Humbled, and many thank-yous

Immensely grateful, humbled, encouraged........

Just a few words to describe the events of the past week. Since we last wrote, the outpouring of love and encouragement has amazed us. How kind of the Lord to provide us with such affirmation above and beyond what we asked! Thank you for your kind words. 

Some events.....
Jarrod had his ordination council on February 24th. The room was filled with men and women of ugliest ties, I mean, there's not even a competition. Pics to come when we get unpacked and can find them again :)

great faith: former and current pastors, friends, family. Thank you to all who were able to make it and to those who prayed for him. On a white board near the end of the table were some very daunting questions. I asked Jarrod later if he was worried about any of them; he confessed to not recognizing at least two names! Luckily, those never made it to the discussion table :)  Many words of encouragement and charges were given to Jarrod and we were blessed by a great time of prayer for our family. As a token, the Chets staff wanted to make sure Jarrod was entirely prepared for ministry... equiped with the world's

After the council, we had the blessing of being presented and commissioned by Chet's Creek Church. How humbling! We thoroughly enjoyed getting to celebrate this time with our church family and long time friends who were able to come join. Perhaps the best moment of that day was going to Jarrod's parent's lifegroup. They asked us to come share our story and then prayed for us. I felt like the cowardly lion from "The Wizard of Oz" who finally found his courage! All the fears that circle through my mind regarding life out west were trumped by a sincere and calming peace that this road is exactly where we need to go, I was reassured that He is faithful to carry us. Prayer partners, knowing you are supporting us gives us great joy and courage!

E1 was able to (early) celebrate her 4th birthday! She had a wonderful time bouncing with friends and eating cake. Please continue to pray for her heart; daily she tells us she doesn't want to leave her friends here. We are thankful children are resilient and are trusting the Lord to provide a special friends for her once we arrive in Reno, but it is still so hard to see her brokenhearted. She is such a joy to us and we see a love to people growing in her.



We allowed ourselves to celebrate Sunday, then it was a race to the finish as we packed up everything left in our home and prepared to send it ahead of us. Our last big items sold, praise the Lord!, and the trailer arrived. After 6.5 years and 5 moves, we might finally have this packing thing down. Multitudes of muscle turned out to help Jarrod load the truck (THANK YOU!) and it's now well on it's way to our new home.

Now we are trying to fit in as many meals and times with friends and family as we can before we go. Please lift up these conversations, that they would be encouraging and leaving nothing left unsaid. Continue to pray for our families, that the Lord would give them joy in sending us to do His work in place of the sadness of change and felt loss.

I'll leave you with these verses that have greatly impacted me this week.... Colossians 3:15-17
 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do,whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.