Photo Shoot

This last weekend, Stephen and I were blessed to hang out with his sister, Jen, and her boyfriend, Jeff. We all made the trip up to the hills above oakdale, Ca to celebrate Steve and Jen's grandfather's 85 birthday. Partying with the relatives wasn't the only highlight of the trip. Jeff, being a photographer, wanted to do a photo shoot with us. 

Here are some of our favorites:

(and yes, Stephen is riding a horse, and wearing a cowboy hat. His step-brother let him borrow the horse and the hat, thankfully we left both safely at his dad's house. )

By the looks of this picture, you would think Steve knew what he was doing. :)

Too bad, I don't have the ones where he was chasing 6 long horn cows around the field.

It's official

Stephen and I just returned from a whirl-wind trip to southern California where we were asked to become part of the Asian Access family. We left last night, and got back about 5 minutes ago. The trip consisted of an interview, and invitation, then a few hours of next steps orientations which was referred to as "drinking from a fire hose". Although I would agree with this analogy, it was helpful to have the big picture laid out for us. Steve and I went home with a game plan, a time line, and a whole bunch of reading materials (one of which we finished on the drive home). Without remembering who is really in charge, this next step (and all the others to follow them) might begin to seem overwhelming and impossible. Praise God, that He has used these last months to be reminding us who He is and that He is faithful. Pray that we would not loose sight of who we are in God's kingdom.

Peace signs up

recently our school had a performance group come and teach our student all about conflict resolution and peace-making. My students absolutely loved the actors and the play, I even had one student bragging that she hugged "mr. H" 4 times at recess. By the end of the program, these community workers had my student's eating out of their hands. One of the more silly, but long lasting things these men and women taught my students was to put their "peace signs up". Whenever they asked for peace signs up, the students were to stop, raise their fingers like peace-signs,  and focus on the person giving instructions. 

Since the program, most of my students have forgotten how to resolve conflict, but they still remember to put their peace signs up and listen when I ask them to. (Go figure.)

A little closer to my own heart, God has finally got me to put my own peace-signs up as it were. After so long of asking for peace, I finally realized that I needed to give up so He could work. God has set my heart at peace in regards to ministry, the future, and the present. It's amazing what can happen when I stop and let God talk for a change.