"Thanksmas"

Finals are officially over and now we get to do the fun stuff like updating everyone on what we have been doing!

 Over our Thanksgiving break we were able to go up and visit some more West Coast Reynolds in Seattle. Steve's parents hosted us, his sister and kids, and his brother and wife for a big Christmas/Thanksgiving extravaganza. We coined the word "Thanksmas" to cover both holidays that we were celebrating.

Our first day in town we enjoyed a trip to the city. We were pretty lucky as you can tell from the sky because it didn't Rain while we were out of the car!

 This is our beautiful neice Alexa. We enjoyed learning about how babies work over our trip. Our conclutinos are: They wake up early, their always able to find the things you dropped on the floor, the baby gate is another word for jail, and they are super fun!!!

 This a picture of the girls (missing Kayla) in front of a really cold water fall in down town. No one wanted to take this picture but I think they'll be glad they did now. It turned out pretty cute!

 This is our other beautiful niece Hailey. We loved learning about preteen culture with her. What we learned: The Disney Chanel is still cool, Justice is the new Limited Too, ipads iphones and ipods are the coolest Christmas presents around and they want them, Starbucks is very cool, seeing Santa is not cool, and they still are still super fun!!!

 Can you see how big Lilly's smile is in this picture. She LOVED Alexa. Alexa was pretty brave if you ask me because Lilly is 5 times her size. All week Alexa called Lilly a kitty cat.

Our week was also filled with lots of cards and games which we loved!! These are a few pictures of a new board game I had never heard of before called quelf. It was so much fun! If you're looking to give a board game to someone this Christmas I highly recommend this one. It comes in a Jr. version too for kids.

Thanksmas morning was filled with food, presents and of course Dallas Cowboys football. This is a picture of Steve opening his new Kindle Fire.

Steve Feeding Alexa Apple Jacks

The only thing that we didn't get pictures of was the black Friday Shopping that Dad R. and I did at Walmart and Target. It is really too bad because it was a sight to see.

We had such a good time in Seattle it was so hard to say goodbye. We look forward to our next trip which will hopefully be sooner than later!

Mississippi Party

We are so blessed to have 5 other friends from Mississippi here at Golden Gate with us. This past Thursday marked the first of many official Mississippi parities. I (Laura) must admit that this has been one of my better ideas since moving here. You just can't beat potluck home cooked southern food (BBQ pulled pork, mashed potato's, Homemade mac and cheese, and sweet tea) friends, and thick southern accents. We wanted to share a few pictures and moments from the party!

Decorations:

The goodie bags!

Southern Miss to the Top!

Mississippi Girls

At some point in the night Carlena decided that we should all take a group picture. Even though many objected Carlena can be pretty persuasive and got her way. (I'm so glad she did!) We ended up taking about 20 and these were my favorite of the bunch.

For the Baptist Record :)

Crazy Picture

Crazy Picture #2

Tea Bags!

We love Grits!

Some how we ended up talking about planking. None of us understand it and none of us had ever done one before. Carlena decided that she must give it a try. This was the attempt she did before she knew that she was not supposed to look at the camera.

She quickly got the hang of it.

Steve's plank. Can you figure out what's wrong with this picture??

I hope this blog encourages any Mississippians who might be thinking about coming to GGBTS but are nervous about being so far from home. We'll be your family away from home. Y'all come now!

Q. & A. Steve's New Job

It seams as if we have done a bad job at updating everyone on what's going on in our life. This is partly due to our change in life recently. We felt this blog would be a good one for Q. & A.

Did Steve get a new job?

YES!!! Steve just accepted the position (about a month ago) of part time Youth Minister at a local church Tiburon Baptist Church about five minutes from our house. We are so thankful for this opportunity to serve in our local community.


Didn't Steve have like four jobs already?

Yes which is why this was so huge. About the time our church in the city began a transition period Steve felt that the Lord was calling him to serve again on a church staff. This was a difficult decision to leave or friends and college students but we knew that it was what the Lord wanted for us. Once leaving almost immediately doors began to open for us to serve in this new capacity. Taking this new job allowed him to quit his others and focus just on ministry. Here is Steve's Bio.


What's your new Church like?

Our pastor likes to refer to our church as "classical." In other words it's more on the traditional side. We are one of the only churches in California that have an organ. That being said don't let that fool you we are loving being a part of a very missions minded, evangelistic congregation. We also adore the youth here who have been so welcoming.

What does Steve do?

Steve is in charge of the administration and planning of all things youth. He also rotates teaching with four of his interns. They meet Wednesday nights to play hand bells and games as well as Sunday mornings and Sunday nights for bible study. On top of that He plans monthly outside the church activities.

What does Laura do?

Laura is mostly being the supportive wife. Since there are two girl interns it has left Laura to simply enjoy building relationships with youth and pray. This has allowed Laura to have the time to join the Women's Prayer Shawl Ministry. She has never knitted before but is enjoying the challenge. Pictures will be coming soon.

How Many Youth do you have?

