The Adventures of Paul & Sonja

The Most Beautiful Man

2011-01-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the first warm day we've had in a long time. The biggest snow fall in South Carolina since 1988 had snowed us in for almost a week and all of us were getting restless. Although we were very grateful to have Netflix and lots of food to snack on, we were ready for the normal southern weather to grace us once again.

Saturday was that day. It was sunny AND in the 50s which seemed so warm compared to our 20 degree days we've been having. Paul, Ernie, Paul's sister Camille and myself piled in the car and drove to downtown Greenville for a walk. Paul and Ernie were walking pretty fast and Camille and I were a couple paces behind.

A car slowed, a window rolled down and a women called out from an old station wagon to Paul. "Excuse me sir, excuse me". We naturally all looked her way. She was wearing some sort of fur coat, which seemed somewhat odd because of the vehicle she was in. Then she said something very unexpected. "I just have to say you are the most beautiful man I have ever seen!"

Paul, not even missing a beat, smiled and said, "thank you". He then continued walking like this was some normal occurrence. Camille and I looked at each other and busted out laughing.

The next morning we were walking to church. There was still lots of snow and ice on the walkways and Paul asked if he could hold my hand. "Of course" I said. "I would be honored to hold the most beautiful man in the world's hand."

Sonja's Easter Basket Surprise

2010-04-05T11:57:00.001-07:00

Easter

2010-04-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

Paul and I had a great Easter. We made each other Easter baskets and were excited to present them to each other before breakfast. We didn't really have baskets or grass, so we improvised. I found a shoe box and filled it with green tissue paper and Paul found a basket and used a green towel for the "grass". In my basket, among my favorite candies, was a little box holding an amazing diamond studded ring.

Earlier in the week Paul and I were shoe shopping. The only register open was at the jewelry counter. So, while Paul was buying his new shoes, I was checking out the goods under the glass. I tried one ring on that had caught my eye because I always wanted a ring like it. Paul liked it too. But then we left the store and never really talked about it again. I secretly hoped that he would get it and maybe surprise me with it someday. But I didn't think it would happen so I tried to not let my mind wander too much in that direction. So when I saw the box in my Easter basket I was so excited! I kept staring at it all day.

We had Easter lunch at our house. Paul made the ham and I decorated the tables outside. Everyone loved my chocolate covered pretzel sticks with sprinkles. We had a great time with Paul's parents and his two sisters and James, Lauren's husband.

After lunch Paul took a quick nap and then headed to church to prepare for his sermon. He preached really well tonight. He has grown to be an amazing preacher. A man with passion and clarity. After the service we had 12 college students over for a leftover dinner and fellowship. It was a great Easter.

An Easter Surprise

2010-04-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to an out of the ordinary voice mail message. It was a lady with a sweet southern accent who said she was from A Florists. She said that she had a delivery for me and that I needed to call her back.

I know this might sound weird and awful but my first thought was that someone was playing a mean trick on me. Why else would they want me to call them. If they really had flowers for me they would just deliver them. I thought that maybe it was just a ploy to have me call back someone, since I do have a bad habit of not calling people back. I was tempted to just not call at all so that I would have the last laugh, but I was hopeful. I mean, how cool would that be to get flowers on Easter weekend to be able to display as the family comes over for a big Sunday lunch. Paul suggested I call them back. And to my surprise and delight when they answered the phone it was a legitimate florist! They were in the area and wanted to make sure I was home and if not where they could leave them. When I told them I was home they came over immediately. I think they were at the house 5 minutes after I spoke with them, if not less.

The lady got out of the car with a large, beautiful bouquet of flowers and gave them to me. I was still so amazed that anyone would send me flowers. Who could they be from?

I read the card and began to cry. My brother Tim. The person I would least expect to send me flowers had sent me flowers. And yet, if you know Tim at all, it was so fitting. He told me that he loved me and missed me and wanted to send me a little taste of spring. Paul and I hugged as I cried. Then I quickly placed them outside on our back table and we enjoyed breakfast with the sun shining, the birds singing, and flowers on my table. It was a wonderful way to start the Easter weekend.

A Wonderful Long Weekend At The Beach

2010-03-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

Our friends Ben and Denise from church invited us to stay with them at their parents beach house in Beaufort this past weekend. There was a 8K run and 5K walk that weekend at Habersham which we did while we were there.

Paul and I left Thursday morning following Ben and Denise. We stopped for lunch at a BBQ and arrived early evening. The house was near the beach and we enjoyed riding bikes, riding the family golf cart, walking and exploring an old fort used in some war. We had all emptied our fridges and brought everything with us, so we ate well. We also did a lot of relaxing and hanging out around the house. One night as Ben and Denise prepared dinner, Paul played his guitar and I sang praise songs as their little boy Elliott danced around the room. Friday night Tamara and Taylor and their little girl came over. Taylor had been Ben's roommate in college and had remained good friends. Paul and I had never met them before, but had a great time hanging out with them too. Paul and I thought Taylor looked a lot like my brother Tim, it was really weird.

Saturday was the day of the race. Ben and I were antsy all day with anticipation. I just wanted to run it. But it was a twilight run, so it didn't start until 6pm. We got there early and got our numbers on and put our race tags on our shoes, which I had never seen before. The Bow Tree Run doesn't need that I guess because there aren't as many participants. It attaches to your shoe and tracks the time the gun fires, when you actually cross the starting block (with 400 people, you can start pretty far back) and when you finish. It was pretty cool.

It was a perfect day for a run, warm and sunny. Habersham was like a dream. I felt like I was running through Heaven on earth. Picture perfect houses with beautiful porches overlooking lush green yards and the ocean. There were parks and big oak trees with spanish moss hanging from the branches. I have never seen a community so beautiful! It was all flat too, which was amazing, since all my previous races had big hills.

I think the beauty of my surroundings distracted me from the fact that I was in a race because I felt good the entire time. As usual, Paul left me in the dust at the starting block and so I ran alone. Just me and my Ipod. I was loving the run and the seanery. I had never ran more than 3 miles before so my goal was to finish. I took a nice easy pace, just a bit slower than my normal one. When I saw the 4 mile marker I picked up the pace, feeling good and knowing it was almost over. About the 5th mile, to my surprise, I caught up to Paul who was walking! I asked him if he was ok and he said he was but that I should just keep going. Later I found out that he had pushed himself, beating his personl record for the 5k and then had no energy left for the remaining 2 miles. I pushed it to the finish line, sprinting past 5 people on the last leg. I finished in 48:08! I was so proud of myself. My goal was to finish in 50 minutes and I had beaten that goal along with beating my husband!

After the race we stretched and quickly got in the car to go home. Paul and I had to be back at church the next morning and we had a 4 hour car drive ahead of us. We changed into dry clothes in the car and headed on our way. We listened to a book on tape and although we were extremely tired, God kept us safe all the way home.

We had arrived home and were excited to jump into bed about 12:30am. Paul began to pull into the garage when we heard a terrible sound. The sound of metal bending and crashing. It was so loud that the neighbor dogs began to bark. Paul stopped the car. We hadn't even made it into the garage and we looked at each other like "what was that!". Then Paul's eyes got big and said, "oh no...the bikes!".

We have a nice Thulle bike rack that goes on top of the car. We had taken both of our bikes with us, but since Ben and Denise had bikes there, we used theirs and left ours on top of our car. We had completely forgotten about our bikes until now.

We got out of the car to see Paul's bike handle wedged under the siding above our garage. The bike was hanging from the house and still attached to it was our bike rack. Hanging from the bike rack was the metal frame that used to surround both sides of Paul's car. Maybe if I wasn't so tired and it wasn't so close to 1am, I might have found this funny, or I might have even taken a picture, but it was more of an annoyance. I was tired and now I would be going to bed even later. Paul backed the car out of the way and began to pull (I was too short to reach). The bike was really jammed in there but he eventually got it down.

We parked the car in the driveway, put the bike, car parts and bike rack in the garage and decided we would assess the damage the next morning. We were tired and ready to go to take showers and go to bed.

doggie love gets expensive

2010-03-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

For the past couple of weeks Ernie has not been himself. The once highly energetic, enthusiastic and expressive dog has become depressed. And for good reason. In his joy and excitement sometime this month he pulled something in his back right leg. The vet examined him a couple of weeks ago and prescribed some pain killers and told us to ice and heat his leg once a day.

The problem with pain killers is just that, it kills the pain. And with Ernie, that was all he needed to feel 100%. He immediately started being his normal endearing crazy self. He began jumping with joy for breakfast and dinner, spinning 360 degrees in the air before landing again just long enough to bounce off the floor and do it again. He also began his usual sprints along the fence with the neighbor dogs. Paul and I tried everything to stop him from being active so he could heal.

Two days ago we decided that Ernie needed to feel the pain so he would calm down and rest his leg. We stopped giving him his pain meds. Ernie felt the pain. He began to walk with three legs instead of four, holding his right hind leg out to the side. It was terrible to see. But he finally began to lay around the house and we were hopeful that he would recover soon.

Today I came home from bible study around Noon and the house was quite. I wasn't greeted by a dog. Very unusual. I walked around the lower part of the house quietly, thinking maybe he was doing something bad and I would catch him in the act. When I didn't see him downstairs, I made my way up the stairs. To my horror, there he was, in my guest room with piles of poop all over. I couldn't help but yell his name. ERNIE!

Ernie knows he is not allowed upstairs and has always obeyed the house rules. He had never gone to the bathroom in the house before and I knew there was something wrong. He looked ashamed and scarred of his impending punishment. I chased him down stairs. To my horror he ran down the stairs with only three legs, making me feel terrible, peeing all the way down. Not only did he pee down the flight of stairs but he kept peeing down the hallway, thru the dinning room, into the kitchen and to the back door, where he was quickly escourted out. He needed no other punishment than that.

After I disinfected my stairs, which I consuled myself by saying they needed to be dusted anyway, and cleaned the guest room carpet and yelled some frustrations out as I vacummed (I feel that vaccuming makes things cleaner. It made me feel better anyway), Ernie went to the vet. Over six hundred dollars later we found that he has further hurt his leg, probably when he was on the pain meds, and has tour his ACL, requiring surgery.

