Pressing on

Hi everyone,

Sorry we have not posted much lately, but we are kind of stuck in a rut. Work at the church, eat, sleep, work at the church.

We are taping the drywall in the fellowship hall. The room is 1800 square feet, the size of a larger 3 bedroom ranch house.

Everything is going very well, the building is turning out nice, services are being well attended, and growing. We are healthy. The kids are growing up very fast.

Our cub scouts had their soap box derby last Saturday Ethan got to race for the first time. All 5 of the boys are now in scouting.

Rosa turned 3 on May 8. She is such a big girl already. We are so proud of her.

Charlotte and all the boys marched in the local Memorial Day parade with the scouts.

Nicholas has been busy trying to earn his Eagle Scout rank. He has taken on the updating of the old historical marker in Colby. There were old overgrown shrubs that needed to be updated.

He and the other scouts have replaced it with a new landscape garden. The jobsite part of the project is now complete, and hopefully he will meet the rest of the requirements to acheive this rank. Only 2% of scouts reach this high honor and he is very close now.

One thing maybe exciting is that Brian has been interested in offering services to the public in sound consulting, designing, and installation. He has been frustrated with a consistant problem where people are spending huge sums of money on gear, and have no ability to use it correctly. He has had professionals in related businesses, such as music stores confirm this.

He has over 25 years experience in sound, from the early years in the rock band, d.j. service, many years at Beleiver's church, Nightmare, and now North Ridge Church.

Our church trusted him to design, obtain, and install the sound system. It turned out great, and a very modest budget was used.

We noticed in our local newspaper that our high school is doing a sound system in the remodel of the school theatre, the very room our church was birthed. It also listed the budget, which was triple what we spent at the church. The system needed there is similar to the system needed for our church. We contacted them about our interest in bidding on the project, and they are interested! It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Brian will be doing sound for a wedding at the Marshfield North Ridge Church for a friend from the years at Believer's church.

We will post some random pictures of life here at this time.

In Christ

The Haines family

Big Tree, Little house

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update, and I am going to load some pictures.

Last weekend we had some thunderstorms in our area. In Spencer, a large maple tree split and fell on a small ranch house. We were hired by the owner's insurance company to do the repairs.
We took a leave from the church job on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
We had to repair a number of broken trusses, a number of sheets of plywood that were damaged, subfascia boards, and a ridge beam.

As of today, we have all structural repairs finished, and the new roof is on. We will return in June to finish the fascia, gutters and interior repairs. There are a number of cracks, a limb pushed into the bathroom and the dining light was pushed through the ceiling.

The church has hired us to finish the basement of the church. This will be a large drywall job, and a large ceiling job.

We have a deadline to meet as there is a wedding dinner in the basement on June 6. The church also plans a grand opening celebration on June 14. We should be able to meet these deadlines.

Nicholas spent the weekend camping with the Boy Scouts.

Our family has been working hard with music. Charlotte has been playing keyboards, and Joshua
will play lead guitar tomorrow.

We have been keeping busy with all the usual things, schooling, scouts, church and work.
If you are in the area, stop by and see the church, it is turning out very nice.

Thanks for checking our blog.

In Christ,

The Haines family

Remembering Kristi

Hi everyone,

I am typing in front of open windows, it is over 70 degrees for the first time in many months. It is so refreshing.

Our hearts are heavy. Charlotte's cousin Kristi passed away Monday at the age of 24. She contracted a case of pnuemonia, and somehow a bloodclot related to it got into her heart.
She was sick over the weekend and her caretakers decided to take her in to get checked.
Kristi walked in to the Stanley hospital, then was airlifted to Marshfield where she passed away in the ICU.
Her parents drove fast from Stanley to Marshfield and did not even make it there in time.
The funeral wake was Thursday and was well attended. The funeral was Friday and was well attended. Brian served as a pallbearer. The weather was so pretty, it seemed odd to do a funeral. Every person released a helium balloon at the burial site. It was cool symbolism.


