Forgotten Christmas

Back in January, my sister Clara and I helped plan for Gospel for Asia’s Forgotten Christmas video. This is the second year GFA has done this project – and its purpose is to challenge the way we think about Christmas. This 2 minute video forces us to think, to look at Christmas differently.


Have we lost the meaning of Christmas? Have we covered it up with “stuff?” Has Christmas become about the decorations, the gifts, and the celebrations, rather than JESUS? We’ve let these things steal our focus. It’s not the way it should be.


As Christians, we are to be in the world, not of it. It’s hard to fix our focus on the one thing that does matter – Jesus. It’s hard to tear ourselves away from this world, and to look at Christmas differently.


Put Christ first this Christmas.

GFA's Christmas Catalog is a way that we can help people who are lost and without hope. The Dalit people group in Asia is the Forgotten people (go to this link to learn more.) We can remember them this Christmas, and share with them the love and hope of Christ. Not only can we tell them of the God who loves them, but we can help them in practical ways as well. With a goat, a sewing machine, a cow, some chickens – these people can make a new life for themselves and learn of the One who died to save their sins. www.gfa.org/gift

New Family Photo!

When we were all home for Thanksgiving, we had a new family photo taken!

Mom teaching sewing

Not only does Mom enjoy teaching sewing to the girls in her class, but she's been able to teach several other people how to sew. They've started with these 9-patch pillows, which are simple to make, but look pretty awesome. (We made them in class- they're really nice pillows to have on roadtrips, too.)

Camping at Cooper Lake

With fall being here and the temperatures being cooler... we went camping, at the Cooper Lake State Park. Because of the drought, the lake was dried up some, but we still enjoyed the nice lake view from our campsite. We "roughed it" in our tent and with our cooking and eating outdoors, but had some comfortable things too, like air mattresses, water, and electricity. There was a fire ban, so we improvised and made smores over the camp stove.

We forgot our broom, to sweep off the campsite and inside the tent, so Clara made one from locally available materials.

Ellie had fun wearing Dad's fishing vest like it was a photographer's vest.

Clara and Ellie did some themed photoshoots in the woods. Here, Clara is about to wake up in a strange place.

We played cards in the evening by the light of the lantern, after the sun had set.

We saw lots of armadillos that were alive.

The lake view from our campsite

In the cold mornings, we enjoyed warm beverages like this hot chocolate.

Delicious burritos for breakfast.

Migrating birds

And our family!

Talent Show

The GFA talent show was last Friday night. It was lots of fun! Crazy friends being Elvis, and Nacho Libre, and Ellie and Clara were in the Prayer Skit.

Back to School

Last Friday we started ECC, our homeschool co-op. We've been busy getting back into the routine of things. Ellie is at the beginning of her senior year, and Clara is an almost-16-year-old sophomore. Ellie is also learning to drive! So besides all of that being busy for Mom, she's also teaching a Fun and Useful Sewing class at ECC to a group of girls.

Here is a picture of us after the first day of school. Mom and Clara are with some our friends, Brandon and Sarah.

Hopefully more regular blog posts will be coming soon!

some photo shoots

I (Ellie) have recently been taking photos for people. This afternoon I did some senior pictures for a friend, and since Melissa has been home for spring break, she came along to. We had fun.

winter weather

Texas rarely has bad winter weather. But these past few days... well, that's something different. Everything has pretty much been shut down these past two days.

On Monday night we had icy rain, sleet, snow. Basically it froze on the roads, so we're stuck at home. Dad was off of work Tuesday and Wednesday. Probably he'll also be off tomorrow too.

But we've been having some fun adventures! Tuesday morning Dad and Ellie (me) walked to the Asian supermarket for vegetables for soup for lunch. It was windy, and really cold. We didn't fall down on the ice or anything... just slipped alot.

And then today we walked down to the corner again and rented a redbox movie, and also got tortillas at the Mexican store. Amy and Clara and Ginger (our dog) went with us for part of that walk too.