It has been hard to see him in such pain tonight. He is on lots of medications and is kind of loopy. But he knows he is loopy and seems freaked out by the fact that he doesn't feel right and can't walk straight and frustrated that he can't run, which up till now has always been his favorite thing to do. It's amazing to see that a dog can experience such emotion. He wanted to snuggle more than usual tonight, probably because he was so traumatized by all the sudden change in his life. Paul even let him on the couch with him which has always been forbidden before.

Continue to pray that God will provide for us financially so we can give Ernie the care he needs and for all the other housing needs (we need a new roof. but that's another story). Pray also that Ernie would be able to be himself again soon as it's hard to watch him be so miserable.

Jan. & Feb. summary

2010-03-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

My 2010 New Years Resolution was to write more often for my blog.... and then life got in the way. I apologize and will try to play catch up for you guys so you know what Paul and I have been doing.

A quick summary:
- I worked most of January on my first big graphic design freelance project. I designed the camp guide for the Y down here. It took a long time, but it turned out great and they were very pleased. Since then I have done smaller projects for them and I have a good working relationship with the marketing director. I've been excited to see how God has provided work for me that I enjoy when I wasn't even looking for it! It is a reminder that He will continue to provide for all of my needs. Not only has this been a huge help financially but it has been an encouragement for me as it keeps me busy and I get to keep my creative skills up to date.

- I have been busy learning to be a better house wife. I am enjoying keeping my house really clean and getting organized (something Paul and I are not the most gifted at). By the time we moved into our house (we lived with Paul's parents for the first 8 months living here) we didn't have any move in time because we had already immersed ourselves into our ministry here. With our busy ministry schedule we never really developed a organizational system and we never really unpacked. So, although we have been here for over a year, I have been busy still unpacking, organizing and finishing house projects. Paul just finished putting up all the quarter round down in our house. He taught himself to do it and it looks so great (I was so impressed)!

I have been busy filling in nail holes, taping and painting. I still have a lot to do because its time consuming and tedious. But it's amazing what a little piece of wood can do to the look of a room. It looks finished! I am also looking to organize our bedroom and make that a nice place to be. This has been the last room to work on because no one sees it but us. But it is driving us nuts now and so it's time! I have been looking for the perfect curtains and curtain rods and hope to get something soon because the street lights are so bright at night and it's hard to get a good night sleep.

- Paul and I are training for a 10k and an 8k at the end of March. So if anyone has any suggestions let us know. This has been motivation for both of us to get in shape. The problem is that I'm hungry more often and then I eat junk food. So that's bad. I have checked out a bunch of books from the library and trying to cook better. This has been fun and educational for me. I am learning all about different kinds of oils and flowers and the health benefits of different kinds of foods. I just bought my first unbleached all purpose flower. I want to get to the point where I plan my meals ahead of time and I can have a veggie with each meal. I am finding that if I don't plan, my meals are unbalanced... they only have meat.

- As always, we've been busy with youth group stuff. We had our 2nd annual Valentine's Girls Night Out. The youth group guys got dressed up, decorated the church fellowship hall and made the girls a fancy dinner. I was encouraged to see that our entire youth group attended and brought lots of friends. We had over 50 kids attend. I also was impressed with myself because I had to buy all the food with a very small budget that I didn't think was possible ($100) but I did it for only $50! We had spiral ham, rolls, salad, rice, potatoes, and cookies for dessert. We also had the college group over to our house for Valentine's day for lunch

- Paul took me to the zoo in Columbia SC for our Valentine's day celebration. It was a sunny and somewhat warm day and we enjoyed just being away and just having it be us. We enjoyed having the sun shine on us as we watched the elephants and other animals as we just talked and hung out.

- We have also been busy with all day game days, Film and Theology nights with the college group, random people stopping by and hanging out, volleyball every Tuesday nights at the local Y and just being available to minister to people whenever God gives us the opportunity.

- Pray that we would continue to have the energy to serve and love those around us and that we would not fall into discouragement which can happen when you give and give and don't see "results" on our time schedule. And praise God for what he is doing. He is doing great things in our youth group and through our Tuesday night volleyball games.

Home for the Holidays

2009-12-23T07:02:00.000-08:00

This year is Christmas with my family in PA. Paul and I attended church Sunday morning and after quickly packing the car and eating left over beef stew, we hit the road with our dog Ernie for the 12 hour trip.

When we left SC it was a beautiful sunny blue sky day in the low 50s. It was hard to believe that we would be driving thru snowy terrain, but in just a few hours we were in a winter wonderland. Washington DC had been hit hard and the roads were not well plowed. Three lane roads had only the middle lane cleared and the two side lanes were only half cleared. We saw cars in the most unusual positions due to the snow. It was a constant reminder to us that we needed to drive slow and pray often. We had people praying for us and by God's grace, Paul and I arrived in PA at 2am Monday morning.

Our visit has been very relaxing and fun so far. We had dinner with our old bible study and had a great time catching up with old friends. It was wonderful to hang out with them and in a lot of ways it felt just like old times. We laughed and ate well Monday night. Tuesday we spent the morning with our friends Peter and Rebbecca and their three children and at night we visited our friends Skot and Becca and their dog Elvis. We also skyped with my sister Sarah and her husband Will.

Many conversations have revolved around church this week and it's amazing how no matter if you are in Italy, South Carolina or Pennsylvania, some things are always the same. The church is full of sinful people and every church has it's quarks and things we would like to change about it. But in every circumstance we are called to be godly people. That might look different depending on where we live and therefore we are encouraged to pray for God's wisdom. I have been memorizing and meditating on this verse lately and I think it has been quite fitting with all the 'church' conversations we've been having:

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." (Titus 2:11-14)

I am encouraged to remember that through all the 'church' stuff, the good, the bad and the ugly, the important thing to remember is that God had brought salvation, and that he wants his people to be single minded, focused on glorifying himself by being godly. I might not always be able to change the church, but I can change my attitude towards it. Let me live a godly life.

Granite and "cousin Ernie from the south" have provided hours of entertainment for the whole family. We hope you enjoy the pictures.

Beautiful Feet that Win Races

2009-10-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Recently Sonja ran a 5k. Also recently, I've been trying to get in shape to run a 5k. Its been difficult, and I've been asking myself a lot of questions about why. Running, apart from the blessing of an i-pod is the most boring thing on earth. "Whats the point?", my body always seems to be asking?
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, asking what the "point" of the church is. I feel like there are times when we think our purpose is to simply exist. Simply survive. And sometimes, when things get difficult that may be all we can do.
However, as I've studied the Word lately, its become clear that from the beginning to end of Redemptive History, God has greater purposes for his church than simply to exist. Abraham is told very clearly that not only will he be blessed, but that in being blessed he will be made a blessing. Through Abraham in fact, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. That's quite a big calling and blessing. Blessed in order to be a blessing to others.
A couple months ago, a pastor named Robert Briggs came and preached from Isaiah 49, and in doing so, he shed some light on this issue for me. In this passage, God describes the coming of his future Messiah in terms which seem to fulfill the calling of Abraham:

49:6- "[YHWH] says, 'It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

In this verse (and its context only makes this more explicit) its pretty clear that God's purpose for the coming Messiah is to redeem Israel. However, he repeatedly hints that his purpose is far greater than just the redemption of that nation. God's purpose for his Messiah is to gather in all nations, under the name and work of the Messiah. I don't think anyone would argue that that is Jesus' purpose and work. He has been sent by a God who loves the world, and desires to see the nation brought in to worship him. He's seeking worshipers, through the person and work of Christ. That's probably not much of a surprise to many of us.
What has been surprising to me is how Paul quotes this same passage in Acts 13. In the passage, Paul has proclaimed Jesus as God's Messiah to the Jews in Psidian Antioch. Though some believe the gospel, many reject it, and when they began to contradict Paul & Barnabus' claims regarding Jesus, the two respond by telling the men,

(46) "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. (47) For so the Lord has commanded us saying, 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

What Pastor Briggs pointed out was that Paul and Barnabus don't simply see the quoted passage as applying to Jesus- of course he's a light for the Gentiles. Whats amazing is that they see the passage as applying to themselves- because Jesus is a light for the Gentiles, so they are to be a light for the Gentiles. They are a light to the nation and bringers of salvation. It isn't just spreading by happen-chance. They are to be a light and to bring salvation.
Though I could go on and on what it tells us about how to properly interpret Scripture (a whole different big blog post in itself), one thing that keeps striking me over and over is that the church, in that it is Christ's bride, alive by its union with him, is to be a light for the Gentiles. We have a clear purpose. We are to be making disciples of all nations, not simply our own kids (though that is clearly important). This makes us by nature and purpose outwardly focused. For us to respond in obedience to God's purpose in blessing Abraham, and ultimately in sending Christ, we have to feel the glorious weight of Christ' responsibility and calling as our own.
We who make up the church, though we have different gifts, all serve the same purpose, and it is not simply to plan to survive as a church. We are to be a light for the nations. Our neighbors (both nationally and locally) are to be recipients of the Light which is Christ. Jesus doesn't say, "Go try and make disciples if you can." Rather, he says, "Go make disciples." As Yoda famously put it, "Do or do not, there is no try." If this is our purpose, because it is Christ's purpose, then we've got to figure out how to do this by faith. God in his sovereignty planned for this not to happen apart from the worship-fueled work of his redeemed people.
This has also been helpful to me in just thinking through why I'm doing what I'm doing. I've realized I'm really not in this for the money or for the glory (two big temptations with which I struggle). I'm in this because Jesus Christ came for me with a purpose, to save people (me) from themselves to worship God and delight and be satisfied with his glory, and to make this glory visible to the darkness which surrounds us. As I preached about Baptism last week (in light of our church baptizing three people), I was reminded that our union with Christ isn't simply sharing in his death, burial, and resurrection, but also in his Father's mission and purpose for him.

Sonja and I recently spent some time talking about why it is that God didn't just "rapture" us all up as soon as we converted. We believe that Christ came to save, and that it is fully him who saves. However, we also believe that Christ works through means, and that as members of his bride, we have a wonderfully exciting role to play. Though jars of clay, we bear in ourselves inexpressible glory. Is it any wonder that Paul says, "To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." He then goes on, "Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it" (1 Cor. 9). Paul wants us to run so as to win- not just to finish, not to make the top ten, but to win. How fitting then that Isaiah says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns'". To win. To achieve victory. That is the point.

There Is Something About A Wedding Dress

2009-10-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

My sister Sarah and Will married in July and then moved to Italy for three years. Will is a doctor in the Air Force and needed to come back to Philadelphia to take his last Pediatric Boards. They both flew in to the states last week and so I hitched a ride with my grandparents, who were driving up from Florida, to PA to visit the whole family.

