Earthquakes? Hurricanes?

Within the last week or so, we have experienced a small earthquake, a hurricane (Irene), and a hail storm. The earthquake was kinda cool, since we've never really experienced that. We thought it was someone's washing machine shaking upstairs (because that usually shakes the ground, right?). We also had a hurricane come through on Saturday, which ended up not really doing much for us. It got pretty windy and rained, but it didn't get scary. Our lights flickered once. Today, as CaryAnne was coming home from work, a huge storm popped up. It was much more intense, I feel like, than Irene was. It hailed for about five minutes. It's been an eventful week.

We started meeting in our building for church on August 21. We've had two weeks of mainly just the Core Team meeting and trying to get in a routine for set-up and tear-down and worshipping together. We have also had some visitors coming in. It is a very exciting time for us all.

This coming Saturday (9/3), we are having a fish fry at a park near the school (which is where we meet on Sundays) to reach out to the community. There is a group coming up from Temple Baptist in Hattiesburg to cook and help us out, so we're very grateful for them. Sunday, we're going to have a "soft launch" service where we invite people to come, but it's not advertised and what-not. Our official launch date is 9/11.

CaryAnne had a birthday last week. She turned 22. She old.

Last Saturday, which happened to be the day Irene came through, Matt Papa and Shai Linne had a concert at one of Summit Church's campuses. We went with the Britts and met up with the Sigmons (one of our elders). It was a great night. If you haven't heard Matt Papa's new album, This Changes Everything, I strongly recommend you buy it.

We started our Growth Groups this week. Ours met tonight at the Sigmons' house. We had supper together -- poppyseed chicken -- and discussed the passage from Tony's sermon this week. CaryAnne and I are both excited about this time of community with our new friends.

Donnie and I are playing pretty much every weekend this month.

We're having a blast here. I wish you all could be up here with us. Obviously, that's not an option for most of you, so you should just come visit! We also appreciate any and all prayers, just so you know.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Browns are here now! Seth and Lauren moved up last week. We're super excited to have them up here. Our Mississippi crew just keeps growing.

I'll end with a quote that is said a lot around Imago Dei --
"Christ lived the life we couldn't live, and He died the death we should have died."

Long Drives

The past 36 hours have been exhausting, so I apologize for the poor writing that is about to occur.

Last weekend, the core team took a trip up to Stafford, VA and Washington, DC. It went very well and was a lot of fun. We spent Saturday afternoon in DC and went to Arlington Cemetery, the Smithsonian American History Museum, and had supper at a Mexican place close to the capitol building. Sunday, we led the musical worship at Mt. Ararat and Tony spoke. It was a good time.

We got back from that trip Sunday evening. After crashing, we got up Monday and did laundry and stuff to get ready for our trip to Mississippi. Donnie, Meghan, Judah, CaryAnne and I began our overnight drive at 6:30 Monday night. What was supposed to be a 12 1/2 hour drive turned into a 15 hour drive when Judah got sick just outside of Atlanta. Poor little guy threw up twice, and had to sacrifice his blanket, which acted as a "barf bag" thanks to Meghan's quick thinking. We made it, though, so it was all good.

We had a great time at home. In the five days we were there, we saw almost everyone we had hoped to. Tuesday, we had lunch with my mom, then the Rakes fixed supper for us. Wednesday we had lunch with Cody, went by King's Daughter's and CaryAnne saw a lot of her old coworkers, then we headed to Clinton for Donnie and me to play at Pinelake. It was great to be back at Pinelake and to see everyone. Afterward, we went to Newk's with some of the guys. Thursday, we got up and went to Hattiesburg. We saw Toni, Zachary, Mackenzie, and Jackson in Petal then went and saw CaryAnne's grandparents. We took Carson with us and got to spend the day with him, too.

Thursday night, mama cooked enchiladas for us then we played tennis with Jon and Cody. On Friday, we had lunch with several friends, went to Loyd Star to see Erin's room, then I played at Recess 101 with Topher Brown & the Family Business. CaryAnne also met up with an old friend from high school and they spent most of the day together. We had a Hart family reunion Saturday around lunch, then went and said goodbye to the Rakes. From there, we met Cody and rode to Monticello for Hunter and Carly Speeg's wedding, which was great, then went back to Erin's for Carson's 2nd birthday party. We drove through the night and got in around 11am.

It was a busy week, but we had a lot of fun. We really enjoyed getting to see everyone and spend some time with them.

Oh, I almost forgot. CaryAnne got a job! It's a PRN (as-needed) job at a hospital about 25 miles from our apartment. She's very excited and so am I.

I have a job interview tomorrow, too, at a Hilton Hotel that is really close to us. I don't know even what position it is for, but I hope it goes well.

We're about to go to sleep, now, since we're both running on fumes from the drive home. We had our weekly core team meeting tonight, which is the only reason we're not in bed already.

Hey. Come visit.