There has been so much that has changed in the last six months. One of the biggest things is that, much to the surprise of many, I have left my job at Dubuque Bank and Trust, and I have begun a full-time job working in the admissions office at Emmaus! Let me just say, this transition was one of the best that I've ever made. I was so grateful for my job at the bank. I had an amazing boss, and some amazing co-workers. They were all so supportive of me when I chose to leave the bank, and I am so thankful for their love and kindness. My new job at Emmaus seriously rocks my socks off. I feel so blessed beyond measure that I get to wake up every morning and actually be excited to get into my office.
The thing is, while the Lord did such a wonder getting me this bank job, he made it very clear that Emmaus was the best option for me. I believe that the Lord brought me to the bank for who knows how many reasons, but I believe one of the most dominant ones was so that I might be able to share His love to one person in particular. I am thankful for all of the opportunities that I had to share Him with her, but like everything in life, things have seasons. While the bank was a short experience, I learned to challenge myself in some huge ways. The reason why I chose to transition to Emmaus was simply because Christian and I both believe that we will only be in Dubuque long enough for him to finish his schooling, which will take around 3-4 years. I figure that since we will be here for such a short time, I would much rather take advantage of this time to minister to/with young people. I love that I can be so much more accessible and build so many more meaningful relationships with the students. It's wonderful! Emmaus is an outstanding place, and I am so privileged to spend my days here.
So following along with the theme of work, the second week on the job at Emmaus, I was sent to a different camp (I know, different than Eagle Fern... SO scary!) called Camp Koronis in St. Cloud, MN. I have to say, that was seriously such a rediculously fun time. I was the only senior girls counselor (ages 17-21), and I am so blessed to have been a part of it!
On our way back from Paraguay, we had a pretty extensive layover in Panama City, Panama! So, what did we do? We took advantage of the situation and went on a bus out to the Panama Canal! Christian finally got to check that off of his bucket-list of things that he had to do/see before he dies. It was pretty fantastic getting that experience under our belts, for sure!
Still, we got past the 102 degree weather at 10am, and 90% humidity, and went into fall. I love autumn. I'm pretty sure that it's my most favorite season. I love the crisp cold in the air, the sun, and especially the colors! I was blessed to get to do an engagement and a couple of family photo-sessions that were able to capture the beauty of the fall colors. Christian started soccer this fall, too! I have loved being a proud wife of an amazing Bible college student, as well as an amazing soccer player. Aside from that, Christian has been working at the college in the maintenance department and loving it! He's officially on the snow-low team for this winter, and he can hardly wait for it to snow. He also refuses to watch Christmas movies with me until it snows, too... So, I'm also very excited for it to snow. If you guys know me well, you know that snow and Christmas are two of the BEST times of year. LOVE THEM! Here are some pics of the soccer season!
Soccer season is now over, as well as my part in the college fair season (but I am still traveling like a maniac unfortunately). What Christian and I have been doing is taking the little bit of time that we can spare on the weekends to go out and see different things together. So far, we have been the the Mines of Spain, the Botanical Gardens, Eagle Point Park, Madison, Galena, Chicago and soon I will be taking him to Des Moines!
We were blessed, back in October, to have our good friend/brother Peter Mead come out to Emmaus for one week to do a chapel series for us. We even got to have him over for dinner so that he and Christian could get to know each other a little bit! It was Pete's first time meeting Christian, so we were all really excited that he had the time in his busy schedule to make it over. And even though I had a horrible cold!
We are so glad that he could come!
We have also been participating heavily in the Spanish Bible Study that the Latino students at Emmaus have begun, not just so that they can all speak Spanish for a night, but also so that they can do outreach to the Latinos in the Dubuque community. Some of us were able to help our sister Paola (Columbia) celebrate her birthday at our apartment! I have also taken it upon myself to learn as much Spanish as possible while we're still here in the US, so I have gotten one thousand vocab cards in Spanish to help me learn! I do fifteen new words every other day, and the Latinos have been amazing at keeping me on track and quizzing me at every opportunity. YAY! I'm getting there! One small step at a time. Along with that news, Christian and I decided that we would go out on a date to a local Mexican restaurant in the area where everyone that works there is recently from Mexico, and invite them to our bible study! Our waiter actually had been invited once before, and said that he had accidentally thrown away the piece of paper that the info was written on, which he said made him sad because he had really wanted to come! Praises be that the Lord brought us in there to invite him to our Thanksgiving dinner this coming Sunday! We are praying that he comes along with some friends and that we can really reach out to them. You guys could help us to pray about that, too! We would appreciate it!
Last, but not least, I was blessed to go back out to Portland for one week late in October. That was fantastic! It was so surreal to be back in my hometown! I was able to surprise my brother and his wife, and even one of my best friends, Kylie Ann! We have missed our friendships there, terribly. I love that I got to see my parents, stay in my old room, reconnect with the Tacks, Westside, Odeth, Ian and Joe, the Cole's and Denise among others. Wow. What a gift!
We can hardly wait to come back for Christmas! And I promise, I will be doing a much better job of keeping up with this blog from now on. Seriously. Love to you all! And thank you so much for all of the prayers!
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