Encouragement

This month we had the privilege of traveling to Memphis, TN for the annual Christian Community Development (CCD) national conference.  Each year thousands of CCD practitioners gather to worship God, to share stories of what is going on in their communities and to learn from one another.  For the past 7 years I have been able to attend this conference and have been taught best practices from key leaders and been given numerous resources to help me in serving the community that I live in.

                For the past few years on the way home God would typically give me an idea or project to bring back.  This year was a little different for me, in that after returning home this wasn’t happening.  Each day I would reflect on the talks that I had heard and the workshops that gave me useful tools, but I could not pin point something new that God was putting on my heart.  Then one day my wife asked me “have you written a post yet about CCDA?”  I had to say no and that I was struggling to see what the actual purpose of this trip was.  As I began to think more about the conference I realized that this year wasn’t about the key speakers or workshops that I attended but more about the informal times that I was able to have; both with our church pastors, who were able to attend for the first time, and with other men and women giving their lives away in their respective communities.

                As we have been on this journey that God has put us on there have been ups and downs. We have had times of feeling isolated and all alone as well as many joys. One of the amazing things about being a part of the body of Christ is that we aren’t alone and that we have one another to strengthen and encourage each other. This, more often than not, comes when we need it the most and that is just what I was in need of.  I was able to sit with others over meals, cups of coffee and car rides to share vision for what we see God doing in our churches, city and throughout the country.  These times created a stirring within me to press on to where God is leading us and our church.  The author of Hebrews tells us, “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  Now, I know that we can’t travel from city to city each week or month to get this encouragement.  We can; however, get this same encouragement from our local church and fellow brothers and sisters in our city each week and I hope and pray that we do!

A New Phase of Life

It's easier to sum up the past year in a slideshow so we hope you enjoy... (slideshow no longer available) Not only did we have an action-packed year but we also have been able to enjoy a new adventure...PREGNANCY!!
Christopher Rolf Herbstler is due to show up on March 28th. God has blessed us with a wonderful pregnancy. Please keep us in your prayers as our family enters into this new phase of life. It's truly a blessing that we can barely comprehend but are very excited!

Spring 2010

Here's a snapshot of the past few months. It's been somewhat of a whirlwind but we've enjoyed and learned through every minute!

We continued to get settled in and had to make plenty of decisions. Like what do you do with this??

We agreed that it'd be best in storage and hope for a child that appreciates it.

We had lots of snow this winter between our family Christmas to Colorado and the multiple times it snowed here in Lafayette. It was exciting but I must confess that I'm a true southern girl at heart. I'm thankful for the warm weather!!

We celebrated our 2 yr anniversary with a trip to New Orleans! We visited the aquarium and enjoyed a relaxing evening with basketball and room service.






With the beautiful weather we've been able to get to know our neighbors better. Here are a few examples.

Discover Video

Here's a video we put together to sum up our time with the Discover program. We're still processing all that we experienced. It was just 4 1/2 months but we've found since being back that our beliefs and way of life were stretched and challenged. Out of that a strong foundation was laid and lifelong friendships were made. Thank you for walking through life with us and for showing us Christ's love in so many ways. We are truly blessed.

Summer Time

We wasted no time jumping into life back in Louisiana! After 7 days with family we started work Bridge Ministry of Acadiana, a week later we were on a bus with 22 youth and 2 coworkers to KAA Kamp in Missouri. Once we returned we began to settle into our 5 week summer programs.

Jason is working with high school students (13-18 yrs old) and Lacey is working with elementary (6-12 yrs old). It's a great fit! Jason's group did something called Job Club where students who are too young to work obtain job skills and are able to visit local businesses to gain exposure to different types of employment and Lacey's group had a day camp that gave the children an opportunity to hear about Christ through fun activities and outings. We loved getting to know each individual child and are looking forward to what the school year will bring. We'll share plenty more about our experiences there as time goes...

We've also been settling down into our home for the time being. We're living in Lake Arthur near Lacey's family and commuting to Lafayette as we save money and search for a home in the BRIDGE neighborhood. A blessing we're cherishing is being able to see our families so often since we've been back.

We we able to take a relaxing trip to Arkansas before school started. It was a great time to reconnect and to be refreshed. Hard to believe the summer is over! I guess the saying it true, "time flies when you're having fun!"