The Graduate!!

Shaughn has received his high school diploma!! He is very excited. He has also received his class ring that he is also very excited about. He has completed everything and has done so with receiving straight A's in his classes. We are very proud of him. Way to go Shaughn!!! What a great example for his younger brothers to follow. :-)

We have arrived in Alaska and are heading to Soldotna today to begin at the CEF's CYIA kids camp. We are very excited to see what God has in store for us and pray that this trip will reveal more of His plan and desire for us.

Our flight here was good and long! God really blessed us on our way here, at our stop over in Seattle we were blessed to be able to hang out with some of our long time friends, Adair and Heather and Emerson and Noah Hinds. They picked us up from the airport about 8:30 p.m. and had a wonderful BBQ chicken dinner prepared for us and had great fellowship until about 1 a.m. and then got up at 3:30 a.m. to make it back to the airport by 4:30 a.m. What a blast. We had not seen them in about 5 years and it was so great to catch up a little and see their kids and home. Such a beautiful family!!

With little sleep on our side, we arrived in Anchorage and was met by my uncle Fred. We hung out with them and stayed with them last night. Aunt Lorraine made some wonderful stew and homemade cookies...yum! We stayed up playing games and had lots of laughs. At 10 p.m. we got ready for bed, which was odd since the sun was still shining. At 4:30-5 this morning, Scott and I woke up to the sun shining...too funny. Hard to believe that we were here literally last month and the snow was still here and now the leaves are all out and the flowers are planted and spring is in full swing, just like at home. Things really do "bust open" at spring time here. Very beautiful. As we were landing, the boys kept saying, "so this is what Alaska looks like with no snow." It was pretty cute.

We are excited about this camp time and to see what God is doing among the kids. We hope to be of service to them and not just dinner for the mosquitos. :-)

Scott went for a run this morning and just came back raving on how beautiful it is here. I am very proud of him. :-)

Please pray for us as we search for God's wisdom in making the right decision as to our future ministry. Bless you all!!!

May 4th...already

Only 20 more days until we take off from Detroit for Anchorage again. We are so excited about it. We are working hard at organizing our house and stuff and trying to purge through our junk. Do we ever have a lot of it too. Wow!! Scott is scheduled to do another cross country flight tomorrow night and has been trying to plan his flight plan for it. He is very excited to see the end getting closer and achieving his long awaited for license. He and Paul have sat down and determined that this can be accomplished by the end of the summer and are determined to do so. That does mean that he will be gone a lot from home and that means the job of purging and sorting will be mostly left up to the boys and I. Yeah. :-)

We have been busy planning Shaughn's open houses. We are having one in Ohio on June 13th and one in Michigan on June 20th. He has been working very hard to finish up his classes. We have received a cap and gown from a friend for him to borrow (he looks so cool with it on)and his diploma has arrived. His class ring has been ordered (thanks to his Grandma-ma)and will be here the end of May. He is totally geeked. Here in Ohio at our church, he is getting to participate in the honoring of Graduates on May 17th and they wear their gowns and caps during the service. On Sunday, June 7th at our home church in Michigan, BCC is honoring their graduates and Shaughn will be there to participate as well. (that is the weekend we get back from AK.) He is so blessed and excited! They will be doing a slide show of their grads so I need to get Karin some photos...(I will Karin...very soon). So much fun here in the ol'Lazaros house.

The other boys are working hard as well. They are getting excited about the future and what it may be looking like. We are meeting the Ohio director for this region this Thursday night. He is coming over to share his vision for CEF in Ohio. We are excited to hear his heart.

I still have had no word on my Bible. I am very heart broken about it. Scott and my mom both have bought me a new Bible but it is not the same. I still ask for your prayers on the recovery of it.

Scott has worked, once again, on my computer and hopefully has fixed the problem. So, hopefully I am back on and can keep you better updated. :-) Isn't technology great? ha ha

I have been busy taking Shaughn's senior pictures. We have been having tons of fun doing so. Matthew has been helping us come up with different ideas for poses and such...every clear blue-sky day, we are out taking shots. On rainy days we have even sat us a back drop and lighting for inside shots. Too much fun I say. :-)

This weekend we are expecting some friends to come for a visit. We are pretty excited about it. Rick and Kim Hulbert are suppose to come and hang out with us. Yeah!

Bless you all and see you soon!

Catch up from March 28th

Well, this is scott, and yes I know we haven't updated in a while! It has been a bit of a whirlwind in our lives lately. So I will try to catch you all up.

So, we finally left Alaska on April 3rd at 9:30am. Flew to Minneapolis, we had lunch and hung out there, and then off to Detroit and made it in there @ 11:45pm. Our good friend Dan Brown was waiting there with his warm wonderful smile and he had our Suburban cleaned and shiney! (Quite a bit different than the vehicles we left in Alaska! We washed the Swensen Burb, and in two days you couldn't even tell that we had! They apply dirt to the roads for traction and when the snow and ice start to melt it is very, very dirty for a while!)

We made it home to my mom's home in Hamburg and all of us went right to bed! I got up in the morning and went to Costco to get new tires for the Burb. I had ordered them back in January and they honored the sale. The old tires were bald, so it was definately time!

We had a wonderful time running into Rick and Kim Hulbert and had a chance to hang out with them. They happened to be at Costco and gave me a ride home. And My friend Dave VanHorn came to visit and gave me a ride back to Costco.

We decided to leave that night to head back to Ohio. We drove back and on the way had troubles with the Burb again. The engine started knocking. I gingerly made it home. I am thinking that one or two of the lifters may be stuck, so after all the work I had just done in the fall on the engine, I will take the engine apart again. So until I have time, we are down to one vehicle.

