Pictures!!!

My parents let me borrow their camera to take a few pictures this weekend.
Enjoy!!

My Dad and I Saturday morning before the egg hunt at the church grew up in, my niece, Lauryn and I, and 'Team Boisvert" - my sister in law (and future niece or nephew!), brother, me, and Lauryn


Amanda, me, and Kina practicing for Saturday night (if you want me to remove this, I will!)

After Saturday night's service, I hung out with the crazy Subletts These are two of the crazies! hehe

Kina and I Amanda and I

Leanne and her man ;) my friend, Brett, and I


Dad, me, Leanne, and Mom Mom and I the precious Lauryn, and Aunt Bonnie!


The Boisvert Families!

Easter update....

Ok... ok... I finally have someone holding me accountable when I don't update my blog often enough! :) So I guess I'd better get to it!

Let me think... not too much has happened since I last updated, but I'll try to give some highlights. Shonda is doing well, though she and Vondeara are not married yet and are still living together. Ugh. I must remember that ministry is often 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Shonda says she is doing well, and that Vondeara is "respecting her decision" but I can't help but wonder how long that will last!! Please keep both of them in your prayers. They're still planning to have the wedding in May... so if all goes as planned, at least they'll be married before too long!

A little while ago I found my old journals - 4 journals full of writing, starting from about May of 2003 (when I graduated from UNC) until November of 2005 (when I came home from South Africa). Wow. I have gotten away from journalling like I used to, and that's quite unfortunate! It is amazing to look back and revisit everything that was happening in my life 5-3 years ago. God was teaching me some amazing things! When I journal, I write very honestly, so as I was reading the entries, I could almost feel exactly what I was feeling as I wrote. Gosh... I still very much miss the life I used to have in SA, though I realize it was not all roses by any means! Reading the journals (I read them all, page by page) sometimes made me sad - how I wish I could have that life back! But they also made me laugh and remember the awesome times... one common theme of my entries is me reminding myself that "God has a plan and that plan is bigger than me!" I STILL have to remind myself of that truth everyday. Why is it not yet ingrained into my being!! I so often ask God "why?" I know very well that He is in control and that I may never have the answer to all of my whys, and that's ok! He knows why, and as long as He knows, I'm cool with that. :)

As another cool update in Bonnie's life, I have a new family. :) No, my old one isn't gone, and they certainly have not been replaced, but God has blessed me with a Durham family! I've always said that I don't just want to know single 20-somethings in the church. I want to know kids, Moms, Dads, Grandmas, and so forth. Well, recently I've gotten to know the Sublett family better, and I am loving it! I knew this family before I went to South Africa. Actually, their daughter, Jessica, was one of the first kids I knew! When I joined the Summit almost 6 years ago, I started teaching the 3 year old Sunday school class, and Jessica was in my class! Amanda (the Mom) was also in choir, so I knew her from there too. When I went to SA, Amanda was one of the few people who kept in touch with me (hooray for Internet-savvy people!). When I came back though, I never really saw her that much. Funny how that happens. Well, a little while ago, Amanda started singing with the Cole Mill Road praise team! Talk about uncontrollable laughter from the get-go. I fell in love with her all over again (is it ok to say that? I hope so) and concluded that whether the Subletts liked it or not, I was going to become part of their family. ;) Since then I've hung out with the family 3 times now (not counting church), and as long as I don't get on their nerves, I plan to spend lots more time with them. The whole family is a hoot. I love being at their house because I feel like I can be myself and they're totally fine with that. They really are a blessing and an answer to my prayers. I am a family person through and through. I love my single friends, but there's not much that's better to me than hanging out with a family. I pray that as long as God has me in Durham (and as of now I think that will be a while!), I will know and love this family. I want to be around to watch Alex, Jessica and Caleb grow up. They can be my Durham nephews and niece. :) God is so good, and I can never thank Him enough for the ways He blesses me!

I hope that's enough of an update for now... I've been enjoying the last day and a half at home with my Mom and Dad, which has been so nice and relaxing. In a little bit, I'll be heading back to Durham for church. Then as soon as the last song is sung on Sunday, my roommate (Leanne) and I will be coming back to Sanford for Easter dinner with ALL the Boisvert family! Good times... :)

PS- If anyone reading this is thinking, "I miss the pictures, Bonnie... post pictures!" I say to you... you got a camera I can have?? hehe I finally got word that mine is damaged beyond fixing. Sad day in the life of Bonnie. Seriously though, if you have an old one you want to sell to me, let me know! ;)

This is what it's all about!

