October 31, 2009

KP: Gabriel Men

KP Writes:

A proud Pa Pa! (Nana too!)





Here is Trace with Trace. Did you see how baby Trace smiled for the camera. He loves his Aunt Kristian. Dad is just a little bit proud of his boy.


I wonder if he will be a hunter too?!? Hum?


KP: Another Cousin

KP Writes:

Ashton and Mallory don't just have little cousins! While in GA I had the opportunity to eat lunch with Mike and Cathie (Jeff's brother and his wife) and their son. Scott was home from college for Fall break and joined us. It was so good to see him and hear all about college life with football, fraternities, dorms, and oh yeah-classes. No, he is doing great and looks great!! Scott we are so proud of you and A & M were reaaalllly jealous that I got to see you and they did not. Thank you Grandma and Papa for taking us to lunch. It was a great time.

Love you,
Kristian

KP: Lots of Cousins

KP Writes:

Victoria amazes me with her spirit of adventure. There is never a dull moment among the cousins when she is around. You should also see how great she is with all the babies. She is a natural. And, photographer!! Maybe she can tell me, how did all those pictures of Sud and Trouble get on my camera?!?



Brothers!! (and cousins to Ashton and Mallory) Here you see the greatest oldest brother, AJ, with his baby brother, Archer. AJ, you are such a great example to both of your younger brothers. I am very proud of you. You are also such a help to your mom.



Here is another Williams cousin, Abram. He used to be the baby of the A. Williams family, now he is just plain CUTE!!!


This is a great picture of two of Ashton and Mallory's Williams cousins, Autumn and Gabriel. They were posing for the camera so that A & M could see how much they had grown up since they were last together this summer. Tuffy has done an awesome job keeping us updated with current pictures of all the cousins on his blog. Thank you very much. It bridges the distance gap!! He and Kelda have also made it easy for his 2 and my 2 girls to do 'quickie correspondence' by adding texting and email to their phones. Now when my girls go online in between school subjects they can see what their cousins are up to.

I didn't get a picture of the oldest cousin, Rebecca, on this trip. She wasn't able to come out to the dinner. Seems she took her car for a little spin, or should I say, roll. I am so sorry!! But I am soooo thankful that you were not hurt. I cannot wait to see you at Christmas.

Love,
Aunt Kristian (aka Aunt Christmas)

KP: 3 Short Months Changes Things


KP Writes:

Speaking of babies, while I was in GA I got to see baby Archer. (My next to the youngest brother Alan and his wife, Amy's 4th and youngest child.) Archer was born while we visited GA this summer. I had not seen him since that first day in the hospital. Needless to say, he has grown a bit! Three months at this stage of life is profoundly significant. I wonder what he will look like and what he will be doing in another 3 months when we visit at Christmas?!

Archer is such a happy baby, completely content with whatever. I guess that is the way to be when you are number four!!

Love,
Aunt Kristian

KP: Meet the Newest Family Member


KP Writes:

Most of you already know and many of you have already seen, the newest addition to our family. My 'baby' brother Trace (and his wife Kathryn) had their first baby in September, Trace Alexander Gabriel, Jr. He was born on my mom's birthday and I got to see him in person when I went back to GA earlier this month.

I love technology as we were kept posted of the progression of labor and delivery by phone and saw pictures of him by internet within minutes of his birth. Thank you, Dick for the pictures! But, nothing compares to the delight of holding a little one for the first time. I know there were probably better pictures of him, but I wanted to post one of he and his Aunt Kristian.

Ashton and Mallory, and Uncle Jeff too, cannot wait to hold he and his cousin Archer at Christmas!

Love ya,
Kristian


KP: Infamous HS Girlfriends


Well here is a picture of my infamous high school girl friends. This was taken on our fabulous trip to the beach last month. Only one evening did we venture out of the condo to go to dinner. And, here we are. (Two are not pictured: Denise who needed to stay home with her younger children and me, the photographer!)

Ladies, you gave me the best gift one could give, precious time with you all. I had the time of my life and I love you much!! See you at Christmas.

