As many of you probably have heard, we will be participating in a week long mission trip to Port-au-Prince Haiti this summer. We will be traveling with a group from our Church through the Adventures in Missions organization.
This was actually an easy decision for us. At times it has felt too easy, knowing that several people in our church were struggling with the decision. Although it is a big decision, it just seemed like a no brainer to us. Several factors probably led to the decision being easy. One, is we are simply available. With ministry being my job and Kristi having the summers off, our employments allow us to do this. Two, we don't have kids to worry about. Three, short term missions have had a great impact on our lives in the past, and this experience fits well with our adventurous spirits. And four, a few teenagers from our church will be traveling with us. What a joy it will be to travel with these youth on this cross-cultural experience.
We are approaching this experience knowing that it will not be a bed of roses. Parts of Haiti are still devastated by the 2010 Earthquake. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. To be honest, ignorance is bliss. It is easier for us to only experience life in our white, middle class lives. It is comfortable. But we must intentionally expose ourselves to other cultures, as we seek a greater understanding of the world, and ultimately of God's love.
Our trip to Haiti is simply an extension of our faith in Jesus Christ. We WANT to serve Him. Although it doesn't take a short term mission trip to do that, there is something special that can happen when we get outside of our comfort and routine and devote all of our efforts toward serving, loving, and ministering.
We intend on being more intentional with this blog as we prepare for our trip. We would love for you to be a part of this chapter of our journey by reading our blog and praying for us and our team.
In Christ,
Josh and Kristi
Monday, February 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Top 11 things from 2011
Here are 11 of my favorite (random) things from 2011.
1) Favorite Album:
Josh Garrels Love & War & The Sea In Between
p.s. - It is free. Go download it. Seriously, you are foolish if you don't get it.
2) Favorite Vacation:
Acadia National Park, Boston, and NYC
3) Favorite TV Commercial:
4) Favorite Blogger:
http://www.tylerstanton.com/
5) Favorite Nature Moment:
6) Favorite Board Game:
Ticket to Ride Germany
7) Favorite Amazing Thing:
8) Favorite Additions to the Family
Ava Thompson, Kenzie Miller, & Lily Ruffner!
9) Favorite Comedy Bit
10) Favorite Prank
11) Favorite Personal Accomplishment
Running the Indy Mini, my first half-marathon, at 01:57:52, coming in 6,985th out of 35,000.
1) Favorite Album:
Josh Garrels Love & War & The Sea In Between
p.s. - It is free. Go download it. Seriously, you are foolish if you don't get it.
2) Favorite Vacation:
Acadia National Park, Boston, and NYC
3) Favorite TV Commercial:
4) Favorite Blogger:
http://www.tylerstanton.com/
5) Favorite Nature Moment:
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.
6) Favorite Board Game:
Ticket to Ride Germany
7) Favorite Amazing Thing:
8) Favorite Additions to the Family
Ava Thompson, Kenzie Miller, & Lily Ruffner!
9) Favorite Comedy Bit
10) Favorite Prank
11) Favorite Personal Accomplishment
Running the Indy Mini, my first half-marathon, at 01:57:52, coming in 6,985th out of 35,000.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Oh me oh my, it's been since July?
It's been awhile. When life gets busy, blogging takes a back seat. Sorry people who don't live near us and know what we are up to. (You could just move to Akron, you know...)
And a lot has happened in the past four months. Here's a brief overview:
1. Three Year Anniversary: We celebrated three wonderful years together with a weekend in Canton. We stayed at the Football Hall of Fame hotel, caught a late night movie, and played some tennis.
