Photo Shoot

Our friend Kari from our Home Group is launching her photography business in our area. She took pics of all the families in our Home Group. She's great, check out her website. She got some great shots of my over-active little boys, which I know is quite a feat. Here are some of the pics from our photo shoot, I tried to limit how many I was posting, but I kept finding more cute pictures that I had to add.

Halloween

We had a busy Halloween weekend. We started off with a great Pumpkin Carving Party at the Heads House. We had a great time and our pumpkin came out really well.

Jared starting off with the template.

The boys put in their two cents.


The finished product, can you tell who it is?

Will and Luke did better with the Pumpkin Painting.

The morning of Halloween Will had a soccer game and then we went over to our friend Kate's 1st Birthday. We had such a busy morning that in the afternoon both boys decided to start running fever. So, we decided not to go to our Home Group party and spread our germs. We went by Nana and Paw Paw's and by a few neighbors on our street. Here are a few pictures of Spider Man and Batman, they were quite a pair:

Joe Houston

Thank you for your prayers for Joe's family and his fiance Jenn. Today the divers located the plane and Joe was found inside. You can read more in the letter from Joe's Mom here. Please keep the family and Jenn in your prayers as they begin grieving. The family desires to see the Lord be gloried through this situation, so please join with them in praying for people to come to the Lord because of Joe's life.

Help Find Joe

Help Find Joe is the blog that the search and rescue team has set up to let everyone know about their efforts to find Joe. If you are in the Corpus area and able to help check out the blog for contact info. If not check out the blog for specific ways to pray for the search.

This is what Jenn has posted on facebook today:

Today Joe's &my family will join the Miller's as we stand w/them at Bret's memorial service. Pray for Bret's family that the Lord would hold them close& bind up their broken hearts. The search presses on for Joe on the civilian end-unsure if marines will due to the service. Father we do trust You even when we cant see ...what You're doing. But I pray You would show Yourself mighty -waiting for You & waiting for Joe.

Lord You have seen fit for us to lay in wait. It pleases You that we are stripped of anything but hope against hope. You delight in our fixation of who You are & how You love & rescue Your children. I ask Father to please unveil this mystery & reveal Your will. I beg for mercy & I plead the eternal throne of grace: surrender Joe up from the grave for You are His deliverer... & mine as well.

Thoughts

I just finished reading the Texas Monthly article "Ring of Fire" about the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Aggie Bonfire. Not a short read, but well worth it, especially to any Aggie.

The article chronicled the tragedy of the event. It talked about how everyone who experienced that event either first hand or far away was changed by it. I didn't experience any of it first hand, but it stands out as a major event in my life during my college years.

A few quotes from the article: "The trajectories of people's lives and the way they looked at the world were altered by what happened. We all came out permanently bent in one way or another." - Travis Johnson

"The soul-searching started on the day that Bonfire fell, and it continues today." - Ray Bowen

"I wasn't cursing God, but I was questioning him: Why must there be so much pain? Why one kid and not the other? How do you make these choices? Later, when I struggled with those questions, I thought of the Book of Hebrews: 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' We are not going to understand this until we get to the other side."
- Cindy Lawson

Through reading this I was reminded of how tragedy makes us turn to God, even if we didn't believe in Him before that moment. As I read I can't get the tragic situation that my friends are currently in. (see my post below) Jenn and the Houston family continue to turn to God and are asking others to do the same. I pray that through this situation we would all trust the Lord more and faith would grown and possibly new for someone faith would begin. Please continue to pray for Joe to be found and for God to be given the glory through this.

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we

do not see."