Love,
Kristian

October 30, 2009

JP: Blustery Days

When we bought our house here in Grandview, one of the positives (I thought) was that there wouldn't be many leaves to rake this fall. Sure, we had the 5 pear trees, but they didn't have that many leaves. What I failed to realize is that in Missouri/Kansas it doesn't matter how many leaves your trees have. You need to look at how many trees your neighbor has, his neighbor has, the subdivision next to yours has, the next county has, and how many Oklahoma and Nebraska have because all their leaves are coming your way!

The wind is so bad here that we have to tether Mallory to me whenever we go out or else we'll get a call from someone in Illinois or Indiana one day saying they found her plastered against their grain silo. Anyone know where I can get a pair of those boots that the astronauts wore on the moon to help weight her down?

I was attempting to leave the prayer room today and was bounced between the cars in the parking lot like a pinball. I finally made it to the safety of my truck. However, my battle was not over. With both feet firmly planted against the inside wall of of the floor board and seat belt tightly secured, I had to hold onto the door with both hands to keep it from being ripped off the hinges and discovering later that it had actually beat me home!

I later found out that we almost had to make a trip to the emergency room as both Ashton's legs were nearly amputated by the van door as she attempted to get out. Just another beautiful Autumn day in Missouri.

MP: Yikes!!!!!!!!!!

mp writes:

Hello all,
I am somewhat embarrassed of the pictures that were of Ashton and I in her last blog. But I guess they were kinda funny. Anyway I was really going to talk about was how much God loves us. God loves us so much that He would do absolutely anything for us. Also I sometimes marvel at how He love us even when do things that He would not have us do.
So on Saturday we went to Sasha (a friend from intro) b-day and it was a party. I wore a green dress.aaaaaaa is from Hawaii so all of the Skeels were there to celebrate too. Sasha turned thirty on Friday.
After this on Sunday I went to Paige and Cory's (Macy's parents) house for Paige's b-day party. This party was like a mascaraed party and I wore the same green dress as well as a mask that I have from when my mom used it to decorate her cabin one year at summer camp. Well it is late and I need some sleep!!! gtg. lol. (got to go. lots of love :0)
Love always,
Mallory

October 29, 2009

AP: Goofy sisters!!!

AP writes:

Well, one of my good friends and I used to take pictures together at about 2 am whenever she would spend the night and they were hilarious. So Mallory and I decided to take some funny pictures, not at 2 am, just because. They were so funny I thought I would share them with you!


Just plain crazy...





Look how weird my face looks!





We didn't know what the other one would do so
it was pretty funny we did almost the same thing....





She said, "Act like a dumb frog." So we did....





I said, "Eww...."





You know that we didn't have to think of these faces......
They came naturally...like, "Ready, 1, 2, 3!"





I think I saw something scary....
Maybe I should have looked next to me!





I put my own hand up to my throat and pretended to choke
myself.....she had no idea! Doesn't this look hilarious!





Then I just said, "Look mad!" And that is still my hand on
my throat.....pretty weird picture huh?





I think she was singing.....
But don't I look intelligent!





I smelled something horrible...





And then she smelled her own horrible smell that I was dying of before....


As Kahi Skeele would say, "I made fart!"




But really it wasn't me....but I won't name any names!







Hope you enjoyed the funny pictures!


Just cause these are on the internet, doesn't mean you can use them for black mail later, Uncle Tuffy!!!


Love ya!
Ashton

October 27, 2009

AP: The Humanity of Jesus

AP writes:


In my textbook for the course I am taking, Allen Hood quotes Von Balthasar from his book Prayer. It was such an inspiring quote I decided to share it with you:


Standing in awe of God is one thing. Loving Him is quite another thing. You can go through life obedient and struck by His awesomeness, but it's quite another thing to be struck by His tenderness, to be tender towards God. When you know His humanity and tender acquaintance with your frame, your heart feels safe to move towards Him and ask questions you normally would not ask. It is sheer joy to engage with your older Brother in dialogue and in worship, free to love Him with your particular personality. This is joy, to enjoy yourself in enjoying Him.


This where contemplation sets to work. On the one hand, what the Son is and does is human, and is thus comprehensible...Even the quality of Christ's humanity is so different from all other humanity and from everything that is possible in the world. All the same, the humanity of the Son of Man is human. It is not interfered with, there is no grotesque distortion; it bears the mark of its divine quality just as white hot iron shows its heat; indeed, the divine reveals its incomparable power in the very fact that what is human is not destroyed. If two magnitudes were of the same order, the greater would of necessity be a threat to the lesser. A tree planted in a flower pot will burst it. Only God can appear in a creature without destroying it. Faith is rendered able to contemplate the divine in creaturely form.


