{CIT}

By -

What a beautiful month! 
It's hard to put into words all the emotions, knowledge, lessons, amazing friends, and new experiences we had this last month while attending our prefield training in Union Mills, NC. But we will try ... mainly with pictures, as always! 

First day of class! Ready and eager 

our daily view 

our common area in our dorm! We had a whole wing to ourselves! it was quit nice


the first official weekend there we hosted a pumpkin party on the back porch of our dorm!
We had a potluck of soups and treats & enjoyed getting to know one another. 

E made a best friend right away!!! 

After our cultural weekend assignment, we took a group of new friends to a British Pub we found. 

We also "adopted" an amazing young lady while away ... N calls her sister now! 

On our way back home from our cultural weekend assignment -
our whole family enjoyed learning about another culture

At the end of the road by CIT, it dead ends into this view ... and on this particular night, the view was just breathtaking!
Beauty only God could create 

We visited an Episcopal Church - the building dated back to 1899!

The stain glass was beautiful 

3 years ago we were commissioned in as missionaries to GEM -
Now we are through prefield training...
next year - ENGLAND! 

I can't say enough about the folks in our group.
They poured into not only us, but our children.
Prayers were given to each, time was spent truly listening to their hearts desires,
and bonds were made that won't be broken, no matter how long we are apart from them.
I am so grateful for how God orchestrated it all. 


Miss Faye is a very special woman!! She spent every lunch eating with T. Listening to his dreams and stories, and bonding with him so deeply. It was  joy to have her in our lives - and T LOVES his Miss Faye lunches. 

N and her new sisters!!!
She has spent a few evenings being a little weepy
over missing them all so much since returning home...

New Best Friends!
We love this family so much and hope to visit them in Africa some day soon

Our kids had so many families love on them ... Miss Crystal was another sister to Norma 

We can not wait to see Miss Alyx and Mr Nick again over the pond next year for GEM annual conference!!!
Excited to share this GEM adventure with them!

Our AMAZING group!!!
Can not express how much we love these like-minded people 

I wish Mexico and England were closer...
We miss our desk buddies so much! 

Our lego simulation day ... I was a builder thanks to my years of being a momma of legolovers! 

A normal sight for an evening after class!
Miss Rosie is awesome and the tire swing is greatly missed

we celebrated birthdays right from the get go!
And all pitched in like it was our own family.
How much I LOVE these kind hearted servants of God. 

One of N's favorite things to do after class!!

Our desk buddies 

Oh where to being with these two AMAZING folks?!?!?!
They took our kids under their wings, loved on them, played with them,
took them to dinner and the park and told Tim & I to go enjoy a date night on them!!!
Seriously, I can't imagine life without them and was so sad to depart from them.
They truly know how to love and serve. They give with everything God blesses them with
and know how to encourage and disciple by living side by side.
Thank you Lord for giving us Mr Mike and Miss Diane 

This was our incredible small group for the month.
These people hear and love. We all shared rawness and got love and truth in return.
Thank you guys! We loved our group

Miss Gina & Miss Ladrae were GREAT teachers for our kiddos!!!
We can't thank them enough for all they did for our kids.
The older boys learned God is so Good in 4 different languages,
while the younger two learned Jesus Loves Me in 4 different languages.
What a blessing it is to hear those languages praising God though our home now. 
Goodbyes were TOUGH!
Way harder then I ever imagined they'd be after just 4 weeks. 

We love you Miss Rosie! 

A special kind of friend

our super amazing neighbors!!
These guys ROCKED. Our kids played almost every evening possibly
outside on the playground together.
Breaking them apart was a hard thing to do.
We are SO grateful for how God gave us another family of 6 to share with and confide in 

Last day of class .... 




Our hearts are full as we come home, unpack, and soak in all we learned.
It's hard to carry on in the same way. Our hearts have grown larger, both for the people we met and for the cultures we learned about. We are eager to learn more, and to begin our transition to a new country, taking all we just learned with us.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for us and checked in with us while we were away.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There's No Place Like Home

By -
Image
This December marks the start of our 4th year in our old, cozy home. It's this time each year I begin to think of all the hard work that was put into making this old farmhouse our home. It took months of work, (mostly time of Grandpa Keith's), and lots of imagination. I remember when Daddy took me thru the first time, the place was SO dirty, run down, and in dire need of some TLC!! But the little details and charm of the place got to me and I knew we just HAD to live here!! It was perfect. I fell in love. It had so many “old” things and so much history to it; from the kitchen cabinets, to the door knobs, & who doesn't just LOVE the hand crafted cabinets?! And it wasn't just the house, it was the surroundings. The fields, farms, country way of life, and of course the location... so close to our families! Beautiful spring/fall flower collection  The wheat fields This is our road ... down by the river. BEAUTIFUL during sunset!  The beau...
Read more

{21.SEPT}

By -
Image
 This month was the beginning of a new season. While the younger two continued homeschooling, the older two boys began at one of our local primary schools. There were a lot of nerves and some hesitation, but after a week of it, they both found their feet and really have enjoyed learning along with new friends and teachers. September is kinda like a new year here in the UK - everyone's schedules begin again after a 6 weeks break, so it's a way to begin fresh. A lot started back up, somethings for the first time since Covid hit! So we are back to enjoying life at, almost, the same speed as 2019. Worship team is back in full swing, the kids' evening groups began back, and after school clubs are still getting going, but are slowly begin added to our calendar. But we have set out to be purposeful when adding to our calendar and have guarded our family night, our ministry nights in our neighborhood and our Sabbaths. It's taken a few weeks, but I feel we are slowly evening it ...
Read more

{21 - MARCH}

By -
Image
March came and went in a flash! Wow, I can't believe it's over already. It was a delightful month that helped usher in spring and more sunshine. We spent a lot of time working hard at home with school work and then celebrated our hard work with, you guessed it, outdoor adventures! And with great joy, in the last week of March, our Stay at Home orders were lifted and we were able to explore outside of our town. What fun that opens up. We also can now have one family over, outside ... so we were able to enjoy the last week of March with others and boy, oh boy, did that ever lift our spirits.  This kid broke me down and began his Kindergarten work this month!  So proud of his hard work and dedication  we've tried very hard to keep our dates with each kid a top priority.  This month I had a date with this little girl and we got some take out and went to the park.  The sun wasn't shining too much, and it was a bit chilly, but it was a joy to be out and alone with my ...
Read more