Happy Anniversary to my Amazing Bride!

On May 19, 2015, we celebrate eight years of marriage.  To celebrate, I'm taking my wife on a little trip down memory lane, and you're welcome to follow along and celebrate with us! This may take a while to load.  If you're having trouble viewing the pics, click here.

We met in Russia in June 2004. I was the admin guy in the country for her 8 week summer mission trip with Cru. We met at the train station in Moscow.  Her first words to me were: "Hi! I'm Meredith. I know your brother Josh. Can you get me a pack-et (bag)?" This picture was snapped later in summer, looking over the city of Saratov from Victory Park.

Everything was closed on the day of our first date, August 4, 2004, because Hurricane Alex came ashore the night before. Rather than cancel, I invited her to make the most of a muddy situation and took her four-wheeler riding.

In May 2005, Meredith was graduating from ECU the first time, and we went on a date to Tryon Palace in New Bern to celebrate!

We love weddings, and we've been to lots of them both when we were dating and since.  This day in August 2005 was special because we got to go to two weddings on the same day! 

Our story would not be complete without some of these pics.  I moved to Texas from August 2005 until December 2006 to do the Missionary Training Institute at Denton Bible Church while Meredith got her masters degree in Physician Assistant Studies from ECU.

  We were apart before the days of skype and facetime, so we had webcams and cell phones with unlimited minutes, and this is how we looked to each other.  I kept a phone bill from one month where I used over 9,000 minutes of talk time. That's an average of 5 hours a day.  I also spent about $3,000 on plane tickets flying home for long weekends.

We got engaged for the first time next to a bonfire on May 20, 2006, right after I had arrived home for the summer. Two days later we broke our engagement, and sought godly counsel as we worked through some relational challenges. The distance had been hard, and we hadn't handled that well.

About 6 weeks later, on June 30, 2006, I asked her to marry me again.  This time, we were ready.

On May 19th, 2007, we got married! It was a joyful day, and we were blessed to have an amazing group of people there to celebrate with us!

We walked out to the theme from Charlie Brown!

Still one of my favorites, this is probably the prettiest we've ever been :)

In December 2007, Meredith graduated as a PA and received her white coat!

In January 2008, I started seminary and Meredith started working as a PA.  In April 2008, we traveled to Russia for the first time as a couple to consider moving there as missionaries after I graduated.

For our first anniversary in May 2008, we spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast in Charleston, SC.

For our second anniversary in 2009, we splurged and went to the Dominican Republic for a week.

In May 2010, I graduated from seminary at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

With our first child on the way, to celebrate graduation and our third anniversary, we road tripped through the west. We drove 4,600 miles through nine state in 27 days, and we saw 9 national parks, including Yosemite.

On August 23rd, 2010, we welcomed our precious Lily into the world. The next year was a blur, generally lost due to the effects of long term sleep deprivation.

By her first birthday, Lily had overcome her colic and reflux, and we had begun to sleep again.  She's so cute you have to love her, no matter what!

For our 5th anniversary in May 2012, we snuck away by ourselves for a couple of nights to this quaint bed and breakfast in Roan Mountain, TN.

In June 2012, after saving for five years, we decided to build our own home. Lily was unimpressed in the beginning.

Along the way, she developed a love for helping clean up by picking up blocks and throwing them into Papa's tractor.

At her second birthday party in August 2012, Lily is thinking "You put icing on my cake. I don't like icing." She still doesn't. 

In November 2012 with the house about 75% finished, we moved in!

Move-in Day!  To understand the significance of this, you need to know that Meredith and I moved 5 times in the first 5 years of our marriage.  We are so glad to have a place of our own.

For our 6th anniversary, we took  Lily to the beach for the first time! It was cold!

We also found out in May 2013 that Lily going to have a baby brother!

For Lily's third birthday, we had a water party. She especially loved throwing water balloons off the playset!

On October 7th, Meredith gave birth to our 9lb 8oz man-child, Hosea Ray.

And this idyllic picture of our two precious children is a moment in time to be treasured, for it hasn't happened since.

This outstanding picture is a more realistic picture of our parenting experience.

Becoming parents has been an incredible challenge that brings unspeakable joy!

Our 7th anniversary passed without much fanfare.  Life with two little ones changes your priorities. But we are truly thankful the Lord has given us such beautiful, healthy, happy kids!