We are still mostly busy with the church remodel. Things are going great. We celebrated Easter along with our hispanic congregation and had 154 in atttendance. Praise be to God!

We have been installing the technical details, mounting the projecter, speakers, things of that nature this week, and installing windows.

Easter was celebrated at our home on Saturday before Easter with Charlotte's parents, Michael and Peggy, Nathan and Amanda, and Becky.

Nicholas and Joshua are now doing behind the wheel training.

Brian, Nicholas, Joshua, Samuel and Andrew along with 8 others from the youth group went to see Pillar and Fireflight at Rhinelander on Wed. night.

The Boy scouts did roadside cleanup. It is the 2 miles south of Colby on SHW 13.

Nicholas is working on his Boy Scout Eagle project, it has to be complete before he turns 18 on July 23. He is coordinating improving the historical marker site in Colby about Colby cheese.

Thanks for checking in on us.

In Christ

The Haines family.

Almost ready for Easter!

Hi everyone,

The last 2 weeks have been push weeks at the church project. There was much to accomplish, but we have been able to meet the goals! We are moving into the remodeled sanctuary this weekend, in time for Easter. There are minor projects remaining on the main level, but nothing to prevent us from using the building.

We have funds remaining and will be able to do some improvements to the lower level.

Again, our church has had it's needs met. To accomodate the children's church during the lower level remodeling, the City of Abbotsford has agreed to let us use the vacated city hall chambers, just across the street, rent free!

You are invited to join us for Easter service, 10:00 A.M.

Services will resume at 9:00 A.M. next week.

We are looking forward to a little more balanced life in the near future, it has been too much work and no play lately. Spring is in the air, it makes us anxious to enjoy the outdoors and time with the kids.

We are anticipating a very busy summer, we have numerous offers for work.

Our family is well, it our prayer that yours is as well.

Thanks for checking our blog.

In Christ

The Haines family

Easter is coming, lots of work remaining

Hi everyone,

How time flies. We noticed we have not posted in about a month, the longest ever.

The last post was about the battle of the bands. We did not win, but gave the winning band a great challenge. We had a blast. Brian wound up doing the sound for all of the other bands, and we were left without a sound man. We learned some good things at the seminar.

We also mentioned having a week off. We were blessed by Nathan and Amanda offering to watch all 6 children for spring break. This enabled us to have a whole week off.

We spent the week in downtown Minneapolis. The family and the church respected our time off and we were left completely alone. No phone calls even. In fact no one even knew where we were.

We had such a blast. We never get time alone. One highlight of the trip was an outing to the Waubasha cave in St. Paul. On Thursday evenings, they have a swing dance. It is amazing. There were hundreds there, and to our suprise, the majority under the age of 30. The crowd was there to dance, most only drinking water. If you are ever in the Twin Cities, check it out.

We have been working long days on the church remodel. We are about 3/4 finished with the project and the plan is to move in April 12, Easter. The church has now hired us to do the windows. We are very excited as we have accomplished more than what was planned, and completely in budget.

Our family is also very involved in the worship band. With the Silva family currently in Brazil, Brian is the full time worship leader, Joshua is either on drums or keyboard, Samuel is on bass most weeks, Charlotte is on keys some weeks, and Nicholas is involved with sound, overheads, and recording.

Ricardo taught us a lot. We have been able to press on with an awesome worship band. We practice 2 nights every week, plus Sunday morning.

We would be honored to have you as our guests. We will meet one last time at Colby High School this Sunday at 9:00 A.M.
Easter will be at 10:00 at the church in Abbotsford.
Our church website is www.abbynrc.com We have services posted online.

We are sad we never made it to MS this winter, but feel we are in God's will.

The kids are all growing up so fast, Nicholas will be 18 in July. Wow.

Thanks for checking in on our blog.
May God richly bless you according to His riches in Glory.

