May Happenings Part IV

Graduation has now come and gone!  Three of the teenage girls in my discipleship group just graduated from high school (*tears*) - Lindy, Autumn, and Jaycee.  These girls are all so very unique and I have loved every minute I have got to spend with them the past 1-3 years.  The fun part is, they may have graduated but I'm in their life as long as they will have me!

Baccalaureate service was at our church for all the graduates last Wednesday night and then graduation followed on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend! 

 

Lindy sharing scripture at baccalaurette service

A-long (Amber) is ranked #1 in the junior class so she was the lead marshall at graduation!

Lindy is heading to UNC Asheville in the fall!

Charlton is heading to Western Carolina University in the fall!

Jaycee is heading to UNC Chapel Hill in the fall! (I still love her even though she is always wearing Tarheel blue now)

Anna was also a junior marshall!

Meet Novi - whom I love!

Autumn & Lindy :) 

Before I ever met Autumn, I prayed so much for her.  She was in the hospital when Rance and I were dating and he would go and visit her and I'd just pray and pray for her (a girl I had never even met).  In fact, the first time I ever met Autumn was at our wedding!  I love that Father knew way back that we would become so close bonding over HIM and entrust me with her!

Last Thursday night was full of love, hugs and tears as we celebrated graduation and our last part of the discipleship study on making disciples! The Lord put 2 Timothy on my heart about 2 weeks ago and I have probably read it 20 times since then. This is Paul's last letter he is writing to Timothy from prison. I love reading Paul's heart for Timothy whom he called a beloved son. Paul wanted to encourage Timothy, give direction and urge him to visit one final time. It is apparent that Paul knew that his work was done and that his life was nearly at an end.

Paul begins with thanksgivings and an announcement to remain faithful and strong. Paul also reiterates the important work of “entrusting the faithful men who will be able to teach others” (2:2). Paul’s desire was to equip the saints with the knowledge of how to teach others. In 2 Timothy 3:14 - Paul encouraged Timothy to continue in the things he had learned and to remember who he had learned them from. Paul had invested so much time  inTimothy and he wanted to see him do well.

As I read 2 Timothy over and over, I could not help but think of Lindy, Autumn, and Jaycee as they graduate. I love these girls so very much and I pray for them day and night. I don't invest in them to make myself feel better. I invest in these teenagers for the glory of God - because it was and is the Father's plan - with the hope and prayer that they will continue in the things they have learned and eventually invest in faithful women who will be able to teach others (2 Timothy 2:2).

best friends

I should just call this Autumn's blanket because she
never comes over without wrapping herself in it.

graduation gift time



*2 Timothy 3:14*
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it"
Lindy, Jaycee & Autumn - as they where this around their neck, I pray they are reminded of the things they have learned as they enter the battlefield of college!
 

Graduation - A-long leading in the graduates

proud of this girl!

We love you Charlton!



Rance LOVES him some Joey Cable!



Rebekah gave a very sweet shout out to her 'weird' 7th grade teacher who jumped across desks in her graduation speech to all the teachers!

it's been a fun journey thus far with Lindy and we are excited about what is ahead for her!

Love her personality!

I love you Autumn & Lindy!

love my boo bear!

 

 

Oh May you have been fun!



May Happenings Part III

If I have not mentioned it before, the weather here has been A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our time outdoors as much as possible this month.

Jess & Ben Thacker are our new friends and teammates that just recently moved to Robbinsville from Indiana to join a ministry here full time called Eternal Truth Ministries.  Rance and I have LOVED having them here the last month and are thankful for the instant bond Father provides when we are all on the same page spiritually.  It's pretty crazy that they just moved here from Indiana and Rance and I will be leaving soon to live in Indiana for the summer.  Basically, we are all swapping places and enjoying our crazy DADDY!

We kicked off our Memorial Day weekend by grilling out on Friday night with all the Thacker's.  It was a beautiful evening so we spent most of it outside. 

 

Ben, Dana and Melissa



Sweet Anna!  She has grown a foot in the last 2 months!



Rance riding Andrew & Luke on the 4-wheeler!

Climbing hills and having fun!

SMILE!

My favorite picture of Rance, Melissa & Anna!

