Mission: Tempe

Well, we are now about 3 1/2 weeks into renovations. It has been quite the adventure!!!

Shawn has put in many long hours of work... from climbing in the attic with fiberglass insulation surrounding him, to putting in electrical boxes, leveling out the sunken living room floor, painting, framing .. Oh and did I mention we had to move all of our belongings out of the storage unit into the Tempe house???

Craziness!

We have been extremely blessed with friends and family that have stepped in to help us with multiple tasks... moving (mind you, some of these guys have

helped us move now at least 3 times!!) lots of painting, epoxying the garage floor, removing ducting from attic, electrical work, babysitting and the list goes on and on!

At times I have looked around feeling overwhelmed and wondered if we were crazy for taking on such a massive project, especially while caring for our children and finishing the school semester/Chi Alpha... but God has provided for us around every corner! God has brought me back to the entire reason why we made this move & the vision He has placed in us!

We have a little less than 1 week left before we need to be out of the Scottsdale Condo... the house still needs A LOT of work ... trusting God to help us through!

Please pray with us during this major crunch time..

1. That God would continue to provide the help we need!

2. Resources

3. Energy/Endurance

4. Renovations to go smoothly & quickly

Upcoming projects this next week:

-AC being installed & re-ducted to attic

-Flooring, hopefully, being installed

-Lots of Painting

-Framing/Drywalling

A HUGE shout out to many of you who have helped in significant ways! Your help means more than we can say!

We have been extremely blessed to have my Uncle Danny here, he has now driven from Colorado TWICE -- He has been a God send! (*Please, pray for him as he is looking for a new job and hoping to relocate to AZ... has had a phone interview and hoping for a face to face one this week!)

Thanks Again for everything!

Excited for this new journey!

Believing God for great & mighty things in Tempe & beyond!

Way to Go Kristen & Clark--- You two are my heroes!!!

Celebrate

I love Easter! Growing up I have so many fond memories of Easter... I grew up in the small town of Bagdad, AZ (yes is does exist, and no, you have never driven through it... one way in, one way out... a copper mining town.) Every Easter it seemed like the entire town would head to Santa Maria River to have an Easter family picnic. It was awesome... families of all ages spread all over the place at the river, enjoying time in the sun... swimming, four wheelers, egg hunts and tons of yummy food!

I have great memories of waking up on Easter morning and searching for our Easter baskets, which were always filled with such wonderful things! I must admit, I still love peeps... not sure if it is just a nostalgic thing or if they are indeed good.. but nonetheless I will eat at least one during the Easter season!

And obviously I loved getting a new Easter dress with hats & gloves to match!

I was also just thinking about the time my parents got my brothers and I colored live chicks for Easter... haha, not sure what they were thinking! It definitely made an impact.. .although I can't remember what happened to those cute purple, pink, blue and yellow chicks.... ?

Wonderful memories.

And now here I am all grown up and I have the awesome privilege to create wonderful and meaningful memories for my children!

Although we did go to church growing up, the church we went to did not attribute Easter to the resurrection of Christ.

I am thrilled that Shawn and I can impart our beliefs in Jesus Christ and his life, death & resurrection into our children! How cool it is to already hear Trenton sharing the story with us... I am continually amazed at how much children are able to take in. Such a reminder that as parents we need to make those times & opportunities to speak God's truth into their lives... to expose them to music that is focused on God, to help them memorize scripture and just spend time talking & praying with them. Time to sow seed that will indeed reap a great harvest!!

This Easter we not only celebrated our Lord and Savior but it was also Shawn's birthday & we celebrated Skyler's first birthday as well (April 12th-- today!).

It was such a joy to gather with family and some of our closest friends and their children! The weather was absolutely gorgeous.. the children played great together, the adults were able to slow down for a bit and enjoy conversation. We carried on our family tradition of our annual egg toss... such a fun tradition... can't go wrong with some good healthy competition! :)

Even though it was not the river... it had a similar feeling of simplicity and fun... a blessing to celebrate with friends and family! A reminder to focus on the things that really matter and to not get bogged down with so much stuff, allowing stress to dictate.

Thankful for many things but most of all thankful that Jesus has Risen and that He offers the gift of life to any that would receive Him as their Lord and Savior!

He is Risen! He is Risen, indeed!

In Process

The renovation is underway! Many hours of hard work have been spent in this house transformation. Man, I sure wish it was as quick and easy as watching an episode of Extreme Home Make Over or an episode of a HGTV show... but reality check... we do not have a massive budget, a large work crew, editing or commercials. :)

It has definitely been a challenge in balancing family, ministry & renovations.

