A few things that have been impressed upon me lately:

First:  That the Church is not a place, or a building, or even a denomination, or a group of denominations.  It is far more fluid than that.  Instead, those who are Christians ARE the Church.  You don't GO to church, you are to BE the Church.  If you go to a church building once or twice, or even three times a week; you can't interact with other Christians in such a manner as to be living out the various roles of the body (for example, when was the last time you saw all the gifts being used in a church where there are three meetings on Sunday, where most of the time it's only one person speaking and everyone else sits in pews, not talking to each other?)

The point of all of this is that you can't expect a church meeting to satisfy the need for fellowship (and there IS a need for it).

Second point, and it goes along with the first:  Christianity is not a religion.  There aren't supposed to be holy days and secular days.  Instead EVERY day is holy, and instead of a DAY being our Sabbath rest, Jesus Christ himself is.  Instead of there being holy men, each of us as Christians are called to be priests.  Did you know that the terms "Pastor," "Elder," and "Bishop" are all used interchangeably for the same people?  They weren't special people, they just happened to be a bit more experienced (elder), and in a position to guide others (shepherd/pastor).  So unlike religion, which has holy days, and holy people, and holy places; Christianity has something completely different to offer . . .

The trouble is that we want to revert to religion, with its' token ceremonies to make us think we've appeased some higher power, and then we can go on living our lives how WE want to.

Instead, true Christianity is surrendering our ENTIRE LIVES to God.  Every breath.  Every thought.  Every minute.  Every action.

There is to be no difference between sacred and secular.

Some of the best demonstrations I've seen of how the church is to operate have been in the back of a bus with a Christian brother and sister and on a camping trip with some family and a few other Christians I didn't know.

So I guess my challenge is that you seize all opportunities possible.  Don't wait until Sunday or Wednesday prayer meeting to mention that friend in need, instead pray for them, or WITH them, right there.  Take every chance possible to bless someone else with your service and love.

As for me: I just want to apply all this.  I want to give others the experience I've been given: seeing the church be a seamless entity that works together and encourages and heals and helps and strengthens.

God be with us.

Well, Esther is walking.  Apparently, this is pretty important.  Now she chases us everywhere and points and whines to be put in our laps.  oh joy.

She is such a joy though, really.  It's fun to have her around.  She looooves giving sweet hugs now.  She'll come give you one for no reason at all, patting your back and saying "awww" in her sweet little baby voice.

Jamin mentioned that the curtains would make a good dress for EJ.


So I made one.  



It's reversible.


And here is the crib, all painted a light shade of yellow/cream (which you can't really see in the photo.)  It's an antique, I think, but it had to be painted.  It used to be gray.  yuck.


And here are Jamin and Esther hard at work...or hardly working.  I think this is the only time in her life she'll be allowed to sit on the tail of an airplane that size.


We're hopefully flying to Winston Salem tomorrow where Jamin will help fix a flap on one of Compass' planes, and then we'll fly on up to Raleigh/Durham for the weekend.  

Well, folks, it has been way too long since we posted an update on how we're doing, how Esther's growing, and what our lives are like here in Shelby now.

The Lord has been so good to us.  We have a two-bedroom apartment that is even bigger than the one we had at LeTourneau.  We live in a nice, quiet cul-de-sac with 5 neighbors.  Updated photos of our home will come soon.  I only have the "before" pictures of how the rooms looked on the day we moved in.  I'll have to go around and take the "after" shots.  Shelby is a small town, about an hour's drive from Charlotte, with Gastonia only half an hour away between Charlotte and Shelby.  We have a Wal-mart here, and that's about all.  Not really--we do have a small mall and Lowe's and a Ruby Tuesday's.    Sadly, no craft or fabric stores, but I've discovered a few in Gastonia.  More about that later.

Let me tell you the amazing story of the couch. 

When we moved in, we were a bit disappointed that we were not going to have 3 bedrooms, so Esther could have her own room, and the third room would be for an office/guest room.  I was especially disappointed about this because I had been looking forward to finally being able to have fun decorating a room just for her.  However, I realized just how blessed we were in so many other ways, and we decided to settle for a sleeper sofa so we might be able to have friends and family overnight, since they live only 3 hours away now. 

