Dennae goes down, Jami stays down and Mom and Dad head back down

This week was a general "family week" for us in many ways. It started off with a victorious time of celebration: Dennae was baptized as a believer along with Amy Schrecengost, one of the youth sponsors whom Dennae has grown to love very much. That was a blessing! On Monday, Mom and Dad Dickson headed back down South for home in South Carolina. It is always great to have them visit. Each week, I take one of the 4 children on a "Dad Date"; this week it was Jami's turn. She has longed to learn how to SCUBA dive for quite some time; at this point she wants to major in Marine Biology when she goes to college (that's good since there aren't a ton of places to SCUBA in Colorado!). So we found an introductory course to SCUBA at a local dive shop, and she had an absolute blast. The teacher was very impressed with her water skills; maybe this is in her future? We had a few opportunities to have the cousins over; they all get along really well.

All in all, it was a good week of growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ as a family. Hope you had a great week too for Jesus' sake! Dont' forget to check out the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

MJD,Sr.

A visit from the In-Laws

This past week, Noel's parents came into town from South Carolina for a week long visit. For Noel, that meant lots of time shopping, buying and selling antiques. She and her Mom have been in the antique business for two decades now and enjoy doing that very much. For me, that means a couple of games of golf with Dad DeVries and Dad Dickson. The two Dads are "golfaholics" and go each weekday. I get to get away a couple of times during the week. We actually got to take Michael one day; he did pretty good. Hitting the ball straight and fairly far by the end of the round.

The kids finished their school year, all of them ending on a fairly strong note. While there is always room for improvement, we are very thankful for their growth and for the privilege of being parents of what we believe to be the "best kids in the world" (we would hope that all parents would like to argue with us on that one!). Next year, Dennae will be a Sophomore, Jami a Freshman, Ivy in 7th and Michael in 5th grade. They are growing up fast. The three girls went to the Denver Zoo for a youth activity for our church's teens as well.

This past week, Noel passed her tests to become a licensed real estate agent in the state of Colorado. Congrats!! She passed it on her first attempt; that doesn't happen too often evidently. Ivy tried out and made the "Premier" soccer team again for the Colorado Youth Soccer Association team in our area. And Jami graduated from 8th grade! Yeehaaw!

Another highlight is that Mikah Mae Sickau was born to Mark and Steph (DeVries) Sickau this past week. She is named after Mike and Matt, her two older brothers. We are honored and trust that our namesake will turn out OK in spite of her two Uncles!!!

Hope you had a great week for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

A week of memory and preparation

This week started off with a great series of meetings during the church services of Northern Ridge Baptist Church. Sunday morning's text was Galatians 2:20 - "I am crucified with Christ..." It was a blessing to be in God's house! It was a blessing to be with God's people on Monday, Memorial Day. My Mom and Dad hosted a Memorial Day brunch for our church family. You can see pictures of Dongjoon, Minsook and Olivia as well as some members of the Broadworth family in the pictures below. Memorial Day is a special day for me, Mike, because my Grandpa Norden was a veteran of WWII. I have his army jacket framed and hanging in my study at home. I also received good news about my application to become a chaplain with the Colorado Air National Guard. I will be going down to MEPS in a couple of weeks for a physical to see if my 42-year old body will stand up to the rigors of the military reserves. Please pray for that appointment.

This week, Ivy's soccer team played a "playoff game" to advance to next year's "competitive" level of competition. They won the game, 2-1. Ivy scored the game winning goal; she recieved a beautiful cross from a teammate and slid to kick the ball in at the opposite post. It was really exciting! She is in tryouts now for next year's team. Michael also had tryouts for his little league baseball. Michael is a very big 10-year old. His fielding and throwing skills are average, but he can absolutely crush the ball. He hit the ball at leats twice as long as the longest hit by any other boy trying out. It will be fun to watch him play this summer.

