Skip to main content

October - November 2019: Ministry, Finals, & Family Visits

October and November were filled to the brim with ministry, finals, and family visits. Here are the highlights!

In October, we started out with a weekend retreat with the youth. The theme was "Love your neighbor [across the aisle]." We talked about how Jesus' ethic of love even applies to politics in the heat of political fervor. We had a photo scavenger hunt, ate too many snacks, and enjoyed each other's company on top of it all. Please pray that we would be a light in the upcoming dark season in America: presidential election season.

Here is a game of chair basketball the kids got REALLY into.
(Maybe even a little too much)

Here's a photo of some strong high school youth 
completing a "push up challenge" for the scavenger hunt.

Also, Amber and I invested in some bird seed and feeders to enjoy birds on our deck. Here's some of the best photos we could snap:
House Finches

Sometimes you watch birds and sometimes birds watch you.

Sparrow (Clearly the inspiration for "angry birds")

Titmouse

Nuthatch

 Cardinal (Male)

Mockingbird

Downy Woodpecker

Chickadee
Finally, Amber and I visited Mulberry Orchard with some friends. We picked apples and had a yummy apple-barbecue lunch.




November was a whirlwind with church renovations, finals, and thanksgiving in VA. If you want to see the church renovations, then come visit or watch a recent service online. 😃The biggest deal with finals was Hebrew. I exhausted myself on the paper and final exam. I learned a lot though, so I am thankful! On our visit to VA for thanksgiving we saw most of our family and it was a nice break from the pace of life leading up to finals. We took some photos with Amber's side of the family (seen below). Our other family gathering had too many moving parts for a photo op, but we still had a great time. 😀

And finally, driving through West Virginia is usually uneventful, but this was...different. At Burger King there were more cats than people. Since when do cats come in packs? And naturally, a dog was quite intrigued.

That is six cats in one Burger King parking lot. Watch out folks, they are organizing. 

One concerned dog. Who could blame him?

If you read until the end, then you must really love us, because that was a longer-than-usual post.  I hope your December is starting well and you take time to intentionally celebrate Jesus throughout. It is too easy to neglect and be washed away by a deluge of busyness.
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, 
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ...
16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." 
John 1:14, 16


Comments

  1. Aunt LibbyDecember 5, 2019 at 7:10 PM

    Absolutely LOVE all the photos! And Thanksgiving was so good!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

What would you add? Any insights you have?

Popular posts from this blog

The Church's Ongoing Pandemic

Photo Credit  People don’t go to church for a lot of reasons, but a Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble. Sadly, the number of professing Christians is far larger than the number who attend weekly meetings. Many churches experienced an acceleration of this trend during Covid as well: professing Christians have returned to school, work, and leisure, but have not returned for regular church gatherings. Why? Everyone is a unique case in the specifics, but there are trends we see in the wake of the pandemic: people have elevated political and medical (mask & vaccine) opinions over faith commitments and demoted their faith so it is not the primary identity marker in their life. What does this mean for the church? Is it doomed? I don’t think so, but Christians need to rediscover that the church can have different political and medical opinions, but still love each other, be on mission, and gather for Jesus. Christians need to remember that the fact that Jesus died on th
1 comment
Read more

May 2019, A Time of Transition

New & Exciting This May was the end of my 3rd year in Seminary! I am thankful the Lord has brought us this far, providing moment after moment of grace to get through classes, assignments, and finals for 6 semesters. I want to thank my Amber first for her continual support and care for me when I am discouraged, consumed, or exhausted because of seminary. She usually suffers most when I struggle through seasons. She is my best friend, wife, and chief supporter. She rocks. Amber finished her second year of teaching in May! She will not be returning full time next year, but she will do summer tutoring and continue in a part time role, Lord willing. She is relieved to be finished and is quite enjoying the break from the intense end-of-school schedule. With her free time she is picking up the hobbies of bar crawling and ax throwing. (Kidding!) Here is a picture of us at the church leadership appreciation dinner. (I was dressed up as from the 80's...or at least attempting to)
2 comments
Read more