TOMORROW!!!

Andrew/Happy gets back from Guatemala in less than 16 hours. My sister left California less than 8 hours ago, saving me from a VERY long week, and has arrived safely home in Virginia. I'm so thankful for my sister!

The Guatemala team leaves for the airport tomorrow morning at 5:30AM, which is 4:30AM here, and will (Lord-willing) arrive around 12:30PM in California. I will be joining the caravan of vehicles heading to the airport to bring them back to church.

I hope I can sleep tonight!!! :-D

Pictures!

This is me and my beautiful wife at some friends' recent wedding. Click here and here and here and here to see many more, including a lot of pictures of the little person you really want to see!

Summer Edition

There's been a lot of changes for our little family these past few weeks. First, as Andrew already mentioned, he's now the Associate Pastor at Village Bible Church. We couldn't be more thrilled! We're both praising the Lord at His timing and provision.

Second, my last day of work is Tuesday as Andrew & I have decided the time is right for me to be home with Alice more. It's hard to raise your child to know the Lord when she hardly sees you each week. So we're thankful for the change, but if anyone knows of something I can do to make some money from home, I'm all ears! Right now there aren't a lot of options for a mom with a 1 year old, but we trust that God has a plan for this too.

Third, I decided the blog needed a summer look. Okay I guess that change isn't such a big deal. I'm also hoping to be able to blog more frequently now since I'll be home, although I make no promises :-)

Alice is now rounding out the second hour of her nap, which means I probably won't have this lovely silence much longer. Off to laundry and other exciting stay-at-home mom things! YAY! (And I really actually meant that. I'm quite excited about doing stay-at-home mom things at 3PM!)

Two Quotes

Benjamin Franklin on good sportsmanship in chess from H.W. Brands' The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin:

"You must not, when you have gained a victory, use any triumphing or insulting expression, nor show too much pleasure; but endeavor to console your adversary, and make him less dissatisfied with himself by every kind and civil expression. . . . You may indeed happen to lose the game to your opponent, but you will win what is better: his esteem, his respect, and his affection, together with the silent approbation and good will of impartial spectators."

Michael Lawrence on sin in his Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry:

"As long as we think of sin as simple rule-breaking, we will never understand the enormity of sin, the incredible offense that it gives God, and the justness of his response. Fundamentally, sin is not a matter of our behavior, though it eventually shows up in our actions. Fundamentally, sin is a matter of our hearts, for as fallen creatures our ruling desire is to remove God from his throne and to sit there instead."

The Next Episode

Today marks the first time I've worked full-time since early June 2008. That's right, my church voted to increase my hours to full-time and my job title is now Associate Pastor. I have increased responsibilities that include preaching a little more often (8 or 9 times a year), developing and administrating our church's new website, starting some new ministries and lots of other possibilities. I'm very excited.

This is Amy's last week of working full-time at Pan-Pacific. Next week she'll be working some kind of part-time schedule.

We had a great time hosting a one year birthday party for Alice and enjoyed time spent with friends and family, some that we had not seen in a long while.

That's the update for today. Hopefully a lot more blogging will take place this summer!