So we got a good nights sleep in Ohio, and the next day crammed into the truck and headed to Williamsburg VA. My sister had a time share condo for us, my sisters family, and my mom and Ed to stay in. We had a great time. We spent plenty of time in the pool with all of the kids. We had a great time visiting Williamsburg.

Friday morning we headed back to Ohio. Saturday I put new clutch discs in my motorcycle, and took it for a ride and the lifters on it our tapping very loudly as well. So that will have to be torn down as well!

Sunday we were back at CCT to see all of our friends and worship with them on Easter. Everyone was talking about going to family dinners. We came home and fired up the grill and did some work around the house.

Monday brought me back to the hangar at MMS to see all the guys and worship with them in the morning. It was good to be back. We finished up an annual on a Cessna 210 wich has retractable gear. Wednesday the annual was finished and two of the guys stayed late and ran it up. They tucked it back in the hangar when they were done. The next morning when we all came in there was a puddle on the floor underneath the airplane! It was hydraulic fluid! So, we had to jack the airplane back up in the air and remove the landing gear to replace o rings. It was all hands on deck to get er done!

Once back together and several gear swings later, everything looked fine. We set it back down, washed it and the owner took it for a Return To Service flight. Paul weaseled his way on board to go for the flight. This wasn't hard as the owner loves his plane and loves to fly it!

Well, Bernie, you would be proud! I road my bike into work on Thursday and Friday! I haven't really ridden in 3 years. I rode a couple of times last year and a couple the year before. So, places hurt that I have forgotten about! But I am riding with Paul and we are trying to encourage each other in getting healthier! Our family is focusing on getting healthier as well!

My friends in Alaska, it has been in the 70's the last couple of days, but there are no views of the mountains! We miss you all and are very thankful to have spent time with you and served our King with you! Don, I am drinking a coffee and thinking of you! Blessings brother!

So we have a very busy summer ahead of us.We are heading back to Alaska on May 24th to serve with CEF in there CYIA camp for ten days. We are seriously looking at serving with them in the future....more to come on that.
I am planning on finishing my Private Pilots License this summer. We will have to purge and pack things up for a move this fall. We will have to make the transition to the next place of service which is looking like it will be in Alaska.

Lela and I are on our sanctuary weekend at Doe Run Retreat Center in Warsaw Ohio. We have had a wonderful time meeting up with the owners Rick and Susan Parris and spending some very peacful time with God! We have found that it is absoloutly a necessary thing for our marraige and for our relationship with the Lord to get away from everything at least two times a year. Every time we have gone has been fruitful, renewing, and restful! I highly recommend these kind of weekends.

I have been procrastinating on getting my portion of the newsletter done (sorry Keith) so that is on the forefront for me this week.

Thank you for reading. We love you all. We are filled with a joy that can only come from a creator who loves us!

p.s. Lela is very upset. Somewhere in Anchorage, Lela lost her Bible which had her journal, and a life of notes in her Bible. If you could, please pray for a safe return. We have called every place that we can think of and no sign yet. Thanks!

p.p.s. I will try to get some pictures on the blog at the picture link on the side today.

Mt. Redoubt Blows Again!

Mt. Redoubt Blew Again!!!!

For the 7th time since Sunday, Mt. Redoubt has blown again...this time, a biggie! 65,000 feet. They are telling us that the ash from this one will hit us good. It is suppose to arrive between noon and 2, it is 11:56 a.m. now. We are all told to stay inside and get the face masks out and ready. We have to put all electronic (computers, etc.) into big garbage bags since the ash dust will get inside the houses. We have to put wet rags put down under the doors to help keep it out. Not allowed to drive more than 50 miles without changing air filters or it will not be good!! Advised to keep cars covered and indoors (garage). All animals have to be brought in and they are telling us that this could last for weeks if it doesn't rain or snow. (GREAT). :-) So, I thought I would update you and then leave you. I will write when I can and let you know how it is going. God bless you all and still enjoying the adventure....the Lazaros Bunch!

Trip to Homer, AK

Mt. Redoubt has erupted!!!!!!

I took these photos of Mt. Redoubt on Saturday while we were flying to Port Alsworth. We flew up and around Mt. Redoubt to get to Port Alsworth. It was a beautiful view! We had no idea that the very next day it would erupt. How cool is that? If you look closely at the one photo, you can see the scar from the last eruption that happened in 1989...20 years ago. Since we have been here, it has been called a level yellow to orange to yellow to orange so many times that we were for sure thinking it was going to wait until we left to do anything. Who knew that it waited until the week before we left to do its thing. We are so excited to have been able to be here for it. We have found ash in the front yard. They boys picked it up and brought some in...show and tell you know. :-) They want to find bigger pieces to bring home. LOL

We have encountered earthquakes, volcano's, seen Eagles and Moose galore. We have been blessed to go on 2 plane rides...Friday night we went, as a family, over some glaciers and ice fields and saw the prettiest sunset...wow, then Scott and I was able to go on Saturday to a small village, which he says was the prettiest and neatest flight he has ever taken in his life. We, as a family, took a day and drove to Homer, AK and feel in love with the "spit" there and the views. Being on the ocean like that was amazing and the waves were beautiful with the mountains in the back ground. I will post photos of that trip next. We have truly been blessed!!!

The boys love snow machining and feel that they have had such a packed 3 months of "firsts" that they can't wait to tell everyone about it.

We have been blessed to have the opportunity to be able to come back to Alaska the end of May for 2 weeks. Transportation for our family has been taken care of and we are just in awe. MMS has given us the approved time off and we can't believe how God is working.

We ask that you continue to pray for us as we continue to seek His will and direction in our lives. Also pray that this in no way interferes with our flights home. They are saying, depending on the wind direction and all, it could effect flights for weeks or longer. We are hoping it doesn't. :-)