2. East Coast Trip: We met up with our friends Daron and Rachael and spent a week traveling the coast. We visited New York City, Boston, Acadia National Park, and several smaller coastal towns. Some highlights of the trip were walking the entire length of Manhattan in a day to see all the hot tourist spots, visiting Fenway Park for a Red Sox vs. Indians game (which the Tribe won!), hiking the Precipice Trail in Acadia, and gnawing down a "lobsta" dinner. We are grateful that Daron is a professional photographer, so we have LOTS of incredible pictures from the trip. Here are just a couple:
3. School-Year Begins: I (Kristi) am still teaching 8th and 9th grade English at CVCA, and this year I added Junior High Spanish as well. I love teaching there, and am looking forward to continuing to build relationships with the teachers and students. The youth programs at Goss are also up and running for the school year. We have seen a larger number of students on Wednesday and Sunday nights, so you can pray that they start coming consistently throughout the year!
4. Rock the Road: This yearly mystery road trip is a partnership between Goss and First Glance. The kids sign up, and literally have no idea where they are going. This year Josh knew where we were going, but I didn't. We took 30 students (+ one simulation baby for a high school project) and began with an Amazing Race type scavenger hunt. (I'll note that my van of girls won, for the second year in a row!) Then we headed to Cincinnati for some laser tag, go-karting, and the zoo. We spent the night in Kentucky, then hung out at a park in Dayton and went to a fall festival near Columbus. We even ended up spending the first night at a church near my hometown, where my dad and mom surprised me by showing up to make snacks and breakfast for us! It was an amazing weekend of hanging out with students and building relationships with them in hopes of showing them more of who God is and how much He loves them.
5. Garden: Our first year of gardening didn't go as well as we had hoped, but it was an enjoyable experience. We were able to freeze some broccoli, green beans, and carrots, and we canned some jars of pizza sauce. Our lettuce did really well too. After some soil tests, we have figured out one of our problems = No Nitrogen. Oh well, better luck next year!
Hopefully we'll be back blogging sooner than last time!
And a lot has happened in the past four months. Here's a brief overview:
1. Three Year Anniversary: We celebrated three wonderful years together with a weekend in Canton. We stayed at the Football Hall of Fame hotel, caught a late night movie, and played some tennis.
2. East Coast Trip: We met up with our friends Daron and Rachael and spent a week traveling the coast. We visited New York City, Boston, Acadia National Park, and several smaller coastal towns. Some highlights of the trip were walking the entire length of Manhattan in a day to see all the hot tourist spots, visiting Fenway Park for a Red Sox vs. Indians game (which the Tribe won!), hiking the Precipice Trail in Acadia, and gnawing down a "lobsta" dinner. We are grateful that Daron is a professional photographer, so we have LOTS of incredible pictures from the trip. Here are just a couple:
3. School-Year Begins: I (Kristi) am still teaching 8th and 9th grade English at CVCA, and this year I added Junior High Spanish as well. I love teaching there, and am looking forward to continuing to build relationships with the teachers and students. The youth programs at Goss are also up and running for the school year. We have seen a larger number of students on Wednesday and Sunday nights, so you can pray that they start coming consistently throughout the year!
4. Rock the Road: This yearly mystery road trip is a partnership between Goss and First Glance. The kids sign up, and literally have no idea where they are going. This year Josh knew where we were going, but I didn't. We took 30 students (+ one simulation baby for a high school project) and began with an Amazing Race type scavenger hunt. (I'll note that my van of girls won, for the second year in a row!) Then we headed to Cincinnati for some laser tag, go-karting, and the zoo. We spent the night in Kentucky, then hung out at a park in Dayton and went to a fall festival near Columbus. We even ended up spending the first night at a church near my hometown, where my dad and mom surprised me by showing up to make snacks and breakfast for us! It was an amazing weekend of hanging out with students and building relationships with them in hopes of showing them more of who God is and how much He loves them.
5. Garden: Our first year of gardening didn't go as well as we had hoped, but it was an enjoyable experience. We were able to freeze some broccoli, green beans, and carrots, and we canned some jars of pizza sauce. Our lettuce did really well too. After some soil tests, we have figured out one of our problems = No Nitrogen. Oh well, better luck next year!
Hopefully we'll be back blogging sooner than last time!