We had a little set back this week... our family went through the stomach flu... not fun at all, especially when you & your husband are both sick at the same time and need to care for three little ones! Thankfully, we are all on the mend!

And so goes the process... I guess sometimes transformation does not always happen as soon as we would like it to... there are challenges, set backs and hurdles along the way.

But as we fix our eyes on the vision and purpose, God gives us the grace and strength we need to press on!

We are thankful for many of you who have blessed us with your time and labor! We know that this endeavor cannot be accomplished without help... from the carrying of the massive 400lb support beam,

cleaning, painting, electrical work, removing insulation, moving boxes to helping care for our children... Thank you! At times we struggle to ask for help, not wanting to burden others, but reminded that it is important to express needs and give others the opportunity to come along side you.

So we continue to the process... More to come!

Picture 1- taken from the front door, shows the archway that went into the formal living room.

Picture 2- view from front door looking into the family room.

Picture 3 - taken from the formal dining room (which will become bedroom#4) shows the wall that separated the formal living room and family room being removed and the arch way removed.

Picture 4- guys holding up the super heaving support beam!

On the Move...

A long time ago, someone told me,"If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." This has seemed to play out many times in my life..

I am fairly confident that I have a plan... much thought, conversation and prayer has gone into it... and then unexpectedly the direction seems to change. In this moment I have a few options:

1. Freak Out

2. Desperately attempt to control the situation

3. Take a deep breath... pray & choose to trust God

I would love to say that I always choose #3, but that would be lying... many times I attempt options #1 & #2 first, just to be reminded that they really do not work well and that #3 is the best option! :)

This last year has been one of great transition!!! (note the 3 exclamation marks)

About a year ago, I was pregnant with our third child (Skyler)... we put our house on the market, sold it... moved in with my mom while we looked for a new house.

We bought a great 5 bedroom w/ a loft, two story home in South Gilbert.. it was a bit of a process with the loan and other details.. but with the help of our awesome realtor Matt Dunshie all went through!

We got all moved in (never an easy process with three little ones) and we were ready to get settled into our new big house. Our plan was that this house would be a place to put down roots... seemed like the perfect place to raise children.. friends nearby, nice schools, sports leagues galore, gymnastics, splash pads, malls... suburbia!

Several weeks after moving into our new house, I began to feel a little unsettled in my heart and a little restless...I began questioning if, perhaps God wanted us to move to Tempe (something we have wanted to do for the last 8 years, but it has never seemed like the right time & other factors have not seemed to be in our favor).

But this made no sense... we just bought a house! God has provided for us to buy this house... we had prayed about it.. had peace about it and the list went on and on why this made no sense.

I didn't even want to verbalize how I was feeling to Shawn, but I really couldn't ignore it anymore.

As we began discussing this, turns out Shawn was having the same thoughts and inner dialogue.

We reasoned that we really just needed to settle into our new house and that maybe somewhere down the road we might move to Tempe.. but not now. (our plan)

This reasoning did not last long... God kept prompting our hearts that it was time to make a move. We felt like God was telling us this, "You can stay here and it will be fine or you can trust me to sell your house, move you to Tempe, get close to the campus and I will bless you and take your ministry to the next level."

We decided that after the holidays we would get our house ready to go on the market.

We had our first Chi Alpha of the Spring 2012 semester, came home, moved unpacked boxes out of the office/storage unit.. tidied up the house and our realtor arranged for pictures to be taken of the house the next day!

Our house listed on a Friday and .... get ready.... it SOLD the NEXT DAY!!!!

Confirmation!

So, now we were on the quest for a house in Tempe. Our target area was pretty small, as we were wanting to not only be close to the campus, but be in a specific school district. Not too many houses were available in that area... and those that were, did not really work or were less than desirable. After much thought and prayer, we went with location and decided to go with a 1967 fixer upper, less than 2 miles from ASU and a mile from the elementary school. I have given it the name Vintage Beauty ... this is it's name in faith!

So up to date, we have moved out of our 5 bedroom house, placed our belongings in a storage unit... bought the fixer in Tempe and God, in His great generosity, has provided a furnished two bedroom condo in Scottsdale for us to stay in (rent free-- another amazing testimony) while Shawn & whoever he can talk into/bride/beg to come work with him on the demo and reconstruction.

So, we are on the move!

Through this process I am learning more and more to place my trust in God, to relinquish control and hang on tight while this adventure of life continues. I have been continually reminded of what a faithful Father & Provider we serve,that He cares about the details of our lives! I am learning to walk by faith and not by sight.. to say Yes to God, even when it does not make sense to me or to others.

Thank you to many of you for your encouragement, support, labor & prayers throughout this process. We are grateful beyond words.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." -Proverbs 16:9

To Be Continued ...

