A trip to Clearwater, Florida

This past week, Noel and I had the chance to fly down to Clearwater, Florida and check out Clearwater Christian College. Dr. Dave Burggraff, the VP for Spiritual Formation at the college, worked it out for us to come with a few other pastors to check out the college and see what God is doing there. It was a fun trip. We got to see the beach, the school, some old friends and teachers, and just be together. The kids stayed home with Shane and Sjanie Medhurst. They are neighbors, fellow church members and Shane is Noel's business partner in real estate. All in all, it was a great trip. Don't forget to look at the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

One prayer request: Mike's cousin, Julie DeVries, had emergency open heart surgery this Thursday night. She is goind OK considering, but she has a long way to go in recovery. She professes to know the Lord and would appreciate your prayers.

Hope you had a good week too for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Family birthdays and family picture

We got together as a DeVries family on Friday night, the 26th, and celebrated these respective birthdays from the month of October: Mark, Eric, Dad and Simone. My Mom made chicken enchiladas (both flour and corn tortillas - corn being my favorite), Simone made the dessert, Noel brought toppings, chips, etc. and Steph made the bean dip. It was great. You can see their pictures at the bottom of the blog.

We also had our first family portrait done in years. It turned out all right; we are definitely getting older, that's for sure!

Hope you are doing well for Christ's sake.

Go Rockies!

MJD,Sr.

1st Annual World Missions Conference

We are enjoying our 1st annual World Missions Conference here at Northern Ridge Baptist Church. It has been a blessing to have Pastor Kafunga Namuhindura here from the city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is a choice servant of God laboring in a very difficult and distressed area. Please pray for him. It's also been great to have Steve and Jane Gibb, missionaries heading to islands of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Steve has been a long time friend of mine since college days, and we've been able to keep in touch since then. Steve and Jane have been serving in Cairns, North Queensland, Australia for the past decade or so and have recently left that ministry to go as missionaries to Vanuatu. It has been great to have them and their family here; they will be here up through the 1st of November and leave for the field of Vanuatu at the end of December. Please pray for them.

We've had the chance to do a number of things together like go to the mountains, hike, see the wildlife and watch the Red Sox and Rockies games. Steve is from Massachusetts originally and is a rabid Boston fan. We may have to quit being friends for a week if the Rockies play the Red Sox in the World Series. Dad, Matt and I go to go to one of the Rockies games during their march to the World Series. It was great fun!

Dennae and Jami are done with softball season. Ivy scored the winning goal in their game this morning, and Michael has a playoff football game this afternoon. The kids are all continuing to work on their instruments and are slowly but surely progressing. Things are going well and trust it is the same for you.

Don't forget to take a look at the pictures at the bottom of the page.

For Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

The Rox and the Sox

Things have been hopping here over the past few weeks. First, I'm sure you've heard about the Colorado Rockies and their incredible and improbably run over the past several weeks. They are roaring into the World Series. One more win over the Diamondbacks, and we'll be in our first World Series! The entire state is infatuated with the team; and that includes our entire family. My Dad, my brother and I got to go to the playoff game against San Diego; maybe you read about it. It was electric! Incredible!

Also, Michael and I went on a mission trip to Boston to visit some church planting missionaries that our church plant supports: Colin and Tonia Landry. We went with two other men and two other children from our church plant. It was a great time to see some sights, help out in the ministry and just be together as father and son. We drove by Fenway Park several times while we were there. Maybe the Rockies will meet the Red Sox in the World Series this year!?

Hope you are all doing well and that you are continually tasting and seeing that the Lord Jesus Christ is good!

Have a great day for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

PS - Don't forget to look at the pictures at the bottom of the page.

Annual Aspen watching trip

This past week, the kids were out of school on Friday, so we borrowed a friends Mustang GT convertible and went for a picnic in the mountains and a ride along the Peak to Peak highway to watch the changing aspen leaves of the Colorado Rockies. I go up to the mountains every year in the fall to look at the gorgeous colors, and this year I was fortunate enough to take the whole family since the kids were out of school. We stopped off at my Mom and Dad's on the way up, and Mom was available for an impromptu picnic too, so that was really nice. We had a great time sitting at a picnic table at a roadside site that my family has visited for 25 years. You'll see the picture of the mountain stream that runs beside the campsite in the pictures at the bottom of the blog. Monk and Jami caught snakes the whole time, and afterward the two of them went with me to ride the Peak to Peak highway in the convertible and look at the colors. We stopped off at a mountain cafe and got root beer floats too! Ivy had to get back early to go and watch the CU women's soccer team so she, Noel, Mom and Dennae went back in the van. CU was hosting Stanford, the #1 team in the nation. Stanford won 1-0. Ivy got to go out for dinner with the rest of her soccer team; they all attended the game together.

Early on Saturday morning, Ivy and I went out for coffee and watched the US Women's National Soccer team beat England in the semi-finals of the World Cup being hosted by China. It was fun to see some of Ivy's heroes win the match 3-0. Ivy's team tied their game today, and Dennae and Jami's softball team won their game 7-6. Dennae pitched again, and Jami pinch ran a few times. Monk's team has a bye this week.

Noel is gone selling houses, and I'm running the kids around to all their responsibilities. This is a fun time of life for me. I'm having a blast! Hope you are too!

For Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Ho hum and deja vu!

We have settled back into the routine of a normal school year, if by normal you mean running around like a chicken with your head cut off. With soccer, softball, football, music lessons, yearbook, work and other school and church activities, we are very busy. But while we like being busy, we try very hard to have definite family times each week so that we protect ourselves from getting too busy. We have breakfast and family devotions together each morning. On Tuesday, we got out to eat as a family (somewhere exceedingly cheap!). On Friday nights, it's "pizza and a movie" night. On Saturday night, we barbecue. And on Sundays, we have sweet rolls and coffee drinks in the morning and ice cream after church at night. These weekly observances keep us all looking forward to being together and protect us from being too busy for each other. It's been a blessing for all of us.

This past week, we came to the conclusion that it would be in Dennae's best interest if we home schooled her once again; thus, deja vu! So starting this Monday the 16th, we will start that again. We are definitely looking forward to it. This past week, Noel also got her first paycheck as a real estate agent. Jami was home from school sick all week. Dennae got her name in the paper for pitching a 1-hitter in a softball game, Michael's team won their football game, and Ivy's soccer team tied. Monk and I got to go to a Rockies game on Saturday night. Our neighbors treated us and we sat 12 rows up from the Rockies dugout. It was fun to see all those players we watch each night on TV. You'll notice in the picture that our neighbor, Jonathan, is quite the prankster. Hope you enjoy the other pictures at the bottom of the blog.

Hope you have a good week for Christ's sake,

MJD,Sr.

Games and Celebrations

This week saw the beginning of the sports season in full swing. Dennae and Jami are playing on their high school girls' softball team. Dennae is the starting pitcher. Jami pinch hits and plays some outfield. I've been helping out during practices; lots of fun. Michael had his first game of football. they got beat, but big #62 is starting to get a name for himself. At left offensive tackle, he opened some pretty big holes. Ivy's soccer team had the week off.

We had a birthday celebration for the DeVries family; I don't know how many people had birthdays, but we all got together and celebrated a bunch of birthdays at once. We also went to the White Fence Farm, a very popular family restaurant in South Denver. We met Peter and Marsha Landry, the other elder in our church plant. They have five young children, and we really enjoyed the fellowship.

Hope you had a great week for Christ's sake. Don't forget the pictures at the bottom of the blog.

MJD,Sr.