We’re finally home! Actually, we got home late Sunday night…after almost getting blown away by 2 tornadoes and driving through flooded roads! It was a scary and dangerous time and we are so thankful we made it home safely. Seriously – to all of you who pray for us when we are traveling we appreciate it SO much! From health to safety to blessings over our ministry time – your prayers are so important to us!
I thought I’d take a moment for a RECAP of this roadtrip. We had a very busy 2 and 1/2 weeks down south and we’d love to fill you in on how it went!
There were a lot of reasons for this trip. The first of course was that we were needed to work at Training Camp in GA (which I shared about in my last blog). Since we were already down South though, we wanted to visit our family, friends, and supporters. It’s so important to us to build into the relationships of the people who invest in us financially and in prayer, so we tried to squeeze in time with as many people as we could! It was great to share our vision with new friends and update our supporters. It was also great to visit my family. Check out the recap below!
Once Training Camp was over, the first thing on our “to do” list was watching my baby brother graduate! He’s not a baby anymore…. I can’t believe he’s 18 and done with school! We are SO proud of him! Congratulations Jaron!
That Saturday we’d planned a trip to Birmingham to visit with friends and supporters. We had coffee with the Browns, lunch with the Kynerds, afternoon visits with our sweet friends Lacey & Lindsey, and dinner with the awesome Daniels! Here are a few pictures of our time… (Watch for a separate blog about our morning with the Brown family 🙂
At Barnes & Noble with Lacey (above) & Lindsey (below).
Below: Enjoying 2 of our favorite things, Chick-Fil-A & The Daniels! 🙂
On Sunday we had the incredible opportunity to speak at Antioch Baptist Church. We were so blessed by our time there! We’d like to share a little more about that, so look for a separate blog coming soon….
We also hung out with my family for Memorial Day….but unfortunately
we don’t have ANY pictures! I think we were all too busy stuffing our
face with Dwightie’s BBQ, Mom’s baked beans, Granddaddy’s boiled
peanuts…and of course washing it down with SWEET TEA! YUM! 😉
On Tuesday we drove down to the Loveliest Village on the Plains…. home sweet AUBURN! It had been over a year and a half since I’d been to Auburn, and I was so anxious to get back to the place I love most in the world! We ate at my favorite restaurants, visited some of my favorite people, and enjoyed some of my favorite places. We had a WONDERFUL time!
Meet our wonderful hosts: Candice, Randall, & Clay Stoves! Candice and I have been friends since my freshman year of college when we were AU Singers together. This little family is so precious, and they took such good care of us in AU! Candice also has a ‘hobby’ of making the most beautiful cakes I’ve ever seen! Her house smelled delicious all week!
Our first stop in AU was BIG BLUE BAGEL! We had lunch with Mike & Rene Waldrop.
Love them so much!
Next we took a walk around campus. I introduced Rusty to some of my college professors and my WONDERFUL advisor, Chris Huggins (above). It was so good to see her, and to share about our ministry with her! She was such a blessing to me in college!
with my friend Lacey! It was great to see her and share about what we’re doing –
she is so encouraging and supportive. And of course it wouldn’t be a trip to Auburn
without some world famous Toomer’s lemonade!
for some hang out time & yummy dinner!
These are hosted in the summer by Camp War Eagle and I used to sing the Alma Mater for them when I was Miss Auburn-Opelika Area. They are SO much fun! Here we are with Mark Armstrong ( the king of all things CWE 😉 at Jordan Hare Stadium!
Of course I couldn’t pass up a chance for a picture with AUBIE!
Day #3 we visited campus again. First stop – AU Admissions! I worked in this office for 4 and 1/2 years and love the people there so much! (Above) With “Fancy Nancy” (my former boss) and Mindy Street- an AU friend who is now working in Admissions! (Below) With Ms Havlin.
Above: Lunch with sweet Mindy at Amsterdams!
Above: A surprise trip to hug Adam at The Gnu’s Room
Above: Bottle feeding a 2 week old baby raccoon!
(I know, so random, but she was so cute I had to share the picture!)
Her mom chewed into electrical wires and was killed,
so my little brother rescued her and her brother.
Above: Back to campus – one of our friends/supporters wanted us to meet his brother who works at Auburn. We had a GREAT visit with Brian Keeter – getting to know him, chatting about Auburn, and sharing our ministry with him. Thanks so much for the suggestion Lane! 🙂
Below: Of course we had to finish the day with a classic Auburn picture in front of the AU sign!
While we were in Auburn, we took an afternoon to drive down to Troy. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to meet my friends Kira & Oliver’s beautiful little girl! Friends, meet Miss Elizabeth Anne Aaron!
Below: Holding baby Elizabeth in her room.
On the wall behind us are the paintings I made for her!
Of course, all too soon our time in Auburn was up. The day had come to start our 14+ hour drive back to Michigan. Luckily, on the way home we had something to look forward to….
A visit in Tennessee with the Wards! Ray & Candice (and their daughter Maele) are missionaries in Thailand. They are some of Rusty’s favorite people – he served with them in 2007 and again in 2008. He was SO excited to see them again and I was thrilled to finally meet them! Lucky for us, they were in the states for a few months visiting family and friends and support raising, and Ray’s parents live in TN. (Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Ward for hosting us!)
We had a great time together, and were able to share about The Sound of Hope with them. We are excited to announce that their Children’s Home will be our fourth international partnership! More to come on that later, but we are so glad to add Thailand to the list of places we will be supporting through this non-profit!
Overall we had a long, exhausting, but WONDERFUL trip! We were able to share about our ministry with so many people, and were blessed by our time with friends and family. We also were given some generous one-time gifts and got two new monthly supporters! Praise the Lord! THANK YOU to all of you who poured into us on this trip! We love you!
Great pics and welcome back! We got to meet Ray and Candace also. They are awesome… so excited that SOH will be partnering with them. How cool!
love your tour update!! so blessed to have gotten to spend time with yall! 🙂
Love it! Relationships are so important! As missionaries we are just the member of our missions support team that is “on the field” but we all equally important members of the team and we need each other. What a joy to partner with others to see God’s will done on the earth! God bless you and may God speak to you in unique ways during this time.