We have a strong core ten and about 10 others who are irregular. We're excited that already God has been growing our numbers and building our relationships with the students.

 How do you get work done with an office overlooking San Francisco?

It's not easy.

Remind me who I am

I (Laura) have lately fallen into the trap (as most of us do from time to time) of not remembering how truly special I am. Beloved of God is a very high title indeed. I was blessed by this song today and wanted to share it with you, to remind you who you are too!

Remind Me Who I Am

By: Jason Gray

When Pinterest Goes Wrong

I (Laura) have been spending the week with my best friend from college Maxy Keller (Who will be married in just two days!!) Being engulfed in wedding culture I felt the need to blog on it.

I have decided there are four types of gifts one will receive for their wedding day.

The first type of gift is: the registered gift

For every bride the wedding registry is high on the priority list. These gifts will fill her home for years to come and reflect the brides personal since of style. She will spend long hours looking at, using, and enjoying these gifts in her daily life. She is grateful for all those who will buy things off of her registry.

The second type of gift is: the knock off gift

These gifts are still highly appreciated by the bride. If they are not exactly right they can be exchanged for something more practical or in a different color. She is grateful for the thought and will enjoy them.

The third type of gift is: the regift

The Bride may or may not know. If you plan on giving this gift to a bride be sure that you hide your tracts well. If she finds out she will be disappointed and maybe even offended.

Maxy received a regift this week. The partially ripped box was the give away for her. Unfortunately the original owner forgot to clean the dirt and dust out of the bottom of the bowl...

The fourth type of gift is: the homemade gift

This is the most risky type of gift to give a bride. She will love it or she will hate it, but either way she is stuck with it. With the development of the new website Pinterest I feel that there are many people getting into the DIY gifts. While these things can be great fun to make a person, one should think wisely of their abilities before giving a homemade gift to a bride. She maybe smiling on the outside when she receives this gift but on the inside she is thinking "I know just what I'm bringing to my next White Elephant/Dirty Santa party!"

Poor Maxy receivd two homemade gifts this week that were less than desirable. They were just too good (and by good I mean awful) to not show you...

For those of you who are married I would love to hear about your worst unasked for gift! Just leave us a comment.

January Plans

We're not sure if you have heard or not so we wanted to let you know we have a big trip coming up in January! I just got my new passport today so It got me excited and thinking about it!

OK, time to test your current event knoweldge. Where are we going? (Answers are located at the bottom of the blog.)

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2)

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Did you guess correctly? If so you are smarter way than me!

We will be going with our school, GGBTS, on a M. trip for almost 2 weeks in January. This trip will be half experiencing well known biblical sites and half doing ministry. Steve and I are beyond excited becuase we feel that this trip will have several big impacts on our future.

 First, this trip will greatly enhance our work here in America. As we serve in our local church, we will be better able to describe Bible culture and locations, making the Bible come alive both for us and our congregation's members. Secondly, we are particularly excited about this trip because we have a desire to serve overseas, possibly in this area of the world. It would give us the chance to see what work would be like there and get to know the people of the region. The ministry we will be doing on this trip includes encouraging local M. workers by listening to their stories, working to share the good news, and visiting local schools. As you can likely guess we are thrilled for this opportunity!

So far we have raised all but $1065 of the money we need to go! We are praying that a little more support will come in between now and January. Please pray for that with us. We would also ask you to pray for our group as we prepare and participate in this opportunity. Your prayer is the greatest tool in reaching these nations.

Until next time,

Laura

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Releasing children from poverty in JESUS' name!

Believe it or not we're quickly approaching the holiday session! In fact we're 87 days away from Christmas!! (I know, I know you don't want hear that just yet!)

I got on this Christmas kick after being reminded of our sponsor child today.

Meet Rachel. Rachel is 8 years old and is in 2nd grade. She lives in rural Indonesia with her mom and dad. One fun fact she has shared with us recently is that her favorite food is rice! We hear from her about 6 times a year and is always telling us what her new favorite bible story is. We get to write her back about us and even share bible stories through letters.

Now you're probably wondering how did that lead you to thinking about Christmas? The answer is that I was offered the opportunity to send her a Christmas present today. Every last penny of the money we gave for her will be spent on her! I love that Compassion International doesn't take any administrative costs out of gift money.

Compassion International helps Christians connect with children in need in 26 countries around the world. Their motto is "releasing children from poverty in JESUS' name." It cost $38 a month and 80% of what you give goes to the child. That is much more than most other sponsorship programs. Their program feeds, clothes, and educates them in addition to getting them involved in a church program where they will learn about the gospel.

So back to Christmas. I as I do from time to time I clicked on the Compassion International website. My heart broke as I looked at the pictures of children tagged with a heart. This means they have been waiting for a sponsor for over six months! I thought about how they may not even know how to pray to God yet asking for a sponsor yet. So I stopped to pray for one for them.