Sunday afternoon I was taking a nap when Sarah walked into my room with a big smile and her wedding dress on. "You should put yours on Sonja" she said excitedly. Right away I was out of bed and joining in the fun. Sadly, the gown must have shrunk since my wedding three years ago because it didn't zipper all the way. But I still got in it! There is something about a wedding dress that just puts a smile on my face. Sarah and I were having so much fun prancing around the house in our gowns. Then I suggested that Sarah try my dress on. Just then mom got out her wedding dress and suggested I try it on. Mom had never taken her wedding dress out and Sarah and I had never seen it accept for in pictures. It was beautiful and it fit! At this point the entire family was in on the fun. Will and Grandpa got their camera's out and we convinced mom to wear Sarah's dress and veil (holding up the dress, that is!). Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Walking Party

2009-09-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

Last night something unique and wonderful happened. Something that doesn't happen everyday but maybe should happen more often.

Last night started out like most nights for Paul and I. We put Ernie's leash on and walked out the door for a walk around the block. Camille, Paul's sister, was staying with us, so she came also. As we walked down our driveway our neighbors who have two dogs and a 2 year old girl asked jokingly if we wanted to walk their dogs too. Excitedly, Camille said she would love to walk their dogs. Then our neighbor Kristen said to her husband "maybe you should walk your own dogs. And your little girl has been asking to go for a walk all day." Micah responded, saying, "good idea. Do you guys mind if we go walking with you."

That's how it all started. So 3 dogs, 4 adults, a 13 year old and a two year old begin to walk down the street. We walked past three houses until we arrived at Travis and Jennifer's house, friends of ours from church. Their windows were open and Micah announced loudly, "neighborhood walk". The front door opened quickly and two little boys under the age of 4 came out followed by Jennifer saying she would be right there. Jennifer came out with a big red wagon wheeling her boys down the driveway to greet us. Just then the neighbor from the house across the street came out with his grandson and two dogs. So he joined the walking party as well.

Five dogs, five kids, and six adults and a red wagon walked down the streets of our neighborhood. We created a stir and people came out of their houses asking if we were having a parade. "No, just a neighborhood walk. Do you want to come?" was our reply.

At the end of the walk we had met many of our neighbors we had never talked to before. We all enjoyed the spontaneity of the event and all agreed that we need to do this more often. Sometimes we get so busy that we never talk to the people living right next door. What a blessing when God opens the door to meet and get to know our neighbors.

Funny Stuff

2009-08-26T06:51:00.001-07:00

In an effort to post more frequently and more regularly, I am going to post shorter posts, hopefully with the goal of less than a month going between posts. So, here's a few funny items that were passed onto me, and I think are worth posting for your viewing enjoyment.

1) One mocks the recent I-phone commercials- "there's an app for that"-
http://www.9to5mac.com/iphone_stalk

2) The second addresses the ongoing need for animal care of believers in a "post-rapture" world :). No joke- here's a website which will connect you to people to watch over your pets in case you are "raptured". Wow.
http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/Home_Page.html

I'll post something more serious soon. Enjoy for now!

Celebrating 3 Years of Adventure!

2009-07-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

The day we got back from the High School retreat we went to church and then to the college luncheon. While we were there we got a call from a friend of ours who needed someone to watch their kids because they had to visit a family member in the hospital. We agreed to help and headed over to their house. The kids were already down for their naps so Paul and I took a nap on their coach (which was much needed). After that it was time for night church, then laundry and packing for our anniversary trip.

Once packed, we got Ernie in the car and headed off for a couple of days just the two of us. It had been a busy month so far (Sarah's wedding and the high school retreat) and we were looking forward to having some relaxing one on one time. We arrived at the lake house after midnight, but we got to sleep in the next morning which made up for it.

One of our friends parents has a house on Lake Murray which is about an hour away from our house. They offered their lake house to us for a couple of days for free, which was right in our price range!

The first morning there, we headed to Walmart (what is vacation without a trip to Walmart) and bought food for the next couple of days and some fishing supplies. I had never gone fishing before and really had no desire to ever go. But Paul thought it would be a relaxing way to spend our anniversary. Seeing that I was still not very excited about the planned activity, Paul bought me a pink fishing rod that I could call my very own. I have to say, I was pretty excited to try it out. We bought some fresh worms and headed back to the lake house.

We spent most of the day just sitting in our chairs on the dock and fishing. Ernie sat out on the dock along side us. We ate cherries and enjoyed the sun, the lapping of the water against the dock and the view. Paul caught a fish the first morning and we were so excited! Even though that turned out to be the only fish that we caught the entire trip, we had a lot of fun perfecting our fishing techniques.

The next day we slept in again and had devotions out on the dock. I cooked a big brunch with eggs, sausage, toaster strudels and fresh fruit.

Paul thought it would be fun to take Ernie canoeing with us. Ernie hates water and he and I were a little nervous at first. But once I realized he wasn't going to flip us over and he realized he could lap water from the side whenever he wanted to, we all relaxed and enjoyed the ride. Later that day he ran and hopped right into the boat and looked at us like he was ready to go!

We also went swimming and tried to get Ernie comfortable in the water. He provided much entertainment during the trip. He would get half way in, get nervous and run backwards out of the water, bark crazily and then sprint up onto the dock, continuing to run the entire length of the dock and then run back into the water and do the whole thing over again. We would just sit in the water and laugh at him.

On our last night, I made a fancy turkey dinner with all the fixings and we sat out on the dock with a bottle of red wine and watched the sunset. We left Ernie inside and spent hours just talking and asking each other questions. We had such a wonderful time of relaxation and catching up. I praise God for our friendship and how it has deepened in the last three years. We look forward to many more adventurous years ahead.

Tybee Island Adventures

2009-07-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

The week after the wedding, and just before our anniversary trip, Sonja and I and some other faithful GBC chaperones took a group of 32 high school students on a week-long summer retreat. Instead of going with the standard great but expensive RYM trip which our youth group has done in the past, I decided to try to plan my own retreat, with the goal of making it cheaper and more intimate than retreats we've done in the past.

So, after a brief fact-finding mission last spring, we decided to rent a couple houses down in Tybee Island, GA, a small vacation community just outside of Savannah. Dr. Kenneth Turner, a past intern at GBC from my HS days who is currently a OT professor at Bryan College, was invited as our guest speaker for the week, and he delivered 6 messages to our teens on leadership from the Old Testament which included everything from preaching on prophet, priest, king, wiseman, Moses, Ruth, and everything in between (including some interesting and "controversial" :) comments on Goliath, his true height, and whether he took the stone to the forehead or to the kneecap).

Anyway, Kenneth brought his better half, his wonderful wife Raegan, as well as his 3 daughters along, and Sonja and I and the youth group thoroughly enjoyed getting to know their family as well as learn a few tricks to parenting young kids. Raegan is a genius with a camera as well as being a great mom, a good sport, and a perfect match for Kenneth.

Though persistent rain kept us off the beach and out of Savannah for the first couple days of the beach retreat, the group had a great time trying out some crazy games (3 examples- 1) the aptly named "best friend" game -getting to know each other really well through awkward moments, 2) "the greatest game ever"- launching cheeseballs into the air with plastic spoons to be caught in the mouth, and 3) the old favorite "toilet paper bride" - no explanation needed.). These games, plus guitar hero, wii bowling, mexican train dominos, and of course, Settlers of Catan, provided fun for all while we waited out the rain. Our patience was finally rewarded as the chaperones decided to make a break for Savannah on Wednesday, and the group had a great time wandering around a beautiful city, ernestly seeking to complete the scavenger hunt list I compiled for the retreat.

The rest of the week was filled with more fun games (like the "handless, lifesaver-toothpick pass") which resulted in some quite candid images which will serve as ammo for blackmailing youth groupers in their distant but probably embarressing future. Kenneth's messages hit home with our youth group, especially with those who are heading off to college or who are taking up leadership positions as upper-classmen. We also had a fantastic film & theology night discussion surrounding M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village", discussing its timely critique of legalistic fear-based Christianity, and how true believers in Jesus receive that critique and respond with humility and good news.

After a crazy extended drive home, in which my 15 passenger van felt like its back wheels were coming off, Sonja and I finally returned to our house and our dog exhausted but feeling strongly that the retreat was a complete success.

Matchmaking for Jesus

2009-07-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Our crazy July began with Will and Sarah's wedding on July 4. Sonja traveled up to her parents the prior Saturday (June 27) as she wanted to be there for every moment of wedding chaos, especially since Will and Sarah were moving to Italy (thanks to the Air Force) soon after marrying, and we weren't sure when she'd get to hang out with Sarah again, nor I with Will. I drove up with Will's family on Thursday before the wedding.

If you haven't heard the story, Will is a friend of mine from my Clemson days. He and I met through RUF (Reformed University Fellowship), playing lots of ultimate and some basketball together, and just enjoying a common faith and friendship. Will and I graduated together, and then he went off to MUSC to pursue his MD, and I moved back to Greenville for a couple years to work and save money. Later when I moved up to Philly and got married, he came to visit a couple times, and spent some time with Sonja and I.

After I got to know Sarah, and Sonja got to know Will, we both decided that because of their common interests (ultimate frisbee), common friendships (Sonja & me), and a strong common faith (disciples of Jesus), we should encourage them to date. We decided to leave Sarah in the dark about the whole thing. So, I told Will about Sarah, that she loved God, was a lot of fun, and coul throw a mean "flick", and then invited Will out for a weekend so that he could hang out with Sonja and I, and also nonchalantly meet Sarah without the pressure of an official date.

So after Will had a chance to get to know Sarah (seeing her frisbee skills was key), Will asked if he could corrospond with Sarah through snail mail. We of course said "yes".

The rest, they say, is history. After a little over a year of long distance relationship stuff (Will was in Dayton at an Air Force base), the happy couple married this past July 4. The wedding was beautiful and especially because two of our best friends were going to be spending the rest of their lives together. What a beautiful thing it is to see two people joined together for life, who though not perfect, are perfect for each other. It was so good to see friends fall in love, and watch that love wrestle through difficult issues and circumstances, and then despite those difficulties, blossom in covenant commitment before God, family, and friends. Plus, it never hurts to ensure that your future brother-in-law is cool guy. This helps make sure family get-togethers stay fun and full of fellowship.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the wedding. The happy couple has been in Italy for almost 3 weeks now and are doing well, but missing their matchmaking friends, I'm sure.

