His Homemade Hymnal

(Romeo and Tikvah sharing Daddy's chair)

In April of 2017 we decided that it was time to get another dog.  We’d gone almost two years without one.  Tup, who was a small rat terrier type had come home with Todd…

(Joanna and Brian Rocker with the Smithlets in the background)

The following is the story behind this song as told by the bride and groom.  We met Joanna through our good friend Julia Anne Mullen who married her brother Joel.…

On March 2, 2019 Tiveria and Tikvah were baptized at the Linden Community Center in Linden, TN.  Dan Mohler spoke that weekend and invited those who wanted to be baptized to come prepared that evening to do so.  Years before,…

(The above photo was taken on their wedding day in April of 1999.)

KC was one of the first people that I met when I arrived at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa as a freshman in the fall of 1988.…

(The above photo was taken of us with the Adams Family in the fall of 2017 before we went canoeing together.)

Paula’s journal entry from March 6, 2016 (Sunday): (minor modifications made) 

We just experienced the most trying weekend of…

This song was inspired by the union of my friend Carrie (formerly Bischel) and Joel Jensen in 1998.  Carrie and I first met at an orientation banquet for Wisconsinites who had received appointments to the United States Air Force Academy.…

(In October of 2018 Auntie Elizabeth [my older sister] visited and helped the children learn to sew.  Here she is helping Thor.)

This song came to me in 1996 and was inspired by my experience as a children’s leader for…

(The above photo is of Vicki, the proud Mama, Holly, and Jason, the proud Daddy.)

This song came to me one morning shortly before our neighbor Holly Coon was to leave on her mission adventure earlier this month.…

(This photo was taken at the house of some friends in east Tennessee.  This backdrop was conveniently located on the wall in their game room.)

(Note:  This is also referred to as our annual letter which we send…

The following is an article that appeared in a recent Above Rubies magazine.  I told the story to Nancy Campbell in May of 2018 at an Above Rubies Family Camp that we were attending and she asked me…

(Note:  This photo of Papaw and Tirzah was taken a few months before he died.  We're so thankful that he got to meet her.)

This song came to me in December of 2013 when Todd and I left…

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24 

Sometimes we sense God calling us to do things that are…