This blog is moving!

Hi all!

This blog is moving - for all sorts of reasons! Click here to visit the new Willie WordPress blog.

To bookmark it, http://willemssens.wordpress.com/ is the new address!

Videos will slowly be replaced, but currently all pics are there to be enjoyed!

Blackberry Farm

Back in May I made a list of "fun summer activities to do as a family." Today we checked another one off the list!

Blackberry Farm: a trip back to the 19th century with museums, a miniature train, a hayride, animals, and lots of outside space to picnic and run. A wonderful place for the Willie fam.

Anna liked the train. "Train tracks!"

Bethy liked the train. "Da da da!"

The hayride was pulled by a big tractor from the 1940's and a guy that resembles Steve's dad.

And the pigs were a hit too. Anna: "More piggies!" Bethy: "Da da da!"

Sister Time

Bedtime storytime!

Becky's early birthday present! A bike of her own! (yay for another garage sale purchase!)

Anna showed her some of the gadgets, and evidently Elizabeth shares Anna's love for phones. (After all, what worthwhile bike doesn't have a phone?)

Anna then decided it was time to read the newest National Geographic, her favorite magazine. Bethy got interested, so she crept closer...

...and Anna turned away to protect her prized magazine. Nice that Bethy doesn't get her feelings hurt...yet.:)

The Turtle Pool Returns

Last year the turtle pool was a big part of our lives with the many apples from the crabapple tree down the street that Anna would bring to put in it. She wouldn't swim in it, but enjoyed the floating apples.

This year we've moved on to actual swimming, and Bethy likes it too!

Anna did get in, but enjoyed more time out, pouring water on the patio.

Anna's older bossy sister side (wherever would she get THAT from?) emerges multiple times a day, with "No no no!" or in this case, "Stop stop stop!" Thankfully, Elizabeth doesn't seem phased by the bossing around.

Wheaton Academy Officer Night

Last night we hosted in the incoming Wheaton Academy Instrumental Music Officers for a vision-casting/next year discussion, yummy grilled food and fun. This group of students is particularly special, and we really appreciate their love for God and their peers in addition to their love for music. They will surely turn out to be servant leaders, and they are fun to be around as well! May God bless their lives and draw them closer to Him and each other.

After the crazy rain/thunder/lightning storm around 3:30pm (Anna and I watched it from the garage), the backyard sadly was quite waterlogged, so they resorted to a nearby field for whiffleball - band vs. orchestra.

It was followed by a lively game of ponce, a group-solitaire game of sorts. I LOVE this game.

Non-sleeping Becky watched from her safe corner of entertainment. (I am really hoping that once the crawling starts, the sleeping will resume its normalcy as well!)

This was then followed by some Wii Fit with those who stayed past 10pm. Skiing, anyone?

Michael claims that he has tricked the game into thinking he had perfect balance on the ski jump if he jumps off the board and had someone else put their hands on it. Didn't work this time, but he gets some points for creativity:).

June OneWay Newsletter/Prayer Update

"The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord!"

Prov 21:31

In a conversation with some interns this week, I shared the above verse. I explained that we could do a ton of work and put in hours and hours to do great work FOR God, but unless the Lord brings victory and His Spirit inhabits these projects, we've just made ourselves ready for battle. God Himself must bring success in the spiritual realm, where all of this matters. This drives us to our knees and reminds us that our greatest (and only real) strength is in Him.

The June Update!

1. God has opened up a partnership with Operation World, a ministry dedicated to the mobilization of global prayer. We are working to provide Prayercast videos for a 60-day online prayer journey that will mark the release of Operation World's new book edition this fall.

Prayer Request: Praise God that we can contribute to His work in this way, and pray for more video editors and people to pray for their country so that we may complete 37 more country videos by October 1.

2. The facility is coming together! All sorts of people have helped to prepare the building for ministry. We continue to rejoice in God's provision in this.

3. Because the facility allows us, the amount of OneWay workers has exponentially increased! This past Wednesday, 37 people filled the building! Kids ages 4-12 cleaned and did yard work, the "Great Commission Women" worked on interior design, database management, watched kids 0-3, and led 2 separate Bible studies. The 10 summer interns were discipled and continued their work on making prayercast videos, writing country summaries for every country of the world, and putting together a worship event for December. It's hoppin' building - a very exciting place to be!

Prayer Request: My job is to manage and organize all the people who can help! Pray for great wisdom and an increase of skill as I continue to create systems and appoint leaders.

4. A team of 12 of us or so is meeting with the entire staff at Tyndale House Publishing next Thursday, June 24 in Wheaton. They would like us to encourage everyone with the fact that God is indeed moving in our midst with some stories of what He's doing in OneWay. We also will be sharing a little about what we are doing, and look forward to possible partnerships with some people there.

Prayer Request: Pray that God would be glorified as we testify to His wonderful acts, and that He might encourage and strengthen the Tyndale staff to continue serving Him.

5. Personally, the summer is our family's time to rest and recharge. We very much appreciate the ebbs and flows of life as a teacher's family, and are looking forward to a good amount of time together, enjoying the girls and all the blessings God has provided us.