In Christ,

The Haines family

Battle of the Bands

Hi everyone,

We are trying to keep the blog up in between all of the craziness going on. It seems like there is more to do all the time.

Nicholas and Joshua have their driving temps and are enjoying learning. Mom and Dad have a little more gray hair.

Our excitement for the week is revolving around an event being held in Rhinelander. A church there is holding a worship seminar, which Brian, Samuel, Jesse, and Dwayne are attending.
The day concludes with a battle of the bands and the winner will front for Pillar and Fireflight on April 15 at the Rhinelander High School. It was too cool to pass up. Some think we have a chance at winning, but let's face it, they are our friends, ha ha.
We are excited to have our new sound mixer now, our old one is pretty tired.

We are working hard at the church. We have the drywall taped and are ready to spray texture, primer and ceilings.
The church is hoping to have an Easter service in the new sanctuary. I am feeling the pressure!

We have been very busy in the rentals as well, several have changed hands lately. We are helping with Peggy and Michael's duplex and Nathan and Amanda's house as well.
Today we wrote an offer on a nice Abbotsford duplex.

Nathan and Amanda have offered to watch our kids during their spring break, so we are considering doing something spontaneous next week.

Brian, Joshua, and Nicholas have provided the worship at the Withee church the last 3 weeks, but will have some weeks off now.

We are so looking forward to spring, but are grateful that daylight savings time is back.
We will try to post pics of the kids and more sometime soon.

Thanks for checking our blog, our prayer is that all is well with you.

In Christ,
The Haines family

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A mission trip

Hi everyone,

It has been a crazy month. We have been working hard on the church remodel. Gary and Jesse helped a few weeks. Now it is pretty much our family. We have had heating and plumbing subcontractors in and their rough ins are complete.

The drywall is all up and we are taping it.

With the missionary family having to go home for now, we are stepping up to help out filling some of the needs that the church now has.

Brian will be the worship leader now for Sunday services. He will also lead worship at the Withee church some Saturdays. We are thankful for all of the teaching we have received from Ricardo the last 14 months, as we feel equipped to take on this responsibility.

We also had to deal with the house that was rented to them. Things turned crazy there too. The day before they needed to leave, they planned to carry out their belongings to storage. Their son and daughter-in-law from Stevens Point came to help. Their daughter-in-law was 7 and a half month pregnant. Fifteen minutes after arriving her water broke, and they all headed back to Stevens Point to have the baby. At 7:00 A.M. the baby boy was born. They returned to Abbotsford at 10:00 A.M. and headed out for the airport at 11:30 A.M. That is amazing timing.
The house was rented back out in one day on a month to month lease so they can have it back when they return. We had to deal with the mess the last people left behind to make room for the new renters. The plan had been to do it in the spring.

As you all know, we had full intention to spend the winter in MS, but we have pretty much resigned to the fact that God had a plan for us to be here at this time, to help build his church here at this time in more ways than one. What a journey it has been, people are being added every week. We had 5 adult men baptized last week in the Hispanic congregation. This is amazing in their culture, where men are even more macho than in our culture.

Pastor John's son Rueben, from Stevens Point will be the new Hispanic pastor. He has a Evangelical Free church their and has his residency complete. They will meet Saturdays at 11:00 A.M. in the church basement.


It has been amazing to God's perfect plan working out in this whole new church. We have people showing up to meet needs at the right time, for example we are here instead of MS when Ricardo needed to leave, and we have a new piano player here only about one month now. Holly even teaches piano. The school we meet in will be closed for remodeling this summer, but we will be in the new building by then.

We will continue to meet at the Colby School at 9:00 A.M. on Sundays. We would be honored to see you visit, even just to rejoice with us to see what God is doing.

Most of our family got some sickness the last 2 weeks. Joshua, Ethan, and Andrew got hit the worst. Ethan hit 104.7 temperature once. Fortunately Brian was spared.

Thanks for checking the blog, sorry we have not been consistant on updating.

In Christ

The Haines family