We've been here a year

This has been an exciting month. I guess, they're all exciting, I'm just writing about this one. This month is our 1 year anniversary here in Washington. Can you believe it's been a whole year?

Michele's parents sold their home in Virginia and arrived out here last Wednesday. It's so good to live near them again. They're such a joy to be around and a big help to us. Liberty started rolling over a week ago. She is the sweetest baby. Her personality is great, she laughs a lot and her face lights up whenever she sees you. She is looking so much like Nathan when he was her age, bright blue eyes and blonde hair. Speaking of Nate, he's doing great. He is talking a ton, using two and three word sentences. He's more interested in what other kids are doing now, but he still likes to do his own thing. He loves being outside, he'll play outside all day by himself. Michele is also doing good. She stays busy with the kids, but has lots of friends she is able to hang out with during the week. I've been working a lot. We've had a shutdown out at the paper mill I spend most of my time at. We've been working 7 ten hour shifts a lot. It kind of wears on you, but there's light at the end of the tunnel because I gave my two week notice. I got a new job! I'll be working for the Army Corps of Engineers starting next week. I'll be welding at one of the nearby dams. It's great because I'll be working 4 ten hour shifts and have every Friday through Sunday off. I've been trying to get a federal job since I got out of the Army three years ago. I'm really excited about this change.

Church is going great as well. We are still going to that new church, which is about 5 months old, it's called Crossview Community. I feel like we've really connected there and I've become good friends with the pastor. It's cool because I feel like it's a give and take relationship. He's actually asked me to teach sometime next month. I'll keep you posted on that. He's also asked me to pray about starting a home Bible study. I'm a little reluctant. I know I've been praying about this since we moved here, but I also know how consuming preparing is for me. It's a totally different thing having kids and working a lot and preparing a study and teaching and getting to know all the people who come and spending time with them and my wife and still trying to find time to mow the lawn and maybe even go fishing now and then. See what I mean? I think Michele is wondering why I'm procrastinating in this area and I don't blame her for wondering. I guess I'm just scared to lose our family time and some of my freedom. Is this selfishness or wisdom or what? I guess I'm still sorting it out. On a slightly different note, their is a big Mormon population here. About 6 months ago, a pair of them knocked on our door. Since then, Mormon missionaries have been coming over almost weekly. We've had probably 15 different Mormons in our home over the past 6 months. I proclaim the true gospel to them and give them evidence for the Bible and present to them a lack of evidence for the book of Mormon and they keep coming back. Sometimes they bring other leaders from their church to back them up, but they keep coming back and bringing more people. I haven't had any noticeable breakthroughs with them, but I hope seeds are being planted and at the least I know that their not at someone else's house when they're at mine. Please pray for them and what seems to be my ministry to them.

Anyway, that's most of the big stuff I think. I'll try and post some more pictures soon, I just don't have them on this computer.

Peace,

Harold

Churc

I'm getting worse at this blogging thing, sorry. Anyway, I'll write something of substance soon, but for now some pictures will have to do.

Peace,

Harold

Jesus Rocks!

(Finally, a picture of Michele)



It’s hard to believe that it’s already February 2007. Things have been going well for us this year. Liberty has doubled her birth weight and is doing excellent. She is starting to sleep longer through the night (3 ½ to 4 ½ hours straight). Nate is doing well. He and I went to an outdoor show a few weeks ago. They had a fish pond where Nate caught his first two fish. He loved catching them, but he didn’t want to touch them. Also, Michele said she thought he looked like he had a mullet so, I shaved his head.

Also, some friends of ours are part of a new church plant and invited us to check it out. We went this past Saturday night and really enjoyed it. It was a smaller group, about 40 or so, which is what I loved about it. The church we've been going to is so big that I feel really disconnected. But, I was stoked to actually talk with the people I went to church with. The teaching and worship were also great. I'm excited to see what God will do through this fellowship, in our lives and the community here.

Besides all that, I'm working and hanging out with the family. I thank God for all of His blessings.

Peace,

Harold

A New Year

I think we are still tripping out that we now live in Washington let alone that it's a New Year and we have a new family member. God has been amazing to us!

Well, everything is great. Liberty is doing excellent, she surpassed her birth weight on her first trip to the doctor. Nate is also doing well. He loves his little sister. He always wants to help with her or hold her. The dogs haven't even batted an eye, they sniff Libby occasionally, but that's it. Michele is a little sleep deprived, but she is handling it well. As for me, it seems like Nate is my primary responsibility now, which I enjoy. It's like my own little gang.