Seven

We just had the privilege of celebrating 7 years of marriage. So hard to believe all that God has done in our lives the last 7 years. From meeting over 10 years ago at an Embry Riddle Chi Alpha service to now co-pastoring Chi Alpha at Arizona State to 3 children later... the Lord has been so good to us and has taken us on quite the adventure!

"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4

As a young Christian I would read this verse and think that if I wanted something badly enough that God would know and He would just give me my "desires" (kinda like a genie in the bottle kind of god). I didn't really take into consideration the first part of the verse or think about what it meant to "take delight in the Lord..".

Delight- (Noun):

1. a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; joy; rapture.

2. something that gives great pleasure.

I am blown away at how God has blessed me beyond my wildest imaginations... As I have learned (and am continuing to learn... since the learning never does end, eh?) how to find my pleasure, enjoyment, my everything in my relationship with God ... He makes me more like Him and the things He cares about, I begin to care about... the things that grieve His heart begin to grieve my heart. That when I truly find my delight in the things of God... His desires are my desires.

Amazing that a perfect God can take our hearts of stone and reform them and make them more like His!

God knows exactly what/who we need in our lives! Shawn and I are so thankful that the Lord brought our paths together...for the way He divinely intervened in our lives. As we set out with such different plans and thought we knew what it was we wanted and what our "desires" were... God stepped in.

Someone once told me "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans". I am not sure if He laughs or not ... but I have definitely learned that even my best plans pale in comparison to God's plans for me!

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20

I am excited to see what the future holds for our family! I am confident that as we continue to take delight in the things of God and spend our lives wisely for His Kingdom... He will continue to amaze us!

As a single female I was challenged to think about this question regarding marriage.

"Can the two of you together do more for the Lord than you can on your own?"

I can answer that question, with gratitude and all glory to God, with a huge YES!!! :)

XA 2011 Banquet

Our 5th annual XA End of the Year Banquet!! As always an awesome way to end the school year.. to celebrate our graduates and all the amazing things the Lord has done throughout the school year!! Enjoy a powerful testimony from one of our students, Emily.

"Tonight was one of the best nights of my life. seriously. I love my God. I love my family. I love my family in Christ. I love Chi Alpha. I love my friends. I love me.Something was happening tonight and it was sooo good. worship was indescribable. God was shaking me, literally, and he was bring me and my parents closer, literally. tonight was a remembrance and a peak in my future - this summer and eternity.I don’t know what to say. If this is that good right now, I cannot imagine heaven and being with my God forever. Do we really get that?! FOREVER.God, thank you for the friends you’ve given me when I thought I would never have any -for you have shown me I am loved and I love You.Thank you if you are one of them. Praise God."P.S. I’M A JUNIOR (..after 1 more final)."

An Answered Prayer!

A challenge in Chi Alpha is that every student after graduation would "give a year and pray about a lifetime" - meaning they would give a year back to missions-- whether that be back to their campus, overseas or in some form of ministry. We are THRILLED to report that we will be having three of our graduates joining our staff team for next school year! Jenni- plans to come on as full time staff and will be raising support this summer.. both Maggie and Kent plan to join as part time staff. Please pray for each of them.. for God's provision... and that we would have wisdom on how to best utilize them on the campus! We are thankful that each one of them is willing to take this step and to set an example to other students!

[Pictures: 1. Michelle(Right), Emily (Left) 2. Maggie, Kent & Jenni 3. Graduates]

Red Couches

It's official: we have sold our house on 1132 N Sailors Way and we are completey moved out!

To clarify: We are not moving out of AZ... we are not leaving ASU Chi Alpha.... we are just relocating and buying a different house (during the interim we are living with my mom and hope to be in our new house in Gilbert some time in June).

Who knew that selling our red couches (not to mention many other peices of furniture and house hold items) would be so emotional!!!

It is not because the couches were in fantastic shape or were worth a lot money... as a matter fact they were torn, faded and stained...

The red couches were our first set of couches as newly-weds .. they made the move from our little apartment to our first house. So many memories around those couches... Memories as a new married couple and the countless conversations, laughter and tears... Memories of our children... bringing each baby home from the hospital....late night bottle feedings, cuddle time, reading books, watching every Toy Story movie more times than I can count... Memories of friendships... Chi Alpha Thanksgiving & Christmas gatherings... girls' brunches... so many heartfelt conversations, and times investing in relationships, prayer & ministry... SO many precious memories!

We are truly thankful for the time we had in our first home....each memory is priceless!

We look forward to all of the new cool memories and stories that will be shared in our next home (and I am excited to buy new couches!!! ).