Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

Welcome to our family blog. So many of our friends here in Iowa have asked for our contact information in Independence and we thought this would be a great way to kind of keep in touch. We will try to post two to three times per week to keep you updated on our family happenings.

Speaking of Independence, Dwight was elected as Senior Pastor at First Assembly of God in Independence MO on Sunday, September 7. We are thrilled with the opportunity that God has blessed us with. The church has beautiful facilities, including a GORGEOUS Sanctuary for a wedding, is located in an affluent area, just off of Hwy 291. It has incredible visibility to the community and with a Pastoral Staff of four, it will be poised to grow!!!

Following the election, the deacon board asked if he could do Bible Study on Wednesday night the 10th and start next Sunday. Of course, we gladly agreed. So, we are driving down on Wednesday, doing Bible Study, coming home on Thursday, going back down on Saturday and coming home on Monday. Please pray with us that our house will sell quickly and we can become permanent residents of Independence. We are excited to do so!

Rachel and I are very eager to begin "the wedding of the century" plans. :) A woman in the church just got married a couple of months ago and she graciously offered all her "stuff" for us to look at with regard to florists, caterers, etc. I am also going to ask to see her pictures to see how she decorated the Sanctuary. Watch for Save the Date cards to arrive soon. We hope to have them out in October. Rachel has to decide on the date first. :) We purchased her wedding dress back in June and it came in the day before she left to go back to Central Bible College in Springfield. She went in for her first fitting. It was a family event. We all went. It was an incredibly happy ending to a not so happy summer for her. God is good!

Aaron loves Independence! He has already purchased a KU hoodie and hat. (whatever that means) He is eager to get settled and continue with his Global University courses. He is continuing his job at Staples in Altoona until we officially move. He would like to take a break in between jobs and visit family in Southeast Missouri. So we will do that sometime soon. He reminded us that it has been over a year since he had seen his MaMa and Uncle Mike. I sort of forgot how busy we had been.

I will be involved in helping Dwight get his "system" set up at the office. I am very much looking forward to getting involved in Women's Ministries at the church any maybe teaching Sunday School. We met with the ladies group on Saturday, September 6 and they are very excited and anxious to get some things planned. We talked about so many ideas. I'll keep you posted on our events and maybe with the help of Aaron, we'll even post some pictures.

Thanks so much for your prayers, cards, calls and the many other ways you have supported us these last 10 weeks. God has been so incredibly faithful. I am so grateful for a husband who loves God more than anything else. He has been an fabulous example of how to lead his family out of the valley on to the mountain top. When the kids were younger and he would tuck them into bed and say their prayers, he would always thank God that He sent them to our house to live. I'm confident that through this summer, my kids will thank God that He gave them the Dad that He did.

We really do want to keep in touch and hope you will enjoy the updates that we'll post here. Stay tuned.