Building Tomorrow's Church Conference, Arizona

2009-05-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend Paul and I took a group of college students to Arizona for the Building Tomorrow's Church Conference. It was the second year of the conference and we were greatly encouraged at the amount of college and young adults that came from all over the country. The conference was put on by our denomination (Reformed Baptist) to provide a time where we could meet other young Christians with a common theology, share what God is doing around the country in His church, and have a time of teaching on the importance of the local church and what that looks like and how that is practically applied in real life. We also had a lot of fun. We stayed at a camp in Prescott Arizona which had amazing food and facilities. We played volleyball and kickball and relaxed in the hot tub at night under the clear skies covered in stars.

Our group went a day early so we could go visit the Grand Canyon. It rained hard while we were driving to the canyon and we were all nervous that we would not be able to see anything when we got there. I decided to pray that if it was God's will, he could stop the rain, even for a little bit so we could all see his awesome creation. And he answered! As soon as we pulled in to the parking lot the rain stopped. We were still in a thick cloud and couldn't see anything. We sat down for a picnic lunch and slowly the clouds drifted away. It was almost like God was slowly unveiling the canyon. It was very dramatic as the clouds continued to disappear and you could see more and more and more until all of the canyon was in sight. When you see things like the Grand Canyon you realize how small you are and it's humbling...in a good way! God is so much bigger than us and his creativity is awesome.

We also had fun with the wildlife. They were not at all afraid of humans so we had fun feeding them Rice Crispy Treats. We saw a sign prohibiting this later, but we had fun in our ignorance. They were so cute!

Lauren Reader Graduates

2009-05-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, Paul's sister Lauren Graduated for the University of South Carolina Upstate. We were all so proud. Can't you sense our excitement!

House Tour

2009-03-28T20:02:00.001-07:00

The Slivka's Come To Visit

2009-03-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

My Gandma and Grandpa Slivka came to visit this week. Right away they began helping us around the house. Grandma had sown me drapes for the family room and so Grandma and I spent a long time Monday shopping for drapery rods and Grandpa and Paul started making the built in book shelves for our family room. They also helped us work on the front yard, wash windows, and hang drapes in the dinning room. They wore Paul and I out! They were such a great example to us of hard workers. Paul and I want to be like them when we grow up... actually we would like to have their energy now! We also made Swedish coffee bread and watched movies. We had a very productive visit.

Ernie

2009-02-14T07:36:00.000-08:00

Paul and I are fostering a dog named Ernie. He has been with us for two weeks now. I have been in denial so I haven't taken any pictures, but I don't think Paul is going to let him go. He is catching on to commands such as 'sit', 'off' 'down' and 'no'. He is 18 months old and a rescue dog. He is very emotionally needy and has to be right by your side. I have been taking him running everyday this week and it's been good for both of us. I'll keep you all updated on if it becomes official.

Smoker's Come to Town

2009-02-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

Grandma and Grandpa Smoker from Wayne, PA came for a short visit this week. The four of us went out to dinner at Olive Garden on Tuesday night (I am currently hooked on their bread dipping sauce). Then the next day we showed them the church where Paul works and where we attend and they were greeted by the entire staff. They got the grand tour of Paul's office and the sanctuary. Then we took them to downtown Greenville. They were amazed at how beautiful the down town area was. It was a beautiful warm day and there was even lots of flowers in bloom (I still can't believe that its February!). We had a great time of fellowship with them and we love them so much! What a blessing it is to have Grandparents.

Growing Up

2009-01-21T06:16:00.000-08:00

Sonja and I have really been enjoying our new house immensely. And its provided some incredible opportunities for fellowship and reaching out. We've both been thinking a lot about our need to be speaking about Jesus and the gospel with people around us, both to believers in fellowship and to lost people in love. God is good, and he's been answering our prayers.

Sunday night after church, we had to make a quick run by the grocery store for some essentials, and two Mormon elders approached us about coming to talk with us about the new "prophet", Joseph Smith, and his teachings. Sonja and I kinda smiled at each other, and quickly set up a time (Tuesday at 6:30) for them to come and talk with us about their prophet.

Since then, we've been excitedly (but a little nervously) awaiting the opportunity to sit down and discuss with them the teachings of their prophet and the teachings of our prophet, Jesus. God, however, had other plans.

Monday, Sonja and I had set up a burn pile in the back yard (who knew owning a house came with added benefits like an endless supply of leaves?), which we thoroughly enjoyed feeding our endless supply of leaves. Tuesday, at lunch, I came home to reignite the leafpile so Sonja could free our barren backyard from its enslavement to decaying, grass-killing leaves. After reigniting the leaves, the job of feeding the pile was quickly taken over by our neighbor and co-churchmember, Travis Simpson (otherwise known as "the verizon guy"). Travis and Jennifer Simpson, who live 4 doors down from us, are awesome, and have reached out to us and served us in many ways. Travis tended to the leaf pile for the rest of the afternoon while I was working and Sonja and I were running errands.

When we returned, we found a well stoked fire, as well as Travis and a random guy named Derek, warming themselves by the fire, discussing life, Scripture, and the difference between those who just think and those who act.

Travis had to go back home, but he introduced us to Derek, who he had just met, and Sonja and I jumped into fire tending and conversation and soon got to know Derek, who "randomly" happened to be going through our neighborhood selling magazine subscriptions. When he saw our fire, he was cold (yes, with wind, it is quite cold here), so he decided to warm up by the fire.

In God's providence, we got to hang out with Derek all evening, pray for him, play Halo 3 with him, feed him dinner, and ask him all kinds of questions about his soul. We got to talk about the fact that despite his half-hearted plea's of agnosticism, he truly does have an undeniable sense of God's existence and claim on him (yeah for Calvin's Institutes and all the people in the Institutes' discussion group- God used you to prep us for hanging with Derek), as well as about his life and his story (yeah Ryan Donnell, you prepped me for this with the Men's breakfast discussion). Though we said goodbye to Derek last night, we were able offer him real friendship backed up with tangeable love in the form of a solid meal, concerns about his future in this world and the next, and give him a bible and our contact information. The Mormons never showed up, (surprisingly), but God instead reserved our evening to have great conversation with Derek and to grow us in learning to talk with people about his Son and his plan to reconcile the world to himself.

God is good, and as you think of it, thank God for his sovereignty in random leaf piles, fires, neighbors, and magazine sales, and pray for Derek, that God would use his word and our conversation to bring transformation and resurrection to this man whom God loves. Pray also for us, that we would grow in boldness and pursuation. We are both weak here, but we desperatly need to grow.

Closer to Finally

2009-01-16T04:48:00.000-08:00

Well, Sonja and I got news this past Tuesday that the arbitrator decided the lawsuit in our favor! So, what that means for us is that we don't have to buy a second house (which we would have had trouble paying for), that we get our $1000 deposit from the house back (yahoo!), and that we finally get a bill for our lawyer fees (doh!).

All in all, its very good news, and once again we are learning to trust God for his future provision.

Finally. But not that finally of a Finally.

2008-12-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

Finally. After what seems like an eternity (though in reality only about 3.5 months) Sonja and I moved into our house in Ashley Oaks. It is beautiful. Sonja has done a fantastic job of picking out paints, hardwood floors and carpets, as well as light fixtures, sinks, door handles and about a million other decisions requiring someone with both a tasteful classic vision and a grasp of tight budgeting. She’s done both very well.

Glen and Helen Sarratt have spent every spare moment working with us (or without us) for the last two weeks, helping us install toilets, dryer vents, tile our laundry room, and along with the rest of the church family here in Greenville who have served in the last 4 months of cleaning, renovation, and encouragement, teaching Sonja and I the meaning of love, perseverance, and the concrete nature of a servant’s heart. We have both caught a vision for love that is expressed in action.

This past thursday, following a Saturday workday at our house where 20+ people from church came to get our house into a “move-in-able” condition, Sonja and I stayed our first night in our newly renovated (but incomplete) house! It is wonderful. It is beautiful. It is home. It is a mess!

We’ll put up some more pictures soon, as its worth seeing.

Another Finally, though one not so happy: our joy at moving into our house was tamed by our arbitration hearing, which finally happened yesterday. It went Ok, but we won’t get a ruling until the first full week in January. It was one of the longest days of my life. We spent 9 hours in a room with an arbitrator, a lawyer for us, a lawyer against us, and multiple witnesses on both sides who testified about all sorts of things.

It was very frustrating. We felt like it didn’t go as bad as it could have gone, but it also didn’t go as good as we had hope it would go. God was good though, I can honestly say we didn’t lie. And we didn’t conveniently “forget” many things like the other side did. So please keep us in your prayers. The arbitrator, who i am convinced will rule honestly, has a lot on his plate, and a lot that he must consider in order determine as to who is legally correct.

All in all, the moral of the story though is this:

1) Don't believe anything anyone tells you verbally. Get it all in writing. Clear writing. Don't just modify the contract in your own words with the basic but clear meaning you intend. Have a lawyer write it, because otherwise they can dispute basic meaning of words like "all acceptable inspections".
2) "I don't remember" is a very convenient line when you are on the witness stand. Keystone's agent said it over and over with regards to any verbal promises they made us about the condition of the house. Remember, "I don't remember" is always the right thing to say. Remember, you don't remember.
3) Don't sign anything a lawyer hasn't gone over. A licensed real estate agent isn't enough. Get a lawyer every time. Despite the fact that both you and your real estate agent (who was wonderful, thank you Pat!) are clear about what something means, you're clearly wrong. You don't understand. Only a lawyer does. So don't sign anything.

4) Just don't sign anything. Ever. No, not even then. Just don't. You really don't know what your are signing.
5) (and this one is serious) We are not in control. Things happen, over which we have no control. God teaches us stuff we couldn’t learn in any other way. Knowing and believing that he loves us, that his purposes are higher than our present happiness is true theology which is far easier to mentally agree with than it is to believe in your heart. Regardless of whether you believe it though, it is true.

Though going through this legal proceeding was a big Finally, we still await the Finally of the arbiter’s judgment which will tell us whether we owe a lot of money, whether we are going to be purchasing a second house :), or whether we will be free of any further obligations to the court. What incredible power.

