Through the Open Door

I know it seems I apologize a lot for not keeping my blog updated....but this time I assure you I have a pretty good excuse!!! I have wanted to sit down and update it, announcing our most recent "BIG" news, but there literally has been no time. So, with that said, I will announce that we have moved! As so many of you know Richard has been called to pastor Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Brantley, Alabama. We left our beloved Hamilton, Texas and Calvary Baptist Church, whom we will miss greatly, on the 15th of July and headed toward the state of Alabama. We had a couple of overnight stays - one in Waco, TX and the other in Mobile, AL and then arrived around 1:00 p.m. on Friday, July 17th. We had lots of help on both ends from 2 extraordinary church fellowships!!! God is SO GOOD and has been SO FAITHFUL to see us through every step!!! It is to Him that ALL PRAISE and HONOR and GLORY is given!!!

Over the next several days and even weeks I hope to post pictures of our new home and new church and new community as well as keep you all updated on what God is doing here in our new field of ministry. I also hope to backtrack just a little and post some events which I have not been able to post due to the busy-ness of the move. As the purpose of this blog is mainly to update you on the life-events of our family (mostly the boys) I will leave you with this excerpt from a conversation I had with Graham (now age 6 and about to start 1st Grade) soon after we arrived here in Brantley. We were riding down the road and apparently his "wheels were turning" and he said, "Mama, isn't it funny how we are still the bulldogs (Brantley's School mascot is the bulldog, too) and we are still Baptist!" (in reference to our former church being Calvary Baptist Church and our new church being Mt. Zion Baptist Church)...out of the mouths of babes! Looks like he may be in for a few lessons on Baptist history and doctrines from his daddy! Ha!

Here are few pics to start you off:

View coming from Brantley (we are 4+ miles out from town)

View going towards Brantley

Our Welcome Cookie from the Ashley Kilcrease family (We have several Kilcreases)

Our Moving truck (that was packed so full, we could not put our stuff from Mobile in it!)



Some of our Mt. Zion "Moving Crew"!

More of the "Crew"! Notice the golf cart in the background. We don't live near a golf course, but lots of folks out here in the "country" use carts and four-wheelers to travel around! :)

Some pics of our new Pastorium - more to come, especially of the inside as I get it all set up!

You can see the church's recreation courts in this view and there is a large playground just on the other side. You can guess who likes this part of our new house!

This is the church as viewed from our front yard.

This a pic I took last Sunday. They were taking pics of our kids to go with the ad for our church in the football team's programs that are handed out at the games. As you can see, we have lots of children and youth and we were missing about 4-5 families with kids that day. They had VBS the week we moved and averaged about 90 kids with 120 being their highest attendance!

Of course Wesley not cooperating, so I had to post 2 pics so you could see his sweet (silly) smile!