The Oregon Coast!

Lately, there has been a lot of emotional strain and drama through work, so we took a day off and enjoyed some time at the beach. A couple from our church generously let us use their beach house for a couple nights, so we left Sunday afternoon after church, spent all of Monday at the beach, and came home early Tuesday morning to be back at work at 8:30am! Though it was quick, it was such a nice, relaxing time to be able to spend together without our cell phones on--well, most of the time anyway! We slept in, did some Christmas shopping, ate a picnic lunch at the beach, and really enjoyed some needed time together just relaxing and getting refueled. We praise the Lord for the beauty of His creation, the wonderful sunny day (it was 70 degrees!) at the beach, and His faithfulness to us as a couple!

Youth Group Harvest Parties

Well, we survived last week :-)! It was a flurry of Harvest parties, then the church Trunk 'n Treat and then Dave preached on Sunday. The Harvest parties for J-High and High School went really well. We had a scarecrow stuffing contest (which was very fun! We gave them some straw and some old clothes and a sheet for the face. They turned out great!), a pie eating contest (no one got sick this year, so we called it a success!), and a Bible character costume contest. We had everyone from Ruth, to Noah, to a leper (which was quite disgusting!), and of course Mary. I dressed as King Eglon, complete with pillows in my shirt and the hilt of a "sword" sticking out. I was quite proud of my costume, and it was a great excuse to wear sweats to youth group! It is exciting to watch the groups grow.

As our pastor has been on a missions' trip to Peru for the last few weeks, Dave preached on Sunday and will preach again this Sunday. I always enjoy his preaching, though it makes for a very busy week for him as he prepares his sermon and 2 youth group nights. We are excited to have a new church website coming online sometime this week where you will be able to download the sermons, see youth group pics, etc. (http://www.graceindallas.org/ Check it out!).

Wildhorse Canyon!

A couple weekends ago we took our high school group to Wildhorse Canyon--the Young Life Camp in Antelope, Oregon, for their High School Discipleship Camp. Josh and Anna took their youth group as well, so it was fun to hang out together. This was the first time we had been to this camp, and we were thrilled! Not only do they have the largest zipline in the Northwest (that drops you into a freezing cold lake at the end), a giant 3 person swing that drops you 60 feet and then you swing out over the canyon, an indoor skate park, and 4 b-ball courts, the food was fabulous and most of all, the speaker was really good! We are looking forward to making this an annual event. I will hopefully post some pictures of our weekend later.