Goodbye to PLC

 On Sunday, June 29th our family along with Dan's parents worshiped and said goodbye to the place that has been our home and like a family to us for the past six years.  Dan did the children's sermon and sermon themed around shoes. He gave Pastor Paul his own pair of black converse shoes just like the green ones he received when he arrived. Paynesville Lutheran Church will always be a place with good memories for us.  Dan blossomed as a pastor here.  We brought our two children home and had them baptized here. And I think I embraced the role of being a pastor's wife here. It was a morning full of tears, hugs, sharing of stories, and promises of prayers for each other.

 After worship the congregation had a farewell party in the fellowship hall.  Most of the time was spent razzing Dan about being bald as you can see in the picture below.  They gave Dan an art print by his favorite Christian artist.

 Jackie Skoglund and Kayla Youngs (our kids' babysitters) performed a song together.  I love listening to them sing.  They have such beautiful voices and they work well together.  We are going to miss them SO much!

 Here are all of the prospective new candidates for a replacement pastor after Dan leaves.  Notice they are all bald.  They seem to think that is what will make them be effective:)

 Dean and Kathy were here for the weekend.  The kids had so much fun with them as well and when they had to go Svea was begging them to stay just one more day.  The next morning she was singing in her bed about Grandma and Grandpa D and how she wished they were still here and how much she loved them:) I got all of these pictures from other people.  I don't have one of Kathy, but she was right there:)

PLC-we love you.  We are forever grateful for how you welcomed us in to your home like family.  Thank you Dean and Kathy for coming.  It was really great to have you there with us!

Paynesville Lutheran Website

We've now officially been here almost a whole year. One of the first things Dan and Audrey realized the church needed was a website. So the three of us poured a ton of hours into our PLC website. Check it out!

www.paynesvillelutheran.org

If you go the the "wedding" page you'll notice a little part of us made the website as well!

Confirmation Retreat

Dan took his confirmation group down to a part of Green Lake Bible camp for a retreat a couple of weekends ago. They tried going sledding, but ended up creating these. I thought they are quite exceptional and deserved a spot on the blog! This is the dragon that the men created.

Freedom Farm

We took 13 students down to this farm in Waverly, MN last weekend. A group of children came down from the inner-twin cities. Some of them had never been to a farm or touched a farm animal. It was fun to watch their faces of excitement or apprehension at holding a bunny. "Will it bite me," one of them asked? Too precious! They had a blast and hopefully our kids got something out of it too. We then spent the evening at the Mall of America, stayed in a motel, and then checked out Jacob's Well (a contemporary christian service) the next morning before driving home. It was fun to meet some of our students and see their different personalities. They seem like they'll be a good group, but have never had a youth leader before. They of course loved Dan right away as I got many reports from them as they randomly would ride with me in the Vibe!