Caleb finally got to come home today, thanks for your prayers!  He had a pretty good case of pnumonia and his lungs had tightened up pretty badly for some reason.  He got out of ICU Sunday, and was released today from the hospital.  He's back to his own self and happy to be back home.

Hi guys, I just have a minute.  Please pray for Caleb...they admitted him to the hospital this morning because of his breathing.  His blood oxygen count was low and he was breathing with his stomach and ribs.  More stable now with oxygen and steroids, waiting on the results of Xrays and bloodwork before we know any more.

Thailand was awesome, I'll update on that trip when I can.

Allyson

I just wanted to make a quick post for those of you not in the southern IN area who might see on the news that there was an earthquake this morning about 4:30 am.  We are all fine, we didn't have any damage right here.  We are hearing that the earthquake epicenter was about 40 miles NW of Evansville, so we were a good distance from there...they are saying it was a 5.2!  I guess the record for the area is 5.4 for it's big news here.

It was the kids first time to experience an earthquake.  It woke them up...but we all quickly got in a doorway and then talked about what they should do in an earthquake.  They were a little afraid..but quickly calmed down.  When I asked if they knew what an earthquake was they proceeded to tell me it was when the earth shakes and then cracks open like in Superman!  Wow, TV sure has warped our impression of some things.

I guess we got an early wake up call this morning!

Hi from wintry Indiana!  It's been cold, and we've seen a lot of ice lately.  We found out last week just how safe it is under God's wing.  Tony, the kids, and a friend were on their way to Evansville last week when they hit ice on a bridge.  The truck fishtailed and then rolled.  They landed on their tires, a full revolution.  To hear Caleb tell the story, "the angels came in the truck, they didn't use the doors, they held us while we were upside down, and then they went back out of the truck and didn't use the doors."  The truck is totaled...but not a scratch, bruise or even a need for a chiropractor visit.  God was definately protecting them.  Now we get to enter the new venture of working with the insurance company and then car shopping.  I know it will all work out.  We are truly blessed with great friends too...one of our friends offered unsolicited to let us borrow his truck.  That has been a blessing too so that we didn't have to get a rental.

The kids are doing great.  Josh and Corrie are finishing up their basketball season.  Josh made his first regular basket in a game today...he was pretty excited.  Corrie made her first in a game about three weeks ago.  Caleb just gets to watch from the sidelines, not quite old enough yet.  Baseball season starts soon, they are all wanting to play this year...so I guess we'll call our second home the baseball field!  : )

Church is going great.  We are nearly done with the painting now in our rented building.  It's been too cold to work on renovations during winter, so we are looking forward to getting started in the spring on the other building.  We have been blessed to find a great ministry organization to hook up with that is based only about 2 1/2 hrs away!  The ministers associated with it are full of wisdom, very encouraging, and very real.  We have really enjoyed building relationships with them and are looking forward to a lifetime of working together with them.

I'm looking forward to going to Thailand this June...my sister Amber will be going too which makes this trip even more special.  It will be her first missions trip.  You can find out more about this trip as JSMIntl.org.  We are working on raising our funds for this trip now...if God moves on your heart to help sponsor us on this trip that would be a blessing.  The mailing address can be found at JSMIntl.org, please mark Amber Todd or Allyson Kimbril Thailand '08 in the memo section so that your gift can be credited toward our account.

I've only got a few minutes today to blog, I'll try to do better at keeping this blog up to date so that everyone will know what's going on up here in Tell City.  God be with you all.

Allyson

School starts back in five days marking the end of summer.  Josh will be 4th this year, Corrie 2nd, Caleb sneaks out a final year before starting kindergarten.  What a summer though...

Tony got to go wtih JSMI to Thailand, where they saw 11,113 choose Christ and 405 instant miracles.  More to follow on the trip later.  He got to help lead the team and came back very excited about the work the Lord did there, about reaching our own community, and about next year...already planning on going back.  He also came back very tired.  Once you go it gets in your blood and you'll want to keep going as often as you can.  There's something special about knowing that you are helping to fulfill the great commission.  Small plug...if you'd like to go...there's trips already announced for next year...check them out at jsmintl.org.  It will be one of the best invested weeks you could have.

Our church started bi monthly children's outreaches similar to sidewalk Sunday school.  We're learning as we go....but have consistently seen near 100% response to accept Christ as their saviour.  Having a lot of fun with water balloons, gummy worms, and lots of other games.  Seeing our team step out of their comfort zone and boldly do whatever was needed, puppets, teaching, leading games or songs or whatever.  We're very proud of our team.  Keep our group in prayer as we continue to reach out to the children in our city and work to reach their families for Christ.

