Celebrating and saying goodbye!

On Saturday we held an open house for John, for all his friends to come and say goodbye. We had tons of food (thank you to all who brought some!) and a great time of fellowship with friends and family! I have so many pictures and very few words so just enjoy the images and I will continue to try to keep you posted as we hear from John.

Oh and Praise the Lord! From all the "ble$$ings" that he received we were able to go out that night and get him a digital camera!!! I am greatly relieved as I could not stand the thought of him not having instant pictures as he was only going to be taking disposables! So I hope to be able to get him to send me some photos of his surroundings and things that he sees as the days go by!

Thats not even half of it all!

Pleasant surprises from Downriver friends!

"Tiny" and Christianna

Josh made a map of S. Korea to show where John would be going.

Josh and Shawn playing with their food!

Aunts and Uncles came too.

Local friends

John and dad talking with Todd Courser (he is running for State Rep.)

The Fultz and Ostrander family with John!

Church friends

Boy and his dog

The photographer and her "little" brother

(thank you Theresa for taking the pictures!)

Mr. Walker and little Esther.

John and Uncle Tim

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Sunday was a little bitter-sweet as we drove John down to the airport and waited around till he had to go through security.

checking the flights

last minute phone call from Aunty Carmen!

Are you ready?

Last goodbyes and off he goes.

We praise God for this great opportunity that He has given John and pray that God will bless and guide him on his way and that John will find strength in his Lord through all the difficulties and differences and that he will return even closer to his Savior and filled with knowledge and wisdom for the road ahead!

You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.

Psalm 16:11

We love you John and miss you greatly!

~Grace

Joshua's Birthday!

Before I go on to more stuff about John I must put a post on for Joshua...his 18th birthday was Friday! The day started out with Josh going to work (Praise God he was blessed with a job working for one of our friends) and then went out to eat lunch with dad. In the afternoon most of us went to a nature/pond sanctuary and the boys tried their hands at fishing again (nothing was caught) but we enjoyed the warm weather and walking the trails.









The only things they caught were "fish sticks"!

On our way back to the van Josh caught this large snake!

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When we got home we had Josh open his gifts, then we ate dinner, watched a video and ate his cake and ice cream.



This is the awesome shirt that Faith MADE for Josh!

Any idea what his interests are??



We are so blessed to have Joshua in our lives. We praise God for the gifts that He has given Josh and pray that God will continue to bless him and lead him in Truth and Righteousness!
Happy birthday Joshua!

Back up and running...

Due to failure of Internet connections yesterday I am behind on posts, but thankfully we are back up today so keep checking back as I have a lot to put on! We took John to the airport on Sunday and even though we could not watch his flight come in yesterday, he called us around 11am (midnight over there) and then talked to us later in the evening. He is doing ok, though I just talked to him (yahoo IM) and he said that the language barrier is hard. God is good though and we are praising Him for His mercy and grace and protection over John through his long flight to South Korea!

~Grace

John, College Plus!, and South Korea....

...The days are counting down to a most exciting event that is about to happen! This coming Sunday, April 20, 2008 John embarks on a new phase in life, an adventure and challenge as he follows the Lord's leading and heads over to South Korea for 3 month to work and study under College Plus! From there he will continue his studies towards his bachelors degree down in San Antonio, Texas while working at the organizations head quarters. (Here is an article about College Plus! by Doug Philips.)

John first was introduced to College Plus at a conference in the Lapeer area during his senior year of high school. Before graduating, he took several CLEP tests and passed all of them giving him a total of 24 college credits. He gave his studies a rest last year while he worked for Grandscapes and waited for clearer direction from the Lord. At the start of this year, he read about the opportunity to do an internship with College Plus which would pay for the rest of his college education which he could complete in a years time. He applied, but didn't hear anything until 6 weeks ago. Things moved very fast from there; order passport, apply for visa, get airplane tickets, sell truck, find books to study, find luggage etc.

The Lord has blessed all along the way and everything has come in time. John will be leaving on Northwest Sunday at 3:30pm and arriving at Seoul Korea on Monday, at 9:45pm with an hour lay over in Tokeo, Japan. He will be working for Brad Voeler, the president of College Plus 30 hours a week, and studying about 20 hours. He will be living with a Christian Korean family while he is there. What an experience! He will be returning to Michigan on July 15. Follow his schedule carefully - leaving Seoul Tuesday, 11:00 am, leaving Tokeo, 3:30pm and arriving in Detroit, 1:30 pm on the same day. How's that for arriving before you leave?

Anyways, we are all excited (though at times it is sad to see him go) about what God is doing here and we give Him all the glory and praise! I am sure that John will covet your prayers for him as he travels, lives in a totally different environment and works and studies at the same time! As he keeps us updated on what he is doing over these next several months we will try to fill you in and keep this blog updated as we watch God's hand leading and guiding our family in this life of ministry that He has designed for us!

May our Lord bless you all!

The Sauve Family

Protect our Homeschooling Rights!

This past Wednesday we headed over to our state capital to protest HB 5612, which will require home school students to be registered by the state. Yet another thing for our government to try to control us with! Our duty in God's Word is to train up our children...OUR CHILDREN!...(they are not the states responsibility) and to teach them truth and righteousness in the fear of our Lord! It is the parents role to determine where and what their children should be taught and we do not need the help of a failing public school system to monitor us and make sure that we are teaching them aright! May God forgive our nation for it's failing to follow His Word and may He have mercy and bless our Country with a Spiritual Revival!

If you would like to learn more about this Bill click here...and please, help us to fight for freedom and victory and contact your Representatives and Senators and ask them to oppose this bill. Thank you!

Inside our Capital building.

We Just Can't Get Enough of It!!!

Spring is here and we are loving it! Days spent outside, cleaning the yard, with friends at the park...and spending the remainder of the Lord's day in His Sanctuary (the Sutherland) with friends. Following is just a little scrapbook of a bunch of pictures taken recently...hope you enjoy them...and as always, give God the glory!

Looking close you will see Josiah and his friend Matt are having fun in our big maple out back over our wet lands.

...At the Park...

Our farmer boy playing tennis...

...and a blurry image of Faith having a fun on a scooter!

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Some friendly faces =)

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In the Sanctuary of the LORD

So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,

to see Your power and Your glory.

Psalm 63:2

Honor and majesty are before Him;

Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Psalm 96:6

The photographer and her big/little brother =)

Here we are praising our Savior in the little meeting place in the woods.

Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary;

Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

Psalm 150:1

April Flowers!!!

When Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil. ~Reginald Heber

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

The first flowers to bloom on our property this year. Well, at least in the ground.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils.

- William Wordsworth

A Sweet and Special 16th Birthday!

Yesterday was Christianna's 16th birthday!

It's rather hard to believe that our blonde haired, chubby cheeked, big imagination "Punkers" is now a lovely young lady, growing in grace and love for her Savior and is now 16! Oh well, I guess we better start facing the fact that we all are getting older. =)

Through the years most of us have found a great delight in a certain musical instrument and really wanted to learn to play it (though most of the time the $ tag has hindered our dreams) and over the past few years Christianna's eyes and ears have been tuned to the beautiful Harp. Saving her pennies for months and with a little help from family and friends she has finally obtained her dream and received her very own harp for her birthday!

Happy Birthday Christianna Hope!

The Minstrel lap harp!

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

To declare Your loving kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night, on an instrument of ten strings, on the lute, and on the harp, with harmonious sound. Psalm 92:1-3