Indeed

Indeed...what have I been doing for the last 109 days (aka: Since the Last Time I Blogged!)?

Here are a few updates:

Marriage? Love it!

Josh and I will celebrate 11 months this week, and I'm finding our marriage to be a source of great strength, joy, growth, and peace. We're not without our challenges, but we are so richly blessed. Josh has many more deep thoughts in this season of life, trying to figure out his/our future jobs/degree/housing locations/finances/goals/purpose/etc. I'm learning to take more and more pleasure in walking with him and being a wife.

House Projects? Check!

We're done with all the trim painting and grout scrubbing we're gonna do. Now we just have to keep it clean... It turned out really cute, thanks to a million hours of labor. I think the time sheets go like this:


Josh--999,483 hours Sarah--326 hours Assorted Family and Friends--281 hours


Our house officially went on the market a few weeks ago, and we've had several open houses and agents' walk-through tours. No offers yet, so you can join us in praying for the right buyer.


Work? We made our Count Day Goal!


It's kind of too complicated to explain here, but basically for the last 6 weeks, I've been working a ton of overtime for Count Day, which is the way our school gets funded, based on the number of attending students we have. I've made literally hundreds of phone calls trying to convince former students to return to school for this semester and put in their Count Day "time". Many of my students' lives are heartbreakingly chaotic, which makes attending school difficult. Lack of transportation, day care, working phones, bus fare, safe home environments, the list of obstacles is overwhelming.


But we did it...or actually, they did it...for themselves, for their children and extended families. Hopefully they'll stick around this year, finish their classes, and be able to walk across the stage in May.


I really am enjoying this job, even through the Count Day craziness. I'm glad for the relaxed change of pace now (as I'm blogging at work!), but it was worth it. As the big rainbow with the pot of gold nuggets (each representing a student who did Count Day) proclaims..."Education Promises a Brighter Future." I believe that, at least in a secular sense, and am continuing to seek ways to make this about God's kingdom, not just a diploma.


Small Group? Multiplied!


At the beginning of September we multiplied into two groups. Ben and Leah are leading one group at Phil and Cassie's house, and Josh and I now meet at Chad and Becky's. We're reading a book by Jack Deere called Surprised by the Voice of God. It's about hearing God's voice specifically through the Holy Spirit, and is an introduction to prophesy and the various gifts of the Spirit. We've had some great discussions, and the Lord has been answering my prayer that people in our group would not only read the book, but start to experience some of the "stuff" that the book talks about.


Our friend Denise had a cool experience recently where the Lord healed a pain in her neck and head, and we're anxious to see what else God's going to share with us us as we learn to ask Him and then actually listen.

Fun Adventures? As often as we can!

Over the past few months, we've been to the Renaissance Festival, OctoberFest, the Weston Apple Festival, the Plaza Art Festival, Independence Wild West Days (or something), DesMoines for a business trip, Omaha to see Anna, Wichita to see my college girls, Chapman to visit the 'rents, and Josh's brother Jared and our sister-in-law Heather came to visit us!

We've watched Cam and Shar's 4-year old son Caleb play soccer, our cat Rio has put on 2 1/2 pounds, Halo-3 came out and Josh's XBox360 tragically went on the fritz, the upstairs shower floor finally stopped leaking, we started to plan a backpacking trip to Europe, the RAV got new tires, and God's grace sustained us through it all. He is truly good.

So there you have it...Apologies for the long absence...Hopefully I'm back to my on-line life.