Forgotten post: Chicago Trip

At the end of April, Cole and I along with some of the staff from University Baptist Church (where Cole works in the college ministry), went to Chicago for the Gospel Coalition Conference. We had some big name speakers like John Piper and D.A. Carson. It was so amazing to get to spend time with some friends and be among people whose passion is spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you can see from our pics, we also had some time to take in some of Chicago. The pizza was the best in the world! We also had time to go to a Cubs game...it was so fun! For anyone else that grew up watcing the sitcom "Perfect Strangers," there was always a part in the opening credits that showed them in front of the Wrigley Park sign. It was a huge thrill to get to take a picture in front of it. We had a great time in the windy city (which totally lives up to it's name) and would love to go back again soon.




View of skyline from the end of Navy Pier

Skyline of Chicago

Navy Pier

Smile!

Go Cubs! Beat the Reds!

The Famous Sign!!!!!!!

Our sweet friend, Becca, who works with Cole

This is Stephen, Cole's boss, and the college pastor.
You can see why college students love him.

This is the holy cow at Harey Carey's, a restaurant in Chicago.

Us with the Harey Carey Bust.........

Chicago style pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






In all of it's saucy, cheesy, glory!!!!!


Excited for PIZZA!

Mission Trip

Sorry i haven't posted in a while... tomorrow I'll put up posts about our trips we took the end of April and beginning of May. But for today, I wanted to let you guys know that Cole and I are headed to Thailand next Wednesday, June 3rd. We will be gone for two weeks (until the 19th) to set up a team of college students who will stay for the rest of the summer. We will be working to teach English and establish relationships with Thai college students. We hope and pray that this will allow our team to connect these students with believers in the area. Please be in prayer that we will see amazing things while we are there and that our minds will be opened to see how big our world really is and how much work is yet to be done to spread the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation.

Spring Break

This year for spring break Cole and I were asked to lead a group from the BCM to Beach Reach in South Padre, TX. This is a ministry opportunity where students go down and offer free van rides and free pancakes to spring breakers in order to have a chance to show them the love of Christ and sometimes get to share the gospel with them. We had an amazing crew of around 20. The Lord really honored all of our prayers and gave us an amazing week of watching him do things through us. We saw two people come to Christ in our vans and even gave one girl a ride home to Austin as we were coming back. We had one of our girls get baptized in the ocean while many Spring Breakers looked on. The amazing thing is that at the end of the week all of the Spring Breakers refer to us as the "Jesus People." What an amazing thing that they know who we arealigned with. To Him be the glory forever and ever!

Valentines Day

So.....I haven't posted in a while; it's a busy month people. Actually the rest of the school year is going to fly with all Cole and I have going. We have two conferences almost back to back at the end April. Anyways, all that to say, we are your typical family...BUSY! But we took time out of our busy ministry filled lives to have a fun valentines day. Cole kept it all a surprise. Earlier in the day, Cole made me pick out three outfits, one casual, one business casual, and one dressy. I came home to find only my casual outfit there. Cole then started our date with handing me a GPS. We had certain points we had to find all throughout our date to find our destination. Our first point led us to our bikes on the bike trail near our house. We then rode our bikes to our car farther down on the trail. The next point is this amazing restaurant in Fayetteville called Mama Deans. It is some of the best soul food besides what I had from my parents growing up. And it is authentic. We visited a couple of more points before being led to the Walton Arts Center to go to a jazz trio concert. It was an incredible night. What a great start to Valentines days as a married couple.

Super Bowl XLIII UBC Style

So, last year the college staff at UBC decided to go all out for their Super Bowl party. As many other events they have thrown, this is becoming a tradition for the college ministry. We take all the chairs out of the Chapel of the Dove (where the college ministry meets) and we put out a ton of props, everything from a turf field to stadium lights and bleachers. This year things were complicated by the ice storm and the fact that we had to have the main church service in the chapel instead of the sanctuary b/c of heat issues. But God is good.... we were able to pull off the same magnitude of setup that we had last year...even with all the setbacks. So much fun!

Ice Storm 2009

As most of you probably know...or experienced...we had a major ice storm in Fayetteville last week. They are saying this is the worst ice storm to hit Arkansas in state history. We lost power on Tuesday and had to go camp out at the BCM where Cole works. They had a fireplace and a gas stove and oven. After two days of "playing pioneer", the romance of the ice storm begin to melt away. The damage to campus was pretty bad, especially Old Main lawn. But we had a great time hanging out with college students and sitting by the fire. It was awesome to get to interact with people without the invastion of the TV or the Wii. Here are some pictures I took from around campus.