Summer Stretch

A little bit of Norah mischief...helping herself to items on the bathroom counter

And getting stuck in the 2nd floor skylight of the dollhouse. (Is it bad that this picture makes me smile?)

The girls on a trip to the Alaska Zoo

A trip to McHugh Creek on Turnagain Arm with our friends the Bittles

 July is drawing to a close and we have begun counting down days....Evie is counting down days to her 4th birthday (it's on August 21st), Norah is counting down the days she has left before she is fully weaned (well, she would if she could :) ) and Justin and I are counting down the days until we make the full and complete move to Victory (just under a month).

We fly out to Salem, OR on August 30th. We will be presenting at Bethany Baptist Church while we're there-it's the church Justin attended while he was in college. On September 5th we're flying to Pennsylvania to visit family and present at East Side Bible and Calvary Bible Church. We're hoping to make a quick jog down to North Carolina while we're there to visit our friends the Ellers! On September 23rd we are flying to Minnesota and driving to Bemidji to stay with Steve and Brenda, Justin's parents, and Justin will do some staff recruiting for Victory at Oak Hills Bible College, where Steve is president. We will be returning to Alaska on October 1st.  At least I think I have all the dates right! It's going to be a long trip but we are really looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends and striving towards being at 100% of our support goal.

It is pretty crucial that Justin be able to be at camp to work with the program this fall and we are trusting God to see us through to our full budget at that time. It's very easy to doubt sometimes, when what we're doing looks rather foolish from a world's point of view. I had a chance to talk to a missionary who is visiting Calvary right now and confide in her that I worry sometimes that we won't be able to raise our support and we'll be stuck in limbo forever. She smiled and urged me to throw myself upon the mercy of Christ. She said she has never once been disappointed by taking a step of faith. It was so good to hear those words!

We are gearing up for Vacation Bible School right now at our church. I'm teaching the 3&4 year old class. Our theme this summer is Incrediworld - an amusement park theme from Answers in Genesis. We'll be studying different animals in God's creation. If you live in the area, and have kids through 6th grade, bring them over! It's August 6-10th and we start at 6:15pm.

Victory is in the middle of their last week of camp. We'll be able to stop in and say hi to everyone on Friday on our way to Glennallen. Glennallen Community Chapel is having their annual church campout and outdoor service this weekend. Justin and I will be sharing our testimonies for the church on Saturday night, and on Sunday Justin will present our ministry at Victory and give a short devotional. We're looking forward to camping out and as always, getting to talk about Victory and what God is doing there!

Ways you can be praying for us right now:
-That God will move mountains and we will get to 100% of our support
-That God will plants seeds of faith in young hearts during Calvary's VBS- 8/6 through 8/10
-That the staff at Victory finishes strong and leaves camp praising God for the work He did this summer
-For increasing measures of faith in God, and for us to partake daily of His grace.

Thank you for your prayers! We love hearing from everyone and knowing that we are being covered in prayer. Don't ever underestimate how powerful it is when God's people pray for each other!

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Norah waits for the parade to start with her Uncle Levi

                          

At Juneau Falls in Cooper Landing

The exciting point of the hike was almost losing our dog Dagonet over the falls

It's almost mid-July and the summer days are flying by! This summer has already been different from any summer we've experienced so far. We know we are growing in our faith and being stretched in our trust in God, and that's a good thing.
We got to enjoy a visit from some dear friends from North Carolina this past week. Josh and Melissa Eller brought their two precious boys and visited the Kenai Peninsula. It was so good to see Melissa, who I grew up with, and to introduce their family to Evie, who they had never met.
Aside from Justin working full time and me working part time, we've gotten to do some fun summer things!
We took in the exhilarating 4th of July parade in exciting Kenai Alaska (...do you detect the note of sarcasm? :) It's funny to look back at things like this that I went to as a child and remember my excitement, and then see the same things as an adult and watch my children enjoy them just as much as I did. Despite the cloudy skies that intermittently spit rain, it was a fun family activity. Afterward we went to my parent's for a barbecue and had a great afternoon with family and friends.
We got to hike to Juneau Falls, which is 4 miles in on the Resurrection Pass trail, last week. It was just the right type of hike for busy folks and it has inspired Justin and I to try and do the full hike- from Cooper Landing to Hope- which is about 38 miles. More on that in later posts!
I have been studying 2 Corinthians in my personal time and it's amazed me to see the clear system of missionary support that God inspired Paul to urge the church at Corinth to apply. Sometimes I feel that we're lost or in the dark on the support raising front, and it's easy to take the world's point of view and look at it as mere fundraising. But knowing that it's a system focused on God's provision, which inspires outpourings of grace, which in turn allows us to give all thanksgiving to God, brings him glory! And isn't that our final goal?
We've had several people ask us specifics about our support goal and details of where we're currently at and what our future plans are. Don't hesitate to contact us- we'd love to hear from you! You can find us on facebook or email us to get on our list for e-updates. i_love_jesus7777@hotmail.com for Justin, or super_lyn_z@hotmail.com for me.

Some ways you can be praying for us right now:
-For the rest of the summer at Victory- this week is the short week with the youngest campers. Pray against homesickness, and for God to speak big things to little hearts.
-For family time as we struggle to find moments where we can all connect together throughout the week.
-For our support to continue growing.
-For health & safety through the rest of the summer as our health insurance has ended. The girls should be able to have insurance soon.
-Praise God with us as we thank him for his provision and care for us. Pray that we would always be aware and humbled by his grace toward us!