Wish you were here!

We just got back from RUF summer conference in Panama City Florida. And, it was fabulous! We spent a week in the sunshine with some wonderful students and enjoyed great fellowship and beautiful weather.

The kids enjoyed spending their time in between the pools, beach and sand.
Out to eat at the Back Porch.
Week 3 RUF Summer Session.
Beach babes!

End of the year cookout...

The school year has come to a close for Johnson and Wales University, and oh what a year! God has been at work on this campus and it is so exciting for us to be involved in what He is doing there. We have grown personally and as a ministry throughout the year. We've experienced joy and sorrow and experienced relationships in new ways. Our continual prayer is that we would love better and choose to glorify our God more than ourselves in ministry. It is an easy temptation to make ministry all about us sometimes and that is very far from where we should be. But, thank the Lord we are constantly growing, learning, being refined and that is something we are very thankful for. We still haven't perfected "our" ministry yet and that is because it will never be "ours" alone, it has always been, and will forever remain His. We are pleased to be a part of this ministry and have been blessed through the students, our intern and various others involved in RUF. Still to come graduation and our end of the year summer conference to Florida! I'll keep you posted...

Mini RUF retreat

Last weekend we packed up and headed to Virginia and stayed in a cute little house right off the Blue Ridge Parkway for a mini retreat with RUF. There were cows across the street and plenty of trees for our kiddos to climb and play in. We love our students and we were so glad that our whole family was able to come along and spend some quality time with them. Here are a few pics from our weekend complete with a hike.
Little Monkeys
Life on the farm is kind of laid back.
Some would say it's hard to pull off a tough look in osh kosh overalls but I think he's nailed it.
Maggie saw this stump and took the opportunity to play "statue."
A trip down to the "crick."
Is that a bear?
Some kickball...
A couple of Eno's were brought along to relax in but Maggie and Henry enjoyed playing "cocoon"
The whole gang minus our weekend devotional leader Forde.
Our hyper experienced trail guide.

The top of the mountain!