Prayer Request: Pray for us to enjoy sweet family and personal time in this season of rejuvination. Pray that we would draw near to God, and He would draw near to us as we continue to grow in our walks with Him.

For more info:

OneWay's website: www.owm.org

Prayercast website: www.prayercast.com

Summer Intern Blog: http://www.owm.org/interns

The Close-to-Crawling Elizabeth

Elizabeth gets more mobile every day. As she only will sleep when SHE wants to these days, it's helpful that she can entertain herself in the early morning, late night, and pretty much anytime!

Go, go, go!

She's pulling herself up on her knees too. I just love this pic!

(except the dust! The light really exposes it all...)

The Train Ride

Last week on our "vacation" we took a train ride from Naperville to Downers' Grove, then back. Anna LOVES trains, watching them on YouTube and in person as they go by. We thought it would be a fun activity.

It was.

And who can enjoy a train ride without a pink post-it to hold, really?

Some time away...

We had another visit with Great-Gram on Saturday.

Anna and Gram sipped tea,

and Bethy and Gram just kinda hung out.

The swingset is such a great addition - the backyard is now "the place to be!"

Anna is so content out there!

Peering through...

Steve and I recently went away for a night's stay away from the girls to a hotel by the airport, so Steve could watch them land, right from under them! This is year #2 of this tradition, and we had a great time! It is a gift to have time together, and for me not serve as "Mom" for an uninterrupted 28 hours or so! We were so thankful the Vaters could watch the girls. The following pics were taken while we were away...

Sporty Anna - powder puff football here we come?

Anna went to the lake with Grandpa.

Bethy is starting to take apart whatever she can get her hands on. I am thankful for her non-crawling self! Diapers everywhere...

Mr. Potato Head is a favorite for both girls. Anna can make them, and Bethy reaches purposefully for the pieces that can fit fully in her mouth - the ears, earrings, and tongues. Gotta watch that girl!

Bethy has also decided she doesn't like falling asleep. She plays for hours in her pjs after Anna has gone to bed. We are in a quandry - why would she all of sudden stop going to sleep after so many months of contented bedtimes? At least she's cute...

...and flexible.

Someone looks like a teenager in her new "jamas!"

Recent Joys

A rainbow after a sunny rain

Sitting in the grass (does she look old, or what?)

The sandbox

The screwdriver and new batteries ("batt-ies") to "fix" various toys

This is fun.

OneWay Facility Progress and My Reflections

The following was taken from an email I wrote to the OneWay Ministries family today...and below are some comments about my recent project managing construction experience!

================================
The miracle of God's provision continues to amaze us as the facility work progresses! We have ripped up carpet, put in new floor and new carpeting, painted almost the entire building, and are starting to get settled as the 10 summer interns get some desks and workspaces! To see frequent facility updates, click here.

A sneak peek of the work:

Conference Room

Sanctuary

We rejoice in how He has not only provided the building but also how almost all of this work has been done by volunteers! Someone came in the other day and exclaimed, "All these people work for you?!" I should have answered, "No, but they all work for the Lord!"

The work continues on the 3 rooms which will comprise the recording studio - a control room, a piano room, and vocals/instrument room.

Future Studio Control Room

Finally, we just want to publicly give thanks to God for His marvelous deeds, and to you, who by serving Him with your time, talents, and treasures, make this work possible. Soon the building will be humming with work that directly advances the gospel to the masses of unreached around the world. Praise the Lord!

In His grace,
Katie Willemssen (and the OneWay Team!)

=========================

As I have helped to coordinate workers and the various projects for the building, I have learned a ton! Some lessons include:

- trees look nicer when they are trimmed

- paint colors that I think won't look good together REALLY look GOOD and I don't know ANYTHING about interior decorating

- air conditioning guys charge you a lot to come for about 5 minutes to fix it

- ripping up carpeting isn't easy, and just a little easier when you ask college football guys to come help

- when you put down floor it's nice to know ahead of time if the concrete slab below is flat (ours isn't)

- how to collapse extension ladders (harder than I would think)

- paint does NOT come out of jeans like I hoped

- you can scrape paint off of glass

- painting takes FOREVER

- I am a good power sander, not a good painter

- organizing cleaning and mowing duties for a commercial space is a bigger job than I would have guessed

- the security alarm is both a good and bad thing (good to keep away burglars, bad when various team members have a key but not the alarm code, and the police show up to "protect" the building.)

- Elizabeth can sleep through construction work on the other side of the wall of the room in which she is sleeping.

- God is very real and active in all aspects of this project - sometime ask me about the Craig's List guy who had the exact desks we were going to buy for $1400 at the store, and sold them to us from $250! AND of all the people on Craig's List, he already knew about OneWay. Hmmm...

All in all, it's been one of the most eventful 2 months in a while! And while it's been fun, we look forward to when it's all done and we can just...do the work of the ministry.:)

And in all my mistakes and follies of the whole process, the verse that has spoken to me the most would be this:

"His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love." - Ps 147:10-11

Praise God that His acceptance of us is not based on what we can do, but on our dependence upon Him. Can't get much better than that.