Philly

I remember standing in the park across the street from them, all the moms sitting watchful of their kids playing with us northern folk come down to Philly to visit with them.

the gated courtyard at the church we were staying at... no one was allowed to walk through it after 9 o clock at night

Maddie and I finished handing out those bright daisies like the ones sitting on my desk right now. She and I, we noticed those moms and then all the extra ice cream sandwiches.

"Let's bring them over to them." Maddie, the soon-to-be youth pastor's wife, was much bolder than me.

I am not afraid to admit that walking those streets scared me. Trash littered the sidewalks with old firecracker wrappers and cigarette boxes, broken bottles and nameless grey articles.

the gated park where we played with the neighborhood kids

We walk out of the gated park, away from the joyful happy laughter of children and across the street where poverty in sits like a heavy weight on these wonderful mothers.

Knock on one of the brownstone-like doors. The houses are all lined up in a line here, never disconnecting, holding up one another. This one is painted purple, and it makes me smile to see such a bright house in such a dark neighboorhood.

your average house in Philadelphia near Kensington Ave.

The young mom of the little girl that has stolen all of the hearts at the playground with her 4-year old sweetness opens the door. We explain the extra food from our little party, and she brightens. I ask if she would take the ice cream bars so they won't spoil in the hot July sun. I spot three more little ones in the living room. This mom breathes slow, joy filled with the thought of simple ice cream bars.

Holding the flowers and breathing myself, we step away and the door closes.

A few doors down, two mothers sit discussing things on their doorsteps. Everyone does this here. It brings a sense of community- of getting through this hard part together.

We hand over the flowers. I don't see the next part coming at all.

She starts to cry.

As she fingers the vibrant petals, she smiles through her tears.

"I love flowers..." she whispers. "But I can't find them... can't have them in the city..."

I break. I don't cry right then, but later that night when we lie in our room full of bunks and heat and I hear the roar of fireworks? When I look in out the gated and locked courtyard doors, through the barred windows?

I see her happy face. Smiling, finding such joy and thankfulness for a few flowers....

then I cry.

And I don't cry by myself.

The skate boarders, the tough guys, came on the missions trip. They played at the park, rolled kids giggling and screaming with joy on their skateboards. I see this and again I break.

the Kensington Ave L-Station

We as a group were deeply changed by the week on Kensington Avenue.

funny story actually...

Our youth group went down to LOVE park in downtown. We rode the SEPTA L-Train, and brought with us two huge birthday cakes. Sat them down on a bench. After three days in the city, we were used to traveling in threes- two girls, and at least one guy. We split off, cake in hand. Wished people happy birthday, celebrated them even if it wasn't even close to when they were born.

Love Park in Downtown

Just showing them that Jesus LOVEs them so much, and through Him, we too could reach out to others in Love...

Me, Hannah, and Becca found a lady to sit with. She proceeded to tell us everything she knew about Philadelphia. The conversation turned to talking about which areas to stay out of. She turned to us three,

"Whatever you do, stay away from Kensington Ave. People, they aren't good down thata way."

I snuck a look at my friends, who were smiling as much as I was.

I responded as kindly as I could without giggling,

"Well, that's kind of hard. The church we're staying at is two blocks from the Kensington Ave L-station."

the front of our host church

We didn't mention that we had walked through there twice today, served a meal for the homeless down there a few days ago.

Oh her face was priceless! Jaw open and shock written all over her face!

The Lord worked many miracles among us that week. Three people recieved Christ as their Lord and Savior. We heard with our own ears the voice of the Lord telling us what we were to do each day as we sought him in a time of direct prayer.

And to think that I had forgotten about this.

But thank you Jesus for those bright flowers on my desk. I saw them after listening to My Own Little World by Matthew West, and it all came roaring in like the Mississippi river.

And I thank the Lord for it because way too often I forget.

Thank you, Jesus, for the miracles done on that trip to Philadelphia last summer. You are amazing!

(kaye ann silver)

Isaiah 40:28

Do you know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

Isaiah 40:28

Blessings

blessings after a weekend with laughter and my cousins

whom I adore...

#

Dad's soccer team being done for the season

L's homemade apple pie

cousins running towards us between soccer fields

J and the way he runs all-out, all the time

racing across the fields with T

watching them watch J play soccer... such handsome boys

cool nights

flashlight walks with dad

this song...

(click on the link above to hear it... or go to my blog and you can watch it there...)

