Thursday, July 26, 2007

The Great Northwest

This month we got to go to Seattle and Portland to visit some friends. The first was Brent Louie and his family in Seattle, a good friend and former house-mate of Bob's. His kids especially enjoyed getting swung around, carried on the shoulders, chased, or scared by Bob. We got to spend the day at the zoo with their family, and got treated to some of Brent's famous delicious dinners. Here is their family:

Then, thanks to the use of Brent's car, we went down to Portland to celebrate the baptism of Timothy, son of Todd and Michelle Olson, also long-time friends of Bob's. There were lots of family and friends there to celebrate this significant event, and we thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with all the great people.
We went to the Oregon Coast on Monday with Todd, and saw the infamous Haystack Rock--3rd largest Monolith in the world! We waded in the water, found some crabs, got sandy, and soaked in the Oregon beauty of the ocean, the forests, and all the green.
Now...back to the grindstone in Pasadena. :)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

God is faithful!

Last week's project was invitations. Fortunately, we determined a week ahead of time that we would invite a few friends over to help us stuff and address them--which meant that we had a deadline! We stayed busy much of the week buying supplies, printing out invitations, photo-copying and cutting at Kinkos, and gathering addresses. Here is Bob deftly using the paper cutter at Kinko's, around 10pm Thursday night:
Despite the late nights, we saw God's provision in the process. Let me count a few of the ways:
1. Kinkos copied a big stack of stuff for us for free.
2. We were able to copy the response cards there, even though they initially doubted it would work with the paper we had.
3. The next morning, while I was doing piece by piece with the paper cutter at Fuller, an employee that knows Bob came an offered to do the whole stack for me on his industrial paper cutter--for free!
4. Four friends were willing to come help us stuff and address, and they stayed and worked even beyond the time we anticipated it would take, so that we got it all done!

Praise the Lord!

In the midst of that busy week, God also provided an apartment for us to live in. Another good story, so if you're interested I'll try to recount it briefly here:

In May, Bob applied for a transfer in Fuller housing to a new apartment (since his roommate will be staying in their current apartment). When he applied, he was 10th on the list. He checked back last week to see what the status was, and he was 19th on the list! He found out that they give priority to new students to try to ensure that everyone has at least some housing, which is why he moved down on the list. Bob called a supervisor in the housing department and explained that he was getting married, so had to get a new apartment. The woman was understanding, and said that there was 1 apartment available that was being considered by some other people. If they turned it down, she would offer it to us. It ended up being taken, but she said another had become available in the complex Bob currently lives in. Bob determined that it was where some friends of ours currently live, so we've both been inside the apartment and felt good about taking it. This means that Bob will have a very short distance to move, and that we will have a few days to move both of our belongings before I leave for IL. God is good!

Trip to Rwanda!

As most of the people reading this would know, Bob and I met in Rwanda. We were both living there, working in separate organizations and doing very different things, but both with the purpose of showing God's love to the people around us and letting them teach us about life and about God. Both of us built significant relationships with people in Rwanda, and are grateful for all they taught us about faith, culture, and community.

Before we even got engaged, we talked about when we might be able to visit Rwanda together. We are planning to go this December for a few weeks while Bob is on Christmas break from school. We are really excited about the chance to visit the Rwandans that we knew and the ministries that we were involved in, and celebrate our marriage with them.

If you would like to contribute towards this trip in lieu of a wedding gift, you are welcome to do so! We appreciate your support, and would appreciate your prayers as well, that God would use us to be an encouragement to many of our friends and colleagues while we are there.