Paradise Lost

Have any of you guys heard of The Brinkman Adventures? I love their audio! I want to share a story from one of their episodes called paradise lost: So, the Brinkmans were at a conference they had actually put together. They had finally gotten there and were admiring the beautiful lake. It was a man-made lake, which Ian emphasized. There was a zip-line going into the lake, a conference hall, and much more they were checking out. They all heard what sounded like a crack, and the water came rushing out of the lake! The dam had broken! Later they found out that only about half the people were at the camp and they were all stuck there. The guest speaker did not make it either. They felt pretty discouraged. Then, they had an idea. They were going to change this around a bit, but it seemed like it would work. They had a week of missionary games that helped kids and adults realize what missionaries were going through to tell of, translate, and even smuggle the bible to other countries who needed God. They were going to have a big finally too. All of the kids went out and pretended to be missionaries while the adults were people trying to throw them out! A big storm started, and the tornado warning went off, but it was so loud that the kids could not hear it. The adults were freaking out! Then were reminded to put their trust in God and not in their own ability to round up the kids. After a while, The adults found all of the kids and praised the Lord! God had his own plan for this family camp. He wanted the adults to learn to trust Him more. The kids had a great time too! ,  I am going to trust God when I are in the middle of a storm. I am not in control of it, but God is.

Winter is here!

Hello! Today Seraiah is back at school. Yay! I, however, am still at home. Yesterday Mom finished raking up all our leaves in our yard. We have four  maples so that is a lot of work! This morning we woke up to an inch and a half of snow on the ground! I am not sure how I feel about it. It is so pretty, of course, but winter is rough. I do not like wearing coats either. But, like I said in my last post, we are so excited to go snowboarding! That might just get me to say I like winter and I am glad it snowed last night. The point is, God held off the snow for us! We are so grateful we did not have to go through the winter with leaves to your knees. I think Acts 15:8 goes perfectly with this event: And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us. God knows everything, guys! I know I can put my trust in Him, and I know I can expect peace when I do.

A Fun Kind of Busy

Hey guys, we are having a great time at school. We are having a bit of trouble getting used to being away from home though. However, I am glad Seraiah and I are there. We were on the middle school volleyball team and had a great time. We have finished the first quarter of school. Days go by so slowly now, but months go by so fast! It feels like just yesterday we were only a week in. A bug has been going around our family, so Seraiah and I are having a sick day. I am glad we made it this far though.  We are excited for winter to come so that we can go snowboarding! Comment Down below if you go snowboarding or skiing. We are also planning our church's Christmas program. We are having a lot of fun with what we are doing here. Although I am still struggling with grieving the move, I keep in mind the verse Ecclesiastes 3:11- Yet God has made everything beautiful in its own time, he has planted eternity in the human heart,  but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's plan from beginning to end. (NLT) I am still hanging on to that verse, I am choosing to believe God has a plan for me here. I want to be wherever He wants me, because that is the best place to be.

Coulee Christian

A lot has happened this last year. Moving has opened up opportunities that we did not have in Warren, MN. I have gotten to do gymnastics with Sami. Seraiah has joined the YMCA's swim team,  and we get to go hiking on the bluffs. We get to do a lot of new stuff.
We have been praying about doing another thing that we have never done. There is a private school in West Salem called coulee Christian that we have been looking into. We have decided that Seraiah and I, Bella, will be attending it this fall. It will be a challenge for both of us, but I believe that this is the time God planned for us to go. Psalm 119:133 says, "Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me." I want to let God direct my footsteps so that wherever I am, I know that I am following him.

Beautiful God

Let's talk about what's beautiful for a little bit. first, outside. The outdoors is so breathtaking to me. The sky gets so blue. The trees get so green next to it, and the flowers so bright with so many different colors. It is so relaxing to get outside and just look at God's beautiful creation.