Christmas was good. We had a lot of family at our house. Michele's brother came down from Spokane and her parents were here. Nate really got into opening the presents this year, which he got too many of. We ended up spreading them out over about five days.

It was really cool when I sent out that mass e-mail announcing Liberty. We got so many cool e-mails back. I actually reconnected with a few old friends and heard from a lot of you that I haven't heard from since we moved. Thanks.

Besides that, everything else is fairly normal, we're just learning how to live with two kids. It's a lot crazier, but super fun. Anyway, I'll write more soon.

Peace,

Harold

LIBERTY 2

Well, here are the pictures I promised of our beautiful little girl, Liberty Paige Wentworth.

It was a crazy week. Last week, we had an ultrasound. The doctor said that Libby's femur appeared small which could indicate some potentially serious problems. He then sent us to a perinatologist this last Monday. He told us that Libby was small for her gestational age and said that she didn't appear to be growing. All of this caused us to have some serious anxiety, especially considering how we lost Micah. On Tuesday morning at about 4 AM, Michele began having some serious upper abdominal pains. We woke up Nate and were off to the hospital by 5. The doctors decided that the best course of action was to induce labor (The actual due date was Jan 8th). I then rushed Nate over to our neighbors while Michele got ready to be induced. On our way, I got pulled over and got a speeding ticket. Now, I thought the wife in labor thing was like your get out of jail free card, guess not. See you in court, officer. So, I dropped Nate off and went back to the hospital, slower this time. They finally began inducing around noon. It took awhile, but Michele really started having serious contractions around 10:45 PM and Liberty arrived at 12:09 am on Dec. 13th. She weighed 4 lbs 15 oz and was 16 inches long or tall, depending how you look at it. Anyway, she is totally healthy and they both came home on the morning of the 14th. Michele's parents arrived on the 13th and will be staying for a month. They've already been a big help.

We are so thankful to the Lord! All of the doctors gave us a pretty grim prognosis, but God is way bigger than all that. Thank you Jesus and thank you for praying. We'd love to hear from you, so call or write, send a telegram, whatever. We love you.

Peace,

The Wentworth's
Harold, Michele, Nate, Liberty, Lucy and Cooper

LIBERTY

Our little girl, Liberty Paige Wentworth, was born this morning at 12:10 A.M. She weighs 4 lbs 15 oz. Michele was induced yesterday because they feared Libby wasn't developing properly. There was a whole lot of speculation concerning their prognosis'. Turns out they were all wrong. She is a very healthy little girl. Thanks to all of you who were praying for her, all glory to the One and Only Jesus Christ!

I'll write more details soon and include some photo's.

Peace,

Liberty's daddy

It's been awhile

I can't believe it's been over two months since our last post. Once I get behind, it's hard to catch up. Anyway, I'll give it a shot.

We had a scare in September, Michele had to go to the hospital. We thought she was going into preterm labor. Turns out that she was 100% effaced, which isn't a good thing at 24 weeks. The doctor said that Michele needed to be on bed rest, but that's next to impossible with a 1 year old. He also said if we could make it to 30 weeks, everything should be fine. Two days ago was 30 weeks, thank you Lord. On that note, we have a first name for the baby; Liberty. We'll also call her Libby. As of now, we don't have a middle name, so we're taking suggestions. It has to go with our last name which is harder than you'd think.

Nate is doing well. He's graduated to a twin sized bed. He's also started using "the potty". He's still not very vocal, but he understands everything and is quick with sign language. He does have a small repitoire (there's no spell check)of words, mostly starting with B or D.

I've been working quite a bit. I worked 19 hours this past Sunday alone. But, I still enjoy my job and I continue to learn. My friend at work that I asked you to pray for is now a believer. Praise God! I now ask that you'd pray that I would be a good example for him. As most of you know, it's easy to take on the characteristics of your environment. Pray that I would stand apart.

As for the the idea of a Bible study in our home, I feel like it's best that we wait until after Liberty is born. Life is just going to get more hectic between now and then. But, please continue asking me about it, I need to be reminded of what God has called us to (Rom 11:29).

Besides all that, we're doing good. We love the place we live. I am amazed every day by how beautiful it is and how great the people are. We really feel like we're in the right place. There is so much more to say, but I just wanted to write something before I procrastinate any longer. Please drop us a note if anyone still reads this. We love you.

