Blogging is a gift.  Some people have it; they write so eloquently one can hardly wait to see what they’ll post next.  Others, like me, Elizabeth, think of it more as homework.  I hope someday I will get the blogging bug, because it is such an amazing tool of communication.

Without further ado, I will try to update you on the highlights of the last few months.

This summer has been full to the max!

We spent 3 weeks moving and then 3 ½ weeks on the road, and it seems that the summer was gone before we had the chance to ever get bored!

God blessed us in June with a house!  He really plopped it in our laps.  I had reached the point of desperation, crying out to the Lord in complaint rather than request for answers about how to deal with our growing pile of “stuff” in our tiny 2 bedroom apartment.  My answer was to begin weeding out every belonging that was not absolutely essential, though this seemed daunting because we already try to live minimally!  God blew me away when Jamin came home one day with pictures of a beautiful yellow house with blue shutters that was only 6 years old! 

His dad (who is a real estate agent and who knew nothing of my frustration) had called out of the blue and asked him to check out this house that was on foreclosure.  In the next week, Jamin’s dad bid on the house, offering much less than the house was worth, and he won the bid!  So we now rent from Jamin’s father, who sees this as a great investment opportunity!  The Lord is certainly able to do anything, even when we fail to actually ask Him humbly to meet our needs.

We spent a solid two weeks painting and cleaning the house, expending every last bit of energy working 12 hour days while my mom helped watch the kids. 

We moved a few boxes every day,

and by the beginning of July, we were finally moved in.  Esther still asked me when we were going back home, though.  Her name for our new house was “The Flower House” (and she still calls it that to this day) because of the flower motif in the glasswork on the front door.

Moving to a house with 2/3 of an acre in the middle of the country certainly has challenges we never had to face in an apartment (like mowing, planting grass and trees, mice, flies, red clay), but it’s so worth it for the space!  A few weekends ago we had friends over to spend the night, and it was so nice to be all together, but not all on top of one another!


Our 3 ½ week trip to Mid-America came shortly after we got settled into our new house.  Jamin had been scheduled to speak in 5 assemblies in Alabama in one week, so we explored the possibility of continuing on to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas afterward, considering we were already half-way out there.  The Lord opened the doors for that to happen and provided places to stay and friends to visit all along the way. 

We took off, not remembering from childhood furloughs what it means to be away from your home and in so many other homes for nearly a month!

We stayed at 12 places, visited more people than I can count, spoke to 8 churches, slept no more than 3 nights in one place, and traveled over 4,000 miles in 3 1/2 weeks.  I don't think we quite pondered what we were getting into until about the middle of it all, but it turned out fantastic, and we are so glad to have made lasting memories with people we grew to love.

We were home only a few short weeks and then went off again on another long trip.  This time to Yosemite valley and northern California. 

Jamin’s dad’s family camps out at Yosemite every fall, and with their help, we were able to make it out there this year!  They always rent camping spaces all together, and people come and go as they can, due to work and school schedules.  This year there were about 45 to 60 people there altogether: family and friends.

It was a great time of Christian fellowship and family bonding, especially in light of the fact that Jamin’s sister, Joy, will be moving to North Africa with her husband Jeremy next summer.  We will miss them so much!

For more pictures of our time at Yosemite, check out our September pictures here.

After a week at Yosemite, we drove up to Placerville, CA (near Sacramento) where Jamin’s dad conducted a wedding for one of our friends who comes to Yosemite every year as well.  She married a German boy, so that was a fun intercultural experience.

We were immensely encouraged by that godly family of nine children (nearly all grown), as well.  Jamin enjoyed talking with one of their sons, John, about aviation, because he’s in the CAP.  John had an Air Force helmet in his room that had been given to him by a retired AF pilot friend of his.  The Lord laid it on his heart to give Jamin this type of helmet the next day as we were leaving. 

Jamin needs just such a helmet for his service in mission aviation once he gets overseas!  Helmets like these start at around $1,000, so this is a huge blessing from the Lord.  We’re so amazed to see Him working through His people.

While in California, Jamin received a phone call, asking if he would be willing to make a trip to Honduras.  The airplane Jamin had worked for months to fix up was now in service at a missionary hospital in Rus Rus, Honduras, but there had been a problem.  While taxiing, the pilot accidentally ran into a small tree with one of the wings, causing the sheet metal to crumple.

It was beyond anything the missionaries down there could do to fix it.  Jamin was the one who installed the drooped leading edge on that wing, so he was the logical one to go fix it.  He was excited to be given the opportunity to travel abroad and use his abilities for the Lord and get this plane up and running again.

We were back from Yosemite only one week, and then he flew off to Honduras, leaving the rest of us behind for two weeks!  He’ll be back tomorrow, if all goes as planned.  He finished the wing repair in just three days and then went to another mission station to help with an engine overhaul on another plane.  But I’ll let you hear about all the details from him.

We've missed you, Daddy!