I don't know how to put this all into words, but I'll do my feeble best. Last night Shonda, Vondeara (Shonda's fiance) and Vondeara's mom all came to the Gospel class. And to make a long story short, Shonda prayed to give her life to Christ. One thing that excites me is that this wasn't a "church" service... there was no emotional music playing or convicting sermon. It was just a class and JD was talking about our response to salvation. During the discussion part our table (providentially) didn't have a table leader and JD sat down with us. One of the discussion questions was "have you given your life to Christ and if so, when?" When it got to Shonda, she said that until tonight she would have said she wasn't sure, but now she realized that she needed to give her life to Christ and that she wanted to do it "sometime soon." JD said, "so what your saying is..." (he repeated what she had said pretty much). She said yes, and he said, "why don't we pray right now and you tell God that." It was awesome. She just prayed right there. She later told me that she was nervous about praying outloud at the table, but while she was praying she just felt like she had a heavy weight lifted off of her! After the class was over a group of us all went out to Apple Bee's to celebrate. :) We wanted to make sure she knew this was a big deal and that we were so excited for her!

While we were there, the topic of the wedding came up, and we ended up talking about how right now they're still living together and what we were going to do about that. (Cool thing is, I didn't bring it up!) I told them what a Summit pastor had told me and that was that one of two things needed to happen...1)they go to the court house and get legally married now and then have the ceremony later or 2)one of them moves out. At first they were gung ho about going to the court house TODAY to get it done (and Vondeara was all about it too, which is amazing!). Then Shonda decided she needed to think about it first and get a few things straight. Tonight she's staying with her sister (to avoid temptation) and she may be coming to my house the next few nights.

I went to visit with them tonight and let them know what I'd found out about the getting legally married at the court house. I also had to do a little research about what would happen to Shonda's apartment once she became married. She lives in Durham public housing, and they're really picky about rules (as crazy as they may be), and Shonda was thinking that they'd make her move out if she got married. So I called them today and that's not the case! Shonda was grinning from ear to ear when I told her that, and she and Vondeara said they'll go tomorrow to get his name on the lease. Then they can go to the court house and get married! :) Woohoo!!! Please pray for Shonda to continue in her faith, for people to come around her and Vondeara and support their decision to honor God with their relationship.

This is HUGE and AMAZING!!! Our God is so good and faithful to hear our prayers. Please keep praying for the work He is doing in Oxford Manor. I know this is only the beginning!

Stop the madness!

AHHH!!! Who's in a drought? There's no drought at my house. I've sucked up 8+ gallons of water today that has made it into my kitchen and my laundry room. I'm trying to remain positive about it... but I could use your prayers for that! At the moment I'm choosing to pretend my house isn't flooding and that the cabinets aren't water-logged, and I'm going to hang out with some friends. I'm quite aware that I will come home and have to suck up more water, but oh well. Such is life in a fixer-upper house!

the best feeling EVER!

I helped a kid learn to read!!!!!!! I have a part time job at Sylvan Learning Center. I always get the little kids, and back in August of 2007 we got "Bob." Bob was starting his 2nd year of kindergarten and was totally -and I mean TOTALLY- clueless. Actually, up until a few weeks ago, he still seemed pretty clueless. We'd work on a letter/sound on Monday and Tuesday he couldn't remember it. Today was a glorious day. Today Bob read 9 words. NINE WORDS! They were all "word family" words (like cat, hat, rat, etc.) and they were simple, but I don't care. He read them... not recognized from memory... I heard him sound out the word. I had tears in my eyes, and I'm not even kidding. If I'd have been alone I probably would have really cried. I made him go read the words to the other teacher that works with him sometimes. I told both my bosses. I bragged on Bob to my friends tonight at church. I am so proud of this little guy! It's so amazing to be a part of this kid's life. I helped him learn to read. I've never done that before. My kids learn pre-reading skills, and I'm proud of them and all.. but reading! Bob is reading!!!! And Ms. Boisvert is ecstatic! :-D