Houghton -- a great place for us!

Good job, Nancy! Houghton is pronounced Ho-ten (with a soft t). We have pronounced it many different ways, but we have it down now. That was a quick prizeless contest, not a search for info -- sorry if that was unclear. Our readership needs to increase before we can afford to begin offering prizes!





We have some great news to share from our week here. Chris and I had some alone time with Faith the other night. We have a lot of that, as the boys have essentially deserted us, preferring to spend time with new friends. But Tuesday night was particularly special. Faith asked us to talk, telling us that she wanted to get baptized. We were able to spend some time going through what that meant. Believing that she really gets it, we were able to help her as she talked to God in prayer to begin a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. How blessed we are! We are not sure yet what the plans for baptism will look like prior to leaving the U.S., but it is sweet to see her place her trust in God. What could be better than that?



"...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved...For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:9-10,13 ESV

Shocking News!

We are having a great time in Houghton, New York. (Does anyone out there know how to pronounce Houghton?) It's a little chilly in the mornings -- we didn't really pack for southwest NY weather. Since we are going to Africa, it doesn't make much sense to buy sweatshirts. Plus, the Walmart is 30 minutes away. Poor Houghton College kids with no Wally World close.

Now for the news...Chris and I are DIFFERENT!!! Actually, a little more than different -- almost polar opposites. (Would you believe Chris is an extrovert? I told you it was shocking.) Our personality profile and communication style inventory are exhibits A and B. These should be helpful as we embark on working together overseas! We are enjoying learning more practical information on culture, transitions, and common characteristics of kids being raised in a culture other than the one into which they were born (those would be TCKs - or Third Culture Kids).

There is a separate program for our kids to help them prepare for the move as well. They are doing GREAT and have really connected with some of the other kids preparing for similar moves. We are reading a book together called Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World about a girl who moved to Taiwan as part of a missionary family.

Let us know in the comments how you think Houghton is pronounced. Enjoy the pics.

More pics

Here are some more pics from the few days at Bethany Beach -

Eat, Drink and Be Murray!

We had a great couple of days with the awesome Murray family! They graciously invited us to spend a couple of days with them at their beach house they rented in Bethany Beach, DE. We had a great time just relaxing and eating! Below are some pictures of our trip - more will be coming soon:

We are now at Houghton college in NY for the Association of Christian Schools International Training. We will be here until July 4th. We do have internet and will post often. Love and miss all!

Celebration Service

Thank you to our Northwest Baptist Church for an amazing commissioning/celebration service. It was an amazing time of fellowship for our family. You made us feel so loved and honored. Although it is always humbling to hear things about yourself, the testimony time was special. Thanks to all who were involved with the planning, preperations, clean up, sound, etc., you made the night incredible for us. Thanks to all the Uhrin girls for your special gift through song!
This last week we are catching up with family and friends and sorting our belongings to fit into the van for the 7+ hours to NY. We leave on Thursday and will travel to Delaware to the beach to spend some time with friends and then on Saturday early, we will leave for NY. Emotions have run high this week - please pray for our kids who are beginning to feel some sadness about leaving.

Goodbye's

Goodbye's are hard - even though we know this what we are supposed to be doing, it doesn't make it any easier! Ron just finished saying goodbye to his friends at work - 10 years at Wells Fargo. Our trip is going well - we are staying with friends and hanging out with family. We are having fun laughing and being silly. Saturday is our commissioning service at our church - Northwest Baptist church - more goodbye's! Just pray that we don't have any ugly cries!

More outdoor redneck fun!

Here are some more pics:

A day at Uncle Mike's (Ron's brother)

We had a great 2 days at Mike's house - lots of fun and sun! Here are some pictures.

We made it!

We didn't think it would happen and probably wouldn't have without the help of Teri Gray (thanks a million). We emptied our house of everything we own. It looked great when we left. A cool thing happened - that morning our realtor called and said that we had a showing at 2:30! We panicked slightly - but it all worked out - we rolled out of the house at 2:25! God is good! Here are some pictures of the house after we were finished. Please pray that our house would sell in God's timing - our preference would be soon! We are now in Maryland at Ron's brothers house and will be there until tomorrow and then off to friends - we will try to continue to post as we go! Thanks for praying for us! Drop us a line when you get a chance!

Clearing out -- at least TRYING to!!

Yikes! Things are getting crazy here. Although we are behind, let me assure you, we are not sitting on the couch watching TV. If we had either a couch or a TV, we might be doing that! We continue to sort and pack, make dump runs, church yard sale runs, and load up things in anyone who will slow their vehicle down enough for us to do so. Who knew we had SO MUCH STUFF?!?!?

The movers came Tuesday and took the things we had set aside for our crate. We kissed those belongings goodbye and hope to see them again in 9-12 months. The guys were great -- here's a shout out to John's Moving and Storage in Raleigh. Would highly recommend them at this point -- let's hope we're still saying that when all is said and done. They did laugh at how little we had to send. Seems they were hoping for a few more hours worth of work on Tuesday.

The tension mounts every once in a while. Did you know that kids ask LOTS of questions while parents are trying to focus and get stuff done? If not, you must not have kids. Our saving grace this week is that we don't really HAVE to be anywhere tomorrow by a certain time. We need to remember that in the future -- to plan in a buffer. It helps mentally to know that.

I have included a couple of pictures of what our life looks like right now. The kids are enjoying the menu for the most part. At this point, if you can find it, you can eat it. We just don't want to bring anything else into the house! That would be counterproductive.