Busy Learning and being involved in Ministry.....

The calendar is starting to fill up as we are involved in everything possibly while we are here in Elgin. Last week was the intro for the Women's Bible Study on Thursday morning.....I truly enjoyed that. The study throughout this week has been great and I look forward to the weeks ahead. I am excited for personal growth in God's Word, but also to see how HBC uses Bible Studies at the church to connect the ladies into a Small Group.

Tomorrow night we have our first Small Group with fellow residents in the training center. On the agenda is dinner and then to get to know each other we will share how we meet our spouse and our engagement story.....for those of you who have not known John and I that long our engagement story is a fun one. I will take the time to share with you...... We loved to drive up to the mountains at night and look and the stars and many nights we would see a lot of shooting stars....so beautiful. Well, John had planned another enjoyable evening like this starting with dinner and then head up north to the mountains. We enjoyed a great dinner together and then got on the road. We were about an hour out of town and the clutch in the truck just fell off the truck while we were driving on the highway....CRAZY! John coasted over to the side of the road.....and it was great the next exit was about 7-8 miles up the road. Oh fun...but we were blessed with a military guy headed home to his family that sopped and gave us a ride to the next exit. We called a tow truck and then road with the tow truck driver to pick up the truck and then he dropped us back off at the same exit. (This was before cell phones.) We called John's dad to come and pick us up. We went to the Denny's there and got a drink while we waited for John's dad. He finally made it......then all of a sudden I turned around and John was on his knee with a beautiful ring in his hand. Not exactly what he had planned for the evening, but he knew he needed to propose because everyone back at home knew what his plans were for the evening. Also, just so you know the clutch on the truck was under warranty and was fixed within a few days and we drove up together to bring the truck back home. So, that is our engagement story. :)

Back to what is going on here.....the kids are getting involoved in everything they can as well.  On Wednesday nights they enjoy youth group.  Thursday mornings they help with childcare during the Women's Bible study.  And something they just started tonight is livestream for all harvest students.  They log on and have fun with Landon and other youth leaders, but then they always have a Bible study.  Right now they are going over the fruits of the spirit....this is awesome!  Another way to get students involoved and in God's Word!!  It is such a joy to watch the kids so intent on learning from God's Word....they are watching this right now as I am typing the blog.

The month of October is exciting for us.....we will meet the core group from Mason City, April and Dylan are coming for a visit, Jason and Dava are coming for a visit, and my parents are coming for a visit. (And mom and dad just so you know the order is not that we are not excited about your visit....I have just listed them in date order.)  So excited to have friends and family around us!

Please continue to pray for the sale of our house back in Des Moines.  We have gotten some crazy news over the past couple of weeks.....a couple of weeks ago we got a call from our realtor and she told us that the lockbox was pryed off the railing by the front door.  Then yesterday, before there was a chance to get the locks changed, we got another call.  Whoever took the lockbox broke it open and got the key out.....and they stole the furnance.  At first this was hard to hear, but we are trusting this all in the Lord's hands.  We have called the insurance company and should hear back from them soon.  Thank you to all who have helped with the A/C.....my dad and Butch took it to Carl and Becky Jackson's house so that it wouldn't be taken as well.  Thank you for your continued prayer support for our family!  God has truly blessed us and we are so grateful!!

Wow, 2 Weeks.....time is flying by!

Thought that I would share what our apartment looks like.......

Kitchen



Living Room



Dining Room



Boy's Room



Boy's Bathroom



Nattalie's Room



Our Room



Girls' Bathroom

The kids are so excited that we have two bathrooms and it was decided early on that one would be for the girls and the other would be for the boys.  Notice the girl's bathroom is a little more decorated than the boy's one.  :)

We are nice and settled in and enjoy our lovely apartment....but after living in a house you for so long you forget some of the things about an apartment.  Like carrying your groceries in..... you carry as many as you can at once so that you don't have to go back out to the car.  :)  Seriously though we are truly blessed with such a nice place to stay while we are here for the training.

The kids and I have been working hard on school.  They are doing more independent studying this year and it is amazing to see their progress already only after two weeks.  Of course we start first thing in the morning, but the things that they do independent they work on how they would like.  Johnathan has actually been getting up earlier than the rest of us to get started.  I am so excited they are dedicated and working hard on their studies.  I pray this enthusiasm remains throughout the entire year.  We are all still working hard on our Greek....we almost have the entire alphabet.  Let's see if I can spell them out for your without looking......
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lamda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Ompicron, Pi, Rho.....yeah I did it.  The kids can not wait until they can put some words together.

