Late August update

 
Hi everyone,

Sorry we are so late on updating the blog. Things have been crazy busy. We have been working very hard and have had non-stop activities.

Many things are going on at this time.
We are helping complete details for Amanda and Nate's wedding. We are also finishing details with the home they are purchasing. Much time was spent this weekend painting the interior of the home. It is looking great.

Four of the six children have birthdays in July and August. Andrew turned 9 on August 29. Joshua turned 14 on August 14. Also Nathan has his birthday in August.

Work in the last week has included changing windows and doors. Also we had a project to change 3 garage doors and 2 openers. We also have been working on preparing a house for new tenants.
 
This week we started a large roofing project for Frank and Holly.

Joshua and Samuel got some experience today operating a insulation blower. They crawled in some small spaces to insulate their home.

We had an exciting week this week at North Ridge Colby. Brian had the opportunity to grow the worship band. With much effort and practice, Jessica was introduced on piano and our Joshua (age 14) played his first Sunday morning worship service on the full drum set. Both did great and the congregation enjoyed the growth.

Last night we had studio photos shot for North Ridge's photo directory.
We will add photos when we have more time.
 
Keep in touch. We enjoy hearing from everyone.

The Haines Family

Let the bell ring!

Hi everyone

For those of you down south, we are praying that somehow hurricane dean settles down before serious harm is caused.

We have had tons of fun working hard on the Colby United Methodist church. The board hired me to make those repairs on the bell tower. It is now in use, the interior roof is repaired and the 8 openings have been re opened. It was very rewarding to participate in this work.

We are including some pics of the family in the backyard.

The older boys are camping with the scouts. We have had a very dry August. However, it seems if we need rain, we send the scouts out on a campout. It has become very cool, unusual for August. We did not even reach 60 for today's high. It has rained all afternoon and will continue for 24 more hours. We are to receive a couple of inches of badly needed rain.
We used the heater in the van and our house is only 65 degrees.

We bundled up and spent the afternoon enjoying one of our areas local fairs. This fair includes animal exhibits. It was a nice outing, and gave the little ones an opportunity to touch and feel numerous animals.

I stumbled into some interesting statistics about our home county. Some of you will enjoy this or even find it humorous.
Clark County, WI has human population of 33,557. Our cattle population is 63,000.
We have 27.6 people per square mile. We have 82,300 acres used for grain corn.

Our median income per household is 34,577. Our median home value is 64,700.

We love our hometown and it really is a great place to live.

Keep in touch, Call or write anytime.

Our contact info is hainesbc7@hotmail.com or phone 7156134601

The Haines family

Colby United Methodist

Hi everyone.

 We had to show you pics Rosa growing up so fast.







 

Brian has been working hard repairing an old church in Colby. Their roof had serious repair problems. This past Easter Sunday the congregation had to listen to dripping water during the service. The structure is a masterpiece of quality work of yesteryear. The roof is now repaired. Only some details remain for tomorrow.

We wanted to share some great photos. The church bell has not been used for a decade due to some safety concerns. Brian went into the bell tower to scout out the situation. The bell was made in 1883. The original wood church burned down. The current church was built in 1915.
 It seems that the bell was re-used. We are discussing implementing some safety systems and getting this bell ringing once again. We are planning to install strong safety cables so the bell could never fall.

Last Saturday Charlotte, Peggy and Becky held Amanda's bridal shower. They went all out and it was a great success.

Yesterday, Joshua turned 14. He played drums tonight in Marshfield for the main church youth band. He is very excited.

This weekend the three older boys will camp once again with the scouts.They will be going to a  state park.

Enjoy the photos, keep in touch.

The Haines family

Church Festival

Hi everyone,

We have once again been crazy busy. We have participated in all the activities mentioned in the last blog.

A week ago Friday we participated in Mike and Karen's wedding. It was an evening outdoor wedding. The setting was in a large perennial garden. The weather was perfect. Peggy, Amanda, Joshua and Brian provided live music. The whole thing was beautiful. We were all treated to a nice meal and a huge fireworks show.

Last weekend was a flurry of activity. We were involved in preparing for the church office grand opening.
Sunday morning began with staging the Interface band for Sunday worship. They are a 6 member band from Fort Meyers Florida. We had lunch with them at Nicki's house. Nicki is our ministries director at the Colby church. She is a graduate of the Fort Meyers Masters Commission program. She is a phonomenal blessing to this ministry.

Sunday afternoon we set up for the concert. Interface blessed our community with a great concert. After the concert was the cookout and jumbo inflatable toys. Fun was had by all who came. At 9:00 P.M. we showed the movie Over the Hedge on our school football field outdoors.
Several dozen people were introduced to our church family at this event. We were excited about the success of it all.

Our new office in Colby "The Gathering Place" will meet many needs of our church. It will be staffed during normal business hours. It will be home to many small group meetings, bible study meetings, counseling appointments, a coffee bar open to the public,  a reading library, free wireless internet to the public, small concerts or worship, and hopefully a hipanic service will be held there on Sundays while we have our regular service at the High School. Pastor Gayland is trying to find a Hispanic pastor.

We are excited about Pastor's vision to grow this church. We were also introduced to a couple that was hired by the church. Preston and Amy will be the children's pastor role and Amy will help staff the Colby office. Preston and Amy join Zach as our worship pastor, Nicki as our Ministries director, and Daniel, our youth pastor. All of these staffers are enthusiastic hard working people all are under 30 years old. What a blessing to work with great young people.

On Thursday Mike and Karen blessed us taking us to Eau Claire to Fanny Hill dinner theatre. We enjoyed a great play and meal. It was a real treat as activities like this are more rare to parents of 6 children. It seems you never have enough time or cash. It was a very enjoyable double date.

Nicholas and Ethan were treated to a birthday outing this week with Grandma and Grandpa Haines.

As of today, Sat morning, Charlotte, Peggy, and Becky are preparing for a huge bridal shower for Amanda. They all stayed up all night working. It is this afternoon.

Brian's work this past  2 weeks included adding on to a deck, a plumbing project, and is now working on replacing a partial church roof. It is 100 years old and needed new lumber installed,and new flashings fitted into the brick. It will take about a week.
Brian also prepared an apartment for a new tenant coming from Richmond VA.
 
Keep in touch everyone. We enjoy hearing from y'all!

The Haines family