Cal & Kenzie/Redwood Camp Dinner

We celebrated Calvin and Kenzie once again for their SoCal Wedding Reception. What a blessing to be apart of further celebration of our wonderful friends. We loved watching them on the dance floor, enjoying their junior high/high school students. Another special moment was watching the Father/Daughter, Mother/Son dance, where they invited all the Fathers and their daughters, as well as all the Mothers and their sons, to dance with them. Click on the clip to see! It was amazing to see their church surround them in support and celebration.

We're celebrating. Does it look like a celebration to you? It should because we have things like a blanket, pizza, candles, rootbeer and smiles. We're having such a dandy time. Celebration is a wonderful thing. There is a very important reason we celebrated this night, though. Can you guess why...

I lost my job at Starbucks. I was late 3 times over 6 months, and I guess they had enough. It was humbling and sobering. 9 months ago, when Keri and I felt like God wanted us to get simple jobs--I never expected that I'd lose mine. It was hard to "fail" at something so "easy." Keri was wonderful, and extremely supportive. She reminded me that my value is in Jesus by the way she treated and trusted me. And she reminded me that God's hand is in everything that happens even our own mistakes. So that night, I treated her to a candle lit dinner, under a starry sky, to let her know how special she is to me. What a great thing to celebrate; a wonderful wife, a lost job and a faithful God.

Pray for us as I am 3 weeks into looking for a new job. God's timing is good, and He knows what He's doing, so we're learning to wait patiently in Him.

Keri's Average Day at The Little Gym

Here is a taste of a typical day at the Little Gym. This is a video that one of the moms in my Parent Child classes captured. Definitely would qualify for America's funniest home videos. No children have been injured in the filming of this video. Oh and Bode, the little boy I am helping on the balance beam, happens to be my favorite and the most precious!!! Watch at least the first 5 seconds!! :)

Republica Dominicana

Thanksgiving is going to be a bit different for this couple. We're leaving today at 3AM to fly 5 hours to Miami, and 2 hours to the Dominican Republic. We are both excited and nervous about the trip. Our family (Debra, Mike and Jono) have gone a couple of times, and now we're going together. We're staying in a team house. We'll be helping with projects around the orphanage and school. Thanksgiving day we are giving the Dominican teachers the day off (the only day they get off all year, outside of weekends). In the evening we will cook a huge Thanksgiving feast for them and their families. Friday we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with all the Kids Alive missionaries from around the country. If you would like the ministry we are working with click here. We'll post some pictures when we return!

Someone once compared newlyweds to infancy. As we anticipate yet another new dynamic together on a team in a foreign country, we do feel like babies! There are a lot of new emotions that go into marriage, and remaining a unit while being around others is a learned thing. Pray for us as we venture off!

Found Passport! Off to the Dominican

We've been in panic mode the last few hours. Surprisingly, things don't always stay where you place them...or so it seems. Keri and I have torn apart our home looking desperately for my passport. Ironically we've spent the last two months working hard on getting her passport renewed, renamed and back in time for our travels this thanksgiving. Assuming, all the while, that my passport was safely tucked away in "its place." Well, that place didn't exist. We ripped apart our laundry, pulled boxes out from storage, looked through our books, emptied our drawers, undid our bedding, and basically, well, we should be long gone trotting down the yellow brick road by now.

As all the ruckus took place, God brought to mind the parable of the women who had 10 coins and lost one. She looked frantically for the one missing coin--and it blew our minds, as we were looking for my passport, that God describes Himself looking for us in the same way. He has the same desire to to seek us out (and infinitely more), as we do for our lost things.

Keri and I were both encouraged that as we searched, we really searched together. We looked, lifted, asked and helped in the effort to find the passport. And more so, stress didn't get the best of us! We held our own until we heard that a 24 hour replacement is above $300! (Which we don't have as you will see, refer to upcoming entry). As the stress of the government appointment mounted, we made one last desperate attempt to search our camping gear. Both our parents we're praying at the moment we found it. It was in the passport holder. Apparently it was hiding behind the other passport holder we had already looked through. So things do stay where you place them...hmmm.

Phantom of the Opera

We recently watched Phantom of the Opera. This was the first time I watched the whole movie. It was a beautiful story of a man who needed to be loved beyond his appearance. It was very moving for both Dave and I to watch, since we both feel like the Phantom. Marriage, thus far, has been a beautiful process of God giving us the gift of love and safety, found in each other, to love each other through the brokenness/sin inside that is coming to the surface. What an amazing gift God would give us.

Our devotional today reminded me of this similar idea. I think the poem is highlights from Charles Finn's poem.

"Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Corinthians 3:16)."

"For some people, pretending is a way of life. Consider these comments on the issue of hiding behind a veil:

Don't be fooled by me. Don't be fooled by the face I wear. I wear a mask. I wear a thousand masks---masks that I am afraid to take off; and none of them are me.

Pretending is an art that is second nature to me, but don't be fooled. For my sake, don't be fooled. I give the impression that I am secure, that all is sunny and unruffled within me as well as without; that confidence is my name and coolness my game, that the water is calm and I am in command; and that I need no one. But don't believe me, please. My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is my mask, my ever-varying and ever-concealing mask.

Beneath lies no smugness, no complacence. Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, in aloneness. But I hide that...I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear being exposed. That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind---a nonchalant, sophisticated facade---to help me pretend, to shield me from the glance that knows. But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only salvation, and I know it. That is, if it's followed by acceptance; if it's followed by love.