Spain or bust!

This is the jungle theme song!

VBS

We had a great time this year at VBS! Here are a few clips...

More video to come!

The End In Sight!

Somehow I had come to believe that I would be in school forever. It gets to be a way of life and you find a way to fit in time to study and learn. I know now that I will be in school forever and by that I mean that the career I have chosen is one that I will be able to find something new to learn every single day. For now, I am finished. I have completed all my classes and will look forward to graduation on the 14th of June, 2008. I will take the NCLEX near the middle of July and am happy to say that I did well on my predictor exam that I took for Med Central. The orientation for my new job at Marion General Hospital will start the first week of August. I will be working nights on a post-surgical/pediatric unit from 7pm to 7am. Although these aren't my favorite hours, I am grateful to the Lord to have a job and glad to have the relative tranquility of nights to begin with. I wish I could somehow capture the miracle that I have lived in these past four years. When I began nursing school, I entered with a conviction that the Lord had called me to this. It is only by this calling that I have stayed and endured and gladly finished. He has given me everything I have needed. From quiet moments of focus to revelations of His creation. He has provided every penny that I needed and given me grace when I messed up a schedule or assignment. With a grateful heart and knowledge that without Him I am nothing and would have nothing, I AM DONE WITH NURSING SCHOOL!!!!!! YEA!

Garage Sale!

Garage Sales are fun, but they're even more fun when they're going for a good cause. This year our garage sale profits went to help the kids from kid's club go to camp. The youth helped out with this fundraiser and lots of people donated their stuff to the sale. We had a great time and a lot of people stopped by to support the sale. All-in-all we raised around $700 for the camp fund!

Family Weekend in PA

Rachel brought her new boyfriend, Daniel to the family get-together!

What an incredible weekend! My brother, Andy Sommers is getting married September 27th. His fiancee is a wonderful girl from PA. Her family invited our family to stay at a cabin in the mountains on their farm. It was a really fun time just being in nature and with everyone together. Wendy Mast and her parents are wonderful people and the weekend was full of stories and memories. Some incredible events happened this week such as my cousin Jeff Sommers getting engaged to Marsha Hershberger and the unforgettable almost barn-burning. God's grace was evident to us as He spared Wendy's family from near tragedy. Another memorable time was the surprise wedding shower that her mom threw for her. Her mom says that she has never been able to surprise Wendy at anything and was happy for the chance to give her a little surprise. The fun part was the we got to be in on the scheme and had a grand time conniving ways to get her to the party. We played Settler's of Catan and got to see some old friends from the area. What a cool trip! The cabin was beautiful and being with family too

Planning for Spain and Italy...

The start of a great adventure! The day we decided to include Italy on the end of our trip to Spain, Matt ran around the house (Amore chasing after him) yelling "Italia! Italia!" with his hands in the air. We are definately exited about Italy and Spain. We will be traveling to Spain to work with the Eichelman's at English Camp for a week and among those who are going are Dion and Naty Peachey! After Spain, we'll be meeting up with Mom and Dad Roggio to travel around Italy. We are expecting the unexpected, let me tell you! Matt has been practicing his Italian in the car and in the evenings. We feel we know just enough to make some really big and hopefully funny-in-the-end blunders. We have debated about this trip for over 9 months, in the end we feel it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Photos of Us - May 2008

We are SO in love. Matt and I have long anticipated the arrival of spring. In part because we both love the sunshine and in part because our house stays so cold in the winter. Today we had a beautiful chance to enjoy spring and just being together. We are looking forward to spending the summer together this year.

Amore around the house. She loves the computer and sitting in the lazy boy. What a silly cat!

Hispanic Retreat - May 2008

We had a really great time with our Hispanic friends at the Hispanic Retreat. It is a weekend long event with all of the Hispanic Mennonite Churches in Ohio. Matt and I helped out with the music and just enjoyed seeing friends that we had not seen for several weeks. After 4 years of serving at ICH in Hilliard, Ohio, we have officially stepped down from the leadership position there. Although it's been a rough transition, we feel that God has been calling us to allow others the blessing of serving in that and that He has been calling us to slow down a little and strive for excellence where we are. Being with the Hispanics this weekend opened my eyes to the realities that many of them face each day. There was a lot of talk about trials and fear as many of them face deportation or separation from their families. I cannot imagine living my life along and afraid to open the door. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that I saw a piece from "their shoes" and it broke my heart.

