What's been happening in our lives~

In May we traveled to Malibu to attend the Pepperdine Lectureships. We attended classes and were encouraged by our brothers and sisters in Christ. We also reconnected with good friends.

In June we traveled to Washington to visit Jewel's family. We spent a week hanging out with her brother and his family and their dad. Jewel's dad retired from commercial fishing in March. So, we spent some time helping him with his new hobby~ gardening. We were inspired to someday start our own organic "farm" in order to help those in the church and in the community. And if we're able to increase our income in this way, then we're excited for that as a bonus, too!

We also got to spend some time with other married couples in the church for a weekend. We spent some time encouraging each other and building relationships.

In July, we stayed around the area spending time looking for our own place. We were staying with Steve's parents. So, thankfully, so friends connected us with a lady just outside of Grass Valley and we moved into our new apartment August 1. It's a small studio apartment, but it's within our budget and our landlady is a blessing!

August we celebrated Steve's dad's birthday and Steve's niece's birthday. We had a good time celebrating life with Steve's family.

It's now September. Jewel had her 33rd birthday. Or rather she celebrated her 21st birthday for the 12th time. :) And we'll soon celebrate Steve's mom's birthday this week.

In that time Steve's been teaching the high school class on Sunday mornings. Jewel was co-facilitating the Wednesday night gals' class as well as working at a boy's group home. Steve is still teaching, Wednesday night classes have been postponed for the time being and Jewel has since quit her job and found a new one. Jewel's job was very stressful and taking a toll on her emotional and physical health. So, God has since blessed her with another job for the time being. It's only seasonal, but it's something with less stress and pays about the same.

In all of this, these last few months we have been walking by faith. Some days it seemed hard. Ok, most days it was hard. But throughout all of the difficulties, we were reminded by friends how God is faithful and never gives us more than we can handle. So, we continued to walk by faith and God still stays faithful.