Go Light Your World!

With Stephanie down in Mexico this past week, I have been thinking about how fortunate she is to be able to travel down there and share her love of Jesus with the little children she teaches at VBS.  It made me think of a song that Billy and some friends recorded a while back called "Go Light Your World".  As I started to hum the song, I realized that I really didn't know any of the words except "Carry your candle"  and  "Go light your world"!  So I decided to pull out the book and try to learn the song.  In doing this, I sorta became obsessed with the song and have been singing it pretty much all day ever since...much to the dismay of some of those here at home. However, the words to this song have touched me in a way that I felt moved to share them with all of you. I am also hoping to insert the recording of Billy's group singing it so you can hear it while you read the words...since I am a bit techno challenged, that may require some assistance from my boys but I am going to give it a shot anyway.

The book where Billy found this song was a hymnal that was given to me in memory of my sister, Mary, who passed away from cancer 5 1/2  years ago.  She always let her light shine and shared her smile and joy with everyone she met.  I think of her often and miss her so much but I have such fond memories of her love of singing and how she found the positive side of most every situation.  This song makes me think of her and I'm so thankful to have had her in my life.

It is my prayer that all of my family can light our Candle with God's love and let it shine brightly for all to see.  We cannot light it alone but need the Spirit to ignite our candle so we can brighten the world wherever you are.  When we are in town or out and about, we may be the only light of Jesus that some people will ever see.  So let's all be a beacon for the Lord and let our lives reflect Him in all our actions and all that we do. So thankful for His love.

"Go Light Your World"

There is a candle, in every soul,

Some burning brightly, some dark and cold.

There is a Spirit who brings a fire,

Ignites a candle and makes His home.

CHORUS:

Carry your candle, run to the darkness, 

Seek out the hopeless, confused and torn.

Hold our your candle for all to see it, 

Take your candle, and go light your world.

Take your candle, and go light your world.

Frustrated brother, see how he's tried to

Light his own candle some other way.

See now your sister, she's been robbed and lied to,

Still holds a candle without a flame.

(CHORUS)

We are a family whose hearts are blazing, 

Let's raise our candles light up the sky!

Pray to our Father in the name of Jesus;

Make us a beacon in darkest times.

(CHORUS)

LEGO City

By Jesse

I like LEGOs. For the last two Christmases, I got a lot of LEGO sets. I like to build things with my LEGOs, and here are some pictures of some things I made.

This is a picture of a bunk bed.

This is a picture of an all-blue bed.

This is a picture of a blue and white bed.

This is a picture of a yellow car.

These are pictures of a red mini.

These are pictures of my space ship.

These are pictures of the police station.

Here are the two police station cars.

This is a picture of the police station LEGO people and a space person.

This is a picture of the LEGO robbers.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my LEGO sets!

By Jesse

Happy Anniversary!!!



By Billy

No, it's not Mom and Dad's anniversary. Today marks the one year anniversary of The Massner Family Blog! A lot has happened over the past year, beginning with our vacation to Florida. Then Stephanie was off to college and filled the blog with her random thoughts until Christmas 2012. Then came January and February, which included Mediapolis RoboDogs and our most popular post, Ten Minute Post. March was highlighted with Easter, the boys' Extreme Workout Program, and my Chicago Spanish Trip. Then it was Graduation, Stephanie's friend comes to Mediapolis, and Stephanie's Birthday in May and June. That brings us to the present. Wow. One whole year summed up in four sentences; now that's efficiency.

We just passed 10,000 page views Tuesday evening following Stephanie's post, All the Way My Savior Leads.

As of yesterday (Wednesday) at 1:00pm:

Total Blog Views: 10,060

Pageviews in July: 1,220

Pageviews in June: 1,273

Most Popular Post: Ten Minute Post (Feb. 2013) -174 views

2nd: How to Eat a Carrot (and other things you learn at college) (Mar. 2013) -140 views

3rd: We Packed our Bags and Headed North (July 2013) -135 views

4th: China and the Summer (July 2013) -111 views

5th: How to Install a Shelf (July 2013) -110 views

6th: Congrats, Grad! (May 2013) -96 views

7th: 21 Things to do on Spring Break (Mar. 2013) -95 views

8th: Joy to the World! (Dec. 2012) -91 views

9th: He is not here: for HE IS RISEN! (Mar. 2013) -80 views

Least Popular Post: The Florida Countryside (July 2012) -1 view

Least Popular Post since December 2012: Week by Week (March 2013) -18 views

Thank you to our referring bloggers: Alyssa, Jeana, and Rose.

And thank you to the many spam sites that bumped up our number of pageviews. Your efforts are greatly appreciated in making us feel popular.

Some of the most common Google searches that brought people to our blog: themassnerfamily, crazy things to do on spring break [umm...sorry], massner tales blog, stephanie massner, boiled peanut stand, and chuck massner blog.

