welcome fall :)

It's fall! I am now back in Louisville and loving this fall weather! Today was a perfect combination of resting, going to the St. James Art Fair in a sweater and scarf, lots of coffee, my Bible, my journal, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, talking to some dear friends, and getting to cross lots of things off my checklist :)

Last week was incredible and better than I could have imagined. Being at Johnson and spending time with my sisters there was so encouraging. I spoke in some Missions classes about OO and Esperanza and people that I didn't even know were very supportive. At the end of one of the classes, everyone stood up and prayed over me and the ministry... it was humbling for sure. Knoxville now has a worship night in the Square Room one Wednesday a month. It just so happened (thank You, God!) that this month's worship night was last week when I was in Knoxville. Emilee was singing at it with Bill Wolf and United Pursuit Band was playing! United Pursuit Band is my favorite... insane lyrics! And I think anytime I get to hear Emilee sing I cry :) So needless to say, Wednesday night was amazing and such a blessing being able to worship with them.

I was supposed to leave Knoxville Thursday afternoon, but through some cool God-things, I ended up staying until Friday afternoon. Thursday night there was a human trafficking forum in Knoxville so Emilee and I knew we had to go since I was able to stay until Friday. One of the speakers was from International Justice Mission, an organization that works to fight sex-trafficking. The forum was soooo good! It gave us a lot to think about and we were jotting things down all night so we would remember what the Lord was showing us. One of my favorite things that he said was that genuine love has a way of casting out fear. I kept thinking how true that is and how genuine love is the whole reason we are pursuing this dream. We fell in love with the Dominican people and it changed everything about our lives. Any fear or hesitation we ever had fell away in the presence of the genuine love of Christ and our genuine love for Him and His people. I just pray that we always remain rooted in the never-ending love of Christ.

Thursday night, Emilee and I made pumpkin cookies which we had been talking about doing since the beginning of the summer. Check! They were awesome. Friday, I rode back to Louisville (or Luhvul as I'm trying to teach Emilee how to say:) ) with Sara and James and it was wonderful to be able to catch up with them... I miss you guys! Yesterday we had an open house at my home in Louisville and it was such a blessing to see people that I hadn't seen for over a year and catch up on life. I was able to share a lot about Esperanza and what the Lord is doing. Thank you so much to everyone who came by... you ALL were so encouraging and I appreciate your support more than you know! God is good and I am blessed with very uplifting family and friends!

This is my sister, Emilee :) We are really bad at remembering to take pictures, but this is the one that we managed to take!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

1 Peter 1:3

I read this verse last week and LOVE everything about it. It's so fitting for Esperanza and I think we are going to put it on our prayer cards. It's our whole goal and dream... to praise our Father and bring Him glory... and to share His promises of new birth and new life into a living hope (esperanza!)... and all of that because of the resurrection of Christ! Amen.