My God is a Giver.

So our friend Kristin inspired me today to update the blog. I love to write so it's weird that I don't share more here. The weather outside is frightful and because of that I am listening to you guessed it... Christmas music. Bobby is firmly against celebrating before Thanksgiving hits, but I can't help it. I listen to Pandora radio when I'm in the office because it's free and you can literally listen to anything you want. I typed in Christmas music first and got this new age junk by techno musicians and so then I typed in "Classic Holiday Music" and Bing Crosby sounded through my ear phones. That's more like it!! Christmas makes winter more bearable. As does engagements. Bobby and I were engaged last December and two dear friends from college are recently betrothed (Laura Fletcher to John Stevenson and Elizabeth Cherry to Graham Alexander). Their married names will sound so distinguished. I know they will be beautiful brides.

Big news on the street:- God knows what we need and he provides for us.
I know this shouldn't be such a shocker to me considering that he has given us everything we need for life and godliness since day 1, but a blessing on Sunday hammered it home. We took Bobby's 96 Explorer out to Colorado this summer where I joined staff. We drove (and drived and drove and drived) all the way out there and all the way back and got home to Apex on a Saturday night. Sunday we purposed to go to the grocery store and only there. We got in the car and cranked her up and she gave out completely. Wouldn't even start for us. We actually died laughing, because we knew how much the car had been through in the cross country jaunt. We prayed for it to get us home from Colorado, not for it to get us to the store. So we counted our blessings that we weren't stuck in middle of nowhere, Kansas. The following weeks were filled with many trips to Apex Auto (honest, dependable service) and we just couldn't afford to keep fixing it. So we sold it. And we were down to one car between the two of us. We would get another one when we could afford to make payments (ie when we were done with support). Then the unexpected happened...
A couple on our team called and said they'd found a really great deal on a car and wanted to bless us with it! They gave us a car! I couldn't believe it. My response before the Lord was just to cry and be amazed. Bobby had more composure as usual, but was equally floored by God's generosity and these friends love for us. They met a real need we had and God got so much glory from it. I'll post a pic once it gets here on Sunday. (Bobby's parents are driving it to Winston and we'll go pick it up then).

So thanks Forresters and most importantly Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

And.... Merry Christmas from Bing.

A Much Needed Update

As you all can tell, Jenna and I don't update our Blog nearly enough...so that's what I'm doing now.

Here's what's new:

We've gotten to share with Jenna's home church, we've gone to ATL to work on support and also go to a Support-raising Follow-Up conference. I know you all think "CCC" stands from "Campus Crusade for Christ", but I'm starting to think it's "Conferences, Crusades, and Christ"...jk

We've seen God do big things in the last month. We've reached 62% of our goal and here are our goals for the rest of our support raising:

Goal 1: reach 60% by Nov. 1, 2009. GOAL MET!!

Goal 2: reach 75% by Dec. 1, 2009. IN THE PROCESS!!

Goal 3: reach 90% by January 1, 2009.

Goal 4: reach 100% by January 31st, 2009.

Please be praying that these goals would be met and that God would raise up the rest of our support soon! We're encouraged and we're working hard!

We will be working on support in Pinehurst, Raleigh, up in Virginia, and in Clemson in the weeks to come...

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

PS: Clemson beat Miami in overtime...

Haircuts, LOST, & MPD

This week I got a haircut.

I go to Professional Barbers of Cary where Jeff Lovell treats me with 2 TVs with ESPN & a hot lather neck shave...

Jenna went today to Chapel Hill to get her haircut at Aveda of Chapel Hill...where you can get these kinda haircuts:

Luckily, Jenna came back with a pretty, "normal" do...

We have been working hard on support, as many of you know, but when we're at home "winding down" before we go to bed, we like to watch TV. With our antenna we get 9 channels (2 of them spanish) and so we asked our buddy Justin Gibbons if we could borrow his seasons of LOST...we have watched the first 2 episodes and are hooked. Jenna said, "I don't think this is one of those shows where I can just relax..." But it's been very entertaining thus far.

We're heading down to West End again for 2 support appointments and hopefully this next week we can set some more up. I've been trying to develope some new relationships and new networks of people in the area and Jenna has been working hard at setting things up in her neck of the woods. We're at 50% and would love to share what we're doing with anyone who'd be encouraged to hear! We're also working on our referrals and praying that God meets our goals. We'd love to finish in the next 2 months. Pray that God moves in big ways!

Labor Day and So on...

Hello all. I hope this blog finds everyone having a great Monday (Sept. 14th). This is my first update on our SHERARD blog.

