Christmas conference

We're about to leave for the week to go to Christmas Conference!!! It's going to be in Atlanta this year (we're thankful for that!). I'm excited about spending 5 straight days with some girls from Georgia Tech and Michael with 3 guys from his d-group. You can go to the website to see what all is going on there... http://www.atl05.org . Please pray for our time there, and we'll update you when we get back!!

Engagements

It seems like another round has begun. Nathan Nix and Lenore, Latoya Rose and Andrew Tucciarone, Tatiana (my russian roomie) and Yuri, Jaymi Smith and Nathan Bragg, and now Robert Prusa and Anna. So fun! We got to hang out with Robert and Anna last night. Being a girl and all, I just love this stuff! I'm excited for each one of these couples!

On our way home from Dublin, we stopped to eat dinner with Griff and Jack. Jack is 3 now and I forgot to take his picture. He is too cute!! We also saw the future Mr. and Mrs. Bragg 

Us with Jaymi Smith and Nathan Bragg...they're getting married!!! 

She's ready 

The bros 

Isn't he the cutest dog you've ever seen? 

Mom V's birthday cake...whoa! It almost burned the house down! :) 

PJ, me, Haley and Steve Christmas Day 

Harley is looking for Santa 

Christmas breakfast with my parents. We had our usual amazing French Toast! 

Vestal Family Christmas  

Olivia, Spencer, me and Katie Christmas Eve...what cute cousins! :) 

Merry Christmas

We got to see the Stansfields while we were both in Dublin. They're about to go to Bangladesh in about a month! I'm sure they'll have amazing stories when the get back :)

Christmas Cheer-- Friends and Family Visit

We've had a very pleasant two days, visiting yesterday with Julian and today with my parents and brother. Activities were casual, but conversation and fellowship were rich and fun.

In the category of random asides-- the movieMust Love Dogs is a "must skip" in our book. It definitely portrays the sad effects of a secularized culture on marriage and, really, all relationships. As we were watching it, I thought that the happiest any of the characters ever were (at least until the inexplicably convenient ending) was one scene when the brother who was too drunk to know what was going on. Although we were rooting for John Cusak's character, it wasn't really that enjoyable and simply felt like no one involved in that movie even knew anyone who had a clue about a truth that provides guidance and hope.

Too much about the movie. We really enjoyed the time with friends and family recently, not only this week but also last week during our staff training time. I hope you are also able to enjoy fulfilling fellowship with friends and family during the Christmas season.


Today I did realize how easily the dangerous materialism can creep into our well-intentioned gift-giving. I began to feel frustrated at trying to get the best gifts for Amber, not knowing for sure what would be good, fearing the things I already have aren't what she wants most, and wanting to have something she'd enjoy, something that would be fun for her. But my basic motive was that I wanted to communicate my love to her. And I knew that she didn't really care about the gift itself that much. But somehow the plethora of options and the expectations we feel from society around us convolute the gift-giving and make it quite an ordeal.

Bottom line: it's helpful to see the dangers and guard against whatever idols we find. In my particular case, the idol is probably best identified as a desire to build myself up through the gift-giving. But I definitely have seen my inappropriate desire for different things for myself, as well.

And I'm convinced we can best fight idolotry with love and worship for Christ. At breakfast this morning Julian shared some of what he's been learning-- one point that "the power of new affections" affects the changes we experience as we mature. When we were children we desired things which don't hold our interest now. And the best thing for fighting our sinful desires is a stronger desire for Christ; as our affection for Him increases, we find we have no appetite for other things apart from His reign. He is that worthy, that glorious! Our desires are met, and we find purpose and happiness in Him.

What better to celebrate than Christ? Christmas marks the incarnation, Jesus' act described in Philippians 2: "not counting equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men..." And we know that this humility reflects His glory-- that He would go to such lengths for our salvation. His love for us is an amazing aspect of His glory!

Merry Christmas-- May you enjoy Christ and your fellowship in Him.

Sitting around

Actually, we're doing more than that. Amber's working on Christmas cards and "thank you" notes and a few letters to our Russian friends. I'm working on a few support and other ministry-related things. We're both writing short letters to our Russian friends. Tomorrow I'm planning to meet the partnering pastor-- Peter Sautov-- we worked with over there. He's in Atlanta for a week or so.

We're casually watching Christmas Vacation. Cousin Eddy and his family just showed up at the Griswold's house. "Surprized? Eddy, if I woke up tomorrow with my head sown to the carpet I couldn't be more surprized than I am right now."

"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you off into the middle of nowhere leave you for dead?"

(Eddy to Clark:) "That there's an R.V.... but don't go falling in love with it; we're going to take it with us when we leave here next month."

Nick and Laura Person (Michael likes to call them the People) today at their wedding! Nick was one of my close friends in High school. One of my favorite memories of him is when he embarrased me at my locker by singing "I say a little prayer for you" really loud to me. He's really good at the Carlton, too. :) YAY for Nick and Laura! 

I ran into my favorite teacher today, too! This is Coach Scarborough from Lassiter and his new fiance! The people there from my high school were loving this! We tried to set him up all the time in High School. He was everyone's favorite teacher. It was fun to see them today and Michael got to meet him, too! 

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a holiday sweater! Some of the guys at the Campus Outreach Christmas Party 

Abby Woznicki, Jonathan Riddle and Caleb Woznicki at Perimeter during our Staff training this week. How cute are they? :) 

Merry Christmas!!! I can't believe it's almost here! It's been fun to celebrate as a married couple. We have so much to be thankful for! 

My cousin Spencer played the violin at her school play. They did A Christmas Carol and she did a wonderful job! We loved it! It was like a dinner theater.  

We stayed with Robert...thanks for looking at the camera. Anna was visiting, too! Thanks for giving up your bed and futon, Robert! :) 

The Willis's cute tree 

We went to the Willis' last weekend for a CO alumni/kinda Newlywed/Christmas Party! It was good times! 

Braves update

Several significant changes have been made. I think this one-page article sums everything up pretty well:

Me and Elise at her apartment. We had a party for Steve and Shannon since they are moving to Birmingham and then Puerto Rico next year. 

Craig, Brandon, Kira, and Kirk at the Wagner's Good Bye Party! Elise made some yummy desserts 

Here I am decorating our tree. Can you believe how small it is? The bottom ornament is my favorite...it's Noah's Ark. I picked up the tree right after this picture to show how small it is and I broke the ornament :( 

Here we are on Turkey Day in Valdosta