High on a Mountain Top!

With the crops and hills of California baking at 106 ° for tomorrow

  SNOW

and water can be a spectacle for sore eyes.

Saturday, the parking lot of Crows Landing chapel was filled with siblings and parents welcoming brothers and sons
  

descending more than 5,000 feet, after hiking 2,500, an apt description of HIGH adventure!

We continue to collect stories of helping without being asked, courage, camaraderie, compassion and kindness. Thankful for older shoulders!

When one of the twelve-year-olds slipped off an embankment, the older campers and leaders watched, concerned. A few seconds passed. A head bobbed to the surface. He floated. He swam! 
Grateful for buoyancy - for friends ready to rescue. 

When another younger camper struggled with stomach ache and related discomfort, big brother-like helping hands reached out. 

 On the home front, Cub Scouts created, crafted and sported to beat the heat. Hurray for our Primary president, and cub scout leaders for rounding up and promoting day camp.

On Sunday, three students put their pedal on the metal (or at least fingers on the ivories) to remind us "All is Well!"  when we Walk in the Light, and a little humility helps when we suffer pain or sorrow.   Recognizing effort.  It takes courage to show up.

Speaking of showing up, on Saturday at 7 PM, the First Presidency will meet with our youth at Temple Hill in Oakland, preparing for their dedication on Sunday.

 Many of our young people are planning to attend.

 Preparing our hearts

Appreciating faith and friendship.

Joy in June

How fitting, on my Dad’s 81^st birthday, I should wake up wanting to see every one of the 12 year old young men (whom we have encouraged to join in youth/scouting activities for the past several months) present and accounted for at Crows Landing parking lot at 9:30 a.m. heading for a high adventure outing on Mount Shasta.

Days ago, we got an unexpected "okay" from a parent going it alone, for her eldest to go! 

  Grateful for a go-ahead...

Time for fast packing and preparing with another 12-year-old acclimating from Columbia, and a third down the road, in neighboring Newman.

 Of the 16 boys going, seven came

from our Spanish branch.  Counting it a miracle! 

Last week, we received an online find with a Deseret Industries $2 sticker still on it, of a favorite loved book my husband claims to have “cut teeth on.”  

Grateful we are,  for prayers and help from every side in encouraging our friends gather clothing, camping supplies, pillow, water bottles, extra socks. 

At 8 AM, concerned with notice of a non-functional phone and a new suggestion that the boys might want quarters to shower, yours truly grabbed grandchildren birthday dollars, ran to the nearby grocery, familiar stomping grounds from days before, where our boys invited neighbors to purchase camp cards.  (Each boy, with donations and camp card sales, helped fund their own way to camp.) 

I found our young Newman friend, 30 minutes before the designated meeting time, rubbing eyes in sleep.  No breakfast.  No lunch packed.  No news about lunch or quarters.  Younger brother, helpful on all sides, offered ketchup (America’s favorite), tobacco sauce, pickled jalapenos and finally some oranges to add to the apples purchased to acquire his shower quarters.  A Ziploc came in handy to house two ends of bread (the last) housed in peanut butter, and a bag of coco-pebbles.  What are brothers for?  Better still, a donation of three pair of socks and a little light reading  found a side pocket before a mad rush for the missing water bottle.   

 All’s well that ends well! 

That was the message from Sunday’s Come Follow Me  (I loved a footnote to the Second coming painting) by  taught by our Columbia friends’s mom, who helped us look past fearful events to think of final day happenings in terms of preparing for a wedding!

The past three weeks were something like that for us.  Oakland is truly out of our mission boundaries.  But with friends and neighbors, 

our little Corolla jaunted back and forth five times.  Grateful, as many of our neighbors do this drive daily, that this commute is rarer in our daily doings. 

However, God is in His Holy Temple. 

We walked sacred ground, 

appreciating friends,

and what they told us: “I could feel Him near.” 

 “When I close my eyes, all I can see is the celestial room!”

“It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.”

Grateful to connect with friends.  To help one another connect as we look upward.  

(More Newman friends, one related to composer of songs we like. )

Grateful to learn of family and friends celebrating graduations, new work, healing, steps forward, in our pathway to forever. 

Grateful for the miracles trailing faith from you!  

 Happy June!

We love you!

Val and Laurene Starkey

Miracles in the making

A Miracle for May: 

Our daughter Amber and her husband Jake have been on a rotating schedule between days, swing and night shift usually changing on an eight week basis.  An invitation for a firm day schedule has been offered and accepted gratefully.  A caveat has arisen with the question of one of their twins being challenged and slower in learning to walk.  The employer, hesitant to send families where medical attention might be insufficient, is holding the orders until her healthy progression is assured.  Sturdy shoes, braces, neurologist attention, including an MRI are on docket.  

Understanding the situation's gravity, the intense wish of this little family to have a daddy at home, on a schedule that allows daily interaction, we invited all of our friends, neighbors and even acquaintances with concerted effort, to pray.  "Please pray for our youngest granddaughter to walk!"  Our friends prayed.  And Monday last, Graciela fasted.  And that very Monday evening, the very day that our friend fasted, Leah walked! Prayers and fasting effect miracles.  Leah is progressing marvelously.  

 

 

 

  And we are celebrating!!

But further prayers are needed.  Not only must Leah walk--she requires approval from medical professionals to effect a move.  This is what we are praying for now.  Will you join us?  We are praying for whatever is necessary to happen for this little family to move to where they have been ordered.  We pray for His will to be done.  But we understand that the Lord hears prayers.  And we invite yours.