Its reminded me that we all live awaiting a Final judgment when like us in that court case, we will all be called to account for what we’ve done, said, and even the attitude in which we did these things. It was a sobering and scary thing to have to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. If it was scary to do it here where the final judgment only concerns a monetary amount (though large by our standards), how much more frightening will the day of judgment be, when we will stand before God and his Judge, Jesus Christ, as to how we have made use of our time, resources, thoughts, words, actions, even our feelings.

You can’t help but plead for mercy. Please pray for us. Also please pray for the lady who was the primary Keystone representative (who was suing us). Despite the fact that she was out to get us, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, as she has three young children, she was recently divorced, and i wouldn’t trade my life for hers (even if we get nailed with a judgment which drives us to bankruptcy) for anything in the whole world. Sonja and i have been so blessed. We love each other. We have been saved by grace. We are being transformed. And we are promised that we will be brought safely into Christ’s kingdom.

Anyway, its been emotionally draining, so i don’t really want to write any more now. We’ll put up more in a few days along with some pics of the newly inhabited house. Praise God for bringing us this far.

Our Floors Are Lookin Good

2008-11-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

It's Amazing What Paint Can Do

2008-11-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy and exciting couple of days. For weeks I have been looking at paint swatches and going to fabric stores and tearing out pages in magazines trying to figure out what my style is and what colors I wanted to paint my walls. This is my first house so I had never done anything like this before. Paul would say 'no pressure, just pick out colors you like and if we don't like them we can change them later.' But we were hiring people to come and paint all the rooms in the house, so I wanted to make sure I picked good colors out the first time so that I wouldn't have to re-paint the rooms that I just paid people to do. I had decided on most of my colors when Paul called me at 3:30pm on Tuesday and said 'Pedro is coming at 4pm so we can tell him what colors we want in each room. They are starting tomorrow at 8am.' I ran to the store and bought the paint I knew I wanted figuring, at least that will give them a head start. I was thinking it would take a couple of days...but these guys are so fast!

Wednesday morning I went to the house to see if they had started painting and they were still sanding the walls and ceilings. I figured I had at least another day to decide the rest of the paint colors. Two hours later a lady from our church called me. She had helped me pick out colors and had even arranged a visit to her neighbors house to see her paint choices so I could get some ideas. When she called, she said she had stopped by my house to see what they had done and she loved the colors I had picked. I couldn't believe that they had any rooms done in just two hours. I raced over to the house to see and sure enough they were done three rooms already and were asking me where the rest of the paint was for the rest of the rooms. So Paul and I went to Ace Hardware which is right down the road, to buy the rest of the paint. Because of my indecision on paint colors we were there for sometime. I apologized to the guy helping us and somehow we got into a conversation about how he was doing. Turns out his girlfriend had just broken up with him and he was pretty bummed about it. Paul asked him if he had talked to God about it and launched us into this great conversation. He asked us how he could talk to God and how to hear God. I was so excited. Ministry opportunities are everywhere. God used my inability to choose paint colors quickly to build a relationship with the paint guy and now he wants to hang out with us and 'get right with God'. His name is Kenneth and you can pray for him. Paul and I plan to visit him on Saturday at Ace Hardware and get his number so we can hang out.

By the end of Wednesday they had painted the entire house perfectly! It was done so well and I am so excited. They even repainted a room for me after they had completed the whole thing because I hated the color once it was on the wall. Pedro and his crew did a great job and I couldn't be happier.

Today the flooring guy is working on putting the hardwood floors in the upstairs and then next week will do the downstairs. We haven't picked out carpet yet for the bedrooms but we are quickly on our way to being able to move in. It's amazing how quickly it went from being a nasty house to a beautiful house that I am excited to live in. It's amazing what paint can do.

The End is Near!

2008-11-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

After what seems like an eternity (though in reality its only been a little over 2 months), it looks like moving in to our freshly renovated house in Ashley Oaks could be a near reality. Though have been slow to chronicle our progress, we have gotten quite a lot done over the last few weeks.

We have finished putting in new sub-flooring throughout the dining room, living room, and den, then removed the particle board from most of upstairs, and finally replaced a few weak spots on the second floor which could have made for a rapid decent through the first floor ceiling. We have removed the fixtures from the downstairs bathroom. We tore out some cabinets in the kitchen. We had recessed lighting installed in the kitchen (as well as two recessed lights in the den for the built-in bookshelves). Sonja removed all the linoleum from the kitchen (three nasty layers of toilsome labor). Paul removed the appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, and range) from the kitchen to the garage. Sonja taped all the windows up with plastic in order to prepare for priming the trim. Camille, as well as some other church youth groupers came over and helped do various small but crucial prep items to help us get the house ready for painting. Sonja and I also purchased a washer and dryer in great condition for $225.

Last week, we had someone sand down all the ceilings, mud and sand all the walls, spray a coat of primer over all the molding, cabinets, and trim, and paint all our newly smoothed ceilings a beautiful coat of white. The house is beginning to look and smell amazing. Its no longer reeks of cat, dog, and smoke, but of paint and drywall dust, which is quite wonderful. Sonja has been working hard, coordinating colors, and trying to decide what fabrics and paint colors will be used to decorate the windows and walls of our home-to-be.

Today, Sonja worked in nailing down paint colors for all the rooms, and I unloaded 1.5 tons (3000 lbs) of hardwood flooring into our house! Woohoo! Glad that is done.

If all goes well, in about two weeks, our house will be ready to move in. We are so ready and so excited. Thanks to all who have helped, encouraged, and prayed. The end is near. A new beginning is hopefully right around the corner. We'll have more pictures up soon.

Wow

2008-10-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well, its official, the Phillies just won the World Series. Despite starting out with another up and down season, they proved themselves in the post-season by not only getting to the world series, but eliminating the Tampa Bay Rays in 5 games. Though I don't watch a ton of baseball, it has been really good to be able to watch the Phillies in SC. Thanks for going all the way Phillies.

What is the world coming to?

2008-10-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Phillies are in the world series. Nothing more need be said. Except that that is incredibly good!

Dog Walking, Dump Runs and Other Assorted Things

2008-10-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

The days have finally cooled off here in South Carolina. Typically we have had sunny days in the 80's or high 70's. I have been enjoying my days by walking around the neighborhood with my new friend Lady Bug (the Reader's dog). Lady Bug and I have enjoyed many days walking and sniffing the scenery.

Paul and I have also taken up the sport tennis. My work in PA had given me a gift card as a good bye gift, so a couple of weeks ago we went and bought some rackets and tennis balls. We are not that good, but we are having a lot of fun learning together. Paul even managed to give himself a black eye. I have to say I had never seen a tennis move quite like it. We have not had any more injuries since then and we are getting so we can hit it over a couple of times back and forth.

Today we made our 5th and 6th dump run. This has been our regular weekend "date" activity for the last month. Although this does not sound very romantic, we believe everything is what you make it, and we have had a lot of fun. Today we invited Paul's sister Camille (who is turning 13 next Friday and is counting down the days until she is an official teenager) to go with us to the dump. She came along reluctantly but by the end she was begging us to let her come with us next time saying she had no idea going to the dump could be so much fun. We had lots of fun throwing things into tractor trailer size dumpsters and yelling out our frustrations we had about life and middle school and acting really tough. It was a successful day and I think we might be done with the dump runs! YEA!

Continue to pray for us about the lawsuit. Paul and I are meeting with our lawyer again this Monday to discuss the case and are planning on going to Arbitration in either November or December. We believe God is good regardless of the outcome but we are praying that there will be justice done. We would appreciate your continued prayers in this matter.

Moving Forward!

2008-09-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a while since I have blogged, not because I haven't wanted to, but because life has been busy. In fact, stuff has actually been quite blog-worthy and exciting lately. We've seen God answer some big prayers, bring some big encouragements, and at the same time, teach us that we need to be seeking his kingdom first, as our priority pursuit. So, here are a couple of the blessings we have seen and experienced.

About three weeks ago, we began to realize that we were really and truly making progress on the house. Sonja's persistent work on scraping the popcorn ceilings and stripping the 80's wallpaper was finally paying off- the walls and the ceilings were almost completely stripped. It was then that we realized that we had worked so hard on getting that done that we didn't know what we should do next. The next thing that needed to happen was to get our contractor in to take out a few walls (so we could put in floors and begin to make decisions about how the house would look at completion). However, our contractor had told us that he probably wouldn't be free until the end of October. Doh! So, on a Monday night, in the midst of our stressful realization that we were almost out of things we could do, we prayed, asking God to free him up to come and work on our house, so that we

could move forward with other things.

Wednesday evening (two days later), after not talking to him for weeks, out of the blue, our contractor called and told us that he had the next two days off to work on our house! Once again, God reminded us that he is our father who answers prayer. However, lacking faith, we totally weren't at all prepared for the possibility that God would answer our prayers, so we had to quickly decide which walls to knock out. Why is it we are so inclined to ask for big things, and then expect that God won't answer our prayers? It was such a good reminder that he is our Father, not because we deserve it, but because he is merciful.

So, the next day, (which my bosses at church were gracious in giving me off work), Sonja, me, and the contractor made hasty, but faith-filled decisions about which walls we should take out. We totally destroyed the wall between the small living room/office, & the den, as well as widening the doorway (from 30 inches to 75) between the kitchen and the dining room. It was pretty amazing and quite satisfying to rip and shred drywall with a hammer, as well as to take out the studs with a sledgehammer. We'll post some of those pictures soon. Our contractor also widened up a nasty closet in our den into a space for some built-in bookshelves, and he installed a new set of french doors between the den and the screened-in porch. Pretty Sweet! The best part was that we discovered that none of the walls we chose to take out were "load-bearing" which meant that they were both easy and cheap to remove. God was so good in providing in that way, as we expected it to cost a lot more and be a lot more difficult to do.

So, since those two days of hard work, we have made multiple trips to the dump to get rid of destroyed materials, and spent a lot of time looking at hard wood floors.

A second big way God provided was in leading us to our hardwood providers. One afternoon after work, when Sonja and I were trying to find a local hardwood floor company, my GPS unit took us to the wrong location for the hardwood floor company we were trying to find. Instead, we stumbled upon "Builder's Bargain", a local wholesale builder's store which provides overstocked materials (like windows, sinks, and hard-wood floors) to both private builders and the general public and pretty good prices. So instead of having to pay between 6-7 a square foot to purchase, install, sand, and finish some hardwood floors, we will be paying about $3 a square foot for some beautiful pine floors (actually its "Siberian Larch" which looks like Pine) which will fit perfectly to the look of our house. We love the look it will give our house.

