Some New Friends

A few weeks ago I mentioned we went to the beach with our friends the Kohouts.  We have continued to meet with them and pray with them.  It looks as if the Lord is leading us to plant a church together.  We have prayed and prayed throughout this whole journey and God has answered so many prayers.

Martins and the Kohouts - minus sweet baby girl they are adopting from Ethiopia!

Its frightening to me at times to link arms with a family we have known 6 months.  But the Lord has met every fear with truth.  He always seems to come back with something to walk me through the moment of fear.  And we so love them.  That have become some of our best friends in this short amount of time.  And our kids adore each other!

We have said over and over that we are walking in as much light as God is choosing to give us.  And we will continue to walk in the way we think He is leading until He tells us otherwise.  This is the Lord's doing, it's His Church.  So we have to remain in him.  Let him lead and build his church in the way He's going to do it.  We are called to trust and be obedient.

This journey has been exciting, stressful, frightening, encouraging, hard, and strengthening.  It's been so worth it!  Pray with us as we seek to follow the Lord's desire for a new church in the area.  We have no idea what its going to look like, but we know its gonna be awesome!

An Unexpected Beach Trip

One of the couples in our church planting residency invited us to go to the beach with them this weekend.  And since we knew we wouldn't have our typical family beach trip this year, we were glad to have a few days at Topsail.

We could not have asked for better weather!  It was perfect!  No clouds, a perfect low 80s, and clear blue water.  The only other thing I would've wanted was a chair to sit in and relax!  But that just doesn't happen when you have 5 kids to watch and play with.

playing in the "pool" we dug

this makes it look like they dug it...they did not.  just ask my back muscles.

a key ingredient to a good beach day...lots of snacks!

this guy was wiped

lunch

the older boys took a little kayak trip in the sound

We love this family, and those of you who are keeping up with us in our newsletters, this is the Kohouts.  They have become such dear friends to us.  It's as if we've known them for years!  We had a chance this weekend to talk about a lot as far as the church planting thing goes, and a chance to pray together and really seek the Lord in this.  We are so desperate for the Lord to act, and to lead us in this journey.  This is not our doing but his.  He is building a people.  We are just his chosen instruments.

Now its time to prepare for Runner's Camp.  We are all so excited for this week!  Micah even slept in his camp shirt and shorts for tomorrow!