I never leave Your hands

I heard this song on KSBJ the other day and really liked it, so I thought I'd share. It has a different sound that I'm liking, and it is such an encouragement to me right now. The video isn't anything special, but it's all I could find. I hope you like it.

Just a Picture for Daddy!

We love you and miss you!

Only 3 1/2 more days till you come home. YAY!

Sunday

Church was great today. I'm excited about the church-wide Walk Across the Room campaign and the potential it has for our church body to grow and become more evangelistic. Also, the student band played Revelation Song during the offertory and truly led the church in worship (it kind of made me tear up, but I have been doing that a lot these days). After church, Hallie and I drove to Fannett to Emory's birthday party. It was a beautiful day outside, Emory was adorable, and Hallie had a great time at her first birthday party to attend.

Emory with her one-year-old candle after eating her cake

Faith kissed Hallie bye before we left


Philip called right as Life Group was starting so I didn't really get to talk to him so I'm really missing him right now. He sounded like things are going well, though.

Philip's Travel Day(s)

Philip left for Africa yesterday at about 8:30 a.m. with Kristi (crossinghome.blogspot.com) and Kyle (chapmanfamilychatter.blogspot.com). They made it to Virginia about 3:30 and then found out that their flight to Dakar was delayed until this morning at 7:00 because of mechanical problems. I think they were a little disappointed, but the airline gave them hotel vouchers and they decided to drive to D.C. and do some sight-seeing so they made the most of it. Philip can fill you in more on their experience there, but I'll share that none of them had any cold weather clothing because they were going from 90° Houston weather to similar weather in Africa and it was 48° and rainy in the capitol city. Ha. I have to say that I've been a little jealous of him going on this trip all along, but then him getting to see the capitol may have pushed me really close to full blown envy. I'm okay though; while he was doing that I went to Hobby Lobby with my mom and Hallie and bought supplies to make a fall wreath for our front door. Exciting!

Now the saga continues. When they got to the airport this morning to leave at 7:00, their flight was delayed again. I talked to Philip this morning after they found out about the flight and he told me that he had taken Dramamine at 6:30 so it would be working when they left, and he sounded like he might pass out at any moment because it wasn't the non-drowsy kind. I may have laughed at him and suggested that he just lay on the floor and go to sleep, but he quickly dismissed that suggestion. Finally, at nearly 10:00 he sent a text that said they were boarding the plane. It also said that he had just fallen asleep on the floor!

Hallie and I went to the high school football game tonight to help with program sales. It was homecoming, and Hallie looked so cute in her football bow and with her little mum. She slept the whole time we were there. We left after half time, and Philip called while we were on our way home at 8:45 to let me know they had gotten to the Lees' house. They are 5 hours ahead there and supposed to leave early in the morning to go into a village. Pray for energy while they are there. They had an exhausting couple of days of travel and aren't going to get much sleep tonight.

Here's a couple of pictures of Hallie after the game.

Pray for Africa, the Lees and their ministry to the Sereer people, and Philip, Kristi, and Kyle while they are there.

Date Night

A friend of ours told us on Sunday that she would keep Hallie if Philip and I wanted to have a date night before he left for Africa, and we took her up on it last night. I dropped the tot (as Philip likes to call her) off at the Oehler's and went to pick Philip up from school. His eyes were bothering him so badly yesterday that my mom had to drive him into Houston for class because he couldn't drive. When he got in the car he looked so excited because he had already decided where we were going--to have greek food at Yia Yia Mary's.We've only been there one other time so I was surprised by his choice, but it was definately a good one. My scallops and asparagus were amazing, and Philip loved his beef and shrimp souvlakis. We made a stop at Starbucks, a stop at Target, and then a stop at Wal-Mart before we started home. It was a really fun and relaxing evening. Thanks Laurie.

The Oehlers seemed to have fun with Hallie, and Laurie took a couple of really cute pictures.She looks so old in this picture!Love it!

When we got home Philip started work again on the pantry. He wants to get it done before he leaves, and it's looking amazing. Last night he finished the shelves and started the floor. I will post pictures soon of my handyman's beautiful work. I'm so proud of him for tackling this by himself.

Prayer

Well, Lacey and I and several others have been praying for weeks now about Lacey's job. We really feel the best possible scenario for our family is for Lacey to work from home. At the end of last week she presented that possibility to her boss, and we are now waiting to hear back from him. Please be in prayer for us in this. That God would completely open up this opportunity.

Also, I (Philip) leave for Africa one week from today. Pray that God would go before us into the villages so that the Senegalese people would continue to be open to us. Please pray with us that God would open their eyes and hearts to the gospel of Jesus and his love. Pray that we would get the opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Pray that our eyes would be open and our hearts and mouths ready to share Christ, love, and hope all along the journey going and coming back (on the plan, in the cities, in the villages, with our house keeper, walking down the streets). So much potential...we are relying on God. We desire to be a part of what He is doing all over the globle!

It is going to be extremely hard to leave Lacey and Hallie for 9 days and not have much contact with them. Pray that God would sustain us and our relationship in our time apart. I am really going to miss my girls!