Recently we have had a request to join a church-planting team in Mansfield, only a few miles from our house, among the Hispanics. We are seeking out the Lord's will and praying for His direction.

More of Matt's Musings

Saturday, April 11
At the Creation museum near Cincinnati, we ended with a video on “The Last Adam.” I was struck with what seems to be an obvious fact, but which perhaps had lurked rather cloudy in the back of my mind. We saw a video of Old Testament priests sacrificing a lamb to pay for sins. The real Lamb, though, was shown to be Christ.
Did the priests who offered lambs somehow have their sins forgiven because of their obedience to what God had commanded them, through faithful obedience to as much as God had chosen to reveal to them? Almost, correct, but not quite.
Did the blood of the lambs they sacrificed do ANYTHING at all to cleanse them from their sin? No, they did not. I am most confident that no blood from any animal could ever forgive sins. So why did they sacrifice? It was a picture of Jesus, a reminder, and nothing more. It was the blood of Jesus that paid for old testament people, too. And no, their obedience did not pay for their sins. Grace saves today, and then, through faith. Their obedience was the evidence of faith, as they walked in God’s offer, his deal, his covenant, his grace.

Sunday, April 12
Today the speaker spoke of “Jesus with skin.” What is the incarnation? Is it that God could put on flesh and walk the earth 2,000 years ago, or that he is incarnate today through the church? It is both. Do you find this as miraculous as I? They both are the incarnation – and they both are God’s answer to reach a lost and dying world – both are God at work in the everyday, in the physical realms of imperfect humanity. Jesus’ flesh was not deity, but it was controlled by the spirit of the Man, to do what he willed to perform with his physical body. Even so today, his church Is not the deity, but acts out what He wills. This is why Jesus will forever be the incarnation – God doing his will through His Body!

Creation Science Museum

An imposter Matt Roggio is spotted near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Q: What does 8 Jr.High/High School age kids and three fun-loving youth leaders in a big green van with tinted windows make?

A: A fun-filled day-trip to the Creation Science Museum. What a great trip!


We had so much fun exploring the Biblical reasons why creation makes so much sense. It was great to see how the message of the Bible and the centrality of Christ was a main theme throughout the whole museum. We were expecting a defensive perspective of science, what we got was a great explanation of how God and His Word and EVERYTHING it says makes sense. It was really fun for our kids to see a panoramic picture of the bible.


Even thought the outdoor picnic lunch was "a little cold!!!!", we had a great time in the Special Effects theatre (we got rained on during the flood scene!) and throughout the different parts of the museum.

Chef Mateo

For the first time in two years (he confesses), Matt determines to cook dinner. So, with me sitting nearby, procedes to make a delicious dinner. I must say, I was impressed and it seemed like he had fun. Maybe we should do this more often???

A Snow Storm To Remember...

We'll call it the blizzard of '08, for all practical purposes. Friday, March 7 and Saturday March 8th were blustery days full of snow. It was all light and puffy, but in all I think we got about 14 inches. After getting home late on Friday to a worried husband, it was really nice to be in a warm house and let the world swirl outside. Around 11:30pm Friday night we got cabin fever and went out to run around the house and make snow angels. It was truely a winter wonderland! Saturday was more of the same and we actually spent the day working at cleaning our house, and got almost the whole thing done! What fun to work together on much needed projects. Sunday we had a good time worshipping and going over the Sunday school lesson together. We missed being in church though and realized how much we love meeting with our church on Sundays.