Peace,


Harold

(Here are some recent pictures of Nate)

It seems like life has been all about fixing up the house. We moved in last month and we’ve been busy putting in the back yard and a fence. We wanted to get these couple of things done right away and then be done with the house. Just maintain it and live in it. We’re just about at that point, probably a couple more weeks to go.

Well, the big news is we had an ultrasound this week. We found out that we’re having a girl! We’re super excited. I’m glad we’re having a girl because I thought it might be weird having another boy and always comparing him to Nate (I know it probably doesn’t work like that, but who knows). Speaking of Nate, he is growing so much. He loves to laugh and he thinks he is so funny. His favorite word is “boat” which I think is a prophecy for our family, but Michele doesn’t seem to agree. The Bible mentions that in the last days people will be wicked like in Noah’s time. Well, it’s supposed to be the last days, and Noah had a boat. I know bad argument, borderline blasphemy. But Nate is doing great. Michele is doing good as well, she’s not feeling sick anymore, but she is starting to look a little pregnant, in a good way. We all went to the fair last night. Nate loved the animals, especially the smaller ones. We also got to go to the rodeo, which was really fun. Besides that, I’m working a lot, but still enjoying it. I work almost daily with this really cool guy my age. He’s not a believer, but he started reading a Bible I gave him and he has tons of really good questions. I really feel like the Lord is speaking to him. Please pray that he would hear clearly from God. Another thing you can pray about if you like is us starting a Bible study our house. I really feel like this is what we’re suppose to do, but I’m not quite sure how to start it or when. In the past, we were closely connected to a church, so they were just able to announce it. But, our church here is so big that we’re not connected to it the same way, plus we’re new. Even if we were connected like that, I don’t think I’d want to announce it. I’d much rather see non-church people come, if that makes sense (Maybe I’ll go in depth on that topic on my other blog that I don’t write on enough).

I guess that’s about all for now. I’d like to say I’ll write more often, but we’ll wait and see. We love you guys; please let us know how you’re doing.

Peace,


Harold

We're still here

Okay, it's been almost a month since my last post, sorry. Things are well here. Michele's surgery went excellent. After that, all of my time has been spent getting things in order so that we could close on our house. We did close 2 weeks ago today. So, the next week was focused on moving. We moved in last Friday. Jason and Jo came over from Seattle last Saturday to help us move and unpack, thanks guys. On Tuesday, a hose popped off our washing machine and flooded half our house. We had to call an emergency carpet crew to come in and save the day. So, we're now living in our brand new house with the carpet ripped up and six fans running 24/7. Thankfully, the damage doesn't seem too bad and we should be back to normal by next Tuesday. All and all, it's been a wonderful lesson that has provided plenty of comedy. Well, needless to say, the past month has been a blur. Right now we don't have internet, so I'm back to borrowing a signal which is more scarce where we live now. Once we get internet here, I'll try to post more frequently. Let us know if you're out there, we'd love to hear from you.

Peace,


Harold

Idaho

View from Michael's house (If you look in the top right, you can still see a little snow on Schweitzer Mountain, I'll be boarding there this winter)

Last weekend we went to visit Michele’s brother, Michael, and his family in Sandpoint Idaho. They have a beautiful piece of property with a view of the lake and the mountains. On Saturday morning one of their two dogs started barking and when I looked out the window, I saw that both their dogs and ours had a big black bear surrounded. I thought that this would be the end of our dogs, but they scared the bear and he ran off into the woods. Nathan got to see their horse; he was scared so we never got too close. I got to ride one of their quads all over the woods and later we went out on the lake in their boat. Nathan loved the water. Later that night, Michael taught me how to roast coffee on his home roaster (My favorite part of the trip). I’ve been enjoying the coffee I roasted all week, thanks Michael!

Sunday, we went to church with everyone. I love visiting other churches; it’s always cool to see how other people show their love for God. We left around noon and were able to stop in Liberty Lake WA (just outside Spokane) and visit with Michele’s other brother, Mark and his family. We were able to hang out for just a couple of hours and then we were off. I ended up missing an exit on the way home and driving an extra hour and a half. Oh well.

