Christmas time

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I've got some pictures of our family and a party we did with our community online for anyone that wants to see...

Christmas pics

We leave in less than a week for the project. I will try to send updates when I can from the beach. We will surely need your prayers during this time not only for the 9-hour drive but for our time there especially. Pray that God would use the training and fellowship to speak to us about the transformation he desires in our lives. And that as we talk about transformation that we would remember that he is the goal and not our own personal change.

leaders training

Yesterday we met for the first time with the student leaders for the upcoming beach project. During the training we discussed two main points: our desire for transformation and our willingness to encourage others towards transformation. We will meet again for the first few days leading into the project. Pray that as a group they can join together with this purpose of being and encouraging transformation. And pray that we as a staff team can help them think practically about how to pursue it.

Christmas party

Friday night we had a Christmas party at our house for all the students and graduates involved in our community. It was a fun time to see everyone, and for the students to relax a little now that their finals are over. We had a great dinner... 3 french hens! Braden and Simon made extra sure that we picked the right gifts during the gift swap. They saw a few of them while the students were wrapping them and knew which ones had the chocolate!

back update

This past Friday I went to the hospital and received a bloqueio peridural (which is kind of like an epidural) to alleviate the pain. I talked with my dad and he said when he had something like this done it took about a week to really feel the effects. At first I was feeling pretty good but I may have overdone it because today I'm pretty sore. We had a training for the leaders yesterday and I just didn't get the needed amount of time flat on my back. Please be in prayer for a full recovery before beach project and that we can finalize the remaining plans. We hope to leave on the 2nd of January.

3 months old

On the 10th Lucy turned 3 months old! She was pretty tickled about the whole thing. Some of Lucy's favorite songs are Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Simon's likes to sing Baa Baa Black Sheep (Simon's version is Blah Blah Black Sheep... I think it sounds better too). Parabêns Lucy!

down again

Just a quick note to say that I found out this week that I have a herniated disk in my lower back. The doctor has asked me to stay flat all weekend and to take some medicine then we'll check next week to see if there's been any improvement. If not he said we may have to operate. As many of you know with our beach project quickly approaching this isn't the ideal time. Pray not only for my back but that I could be aware of how God is at work through this.