Noel has spent the last several weeks holed up and studying to become a licensed real estate agent. She passed all the preliminary tests and is now, as I write, down in Denver taking the state exam. We all hope she passes so we can get our Wife/Mom back. She is excited about a new career as a real estate agent; we are excited for her!

Trust you have had a great week for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

End of the Year activities

We are winding down the school year so we are busy with graduation open houses (we went to Mikki Smith's open house), choir concerts, district track meets and awards ceremonies. We also were privileged to have Dawn and Thomas Constantini visit from France. Dawn is Nathan Kummer's sister, and Mike has had the chance to visit them a couple of times while he's been in Europe. Nathan and April attend Flatirons in Boulder. Dawn and Nathan's parents are at Fellowship Bible Church in Denver where Nathan's Dad has pastored for many years. The whole family came up for a cookout on Friday night; that was fun. Also, our Pastor's Book Discussion Club met again this past Monday to read and discuss Ravi Zacharias's book Jesus Among Other Gods. We got a lot of discussion in although we wandered far from the content of the book. We are saying good-bye to Bernie Augsburger, the pastor at Calvary Community Baptist Church in Northglenn. Bernie has served there for over three decades and recently announced his resignation to take over the state rep position for the state associations of the Illinois and Missouri Regular Baptist Churches. We will miss his presence here in our state.

Mom gets a day, Mike a camera and Dennae a job!

This week was a very busy week in the life of the DeVries family. The kids are wrapping up a year of school. Ivy's soccer season is coming to an end. Michael's baseball season is picking up as well as Jami's basketball season. Dennae got a job in a financial investment office and started working this week. These ladies are former fellow church members from Flatirons in Boulder. I took Jami to the emergency room on Friday night because she was dehydrated and on the verge of a sinus infection. She was pitiful. I had a birthday of Monday (42!) and we all celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday. All in all, it was good week. Don't forget to look at the pictures from this week at the bottom of all the other posts! Have a great week!

The Parade of Champions and the Meeting of the Minds

This week, we wanted to let you know about a number of things that took place in our family. First, Dennae got a job working with a family friend in a tax office. She is pretty excited about the opportunities that this job affords for the future even though she's not thrilled about starting out in the "filing papers" department. But we praise the Lord for His provision. Second, Ivy's Trebol Soccer team was invited to march around the brand new Dick's Sporting Goods Stadium where the Colorado Rapids play, the local MLS team. So she was thrilled to be able to do that and afterward watch a very exciting game between the Rapids and Real Salt Lake. Freddie Adu, the teen phenom, plays for Real and scored a goal. The game ended 1-1. Ivy also scored a goal in their soccer game on Friday. Also, Noel hosts a ladies' Bible study for our church every other week; there is a picture of some of the ladies who gathered this past week. We hope you had a great week too as you served the King and kings and Lord of lords!

Dennae meets Jesus and a new church is born!

This week has been momentus for the DeVries family. The most significant events include the fact that our oldest daughter, Dennae, made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior on Thursday night. She has been struggline spiritually for some time, making very poor choices and evidencing very little of the power of God to resist sin and temptation. We have been concerned. Some of her poor choices created a need in our hearts to delve a little deeper into her heart to see what we could discern about her walk with God. (Proverbs 20:5 - Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. ) After some conversations with Noel and me, we discerned that she never had come to possess what she has so long professed: a personal knowledge of God's saving grace in Christ. So Noel and I kneeled by the couch, and Dennae confessed with her mouth "Christ as Lord" and believed in her heart that God has raised Him from the dead (Rom.10:9-10). We praise God for His amazing grace!

Also, on Sunday the 6th, we officially chartered our church plant and Northern Ridge Baptist Church became a New Testament local church organized by covenant with each other to be and do what God has called and empowered us to do. We had over 150 people in attendance, many from other churches in the area. They came to encourage us and to witness the birth of another Bible-believing church in the Front Range of Colorado. We have 58 charter members and are very, very excited about what God has in the days, weeks, months and years to come! Soli Deo Gloria!