I got onto Craigslist and tried to find something that would work.  Everything seemed to be either ridiculously overpriced or ugly and worn out.  I did see one beautiful microsuede couch that would match perfectly with one of the couches we already had, but it was priced at $450.  Jamin had already said that he didn't want to spend more than like $125 for a couch, and I knew that would be nearly impossible, so I just prayed and kept looking.  Well, a few days later, I saw this same couch had come down to $300!  So, I approached Jamin about offering them $225 cash and seeing what happened.  He agreed to it, and I emailed the lady.  I got an email response just minutes later saying that she'd take the offer--when could we come pick it up?!  I talked to her for a little longer, just explaining why we needed it and that we had just moved here to work at Compass Aviation.  Turns out she is a Christian that works at a Christian recruiting organization of some sort, and she knew all about MAF. 

Jamin and John Watt (Jamin's boss) went to Charlotte the following day (Saturday) and picked it up.  They came back all smiles and said "Guess what?!"  I knew it could only be one thing.  "Did you get it free?" I asked.  "YEP!" 

Here they are enjoying the fruit of their labor, in red-neck fashion.

It is sooooo comfortable to sit AND sleep on.  It is so beautiful as well, and now, my living room finally matches.  Hurray!!!

Esther is growing so big--what did you expect?  I'm getting to the point where I don't care how much I'll have to chase her around, I just want her to start walking everywhere so I won't have to carry her so much.  She is really catching on to communication.  She knows how to use four signs: all done, bye-bye, milk, and food.  We're working on more now that she gets the concept.  She points at something if she wants it or if she wants more of it.  She wrinkles her nose and rubs her face if she doesn't want any more.  She is very vocal, always saying "ba-ba-ba" or singing or yelling very loudly.  Daddy taught her yesterday how to vibrate her fingers against her lips and hum making a "brrbrrbrrbrr" sound. 

I love this picture of them together.


She plays nicely most of the day, but is very vocal when she is hungry or tired.  She is such a little people person.  She still needs to know there's someone in the room with her all the time.  She crawls furiously around the house trying to follow me as I do chores, and gets very frustrated sometimes when I keep doubling back on my steps, so she has to keep turning around to go back the way she came from.  Trips to the bathroom are the worst, as she wails that I've left her and keeps wailing at the closed door til I come out.  Sheesh.  Not even a moment of peace.  I can only hope that she will be a good big sister and entertain her little siblings so I can get away for a second when they're all at this age.

Here she is in her playpen, just chillin'.


And here she is enjoying controlled disaster.  Those plastic lids and containers are for her pleasure and enjoyment while Mommy is cooking.


Talk about disastrous though.  Here's a story for you.  The other night, Jamin and I were watching "The Ghost and the Darkness" because I had never seen it, and it is a classic, especially for those who have been to Africa.  We had put Esther down to sleep on our bed, since we still wanted to do things on the computer in her room.  About half-way through at about 11:15, Jamin thought he heard some rustling of paper (over the roars of lions in the movie--imagine that!), so he went to check on Esther.  Sure enough, she was sitting up in the middle of our bed, tearing pages out of my Bible, looking ever so innocent and unaccustomed to the light.  She had strewn little pieces of paper I used as bookmarks all over the floor, after having thoroughly soaked them and knawed pieces out of them.  Thankfully, she only demolished two pages out of my older Bible.  It still felt like little Esther had something in common with those lions on the movie that night.



For a final tale of God's goodness, I will tell the story of Friday.

I have been quite discouraged lately because there is little at home to do besides babysit and do housework, so I have determined to keep busy by making myself projects.  I have always loved making things look beautiful, using my imagination and the most inexpensive things I can find that I also really really love.  In lieu of painting and decorating Esther's room exactly how I had imagined it, I decided to settle for sewing her a crib set, curtain, diaper organizer, etc. for much cheaper than I could buy one and have the pleasure of picking out the fabric, matching it, and making it myself.  I was very disappointed to see that the Hancock's here in Shelby had been closed down, and the Walmart selection was tiny.  I didn't see any good fabric stores in Gastonia either, except one that looked (from the website) that it would be very expensive, selling only designer fabrics to professionals.  I didn't have high hopes for Hobby Lobby, but after looking online at fabric, and deciding fabric must be felt before it's bought, I had little other choice. 

