God is absolutely AMAZING!

Some of you know that Kaleb and I have been in need of a car.  Neither of us have had a car since arriving back to the states.  We have been looking for a car for MONTHS....with absolutely no success.  We were working on a limited budget but were still able to find cars in our price range we'd be interested in....but when we'd go to look at them (after having them checked over by a mechanic too) they would become a quick NO because the reports the mechanics would give us were so bad.

As this week approached, things were coming down to the wire.  We would have moments where we truly struggled to keep high spirits as we looked at car after car.  But, for some reason we both truly believed and just truly felt that we were definitely going to find a car before we had planned to leave.  We were SO emotionally and mentally exhausted from preparing to leave for training, packing up our lives here, and car hunting!  We weren't sure how or where...but we just had to trust that God was somehow going to provide.  Well, as of this past Saturday - we FINALLY have a car!!!

The car we bought was the FIRST car we've looked at that after it was checked by the mechanic actually got a good report!!  So mechanically, the car was good, drove good, looked good...we liked it. haha.  The only thing was that the car was more than we could pay.  We would have to use money from what we had set aside for travel to Georgia and Florida.  We asked the guy if we could have some time and went and prayed about it.  We both felt that it was the car we were supposed to get and it was the best one, out of so many, we'd seen.  We decided to purchase.  There were a few things on the car that needed to be done before it was ready so we put a deposit down and set an appointment to pick it up Monday.  We were just going to have to trust that God would provide the money again that we were going to take from our travel fund....we truly believed this was the car we were supposed to buy.

The next day....He provided... !! :)  We had prayed that He would but we didn't know when He would or how....and I don't think either of us expected it so soon....but OH how AMAZING our God is!!!!  The next day we received a wedding gift that covered the extra we had to pay for the car and a little more - we were speechless and completely filled with JOY!  PRAISE THE LORD!! :)  We both just sat there in AWE of how God provided and just how He has continually cared for us!  It's an incredible feeling to know the creator of the universe has got your back ;).

So.....to sum it up ;) ....God completely and utterly ROCKED OUR WORLD this weekend!!!!  He provided a car for us 2 days before we had planned to leave and provided the money we needed to purchase it and therefore money we needed for travel!!  I don't think I will ever tire of His surprises :).  I hope that our situation can encourage some of you - don't loose hope and don't loose faith, God provides!!  It may not always be within your time frame, haha :) ....but God's timing is much, much better!!  He always knows what we need and WHEN we need it :).

Say hello to our 2001 Subaru Outback -

 Loaded up and ready to go!

 Praise God for our car!! :)

Well, we are off to start our journey to the east coast today .....thank you all for your many prayers!!!  We hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Provision

The last week has been a whirlwind of packing, cleaning, organizing....more packing....more organizing....and so on and so forth!  We've been like two of those Energizer bunnies - we are exhaused!  BUT....so thankful for how the Lord has continued to provide!

We already got rid of our furniture (yay!) so had a picnic in our living room amidst our boxes! :)

We leave Nor Cal in less than a week....time has flown by!  We plan to leave here the 21st to start our journey to FL.  We will stop in Georgia and spend Christmas with my family and then head down to training the beginning of Jan.

We are praising God for already $2,400 in support for our training!!  We still need $7,100 but know that God will provide!  We can still go to training without the full support in but will need to continue to raise the money while there and after if we have not received it all by then.  We are so thankful to those that have already given and for those that have kept us in your thoughts and prayers - THANK YOU!

If you think of us....please continue to pray for us as we prepare to leave.  That we will be able to get the things done we need to and that we will not forget anything :).  Also for safe travels out to Georgia and Florida, thanks so much!

Uncharted Territory

When initially praying and thinking about Lifelines, we decided if we could pick what college campus to work on it would be, NAU (Northern Arizona University).  Kaleb graduated from there and we both wanted to stay on the west coast, so it just "made sense"......and that was that.
As the weeks passed, we continued our busy lives preparing and getting things together here in Nor Cal, not thinking - or talking for that matter - much more about any other state but AZ.

