Pals & Pumpkins

We had the joy of having some very dear friends come to visit with us this past weekend! It did our hearts so much good to see Chris & Ashley! They are such a Godly young couple who are willing to say "yes" to any opportunity God brings into their life (they spent a month in Peru to assist their church in a new church plant there). I've been saying since we moved here... selfishly & a bit joking, but with a hint of "no, I'm being serious!" thrown in...that I'm praying for God to move them here to help us facilitate growth toward Godliness in our local body. We are at a catch 22 in our body because we do not have many young families, so, when young families do come and visit & don't see any others in their age bracket they tend to feel a little out of place. My prayer has been that God will send young couples and families who are willing to roll their sleeves up and serve this local body so that we will not grow for growth sake but we will grow into a healthy, God centered, mission minded, open handed, Christ exalting, beautiful bride of Christ!!!
**that could be a whole other post**

So, back to our visit, we had such a fun time and Tess loved the attention! Chris & Ashley had never (yes you read right, NEVER) carved pumpkins so we had to include that in our time together. It was fun seeing Ashley get so excited about scooping out pumpkin guts and then carving away.

It was such a relaxing and enjoyable visit with them ~ I'm so thankful God allowed our paths to cross a few years back and that He continues to build our friendship!

Tess "carving" her own little pumpkin

Tess didn't really get into the whole pumpkin carving idea but she did still have fun!

Dada carved a heart in Tess' little pumpkin!Look at the excitement on her face...I love it!