Treading Water!

Norah helps water my potato plants

...And sports her first real pigtails

It's August 8th. We are in the middle of a fabulously fun VBS at Calvary Baptist. We leave for a month in the lower 48 in 22 days.We have 16 days left in Kenai until we move. It's 13 days until Evie's birthday (if she knew how to count down days, she would be doing it!). Justin has 2 1/2 days of work left at his job, and I have 2 days of work remaining. Those are our countdown numbers at the moment!
This Sunday, the 12th, we will be hosting a soup & salad lunch at Calvary to give one last update on our ministry and support process. We are looking forward to talking about Victory, as always! Lunch will be around 12:45, or after the 2nd service if you'd like to attend!
Next weekend we will be taking the kids of Calvary's youth group to Anchorage for one last youth activity. It'll be an awesome weekend with disc golf, putt putt golf (hmm, I sense a theme here!) and hiking in Anchorage. It will be a little bittersweet, I think, knowing that it's our last trip with the precious teens at Calvary.
Our weekend in Glennallen was awesome! We had a beautiful day to drive up and spent the first night at camp. It was great to say hello to staff and campers we knew and to talk about how the summer went. It was so cool to see people that we'd met at the beginning of the summer and see how their confidence in their staff roles had grown and how God had obviously done some awesome work over the summer! We camped at the Tolsona Wilderness Campground just outside Glennallen. We got to say hi to some of Justin's old friends and meet some new folks too! Evie and Norah had a ton of fun with kids there and went through 3 changes of clothes in one day. (You would think I'd have remembered that we had bathing suits for them, and just let them play in the river/mud that way!) On Saturday night Justin and I got a chance to share our testimonies with the people of GCC. I always dread speaking to bigger groups of people, but am always amazed how God seems to help me to make sense with what I say anyways! On Sunday morning Justin talked about Victory and answered questions about camp. It was so fun to talk with people and find all the connections we had, and mutual friends across the state. Alaska's such a big state and yet you can always seem to find someone who knows someone you know! Another reason why we love this place. :) We believe God was glorified through our weekend there and are also thankful that Norah only cried for the last 45 minutes of a 8-hour stint in the car!
All the busyness of this month has left me wondering when we will find the time to pack our things and say goodbye to the sweet friends we have made during our last two years of living in Kenai and attending our wonderful church. I'm trying to focus on the unseen during this time and let God's peace rule in my heart and mind. Above all, we're excited to see the next 'bend in the river' as God's amazing plan for our family slowly unfolds. We are so thankful to Him for His faithfulness day after day.

Some ways you can pray for us right now:
-That this busy month goes smoothly
-That our move to Victory goes well and that we have safety in travel
-That God is glorified through this week of teaching VBS and seeds of salvation are planted in kids' hearts
-Praise to God for always being sufficient!

Thanks as always for your prayers and support!