Merry Christmas 2011

How we cherish your friendship and love! As we look over the past year, it’s clear that we have down-sized in many areas of our life. Nonetheless, our new & long-term friendships have up-sized! You are a dear part of what’s happening in our lives. How can we sufficiently say thanks for everything? You are a blessing!

Thanks for calling, caring, and praying!! We are on a wonderful adventure, still enjoying the Lord's hand after 41 years of marriage!

We arrived in Tyler, TX, shortly after Thanksgiving. We stayed at 5 Star RV Park in Tyler for a week. At this park the grandkids only had a small place to play. After that we moved to Whispering Pines RV & Cabin Resort, which has a very rural setting with lots of recreational/play areas for the grandkids (e.g., bouncing pillow, family pool, swing set, miniature golf, etc.). Unless Dad or Mom calls them, they can play to their heart’s content outside. It’s fun to watch!

To help engage us in the community, we have found a small church that we are enjoying very much. It’s called Community Christian Fellowship. The pastor, Dave Hickey, is quite a man of prayer, which we deeply appreciate. Last Sunday, Ernie had a great time fellowshipping with the men of the church. It was good, old-fashioned fellowship, which is something near and dear to our hearts. Praise the Lord!

It has been raining quite a bit these days. Around here there's not one negative word about any moisture. The Texas drought has been long and the lakes have gone down. Therefore, everyone has been most grateful for the rain. All of the Texans we have met have been extremely friendly and gracious. We have only positive reviews except for some narrow county roads that need widening. After Christmas we will start to look at properties, which is one of several confirmations that this is where we should stay.

In the coming year, may we encourage you in the following ways:

• Prayer: Ernie is challenging all of our friends to engage in special prayer for our country. Intercession has always been the most important part of his life. Therefore, it’s easy for him to say, “Prayer is of utmost importance!” Prayer events are happening all over the country. To inform you about prayer events, [click here]. If you desire, you may post what you’re doing about prayer this year.
• Online Bible Reading: Moni is beginning her 3rd year of online reading through the Bible. The reading is just a systematic, personal daily devotional and then anyone can join her (or start one's own accountability group), which discusses one verse from the daily reading. It only takes about 15 minutes to read. The discussion, which is optional, takes an additional 10 minutes. In this day and age, what does it mean to sacrifice an additional 15-25 minutes a day to complete one of the most important disciplines in a Christian’s life? Sometimes we all just need a little encouragement to complete an annual read through the Word of God. Please see MyBible365.com. Moni would love to encourage/train you in the simple basics in order for you to have a successful journey through the Word of God in 2012.

One great grandkids picture. (L-R: Ian 10, Joelyn 2, Jasmin 4, Austin 6 wrestling Kaden 8).

Here's a more recent picture. (L-R): Kaden 8, Joelyn 2, Oma, Ian 10, Papa, Austin 6 & Jasmin 4. Email us and we are delighted to share all kinds of pictures and stories!

[Click here] if you have missed any of our 2011 journey. Please email us if you would like to be notified that we’ve updated our blog. Otherwise, just drop by the blog at your convenience to see what’s happening.

Thanks, again, for all your love and prayers!

Ernie & Moni Guyer

PO Box 36, Peyton, CO 80831

Ernie's Cell: (719) 322-6600, Ernie's Email: ErnieGuyer@gmail.com

Moni's Cell: (719) 651-0777, Moni's Email: MoniGuyer@gmail.com

11/23 Update - Now in TX

We finished our commitment to Habitat last Saturday, Nov. 19th. It was an amazing project to see a house come together in about 3 weeks. We met such great people, many of whom live a life of giving to Habitat, even some 10-14 years. Some have travelled internationally to help build a house. Others have done 20+ homes a year. Such giving folks! Each one was so very nice to all of us!

However, for me, it had been several years since I'd done that much carpentering work and had a few evenings when getting down was easier than getting up. My Habitat friend, Kathy, has loaded Habitat's pictures week by week. To see the progress click here. The home owner should be in the house by early December. Click in about a week and you'll see the finished house. For a more historical perspective, click here and see week by week progress from Artesia's Habitat's leadership point of view.

We left Artesia, NM, Wednesday morning, Nov. 23rd, and arrived at Baird, TX, in the evening, just in time for Thanksgiving. Moving a 5th wheel is a slower process than jumping in a car. Kevin, our kind and generous son-in-law, drives the 5th wheel with at least one of his children with him. Ern drives the car. I simply keep the conversation going. 