For Lily's fourth birthday in August 2014, we had a "Sound of Music" Tea Party, complete with hats and dress-up!

Hosea's 1st birthday last October was pretty low key. Second-child syndrome.  He's a happy, growing little guy who keeps mommy on her toes!

Now over two and a half years into living in our new home, it's about done. It took longer than we expected. I want to say a special thanks to my wife for her patience and endurance in this mega project!

Our two children love each other, and they love their momma!  They're going to be just like her someday. They're going to have her sense of humor, her frugality, her sense of responsibility, and most of all, her  love for Jesus.

The Bible is clear.  "An excellent wife who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain....Her children rise up and bless her, and I do to. I praise you, my darling, saying "Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all."  Life is crazy.  This blog post is just the tip of it.  So much is left out.  I've never once taken a camera out when we were having a fight and taken pictures of our ugly faces. I'm thankful that you've been faithful to walk with me through those ugly places, and to never give up, no matter how dark it got.  I'm thankful for the place we are today, where the dark days are in the past, and future it bright because of the godward orientation of our marriage.  God's grace has shined most brightly when we were at our worst, but his faithfulness endures in the sweet times.  I'm looking forward to many, many more years of sweet times.  I love you. I always will. Happy Anniversary. 

Congratulations Graduates!

Congratulations to our Spring 2015 Jobs for Life graduates!

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors!

We are excited to announce the graduation of Frances Mahery, Janet Dyer, and Vernie Ramsey from our spring Jobs for Life course! Each of these students came into the course with unique circumstances and roadblocks to employment. Over the course of the class, besides the skills training they received, each of them came to have that most beautiful gift, hope.  They were all profoundly reminded that God is good, and He gives good gifts to His children, including employment!  And they all were encouraged to trust in the goodness of God in the hard times when he answers "Wait". His timing is good, and He will provide the right job for each of them in His timing.  Two of them have already secured full-time employment with opportunities for advancement, and the third is currently in a lengthy interview process for a job. We are all trusting in the Lord's provision and timing for her, and I know she would appreciate your prayers as well.

Class hard at work!

Special thanks also to Dan Tabor and Lloyd and Sylvia Carter, whose participation and dedication made our entire time together 100% more profitable!

Storehouse Transition Phase 1 complete with concrete drying.

The Storehouse transition is progressing.  We have completed Phase 1 of our project, and are eager to see it through to completion by the end of July.  The team from Texas that was scheduled to come at the end of April had to reschedule out into the middle of June because of some scheduling conflicts on their end.  This was actually a blessing, because it gives me adequate time to secure all of the necessary materials so that they can get busy working when they arrive.

Planning for our Fall leader training classes is in full swing.  I have a meeting tomorrow evening (Tuesday) to talk about Seminary Extension expansion into Rogersville, and a number more in the weeks ahead.  We continue to pray for open doors of opportunity for pastor and church leader training.

Lily hanging out with Papa Dannie on our recent visit.

An Update on Dannie:  Last month we found out that the chemo drug used to treat my father-in-law's bladder cancer is back-ordered for six months to one year through his current urologist. That was pretty scary.  Meredith insisted on a second opinion, so Dannie scheduled an appointment at The Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.  We made a mad dash to NC so Meredith could go to that appointment.  Praise God the news was good and the Lord provided in that appointment!  The doctor confirmed that for them at UNC, the drug had been back-ordered, but they have a current supply on hand.  Dannie was also given an option to participate in a clinical trial which combined the standard chemotherapy drug with an immunotherapy "vaccine" that will hopefully increase his remission time.  Dannie opted to participate in the clinical trial at UNC, and began his treatment last week.  We are thankful for the Lord's provision of good doctors, and are praying that the treatment will go exceedingly well over the next year.

Things you can be praying for:
,
1. Please continue to pray for Frances, Janet, and Vernie as they apply the things they learned in Jobs for Life to the workplace.
2. Please continue to pray for our Storehouse transition over the course of the summer.
3. Please continue to pray for Meredith's daddy, and for her as she tries to help and encourage from a distance.

Hosea's new favorite way to go down the stairs is to "ride" on daddy's back! 

1st Thursday Food Distribution

The kids came down to see us on 1st Thursday, and Mrs. Earlene did a little baby wrestling. 

Hosea loves his sister! Meredith caught him giving her a "good morning!" hug!