On the Road Again

We recently spent four days in North Carolina with our team at the Acts 29 church planting conference. This time was not only beneficial for the wonderful speakers that we were able to hear (Ed Stetzer, JD Grear, Mark Driscoll, and other church planting experts), but for the time that we were able to spend brainstorming, planning, and encouraging each other with our team.

Joe and I left North Carolina to go to New York, but it's not quiet that simple! We had some extra time before we needed to be in New York, so we decided to say some good-byes on the way. We were able to spend the night with Carrie-Lynn, Joe's younger sister at Universtiy of Virginia. It was great to see Carrie-Lynn, meet some of her friends, and experience life at her college. She is doing well and is very involved with a campus ministry and with Portico Christian Church. We were able to visit Portico, which just so happens to be an Acts29 church.




After saying goodbye to Carrie-Lynn, we went to visit some friends near Washington D.C. We were able to stay with John and Kevin, friends that Joe grew up with and who were also in our wedding. We had a great time catching up and hanging out with John and Kevin. Joe and I were also able to spend about five hours in D.C. which was great for us. We realized once we were there how much we needed a day to ourselves! We ran around the city trying to see as much of it as we could in five hours.



The next day we continued to drive up north and stopped in Pennsylvania to visit Danny and Megan and their boys. Danny sang in our wedding and he and Joe grew up going to church camp together. Our stay with Danny and Megan was very encouraging and as you can see, their boys are adorable.


We had one last stop before we got 'home' to Joe's mom's house. We were able to stop in New York City to see our good friend Nick and his girlfriend Alaina. Nick was also in our wedding and Joe gives a lot of credit to Nick for helping to foster his spiritual life as he was growing up. We were able to get some of the best pizza in the world with Nick and Alaina at Grimaldi's, just under the Brooklyn Bridge. The pizza is so well known, we had to wait in line to get in!





We finally reached our destination, Joe's mom's house, about 1:30 Thursday morning. After traveling so much we couldn't wait to get a good night's sleep…in a bed. Though the traveling can be tiring, we are thankful for the many good friends that we have in our lives. We learned about good 'goodbyes' while in Colorado at Mission Training International and we are beginning to understand the importance of them! It was hard saying goodbye to each of these people knowing that it will be a couple of years before we see them again. We are thankful for their love and encouragement as we embark on this new journey. It meant so much to us that they have chosen to take part in this crazy time in our lives that we call flammertime.