Second, art. It is just amazing to me how God gave us the ability to create beautiful things. Art isn't just something you hang on the wall. Everyone has their own kind of art, whether that's dancing on stage, or singing in your bedroom, God gave each and every one of us the ability and passion to create art. 

What is beautiful in your life? Has God done something in your life that you are blessed by? 

The verse I want to share with you today is Ephesians 2:10: For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. [NIV]

God has a plan for everyone, and he is truly beautiful.

Scales

Today I want to give you guys a memory verse to challenge yourself on, Proverbs 29:25
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be kept safe. [NIV]
I want to share that with you because I have been struggling with having a fear of man. There are several different ways you can struggle with this, but I have been trying to parent my siblings so that they will not bother Mom and Dad, or so Mom didn't have to spend her time being exasperated. That just made things worse. A few days ago I would not have called it fear of man, but now I realize that is exactly what it is. I was unintentionally revolving my life around trying to keep Mom and Dad from getting mad. That is not what they want, and neither do my siblings. I picture it as a scale, I try to keep the peace by balancing it, but instead, it just goes up on the other end. If I just do my part in obeying Mom and Dad and not worry about my siblings, it will balance itself out.

Birthday week!!!

Hi guys, as some of you may know, this month is birthday month for our family. Seraiah had hers on October 12th, I had mine on the 16th, and Curry's is coming up on the 28th. 

I am starting a book that I highly recommend. It's called Inspired evidence. It's about proving that there was a creator of creation and disproving the theory of evolution. I have only read a little bit, but I love how it puts science and God's truth together. 
O.K. so I read these amazing verses today, James 1:2-5 says, "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity or great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking." I love the whole chapter of James 1 and I definitely recommend reading it. 
Oh one more thing, in previous posts I have mentioned me wanting to do gymnastics, well, I am going to be doing it at the middle school in Holmen, WI. I am going to be the only one in our family doing so because Seraiah, Sami, and Jax are doing soccer, and Curry is doing wrestling. 

Living Waters

Hey everyone! I had the best time at Living Waters Bible Camp last week! We went there as a church for our fall conference. There was only one thing that I did not like about it, I was really sick the whole time! Other than that, it was a perfect time. There was a fifty-foot rock climbing wall with a zip line at the top! From what I heard, only about five people reached the top. It was that high! You had to be twelve to do the zip line, so I'll have to wait two years to try it out. As sick as I was though, I decided to try out the rock wall. On my first try, I couldn't get very far, but I decided to keep going. I had tried it about five or six times and then I found myself at the top of the tower! I couldn't believe what I had done. I was super sick and I had just been one of five people to climb a fifty-foot tall rock wall! I had to pray to God the whole time for him to help me keep going, but he answered my prayers every time and I reached the top with his help. After that clime, I was really feeling sick, I asked Mom to take me back to our cabin. As we were coming back Mom kept telling me how proud she was of me and how I could use that clime in my life. She told me that might be something God will use to motivate me throughout my life to keep doing what He wants me to be doing. Now I am really glad I was sick that week.

This is a video of me at the top of the tower

Quick post

  Hi guys, just a quick post this week. I am beyond excited about the YMCA in town. Today we went there and did the gymnastics open house. I have been praying a long time for God to open a door to gymnastics. We're still not doing it this year, but we might another year. In the meantime, we have the opportunity to do the open house on Wednesdays.

  Mom had a birthday on the 13th and we invited some friends for dinner. We had a really fun time.

  A quick update about me is, I want to learn photography, so if you have any pointers, leave a comment. 

A fun week

Hi guys, Sorry for being so late. I have two reasons for this. First we moved and haven't unpacked the computer I usually use yet. Second, I got a new Chromebook and didn't know how to do it from there.
As some of you may know we moved to Wisconsin on August 19th. We did this because Dad is a pastor and he is going to work at Coulee Rock, a church in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
We have two weeks to unpack and explore our new town before Dad starts work. On Wednesday, August 22nd we went to The Mall Of America. We had a blast!! We had Dinner there and looked around. My favorite part was the American girl store. Have you been to there?

