Photo Friday

The living room transformation is almost finished! It won't be much longer until we post final pictures. We hung these panels today. It was great to get something large up on the walls in this big space! It was also great that it was low-cost, too! (foam insulation panels covered in fabric!)

Photo Friday

I'm hoping to get back into "Photo Friday" postings, whether they be photos from my DSLR or my phone. Today, you get the phone picture.

When we moved in to our house, we peeked under the carpet to see if we had hardwood flooring hiding underneath all that carpet. We didn't see anything, though.

Fast forward to today. Tony checked again - a little closer this time, and peek-a-boo, look what we found!

What is next?

We have moved to our new home in Indiana! We just celebrated the birth of our King with family and friends this past weekend. I am sure you are pondering your own life about what is next? That is a great question to ask, especially as we turn a new chapter with 2012 quickly approaching. For us, we are still focused on the last tidbit of ministry partner development as we call it, or rather support raising. We have been in talks with Keynote department heads which allows us to pin down what our exact roles are going to be in 2012. We have high hopes and prayers that we will be finished with support be the end of January! We are very confident in the power of God, He brought us to Indiana and is ready to finish out the mission!

Another idea we had about keeping you our ministry partners in the loop even more frequently is an email/online only update each week. We are still tweaking out the name, but it will be short and sent out on Tuesdays, so keep your eyes out on January 3rd for the first of 52 updates in 2012!

-T

Moving!

We are moving again...this time it is to Noblesville, Indiana! We found a house that we absolutely love. It's pretty much our dream home. [another post coming about that God-led process] We close on the house this month - on the 28th and move on the 30th!

We are so excited and blessed for this step in the process, yet we are definitely sad to say "see you later" to so many friends here in Dayton. We really do love our community here will be sad to leave...luckily, we will only be 2 hours away, so we anticipate many road trips! :)

We still have support to be raised, though. Even though we'll soon be living 15 minutes away from the Keynote office, we can't go in there to work until we are at 100%! If you are able to help connect us with people who may be interested in hearing about our ministry with Keynote, or if you are interested in support info yourself - let us know! [Click Here ] We'd love for you to help us reach our goal!

One of our faves from our recent "good-bye, Dayton"
photo shoot with Fullam Photography.

The Gap Theory

In our latest newsletter, we shared with you about a Keynote team [The Gap Theory] who is heading to India in less than a week. We are eager to see how God uses this team for His purposes.

We wanted to share with you a short video that the members of this team created. It talks about this trip to India and how you can be praying for them.




You can keep updated on what is happening during their trip by:

Their blog: click here
Their Facebook page: click here

September Update

Our excitement is growing as we are inches away from having 90% of our initial support raised! We are beginning the process of looking for housing, which is exciting and overwhelming at the same time. We hope to take a trip out to Indy in October to look at some living options and sit down with some people at Keynote to talk about our placements. The light at the end of the tunnel is growing larger each day. We are continuing to vividly see God's hand and provision through this whole process and are deeply encouraged by Him.

Click here to view our September update!

-T & J

I Told You So.

Yesterday, I was getting ready for a quick trip to the store. Some milk, cleaning supplies, and a few other essentials were on the list. Being big fans of Dave Ramsey and Crown Financial Ministries, I started to get into my cash "envelope" binder while making my list for the trip. Unfortunately, five one-dollar bills looked back at me in the 'grocery' pocket. Boo. It was August 23 - eight days left in the month.

I started thinking: Can we make it eight days with five dollars for food? I mean, I already need a gallon of milk and that is going to cut what I have in half! Aye. I thought about just moving over some other money from another pocket or just putting what I need on the debit card. Was that cheating the system, though?

Then, the still, small voice: Don't worry. Go get your milk. Go run your errands. Don't worry. Trust Me.

Fine.

I will. I'll trust You, Lord. I knew it was You who led us to do this cash budget. And, it was You we looked to as we set it up. I'll trust You.

I pulled out of the driveway with my list of places to go. Starting down the road, I had this feeling that I needed to go to the post office first. I usually always hit up the post office last when I run errands to check our PO Box. No reason, it's just on the way home. This time, I turned around and went to the post office first, even though it was a tad out of my way for where I needed to go. Going through our mail as I'm walking out, I just had to smile. Some Kroger bucks had come in the mail! [We have a Kroger Credit Card that don't carry a balance on, but we use for gasoline & big purchases. It's a rewards card, and we periodically get certificates for in-store credit to Kroger. I call them 'Kroger bucks'.]

If God says "I told you so.", He totally did at that moment. Ha. I was able to get food we needed for the rest of the month with the Kroger bucks. Praise Him!

...and I still have those five little one-dollar bills in my envelope.

Enjoy!

We really enjoyed hearing all the different speakers at national staff conference. We heard from a wide variety of people - Francis Chan, David Platt, and many more!

We are excited to share that experience with you! Some of the sessions were recorded and posted online for you to experience also. What a treat. :)

Check it out:
http://www.ccci.org/csu/index.htm

August Update

I think we are finally acclimated back to Dayton after being in Colorado for national staff conference. We really enjoyed being with our Keynote family and look forward to being reunited with them very soon! Click here to read more about our trip in our August update letter.

"Go do something that requires faith" -Francis Chan CSU 2011

It has been a little while since our last update on the blog. I am going to say it is due to our extra busy lives, but really it is probably due to not knowing what would be intriguing to post. So here is something I think is intriguing.

Jonelle and I are currently in Colorado at Campus Crusade for Christ's staff conference which is held every other summer. Having just turned 30 only a few days before we boarded our plane I have been really apprehensive about this next part of my life. Wondering and praying what the Lord is going to do. I think in the back of my mind where most of the depressing thoughts were coming from were actually me just not seeing the potential I still have to do the Lords work and build my own character in the process. I forgot that all things are in the Lord's timing and not my own. I also forgot that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the only thing that I need to be fulfilled.

That is hard to process when I have been looking forward to being fully financially supported with ministry partners for so long, physically moving and unpacking our stuff and finally being around our fellow staff in Indy. I have to be content with just being a child of God's and walking faithfully in obedience. Because that should be enough to sustain me each day. If I am not abiding in the Spirit each day then I am only being fulfilled by my own wishes and desires. I know I want more, but I only want it if it is truly from God and not from my own efforts. Each day and each step of faith is allowing my heart to understand His will during this phase of life.

So I am learning more and more at this conference, even seeing prayers from my mind and heart being answered. Confirmation of what I am seeking is glorious. Only the Lord can move a mountain in order for His children to experience more of Him. Which means I have to continue to press forward and go do even more that requires faith.