our trip to the west, part one: Viva Las Vegas!

Okay, so normally a city like Las Vegas would not normally appeal to Nathan and me.  Like, never. There are so many people, and just so much blatant immorality!  And I'm a small town girl :) Big cities aren't my fave.  So...why did we go to Las Vegas?

We went to visit this couple!  My cousin Amy and her hubby Brent moved to Vegas one year ago.  God called them to work at a church that had been planted in Las Vegas, called Verve Church.  And let me tell you, it was so encouraging to visit them and to see how God is using them in this city!  (More on Verve at the end of this post).  Here are Brent and Amy:

 (Amy, I stole this picture from your fb page) :)

Brent and Amy were excellent tour guides.  They showed us around the city--they did a great job of showing us all the touristy areas, while being sure to avoid the super shady/scandalous areas :)  It was so much fun to hang out with them for the evening, and to see their house, their church and their town!

It was so great to be reunited with Amy!  I don't get to see her nearly enough :)

Amy showed us around some seriously beautiful areas while Brent was still at work.  Thanks for giving us a tour in the 110 degree heat, Amy!

That night the four of us went out, after Brent got off work.  We went out to eat, and we saw this sign.  Since Nathan and I have adopted the theme of "Making Jesus Famous in Papua New Guinea", we had to take a picture by this FAME sign :)

We love these guys!  What a great time :)

Okay, so Verve Church is truly an amazing ministry.  Basically, they are doing in Vegas what we will be doing in Papua New Guinea--reaching a different culture for Christ.  Because that is what Las Vegas is:  an entirely different culture that "normal" church might never reach.  So Verve Church is a Bible preaching church that just has a different target audience:  the people of Las Vegas!  And they are doing a great job of reaching the people.  It was so awesome to see the church (even though no one was there!), and to hear from Amy about how she is being used as the director of the kid/student ministry.  So cool.  And encouraging!  It was awesome to see how God is using both Brent and Amy for His glory in such a dark city!

photo credit:  https://cdfonline.org/cdf-guy/viva-la-verve

Brent and Amy, thank you so much for hosting us for a night!  And for everything else you did for us.  We are so glad we could come and visit you guys :)  

Part two will be next:  California!

sharing the vision!

A very major part of our summer is sharing with others about our vision, and about what God is doing among the unreached people in the world!  We absolutely LOVE this season.  There are many reasons we love it:

1. We get to talk about something we are very passionate about:  seeing the Word of God go to all people groups, and seeing the Great Commission being fulfilled!  We live in some very exciting times!
2. We get to hang out with lots of friends!  Many of whom we might not ever hang out with.  And it has been so. much. fun.  For us and for our kids :)
3. Our faith is growing daily!  It has been so amazing to see how God is using our brothers and sisters in Christ to send us to Papua New Guinea.  We have so many thoughtful and generous supporters--we have seriously been blown away.  
4. As our team of supporters grows, so does our excitement to GO and do what we are called to do!  It is SO MUCH better doing this with a team behind us, than it would be to do on our own.  We are all in this together, and that is such a beautiful thing.  And very comforting to us!

Here are some pictures of our vision sharing adventures :)

Mark and Barb.  Ohhh, Mark and Barb.  This couple is so amazing.  They host many of our meetings at their house, and they sit in on each and every meeting!  And they never seem to be bored!  Unless they are just really good at acting! ;)  They were also like my second set of parents when I was growing up, so it has been so much fun to hang out at their house again in this season of life.  Thank you, Mark and Barb.  We love you guys!!

Our rockstar parents are also so amazingly helpful!  When we have a presentation with young kids, either my parents or Nathan's parents always come and watch the kids while we talk to the parents.  It is such a huge help!

Many of our meetings took place in other towns.  We were so privileged to hang out with many families this month, and it has been such a blast.  My only regret is that I didn't get pictures at each place we went :(

We loved hanging out with Caleb and Laura and their adorable kiddos.  And Laura made us some amazing avocado enchiladas.  They were sooo good!

We went up to visit my cousin Amber and Ben and their kids.  Our kids were super excited about that!  They always play so well together:)

We went up to visit our church family in Detroit.  The body of believers there is always such an encouragement to us!  There is no way we could ever express our thanks to them, for all that they have done for our family.

So when we were in Detroit, we stayed the night at Jesse and Bonnie's house.  They were amazing hosts!

And we hung out the next evening at Scott and Jamie's house--that was really fun!  And it involved swimming, which our kids were very happy about :)

We went up to visit Jason and Joy and some other families...it was so good to be back at Gateway!  So many good memories.

And we went to West Lafayette to visit our cousins Corey and Erika.  That was a really fun day!  We spent some of the afternoon there, and the kids got out to play in the sprinkler system :)  And they played with a massive blow up yellow ball!  A kid can crawl inside it and the other kids roll them around the yard.  Lol!  They loved that!

Once again, another picture of Nathan being an amazing daddy :)  He is so fun!

We feel so incredibly blessed by our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Thank you, everyone!  And if you would like to hear about our vision and what we will be doing in Papua New Guinea,  just contact us and let us know.  We seriously LOVE sharing with people.  Blessings!

fun with our favorite four people :)

Our family has a very busy schedule this summer!  It is completely filled with so much fun stuff--great times with family and friends, fun family vacations, and VBS.  And lots of amazing evenings of sharing our vision with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ--sharing with them what we will be doing in Papua New Guinea, and inviting many to be a part of it!  It has been awesome!

Our kids are doing just great with everything that we have going on!  But some days, we just like to take time out to spend with our kids, just our family.  They are such fun people to hang out with :)

We live right across the street from the community pool, so we took them there one day.  That was quite a hit with them :)

(but first we rode our bikes to Bummies...our kids cannot grow up without experiencing Bummies!  However, we found out that they aren't big fans of it...crazy kids, they don't know what's good!)

They LOOOOVE this pool!

We also had a day of swimming at my parents' house.  Our kids always love being with their cousins :)  And we hope we will have more swimming days!  The weather hasn't been the most cooperative :)

waiting for my dad to let them in :)

Daisy loves her aunt Jill!

And we have good times in our backyard--the slip n slide is one of our kids' favorite things.  Especially when Nathan coats it with baby oil :)

Good times, sweet memories :)

summertime reunions!

I feel like our summer has been nonstop so far!  Nonstop action, but it's been so. much. fun.

I am definitely feeling the reality that this is our "last" summer before we go overseas.  We always have so much fun in the summer, connecting with friends and family, swimming, going on family vacations...etc.  I am trying to soak it all up!  I know God has so much in store for our future--we will have new things that will become amazing memories, just like we have here in Indiana.  I know He will be faithful to us in PNG, because He has always been here in the USA!

So I really want to document this summer on my blog.  I haven't had a great start, haha!  So here goes the first summertime blogpost :)

We have loved being reunited with lots of people this summer!  This by far does not exhaust all of them!  More to come later, too :)

Grandparents...

My sis...

Cousins...

And really good friends!!

I know this summer is going to end too fast!  So we will try to enjoy each day :)