(kaye ann silver)

Woke up this morning to a happy little boy flinging off all of my quilts and saying "Good morning, good morning, I can climb up with you?"

I couldn't hear anyone else up in the house, but knew that somewhere Dad was around, because the boy had peanut butter on his fingers.

Walked up with the him and into the kitchen.

smiled at our pile of books from last nights service.

Last night at church, we found the library and the bookstore.

I moved towards the counter where my radar had spotted L's apple pie from last night.

A perfect breakfast for a cool fall day.

I glanced up over at the bright white calendar smeared with busy red words and green words and black words of places and things to see and people to meet with and errands to run and bible studies to attend and classes.

I searched for today.

and I was grateful for the blank box meaning a true sabbath with just family.

(kaye ann silver)

Weekends are for Walking

For laughing the cool dark of autumn

for smiling with family

for soccer games with cousins and movies with Dad

Blessings to you this wonderful warm weekend!

(kaye ann silver)

we don't go looking for an adventure, but they seem to find us...

Hooray!

The pictures from our adventure to the North Shore this year have been loaded to my computer, and now, I can share them with all of you!

WARNING.... I get kind of long winded... this may take you a while to read...

Just me, Dad, L and M packed up the big red bus and sailed north.

We drove up and soon discovered, much like our last visit, that there was some severe weather ahead of us.

We ran in to the state park we were camping at, were quite pleased to find it wasn't raining, in the nice little chalet no more than thirty seconds when God opened up the flood gates and down came the rain.

I haven't seen it rain so hard and fiercely since the hailstorm 3 years ago.

However, our family is not one to shy away from an adventure, so instead of stopping right there and finding a hotel, we decided to go into downtown Duluth.

The only problem was that all of the major highways in Duluth are under contruction and traffic was reduced to one lane with no exits.

The puddles came up to our van's headlights.

And in case your wondering how big our van is,

it's pretty big.

We plowed through at a grewling 10 mph and worried about the little civic in front of us that had water up to the grill.

And still it rained.

So just like last year and like Gideon in times gone by,

we put out the fleece.

We laughed and ran into our favorite wait-out-the-weather location... Grandma's Restaurant, and we prayed.

If the rain stopped and cleared up enough that we could pitch a tent, we would.

If it didn't, we'd head to the nearest hotel.

But once again...

God did a miracle, and we stayed the night at the State Park.

The next day we headed out to find some pretty places to take pictures.

This part is for all you history folks out there.

While walking along, I found a building built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the days of FDR who were in charge of preserving our parks and making them what they are today.

This was the date on the building:

Across the way was another building.

Same story.

Breathless with history and thoughts on who built it and what were their names and why did they join the CCC, we climbed into our drying-out van and headed for downtown again.

Little did we know...

That this was the weekend that the old Tall Ships like the ones built from the days of our country's forefathers were scheduled to be in the harbor at noon.

It was 11:00.

So we hung around for a while, watched people, made some lunch....

no ships.

Went to look at the shops, moseyed around a little bit...

still no ships.

Rumors floated everywhere... they were at Superior, WI... they weren't coming in today... they'd been sighted a few miles off our eye's limit...

After we had had enough of waiting and waiting we headed up to Gooseberry falls.

But before we got there, we encountered more traffic, some guys dynamiting and lots of rocks everywhere.

But when we pulled off, it was like stepping into heaven.

Slippery rocks and cool water became lost isles to be discovered and an adventure had begun in each of our minds as we slipped and stepped careful over the lava rocks by the shore.

Dad pointed out an out-cropping that lead far out into the water. We hiked up and walked down to the tip of the edge of the steep drop.

My stomach flipped.

From the beach it looked harmless...

but when you were at the tip looking over the edge...

there was a drop about 10 feet to the water...

and beyond that... a good 50-100 ft plunge down into the waters of Superior.

No thank you!

However I noticed these pillars and remembered them from somewhere.

I walked around while I pondered where I had seen them before.

Then I knew!

The CCC had built them and had cleared out this area so that we could stand there today.

Wow.

History, science, and gym class all in one sha-bang.

After visiting the falls which were crawling with tourists like ourselves, we packed up to go back to down town to see if we could find the ships.

Keen eyes watched quiet out the window for the masts of the ships like the Native Americans in the days of Columbus.

Shouts rang through the van and we stopped at a marina.

 where one of the tall ships had anchored for the evening.

The perfect ending to an adventurous day.

(kaye ann silver)

Acts 2:28

“You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.”

