bump into us // Blacksburg, VA

We're back to the first town we ever lived in at the same time... one of the places our hearts call "home"... the always wonderful Blacksburg, VA. It is no secret to anyone how much we love it here & how fortunate we feel to get to spend two weeks here before our move.

As most of you already know from reading our latest newsletter, we are spending these two weeks serving at our sending church, New Life Christian Fellowship, during their kickoff for the year (with students arriving to our dear Virginia Tech!). We are so excited to be of service to them and to get to reconnect with the church!

So far, we've been able to attend a day at the staff retreat and get to see all of the staff again, which was such a delight. Then, yesterday we were able to help with the special service for the Corps of Cadets at Virginia Tech. NLCF hosted the combined "contemporary protestant" church service with two other churches in addition to us, where all three churches were able to be a part of the service as well as share their information with the Cadets that attended. The new Cadets arrived on campus on Saturday for intensive training before classes begin, and on Sunday they were permitted to pick between four different genres of services to attend. Because NLCF is located directly on campus in the student center, it's also a great location for the Cadets in relation to where their buildings are located.

We can't wait for the rest of the student body to arrive on campus and get this move-in week going!

As always, we love to let our ministry team, friends, and blog readers know where we're going to be because we would love to "bump into you!" Please let us know if you're in the area (Blacksburg tends to have a high turnover rate, understandably, so we aren't always aware of who is even here!) and if you'd like to meet up & see us! 

email: lesley.smith@gcmweb.org or jamey.smith@gcmweb.org
call/text: 540-968-1275 (Jamey) or 540-831-9528 (Lesley)

The roomies at the pumpkin patch, Fall 2010 (left) // Linda's wedding (right)

Also, we owe a HUGE shout out to our wonderful hosts, Justin and Linda Summers, who graciously offered to have us in their home for two weeks!! Linda was one of Lesley's sweet roommates during college (Lesley got really blessed in that department!) and we are so excited to get to connect with them again while we're here! Thank you so much again, Justin & Linda! 

bump into us // Danville, VA

We are spending the week in the Danville, VA area and having a great time getting to see some of Lesley's family, some dear friends, and getting a chance to connect with people in the area that are interested in hearing more about the ministry we will be doing in Honduras!

The precious southern porch where we get to sip morning coffee  in Danville.

Though we are only midway through the week, we have already gotten the chance to explore one of the family farms that Lesley grew up playing on when she was little. Jamey had previously been able to see some of it, but this time we both, along with Lesley's siblings, climbed into her Papa's old farm truck and went off‐road exploring! We did not get to see everything because some parts are unused & grown up with trees now, but we did get really dirty, had a lot of fun, and even saved a tiny kitten out of a huge prickly tree! Woo hoo! Next on the agenda is for Jamey to finally get a chance to meet Lesley's oldest friend, Caitlin, who she has been best friends with for 19 years! They used to do everything together all through school, especially in high school, but our lives now have put us in different areas for the last several years. We are SO excited for this to happen now that we have the opportunity!!!

A quick picture of the mountain range view from the farm.

We wanted to extend the invitation once again to anyone in the area ‐‐ we would love to meet up with and see you! Please feel free to call, text or email us if you would like to get together. Our contact information is available on the Contacts tab above for those who do not have it. To hear about how our ministry is going, or just to hang out!

bump into us // Richmond, VA

The lake view near Gail and Curtis' house!

We are back in the Richmond area for the week!! We are so excited to now have the opportunity during this summer to visit different places during the week days and for more than just two days at a time, rather than only on the weekends when we were working our other full-time jobs before. It is just so wonderful!

We are going to be meeting with people and pastors to share our about ministry this week, as well as visiting friends in the area because this could potentially be the last time we are in the Richmond area before we leave! We are also going to be hanging out with our wedding photographer, Sara Tyer, because we seriously adore her so much. (More on that later.)

The beautiful lake view in the picture above is near where we are so blessed to be staying while we are here! A huge thank you goes out to Gail and Curtis Rice (and our dear friend Candice Foldenauer) for having us, and for being so welcoming and hospitable!

If you'd like to catch up with us this week, please text or email us! We would love to see you!

Jamey & 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.