Accomplishing our Mission

Well, life here in Hagerstown is still going great! We're certainly not complaining about any part of it -- we love being here. We've been here for just about 5 1/2 months now, and we're beginning to look back to see what we've done in that time.
At church, we've managed to see attendance grow from an average of about 30 people each week to somewhere between 40-50 people each week. We've started, and regularly continued, a weekly Bible Study, and we're well-into our second course of study with that. We've moved from meeting in a school to meeting in a church building, where we're paying less per week for about 3 times the allowable time to be in the building. And, we've sold the acreage that the church had purchased with the original intent of building, but that a reality-check revealed might not be a real possibility, maybe ever. So, God is certainly blessing out work at the church. We will absolutely maintain that it is not of us that these things have happened, but because God is working, and His people are willing.
I finished out the school year at Grace Academy, teaching 3rd grade. This was a special privilege and challenge for me -- my background and experience is in the middle school / high school realm, and this opportunity showed me that God's grace is sufficient for whatever task He calls me to do. I really enjoyed my time with those kids, and they taught me so much about myself and about life in the short time I was with them. I was not offered a contract for the upcoming school year, "not as a reflection of you as a teacher, but because of the difficult budget cuts we had to make". That's fine -- not what I wanted or expected to hear, but it just means that God has another adventure planned for me somewhere else! And exactly a week after I turned in my keys at Grace Academy, I was officially hired as a High School English teacher at Faith Christian Academy in Martinsburg, WV. WOW!! YEA, GOD!!!!! That was not me, that was God moving me where He wants to use me!
Then, there's Katie. She's 21 months old today, and already talking in sentences, singing songs with tune and rhythm, and being amazing in so many other ways. She loves going to the park to swing and slide, and walking -- well, bring it on!!! She loves to walk and to go up and down steps! She's able to do steps by herself (but we always follow close behind -- there will be no huge tumbles down the stairs -- not yet). She loves to do puzzles, look at books, and go "shopping with mommy". She loves to tell what "doggie says" (woof, woof), or "piggy says" (oink, oink), and she can also tell that a ducky says "quack, quack", a kitty says "meow, meow", a cow says "moo", and a rooster says "cock-a-loo-ooo" (it's really cute to hear, in person). She parrots everything anyone says, so when Mema (grandma) Girdler sang "Ooo, Eee, Ooo, Ahh, Ahh, Ting-tang, walla-walla big-bang", Katie sang it too -- except it was Ooo, Eee, Ahh, Ahh, Tang, Allallalllallla bang" -- awesome!!!!!!!! She's the cutest thing ever!!!! And when daddy went to look at new glasses frames, she told him, "Dado silly goose with glasses!" And she tried on some glasses and remembered the purple glasses, and wanted them on the next time we went back there. She tells us where we are when we pull into Target, Martin's, and WalMart, and she knows what's coming when we're in the Chick-Fil-A drive through "Chicken and Fries?!?!?!?!?" These are the times to remember . . . . .
And so . . . things are going well -- we are doing God's work in God's place, in God's time, and He is blessing in amazing ways. And in all this we say, "Not to us, Oh Lord, not to us, but to You be the glory"