This week it got up to 108 degrees here and then today it was in the 70’s. Everyone complains about the heat, but it doesn’t feel that hot to me because it’s not humid. Anyway, everything else is going well, work has been good and I just got offered some side-work welding in the evenings. I’ll probably do it and pick up a few extra hours a week. Michele’s doing well, for those of you who don’t know, she’s pregnant, about 12 weeks. She’s having a lot of morning sickness, especially in the evenings (ironic). Tomorrow she’s having a precautionary surgery because she’s considered high risk. She had the same surgery with Nathan and it went well, but we covet your prayers for this one. We’re supposed to close on our house in two weeks. Hopefully everything will go smoothly; apartment life is getting kind of old.

Well, that’s about it. We love you guys.

Peace,

Harold


Our new house

So much things to say

It has been a pretty exciting week or so. Things have been going really well at work for me. I actually enjoy going there and learn new things daily. Michele has made several friends at church and is able to hang out with them during the week. I was able to share the gospel with a couple who lives down the hall from us. It went really well. I also have been hanging out with this guy who is a Mormon. Please pray that God would speak through me, but that I wouldn't try to be salesmen. And we finally started looking for a house and put an offer on one this weekend. It's amazing because it is a brand new house. We'd never be able to afford this house in Virginia and definetly not in California. It's bigger than our last house which is a blessing and the best part is we'll actually owe less on it than we did our last house. We should find out tomorrow if they accept our offer and we should close by mid-July.

This weekend we went to the Pasco Farmers Market. We brought Nate's wagon and pulled him to all the stands. One of the coolest things we found there was a local farmer who provides organic beef. I've been really into supporting local business's and trying to eat more organic, whole, and local foods. But, the beef thing is of particular interest to me because my work does jobs at Tyson foods, which deals primarily with beef here. Let me just say you don't want to know what that place is like if you eat beef. Well, I'm sure you wanted to here about that.

Well, that's about it. Write when you can.

Peace,


Harold

PS I just got a call from our realtor and our offer was accepted.

New Blob

I know it says "new blob", but what it means is new blog. When I typed the titled, I made a typo, I liked it so I left it.

Anyway, I created a blog for my random thoughts on God and spirituality. Here's the link if you're interested.

www.haroldsthoughtsonspirituality.blogspot.com

Time Flys

I can't believe we left Virginia over a month ago. I feel like the transition here has been really good. Michele and I went to the DMV last week to make our residence official by getting WA drivers licenses. Turns out Michele's expired back in February, so she had to take the written and driving test again, she passed.

I started my new job last Thursday and I'm really enjoying it. I weld every day and I'm learning a lot. The hours and pay are good and everyone I work with is really cool. Thank you Jesus, and thank you everyone who has been praying for us.

Tonight, Michele went to a ladies Bible study with another girl from church. I think we're suppose to have dinner with a couple of our neighbors this week, which should be really cool. And I'm suppose to go fishing this weekend with another neighbor. It's cool, God has really been opening a lot of doors as far as meeting people. It seems like we meet a good balance of believers and non-believers. It's funny because I'm more excited about the non-believers. I feel like that's who I want to spend more of time with, if that makes sense. I'm not talking about back-sliding, I just feel like in Virginia, all of my energy was focused on "the church". I want ministry to be more outward here. We'll see.

Well, besides all that, I feel like I've been going through a kind of personal spiritual reformation. I've been really thinking about a lot of the ways I go about being a Christian. I really feel like we've been doing so many things wrong for so long that we're used to them and now we think they're right. Anyway, I think I'll start a seperate blog to write about that sort of thing, but please keep me in prayer. I'll let you know where I'm going.

So, that's that. Once again, sorry for lagging, but that's me. I'll post some photo's soon, maybe. We love you guys.

Peace,


Harold

Some Photo's

This is the Yakima River right behind our apartment. We walk here everyday.


The view from out apartment.


The Cascade Mountains, taken from the car.

Another Week

(Michele and Nate on the ferry to Bremerton)

I’m sitting in Bremerton WA (A suburb of Seattle) at 5:15 AM. We came for Memorial Day weekend to see our good friends Jason and Jo. We left the dogs out in the living room with their dog Chief, but they just sat at our bedroom door whining and scratching at the door, so I finally got up. Now, the dogs are all asleep on the couch, but I’m wide awake.

Anyway, it’s been an interesting week. I started and finished a job this week. I took the road work job and started on Monday. I worked 10 hours on Monday and 13 on Tuesday. I spent about 9 hours blowing dirt out of cracks in the road. Suffice it to say (Did I use that phrase right?), this job wasn’t for me. I let them know on Thursday that it would be my last day. They were very gracious and said they understood. It was a hard call for me because I’m of the persuasion that any job is better than no job and I’m definitely not above any type of work. I just knew there was no way I’d make a career out of this and with the hours I’d never have time to look for another job, so that was that.

