Waterpark fun

Hi everyone, We had a blast as a family today. We spent the day at the Cedar Creek Lodge waterpark.

Being a Tuesday, the crowds were small, so we had no waiting and tons of fun. I think Ethan must have went down the mid size slide several hundred times. It was very refreshing as the recent months have been intense with everything going on.






We are purchasing a house in Abbotsford which will be occupied by Pastor John and Roseangela, along with Jr, and Ricardo. This is our missionary family from Brazil. They needed a bigger house, and found this. It was for sale for a low price and is fundamentally sound and has a good floor plan and a new funace. Its needs are more the cosmetic type, and they along with volunteers from the church and the hispanic church will spruce it up a bit.

We really appreciate the prayers of those around us. We are often told that people regularly pray for us. I (Brian) have had a couple of close calls with accidents recently. A couple of weeks ago after spraying sealer in Nathan and Amanda's house, I had an accident with my new airless sprayer. During the cleaning of the tool, I was using denatured alcohol solvent, which was necessary. I released a hose that was under 3000 psi. ( a car tire is 40 psi) The solvent sprayed in my face, mostly my left eye. We contacted the poison center and followed their instructions. I am O.K. praise be to God.

My other blunder/accident happened Monday afternoon. I had a low tire on my truck, so we changed it with the spare. I failed to remember to retighten the nuts after setting it off of the jack. We proceeded to our jobsite in Hewitt, completed the project, and towed the jobtrailer homeward. We got about 2 miles north of Spencer when suddenly my left rear tire and wheel suddenly fell off the axle, and we were dragging on the concrete. I was easily able to handle the rig and got off well onto the shoulder. Nicholas and I looked for the tire for a half hour, then I started to jack up the truck. Nicholas looked for another 15 minutes and finally found it. The wheel crossed the oncoming lane of traffic. This is a busy highway. We contacted Decker Automotive who had our repaired wheel and they came to help. We were only able to get 3 of 8 nuts on the wheel, but were able to get home safely. The truck has sustained damage only to a wheel part, it will cost little to repair. Once again, praise God! There was plenty of opportunity for a worse outcome.

We will be back to working on Nathan and Amanda's house full throttle. We hope to be complete about Christmas time. The hardwood floor is shipped, and will be gorgeous!




We are looking forward to the holidays, and hope you are too.

In Christ

The Haines family

A historic service

Hi everyone,

We just wanted to give a praise report about today's service. We held a preconstruction service in the new building in Abbotsford. We had a great turnout of over 140 and it was a great time of ministry, worship, fellowship and eating. It really seems God's hand is on this work as He is blessing and increasing every week.

We will be meeting at Colby High for a time to allow for construction in the new building. Once again we invite anyone to be a part of this exciting season in the life of this church.

We worked a hard week, including Saturday to allow us to take a day off this Tuesday. We have had some passes for the Cedar Creek Lodge waterpark and will enjoy the day as a mini vacation.
We are happy that the colder weather has moderated a bit.

We will be back to work on Nathan and Amanda's house most of the week and will be working on the bathroom and drywall.

Things will be a bit less crazy as things slow down at Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving plans include serving our community at the annual Colby thanksgiving meal and hosting the Thanksgiving meal at our house with Charlotte's parents, Michael and Peggy, Nathan and Amanda, and Becky.

Thanks for checking on the blog, we will hopefully update often over the next couple of weeks.

In Christ,

The Haines family

A pre construction service

Hi everyone,

It has been been super crazy again this week.

We have been hard at it at Nathan and Amanda's house. As of yesterday we have the new drywall in all rooms except the bathroom, which was not ready.

We have pulled out of this job to complete a project promised before the fire.
It is a flooring project in Hewitt.

We want to invite you to be a part of history. We will have a pre construction service in our new building in Abbotsford this Sunday, at 11:00 A.M. It will be a combined service with the hispanic church. A meal will follow. Brian, Charlotte, Joshua, Nicholas, and Samuel will all be involved in the worship team.

We are also dealing with cold weather, it is going to be less than 10 degrees tonight.

Nicholas and Joshua have completed their driving school and have passed their written tests.

We are in the process of buying a house in Abbotsford.

Thanks for checking our blog. Sorry it is so brief. Keep in touch.

In Christ,

The Haines family

Hearts at home conference

Hi everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since the last update.

The last two weeks have been a juggling match of Nightmare, worship band, meetings with insurance adjusters, gutting a house and finding time to submit a proposal to the insurance company.

For those of you who are not in the know, Nathan and Amanda had a house fire in their house, which was rented out. Pictures and info are in the last post.
At this time, the entire house is completely gutted to the studs with the exception of one small bedroom and a pantry closet, which were the only salvagable spaces. The adjuster and cleaning contractor thought that the master bedroom could be saved, but when they came this Friday, we discovered that the heat released the paper from the drywall. Service Master says this was a very hot interior fire. All plastics were melted in every room.
The bedroom was saved because the door was shut.

For those of you in the south, we are also dealing with cold weather. This past week we had 3 days of record highs, reaching in the 70's, but now we are in the low 20's at night. We have had a bit of snow.

We are excited for Charlotte, she headed off to Rochester MN, Friday afternoon for a Hearts at Home conference. She went alone, however ran into a couple of ladies that she knew. It featured nationally known speakers and parenting experts. Her life as a stay at home homeschooling mom is not always an easy one, and this was a great opportunity for her to get her battery charged. She returned refreshed. This was the first time she went anywhere alone in nearly 10 years. She would recommend this conference to all moms and is inviting you to join her next year. The conference is in Rochester, MN on November 6-7, 2009. Just contact her and we will start planning.

This afternoon we were so blessed to be special guests at the Dorchester Peace United Church of Christ Harvest Dinner. We were invited to the first event in their newly remodeled hall. They were so gracious to us. They served us a great meal and were so thankful for the work that was completed. They are truly a great congregation of believers.

Our church will likely close on the building in the next week or two and plans on holding one service there the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It will be a joint service with the Hispanic church at 11:00. You are invited. The building is the old Christ Lutheran and Cornerstone Baptist, across the street from the Abbotsford post office, or just north and west of the junction of 13 and Bus. 29 in Abbotsford.

We will be working hard on Nathan and Amanda's house, we need to get it closed in before seriously cold weather. Fortunately, they had a good insurance policy and should have everything taken care of.

Our plan to return to Mississippi will likely be altered a bit as we deal with this house fire and church move and likely remodel. We plan to head out when these 2 issues are under control. As you all know how we feel about winter, you can be assured we will be doing our best.

Thanks for checking in.

In Christ,

The Haines family