The 4th of July

I realize it's over a week past the 4th of July, but I wanted to include a couple of pictures of Shauna and I with my family over that weekend. We had completed orientation Friday morning, the 3rd, and then drove across the state to Chattanooga the same day.

Having grown up on the lake in Chattanooga, we went straight to the river Friday and then spent all Saturday as well. It was really great to have some relaxing time after almost two weeks of orientation in Mississippi. It was also good to spend time with family.We ended up watching fireworks from our boat. For a number of years my family has been going up to a place called Soddy Lake to watch fireworks from the water. There were around 100 boats anchored in this one location to watch the fireworks. My family has alot of friends on the water and we were tied up to about 10 boats and everyone would walk from one boat to another visiting.

We have yet to have a honeymoon so we are leaving tomorrow morning (Monday the 13th) for Sedona for a couple of days and will probably drive up to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday for the day since it is only another 125 miles. Please keep us in prayer. We will be leaving for Kenya in 9 days.

Pre-Field Orientation (PFO)

The day after our wedding (literally!) we flew out to Mississippi where we had almost two weeks of pre-field orientation. Having already been in Kenya for a while, we had a good foundation of what living cross-culturally looks like, but the orientation gave us alot of valuable information and resources to help us live more successfully in Kenya. There were over 200 missionaries that are going to 15 different countries at the orientation.

There are 13 of us that are headed to Kenya to perform various roles at West Nairobi School. They are a really great group of people and this is a picture of us, with the director and his wife, at lunch one day.

In addition to many lectures, we were broken up into small groups for some of our sessions and this is our small group. The facilitator (Murrell) has been in Korea for a number of years. The couple on the right (Matthew and Stacy) are headed to Seoul, Korea and the other couple (Scott and Laura) are headed to Indonesia. We really enjoyed meeting and being able to hang out with so many others who are going all over the world through this mission organization. We enjoyed our time in Mississippi, but are looking forward to some downtime with just the two of us before leaving for Kenya on July 21.

THE WEDDING!!!

Even though we are incredibly busy with orientation here in Mississippi, we wanted to at least post a couple pictures of the wedding.

Shauna was so incredibly beautiful and it was the most amazing day! All of our family got along well together and everyone commented on how smooth and fun the whole wedding was. Our pictures will not be coming in until mid July, but we wanted to share a few photos with you. Thank you everyone for your prayers and help in making this day so special for the both of us! We are truly blessed to have so many great people in our lives!

4 Days Until The Wedding!!!

So today is 4 days until the wedding. It has been kind of a whirlwind since being back. It's so good to be around Shauna again. Not only are we making all of the preparations for our wedding, but also for all the places we're going up until going back to Kenya at the end of July, i.e. Memphis, Chattanooga, Sedona, etc. Even though it's really stressful at times, there is no one else in the world I would rather be doing all of this with! I am a very fortunate and blessed man! She has planned everything so well and she is using her amazing, creative skills to put some personal touches to the wedding.

It was so easy getting acclimated to the time difference going to Kenya, but coming back to the States has been really difficult. It took me every bit of a full week before I could sleep all the way through the night.

My family is starting to come into town with my mom and grandmother coming tomorrow. I'm really excited to see them. About 25 of us are going to an informal dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on Thursday to let our family's get acquainted. Really exciting times!

Planning a wedding..

I am so blessed to be able to plan our wedding while being in Arizona. I didn't know what all goes in to planning a wedding, but there are so many details that I would not have thought of. It has been really great to be here to talk to all the vendors and see where the wedding is going to be held. I have been so busy figuring out all of the small details, the details that will make our wedding more personal. I can't believe that it is almost here. I am very excited to get married in less than a month!

I am more excited that Rich will be here in Arizona next week. I can't wait to see him. I am ready for us to be married and not spend as much time on different continents. We have spent a lot of time away from each other, so it will be nice to spend some time together.

Life here in Arizona has been really nice. I have been able to spend a lot of time with my family.
I am staying with my dad, which has been good. We haven't been real close so this time has been good for us to get to know each other a little better. I have also been able to see my mom and my grandparents. I am going to be staying with them for awhile also. Most of my family are not believers so I am hoping that through my actions, conversations and prayers, their hearts will begin to soften and turn towards our great God!

The Humility of Christ

2 Corinthians 8:9
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty (humility) might become rich."

This is a scripture the Lord continues to highlight to me more and more. I think of Jesus, fully God, in heaven enjoying the ultimate pleasures of perfect fellowship with the Godhead. There is no greater joy or experience. Yet, FOR OUR SAKES, He laid aside the perfect fullness of who He was and took on sinful, weak, broken human flesh. All of the sudden God, in the Son, is confined to one physical location, He is subject and vulnerable to the earth He spoke into existence, He allows Himself to possibly catch illnesses and/or diseases. Luke 2:52 says, "And Jesus increased in wisdom..." How does God, who is Omniscient, grow in wisdom?!? Oh, the lengths He went through to have us!!! It is through His humility that there are billions who have received the gift of salvation. Through His humility, He has made billions rich. He has elevated us to a place of glory through His humility.

He gave us an example that we are to follow. As we lay aside our own agendas and selfishness and reach out to all of those around us, we are then able to participate with God in elevating them to a greater place of dignity, worth, and glory. We all seem to have two options: 1.We can live a life in which we are consumed with ourselves. We can maybe even accidentally do a decent job and manage to attain occasional temporary happiness. Or 2. We can lay aside our own agendas, so that we may participate in the higher calling of our lives, by partnering with God in bringing others, and ourselves, into our greater destiny.

I believe this is one of the many things Jesus meant when He said in Matt. 16:25, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." We can live a life for ourselves and hardly affect the world around us at all, or we can live our life for God and affect untold numbers of people around us. The choice is ours.

The Work Continues...

Things are continuing to go well here. Chris and Lindy left to go back to the States last week to see family, friends, and raise additional support. I have been able to help Chris out by assuming some of his many responsibilities while he is away and seeing that the work continues to go on here with Only Servants. They will be getting back on May 31st.

We are continuing to do evangelism in the three different areas of Nairobi on a weekly basis, while also feeding the street boys in Kawangware. I'm going to be preaching two times this month. Once in Kibera at the celebration service on May 17th and then in Kasarani on May 30th.

My amazing bride-to-be, Shauna, left on Friday to get the many details and preparations taken care of for our wedding on June 20th. I will be leaving on June 3rd. It was very important to us, and our families as well, to get married back in the States. Our visit will be short-lived and we will be back in Kenya at the end of July continuing our work here.

We are now joined with a large missions organization called NICS, whose headquarters is in Mississippi. Shortly after our wedding, we will be going to two weeks of orientation at their headquarters. Shauna has accepted a teaching position at their school here, West Nairobi School, for the upcoming year. Even though we are affiliated with this organization, we must continue to raise our own support. I will still be doing work for our ministry, After His Heart, including continuing evangelism in Kasarani. I will also be helping out at the school in various roles. These are seriously exciting times. Please continue to pray that God will be glorified through us and that all provisions will be met!