Good Times With My Parents

My parents came for a visit from Washington this last week and stayed five nights with us. The night they got in we went to a local farm in our area who holds a Feast On Wheels with a bunch of food trucks and treated them to dinner. One of my personal favorite trucks is Waffle Amore! Who doesn't love chicken and waffles? Dad and I ordered that and my 

Momma and Mr. Darling got some Thai food.

The next day we went out to a neighboring town and went antique shopping, got a personal apartment tour from a lady who owns one of the shops and her apartment is above it...Her decor and antiques were awesome...wish we would have asked to photograph it!!! It was fun!! Then we had coffee in a little coffee house, went to the thrift store and some of the outlet mall shops.

The next day we went to Hollister, the birthplace of the American biker is. The local bar and grill was inspired by an old movie called Wild One starring Marlon Brando in the 40's. The town was pretty dead for the most part...We couldn't even find a shop to look around in so we decided to drive over to another town where a bunch of antique shops were.

We spent a couple hours there just looking around 

and took a peek at the Mission there as well. 

The next day we spent a couple hours at our local street fair/ car show in town. Mr. Darling had to help out manning our church's booth. We looked at the old cars, the booths and the Quilt Show which was also going on in the area. We went to church on Sunday, hung out and did a lot of visiting during the week. It was a good time with them...

Glad they made the trip to just hang out with us!

 Until next time!

It's Official~ We are Home Missionary/Church Planters

It's been over six years in the making since my dear Mr. Darling started Seminary. After graduating with a Masters degree in Theology, we were put on hold. God was working behind the scenes as we tried very hard to keep our faith, be patient and wait. We prayed, we struggled and we felt lost for a time. Finally, after a year passed we made the leap to the bay area where he was invited to be a year long intern for a church in the area. From there he was asked if he would like to lead a group in a neighboring city with a bible study and possibly would get enough interest in forming a church plant in that area.

Mr. Darling agreed. He worked as an intern preaching a few times and teaching Sunday school classes as well as leading this core group of several different families through a bible study. Everyone in our group was on board with forming this church plant in their community. Since Fall,  the group has grown a few more families and interest in making this bible study grow into a church plant moved forward. Many meetings with the Presbytery and home missions later, our group was officially made a church plant. Our first service began this last April in a beautiful community center building. For the time being we are meeting for Sunday evening worship until we find a suited place where we can worship in the mornings.

It has been in our prayers for years that Mr. Darling would be able to use his gifts as a pastor somewhere, shepherding God's people with the word. The Lord has opened the doors here in this community...We are so excited to move forward and see how God's hand works through His people here in this community. We praise God that He has given Mr. Darling the opportunity to do what he loves...to minister.

His internship finally ends this week....Just in time...

 Last week the call as a home missionary/church planter in this community was extended to Mr. Darling...Making it official that he would be the man to do this work.

 Mr. Darling graciously accepted the terms of the call. 

So, in the next coming months we will plan and prepare for another move to our new area, where we will labor alongside our new church family. It is so exciting to finally see this unfold before us. We are so thankful God has given us this grace...to serve.

 Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!!

Oh Canada...

o as many of you know we took a trip up to Canada. We were cordially invited up there for a job interview of sorts at a church in Toronto. The plane rides are not my favorite...planes scare me. I white knuckle it most of the way, any turbulence disrupts my peace within, I feel anxiety and it stresses me out, so much that it takes several hours to calm myself. I am not outwardly freaking out on the plane freaking others out though...It is a very internal hell for me. I pray before we take off and give thanks when we land...Despite the torture of the planes...
The trip itself was great. Our hosts were very hospitable.
 

My husband had the pleasure of preaching for this congregation for both of their services on Sunday. We were taken out, fed well, had the chance to meet the people in the church and took a lovely walk along Humber River.

   
Our gracious hosts took us to downtown Toronto.
We rode the subways and took some
scenic snapshots of some of the sights.
          
Of course the most favorite things we adored were the older buildings surrounded by the newer buildings. My heart swoons for the historic older buildings. We found that much of Toronto as well as downtown reminded us of our 10 year experience living in Washington. the architecture, the surroundings, the trees and the weather gave us a pleasant memory of that time in our lives.
 
Our five day stay ended up being a six day stay due to the storms and Hurricane Sandy off the East Coast. Our flight was canceled. We then made arrangements to fly out in a different direction and made it home safely. And yes, unfortunately I gave myself a bit of anxiety on the flights home too. I thanked God for bringing us back to the earths surface once we landed on home soil. The trip was a wonderful experience. The church, the people, the area were a delight to take in. We will not know anything as to if we got the job or not for a bit...so we are still waiting on the Lord and His timing. I am trying to be patient and know that if it not be in Canada, He surely has a plan for us elsewhere.

No matter, it was a nice vacation spent with my Dear Mr. Darling.
We are alway's up for an adventure.