I set off on Friday morning, grateful to get out of the house (even though it meant Esther would lose her morning nap).  I missed my exit for Hobby Lobby but took it as a blessing because gas was advertised at the next exit as 12 cents cheaper than you can get it anywhere in Shelby.  As I came off the exit, I could see "Mary-Jo's Fabric" on the side of a building immediately to my right.  I remembered that was the one I had seen on the internet, and though I had little faith, I decided to check it out anyway. 

I have never seen a bigger fabric store in my life.  I later found out after checking the website again, that it is a sort of "Mecca" for seamstresses just because it is so abundant, not because of it's "elite" brands.  God is so amazing.  If He had not led me there, I would have continued to be discouraged in my search.  I checked out Hobby Lobby later, and they have nothing.  I picked out a Michael Miller print called Carnival Bloom (apparently they're a pretty famous and trendy company) and here are some complementing patterns.
 

Here is Esther in the shopping basket with the vinyl version of it (they were all out of the cotton version--I'll have to wait at least 3 weeks for that.)



God is really just so good to me.  That simple song has been playing over and over in my head today.  There are so many other daily testimonies to the Lord trying to get my attention.  I hope these shared here have encouraged you.




~Elizabeth~

3 on airliners.net, who knows how many to go.

Last week was a very busy week for us.  We moved to Shelby, N.C.....sort of. 

After many weeks of wondering where the Lord would lead us into a new job after graduation, He made it possible for us to go to Shelby, North Carolina to work and serve with Compass Aviation Ministries.  This was a possibility that we had considered about a year ago, but at the time, they were unable to take us into their program, so we had thought that door was closed.

Compass Aviation Ministries (CAM) is an organization that was established just a few years ago.  Their mission is to help young pilots fresh out of school who have ambitions of going to the mission field to build hours and eliminate their school debt.  We are amazingly blessed by God to have NO school debt (which is a miracle especially considering the cost of LeTourneau and especially their flight program), however Jamin does need to build at least 200 more hours before applying to a mission flight organization.

In the mean time, we had been enjoying a few weeks with both sets of parents/grandparents after our trip to Africa.  Esther had fun with Uncle Jonathan...                         ...and with Uncle Josiah.

    

Grandma Hartley had some sunglasses for her to try on...


Esther wanted to share them.



She enjoyed some Cheerwine at her grandparent Pecks' house....a drink that can only be found in the Carolinas.



And we watched G-Pa Peck and Daddy cut down a couple trees on their property that were a potential hazard to the roof:



We obtained the blessing and support of both our churches in Raleigh and Durham, and then flew to Texas to pick up our car and our belongings from storage.  While there, we got to spend some time with our friends.

We hung out at Kyle & Lisa's apartment (Lisa in background)



Here's a better picture of them



We also had a lovely lunch with the Burklins.  Here are Lucy and Jasper playing with Esther.



And, of course, Jamin and Spencer messing around, Star Wars style.



The next day, we set out driving.  Here's what Esther did most of the time:



We finally got to Shelby after one and a half days of driving, with my dad driving the U-Haul for us.  Here's what the truck looked like after we finished unloading it (forgot to take a picture of it full, but you can imagine it.)


(Jamin, my mom and dad and Esther Joy)

Our new two-bedroom apartment is a duplex.



Here's our half of it.



It's quite nice and spacious compared to the other apartment we had on campus for the last year and a half.  We have a little bit of a side-back yard for Esther to play in.



Here is Jamin looking out of our back door.



Kitchen.


Dining room.


Living room


Bedroom #1


Bedroom #2


Spacious laundry room/storage


New stove, fridge, and DISH WASHER!!!


We barely got everything out of the truck, and it was time to get back on the road and drive up to Raleigh to be there for Sunday so we could be presented to the church and prayed over.

Today, we are excited to be finally moving in for real.  We are headed back to Shelby as soon as I get this typed up, and who knows when we'll get Internet access again!  We're just excited to have a home again.  We'll try to keep everyone updated on how Jamin's new job at Compass is going and how Elizabeth and Esther are adjusting to the new home and town.

Bye now!