This is us at The Mall Of America eating dinner in front of a window.

Today we went to the Holmen library for the first time. It was really fun. I hope you are having as good a time as me this week. The verse Mathew 7:11 talks about how God loves giving good gifts to his children. I feel that I have really experienced that this week. Leave a comment and tell me a way God has shown you that.

A crazy Summer!

   OK, this week has been crazy!! We had nine house showings for our house. We also found a house in La Crosse. God is so good!! My Dad and my sister, Seraiah, went to Minneapolis and at the same time I had a sleepover with Jorie Miska, who is seen on the right.
    I've had fun going to the pool, playing with friends, and riding my bike to go visit friends. I have had fun practicing taking pictures on my camera of patterns and plants. Notice the picture or the tree and chairs from church.What are you guys doing to enjoy yourselves this week?

   This week God has shown me to really rely on him and his word. I really like Psalm 147:5. It says, "Great is the Lord and mighty in power." To me it means God has the power to be in control of everything and everyone, that is really reassuring to me. 


   

Miss Jacki Burglund

         Miss Jacki Burglund is really important to my life, and to the community. She volunteers at  Senior Meals, babysits her grandchildren and other kids whenever she can, leads the harvest
Church Sunday School, and so many other things . She even opened her own business, Cyclefit. It is pretty much a gym with spin and strength classes. I go there every week on Wednesday at 4:45 pm, but there is at least one class every day except Sunday.  The point of this post is to say that Miss Jacki works really hard and I love her. Oh! Be sure to check out Cyclefit.

       The updates on moving are: we have gone house hunting once and looked at houses online. We have gotten really excited about a few but they never work out. At the beginning I really believed God was going to provide a house, but we have gotten excited over so many houses that didn't work that I'm getting a little anxious because we only have a few months. But in all of this I'm going to keep up my faith that we are going to be okay. The verse Mathew 6:34 says, So don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow

will bring it's own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. I rest on that verse and trust that God will provide.      

The start of a new chapter

Hi guys, so this post is just going to let you catch up on everything that has happened. O.K. so maybe some of you already know some of whats going on in this family, but this is why I made this blog in the first place. Because I want you to know everything without me having to tell you face to face.

    So, let me tell you a story on what's been going on. One day I thought Mom and Dad weren't telling us something, so I asked Mom about it. She said she couldn't tell me. In the next few days All five kids were trying to guess the secret. One day Seraiah guessed it, but I didn't Know it until the next day. eventually Mom AND Dad called Seraiah in their room. When she came out she told me to go in there. In the bedroom Mom and Dad told me that the secret was that we are going to move to La Crosse WI.!! I had a million questions why, when, and, to me, most importantly WHAT HAPPENED!!! Dad showed me some pictures of La Crosse and answered all of my questions. Dad is going to be a pastor at another Great Commission church because one of their pastors is retiring. When we were done Curry came to Mom and Dad. Since then we have taken about 3 trips and told our church. During our trips there I have taken some pictures with my camera, which are the pictures you have been seeing. This is going to be, and has been, hard. But I know that if this is what God wants, it will work out really well.
                                                                                 This is what our new church looks like.

My first post!

  Hi, I'm Bella Steele. I know. I know. I said my name was ISABELLA STEELE. My real name is Isabella, but everyone calls me Bella. Let me tell you a little bit more about myself and my family. First we are a family of seven, and I am writing this blog on behalf of everyone.                                   

 
So, there is Mom and Dad, then there is my older sister Seraiah, {Sir-ayah} she is eleven. then there's me, and I am ten. Next there's my brother Curry, he is nine, and he's an artist!! Then there is Sami, her real name is Samantha, so you can tell she is a girl. Last but not least there is Jaxon, he is my youngest brother and sibling, he is five. Now all of us have our own personalities but I don't have time to list them ALL!!! You will get to know us in the real blog, but for now I'm glad your reading this.