What's even more amazing is that the location of the store we went to is actually closing down this week, and moving about 45 minutes away, and if we hadn't found it when we did, we never would have gotten the floors we really like at a great deal. Once again, God provided.

Another amazing thing that God did was to give us good neighbors. Our neighbors are awesome. They have all introduced themselves and befriended us. Though we have owned the house for a month now, we have yet to mow our own lawn. In fact, the same neighbor who has been mowing our lawn recently asked me if he could seed it with some of his spare grass seed, and then he proceeded to cover over the new seed with hay. Unbelievable!

God also has provided a local guy who is going to go through our whole house, sand all the walls and ceilings, fix all the dry wall problems, and spray everything down with a sealing primer for an incredibly cheap amount of money!

Sonja and I have had constant help from youth groupers, church members, friends, and others in just showing up to help out. Lately, as I have torn out the particle board in the first level of sub-flooring, I've been blessed with an army of help! Nothing beats building friendships with hammers and crowbars in the dust and sweat of working together. It is so encouraging to be served by people who are serving us because they love us.

There are many more encouraging things I could talk about (we are reaping some of the benefits of other people's work in the church and youth group, we've also been blessed financially) but for now, though things are still hard in some areas (the quarks and frustrations of a new church family, missing old friends, being sued by the jerks at Keystone builders, Sonja's frustrating struggle to find a job), we can both say that despite our struggles, God has been abundantly faithful.

Please do pray that God would take away this lawsuit. Though we know he's still good and faithful, even if we end up going to court, no matter the outcome, it would be a huge burden off our backs if the whole things supernaturally disappeared. So, please praise God for his provision for us, and continue to ask him to give us hearts to be faith and to trust him in any and all circumstances. We'll put up some cool pictures of the recent work on the house soon.

Home Owners, Week One

2008-08-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

It has now been a full week of being home owners. I have been working hard to get the house ready to move in and I am enjoying having something to do (nothing new on the job front yet). I have almost finished taking off the popcorn ceiling on the first floor and have taken off the ugly wallpaper in the dinning room and most of the kitchen. Paul's sister Lauren and cousin TJ came over Saturday and ripped up all the carpet in the house (the lady smoked and had let her dogs and cats do their business in the house, so it all smelled and had to go). The house is starting to smell better. It's a long process but it is keeping me busy and I know the house will be great once we fix it up. I also applied to HGTV to have them come and give my masterbath a make-over, so I'll let you know if I get on TV. Here are some pictures of last week.

There Is A Reason

2008-08-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

There is a reason why we call this blog "The Adventures of Paul & Sonja"... because our life doesn't always go as planned, it is hard at times, there are many challenges and it is never boring. But we believe that if we look at life like it's an adventure, we can laugh along the trials and unusual circumstances and think about all the great stories we can tell people (and they are all true!).

(We won't even tell you about seeing a black bear up close and personal Monday while hiking at Table Rock!)

Today Paul and I planned to buy our first house. It has been a solid two months of living in his parents house and we were looking forward to getting the keys of our fixer-upper so that we could start making it a home of our own. But that would not make a good story, nor would that be the pattern of our lives.

We got to the house at 10:30am to do our final walk-thru to make sure nothing had been damaged during the moving out process, only to find that the lady hadn't moved out of the house. The smell of smoke and urine took your breath away as you walked into the house to find stuff everywhere. Our Realtor was so upset, but at the same time, none of us were surprised.

We drove to the law office to sign papers. When we got there the lawyer asked if he could speak to Paul and I first. Once in a private room he advised us to not settle on the house until the people were completely out of the house. The lady who owned the house has some sort of mental disability, I don't really know what's wrong with her, but she is not all there and didn't understand that she had to be out of the house. Our Realtor found her a nice trailer where she will be living, but she had no help in moving out. So Paul and I offered to help her. Last week on vacation our speaker talked about loving our neighbor and this was a perfect opportunity to serve a person, who we really don't know, but who is in need.

We quickly ran home and changed into grubby clothes. The lady and her son were ecstatic and couldn't believe we would serve them in this way. Soon after, my pastor's wife, Kathy showed up and we worked together packing the kitchen (nothing had been done). Then more people came from our church. Paul, our pastor Bob and a college guy names John helped load things onto pickup trucks (one being Bob's) while Kathy, Pat (our Realtor) and myself worked on putting things in boxes and bringing them to the truck. Then our associate pastor (Chad) showed up with his son Jackson, and two more church guys (Kyle and Jason) came by to help. We eventually had to tell people to quit coming, because we had so many and we were almost done. We opened all the windows and doors to air the place out. Kathy even cleaned the kitchen sink and the stove which grossed me out so I was so thankful. We all wore plastic gloves because it was so gross! The guys then drove to where they were moving and helped them unload and get settled in their new place while we finished up vacuuming the house and throwing out things.

The lady was so appreciative. She asked what church we went to because she had never been served like this before. She said she and her grown son hadn't been to a church in years. They always thought of Christian's as hypocrites and so never had a desire to go to church. But she said that now she wants to go to church and to our church! I think that is so cool. There is a reason for everything. Paul and I believe that. God gave us an opportunity to serve a lady in need today. Please pray for Viki and her son that they will come to church. She is a cashier at the local grocery store so we will be seeing her around and we hope to continue reaching out to her.

Tomorrow we will go back to the law office to close on the house and we will be proud owners of our first house! Let the adventure (and the craziness that is our life) continue.

Vacation with the Family in NY

2008-08-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

Last week Paul and I flew to upstate NY to spend a week at Camp of the Woods with my family. It was nice to get a break from the 100 degree weather (it never got over 65 degrees in the Adirondacks!). We enjoyed wearing jeans and sweatshirts and sleeping with cool nights. It rained a lot while we were there and we even liked that because we didn't feel bad just sitting and relaxing. We stayed in a cabin that overlooked the lake which made it so nice when it rained. We enjoyed sitting on our porch and watching the rain come over the lake and here the loud thunder bounce between the mountains.

We were assigned seats at the dinning hall and were paired up with two older ladies, a mother and daughter. The mom was 86 and the daughter had turned 60 while we were there. At first they were really negative and Paul and I were nervous about how the rest of the week was going to pan out, but we loved these ladies! Both of them were new believers and had a really rough past. Paul and I enjoyed the fellowship we had with these new believers. We talked to them about church, prayer and even how to read and study the Bible. Even while on vacation there are ministry opportunities! Paul and I truly enjoyed getting to know these women.

The speaker for the week spoke on loving our neighbor. It was good to be reminded that we don't have to go far to find 'our neighbor'. We need to love those in our church, in our families, in our work etc. who might be right in front of our faces even if it is hard. Jesus isn't asking us to do anything he wasn't willing to do himself. Being a people of love means you are a people of action because love is something you do.

Grace Baptist Church

2008-08-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked to see pictures of the church down here.
Enjoy!

Life in the SC

2008-07-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe that Sonja and I moved down here to SC over a month and a half ago. It has definitely been the busiest month and a half of my life, and while it has been pretty difficult at times, it has also brought its share of blessings, by the hand of our God, who loves us and has been faithful to us through all the strangeness and craziness involved in our transplant from PA. Sonja and I have struggled with some difficult things since we have been here. But we both realized Sunday that we need to be careful not to complain (or being a “malcontent”- See book of Jude), but to count our blessings.

So, by means of an update, I decided to list some of the blessings we enjoyed since our arrival in SC.

1) The Daily Grind?- I am really enjoying my job. I don’t know if the church here is enjoying me (I know for certain that they, especially the youth groupers, are enjoying Sonja), but I am enjoying the fact that I am not juggling both full-time school as well as church work. The last few weeks I have realized what a blessing it is to be here working with Pastor Bob Selph, Pastor Chad Clint, Chris Marley (Summer Intern), and Penelope Cansler & Lorna Riles (our church secretaries). I really have a ton of respect for these people. And, surprise, I didn’t expect working at Grace to be this busy, but also not this much fun. The RYM trip really was a blast, and its been a lot of fun to teach both HS Sunday School (racing through the book of Jude), as well as begin doing our Wednesday night youth group (talking about passages in which Jesus surprises us). The downside of enjoying this is that it makes me miss my friends at FRBC in Media all the more.

2) Rekindling a Romance- I have also gotten to spend quality time with my wife which has been wonderful. Our anniversary getaway, which though it only lasted 2 days and 2 nights, was such a wonderful vacation for just the two of us. The last couple weeks, as we have shopped for houses together, enjoyed escaping together, sat on the front porch together, gotten threatened with a lawsuit together, and done youth group together, I think we have both realized that while we at times get annoyed with each other, we really do enjoy each other and we really are in this for the long haul. To have a wife, who is as faithful and loyal (and beautiful) as my wife, is a huge blessing. It is when that faithfulness and loyalty is tested by difficult circumstances (inability to find a house, leaving family, friends, and job behind, etc), that it’s true worth is proven. I love my wife. And even better: my wife loves me and has followed me to the ends of the earth (ok, SC as a state isn’t that bad, but its been pretty hot and humid here lately).

3) God’s Gracious Timing- I am so thankful that I got to spend a few weeks with my granddad before he passed away last Tuesday. Right up until the end, Grandpa was himself- a funny, happy man who stubbornly trusted his God, loved his Savior, and longed to depart this world for the next. I loved when I got to read the Psalms to him in his last days. I loved that he prayed for me aloud three weeks ago that I would be a faithful preacher and teacher of God’s word. I loved when a few weeks ago, I walked into his room, thinking he was asleep (his eyes were closed), took him by the hand, and he jumped, opened his eyes, squeezed my hand, and with comic disappointment said, “Aw, I was hoping you were Jesus.” J I loved how my grandma refused to let anyone else take care of grandpa even in the last, most difficult hours, and said, “I’ve taken care of him for over 50 years. Why would anyone think I’d want to quit doing it now?” That is a Christ-like covenant faithfulness we rarely see in our society.

4) Common Taste- One thing Sonja and I have been amazed at as we have house hunted and perused possible places of abode, is that we have such similar tastes. We really do like all the same stuff (with regard to houses, room décor, and fabric for re-upholstering our “Craig’s-list” dining room set). I think that has surprised us both, but it has been very encouraging as I don’t think we’ve had one argument about any of this stuff. (though we have argued about a lot of other stuff J).