So, Yesterday (Friday), we drove out to Seattle. This is a beautiful drive from our house. You go from the dry high desert through the lush Cascade Mountains with its snow-capped peaks and then into the city. It’s good to be in a big city, I’ve felt like where we’re at is kind of small, but being here has made me appreciate it (By the way, it rains a lot here). Anyway, while we were waiting for the ferry to cross over to Bremerton I called a company that I’d applied with a few days before. They said I was hired and to come in on Tuesday to fill out paperwork. Isn’t God amazing? This is a job with a construction company doing welding and fabrication work. I don’t know the terms of the job yet, but at this point I don’t really care, it’s a job doing something I like!

As far as Michele goes, I’ve tried to get her to write, but she’s a little shy (I’m still working on it). Besides that she’s doing well, a little sick this week. Nate’s doing good also; he got four new molars all at once so he’s been a little bit cranky. Oh, we went to church last week at Calvary. It’s a pretty big church compared to what we’re used to, but the pastor is a phenomenal Bible teacher. It was really cool because one of the key chapters that led us to move here was Genesis 12, he picked up in Genesis 13, and so it felt like the next chapter in our lives. That’s it for now. Sorry these have been so long, I want to write shorter more often, but our internet still isn’t hooked up so I’m still “borrowing” a signal.

Peace,

Harold

Read This

Andrew turned me on to this site. This article was awesome:

http://www.theschoolofchrist.org/articles/enough.html

It's Been a Week

It's been a whole week since we arrived here. We finally got all of our things delivered on Wednesday and have been busy unpacking. A lot of our stuff had to go into the garage because it either doesn't fit or there was no use unpacking it since we'll probably move again in a few months.

I got offered a job on Monday, doing road marking and other road work stuff. It's a pretty good job, pays well, has good benefits,room for advancement, my boss is a believer,etc. It seems the Lord really provided this job and quick. But, I've been a little bummed with it. I mean havn't started yet (Monday), I have just always welded and assumed I'd get a welding job (I love welding). I've applied with a lot of different companies, but the only offers I've gotten are in Portland (200 miles) and Moses Lake (80 miles). So, here is where the doubt creeps in. I get great offers from these places and it makes question if we're in the right place, should we move, etc. But, what I have to remember is that the Lord never called us here to weld. So, I guess I'm a road worker for now, but it's still a little hard for me to swallow (That's how pride is).

Anyway, everything else has been adjustment. It's a smaller town (about 160,000), we don't really know anyone (though the people we meet are really nice), and as of now we don't have a real routine yet. I think this week will be good. We'll go to church tomorrow and I start work on Monday. This should really normalize things. Again, thanks for your prayers. I'll post some pictures soon and I'll really try to get Michele to write.

Peace

Harold

Home

Alright, I have a lot of catching up to do since the last time. But first, Michele is doing just fine. The reason there are no pictures of her is because she’s a girl and not one picture I’ve taken of her is suitable to be posted on the internet (I’m sure that this is all my fault). Anyway, I will have her write soon so she can give you her take on what’s been going on.

So, last time I wrote, we were held over in Nebraska. Our car was finished Thursday around 11PM and we got back on the road by noon. We did however get to make our trip to Cabella’s that morning. But, because of our delay, we were off schedule and ended up driving until midnight to catch up. We went from Nebraska thru Wyoming (another wide state), Utah, and then we stayed the night in Twin Falls Idaho. At about 10:30PM as we were driving through Idaho, we had a quarter tank of gas. We passed a gas station, but we thought we’d wait until we drove a little further. It turns out that the next gas station was 100 miles away. When our gas light came on, we had no idea how much further we had to go. We ended up driving 40 more miles and coasting into the next gas station. Thank you Lord.

The next day we drove from Idaho, through Oregon, and into Washington. It was so surreal driving up to our new home that we’d never been to. I think reality began to finally hit me. I’ve had so many people say that were taking a big “step of faith”, but I never really thought it was a big deal, until yesterday. I guess if I did, I probably wouldn’t have come. It was just so weird coming to a place that looks entirely different (desert w/ rolling hills and not many trees), and realize that we don’t know one person here. We then got to our apartment, which was another bit of change, from house with big yard, but our apartment is very nice. So, to be perfectly honest, I felt a little sick, you know that nervous, anxious, sick in your stomach feeling. You start questioning, was this right?

