Holidays

Still making an effort to catch up to the current date. We have been so busy the last few weeks. Kyle took a Systematic Theology class in December and has been studying quite a bit. We have also had quite a bit going on at church and of course life and work keep us busy enough. Just want to share a little about our holidays.

First, for Thanksgiving, we went to Florida to visit Kyle's family. It was sort of a last minute decision as we had just made a trip there in September after not seeing them for 9 months. But we were *thankful* to be able to go and spend some time with Kyle's Nonna (Italian for Grandmother) who just turned 81 years old. She's still a spunky lady!

We really enjoy any length of time we get to spend with our family. When you live so far away, for as long as we have, you learn to really cherish these memories together.

Whitney and the beautiful arrangement my mother-in-law made. 

Kyle and Kara putting away the delicious food. 

Whitney with her Uncle Kyle and Aunt Kristy

Hanging out, watching football (Clint is gunna kill me if he sees this) 

These two are crazy! 

These two are crazier!! (she gets it from Clint)

***Christmas***

Holidays are always kind of a blur. It took us a while to get our tree but it finally went up first week in December. We're those wait-until-after-thanksgiving Christmas decorating kind of people. :-)

Kyle putting on the star.

-Ice skating-

Kyle made a wreath all by himself. Isn't it nice? You'll never guess what it's made out of, other than the Christmas tree branches. Leave a comment and guess!

So then we went to Virginia to visit my folks for Christmas, which has always been a special time for my family. Of course it is for everyone. We had a great time. We spent a whole whopping 4 days there. For us, that's a long time. 

*Gift wrapping*

Trying to get a good picture.....

There we go. :-) 

Walking with the family then taking a horrible selfie. 

Krista, Nathan and Caleb 

Us and the parentals 

Went to this awesome house of Christmas lights!! 

Our Christmas tree back home. 

We had a great Holiday Season. It was busy but getting to see both sides of the family was a huge blessing. We couldn't have asked for more. Now on to the new year!!! Oh wait, that already happened. Oops!!! ;-)

Dan the Mailman....

I love giving gifts! especially thoughtful ones! I guess you could say it's one of my "love languages" if you've ever read that book. So I had this bright idea to give something to our mailman. I made some cookies (which is rare) and put them in a pretty little tin and note that said "Thank you to our mailman." I thought it was the best idea ever!

As I tell Kyle about it he says, "Babe, really? he's not going to eat those cookies. That's just weird." Crushed, I realized he was probably right. You can't trust people anymore. It's like Halloween candy. So my thoughtful gift was kind of a joke. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

A couple days later, I forgot about it until I checked the mail. There were several cards in there from grandparents and friends. Then I came read a card that was addressed to us, with a stamp, and said from "Dan the mailman". I smiled to myself and thought, no way. Dan the mailman can't be real!

Sure enough, "Dan the mailman" really enjoyed the "delicious cookies" and appreciated the note. His card was a legit Christmas card too. I was amazed! It really made my day! We actually have never met Dan the mailman in person because we are never home when he delivers the mail and our mailbox is 1 of 4 farther down the street, since we live in a duplex. But it was just so neat that he wrote us a card and wished us Merry Christmas. I felt like The Elf, spreading Christmas cheer.

So I think from now on I will make cookies for the mailmen that serve us. Whether he eats them or not!

P.S. No Kyle is not a scrooge. He put the Christmas card on our frig with everyone else's! ;-)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun....

Hello.

Long time no see. 

Again, making a point to blog our adventures has failed many times over. Finding the time to do it, let alone work, eat and sleep, is impossible! We will recap what we have done since.....June? *cringing* I know that's really sad. But hey! time flies when you're having fun!

Since our last post about our anniversary trip back in June (which was taken in May), much has happened. We finished our tour with the ladies trio in August and returned to TN. It was a great experience! We traveled all the way up to Ontario, Canada and visited places that most people spend their vacations! Mackinac Island and Niagara Falls were some of the highlights but we also went to Lake Superior and Lake Huron which were beautiful as well!

