Farewell to the Hoods and Cones

Our church, Christ's Covenant Church, had a gathering for all of those interested in missions about 2.5 years ago. It was there that we first met Jared and Megan Hood. At that meeting, Jared and Megan shared about their heart for Africa, but they were unsure at that point where that would take them. It amazes me that now, just 2 years later, they are preparing to leave. In less than a month, they will be hopping on a plane and heading to Tanzania, Africa with Africa Inland Mission where they have committed to serving for two years as church planters but hope to serve for longer.

We also met Jordan and Tirza Cone around that same time. They, along with their two young children, leave in just a few days to head to Cameroon, Africa where they are going to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators as school teachers. They grew up as missionary kids in Africa and attended the school they are going to be working at, so they will be a great encouragement to the students there. They have also committed to two years but hope to be there for longer.

A week ago we had the privilege to spend a night hanging out with these two awesome couples. We had a picnic and talked with them about their journey thus far and their plans for the future. We're so excited about what God is going to do through them and will certainly be praying for them. They have many changes ahead, and we trust that God will faithfully guide them.

Work and Play

Summer is in full swing, and it's consisted of work and play. Mostly work for Ben and mostly play for me and Sophie.

Ben has been busy at his new job, working full time. When he's not working at his official job, he's been helping to renovate two rooms in his parents' house, doing other odd and end jobs around his parents' house, and working on both his car and his friend Caleb's car. Once he's done working, he's pretty tired... so his "play" usually consists of watching TV and sleeping. Needless to say, we haven't seen too much of him.

Sophie and I have been doing lots of fun things since being home. We've gone to the park at least once a week to play, use the stroller, or go to the splash pad. (Sophie's) Aunt Brianna has come along several times :). We've gone to the mall a couple of times, and (Sophie's) Grandma took her on the carousel once. We've visited lots of friends, just to hang out and catch up. We went to a 31 bag party. We went garage sale-ing. Sophie got in the kiddie pool once. But mostly we just go outside LOTS. And Sophie's favorite thing to do outside is to play with all of the animals and particularly to visit the goats and kitties. We play lots.

As a family, we've gone to church (so glad to be back at CCC!), visited some college friends for dinner on the grille (yum!), hung out with our new mentor couple from church, checked out our new apartment that we'll be moving into in a couple of weeks, and hung out around the house and in the pool.