Rejoice in the Lord - ALWAYS!

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Philippians 4:4

On July 16th we arrived in Ladson, South Carolina, after a thankfully uneventful four-day drive.  We were blessed to only have to pay for one hotel room the whole way, taking a three-day layover in Illinois with Rachel’s aunt and uncle, and also spending the night with some friends in Tennessee. The kids did extremely well during the trip - praise Jesus!

The kids enjoying Rachel's aunt & uncle's farm in Northern Illinois.

When we arrived at our new house, our landlord and a handyman were there, painting. . . the inside of the house. Surprise! Apparently they weren't really expecting us to show up on the day we told them we'd be there. . . . A much more welcome sight was the Haverkorn ladies with some dinner, air mattresses, and blankets (since our U-Haul didn’t make it there before we did), as well as meeting our new friends and neighbors, the Brooks family. For the next few days, until all our belongings arrived, we gave the little house a thorough cleaning (praise Jesus Rachel’s parents were still there to help with that!), did a little exploring, and thought often on the verse written above. Rejoice in the Lord - ALWAYS!

Big helpers when our U-Haul arrived!

The kids are settling in very well, making new friends (there are TONS of kids in our neighborhood), and loving all the squirrels in the backyard. Unfortunately, they won't play in said backyard, due to the large population of mosquitoes inhabiting it. Hopefully winter will bring some relief. . . . As August begins (crazy, eh?) Havah and Mercy are excitedly awaiting starting 1st grade (homeschool). Seriously, they are both super excited about it, and have been asking to start school every day for the past week. :)

Jason has been able to continue his web design work from home - this is probably the biggest blessing right now - and is really liking the change from dry, chilly Montana, to humid, hot South Carolina. :) Rachel is having the hardest time settling in. She is enjoying making new friends from the Calvary Chapel down here, but is unfortunately a little overwhelmed by the “natural inhabitants” of this region (read: mosquitoes, fleas, fruit flies, crickets, spiders. . . etc.).  If the mosquitoes will share the backyard with us this fall, we are hoping to plant a fall/winter garden. This will be our first attempt and a “real” garden, and we’re a little nervous!

Mosquito-Land Our backyard: beautiful, yet vicious to the unsuspecting.

On a more spiritual note, we have been attending a Bible study going through Galatians at the Haverkorns house on Thursdays. It has been wonderful to see families come (even teens!) and hear testimonies and what they’re learning through the Scriptures. (For those of you who don’t know, the Haverkorn family are the friends we moved down to serve with.) The church is “scheduled to be planted” in September. Please keep this in your prayers! Until then, we are fellowshipping at Calvary Chapel Charleston, and have been quite blessed by it so far!

Thank you all for your prayers as we moved this past month. Please keep them coming as we continue to settle in and prepare for the work He has called us to.

For more detailed prayer requests/praises, please hop on over to our “Pray for Us!” page. :)