We decided to stay here in Baird, TX, for a week (or two) before moving on to Tyler. Really, it's just too difficult to get two trailers moved a long distance in such a short time. Once you park, it is easy to decide to take a couple of days to readjust.

One lesson learned for me during these past two weeks is just to be reminded of how much my sweet husband tries to protect me. I can't imagine anyone trying any harder to make the days sweeter. He's not quite perfect .... but, he sure comes close. It's really hard to believe that Ern is 65. It seems like just a few years ago when we were in Iowa pioneering churches. But, really that is some 30 years ago. It's difficult to realize how the aging process just creeps up on us and suddenly things change. This is an area of contant prayer for me as I'm not yet ready to "retire". Thanks for your prayers.

After arriving in Baird, I cleaned for a day trying to get the dust of NM out of the seams and crevices of this little home. It has been a nice, casual Thanksgiving. The grandkids are always our delight. Tonight Dawn and I are going to see if we can find a couple of Black Friday specials at Wal-Mart.

Blessings!

11/5 Saturday Afternoon Update

It's Saturday afternoon (11/5) and we just finished Week 1 of 3 for Habitat. There's a wind advisory out today; so, we ended early. It's pretty difficult to do accurate work with 45 mph winds blowing dirt & sand in your face. But, these folks are excellent at building the Habitat homes. The folks we work with are called Habitat RV Care-a-Vanners and a few of the couples are old-timers, successful, retired business folks in very nice Motorhomes cruising around the country and then regularly incorporating Habitat into their road trips. Some are so kind and generous that they have been building homes for 10-12 years. My new friend, Kathy, has loaded Habitat's Week 1 Pictures to Picasa for viewing. [Click here.]

Every day I feel so privileged to be a part of this experience, walking beside my husband through these new opportunities. I still do daily phone devos every weekday morning at 7 AM with Katharine, a special COS friend. Then, I have another group of dear friends from OH, NM & TX, who are joining me in a phone Bible Study on Tuesday evenings. We are studying James. (You can see more about the Bible Studies info at the end of this blog.) I'm also doing a little bit of part-time work with a small mission group called Food for Orphans and helping a dear friend with her business (With Time to Spare). Everything is online and quite mobile.

The RVing community is a wonderful group of people. They are kind, generous and very social. Then I have the added joy of hearing the grandkids in the RV next to us. What could be sweeter? This week they made their own teeter-totter and the littlest ones laughed for hours. It's an amazing experience.

Well, I'm going to take a nap (maybe) and then see what Ern wants to do. (He's already sleeping.)

P.S. This Sunday is Orphan Sunday, a nation-wide promotion for the poorest of orphans. So, let me know if you want to help them out. There are lots of needs and we all have so very much. ($15/a month keeps a child from starvation by providing one balanced meal a day.) I'll to happy to help you get any gifts directed to this needy cause.

P.P.S. Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight. It's time for the daylight savings time change.

Bible Study Info:
Join us as we read through the Bible using MyBible365, which is a devotional 10-minute discussion Mon-Fri at 7 AM MST. 
  Or, call (712) 432-1085, 933627# to hear today's recorded devotion.
The Online Chosen Bible Study: James is each Tuesday eve, at 6:30 PM MST (5:30 PM CST). All you need is a phone, email, and your Bible. Email me with questions about either study.
  Both free studies use conference calling at (712) 432-0075, 933627#.
  For more info on the other Chosen studies [click here].

10/28 Update - Leaving CO

Thanks so much for your prayers during this season transition.

With the increased snow accumulation in the forecast for Colorado Springs, Kevin & Dawn decided to move first. They finally left at about 5 PM on Tuesday, the 25th. We all wanted the kids warm and safe. The forecast was 6-12" of snow by noon yesterday. We probably had 4 inches of snow.

But, our lesson learned was that we had significant ice on the 5th wheel and had to melt the ice with running cold water so that we could close the slides. Who would have ever thought? It was very wet and cold. Ern was on the top of the slick 5th wheel (outside) making sure the ice was gone.

However, we left on Friday morning, Oct 28th. I think you know that we're going to work with Habitat for Humanity for 3 weeks. After Artesia, NM, we are moving to Tyler, Texas, through the holidays. It's the first Texas city we're researching.