Acts 2:28

Colossians 3:23

Sitting in the basement, I stared hard at the book in front of me.

Focus. I need to focus!

Algebra and geography loomed overhead like the bright leaves ready to fall.

So often I think to myself- Oh, I'm fine. I can do this later and get it done then... no worries.

and yet every time I think that, I know that it is a lie.

For once I forget to do something, it stays forgotten.

So this school year to fight off those thoughts of laziness with His words. 

'Cause after reading Proverbs, the last thing I want to be is lazy.

I memorized a verse that God continually reminds me of and that keeps showing up everywhere-

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though working for the Lord, not man."

Colossians 3:23

So I sit straight, thank the Lord for His word that continually convict and promise...

and I do geography.

thanking Him for His reminders this week...

#404-415

geography books

The constant reminding and patience of Christ

crunching leaves under feet

walking with my sisters



R's dedication!

the dedication dinosaur cake...

Betsy remembering the cake! :)

40! people come to celebrate what God has done for our family

our whole family standing behind us in the pews singing praises! What a blessing!

finding pictures of our trip to the north shore!

flowering kale in a vase on our table

chickadees finding their way to the basement window to wish me good morning

(kaye ann silver)

ps- would you all send prayers to Him who hears tomorrow at 8:30 am?

I am taking my driver's license exam...

Thank you, dear friends!

Kansas Speedway

We arrived at 7:40 am, gear and earplugs ready and the moon still high overhead.

Parked and walked with the cool steam of early morning air floating around us as we talked.

We shivered and jumped to keep warm, the temperature being 45 degrees.

But we weren't aware of how amazing and breathtaking it would be.

Walked through the front gates, mouths open and eyes wider than ping pongs and we pointed and stared and bounced on our toes breathless in the adrenaline in the moment.

In the early light we stood in line with fellow fans with our passes ready when they swung the gate wide and welcomed us in.

Giddy, we ran in, everyone too excited to stand it and smiles ready for many photos to come.

We were there- The Price Chopper 400 at Kansas Speedway.

As one big excited 12 person parade we ran to the grandstand and gasped at the early morning light reflecting off the bleachers to be filled with 82,000.

We were the only ones out there at that moment and it seemed unreal.

Ran to the Cheerios tent that was hosting our stay at the speedway, all laughter and smiles and cheerios for breakfast. We are so blessed!

Clint Bowyer came by to sign autographs on complimentary die-cast race cars and hats, then off we ran to catch another racer.

Many many many thank yous to my Grandpa for getting me in to see Kasey Kahne!

He signed my hat, we snapped some pictures, then back to the tent I skipped with my best friend L chattering with me the whole time.

After a while they started calling tours to go and see the pit area where they change tires and the garage where they take the cars if something goes wrong.

A-MAZING!

They were really working hard down there! :)

(actually, our tour was right about 1 hour before the race started, and those pit crews were buzzing! Tires rolled, semis were unloaded and drivers prepared for the big race in their fancy RV's. It was totally fantastic!)

A little while later, we stood and screamed loud and whooped and hollered til we couldn't hear and wore yellow ear plugs and sat strangely silent in the loudest sport around.

BOOGITY BOOGITY BOYS! LET'S GO RACING!

What a great weekend!

Thank you so much Mamo and Papa for taking us all to the race!

Blessings to you!

(kaye ann silver)

dilly beans

We canned them together in August, with sunshine in our faces looking at the mountain of green beans piled on the table and five cousins staring in awe of the green strips of gold from Mamo's garden.

Phone lines to Grandma E all the way on the other side of the country bounced with our giggles and shouts in excitement at the new project.

We raced as we crammed as many as we could into the Kerr quart jars all lined up for each of us... twelve quarts in all.

Tooter horns blasted through the house in a deafening roar at the birthday party that camp week while twelve quarts sat on the counter and quietly popped closed.

And today, two and some months later when the burning bushes flame red and the trees pause in wait for the big wind soon to knock down their summer full of leaves.

M comes bounding out the back door, eager to tell L sitting simple quiet on the swing.

"Dilly beans on the table!"

We all laugh and run in for a taste of the week gone by too fast up at the cabin and summer and crisp tart wonderfulness.

And on this warmer-than-usual fall day we remember the sweet summer.

(kaye ann silver)



This is the Way...

Whether you turn to the right or to the left,

your ears will hear a voice behind you saying,

"This is the way; walk in it."

Isaiah 30:21