The contemplative's gaze continually returns with great attention to the humanity of Jesus. It is the inexhaustible treasure entrusted to us by the heavenly Father. In a true sense he has "despoiled
himself" (John 3:16) of him to whom he is always pointing: ipsum audite! (Matthew 17:5) The Son is no floating interstellar body; he is the fruit of the earth and its history; he comes from Mary (who is the exponent of the Old Covenant and of all humanity) just as he comes from the Father. He is grace ascending just as much as grace descending; he is just as much creation's highest response to the Father as he is the Father's Word to creation. He is no God in disguise, acting "as if", simply to give us an example...No. He is the apex of the world in its striving towards God, and he cuts a path for all of us, gathering up all man's efforts into Himself the pioneer, the spearhead. He can do this only by being "in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sinning" (Heb 4:15), by bearing our burdens as the scapegoat (Heb 13:11), the Lamb brought to the slaughter, slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). Thus, he stands at the summit of heaven and earth.


That quote is so inspiring to me to really think about why Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us. It makes me want to go and sit for hours reading my Bible. Hopefully it has inspired you to do the same. Have a great day!!

MP: Do you ever think ....

MP writes:

Hey,

What is up y'all? Do any of you ever think that your life is so repetitive? I know I do. Sometimes I wonder at the copious ways that God provides for us. And when I consider this, I often feel a great magnitude of joy. On that note God prevails and wins our hearts!!! God is a very zealous God especially the way He wants to be our Bridegroom. Have you ever let God show you what burden was on His heart for you to pray about?

So here is a quick story of one time when that happened to me. God told me to pray for my friend so I did pray for him for a specific thing. Later on when I talked to him he told me that he had asked God to show him that God loved him and not four hours later God showed him exactly how much He loved him. Is that not cool or what? God answered both my prayers and this man's prayer.

I think that it was great of God to give intuition so that we could use our senses to get through different types of situations. Some times when you are running around frenziedly late and then there is an accident in front of you. Do you ever wonder if God detained you so that you were not in that bad wreck? Though through all that transpires no matter what, God always is there for you and me!!!!! I can not wait to meet the Man whom inhabits my heart.

Well I GTG to bed I love and miss y'all!!! Also I cannot wait to see you all at Christmas!

Love always,
Mallory:)

October 25, 2009

Prayer Leading!!!

AP writes:

I had the joy last week of being able to prayer lead a worship with the word set in the prayer room. It was so much fun! I loved being the one who was able to interject phrases from the Bible and being able to take the team where ever I wanted to go! It was an awesome experience. I also love it because for 2 hours I get to sit and do nothing but worship Jesus and meditate on the word. And......I get to say what I'm meditating about out loud! I think I'm the only one who actually gets to talk in the prayer room! And they give me a mic!




October 21, 2009

AP: Significance of the Incarnation

AP writes:

The incarnation might look like a big word that is very confusing. But after some teaching in a Bible class I'm taking, I realized it's not the word that perplexes me but the concept. I have found that Jesus loves when we are perplexed over one concept- trying to understand Him. Because of the incarnation we are now able to say that whoever has seen Jesus has seen God. The incarnation revealed the passionate, zealous, pursuing heart of God for humanity. If God was willing to take on our form, the human frame, what other depths is He willing to go for us? It demonstrates His unrestrained love for us. He never stops until you're just like Him and have received the place He purchased for you on Calvary. As it says in Phil. 2:6-7 Love "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men."

I had no real understanding why Jesus had to take on flesh until I came across this point. Jesus became a human being because God could not suffer and lacked a back to be beaten. God needed a back like our backs on which to receive blows and thereby to perform compassion as well as preach it. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." (2 Cor. 5:19) When He took on flesh He forever linked humanity to Himself. He CHOSE to be human FOREVER. That is the extent of His love for us. When Christ came into the world as a human, eternal life became embodied in the human form and He became a fountain of life for all who would receive Him. When God joined Himself to humanity, He entered time. He came from a place outside of time and restrained Himself in time for you and I. The incarnation also reestablished human dominion on the Earth. God used human beings once again to establish His government on the earth. What was lost in the Garden was restored by Jesus. He came to the earth to dwell with men in the fullness of God. He was fully human yet radiating the glory of God and wrapped in light. He is fully God, fully man, two natures in one person. We truly have an awesome God!