Luke & Andrew

me, Jess & Dana

On Saturday morning, we headed out for a LONG bike ride.  I love how we get in these DEEP conversations and forget how far we have gone :)  We thoroughly enjoyed the quiet, peaceful, winding mountain roads to ride on from our house! 



HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!




Our landlords (who we are so thankful for) had a huge pool party for Memorial Day!  We called it "Sunburn & Seafood".  We spent the afternoon by the pool and the guys cooked a FEAST of seafood for dinner.  You have never seen so much seafood.  We felt like we were in the Caribbean yet we were just in our backyard!

Let the cookin' begin
Ignore the date on these photos :) 

Meet John - our awesome landlord!



Brothers



Crab legs galore!





low country boil

 

More of May coming soon :)

May Happenings Part II

The Friday morning Rance woke up with rashes all over his body is the same morning we jumped in the truck for a weekend road trip back to Zionsville, Indiana!  We were both excited along the way that neither one of us once second guessed our trip to Indiana that weekend even in the midst of all the attacks - doctor visits, ER, staph, crutches, rashes, etc.  I am thankful to say that Rance's body has been healing and although the staph is not completely gone - it seems to be improving day by day. 

Rance and I were VERY excited to get back to Indiana and especially to see the Thacker's - all 6 of em! They have been living in Indiana since the middle of March and will be there until the end of August.  We look forward to spending our summer with them in Indiana and growing closer together as a team as we all pursue the same goal in Christ Jesus.

Over the last few months, we have had no idea where we were going to live once we moved to Indiana.  It has been fun because Father has grown me so much over the past 3 years in the area of planning ahead and being OCD on details.  It's been a process but it's so freeing.  I have been 100% content this whole time not knowing at all where we were moving or who we may be moving in with this summer.  I surrendered it to the Lord trusting that He could handle our living situation and that I just needed to be willing to live wherever.  Rance and I both were not concerned about this. As we arrived last Friday - we still had no idea where we would be living.  There had been a couple of options that the Thacker's had looked into but God clearly closed the doors on those.  A family within the church graciously offered for us to stay with them since they had an extra bedroom so we assumed that would be where we would be living as of that Friday night.

You must know that one of our main roles in Indiana is evangelism (Rance and I that is).  We have prayed much on what that should look like and how we can best build relationships and share Jesus in the community surrounding the church.  Our vision was not clear on this yet so we were continuing to seek the Lord to provide clarity on this.

On Saturday afternoon, Father provided the vision for the summer through David & Dana's youngest child, Anna, who INSISTED to go on a walk.  Through this walk, led by Anna, a clear vision was given on how we can be most effective at evangelizing and how to go about doing that.  Father answers in crazy ways and that Saturday afternoon, He used Anna's persistence to take that walk to provide clarity on our team's many prayers of housing as well as evangelism! 

Melissa & Anna - practicing their JUMPIN' pics



Melissa is UP



BOTH are UP!
We will be living in the apartments in the background
of this picture (across the street from the church)!



I had to share this picture because I'll never forget the difficulty of maneuvering this cart around Walmart!



I love these kids!  We are in the dressing room in Walmart!

Showing Indiana what rednecks we are!  Just Kidding!

That Sunday morning, Rance taught on the Ephesians 3 prayer at the church.  If only I could wrap my mind around what it means to be filled with all the fullness of God!  Can it be done individually or only together with all of the saints?  What do you think?  Take the time to read the prayer below and dwell on how we can grasp a love that surpasses knowledge?!


A Prayer for the Ephesians
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.



*May Happenings Part I*

May has been super fun and super crazy and challenging all at the same time!  With it being the end of school, the evenings have been filled with end of the year parties, academic banquets, athletic banquets, graduation parties and ceremonies, preparing to move, along with our discipleship groups, etc.  On top of all that, Rance suffered several attacks on his body over a 3 week period!

Let's live it up through pictures, what do you say?

• We had an end of the year party for the cross country team at Whisper Mountain!  Rance and I are constantly encouraging team bonding amongst the runners.  The Fall 2013 team will be taking a trip up to Whisper Mountain in August for a 2 night stay to bond as a team and start the season study in Scripture.

If you have never been here, you should come!

It was very fun watching a bunch of runners play volleyball!

Lindy surprised everyone one by being there!