I got to travel with our kids for an exciting week in CA!  Lots of firsts for the kids on this trip.  We packed our bags boarded a plane and acted like tourists for the week.  It was a lot of fun, best of all we got to share it all with great company.  I think the kids liked Disneyland the best.  For me it was close runnings between Disneyland and the beach....I just can't pick one over the other.  Sure was fun to ack like a kid and grab the boogie board and catch the waves, explore the tidepools, throw my hands in the air and ride the rollercoasters and watch as the kids experienced it all for the first time.

Corrie has been taking gymnastics lessons and is improving each week....but they will soon be on hold while Josh, Corrie and Caleb prepare for the start of soccer season.  Eight weeks of Saturdays filled with weekly soccer games and midweek practices.  Looking forward though to the look on their faces when they accomplish a good play...that's worth it all.

Hope everything is well with you and yours.

Allyson

 

I was hoping to get a complete rundown of the trip out by now....so it's still coming...in the meantime, thanks to everyone who helped support us to go and who remembered us in prayer...you are a part of this trip...

There were 72 American's who joined together in Trujillo Peru to blitz the city.  During the day 7/10-14 we split up and hit the streets, some of us in cities, some of us in parks and plazas, some of us in market places, wherever people were gathered we went.  We used drama and clowns to get their attention, but presented the gospel message of salvation and healing.  God is awesome, He never fails to back up His word.  Even on the streets and in the schools many people called on Jesus as their savior and people were healed almost everywhere we went.

In the evenings we did crusades on the main soccer field in Trujillo.  There were many notable healings from incurable heart conditions being healed, blind eyes opened, deaf mutes hearing and learning to talk, cancers leaving, and on and on.  Tony and I worked mostly with checking people that said that they were healed.  What a job...having to filter out the smaller miracles so that only the verifiable, most notable, beyond a shadow of a doubt ones got to testify on the stage.

In all we saw some 600 documented miracles....which doesn't include the many many ones that were too small to document like pain leaving or headaches gone or back aches gone, or smaller ailments.  God is soooooo good.

The area is strongly Catholic, but so many of the people are catholic by family inheritance or in name only.  They had never personally called on the name of Jesus to be their savior or understood that they could have a personal relationship wtih Him.  Over the course of the week we saw some 39,000 people make that decision.

It was a very busy week...we went non stop from 7:30 am until about 9:30 pm (except for maybe 1-2 hours at lunch time.)  I was very grateful not to have to "rough it" so that I could rest well during our limited down time.

We made many new friends and learned a lot.  This was our first time doing crusade ministry and to see so many miracles at our hands.  You can never tire of seeing the change in someone's face as they are healed or find Jesus.

I can't wait for the next trip...wherever that may be...

School is almost out...the kids are getting excited.  I can't believe that in 7 more days Corrie won't be a kindergartener any more!  Josh will be a big 3rd grader.  At least I have one more year before Caleb is in kindergarten!

Our missions trip to Peru is drawing closer...July 8-16.  We have about $500 left to raise plus spending money.  If you'd like to help we'd really appreciate your support...donations can be made through JSMI.  PO Box 1105, Monticello, AR  71657.  Please list our names and Peru 2006 on the memo line.

We're really getting excited about our missions trip...there are 9 of us going from our church...none of them other than Tony or I have ever been on a missions trip before.  It's so exciting to watch their curiosity and excitement for the trip. 

We will be doing street evangelism and holding evening crusades.  We'll use costumes and skits to reach out to the children during the day, and use drama to grab the attention of the adults on the streets.  We are fully expecting God to move in miraculous ways while we are there.  Feel free to check out this website for additional information about the trip...  http://www.jsmintl.org/Peru.html

Please pray for me that I was do well with my Spanish.  There aren't many Hispanics here in Tell CIty, so I'm a little out of practice.

Tony and I are also hoping that whenever we see you next that there is a lot less of us to see  : )   We've been working really hard at taking off the extra pounds...we've started making some progress...we've just got to keep on.

Since I last wrote (which has been forever) ...Grandma passed away and I was able to go to her funeral out in CA.  I got to see family that I hadn't visited in a long time which was nice.  I also got to have a nice visit with Mom and Ray.  I can't wait until we can afford to take the whole family out there to visit.  The kids are so curious about Grandma's house and the beach and the mountains...they don't remember much from the last visit as they were so young.

Anyway, rather than bore you with other menial things...I'll sign off now...I'll try to do better at keeping up with our life so that you can keep up with us...  : )

God bless...