5) Zaxby’s Chicken- Yeah, this one seems a little bit trite, but Wow, this chicken is better than Chick-fil-a. Sorry Christy Thawley, you know I love CFA, but I forgot how good Zaxby’s Chicken is. Especially with their Zax’ sauce. Unbeatable.

6) Good Help- Our real estate agent (Pat Smith) has been incredible. Despite the fact that we dragged her through 50 some odd houses, and now both she and us are threatened by lawsuits because of some jerks at Keystone Homes, Pat has been the most faithful, gracious, humorous, and tasteful agent I could possibly imagine. I firmly believe she would go to hell and back for us if she thought it would benefit us. Sonja and I have thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from her knowledge, insight, patience, and simple good taste.

7) God’s Patience- One other huge blessing that Sonja and I have enjoyed is God’s patience in teaching us and patiently enduring our slowness to learn and trust. Both Sonja and I have really been forced to call out to God in a lot of ways for a lot of things since moving down here. And in some big ways, like our housing situation for example, he has yet to answer like we asked.

Surprisingly though, it has been such a blessing for us to struggle with some of these hard things. It has caused both of us to question our own hearts and ask, “why do we love and follow Jesus Christ?” Simply put, “do I love him just because of the nice things he gives me, or do I love him for who he is?” Do I just love the gifts, or do I actually delight even more in the Giver, when the gifts don’t always come out like I want? I know we haven’t been through anything that would qualify as an “excruciating trial.” But it has caused both of us to remember that we love him because he first loved us. Even when he doesn’t give me what I want, will I remain faithful, or will I get bitter and turn away?

I think I am learning about what it means to both trust Jesus for who he says he is, and also to just delight in him. Is my God, Jesus Christ, truly the delight of my heart, or am I just using him to get what I really want? Hopefully, I am being tested and proven faithful. Anyway, its been a good time of re-centering, though not easy.

So, even though we have felt truly stressed and weighed down with quite a few heavy burdens, we are finding some blessings in the midst of the craziness of it all. God will be faithful to us in his timing, which is better than ours.

Going Home Party

2008-07-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday night we had the viewing for Paul's Grandpa. I was a bit nervous because I think the last time I went to a viewing was for my great grandma when I was in middle school. But it was a lot of fun. Lots of people came from the church and the family was all there. Even some of the doctors came. Everyone hung out and talked and had a great time. We were all at peace with Grandpa's homecoming. It makes such a difference when a person knows Jesus. It wasn't a sad occasion. It was a celebration. I think Grandpa Ackroyd would have been proud.

The next day we had a service at church. Paul's sister Megan sang the Lord's prayer and her husband Mark played a couple of Grandpa's favorite hymns on the trumpet. We then headed to the grave site where the Navy took over. Paul's Grandpa was in the Navy for over 20 years and it was really neat to see how they honored him and his wife.

We then headed back home where some of the lady's from the church had prepared a huge spread of food. We spent the day hanging out together as a family.

Going to be with our Lord

2008-07-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

At 2pm this afternoon Paul's Grandpa, George Ackroyd, went to be with his Lord. George's love for and confidence in his savior Jesus Christ has been an amazing testimony during his last days. We rejoice for him as he is now with Jesus.

Please pray for Jean, Paul's Grandma, and all the rest of the family as they grieve the loss of a very special man of God.

Jesus, I want to be resting, resting

2008-07-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

Busy! Thats been the last week for Sonja and I. Though we took Monday and half of Tuesday off, we've been going strong every since. Tuesday night, I attended our elder's meeting, then Wednesday, I had youth group, followed by deacon's meeting, then Thursday we hung out with the college agers, and then I went to see "The Dark Knight" at midnight. Its been crazy. Plus we still are stuck in this frustrating housing situation, waiting to hear from the "blue shutter" builders whether or not they are truly going to sue us, or just keep threatening to do so.

On top of all that, my granddad is still just struggling with life day by day. I know he doesn't have much time left, and all he wants is to go home and be with Jesus in heaven.

In the midst of all of this, Sonja and I are having a hard time just resting and trusting in Jesus. Both of us are wrestling a lot with adjusting to being away from Pennsylvania and the life we knew in Media. You don't realize how comfortable things were, and how much you enjoyed that comfort, until you step outside of it begin realizing how much of life is really outside of your control.

God has been good though in giving Sonja and I good time together to talk and just hang out together. We really enjoyed ourselves at the Biltmore Monday, and then Tuesday going antiques shopping in Landrum, SC. We had a mini date Thursday before the college get-together when we went and shopped for fabrics to re-upholster our recently purchased used dining room set. Then Friday, we spent some more time shopping in fabric stores, and hanging out.
For dinner we went on a date to Simpsonville to eat dinner at a restaurant one of our youth groupers works at (the Pasta House in downtown Simpsonville), which proved to be an excellent date with great food and good times. We then spent the rest of the evening playing a hilariously funny game (similar to apples to apples) with Anna (Angone), and Tj (Anna's brother), and his wife. It was a good day, busy, but fun.

Its not enough though. We both are sensing the need for something more, something deeper, and someone to rest and trust in.

Sonja and I are both realizing how much of an adjustment it is to move from one place to another. Both of us feel busy and rushed all the time. I realized today, that i don't know that i can honestly sing the song, "Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what thou art," because i have been too busy to remember that he truly is my life. I want to be resting in him, but amidst the chaos of life, its just hard to rest and trust in someone else's goodness and control.

So, i guess we fight to rest, and we rest to fight. We would both appreciate your prayers that we would be able to rest in his goodness, his timing, and his control of our lives. We know that he is stretching us here because we both need to grow. We do look forward to the days ahead, when its not so busy. (or at least the busyness doesn't feel so intense).

Anyway, we are putting our trust in the Lord, for where else shall we go, he alone has the words of life. And he makes big promises:

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and i will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

2 Years Down....Many More To Come

2008-07-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

We got back from our RYM trip late Saturday night. Sunday morning Phil Taggart, from our church in Media, pleasantly surprised us with a visit. We had a nice lunch with him and the family after church. Paul and I then made reservations for that night at the Red Horse Inn (45min from the house) to get away and celebrate our anniversary. After going to the evening service and talking to many people afterwards, we quickly packed and headed out to the bed & breakfast. Paul’s mom had recommended it and it was so wonderful. The room and the view was beautiful. We had a balcony that looked out to the Blue Ridge Mountains. We slept in the following morning and visited the Biltmore in the afternoon. I had never been to the Biltmore before and it was beautiful! We had such a great time and it was so relaxing. I wish I was still there! Enjoy the pictures.

RYM Conference

2008-07-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

Last week we took 33 High School Students from our church to an RYM (Reformed Youth Ministries) conference in Panama City, Florida (right across the street from the beach). Close to 1500 high school kids from around the country came out to the event. It was Paul's second week on the job, so we were jumping right in and I can't think of a better way to do it.

We all met at the church at 4:30am Monday morning to begin the adventure. Paul drove one of the three big vans and I slept in the front seat next to him. We arrived early afternoon and moved into our rooms. I was in a room with 10 high school girls and one college girl named Kristen who was also a chaperon. At first, I have to say, I was pretty overwhelmed. I had never met any of these girls before and I had never been to a RYM conference before. I also knew they were looking to me to be their youth leader. That's pretty intimidating when you feel like a fish out of water.

Paul was in a room with some of the guys across campus. I didn’t get to see him much besides lunch and dinner which didn’t lend itself to much conversation since the kids loved doing loud chants and cheers. It was really hard because he was my only 'safe' person. But being put in this experience was so good for me. It woke me up to how much I really do depend on my husband when things get hard or uncomfortable instead of asking the Lord for help. So I spent a lot of time talking to God. I learned that my hope and comfort and stability and strength and joy and energy has to come from God.

One night, some of the girl chaperons (who are young themselves, one just graduated high school herself) were feeling overwhelmed. So I talked with them, listened to them, and encouraged them until 2am. I had only 4 hours of sleep the night before and I knew I was going to have to get up in 4 hours again. I started to think about how tired I was going to be the next morning while one girl was crying and pouring her heart out. But then I remembered that I was here to minister and serve. I needed to build relationships with these girls and an opportunity had presented itself (God’s timing is not ours). Before I went to bed that night I prayed that God would honor my staying up late to hang out with these girls by giving me lots of energy for the next day. And he answered! The next morning I woke up before my alarm and was feeling great. I never felt tired and had so much fun hanging out with all the kids.

Every day we had two classes in the morning, games in the afternoon, and singing and a speaker in the evening. The theme of the week was The Incarnation. The speaker was excellent and his talks and the morning classes lent themselves to great small group and individual conversations. Paul also led a discussion with our youth group every night after the speaker. These were some of my favorite times because Paul encouraged them to talk and share where they were at spiritually and how they were making sense of what they were learning or what they were struggling with. It was neat to see how open and honest the kids were and how their honesty encouraged others in the group. We were experiencing real fellowship and it was so cool.

This week also encouraged me that I can do this youth ministry stuff and that God has gifted me in this area. It wasn’t hard for me to reach out and connect to the girls. It was very natural. The girls seemed to trust me and enjoy being around me. And I really enjoyed them. I had some great conversations that would just happen, in the room, walking to dinner, or on the beach. By the end of the week Paul and I felt like we had formed real relationships with the kids and can’t wait to continue to hang out with them in the future.

Ups and Downs in the Housing Adventure

2008-07-05T19:24:00.001-07:00

Sorry its been so long since the last posting, but things have been crazy.

In a bizarre twist of circumstances, Sonja and I have made a difficult but somewhat forced decision to withdraw our offer on "Blue Shutters." :( Its kind of a long story, but the short of it is that we were getting more and more uncomfortable with the builder of "Blue Shutters." There were many problems which seemed to come up with the builder (like a really shady mortgage deal), as well as multiple things that needed to be fixed on the house (the chief of which was the hardwood floors), and the builder didn't seem very inclined to get some of the more important things fixed.

