easter // He is Risen!!

Happy Easter from our family to yours! He is Risen!

"Christ is risen from the deadWe are one with Him againCome awake, come awakeCome and rise up from the grave....

O death, where is your sting?O hell, where is your victory?O church, come stand in the lightOur God is not dead, He's alive, He's alive!"

prayer request // this morning

We have a short prayer request this morning to ask our readers to pray for. As you could probably guess, there are some things that we are having to take care of before we leave for Honduras, and one of those is happening this morning -- Jamey is having his wisdom teeth removed! We've known for a little while that this needed to happen, and we're glad to go ahead have it done. Now we both know that this has become a pretty routine procedure in medicine these days (I've already had this procedure, actually!), but it is the first time that Jamey has ever been put under anesthesia. And let's be honest, that's enough to make anyone nervous! So please be praying this morning over Jamey's surgery, the doctor's and nurses' hands, and for Jamey's nerves. Pray that God will remind him of his control in the situation, and the fear that we never have to have with knowing the Lord in any situation we come to.

A comforting lyrics that have blessed us this morning:

"Whom shall I fear?
I know Who goes before me
I know Who stands behind
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side
The One who reigns forever
He is a friend of mine
The God of angel armies
Is always by my side"

Isn't it incredible that God goes before us in every aspect of our everyday lives? Not only has He gone before Jamey's surgery, but God went before us in our marriage, He went before us in this ministry team development process, and He has already gone before us to prepare our place in Honduras! Praise the Lord! He is so good.

sending love,
Lesley

bump into us // Covington, Va

Let me introduce to you the "Bump Into Us" post, well, because though it will always be short and might even seem silly, I'm actually really excited about it! Here's why: we want people to know where we are headed each weekend so that you can literally bump into us! If you know anything about Jamey and I, you know that we love people -- like really love people -- and we just feel so blessed and energized when we get some face-to-face contact time with people who are really excited about our ministry. We never get tired of it! So we'll posting regularly about where our travels are taking us, and we hope that you take us up on the offer that we want to see you. And with these posts, please be praying for safe travels, encouraging meetings, and that God will continue to prepare our hearts for everything that is to come along with this journey!

This weekend we will be travelling back to Covington, VA (Jamey's hometown for anyone who is wondering!) since we haven't been back in almost a month. And the really exciting news is that we will be speaking at Bethesda Temple of Praise in White Sulphur Springs this Sunday, March 10. We'll be at both services if you're hoping to catch us! We are very grateful for this opportunity to share about our ministry to another great church.

Come along on the journey too!

Hello friends!

I could try to call this our first blog post, but really this is just an introductory. We are glad to be at a point where we are ready to start this blog! We've been asked so many times in seeing and meeting with people if we are going to start a blog, and the answer has always been "yes!" but now you can really believe me. :)

If you're new to what my husband Jamey and I are doing, or have no idea where the picture above is from, or just want a refresh, it might be good to start with some of the page links above listed "About Us" and "Great Commission Ministries". But to put it shortly, the purpose of this blog is for our friends, family, prayer team, and support team to be able to follow us on our journey of living in and serving Christ in Danli, Honduras as international missionaries. We are so excited about this new adventure, and literally can't think of any better way to be starting out our marriage than to be doing what drew us to each other in the first place.

Right now, we are currently raising support and developing our ministry team for GCM full time, as well as working full time. Our lives are certainly very busy, but we know it is getting us to what we are working toward, so we are glad and feel very blessed to be doing it! At the time that I am writing this post, I am so thrilled to be able to say that we are at about 78% of our recurring amount that we need to raise!! We are just floored by this, and so amazed that our percentage has grown so much in such a short time.

I know that is a big piece of awesome information to put in what I said would be an "introductory" post, but I  wanted to put it out there just so you all could see how close we are! As much as we would love to already be completely packed and hopping on the next plane out, we are still very thankful and excited about this moment right here. I mean 78% that sure does feel different than say what 30% felt like, and what 55% felt like... this is a new moment that God has us in and we just love it.

So thanks for making your way here, to our (at the moment, very new) blog, and we hope you keep coming back to see what other very new and exciting moments that God is going to bring us to through this and that we promise, we'll be sharing with you.

with love,

Lesley