Getting Ready

Our anniversary celebration included "wedding cake", cake made using the same recipe as our wedding!

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,
much of ministry, and life too, are about getting ready.  The last month has been a season of getting ready to relocate the Storehouse.  The new location will make our ministry more accessible to both volunteers and the families we serve, and we are super excited about the possibilities.  Much of the last month has been spent getting ready for the team of men coming from Denton Bible Church to install new restrooms, and they arrive this Sunday!  So while I didn't take pictures of myself sitting at my desk figuring materials, plotting accommodations, etc, next week I plan to take lots of pictures of the guys actually doing the work!

Our leader training ministry had a good month of planning for the fall.  My meeting with the baptist association in Rogersville was fruitful, so thank you for your prayers.  While planning and logistics continues, there is already enough interest to know that there will be a Seminary Extension (SE) class in Rogersville this fall, and we'll be helping to organize it if not teach it.  First Baptist Greeneville has also agreed to host a SE course this fall which I'll be teaching, in addition to my continuing work with SE in Johnson City.  We're thankful that after years of perseverance the Lord has begun to open doors to expand our leader training ministry, and we're also excited about some of the men the Lord continues to place in our path along the way.

Things you can be praying for this week:
1. The team from Texas will be making the 1,000 mile drive up this weekend.  Pray for the Lord's protection on them as they travel.
2. Details, details.  There are lots of little things that need to get finished/acquired before the team arrives. Pray that we will have everything in place before they get here, so that they are able to get the bathrooms knocked out while they're here.
3. Dannie is doing well with his treatments and feeling pretty good overall, but I know they appreciate your prayers.

In many ways, I feel like our leader training ministry has a lot in common with this young robin in our back yard. He doesn't look polished.  He's wobbly in flight. But he's not afraid of anything (even when maybe he should be)! Lord give us wings!

This big boy had his first real haircut last month! He's looking so grown up!

I often remind Meredith that cleaning a house with small children in it is like brushing your teethe while eating Oreos. This perfect footprint on her recently cleaned floors proves that exactly!

Harvest! While much of ministry, like gardening, is getting ready, eventually there is a huge harvest (reward)! This is some of the spring broccoli from our garden.

And three hours later, here the broccoli greens are headed to the freezer!

There are moments when we feel like we live in a zoo with these cute little monkeys.

We were blessed to have the chance to go to the beach for a couple of days the first week in June. We took the kids to the NC Aquarium and they both loved it!

These two are such a fun pair to watch.  They feed off one another and really love life!

Lily loved playing in the sand!

This big boy was cautious at first, his sense of adventure quickly overcame his fear.

Family selfie on the way home.  I think we were much more excited about going home than the kids were!

Even Hosea crashed on the way home.  Since our kids generally don't sleep in the car, this was a rare treat.  He slept about 25 minutes of the 5 hour car ride home.