So, this past Thursday afternoon, Sonja, I, and our wonderful realtor and friend (Pat Smith) did a walk-through on the house to re-inspect all the areas we had previously marked to be fixed. Immediately, upon walking in the house, we were met by the builder, and the regional supervisor for Keystone Builders, and before we had even looked at any of the other issues with the house, the supervisor, in a rude manner, informed us that the hardwood floors (which are really bad- you couldn't slide your shoe over any of it with out your foot catching on the edges) are not going to be improved at all, and that we better just get over it, because the floors are "within industry standards" (which means that the edges of the hardwood floors don't stick up further than a credit card width).

While credit cards are pretty thin items, you would definitely notice one, if it was glued to your hardwood floors, so that every time your foot slid over it, it caught on the edge of the shoe, and you tripped. You would notice it even more, if there were 20 or so such places all over your dining room floor, as well as your entry way, and the main hallway, and the downstairs bathroom. It was pretty absurd to be told that "industry standards" allow such poor flooring.

After days, and even weeks of prayer over this house, it seemed like every time we tried to take a step forward with this house, some other annoying thing would prevent us from moving forward. After 5 or so such times, (as well as many increasingly stressful and sleepless nights for Sonja and I), we decided that we weren't very excited about the house. Then after our "run-in" with the builder and the supervisor (where the builder further justified problems with the house, that "didn't need correction" and were "within the bounds of normal human error"), we decided that it just wasn't worth it. If the builder was already giving us grief about fixing problems with the house (and there were quite a few, for a brand new house), and we hadn't yet paid him for the house, then I would hate to think what he would be like once he had our money.

So being convinced that God would have us look elsewhere, we stumbled upon our new house of interest- "Ashley Oaks" (thats the name of the subdivision where our potential "project" is located). This house is beautiful on the outside, has a great backyard, tons of square footage, and is within biking distance (about .4 miles) from the church. It has a screened in back porch, a swing on the front porch, 3 bedrooms, a giant FROG ("finished room over garage"), and wonderful floorplan.

However, the inside of "Ashley Oaks" is in utter disrepair. It hasn't been updated (or possibly even vacuumed/cleaned) in nearly 20 years. Since its in such bad shape, its price would be lower, and our payments would be lower. It would take a ton of work however, (knocking out a few walls and such), but a friend and church-member who is a full-time home-improvement specialist, gave us an estimate to update and repair the house which puts the house very much within our range.

So, Sonja and I put in an offer on the house today, and we are waiting for a response. :) Keep us in your prayers as our house-hunting adventure continues.

Here are some pictures to whet your appetite. Or to make you queasy because of all the dirt, grime, and bad decorating. Fortunately, we won't share the smell with you.

Additional Ashely Oaks Pics

2008-07-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

Music by the Lake

2008-06-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Paul and I have been busy with mortgage stuff, a house walk-thru, looking at appliances for the house (because it's a new house, we don't have a stove, fridge, dishwasher, or washer & dryer), getting our last doctor's visits in before our insurance runs out, getting new health insurance, and finding treasures for our new house on Craig's list and then driving to look at the finds (we got a really nice dining room table with 6 chairs for $150!). We have been anything but bored. Its actually been a lot of fun to hang out together, as being in Westminster and working for the Y afforded us very little time to spend together.
Last night Paul and I took a break from business and went to Furman University where they have "Music by the Lake" every Thursday night. We sat on a blanket on the grass and enjoyed hearing a live orchestra play themes from John William's famous music while we snacked on blueberries and cherries. It was a perfect night. it was a lot of fun listening to the music from Indiana Jones, Jaws, Star Wars, and many more.

Paul and I have really enjoyed this time off from work and school. I don't think we have ever, besides our honeymoon, spent this much time together. We have had so much fun just hanging out and being with each other all day, every day.

Transitions, . . . and Stuff

2008-06-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our second Sunday worshiping at Grace Baptist in Greenville, and although we've enjoying our time in Greenville, both Sonja and I miss being at FRBC in Philadelphia. Its kinda funny how churches do Sunday worship differently, and how things that I used to consider distracting or kinda weird become endearing and wonderful as you get used to them. I know that this will eventually happen at Grace Baptist (GBC), but it makes me miss FRBC a lot. At the end of the morning service, we celebrated the Lord's Supper, and it was so good to be reminded by the bread & juice that Christ died for us, so that not only is our sin atoned for, but also that in Christ's death and resurrection, we are freed to walk in a new way of resurrection mode of living. It was also sad, because it was our first communion not with our fellowship at FRBC in a very long time.

Last night Sonja and I took the evening to go out to Furman Campus, walk around the lake, and spend some time talking about the struggles of moving, the joy of being together, and the ways we need to work on our marriage. We also spent some time discussing the end of II Thessalonians 2, where Paul, in the midst of his discussion on the man of lawlessness, keeps reminding the Thessalonians that the truth is not simply something to be believed, but the truth is something which is to be loved, the only alternative to which is to take pleasure in unrighteousness.

The truth of which Paul speaks, as he notes in the passage, is probably generally referring to the traditions and teaching which Paul passed on to the Thessalonians both in his letters and in his verbal teaching, thus probably centering both on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, as well as the implications which flow out of that "truth".

As I was thinking yesterday, it struck me that the truth of Jesus' resurrection is quite a fact. I believe it to be the lynchpin of Christianity, for without his resurrection, his death is quite meaningless (as Paul notes in I Cor. 15). However, according to Paul, the truth is not simply something to be believed, but something to be loved (2 Thess. 2) and something to be obeyed (obedience of faith- Romans).

Drinking the juice and eating the bread reminded me that participation in the resurrection of Jesus offers both comforts and joys to us as it places demands and necessities on us as well. We, in union with Christ, have been raised to walk in resurrection life now. While we await heaven and all its glories, we live now on earth, following Jesus as his disciples.

I Cor. 5:14-15- For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

As Christians, we live now, for Jesus. Sonja and I spent a long time discussing our fears of the future- missing friendships in Philly, the thought of a monthly house-payment, the adjustment of a new church and worship situation, the sadness of missing Sonja's family, the ugliness of the selfishness we each bring to our marriage. The only thing which makes this bearable, and even commendable, is the reminder that Jesus has died and been resurrected for us. If we are to not only believe this fact, but love it, it must come home to us. We are here to serve Christ. If we lose that focus, I don't how we cannot be discouraged.

Moving here really drives home the question, not only of why we are here, but of why and for what we now live. Its easy to get into a groove where you just do what you need to do to get by (i.e. schoolwork at Westminster), but every now and then you get a jolt which takes your breath away, and makes you ask, "Why the heck are we doing this?"

As Sonja and I have wrestled with the struggle of leaving our family and friends from the north, we've concluded that there's only one good answer to the "why" question. We believe we're serving Jesus. Otherwise, its not worth it. But if we are serving Jesus, and he does promise to reward us (as Bob read yesterday in Eccl. 12:12, and also in Revelation) then we can seek to please and serve him, knowing that he sees and will reward. He gave himself for us. Now we give ourselves for him by serving his people. Just some thoughts which are giving us hope amidst difficult times. Hope you find encouragement as we have from not only believing, but loving and obeying the reality of Jesus' resurrection.

We Got "Blue Shutters!"

2008-06-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Paul and I started house hunting bright and early the day after we moved. We saw lots of houses, took a break for lunch, and then visited this house. Paul instantly said that this was 'the house'. I was distracted by the bright royal blue shutters, but I liked the house as well.

Every house that we looked at after that we compared to "Blue Shutters". No house could match up to "Blue Shutters". We went back with the camera and took pictures to send to mom and dad. They thought it was a great deal. It was a brand new house and was one of the least expensive houses on the block. It had everything we wanted. It was only 5 minutes from the church, it backed up to a park so we could have the youth group over to play, it had a gas fire place, 4 big bedrooms all with walk-in closets, a really big family room and... a front porch! We decided we wanted to make an offer but wanted to pray about it first. We spent a lot of time in prayer that night and the next morning. The next day we got a call saying the house had just sold! Paul and I knew God had shut the door, and although a little disappointed, we did not want the house if God didn't want us to have it. So we praised God for shutting the door and got excited about what God was going to provide for us.

For the next 4 days we searched and searched, starting early and going all day trying to find the perfect house. Then my dad found a house 20 minutes from church and e-mailed us the link. Paul and I went to look at it and really liked it, although it would need LOTS of work, and we pictured having fun working on fixing it up. But it was 20 minutes away. We prayed and asked God for wisdom because we wanted to be close to the church. We remembered that we moved to South Carolina to serve and minister to people and we just didn't feel at peace about living so far away. So we prayed again. The next morning we got a call saying that the deal did not go through with "Blue Shutters" and that if we still wanted it, it was ours! We went to look at it again and we both knew, this was the house for us.

We signed the papers today and will be closing on July 14! "Blue Shutters" is our new residence!

"Blue Shutter" Tour

2008-06-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Trucks, Trailors, and Trips: The Adventure Begins!

2008-06-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 9, I picked up our 22 ft, (16 ft. bed) rental truck from Penske, behind which I would be towing my Acura, loaded with more stuff, and with two bikes on top. As it turned out, Monday was the hottest day so far this year for Philadelphia (99 degrees)! In spite of the temperature, we had an amazing turnout of friends who skipped work, despised the heat, and helped us pack and organize our moving van. Matt B., Janice, Charles (Bill), Tim, and Sonja & I all worked our tales off, packing goods, carrying boxes, and lugging assorted treasures down from our second/third story apartment, while Gabe endured the oven of the cargo bay, organizing and fitting together the puzzle of boxes so that we could jam all our stuff into a far-too-small moving-truck. With the help of Thea, Aaron, and Ethan Williams, after two days of intense moving and intense heat, we finally finished loading up our truck.

Here is a picture of Sonja and I standing in front of our lengthy and overloaded beast of truck & trailor!
At 3:30 am, early Wednesday morning, I loaded our 3 quail, Miley, Matt, and Molly, and our two fish into the cab of the truck, along with some snacks, and hit the road. Surprisingly the truck got pretty good gas mileage, (I only filled up twice on a 30 gallon tank), and it took me about 12 hours to make my way down from Philly to G'ville. Besides a scary incident involving an 18 wheeler trying to pull over on top of me, and the fact that the truck only had an AM/FM radio, it was a pretty good trip.

I was met by Blake, Ryan, John, Tyson, and Drew, who made quick work of unloading all of our goods into a 10 x 10 storage space off Pelham Rd. What a blessing it has been to have friends willing to help us both load and unload all our goods!

Sonja, with the help of her sister Sarah, drove down her heavy-laden car later on Wednesday, and got in just before midnight.