Well well well... where to start with the update...

This may be a little jumbled, and perhaps not in order, but here's what has happened in the Reed household over the past week.

We have joined our new home church, which I alluded to earlier. It feels so great to have a home and begin plugging in to ministry. We are so anxious to get to work with God's people and accomplish mighty things for His kingdom. Jarrod and I have been a part of a team working in a local neighborhood service project with the goal of sharing the Gospel and developing relationships. There's a man, Mr. Bobby, whom Jarrod has befriended. Please lift him up to the Father, Mr Bobby is not a believer and is facing cancer. We hope to continue this friendship and see his heart softened towards the Lord.

Simba's paw is pretty much all healed from the 4th of July incident. His dew claw is regrowing just fine. We are super excited that he seems to be growing out of the chewing stage: the other day we left for school and though Simba was in his crate, the door wasn't latched. When we came home, 8 hours later, the dog was laying on his back wiggling his tail just as happy as he could be to see us. I urged Jarrod to stay in the living room, where there was no apparent destruction, while I checked out the rest of the apartment. Very much to my surprise, not one hint of chewing/destroying was to be found!  And while he proved trustworthy that day... I'm not sure we're okay to let him roam free..... he can still be a bit tricky :)

Jarrod is liking work, he tells me funny stories about people and their technology questions.... One story included a rogue GPS that only directed the driver to the nearest police station!
This week Jarrod is taking a "J-term" class, which means he goes all day for one week and gets credit for a full semester. He's been reading non-stop, I think we calculated over a thousand pages for this class! whew! I have sat in on some of the class, and it is really awesome. Hopefully you'll get a chance to talk with Jarrod about it!

God continues to be so gracious and generous to us. Though the neighborhood ministry we met a guy, Scott. He has been so generous; our best meal out was his treat! We went to this fantastic restaurant called Ramsi's Cafe, I had a yummy spinach salad (I was seriously craving some veggies!) and Jarrod had a spectacular fish sandwich. Yum! Many, many thanks to Scott, not only for the treated lunch, but the great conversation and for taking an interest in our lives.

Please pray for my potential job. I know that the Lord is working something out, and i am fully confident in Him. I pray that I will not give in the fleshly desire to worry.  Yesterday, I received a phone call from the nurse manager of a labor and delivery unit. She wants to interview me soon! Needless to say, I am stoked! This would pretty much be my dream job. I am trying to stay open to what ever job presents, but my heart desires to work with pregnant women and families. I'll keep ya posted!
The epic adventure continued yesterday, after getting the awesome phone call.... Jarrod and I decided to take Simba out for a long walk. We went, and whew was it hot (even for Floridians!), and upon returning home, realized we grabbed the wrong keys and were locked out! I started mildly freaking out (as I do best it seems), and Jarrod went into problem solving mode. Between scaling up a rickety table and guardrail, then hunting down and bribing the maintenance men.... we made it back inside to the fantastic air conditioning. Praise the Lord!

Other exciting news.... some great friends are coming to visit!! I can't wait to see them. Though it will be a short visit, it was be much welcomed. Also, thank you all for praying for me. I am really making some friends here: this week I'm not spending time alone at home but am have lunch with other women, going out to their houses, etc. It seems like such a little thing, fellowship, but the Lord has shown me through this time how essential it is within the body of Christ. So glad for friends!

Okay, time to go pick up Jarrod, but thank you all for reading this, for being part of our lives while we are here in Louisville. We covet your prayers and pray for you often.
Love,
the Reeds

Agent Reed of the CIA

Praise the Lord! Jarrod got a job!
Today Jarrod went to orientation to work at Best Buy as a member of the "Geek Squad". The title of this post is his official position name, CIA being customer information agency. I am so thankful for the ways in which God provides, but I have to admit that I have had more than one good laugh at this one :)

He is really appreciative for this job, and based on the people he's met and orientation today, thinks he will both be useful and enjoy the work. Yay!! Thank you all so much for praying. I promise that once Jarrod gets his uniform, I will post pictures. It seems that whoever created the Geek Squad watched their fair share of Saturday morning cartoons and wanted to go all out with the name geek: white shirt, black pants (a bit too short) and tie, white socks, and shoes that have "geek squad" impressions on the sole... I know you all are as anxious to see this as I am!

