I can't believe it's Monday already!  Last week was full of really great stuff, but somehow it ended yesterday evening with me feeling a little sad and lonely.  Maybe it's because Thanksgiving is coming up and I know we won't be around family like most other people (although our adopted family in Lancaster is pretty amazing!).  Maybe it's because I've talked to Kerri a few times over the past few days and I miss having a best friend (I have friends here, but not a best friend).  Maybe it's because we just got home from California and I am really missing being around family (knowing we can just be ourselves, that Ryan and I can sneak out during Judah's nap to do something together and not feel like it's a burden, and just being taken care of by parents), familiar and beautiful places, and people that have known us for years.  Maybe it's just hormones or weather or something else like that, but can anyone else relate to these times of loneliness and sadness?  I read some in Proverbs today.  Man, these things could have been written this morning, but they were written several thousand years ago in a completely different culture and are still so applicable.  Proverbs 15:13 says, "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit."  Proverbs 15:30 says, "A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones."  I hope that you have a happy heart that is filled with Jesus today!  Please pray for lots of cheerful looks and good news that will bring joy to our hearts today.  God is so good even when my feelings are down!
I have much more to write about, but I need to finish this up so I can feed Judah.  Oh, how I love that little boy!
Ryan, with the help of three guys, got the ceiling put up in our new bathroom.  They worked very hard and the weather was beautiful on Saturday so they could be outside some cutting the drywall.  You can see the smaller wall behind Ryan that doesn't go all of the way to the ceiling.  That is where the shower head will go and that was also drywalled on Saturday.  The remanining drywall needs to be put up along the top of the wall above the tub surround and Ryan and I will work on that tonight.  Then, I think Ryan will let us shower!  Hooray!  Please pray that we get the rest of the work done in this room by the end of the year.  I know that every part of this project is done in love and I'm so thankful for my husband's hours and hours of work on this.  But living in a construction zone gets old after a while.  Please pray for my attitude and my words to be pleasing to Him even in the midst of craziness.

Here are four kids from the Dillsburg, PA junior Bible quizzing team.  They came down on Saturday night for a pizza party and Bible quiz with our quiz team and then spent the night in the dorms and came to Celebration and Kingdom Kids on Sunday.  It was great to get to know them, their parents (hooray for older people to hang out with!), and their siblings a little.

Only Shalia and Yemari showed up for our quiz team and here is Ryan giving them some pointers before the quiz.  It was so fun to have Ryan there to hang out for the night with us.  Usually we do tag-team ministry these days (I do kids and he does youth ministry, so the opposite one can watch Judah), but he was able to join us for the whole time.  I love having my partner and teammate around!

 

Please pray for us as we deliver 225 Thanksgiving meals to our neighbors tomorrow.  Pray that God's love would just be flowing out of us like crazy!!!

Wow, how this week has flown by!  It's been full of stuff, but also full of God's goodness.  I was reading the verses that we were supposed to go over for quizzing this week--none of the girls could come to Cornerstone :(--and God hit me with a challenge.  I've read the story of Paul and Silas in prison and the earthquake and the jailer becoming a believer and all of that (Acts 16:16-40) hundreds of times, but I asked God to teach me something new and He did!  The jailer asks Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved and they answer him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved."  Then verse 34 comes--"Then he (the jailer) brought them into his house and set a meal before them (Paul and Silas).  He and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God."  Wow.  So often I have no courage to proclaim His truth to the world, which results from not loving God like I should.  If I am crazy in love with God, I will not be able to keep my mouth shut about His message to those He loves so much.  So often I keep my mouth shut or stay home instead of going and being His ambassador because of such stupid things--embarrassment, not wanting to be labled as the church girl, waiting for the right time, not wanting to offend.  But this verse says that the jailer's entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.  I'm not sparing myself embarrasment when I keep my mouth shut--I'm keeping others from rejoicing because they have heard about God and believed in Him.  I'm keeping them from the joy of knowing and loving Jesus that I have.  How selfish!  So, please pray for me, our family, and our church to be sharing Jesus like crazy with everyone we meet.  Everything else I could spend my time on is pretty useless in the end.  If you are following Jesus, are you spreading the joy?  If you don't know Jesus, let's talk!
Judah had a fun Halloween last Saturday.  He loves playing with his pumpkins and he's really going to love it next year when he can go trick-or-treating, get dressed up and eat candy. :)  We went to the doctor for his nine month check-up this week.  He got only one shot and everything looked good except for his size.  He is way below average for his size.  He is about the size of the average four month old.  I was told to feed him more frequent snacks and he had to get some blood drawn (he didn't even cry!) to check for ciliac disease and vitamin D levels.  I love that he's still tiny and I'm not concerned that he will catch up, but please pray that he's healthy and develops well.  He is definitely happy and learning new things all the time.  He loves clapping and this week he has pulled himself up to a stand a few times and started rocking on his hands and knees.  I'm hoping he'll crawl for Oma and Grandpa John to see!

Here's some of our neighbors getting ready to go trick-or-treating.  Irving, who you can barely see over the railing, turned five this week, so he got to go to Kingdom Kids for the first time on Sunday.  Pray that he would be a powerful follower of Jesus.

Here are some of my Water St.  kids right after Kingdom Kids.  We had a great time.  The story was about Cain and Abel and how we live in a world that's broken because of sin, but Jesus came to provide a way for us to get back to our right relationship with God.  Praise Him!

Here is my handsome, handyman husband putting the adhesive up on the walls around the tub so the tub surrond can go up.  He got it all up and caulked last weekend.  We have all taken baths in the tub this week.  It's nice not to have to pack up all of our stuff and travel to take showers.  He wants to put up all of the dry wall to cover up the insulation before we can take showers.  Hopefully that will happen quickly once we get back from California.
We are headed to California on Saturday and are so excited!  It will be a week full of chocolate fondue with friends, walks, visiting Kim, Jared, and Micah at the OAKS, pizza night at Tim, Kim, and Carson's house,
John's Bagel Deli, sharing about Urban Hope at church, going hiking in Malibu, spending lots of time with family, being outside in the warm weather, and whatever else God might have planned.  We'll give you the updates when we get home!

Ok, I'm at home and Judah is still having a hard time. I'm wondering if he might be teething because he keeps chewing on his hand really hard and won't sleep and is so cranky. The plumbing in our new bathroom is completed!  We no longer have a working bathroom upstairs.  We actually no longer have a working shower anywhere...but at least the toilet and sink work in our new bathroom.  Here is Ryan working on the tub surround so we can take showers one day (hopefully soon, Ryan is getting a little stinky :) ) Because of this, our house is a wreck.  So, all of that to say, I'm a little overwhelmed. God, please keep my head on straight and focused on you today. You are good! Hopefully next week will be a better week for an update. Sorry!