Allyson and Tony

Well, you move to a new place and they greet you with all the natural wonders of the area.  We have had more than our fair share of precipitation this fall and winter.  We are less than a mile from the Ohio River, but thankfully much higher, elevation wise.  The river is way up, but thankfully Tell City has a flood wall.  There is a levy on both sides of the wall too.  The river is just touching the bottom of the flood wall.  Quite a large swelling, at least 10 feet above normal.  The gates are in all the pass through areas, so no river water is getting into town.  Areas not far from here aren't so lucky.  Many areas don't have flood walls or levys.  Those areas are getting hit pretty hard.  We drove over to Owensboro, KY over the weekend, there was water everywhere, at least 1 mile further south than usual.  The river was huge.  We drove back on the IN side, there were places where the flooding was right up to the side of the road.

The river is falling now.  Hopefully soon we'll be able to get to river again.  There's a neat park on the river front, but it is inaccessible as it is past the flood wall.  Of course its too cold now anyway.  It snowed a light dusting Sunday.  No one seemed to know it was coming.  Sure has been cold.  It was 5 this morning.  Makes one thankful for a warm home and thick jackets.

Merry Christmas (a little belated) and Happy New Year!  Well, we got it all right...my first white Christmas.  It started snowing on Wednesday...about 6 inches worth...but then it snowed all night and all day on Thursday.  It snowed so much that the city issued a state of emergency and closed all roads except for emergency responders!  When it was all said and done...I measured 21 inches in one spot in the yard and 16 in another.  Digging the walkway wasn't too bad...but digging out the cars...that is a lot of work.  They say this snow is very unusual...that they haven't seen this much snow in such a short time since 1918, and then it was spread out over 3 days instead of two.  There was so much snow that Wal-Mart wasn't able to keep the parking lot clear...try pusing a cart through the snow...not very fun.  Our church wasn't able to get a bull dozer to come in and clear the lot, so we had to cancel church that Sunday.

We had a lot of fun playing in it once it finally warmed up enough to be bearable.  It was sub zero for a while...that was too cold to do anything but walk from the house to the car.  Was kind of funny though once it stopped snowing and the sun was out it was still snowing just a little...with blue skies.  I wonder if it was river effect snow?  Was strange.  Kids had fun in it.  We had made a 3 foot snowman, but only his head was showing when the snow stopped!  We got stuck in the snow once and had to dig out...but other than that we tried to avoid going anywhere as much as possible. 

Even the kids got in on snow shoveling.  Caleb wasn't much of a sleder, but Corrie and Josh loved it once they tried it.  It was fun, but I'm glad there isn't snow on the ground all winter long.  Everyone blamed Tony for the snow.  He'd been saying all the time how he is praying for a lot of snow and a white Christmas.  I guess he got it!

Well , we've finally made it to Indiana.  We survived the moving process.  We were fortunate in that my company paid for a moving company to move us up here.  What a blessing to observe as someone else had the lovely task of packing up all of our stuff.  What a crazy day followed that....so much to get taken care of...utilities turned off, addresses changes, you name it, I probably had it on my list of things to get done.  After finally finishing all of that, it was time to clean the apartment so that I could move out.  It sure took a lot longer than I had expected.  I sure was thankful for some unexpected help at the last minute.  (You know who you are - thanks a bunch!)  Finally, about 8:30 PM Corrie, Caleb and I were ready to drive 300 miles north to our new home, to meet the movers there at 8:00 AM the next morning.  Talk about a long drive, I didn't get home until around 2:30 in the morning.

Josh was at school and didn't get to see the moving van pull up in front of the house the next morning.  What a sight it was though.  It took them about 3 hours to unload everything and reassemble the furniture and they were on their way.  We got busy unpacking the most important stuff, but I have to admit, it was a bit overwhelming.  We sure tackled a lot of the boxes the first couple of days.  

Then I had to go back to work and then I got sick...I was down in bed for 4 days!  I haven't finished unpacking a single box since then.  I am going to have to get back into the chore...I'm tired at looking at boxes and ready to be settled in.

I found this website, though you might have fun looking at it...  www.EnjoyIndiana.com  If you look at the leaf cam and look at the south location of Patoka Lake, that is here in Perry County, Indiana where we are, only about 20 minutes away.  Fall is starting to come on, there are lots of pretty colored leaves everywhere.  The Farmer's Almanac and nearly everyone we've talked to say they are expecting a rough winter this year.  I just hope it takes care of the mosquitos...yuck.  Before the weather changed the kids were polka dotted with mosquito bites.

Everyone is enjoying Indiana.  Tony is anxious to go fly fishing on the Blue River just a little north of here.  Hopefully we'll get to do some camping too once it warms back up some in the spring.  Everyone is finally getting better, we had a round of the stomach flu run through the family.  That wasn't fun.  I'm just glad that everyone is finally getting better.

Hope all is well at your home too, God bless.