Tuesday, November 22, 2011

WE GIVE THANKS

Yes, it is American Thanksgiving! And with the season surrounding us, I thought I would (finally!) update you with the things that we are thankful for this year.

To start things off though, this is our "Bag of Blessings", thanks to our dear friend Karen Major. She made this for us as a Christmas present last year, and we have been filling it with things we are thankful for. At Thanksgiving each year, we are supposed to open it up and be reminded of the Lord's goodness... so here goes our first year!

*Note: there are SO many things to be thankful for that we couldn't possibly write them all down in one go, so please don't be offended if we don't have a photo of you...know that we are thankful for you all :)


The Bag of Blessings is full of reminders of how the Lord has
been faithful to us over the past year.
Giving Verity a job here...

...and here, and at Riverbend Bible Church, 
giving Reuben a job at New World grocery store (this
was his photo when he was cashier of the month!).
The Lord helped Reuben to finish his Diploma at
The Shepherd's Bible College, 
and Verity was very blessed to receive
a certificate of her own, the "PHT".
During the whole year we have been surrounded by friends,
(please note: Karen & I called ahead to make sure we would
both close our eyes in this picture. It's actually quite a stylish
thing to show off your eyelids, or so I'm told)

more friends, 
out of town friends, 

new friends,

dahhling friends...

sisters in Canada,  

and sisters in New Zealand.
Then, we waved goodbye as we stepped out in faith
on a new journey to a land far, far away... 
with a short stop along the way :) 

and we arrived to our new home in Burbank, CA!

We are immensely blessed to live in the home of Stephanie Wolcott,
who has become like family to us from the moment we met her.
Our original plan was to stay with her until we found our own
apartment, but the Lord has made it clear to both Stephanie
and us that it would be better by far to stay in her home longer.
The situation here is so ideal, and we couldn't have asked for
anything better. We have unofficially been "adopted" by
Stephanie, and we are giving thanks that we can be a mutual
blessing to eachother by our living arrangements. If this
were the only blessing in our bag this
year, it would already be overflowing.  

///Quick Flashback///
Over two years ago, Reuben and I came to visit Los Angeles
 to check out the seminary.  During this trip we stayed with
Stephanie, and she showed us all around. This is Stephanie
and I at Malibu beach, and the Lord was bonding our hearts
 together in friendship, well before we knew
 that we would one day become like family! 
///Another Flashback///
Just for fun, had to include this photo.
Same trip from 2009. Sigh... we were so young!!



We are so thankful that the Lord provided us this car for
absolutely free! This was an unexpected blessing, as we had
 already put money aside to buy a car here. We are very,
very thankful to be a two-car family.  Reuben
drives this one ("Popeye") to seminary and work (he works
part-time at the bookstore on campus). Wonder why we
named him Popeye? He is running fine, but has a few quirks,
one being that his headlights are glued on... like, with a
hot glue gun!! So you can imagine what happens to him on
a hot, sunny day above 100 degrees? Hence the name!!

Verity drives this one ("Carl") for her many weekly events:
volunteering, choir practice, babysitting, Bible studies,
grocery shopping, etc, and being the tour guide for:

VISITORS!!
We are very thankful that my Mum could come down
for a visit. It was such a blessing to spend time with her,
and finally we didn't have to waste any of our precious days
 together on Jet Lag. Thankful to be on the same
 time zone as my family :) 


We are very thankful to be a part of Grace Community Church. It is a real privilege to be here...and we find ourselves here quite a bit! In case you didn't know, the church campus is where Reuben goes to school everyday, and where he works. It's quite a big campus, including a seminary, elementary school, bookstore, tons of offices, and (of course) the church! We would love to show you around if you ever come and visit :) 
I am very thankful for "SemWives", the program for all the women who are married to seminary students. Here we are trained and equipped for our future role as a pastor's wife. This is my group, we are led by Missy Mehringer and Beth Busenitz. All the ladies in this group have been a tremendous blessing in my life already.  


We are thankful for how the Lord has been helping us to grow in our marriage.
We are thankful for our new home, which includes us three girls (me, Steph and Polly),
and the two boys (Reuben and Sailor). 
Even this Thanksgiving Dinner which we will enjoy on
Thursday night  is a blessing from the Lord. 







 We pray that you also will give thanks to God our Creator for all His provisions. The greatest thing He has given us was the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. More than 2,000 years ago the Lord Jesus died on the cross as a punishment for sin... this is the most gracious and generous gift anyone could ever receive! God made Christ (who knew no sin) to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God (from 2 Cor 5:21). He paid the penalty for us, so that we could be made right with God. Have you thanked Him for this gift