Friday, July 8, 2011
The Hall's Walls
Two posts in one week. We're on a roll. A year in our new home and we are finally finished with our last paint project! We ripped the wallpaper off the walls in the hallway the day we moved in. Then we realized it was not drywall under the wallpaper, but plaster, and much of the plaster was ripped off with the wallpaper. We spackled and sanded about 9 months later, and that brings us to yesterday when we painted.
Our hallway when we moved in:
Our hallway today:
Then we celebrated by dressing up like cows and heading to Chick-fil-a for free value meals!
Our hallway when we moved in:
Our hallway today:
Then we celebrated by dressing up like cows and heading to Chick-fil-a for free value meals!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The Month of June - Gone So Soon
It has been an exciting month! I realized this morning that in the past two weeks, we have only spent six nights at home in our own bed. I cannot believe that July is already here and I will be heading back to school in a month. At the beginning of summer I always have high hopes and big dreams of everything I am going to accomplish. I just opened up my "Goals for Summer 2011" document to realize that I have only accomplished one of the twenty goals I set. I deleted some to help me feel like less of a failure. But looking back, it was a full, adventurous month! Here is a brief overview of our June.
June 4: Ben (Josh's brother) & Kenzie's Wedding - We added another Miller to the family! Josh was the best man and I read scripture for the ceremony. In a way, it seems like Kenzie has always been part of the family, but we are excited to have her as a sister and are glad to be back in the area to spend more time with them.
June 9: Camping at Salt Fork - Katie and Courtney are two of my childhood friends from church. During college, we took a road trip to Florida every summer. Now that we are married and have jobs, we have kept up the summer trip tradition by going camping in Ohio with our hubbies. We decided to upgrade a little this year and rented a very small cabin. Kurt (Katie's husband) got carried away with the idea of camping in luxury and brought a window air conditioner.
Believe it or not, this is the most normal picture we took while camping.
June 19: Project Shine Week - Project Shine is a local mission trip to Akron based out of our church. Several churches bring youth to work on houses around Kenmore and to have a week focused on spiritual growth. It was a really exciting week, full of scraping, painting, laughing, and worshiping. The highlight of the week was that one of our youth asked Jesus into her life. Josh and I spent a lot of time talking with her throughout the week and helping her understand what it means to follow Christ.
June 29: Ava Grace Thompson is Born - Cory (my brother) and Michelle had their second child! Josh and I love being an aunt and uncle!
June 30: Camping in Canada - To wrap up the month, we headed up north to camp with some Huntington friends. Nothing like celebrating the Fourth of July in another country, eh?
June 4: Ben (Josh's brother) & Kenzie's Wedding - We added another Miller to the family! Josh was the best man and I read scripture for the ceremony. In a way, it seems like Kenzie has always been part of the family, but we are excited to have her as a sister and are glad to be back in the area to spend more time with them.
June 9: Camping at Salt Fork - Katie and Courtney are two of my childhood friends from church. During college, we took a road trip to Florida every summer. Now that we are married and have jobs, we have kept up the summer trip tradition by going camping in Ohio with our hubbies. We decided to upgrade a little this year and rented a very small cabin. Kurt (Katie's husband) got carried away with the idea of camping in luxury and brought a window air conditioner.
Believe it or not, this is the most normal picture we took while camping.
June 19: Project Shine Week - Project Shine is a local mission trip to Akron based out of our church. Several churches bring youth to work on houses around Kenmore and to have a week focused on spiritual growth. It was a really exciting week, full of scraping, painting, laughing, and worshiping. The highlight of the week was that one of our youth asked Jesus into her life. Josh and I spent a lot of time talking with her throughout the week and helping her understand what it means to follow Christ.
June 29: Ava Grace Thompson is Born - Cory (my brother) and Michelle had their second child! Josh and I love being an aunt and uncle!
June 30: Camping in Canada - To wrap up the month, we headed up north to camp with some Huntington friends. Nothing like celebrating the Fourth of July in another country, eh?
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