Winter Retreat

The Winter Retreat (Feb.21-23) with the youth group was a great time! We went to Marietta, Ohio to the two-house property of a friend of the church. It is almost on the West Virginia border and rarely snows there. However, for our wintery weekend, it had just snowed 2-3 inches. It was fun riding fourwheelers and sledding down the mountain. We spent the weekend on a study of Colossians 3-4. It was the end of a study of the book of Colossians. The title of the weekend was "Set Apart For Life" and the emphasis was about what the Lord has done and given for us to follow Him for a lifetime. We talked about being different from a culture that readily gives up on most everything and anything.

Session 1 - Set Your Hearts - Our first call is to salvation and to the passionate love of God

Session 2 - Set Your Minds - The love of God with our minds is a great gift and key to knowing Him and growing in Him.

Session 3 - Set It Down - Weeds that would choke out our faith. We talked about letting God take out the deepest rooted habits and frequently shallow sins in our hearts daily.

Session 4 - Set It Up - Establishing character and strength, building blocks for ways to live like Jesus

Session 5 - Set For Life - 4 places God has set up for us to live out holiness - Family/At home, Work, Church, Evanglism.

We were really blessed by some of the things that they shared and also by the way the Lord pulled everything together. Matthew and I had never given talked for a whole weekend, much less spent so long on one verse/chapter, but God opened His word to us and it really was a growing time and something that He did!

It was good to have a good mix of people there and we are asking God what all He has for us in the next few years. We love these guys and pray that God will continue to open their hearts and minds for ever deeper love and service to Him.

una cancion - pa que goces

The Reasons We're Alive

So where to from here? Isn't that a question we ask all our lives?

Our hearts have been drawn to the ministry that God has placed on our hearts: working with the youth. These past few weeks God has given us new ideas and a renewed passion for these great guys and gals.

One of the recent fun events that we had was a spa night and pajama party for the Jr.High girls entititled "The Truth About Beauty". In between facials, a back massager, manicures, pedicures, Brio magazine and cheese quesadillas, we talked about life and love and what it really means to be beautiful. It was great to see everyone participate and have fun. The best part was what God spoke to each of us about how He has given us potential for true beauty. What a fun night!

Marriage Retreat and Grieving Baby

Matt and I went this weekend to the Hispanic Marriage Retreat. The speaker was Rey F. Matos who has written several books on marriage and family. His talks were interesting and to the point. We had several long sessions, so our only regret of the weekend was that we didn't get much time to talk alone. We did have a good time talking with our Hispanic friends and they were all so kind to us. Many expressed care and empathy at the loss of our baby. Some even shared their stories, which was a blessing to see how God carried them through. We have learned to communicate to each other better over this time and have held each other with the arms of Jesus it seems. We sang Steven Curtis Chapman's song "I will be here" in Spanish to each other, that was special.

It was uplifting to meet with the Roggio family for lunch on Sunday after the retreat. What a blessing our families have been through this whole time!

I honestly don't know what I would have done that first week without my mom. She gave me such good advice and helped me with some everyday tasks. Dad came and fixed me sweeper when I had clogged it even though he said that he wanted to fix the hurts, but couldn't. We have about 20 cards sitting on our buffet table with 3 bouquets of flowers and have had so many people call or visit. Just today I saw Bonnie Weberling at the store. Her hug and genuine concern for Matt and I was just a special reminder of God's love through His body. The truth is that I can see the difference in the ways that people who know the Lord respond to us and those who don't. It seems that the Holy Spirit reaches out to our hearts in a special way through His people. It's funny how you know in your head that people care about you, but then when something happens that makes you feel broken, there are so many to offer you a hand and say "You're not alone." The song that Vanessa sent us was so touching and special, it talks about Jesus holding our baby. The other day when Aunt Mary Kay prayed that Jesus would hold us and our baby close I had this beautiful picture of Jesus in a rocking chair with our baby. Then He traded with Grandma Sommers. It was a special thought.

You would think with all of these wonderful people and wonderful gestures, a wonderful husband and more wonderful God that I would feel more joyful. I guess I'm discovering that joy is not a feeling, it's a truth. The truth is in my heart I have joy for many things, but there is also still a deep sorrow that I cannot seem to just replace. I think like Amy said, "It will hurt until the day I die." I will always be a mom to this one too.