• The Friday that I headed out for Trinidad was the day all the attacks began on Rance's body.  Rance is allergic to both poison oak and wasp/bee stings.  On that Friday, he was with a group of guys on the way home from visiting a church plant in Ducktown, TN only to come upon a tree that had fallen in the middle of the road.  (Let the spiritual attacks begin).  Since it was close to midnight and very dark out, Rance had no idea that this tree was covered in poison oak at the time.  By the next day, his body was covered in it.  A couple of days later, he was stung by a wasp in our bedroom.  I got home from Trinidad and the poison oak was not much better but the wasp sting was.  A few days later, Rance began limping due to the pain in his leg/foot.  Was this still poison oak?  Nope, he now had a STAPH infection except it was not in the beginning stages - it was severely infected, irritated, very red, and swollen.  He visited the school nurse the next day and she prescribed him an antibiotic.  By the following evening the infection was much worse so we ventured off to Murphy urgent care.  The doctor there refused to cut into the staph because it was so close to the bone and muscles in his foot and she did not want to spread it.  She prescribed a 2nd antibiotic and gave us precautions to take to monitor if it was getting worse.  By Monday, Rance's foot was huge, in so much pain, and very scary.  Father made it clear in my prayer time to head to the ER.  He winked at us BIG in the emergency room that night when we were told Dr. Castor would be in to see us ASAP which was the SAME doctor that cut into my leg 2 years ago when I had Staph.  I could have jumped into his arms but that might have been weird.  He ended up cutting into Rance's foot in 3 or 4 different places.  We left hours later with Rance on crutches, more antibiotics, and lots of bandages and things to care for this nasty, wicked thing.  By Friday, Rance woke up in rashes ALL over his body.  What on earth?  Ends up, one of the antibiotics he was taking was a sulpha drug which he is allergic to.  We are thankful that during all of this we both clearly recognized that these were spiritual attacks.  Our prayer was that the genuineness of our faith would be found to the PRAISE OF HIS GLORY.

In the Emergency Room



boo bear on crutches



waiting on my little patient

• On a random side note - this is a typical day going over the mountain in Robbinsville.  Motorcyles, hikers, tourists, kayakers are EVERYWHERE!

 

 

• We had a family date with Marla, Devin, Kenleigh and Rance's mom too that we thoroughly enjoyed!

Our sweet niece after eating TONS of pickles and oranges!  She LOVES both.

 



Tearing this pickle up :)

May Happenings Part II coming soon...

2 Brothers & a BIRD DOWN...

I am really big on writing down things I am praying for and recording and remembering how God answered those prayers.  It may be years later when that specific prayer gets answered but I love rejoicing in God's provision and His sovereignty over it all. 

Psalm 77

And I said, “This is my anguish;But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
¹¹ I will remember the works of the Lord;Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
¹² I will also meditate on all Your work,And talk of Your deeds.¹³ Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary;
Who is so great a God as our God?
¹⁴ You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples.
¹⁵ You have with Your arm redeemed Your people,
The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

Psalm 77 encouraged me years ago to be intentional about "remembering the works of the Lord" and meditating on all He has done.  There is no doubt that Father does not promise this life to be easy and free of hardships.  But even in those valleys, in those trials and tribulations, we can count it all JOY and meditate on who Father is and what He has done :)

When I look at my brother's relationship with my husband - that in and of itself is an answered prayer.  My brother was never very 'friendly' to anyone I ever dated.  In fact, he didn't really give any of them the time of day.  I know in his 'big brother' heart - he wanted the best for his sister.  Even when he first met Rance, he threatened him with a gun (not kidding) because Rance mentioned marrying me within the first 2 times of meeting him.  That was unacceptable to him.  Once my brother began seeing who Rance really was - he fell in love (hehe!).  These two share a bond and a love for one another that is more than I ever prayed for. 

Just recently they have began a discipleship study and accountability with one another and to say my heart is overflowing is an understatement.  The last weekend I was in Trinidad, my brother had ventured to the mountains to bond with Rance solo and to begin this discipleship study!  Outside of studying God's Word, they did do a little turkey hunting and Father blessed my brother with killing a turkey.

Please enjoy the photos...

Thank you Father for the bond that these two share!