Pictures from the beach

We had to use our old film camera, so we had to wait to get the pictures developed. It was hard too because we had no idea what kind of pictures we would end up with. They are ok, but here are some pictures from our trip.

Caleb got his feet wet...then half his body when a wave came and I wasn't paying attention!

What Caleb did most of the time...
Ed and Micah playing in the sand. Micah had a blast. He loved digging in the sand and making pools to jump in. (see below)
Micah was running and jumping in the "pool" and this is what we ended up with. Ed and I laughed really hard because he looks likes he's dancing...yeah, you know the move I'm talking about!
Our family picture on the beach...it is actually a really good picture if you can see us!

Our First Weekend...

As a lot of you know in the ministry world, Sundays are not days off. So normally as a pastor you take another day off during the week. Ed's has always been Thursdays because originally, the pastor wanted him around on Fridays to "get things ready for Sunday". Mondays are staff meeting so that was out of the question as well. So anyway, Ed decided to ask again about Friday because then he could have two days off in a row - Friday and Saturday. Pastor gave us a go, and so I am very happy to say we are experiencing our first true weekend. Before it was nice having the day after youth group off to relax, but then it was weird that he had to go back to work on Friday. So yay! we love our new weekends.

Things Unseen

Last night during worship at youth group, we sang "Hosanna". It is such a good song, but as I was controlling the slides, I was struck by how rich the lyrics were in one part.

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I walk from earth into
Eternity

Every single line is so good, but the one that hit me was "open up my eyes to the things unseen". How often do I miss things when I get caught up in the business of life? Or when I choose to focus on other things. Often times the things unseen can be the most rich things we could ever notice. It is a reminder to me that God is always at work in the lives of His people whether we choose to notice it or not. Lord God, may I never be so concerned with my own "world" that I miss what you are doing.

KidzCamp

Yes, that is spelled with a "z"! We just finished our week of KidzCamp, which was an outreach event to our community. We focused on a one mile radius of our church, inviting the community to a camp for K-5th grade kids. We took traditional VBS and made it new and fresh...a little outside the box. More geared towards unchurched people. It was a lot of fun. Our youth had a huge role in planning and implementing much of this camp. They did a fabulous job. Needless to say, it was a very busy week. I barely saw Ed.
But today we were busy packing and getting ready for our vacation. Tomorrow we head to Topsail Island, NC for a week with Ed's family. I can't wait. So have a great week! I'll post pictures when we get back.

What a Day!

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day! It was a very busy day for Ed and I, but we enjoyed every bit of Tyler and Lauren's wedding. Ed did a great job for his first wedding. He was very relaxed and brought so much truth into their wedding. He said it was really cool to just stand up there with the two of them and share that intimate time with them during the ceremony. As a pastor you get a front row view of the ceremony, but even more so, you get to lead them through their first moments of marriage. Ed challenged them to start their marriage off right like the first button when buttoning your shirt. If you get the first button wrong, the rest of the shirt is messed up. So in marriage we need to get the "first button" right and everything will line up correctly. So he said the first thing was that the quality of your marriage hinges on what you believe to be true about God. Then he shared four things that are true about God that have to be true for marriage to work. They were that God is LOVE, God is FAITHFUL, God is WORTH every minute of this Marriage, and God is GRACIOUS.
It was an absolutely beautiful wedding. Ed would never say this, but I can because I am his wife. He did a really great job. He made the ceremony personal, comfortable with light humor, and a commissioning to their lives together and their lives as missionaries. It was a worship service. There were many wet eyes and people who do not know the Lord were awakened to Him. Ed received many many complements and people were surprised it was his first wedding. The best was when several couples in their 40s and 50s said they wished Ed could do their wedding!
Tyler and Lauren are so special to so many people. It was neat to see a lot of the youth there that Tyler had worked with. Those guys love him! They truly are a neat couple and my prayer is that the Lord would protect their marriage and bless them with many many years of happiness. May the Lord give them the grace they need to love each and every day!

Wedding Weekend

Good Morning everybody! Today is a fun day! Two years ago, our first summer here, we had two interns for the youth ministry. Both interns were MKs and somehow ended up at our church through random connections. The guy, Tyler, immediately connected with Ed. They worked really well together and he absolutely loved the students. The students loved him as well. Anyway, Tyler went back to school that fall and everyone missed him. He graduated and moved back home to Richmond to work as a PT, but started working with the youth again. Really he was Ed's right hand man. Ed could rely on him for everything. They were so like minded when it came to ministry. The past year has been amazing. He proposed to his girlfriend and has been planning the wedding all year. He and Lauren are getting married tomorrow and Ed is doing the wedding. I have been doing a lot of the coordinating for the church. So we have been very busy preparing for the wedding. Yesterday, we moved all the furniture off the stage. It was very heavy.
So today we have the rehearsal and dinner. It will be so fun to celebrate this time with them. I hope to have pictures up soon, but our camera broke, so I have to wait for the film to be developed on our old camera. (how weird is that?)
Micah has gone to the beach with my parents, so it is nice that I have one less child to think of this weekend. (I'm sure he is having a blast!) Tomorrow Ed and I will be at church pretty much all day. We are very excited to send off Tyler and Lauren to Southeastern (where we went) for seminary. They are doing the 2+2 program because they want to go overseas. So it is very sad to see them leave Grace, but we are very excited for their new lives together.

You've Got Supper

So I just found this site and it looks amazing. You sign up for FREE and you get an email every Thursday with 5 new recipes and 2 side dishes for the following week. You choose which recipes to do and it automatically makes your grocery list for you, all organized by category! How great is that? I am always looking for more recipes to do for dinner. Sometimes we just get in a rut and I can't think of anything else to do. So I just signed up and I am excited for some new ideas. I think it was started by two moms from Richmond. If you want to check it out, click here.