 <--- Here's us with the newly deemed Mr and Mrs Mills! We were blessed to join their special day. God works in mysterious ways, and sometimes obvious ones: Aaron and Lindsey sat behind us one night at church, Jarrod and Aaron started talking... and we were all instant friends. Super excited to be a part of this season in their lives, the Lord will use them mightily.
Lesson learned: do NOT try to break in new heels at a wedding with dancing.... ouch! I took pictures of my pinky toes to post, but they're a bit intense, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

For me on the job front, still nothing tangible to present. I have had some encouraging talks with a nurse recruiter; there's a big hospital where I've interviewed for one position and other units would like to interview me as well, but... this hospital is in the process of merging with another major hospital and each is going through a restructuring phase.  The recruiter has told me multiple times that the moment they know what they have available, that she'll be calling me. I'm encouraged by that, for sure. Please pray I would be faithful to do the work the Lord prepares for me. Where ever that might be.

A moment of transparency, I would ask for your prayer just for me personally. This time of transition here to Louisville has been frequented by days of intense isolation and campaigns of despair on the bruised and weary hope. The Holy Spirit is fleshing out some real idols I have of needing friendships, relying more on their faithfulness and growth to sustain me and bring joy than depending on my Savior, my Friend. So, I ask for your support in this time of repentance and pruning.

One more happy note to end it all off: Jarrod is done with Hebrew! Well, the first class at least. He did AWESOME, I can say so because I'm his wife, and he learned so much! Reading Scripture has gained immense depth. Now he's trying to catch up on all the reading for his next class, Biblical counselling (Thanks aunt Audrey for lending him the books!). I can see already that the Lord is working a large change in him through these books, through examining our motives and heart conditions for certain actions. Though these times of pruning can be tough and tearful, I am glad that He is not done with us yet :)

Again, thank you all so much for your continued support and encouragement. We love you!
-the Reeds

Some Answered Prayers

As I sit down to write this, I'm in awe of the Lord's sovereignty. As you know, Jarrod and I have been praying over which church to call home. Louisville is very interesting: there are really sound churches who preach the Word faithfully and serve the community well (these tend to have a rather large seminarian attendee base) and there are some churches we've heard of who, though they claim to be Christian, are not in accordance with the Scriptures. For any of you who are not familiar with the history of Southern, it was not always the conservative institution it is today. The 1980's-early 1990's were a time of liberal practices and theology. Some of the graduates of that time period have remained at churches in Louisville, and well... let's just say they and the current stance of Southern are not on the same page.
All that to say we've been a bit nervous regarding where to serve.  We have been to a few awesome churches. Each having their own strengths and weaknesses. We weren't sure where to call home. God knew where we needed to end up.

I think I mentioned it earlier, but when Jarrod and I drove up with the moving truck and car towed behind, we  had no idea what we were getting into. (We are so thankful for our cousins coming up and graciously helping us get our stuff in!)  While driving up, Simba in my lap and praise music playing in the car, Jarrod driving in front of me, I was able to to spill out my heart to the Lord. Telling him how nervous I was to be moving so far from home. I knew he called us to go, but the butterflies still fluttered. In the midst of my uncertainty, I received 3 phone calls from complete strangers. They heard through the grapevine that we were moving in and wanted to offer help. Whoa!! I was blown away. They were so helpful. Part of me thinks this was God's way of being merciful to Jarrod; He knew I would be useless for getting that couch up the stairs!

We went to the church those unexpected helpers came from, and were so welcomed. We first came on a Sunday night, a couple we met moving in introduced us like we were celebrities. People genuinely, happily met us. The next Sunday, we made our way to BFG (I still chuckle when I call it that..) and instantly people wanted to befriend us. After a few emotionally hard days that week, it was a welcomed blessing. Through these past few weeks, we've made friends with couples from the church who live close to us, Jarrod's learned to play euchre in one couple's kitchen (this is a big deal here, euchre is what separates the kids and adult table at Thanksgiving, haha), and glimpses of that 'home sweet home' feeling appeared. A special blessing to me has been a like-minded friend / mentor, that's been a prayer for a long, long time.  Jarrod met with the pastor and some of the staff members, all great meetings. I think it's safe to say that Ninth & O is home :)

Blessings are flowing from the home front too. Family is loving on us by calling multiple times a week, praying often, and just being supportive. We love you!  Grandma and Grandpa Henley, thank you.

On the next edition of Reed All About It, I hope to be able to tell you about both mine and Jarrod's jobs... things are in the final stages of working out in that department! Praise God!
Blessings of me having all this time off:
1) my kitchen skills are rapidly increasing, even made mini-pot pies & scratch chocolate chip cookies!
2) getting back to a good workout routine
3) done a LOT of reading. I really recommend you all read this:
http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/09/boy-to-man.pdf

Okay, this has become super long... so I'll save the rest of the news for next time! Have a wonderful 4th!
Love, the Reeds