Oh, how time flies!

August 10, 2012

Oh, how time flies!

Seeing that we skipped the entire month of July and half of August, this post is LONG overdue! Over the last month, many events that we can consider "milestones" have happened: We both started our new jobs, we moved, Alex's best friend from high school got married, Lilah (our niece) started walking, and Drew (Alex's little brother) came down for "Camp Rogers." Here's a few words about these milestones and some pictures to accompany them!

Hunter's new job title is Rogers Community Pastor. The church we attend and both work for is Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas; Every sunday, along with the main worship, there is a separate worship for the town of the week (Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville; each town has its own Sunday worship in the community worship building). For each town, there are two pastors and a few shepherds, Hunter is one of these pastors. Basically, Hunter shepherds the community of Rogers, specifically the younger generation (20-30 somethings). Hunter's emphasis is on discipleship, both one-one or one-small group, as well as teaching at various places around the church (community worship, student ministry, children's/elementary ministry). Over the next year, he'll learn how to conduct funerals, weddings, premarital counseling, and other pastoral care ministries. Throughout the week, he'll meet with young leaders within the Rogers community, as well as other Rogers residents who have submitted prayer requests. These meetings usually have to work around work schedules, and therefore will happen very early in the morning for breakfast/coffee, or for lunch. Hunter loves his job; He is a people person, loves to meet people, talk to people and learn from people.

Alex's job title is Elementary Ministry Resident, specifically with the HWY 34 team. Elementary ministry at Fellowship is divided by Kindergarden-2nd Grace (K-2 Town), 3rd-4th grade (HWY 34), and 5th-6th (Fifty6). On Sundays, Alex works from 7:50-ish until 12:30, covering all 3 services. Starting this Sunday, she will be leading a small group for Rogers 4th grade girls at 9:30 and then at 11:00, she will be in charge of the kids who stay for two services. Fellowship promotes the idea of attending a service and serving for another service, so a there is a need for someone to handle those kids who's parents serve, and therefore stay for two services. During the week, Alex prepares for the coming Sunday and other up coming events (i.e. Camp 34 and Camp Fif(d6) the weekend retreats for 3&4th grade and then the weekend retreat for 5&6 grade), and meeting with leaders. The summer looks completely different compared to the school year, simply because people take vacations and do not attend as often, but during the school year everyone is present almost every Sunday. Alex also loves her job and enjoys the team she works with! The elementary ministry team embraces and promotes the focal points of worship, family and community, which is something she loves.

The move was nothing either one of us had experienced before! Alex's family moved when she was 3 yrs old, and Hunter when he was 2yrs old. Excluding our moves to college, this was one of our highlights of our lives! Our helpers consisted of family: Hunter's parents Pam and Jeff House, Alex's dad and brother Alan and Drew Roman; our friends: Jerry Franklin, Darcel Johnson, CJ Baskin, Dexter, and Kareem Crowell; and a few of Hunter's co-workers and their family: Mike and his wife Becca Mulvaney, and John and his son Jack Barclay. Plenty of helping hands allowed us to successfully move and have all our furniture set up and in place within 6 hours! We moved 25 min. north of our old house in Fayetteville to a house in Rogers, AR that is 4 min with traffic from work. We had lots of cleaning and picking up to do, but by the end of the day, we were incredibly grateful for friends and family! We are still working on little things around the house like fixing up the yard and flower beds, and finding something to do with all the junk we threw into our bonus room.

Last week on Friday, August 3rd, Alex's best friend for high school, Dana Sorensen was married to her high school sweetheart, Eric Chole! Alex was in the wedding as a bridesmaid along with their other best friend, Lindsay Ham. The wedding was incredibly sweet, beautiful and full of tears! Alex has known Dana since they were little and played on the same soccer team (although Alex wasn't aware of this until about a month ago). They became fast friends in high school, along with Lindsay and continued to be friends until today! Lindsay moved to Colorado our sophomore year, and then the three of them all went to separate colleges but stayed besties.

Speaking of weddings, many of you know that about a year and 4 days ago, Alex and Hunter got married in Fayetteville AR. Despite being from St. Louis and West Memphis, both of our families drove to see the us wed. This past Monday, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary and oh how the time has flown! We are excited to see how God uses our marrige over the next year and beyond! Fortunately for us, "Camp Rogers" started on August 4th, which means that Drew, Alex's brother, spent our anniversary with us! We went mini-golfing in Fayetteville, ate at Hugo's and grabbed some custard from Shakes! Obviously, all these things are favorites of Alex (and Hunter)!

"Camp Rogers" was established in 2011 and was originally called "Camp Fayetteville." We invited Drew down to Fayetteville for a week to hang out with us and do touristy, Fayetteville things. This year, we are located in Rogers and therefore the name needed to be changed! So far we have done a handful of fun things! This includes golfing, mini-golfing, geocaching, bowling, eating out, rip-sticking, swinging at our neighborhood park, watching the Olympics, playing Monopoly Deal, playing Texas Hold 'Em, and going to the lake!
Take a look at the pics, we will (hopefully) be posting again in a few weeks!