Encouragement came quickly! First, we took the dogs for a walk (we have to walk them now). Only about 100 yards from out apartment our trails that lead down to the Yakima river (another 100 yards). It’s beautiful, and the dogs love it. We then went out to eat (by the way there’s a Starbucks less than 5 minutes from our place) and found a Sushi restaurant. Turns out that this restaurant just opened this week and it was kind of a neat connection being new here, both us and the restaurant. The owners were really cool. They encouraged us and told us what a great place Tri-Cities is. It’s funny because everyone we’ve talked to here keeps telling us that it’s great here. I’m used to people complaining about where they live, refreshing. So, when we got back to the apartment, one of the managers came over and did our inspection with us. We got to talking and it turns out he’s a believer and that he plans to start a Bible study at the apartments. He was able to tells us about the churches here and just generally encourage us. It was a lot cooler than I’m making sound. Later, we went to Wal-Mart to get some supplies. If you go to Wal-Mart, you know that it is usually a painful experience. This was the nicest Wal-Mart I’ve ever been to. It was big, clean, and the people were friendly and helpful (That’s something I’ve noticed here, everyone seems so nice). When we got back to the apartment, I got an e-mail from the guy I have an interview with on Monday. It basically said, welcome to the Tri-Cities, here’s my home number, if you need anything or if I can help in anyway, let me know. Who does this, it was awesome? Anyway, by the time we went to sleep on our new air mattress, we were encouraged and starting to love our new home.

Where Do I begin?

Today has been out of control! First our alarm didn't go off, so we started off an hour behind our schedule (Really it's Michele's schedule, I've never made a schedule before). About an into our trek, I found a Starbucks and I ordered a Red Eye (Coffee w/3 shots of espresso). This pretty much made my morning right. We then crossed the border into Iowa and then into Nebraska. Take note: Nebraska is very wide. We had allotted most of today to get through it, but we're still here (I'll get to that soon). Anyway, we stopped for gas and right next to the gas station was a state park called Mormon Island. I guess the Mormon's stayed the winter there on their way to Salt Lake. This place was awesome. It had a lake that the dogs got to swim in and Nate ran around and spent some energy. I also got a voicemail from a job I applied for wanting to set up an interview, but I couldn't call them back because I had no signal.



We continued on our journey and when we were about one hour to the border of Wyoming (We'd been driving abount 11 hours)I noticed one of the straps on the trailer was loose. I stopped to tighten it when I noticed a smell. I looked under the car and transmission fluid was pouring out. Now, I still had no signal and no way of getting help, so we continued to drive...slow. We came to a town about 10 miles down the road that has an awesome auto garage. They checked it out right away and told us it just over heated and in turn vented out some of the fluid. They said pulling the trailer up hill against the wind (I mean it's windy here, all the time) is like driving the car 110 miles an hour with a trailer. The recommended flushing the trany, which I thought was probably a good idea. The garage aranged a hotel for us in town. The town is called Sydney Nebraska, our hotel is owned by Cabella's (If you don't know what Cabella's is, it's a guys dream store) and directly next door is the original Cabella's and its corporate offices. So, now I know that this is totally from the Lord!

So, we decide to make the best of it and we go to dinner at a nice resturant next to the hotel. Nate ends up throwing a fit because it's way past bed time. We decided to leave early and postpone our trip to Cabella's until the morning. When we walked up to the hotel, Lucy came running to us. Now, keep in mind, the dogs are suppose to be in our room which is inside down the hall. We forgot that Lucy learned how to open doors with handles when we lived in Germany (That was over 4 years ago). She managed to pull the door open, slip out while leaving Cooper in the room and then go down the hall and get out the front door. And then after all that she came running around the corner when we were coming back. Crazy!



Anyway, that's about it. That's enough for us for one day.

Peace,

Harold

On The Road

We left last night, Monday May 8th after an unexpected delay. When I hooked up our trailer, I found out that our lights weren't working. We then had to make an emergency trip to Dan's house. It only took Dan a few minutes to solve the problem and we were off (Thanks again Dan). We then drove straight through the night so Nathan could sleep. In all we drove 17 hours straight. We went through Virginia, W. Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and we are now stopped in Colombia Mossouri (That looks wrong doesn't it?) for the day.
Michele found a great park and we all had a little picnic. We're now at our hotel which AAA rated a 3 out of 4 stars. Let me just say I'd hate to see 2 stars. Anyway, we're all laying down to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow we should make it to Wyoming. Hopefully I'll get a signal there too. Thanks again for all of your prayers.