Don't worry, we cannot tell who reads our blog, so feel free to keep creeping on us. Stephanie enjoys hearing from the people who read it!

All the Way My Savior Leads

All the way my Savior leads me;

  What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy,

  Who through life has been my Guide?

Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,

  Here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whate’er befall me,

  Jesus doeth all things well,

For I know, whate’er befall me,

  Jesus doeth all things well.

Today marks the five year anniversary of the day I made the decision to begin my walk with the Lord. Looking back at the past five years, I am amazed at how He has worked in me and shown His faithfulness every day. The journey seemed long and difficult when I was trying to fight the world on my own, but I learned that no mountain is too large for Him when I turned the battle over to God that day. I know many loved ones were praying for me and continue to do so, and I thank you very much for that. I do not know the future that awaits, but "I know, whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well." These five years have been a wonderful journey of experiencing God's great faithfulness, and I look forward to learning to lean on Him as He directs my path through the coming years!

In further news, I am leaving tomorrow on a ten-day trip to Ixtlan, Mexico. This will be a new venture for me, as I have never before traveled out of the country or been so far from my family. I am so thankful and excited for this opportunity and I look forward to sharing with you about my experience when I return! I appreciate your prayers for my group's safe travels and that both we and the church in Ixtlan will receive a special blessing from the week. I know the congregation and community down there are always in need of our prayerful support, so please remember them as well.

All the Way My Savior Leads 

(Continued)

All the way my Savior leads me,

  Cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial,

  Feeds me with the living bread.

Though my weary steps may falter,

  And my soul athirst may be,

Gushing from the Rock before me,

  Lo! a spring of joy I see,

Gushing from the Rock before me,

  Lo! a spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me;

  Oh, the fullness of His grace!

Perfect rest to me is promised

  In my Father’s blest embrace.

When my spirit, clothed immortal,

  Wings its flight to realms of day,

This my song through endless ages:

  Jesus led me all the way,

This my song through endless ages:

  Jesus led me all the way.

Thank you again for the prayers. I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

(Unrelated Disclaimer: Anything that gets posted on the blog while I am gone has not been through my censorship system. I have asked my brothers to post with discretion, but please try not to hold me responsible for what they share until I have had a chance to filter it. :) Thank you!)

China and the Summer

Nobody else wants to post about their exciting summers, so I am back. Welcome to my presence!

Today I am going to discuss Internet control in China and its effect on the international scene.

Ever since the beginning of the Internet, China's government has taken strides to censor sensitive content from the Internet. And now I will stop talking about the topic. I just wanted to see who my most diligent readers were and if they really cared about my writing enough to keep reading. If you are still proceeding at this point, good for you! Either you saw the pictures below and knew something worthwhile was coming, or I will have to draw out the educational content for a longer paragraph next time. ;)

Believe it or not, that is the topic of my eleven-page research paper for International Relations, and I just finished the first draft this morning. My class ends in another week, but the paper is due Monday. And that has been my life this week. That should be my life right now, but I am obviously procrastinating further progress. I decided it is the weekend and I am sick of thinking about international issues.

Now on to more exciting things: a visual recap of this summer's events!

Father/Son Camp-out 2013 at the Fellowship Center. They really "rough" it. This is supper.

Baseball

Splitting wood

Father's Day

Jesse's gifts (He is the only one who cares enough to give Dad gifts. Thankfully we have at least one compassionate child in this family.) 

Dad's new toy from Mom. You can see her nervous anticipation of Dad's reaction in this picture. Obviously everyone else was pretty enthralled.  

Lanz Construction came and replaced the door in the basement!

The boys sat watching in their pajamas and Jesse ate his Fruit Loops in a lovely location.

Billy got his braces off at the beginning of this month! He was pretty excited. :) These are the after and before pictures. Although his teeth look great, I think the rest of him saw more change over the two years.

Justin has been mixing up and freezing cookie dough balls lately. He always wonders why he puts four dozen balls in the freezer and there are only one dozen remaining when he takes them out to bake them. I don't wonder.

Mom's awesome Fourth of July strawberry creations. They are even tastier than they look! :)

Strawberries, white almond bark, and blue sugar sprinkles.

BREAKING NEWS!! Alyssa came back for an overnight visit on July 4th! It was so exciting to have here with us, if only for a short time! :)

MORE EXCITEMENT!! The Steffen Clan (age 20 and under) came for the Fourth!

Other Awkward Family Photos

The forces inside my head must be so strong that they pull in everyone else's heads when they get too close.

Jesse was just showing Mom the height of his newest Lego tower. Nobody is quite sure what was going through Stephanie's head.

Enough about my head. What's this?
Flexibility stunt gone wrong.

And distorted heads on twisted bodies pretty much covers life through today, unless you wish to delve into a fascinating discussion on Internet regulation in China. I will spare you the misery. Have a good weekend!