Well, about a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, I started to think about Maine....it seemed random to me but I noticed that it started to come to mind a lot.  I tried to push the thoughts away and would justify this by telling myself, "why am I thinking about Maine...we want to be in Arizona, we should be there."  I look back now and see that God was trying to prepare me ;).  Interestingly enough....around this same time, Kaleb had been thinking the same thoughts - Maine kept coming to his mind too, but he would push the thoughts away for the same reasons I did.

I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this ;) ....yes, HR called us the week before Thanksgiving and asked us to pray about serving with Lifelines in...you guessed it, Maine.  Long story short, we found out that out of all the campuses HR believes that we would receive the best training on the Maine campus.  They have a strong team and are the original campus for the ministry.  They are also one of the busiest campuses and are in need of more staff to help. 

During our conversation with HR, we realized that we'd BOTH been thinking about Maine....and had both chosen to ignore it, haha.  It immediately hit us that this wasn't just a random coincidence, but GOD and He'd been trying to get our attention...how selfish we'd been.  HR was going to give us some time to pray about going there and then we were to get back to them.

I think we both just kinda knew after that phone conversation Maine was where we were supposed to go....and although we were in all honesty disappointed about not going to AZ - we still had a peace.  We'd been saying the whole time since applying for staff that we wanted to go wherever GOD wanted us to go!  We truly want that...but selfishly desired that place to be AZ ;).  Arizona was comfortable for us.....but as a lot of us know, God doesn't like to always keep you comfortable ;), haha.

After much prayer and consideration, we believe we have confirmation....we have a PEACE....and we have a tremendous JOY and excitement when thinking about going to serve with Lifelines in Maine!  In fact, the more we think about it, pray about it and talk about it - the more excited we get!  We talked with HR again recently and have given our official decision - that we would love to serve in Maine!

It isn't technically official until we receive our commissioning papers at the end of our training, but as of right now....Maine is where it looks like we'll be headed and we couldn't be happier! :)

Check out Lifelines at the University of Maine:
http://lifelinesumaine.com/

AH life!

It still feels so surreal to be married!  Since arriving back in the states from our mission trip, life has changed...and seems to keep changing ;)...FAST.

Since our flight touched down that - what seems forever ago - day on April 29th in Los Angeles, CA....we've gone from being best friends to best friends that are dating, haha.  We've traveled to Arizona, then back to Cali, to Texas....to Georgia, to Florida....BACK to Georgia (oh wait, there's more! ;) ....from there we split ways and I spent a month in Orlando getting my things together while Kaleb started work in Nor Cal.  In July, I moved to Nor Cal - and then guess what...someone decided to propose a week later! hehe.  Ah BLISS :).  Then it was off to wedding planning....OH how that can consume a day! ha.

September rolls around and we've applied for staff with Campus Crusade now....and wedding planning is still in full force.

October 30th...our wedding day.....pure JOY :)

 photo by our amazing photographer, Adam Nash http://www.adamnash.us/

One honeymoon and Thanksgiving later and we get the news we've been waiting for - we are accepted to staff with Campus Crusade!  But it doesn't stop there....

We are now packing up all we own here in Nor Cal, storing it, and will be driving 3,000 miles across the country to Daytona Beach, FL for New Staff Training (NST) with Crusade.  We will be making Florida our new "home" for January and the first part of February.  Then it's back across the country to Nor Cal again where we will stay while we raise our financial support.

Some might become overwhelmed by all this change....but I guess it's safe to say, Kaleb and I like change ;).  This isn't to say we've handled all this perfectly, haha, we've definitely had our moments of, "oh wow, what are doing!?" and "now HOW is this going to work out!?" haha.  But during those times we are constantly reminded about how God continues to care for us!  He has provided for us both time and time again - we can't help but trust He will continue to do the same!

And so, the journey begins.....well, I guess I should say "continues" :) ....