Hello Again ;)

Wow, what a difference a month can make! A lot has happened since my last post so I'll try to hit all the "high points" of the last four weeks!

On May 4th we had our "youth night" at Capri Pizza in the Willow oaks shopping center in Hampton. The first Tuesday of every month the restuarnt will donate 15% of the food purchases that evening to our youth mission fund to help with camp expenses! Matthew, Ethan, Gibson and myself were invited to eat with some wonderful church friends (thank you Max and Pam!) and we saw lots of church members! The night was a success and we look forward to this time of fellowship next month!

On Thursday May 6th we celebrated Matthew's 26th Birthday!

On Friday May 7th we invited the youth "regulars" to leave their mark on the youth room and paint a brick with their name the years they were in the youth group and a favorite scripture verse. We had a great time with the kids and its nice to see their names on the wall to remind us what we're doing! There was some drama that night when a parent who was in a hurry and not paying attention opened Matthew's office door and hit Ethan. He was crying but it took several minutes to get out of him what hurt. Finally he told us his foot and we could see the big toe on his right foot was swollen and black, we got him ice and it seemed to satisfy him!

On Wednesday May 12th Ethan got up complaining with his toe and hadn't slept well the night before, I was afraid it was infected and called the dr to see if they could check him out, they could but I would have to wait so I dropped Gibson with my aunt and headed to the dr. To make a very long day/story short I will say the Dr thought Ethan's toe/foot might be broken so I had to go to the hospital for x-rays and what I though would be a quick visit turned into almost 6 hours! Praise God nothing was broken but we have to keep it bandaged until the toe nail falls off and a new one grows- near impossible on a two year old!
The evening of the 12th was a business meeting to discuss Matthew's job and the possibility of full time. Our youth graciously set through the entire meeting to vote for Matthew and exactly one year and one week since the day Matthew lost his last full-time God blessed us with our first full-time vocational ministry position!

On Saturday the 22nd we had the churches annual spring fest, birds, ponies, police dogs, jumpers, slides and food. We had lots of visitors attend (the best count of people we could get was between 175-225!) and several people were interested in more information about our church!

We are so thankful to be in ministry and so desperately seeking God's will in every aspect of this journey! Please keep us in your prayers as we adjust to 24/7 ministry and pray for the relationships within the church that everyone will want to be God pleasing in their thoughts and actions and that any damaging or decisive people will be removed for the fellowshsip of God's people. Pray for the members of the church as we can see God working there that they will be receptive to the Spirit and open to changes within the church, Pray for our students that they will be on fire for God and a light in their school. Pray for our family as we begin this journey, that we will allow God to use us to the best of our ability and that we are open to whatever he asks. Pray for Matthew as his classes are beginning again this week that he can find the balance between school, work and family times and also pray for me as I seek God's "placement" for me in the various ministries at the church that I won't try to do too much or too little but that I am sensitive to the exact place that God is preparing for me to work in.

We love you!