*Pictures*

Downtown Chicago 

Mackinac Island 

Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island 

Niagara Falls 

North Bay, Canada 

Lake Superior in Michigan 

Contrary to what the pictures convey, traveling non-stop for 2 1/2 months was not the easiest thing in the world. We can definitely say that God taught us much! One thing is for sure is God can use us despite our failures and mistakes. We are privileged to serve the Lord not "entitled". We visited over 50 churches. Traveled over 12,000 miles. Met more people than we can count. Learned more lessons than we can remember. Sang more songs than we can sing! And made more memories than we have ever made in our lives.

We owe that to the girls (we affectionately call them) we traveled with. Bethany, the red head, Joy, the tallest child, and Caitlin, the girl that every boy falls in love with. All three very different personalities. Bethany was our comic relief and probably doesn't have a bad-attitude-bone in her body or at least didn't show it; Joy who is compassionate, tenderhearted and very talented but doesn't realize it; and Caitlin, smart and beautiful no matter what she wears and a singing voice to be envious of. We couldn't have asked for more hardworking, more dedicated, and more fun people to spend our summer with. We had our moments, of course, of disagreements or tension. Kyle and I were only 4 years older and barely married a year. We had never done this before. We made so many mistakes it's embarrassing. It was kind of like raising children, only they were not children at all. It took time but we learned what was important which was unity within our group. The girls were sort of like sisters to me, even though they called us "Mom and Dad" for fun. We didn't mind. We were a team. What they were doing, giving up their summer to minister to people, was a great responsibility and big sacrifice. We respected them and appreciated them for that. For 2 1/2 months, we became a family. Naturally, we went everywhere together, but it was more than that. We finally learned, trial and error, it was not about us. It was about serving God. It was about leading the way despite what others were doing. It was about following your leaders when you don't understand why. It was about people and loving them like Jesus would. It was about being "used up" for God.

One event that happened that still gives me goose bumps was while we were with a pastor in Canada at a restaurant, Kyle asked the waitress a question about something on the menu. The Pastor asked the waitress "Do you get a lot of hard questions?" She said, "Yeah, I suppose so", referring to the menu. The pastor, wise man that he was, turned the conversation towards the Lord by asking "I want to ask you one of the hardest questions, and that is do you know for sure you have a home in heaven?" The waitress shrugged and said "I am not really sure". The pastor said "I'm sorry, I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I'm a pastor and I would like to leave you something that would tell you how you can know and I would love for you to read it."

We ordered our food and finished our meal not thinking much of this conversation, as I've observed and been apart of them before. The pastor then asked if we could sing something for the waitress. We did this often actually so it was not an uncommon request. The girls insisted we do "We Will Glorify" which is a song we did all together in 4 part harmony. We sang and everyone clapped. It was received well. Even the manager came out to hear us.

We left the restaurant and later we returned to America but before we crossed the border the same pastor called my husband to tell him that he received an email from that same manager of the restaurant saying she had heard the young people singing about God and she saw the information the pastor had left at the restaurant. She said in her email that she had been searching for God in her life and had many questions and wanted to meet with the Pastor. The pastor did meet with her and she accepted Christ as her Savior a week later.

If it's one thing I've learned about last summer, it's that we are but a small, small part of God's amazing plan. He had somehow placed us in that restaurant, in that city, in that country at that particular time. And not that we did anything wonderful or great, we just sang for God's glory. Not realizing that a woman needed the Lord and had been searching for Him. We were used in small way but it was refreshing to know that God DID use us. And it made me feel more in awe of our God than ever before.

We finished our summer strong, and the last two days of our summer long journey, the AC went out. PRAISE THE LORD!! (you may think I'm crazy for saying that but we just went a whole summer without a single problem and a couple hours without AC was not that bad!!) We all went our separate ways, Kyle and I returned to our jobs (which is a whole other answer to prayer- more on that later) and the girls returned home for a visit and then back to school. We have many memories from our summer. I still want to make a scrapbook of the many post cards and pictures. We reminisce with the girls whenever we see them. We may forget the laughs and memories, but never could we forget that God gave us a great summer serving Him!! 

For now, it's back to normal life in good ole Tennessee. Until the next adventure!

First Anniversary

                 We celebrated our first anniversary! Of course, we are on the road with a ladies trio but since Kyle did most of the schedualing we were able to steal away for a couple days and went to St. Louis! It was a blast! 

