Prince Edward Island

August 6th, 2012 brought our 4th wedding anniversary!  Wahoo!  Time has flown by and its been great. In just 4 years of marriage we have moved 7 times! 2 of those moves we sold pretty much everything we owned and had to move across north america for, and 1 of them was to another country!

the lighthouse leaving the ferry terminal on PEI

It worked out great this year that my work's summer vacation just happen to fall on the week of our anniversary.  Mitch took that week off and we decided to take a trip with our friends David & Shannon and stay in Prince Edward Island (PEI) for a week!  Shannon's parents live there and offered their home for us to stay at.  What a blessing it was!

We were able to get lots of rest and relaxation.  We wanted to make sure we actually felt rested coming back from out trip.  For those of you who aren't from Nova Scotia...PEI is the smallest Canadian Province.  It's a small island that is nestled right above Nova Scotia.  It's the 'potato' province of Canada, much like Idaho is in the US.  It is also known for being the home of "Anne of Green Gables" and is quite touristy for that.   You can get there by either driving into New Brunswick and taking the Confederation Bridge, or by taking the ferry that leaves just 45 minutes north of where we live.  We opted for the ferry and it was beautiful!

LOBSTER!!

David & Shannon made sure that they gave us some great PEI experiences that they have enjoyed before.  We all went to have a lobster dinner together.  Lobster is delicious and reminds me of the craw-dads that I grew up catching in the rivers and eating, just a GIANT version of them!
The restaurant also had an all you can eat salad bar, and we all enjoyed many rounds of amazing muscles as well!  What a fun time!

More Lobster... :)

Ann of Green Gables

After we had finished up with our lobster dinner, we headed over to a mini-golf place that David & Shannon had been to before. We had awesome sunny and warm weather the whole trip.  What a blessing it was to get away and have nice weather to enjoy it with.

We were able to make it to Summerside as well.  We visited one of Mitch's friends for they day, and then drove back to where we were staying.  It was a beautiful drive that allowed us to see most of the Island.  Towards the end of our trip Mitch and I stumbled across a deep sea fishing charter that we decided to take advantage of.  We signed up and went out fishing that same day.  It was a really nice evening fishing trip.  We had to go down the river to where it fed into the Atlantic, and along the way we got to see all kinds of muscle farms.  Once we got to our fishing spot we fished for an our and caught several Makerel fish.  They are a smaller silver fish that gives you a really great fight. On the way back to town we stopped and got to see a lobster trap as well.  It was pretty cool!

Overall we were blessed to be able to enjoy celebrating our 4th year of marriage.  We spent time with good friends, were able to relax, and just have a really great vacation!

Faith vs Sight

By faith we see that hand of God

In the light of creation's grand design 

In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness 

Who walk by faith and not by sight 

By faith...What powerful meaning is packed behind those two words!  Having faith seems like such a simple and easy thing to do at times, and other moments it takes every once of strength within me to walk by it.  The ease of walking by faith usually follows right beside how easy or hard things are in my life at that moment, or whether or not things are going how I would like them to go.  Scripture is FULL of one example after another of individuals were faced with huge challenges, and either they had great faith from the beginning or they had to travel some rocky roads before their faith came through.  The one thing that was constant in every one of those circumstances was that God was right beside them, holding them up whether they realized it or not.  Whether they were crying out to him from the depths of their soul  like with David in the Psalms, or trying to run away from His presence like Jonah...He was always there.  

By faith the church was called to go 

In the power of the Spirit to the lost 

To deliver captives and to preach good news 

In every corner of the earth 

As most of you who have read our blog know, Mitch and I are passionate for the nations.  We long to go and serve our God across cultural borders, 'to preach good news in every corner of the earth'.  We have told many of you that we will hopefully be overseas serving in one way or the other soon...and we do hope for that everyday.  But our faith has been tested in the last several months in many, many ways.  As much as we long to be moving closer to being overseas-it appears that the Lord has different plans for us right now.  By faith we trust that He will move us forward when the timing is right.  We are more than willing, but this is ultimately HIS work, and until He makes the doors open for us to move forward we will be staying where He has placed us.  That seems like a simple concept to accept, but it has really been a challenge for us.  We have been placed in another amazing church that is passionate about global missions (first Christ Community in Idaho Falls, and now Immanuel Baptist in Truro).  God is working in our church's missions department here and we are very excited to be a part of that, but the details are still in the beginning stages and we are unsure exactly what part we might play.  We are excited to keep you all in the loop as things begin to come together as we see a bigger picture of what God is doing there.  

We will stand as children of the promise 

We will fix our eyes on Him our soul's reward 

Till the race is finished and the work is done 

We'll walk by faith and not by sight 

As for now, we are focusing on 'fixing our eyes on Him' because he is truly 'our souls reward'. This life is a race, and "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Acts 20:24.  It appears to us that the task that God has given us for now is to wait for Him, trust His timing, and well...to just live by faith.  So that is what we will continue to do...

Bolded lyrics: "By Faith" - Keith & Kristyn Getty