to return

with the boat so that we can begin our journey in.

A dragon fly drying out his wings.

We caught a lot of small-mouth bass. They are a super fun and amazing fish to catch because they really like to fight and "dance" above the water, putting on quite a show. I think it was the most fun I have ever had catching fish. I am definitely "hooked" now!

"As the earth bringeth forth her bud

...so the Lord God will cause

righteousness and praise to spring forth."

~Isaiah 61:11

Mother's Day Weekend...

We had a wonderful weekend with Melissa and Sam and the whole crew. On Saturday the guys went fishing and caught a TON of walleye. Dad cooked them up and we feasted in true northern Minnesota style. I have to say that there are very few things as fine as a delectable walleye dinner cooked by my dad. He is amazing.


Then on Sunday, we all headed over to Ben and Mindy's to celebrate Mother's Day. They had a house-full with 32 people total. I think that may be a record for them so far. Karen, Mindy, and I had fun cooking up a Mexican meal so that all of the moms would be able to relax and enjoy the day. It was a wonderful day of just being together and enjoying one another's company.

Lo, children are an heritage from the LORD:

and the fruit of the womb is His reward.

Psalm 127:3

This is Erina Peace, one of my sweet neices. I have been abundantly blessed by my neices and nephews. They are each one so unique and such a joy to be around. We have eight of them coming to visit us tomorrow so this house should be a happening place in about 24 hours!

A Beautiful Minnesota Morning

"Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns!...

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;

let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

let the field exult, and everything in it!

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy"

Psalm 96:10-12

Aunts and Dishes and other Blessings...

My great aunt Mary (on the Berge side) and aunt Bernadine (on the King side) are good friends and like to go antiquing and treasure hunting/selling. They have all kinds of adventures together and find some pretty amazing things. Recently they came upon a beautiful set of china from an estate sale that they were in charge of organizing. It was all going to be sold for $50 and they called here wondering if someone would be interested in it.


So, long story short, I am now the owner of a 12-place setting of china! It has a delicate flower pattern and silver trim. The cups are sturdy but elegant. I am very blessed and I praise the Lord from Whom all blessings flow.

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!" ~Psalm 34:8