I wanted to just catch everyone up since we were in Clemson (the glorious, glorious city & school).

We came back on Thursday and cleaned up as quick as we could because we had COMPANY coming! My buddy Patrick who is in the US Army and Jason & Lindsey Schubert (new residents to the metropolis we know as King George, VA) were coming to spend Labor Day with us.

Thursday: Patrick got in and we ate dinner with him and caught up that night.

Friday: Since Patrick is on Army time, he had ran 80 miles and blown up a few things before Jenna and I even woke up. We got ready for the Schuberts arrival and then all ate Jenna's SPAGHETTI....which is equivalent to Disney World in your mouth.

Saturday we all hung out and went to Raleigh to watch the Clemson game at the Triangle Clemson Club...it was a reunion with a bunch of pals!

Sunday we all went to church at Christ Community and then came home, enjoyed some Cosby Show and went to SCOTT & ALISON'S WEDDING in Cary.

Monday all my friends had to go back home....and Jenna applied for a part-time job...

We then worked on support throughout the week while battling colds (not swine flu...colds) and then headed to West End for the weekend to meet with people.

We got a chance to hang out with 2 couples from Culdee Presbyterian Church on Saturday night and we ate dinner and get to know them better--good times!

Sunday we got the opportunity to share with Culdee Presbyterian about what we do with Campus Crusade, thank them for their support and prayers, and also talk to the youth that night. It was great spending time with Jenna's family and sharing updates about what God is doing through our ministry.

Please keep praying that God raises up our financial support quickly in order to report to the Office Full-time! We are at 50%--so praise God for that!

More to come. Jenna is probably a lot more organized with her thoughts---but again, I didn't claim to be the English major who is writing a novel...

We're in Clemson, SC tonight with the inlaws. I adore them.

I made a chicken casserole that literally took me an entire day. I'm waiting to get better at being quicker. I don't know if it will ever happen. (Took me forever to type that sentence as a matter of fact.)

I have an observation about the phenomonen of iPhone, iTunes, iCarly, iSermon... We should start saying iMerica. I was going to say something critical about how self absorbed America is becoming. Then I counted the number of times I have said "I" in the last eleven sentences.
(ten exactly) So there is no room for judgment on my part. None at all.

Bobby needs to update to counter my self absorbtion.

We're still on the support train. God has been abundantly gracious to us. We are blessed to get to meet with people who teach us about the Lord's character and how faithful He is in all stages of life. I love them and I love Him!

We're Blogging Y'all!

Bobby and I are sitting side by side at the Midsouth Regional Office and working to get to full support. I am the resident blogger for the time being.
Tonight we get to go visit my cousin Ashley and her sweet family (Markus, Jade, Jasmine). I've lived in the area for the past six years and this is the first time I've been to see them at their house in Raleigh. Crazy.
We got to go visit some great friends in Charleston to talk about ministry and soak in the atmosphere this past weekend. We were really impressed with the feeling we got there and it's on our radar for future living spots. The girls were all glam and sassed out and I could picture myself hanging out there.

As we raise support we basically come home to our apartment for three days at a time and then pick up and leave again. I'm getting really good at packing and doing laundry and repacking. It's a life skill really.

My dear friend Stefanie spent the night with us last night. She flew in from Portugal just to see us (not completely true, but not completely false :)). She and I watched the wedding video and Bobby made us gingerbread tea with cinnamon and sugar. I didn't know he could do that, but he was sweet to us. I miss her when she's gone.

Bobby and I are getting to spend tons of car time together. We have cracked out on more than one occasion: example- he hums or beat boxes and I make up a lively song about what I want to eat when we stop at Taco Bell. We love each other.

I really want to see The Time Travelers Wife- Has anyone seen it? I've announced it to Bobby about six times now (as he kindly brought to my attention).

We will try to update this blog.
We are currently praying for UNC as the year begins and ministry kicks off. I miss my girls already but also feel a strong calling to the new office position. So we are thankful. God has been so very good to us. Pray for us if you will. We are excited to be a team doing ministry. We are learning how to work together and have different brains. One thing I never noticed about myself until marriage:
1. I leave the toothpaste cap off and squeeze from the middle of the tube- Bobby doesn't do that :). It's an ongoing discussion. I am trying it his way for a while.
I asked Bobby one thing he had never noticed about himself and he answered:
1. "I probably have ignored vegetables to an extreme degree in the past six or seven years." That's the honest truth. Most food he eats is tan or yellow unless ketchup is involved. We are changing that slowly.