October 16, 2009

MP: I love this font

mp writes:

Hey Y'all,

This is my favorite font besides the Comic Sans MS. This one is called Georgia and I use it every time I blog on here. Random huh?

So this weekend at the International House Of Prayer we have had a conference called Prayer and Prophetic. So far it has been amazing. I have learned a little bit and I can not wait to learn more about our God, Jesus Christ. On Friday night at the Encountering God Service Allen Hood preached on Standing at the Critical Juncture. This really hit my heart hard because some of the main points were:
1) tell your children and their children about God so that the Word will be deep in their hearts when the end times come
2) we need an outpouring that leads to the return of God in America
3) in the end times if you have the wrong opinion even what you have will be taken from you
4) hear from God and if you don't you are not ready for the shaking that will come
5) take heed not only what you hear but how you hear
6) you have to hear and then tell your children
7) if you do not come into agreement with God your family down the line will be swept away

Are not some of those points a little frightening? The one that says that your whole family down the line will be swept away is a little scary to me. I encourage you to pursue some of these by praying about them. I love you all so much. TTYL!!!

Love ya,
Mallory

October 12, 2009

JP: Corporate Intercessory Worship

JP Writes:

In my role of heading up Weekends @ IHOP, I have the privilege of teaching the Orientation to IHOP-KC segment of WE@I. Part of my teaching involves breaking down exactly what Corporate Intercessory Worship looks like. I tell them that at this time of the year in the South, we have Corporate Intercessory Worship meetings every Saturday. We call them college football games. On college campuses, 80,000 - 100,000 people gather dressed in similar colors and of one mind set. They come from every economic background, ethnic group, financial status, and some from great distances. United in cause, they are ready to celebrate, party, worship, and cheer on their teams. Rain, sleet, sun, drunk, hungover. Very little will keep them from coming if they have purchased a ticket. They are oblivious and uncaring to what those who don't share their passion think. Before every kickoff, they rise as one body with arms and voices raised ready to carry out their paricular kick off ritual - Go Dawgs and bark; Woo Pig, Sooey; Go Jackets, Sting 'em; Roll Tide; the Gator Chomp.

This is Corporate Intercessory Worship. This what God desires from us. Stadiums full of willing worshipers who are wholeheartedly pursuing one thing. Worshipers whose eyes aren't focused on the activities going on down here on the platforms of our churches, but on Him. People coming whether rain, sleet, sun, or not physically feeling well. Those who will not allow anything to keep them from coming because He has purchased their ticket. He is looking for people, who if He asks, that are willing to stand and look ridiculous in the eyes of those who don't share the same love for the King of kings.

It's kickoff time. Are you ready? Are you at the 50 yard line seat that He purchased for you, ready to go? Or are you roaming the stands looking to purchase nachos and drink to satisfy the hunger inside you?


Jeff

October 2, 2009

MP: Ummm??

MP writes:

Hey y'all,
So my mom has been out of town for almost four days and I have not gotten behind in school at all! I want to share with you an event from my day at school.l For those of you that know me real well this will not come as a surprise. Here is a brief synopsis
of what happened to your second favorite 'spaz' today at school. (Ashton being the first 'spaz'.) :) Well right after lunch I went to the school room and sat in Ashton's chair to tell her something and flipped out of it and then the chair landed on my hand. That is why it hurts to type today. If you want more on that story ask me via e-mail.

On her trip My mom gets to see my newest cousin and my five month old cousin. Is that not sweet or what? I can not wait to see those adorable baby boys.

It is already getting cold here which is so not cool. But I guess that I will sorta get used to it. Oh yeah, in the Christmas show at my studio I am in the Russian and American dances. They are super fun because they are fast. It was kind of weird learning them because I had never even seen them. I am so excited that I have been dancing for almost 5 weeks.

I am praying that the floods will be done and start to go away quickly in GA. Please pray with me.

Love always,
Mallory