Father God,

You know each one of these little ones personally.
You see there tears, you hear their rumbling tummies, you feel their longing to know someone loves them.
I pray on their behalf that Your Spirit would awaken us to hear and see their needs too.
James 1:27 says "Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."
Allow us to be a part of your plan to care for those who can not care for themselves. For you will raise up the poor from the dust; and lift the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. (1 Samuel 2:8)
More specifically, I pray that each child who has been waiting for 6 months or longer will receive a sponsor by Christmas.

In Jesus' name,
Amen

I hope Christmas is on your mind now and that you will consider becoming a sponsor to one of these little ones before December 25. I can only imagine that it will make for their best Christmas ever. It could result in the first time they ever hear what Christmas is all about.

If you have any questions about Compassion or sponsorship we would be happy to answer them for you. And if you're already a sponsor we would love to know that too!

Merry Christmas,
Laura

One Year Later

Ok ok so this blog is being posted one year and almost two months later. I think you all understand, though, that when the school year hits life picks up speed and the fun stuff like blogging is pushed to the way side. Our paper (first) anniversary, however, is worth backtracking a little for.

For those of you who don't know the first anniversary is traditionally the "paper anniversary" because you are poor. The couple is to buy, make, or incorporate a paper aspect to their gift. To honor tradition (and our status as poor seminary students) we decided to go with it.

I (Laura) got Steve a copy of our song's sheet music. We're still trying to get the hang of this guitar thing. I hope one day (maybe by our 10th anniversary) we can play it!

Steve's gift was a series of cards that he gave out through out the day. Each one was accompanied by a surprise of where we were to go next.

 The first surprise was that we were going to Monterey California. It is about a hour and a half drive from where we live. On the way we passed the famous garlic festival. Despite my wanting to check it out Steve felt we had better things lined up. haha. Maybe we'll hit up the garlic festival next year.

After we arrived I got my next card and surprise number two that we would be eating at an awesome seafood restaurant on the water. Our table over looked the beach and was so beautiful! The food was really good too!

We decided to take a picture of one  year's worth of wear and tear on our rings.

 At the end of lunch I got my last card and final surprise that we were going on a whale watching tour! I was super surprised and we were both excited. We had a little time to kill so we walked back down the beach towards the pier and window shopped.

Just before our tour started the sun came out! It was perfect timing! This is a picture of the boat that took us an hour out to sea.

We decided to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and views. With a little hot chocolate we were able to stand the cold. About an  hour into the trip we started to get skeptical. Were we going to be in the 1% of people who didn't see something on this trip? Then out of no where...



There were over 15 whales all around us. They told us it was pretty unusual to see them in groups like that. They were happy to show off for by us coming out of the water which was really fun. One came right up to our boat but of course I was not ready with the camera so this is a sampling of what we got.



Once back to shore we finished our day with a trip to Buba Gump Shrimp for dinner. We chose it because we went to our first Buba Gump Shrimp restaurant on our honeymoon. We learned that Monterey is the original Buba Gump!

We didn't get around to the final tradition of first year anniversary's until the day after our one year mark... The eating of the year old cake. It was quite an adventure getting this cake to us. As most of you know we were married in Mississippi and now we live in California. We planned on hand carrying it back earlier this summer when we visited home but forgot it in the freezer. Good thing too because we got stuck overnight at the airport and it would have been ruined by the time we got home. So my mom and grandma figured out how to overnight it to us and it made the trip just fin.

While I had to do some strong convincing for Steve to give it a try we decided that it was pretty good. We, however, did not to keep it to try again the next year and tossed the leftovers in the trash.

Seattle Washington

Steve and I were able to spend a week in Seattle Washington leading our college students on a mission trip. Our purpose was to help out with Veritas Church in any way they needed. We were blessed to have two great MS summer missionaries helping us out and planning our daily activities. Here is a little recap video to show you a little of what we did.

We would like to give a big shout out to all our college students for being awesome! They were super flexible and did everything that was asked of them without a single complaint. We love you guys and were blessed and encouraged by each of you!

Happy Birthday to me!

This is obviously a little late since my birthday was now almost a month ago but it seems like we've been going 90 to nothing ever since. I wanted to update you all before we got back to school on the back half of our summer. It has been such a blast that we don't want to leave you in the dark!

My birthday seamed to drag out for several wonderful days. It started with funfetti cake, cheese cake and a lot of fried food at our Friday night fellowship. We were joined by all the summer missionaries in San Francisco who had helped us with our VBS this year. It was such a special treat!



The next day was spent opening presents in the morning. We then drove north an hour to the only known Chili's and after enjoyed a game glow in the dark mini golf.

Steve and I are learning to play the guitar! I got a really nice new guitar from my parents for my birthday! We will be uploading a song we have been practicing soon.

Rebecca sent me a "as seen on TV gift" that had caught my eye over Christmas. I plan on doing a product review soon!

Can you guess who these came from?? STEVE!!! Isn't he great!

That night was spent with lots of GGBTS friends hanging out and enjoying cake. Over all it was a wonderful Birthday and I was blessed to see how so many people who care about me so much.