Little Lily Ladybug

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Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors,

The past 2 weeks have been busy!  Lily has fully recovered from her sickness, and is back to growing like a weed and moving from walking to running pretty quickly!  We made a mad dash back to NC last weekend, and Lily got to see both sets of grandparents for a few minutes anyway.  She loves them.  Since our last update, she has started to "give kisses," which is awesome.  There's nothing quite like a clumsy, slobbery kiss on the cheek from your daughter.

Also in family news, Meredith and I were able to have our first "getaway" since Lily was born a couple weekends ago when we drove up to Boone and spent a night.  We enjoyed driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and just getting some time alone together! 

Blue Ridge Parkway!

View from the parkway.

We'd love to say a special thank you to Paula and Terry Jenkins for helping out at the Storehouse while they were here two weeks ago.  They worked hard the whole time, and we thoroughly enjoyed having them.  It was encouraging to spend some time with them.  We love visitors!

Terry and Chuck building the new clothing rack.

Finished!  We have a third more hanging space now!

In ministry news, over the last 2 weeks I have been working to meet with leaders of local baptist associations in our region to promote the BTCP (Bible Training Center for Pastors) curriculum in hopes of starting our first pastor training class in the spring.  Just yesterday I was encouraged when I met with Jack Roddy, an associational missionary who is responsible for strengthening and equipping 58 churches.  He has a lot of bi-vocational pastors with no formal training in his association, and said he definitely sees a need for BTCP to be here.  He's agreed to make his pastors aware of our classes in the spring and to encourage them to consider attending!  Praise the Lord!  Please be praying some of those men will respond to the opportunity.  This is the heart of why we are here - to see pastors in the Appalachian region equipped with sound doctrine to more effectively minister to their churches and the lost in their communities. 

On Monday, I will be meeting with Ben Proffit, the Director of Missions for the Holston Baptist Association (HBA).  The HBA is the largest local baptist association in northeast Tennessee, representing hundreds of churches.  Many of those churches have pastors with no formal training who are potential BTCP students, and we would love to be a resource for them.  Please be praying for that meeting, that the Lord would open the doors that He desires for us to walk through, and close the ones He does not. 

Family photo with the fall leaves!  This picture was taken right in our neighborhood!  We are truly blessed to live in the mountains. 

Up to no good :)  Lily enjoys eating what the "grown ups" eat now!

Lily's "memaw" and "papa" came to visit and spend the weekend with her when we took our getaway to Boone!

                       

Riding papaw's tractor. Well, almost.

She's a little unsure of mechanical sounds like the tractor but Papaw promises to "break her in" to the farm life!:)

Ladybug photoshoot over our weekend in NC.  Lily loves being outside and being on the move!

Memaw was ready. Papa and Lily were not.  Or were they? 

Too cute.

Our Lily ladybug.  She brings such joy to our lives and this is a really fun age!

Love,
Daniel, Meredith, and Lily Shrader

Be Careful What You Wish For...

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"Look mom, a pumpkin!"

Hi Friends and Prayer Warriors, it's been an interesting few days in the Shrader household.  Last Thursday, Lily started vomiting and so began our exciting first round of real sickness with our daughter.  She's had a stomach virus for six days now and seems to be improving today.  Last Thursday, she threw up all over Meredith.  When I got home from work, Meredith was quite upset about the inequity of it all, and asked why it was that she was always the one getting thrown up on.  I said I didn't know, and foolishly remarked that I wished that Lily would vomit on me instead of her for a change.  Though the Lord is certainly not a genie, he did see fit to grant me that foolish wish, and three out of the next four days Lily vomited on daddy for a change.  On a serious note, Lily is still struggling with a little dehydration.  She's made it so far through today without vomiting, but she’s still not drinking enough.  In addition to the stomach virus, she has some molars coming in and doesn't want to eat or drink anything, so we've been having to syringe feed her some liquids which is unpleasant for everybody.  Please pray that she'll be able to hold down enough fluids to get through this illness soon, and that she'll return to eating and drinking normally before her dehydration requires more serious medical attention.

 

In ministry news, our first Thursday food distribution for Second Harvest went very well last Thursday.  We were able to serve 69 households, and many of them were new faces.  We are in the process of recruiting some new local volunteers, and the leaders of that were able to attend on Thursday.  Please be in prayer for this new partnership as it would be a real blessing to us to have some more hands on deck helping at the Storehouse.

People are starting to line up.

We also gave away lots of clothes on Thursday.

This week we're blessed to have Terry and Paula Jenkins serving with us from Texas.  They're a real joy and we're doing our best to put them to work, and I’m sure we’ll have photos up next week.

Finally, please be in prayer for Daniel as he continues to contact local area ministry directors and pastors in an effort to set up some meetings to talk about launching a pastor training ministry in the spring.  This is truly where our heart lies and we are praying that the Lord would open the doors for this to happen.

Thank you for following along the blog and for interceding on our behalf.  We believe the Lord hears your prayers and answers them.  We couldn't be here without you.

Lily likes to sleep up against the bumper.

With mommy at the pumpkin patch.

Lily had a great time taking these little pumpkins out of the bin, and then putting them back!