Training is in full force at HBF!  Today is the end of the second week.  John has been learning tons and coming home each night to share with me.  We are so excited about what God has in store for the future and also humbled that God has called us to the amazing task of church planting.

All things are coming together and we will be having small group with our fellow training residents.  We know that building relationships with these families is very important as I am sure we will be in contact and of course praying for each other as we go to our respective cities to begin to reach out to our communities. 

John and I are very excited....we got a message yesterday that we will have a chance to meet the core group from Mason City/Clear Lake the first weekend in October.  They will be coming over to Elgin for the weekend.  Please be praying for us as we begin to build relationships with these families as well. 

Sorry if this blog is a little scattered....I just wanted to share our apartment and also share what is going on.  We thank you all for your continued prayer for our family and also the community of Mason City/Clear Lake.

Let's call this one.....Learning!

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta....more to come tomorrow.  Hope to make it through the end of the alphabet by next week. The kids keep asking if we know a word with the letters we know already.  I am sure we do, but we are going to stick to the program and soon we should know "Lord", "My" and "Helper".  I am so excited to be learning this along with them. As we continue to learning our Biblical Greek (Kione Greek) we will be able to study the New Testament with a deeper understanding of what was written in the original text. 

We have been enjoying the weather here in Elgin.....doors and windows have been open to allow that beautiful breeze through the house. We have been told that this is a little cooler weather than they normally have this time of year, but we will enjoy if for now.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons.....with pumpkins, apples, and all the fun fall festivals.....and the beautiful colors of fall.  Haven't seen any trees that have changed as of yet, but we will have our cameras ready.  :)

John has mentioned that he has been learning a lot already in this first few days of the Harvest residency.  He comes home each night and shares what they talked about....I know it is only a part and that is a lot for me.  I pray that he is taking good notes. :) 

Please continue to pray  us.....I have to be honest I am missing home a little bit more than I thought I would.  What keeps me going is that I know we are following God's will for our lives. Things are not always easy, but God is always with us! 

Many thanks to all who have been praying and continue to pray.  Also, a somewhat public thank you to all who have supported us in this journey.  God is an amazing provider....we just have to have faith!

Harvest Residency Has Begun...

We packed up and moved to Elgin, IL last week on Thursday.  I would have to say it was the hottest days to move, but it's all done!  We were so blessed to have such amazing friends to help us with the move.  Dylan and April Knudsen helped pack us up, drove out with us, helped unloaded the truck, and then unpack and put the apartment together.  God has truly blessed us with these amazing friends!  We were all very sad to see them go on Sunday!! We did enjoy some fun while they were here with us.....steak and shake, IKEA, shakes again (from steak and shake), outlet mall, Harvest Bible Chapel service together.....and steak and shake one more time.  I should mention they have this amazing fall shake Carmel Apple....you have to try it!  Dylan and April we want to thank you for all that you have done and the example of selflessness that you have been us and our family!

Speaking on being sad....it was hard to say our goodbyes at Grace West and then also hard to say goodbye to my parents.  We enjoyed some fun time together leading up to the move....including using their washer and dryer since ours were already in storage! Thank you Mom and Dad for your help as we prepared to move....we will miss you, but are glad to know that you have iPhones now and we will facetime really soon!!

We are all unpacked for the most part....at this time the things that we haven't unpacked are things we won't need until it gets colder.  Speaking of colder.....

Today John went to Harvest for orientation for the residency program and then we all went back to enjoy a picnic together and meet the other families.  We had a great time, but it was cold outside.  I think my toes almost froze off.  There are lots of kids and everyone seemed to get along GREAT.  All the men played a game of football.  John shared with us that he caught the winning touchdown throw.  :)

We started school today with the kids also....the first day seemed to take a little longer, but I am sure that we will get back into the swing of things right away.  Greek.....we learned "alpha" and "beta" today and tomorrow will be "gamma" and "delta".  Along with learning the letters and the sounds we will be working at writing them too.  We will all be working hard as John and I are taking this course along with the kids!!

We are now home and John is already busy studying!  I think this is a glimpse of what the next 5 months will look like.  We are so excited and looking forward to what the Lord has for us.  Please continues to pray as we study and prepare for the church plant.