Peace,

Harold

3 More Days

This past week has been a blur. Last Saturday night a lot of our friends had a going away party for us. It was an awesome time of fellowship and worship. Thanks to all of you who were there and had a part in making it happen, it meant far more to us than words can express. We love you guys!

I shipped my Jeep to WA last week. Yesterday the moving people came and packed up our entire house and took it all away. Today we signed the deed to transfer the house to its new owners. In the next couple of days we're going to wrap up some loose ends and say our final goodbyes. It is so amazing how God has moved in every step of this endeavor. I can't think of any other situation that has come together so well in every little detail. He continues to confirm to us that this is His will. Because it is so evident to us that God is ordaining every step, we are very excited for what He has for us in WA. Our prayer is to simply walk the Christian walk and in turn affect the lives around us. Really that's what being a Christian is about, but a fresh start is exciting.

Anyway, we leave on Monday for our cross-country trek. It will be interesting driving with a 1 year old and two big dogs while pulling a trailer. I'm sure we'll have some stories. My hope is to post things as we drive, which depends on whether or not we can pick up a WiFi signal. I guess we'll see. Well, thank you for all of your prayers.

Peace

Harold

Called

Okay, here we are, it's April 06'. We're moving to Richland Washington in 3 weeks. A lot of people have asked a lot of questions in regard to this move. Most of them are why are you moving, why there, and how did you decide? I'll attempt to answer these questions.

About 2 years ago, the Lord made it clear that we were not to stay in Richmond Va permanently. He actually gave us a time frame of two years. So, I knew we were suppose to move, but where? I wrestled with this for several months. For awhile I thought Australia (Sounds nice huh). Fortunately I only told a few people about this idea so when the Lord made it clear that this was wrong, I only looked silly to a few people. Well, I know I look silly to more than a few. Anyway, I continued to wrestle. I think we all do this. We all want to know the Lord's will, but we're not sure if we're not waiting long enough or if He's already spoken and we missed it, or something else.

So I continued and about 5 months later, in October 04' during a time of prayer God revealed to me that we were to move to the Northwest. He actually allowed me to see a vision. I won't get into details about this, but I will say I feel priviledged to have been spoken to in this way. It's funny because everytime I speak of this I feel funny like people are going to think I'm weird, but don't we all ask to be spoken to like this?

Well, now I knew it was the Northwest, but where exactly? Again, this is where I stepped out ahead of the Lord. Why do we do that? So, we had some good friends moving to Portland Or and it just seemed like a good fit. They're moving there, we should move there too. The thing was we never had a peace about it. There was however a place in Washington that has been brought to our attention over the past few years several times called Tri-Cities. It has come up in many different ways and seemed like a neat place. But, we don't know anyone there and I've never been there and Michele's only driven through there when she was young. We never even talked about moving there seriously until about three months ago. But, we began to ask ourselves why not? And like that everything seemed to come together, we had perfect peace about this place and all the details were lining up. The only thing that made me hesitant was that I'd already told people Portland. Isn't pride funny? You'll actually do the wrong thing just to cover up the fact that you were wrong in the first place. Well, I swallowed my pride, I'd spoken too soon about Portland, I was wrong. So, now were headed to the Tri-Cities, Richland to be exact.

Now, people always ask, "What are you going to do there?" I think people want to hear some sort of tremendous answer and my flesh wants to give them one like, "We're going to plant a church, a mega-church" or "were going to start a new work" or something super spiritual and cool sounding. But, I'm of a different persuasion. I think what I'll do there will look very similar to what I've done here. Isn't it kind of weird to think that I'd move and be different? I mean if I didn't do anything tremendous here why would I start doing it there? That would mean I was either holding back here or faking out there. Now, I know there are probably other explanations when things like that do happen, so please don't get too offended. We're just going to continue to pursue Jesus in all that we do. I taught a little Bible study here and that really became my passion. I intend to continue teaching in whatever capacity I can. Will this turn into something else? Who knows? The only thing I know is that I've been called to go so that's what I'm doing. I guess we'll all see. Anyway, I think this answers the original questions. Leave questions or comments if you like.
Peace

Harold