We went up 615 ft. into the Gateway to the West! 

Went to The Hill, an Italian district, to eat at a nice resteraunt. 

It was a beautiful place! 

That night, we went on a carriage ride. 

The next day, we went to the St. Louis Zoo. So much fun!!! 

It has been quite a year. We've very much enjoyed our first year of marriage. We have learned much about each other but the wonder of marriage is one never learns everything about their spouse. Every day, I've learned somehing new or different about my husband. One thing I have learned is that it's not so much about "being in love" but about *choosing to love* regardless of your feelings. When they say "Marriage is a commitment", they ain't kidding! 

It's wonderful to know I have not only committed my life to Kyle, but we both have committed our lives to God together. 

Ephesians 3:17-19

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that he, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Midwest Trio

We are on the road! We are currently in London, Kentucky and will be singing at Sunshine Hill Baptist Church, pastored by Mr. Michael Casada. This past week has been a lot of preparing, training, rehearsing and getting ready to leave. We are already having a good time!

These are the girls in our group! There's Bethany -the redhead- Joy -top left- and Caitlin -standing next to Kristy-. They are all such great girls and we're praying the Lord will use them and their voices this summer to be a blessing to many churches. 

He done graduated again!

We are proud to announce that Kyle has completed his Master's of Ministry degree in Seminary! It has always been his goal, his decision since freshman year to accomplish this. It took a little longer than originally planned but God knows best. It is a major achievement and was only accomplished with the Lord's help. It is Jesus Christ that allows us to attain success, even in formal education.

Kyle and I are so thankful that God has allowed us both to attend and graduate from Crown College. Not only have we been challenged academically but spiritually and in many other ways. Pastor Sexton and the staff/faculty of Crown College have influenced us in a wonderful and amazing way. There are no words to express what this place has meant to us, especially in the last year. It has become home. Our church, our jobs, our life. We can only thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity, however short it may be, to be here and have a small part in what is going on here. God is working! And He gets all the glory for it.

Seize the Opportunity

Life is a series of opportunities and decisions. They say, "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." (Milton Berle) The hard part is making the right decisions when those opportunities arise. We know that our time here on earth is only temporary but making the most of our time here is truly important. We are grateful for the work God has done in both of our lives, especially in this past year. But just as soon as we get comfortable, God begins breaking up the nest and moving us forward. It's up to us to open the door!

All that to say this.............. we have been given the opportunity to travel to a different part of the county this summer to represent our school, Crown College. We will be taking a ladies trio with us and Kristy will be playing the piano for them while Kyle will be speaking/preaching. We are so excited! What an opportunity. Not only do we get to use the things God has called us to do (using music to minster and preaching), we get to be together!

At first, when this was presented to us, we were sort of unsure if this was something God wanted us to do. It was going to take a step of faith and require all kinds of change to come into our lives. Kristy would have to quit her job and we were not exactly sure what would become of us in the fall. There were a few facts we always had to come back to when we doubted this decision.

1. God has prepared us.
God allowed us both to attend Crown College. We both had a desire to serve the Lord and God brought us together. He then let us graduate and get married. God has allowed these things come to pass for a reason. There is no doubt he has prepared us and is still preparing us even now.

2. We will not know all the answers.
No matter how hard we try, we won't have all the answers to every situation that comes into our life. Faith is essential to living the Christian life. Instead of trying to figure everything out, we've decided to do what we do know to do and leave the rest to the Lord.

3. We would regret it if we didn't do it.
How many times have we let fear and uncertainty rule our lives? Surprisingly, discomfort is really the only thing that will force one to grow. If we went through the entire summer and had even an inkling of regret that we decided not to take this opportunity, that would be worse than going and not enjoying it. “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” –Elbert Hubbard

Not that any of this is inspiring or even worthy of repeating, it's something we wanted to share in hopes that it might help someone who has to make a decision about the future. God always has a plan and he is orchestrating events and circumstances to fulfill His will in our lives. We are just glad to be used!

If you would, please pray for safety as we travel and that God would make us a blessing. The majority of the people we will be with are in churches. His people. And also pray for the girls we are taking. We will post more about our travels and adventures throughout the summer.

Stay tuned!!!!