New Church Facility

In a few weeks our church will be moving into a new facility we are leasing. We have renovated the 2nd floor of a unfinished light industrial building to meet our needs as a growing congregation. We are so excited about having our own space! We currently meet in a university on Sunday moornings. I am eager to establish Sunday school in classrooms where we don't have to operate out of bins each week! You can view some short videos of the facility here. The video of the children's rooms is in the nursery corridor. Way too much yellow right now! A couple of the yellow rooms are actually supposed to be green and they will be repainted soon.

After building the playground at LMPC I swore that I would never build anything again.....and now I remember why.

Goodbye to Dave

We spent the weekend furiously unpacking the first floor so that we could host a dessert on Sunday night. Our friend Dave is leaving this week for a year of mission work in East Asia. A few of us got tegether to hear about his mission and pray for him. It was a sweet time of fellowship.

John and I hope this house will be used to bless others in every way possible. Since returning from Scotland my "revolving front door" has not worked too well and I'm a bit out of the habit of using my home to minister to people. The extra space in the house will be wonderful for hosting a new fellowship group we are shepherding called Crossroads. It's for twenty something singles and marrieds. We started it just after returning from our honeymoon and it has been gaining some momentum over the summer. Our first topic was a discussion series to coincide with the summer sermon series on Biblical Sexuality. How's that for an easy starter topic?

Home, Sweet Home

John and I moved into this house last Friday. Our friends from church moved to Japan for three years and we jumped at the chance to "take care" of their house for them. It puts us in one place for three years considering we're not sure we will stay in this area after the next census. Our new home is in Glen Rock, NJ. Now I have a small commute to work - about 20 minutes when there are no traffic jams. John enjoyed a very short bus commute during our couple months in the honeymoon apartment. Short is relative - about 45 minutes from the front door to his midtown office. Now he's back to 1:15 commute by train. But we both love having all this space, especially for visitors!

Supposedly Glen Rock has an amazing public pool. Everybody keeps asking "Have you been to the pool yet?" Next summer.

Welcome Home Evans Family

My teammates from Scotland, Bill & Dana Evans and their kids Madison, Slaton, and Lily, have just arrived back in America after finishing their tenure in Scotland. I made a whirlwind trip down to Annapolis, MD to spend with them. The girls shopped and dined in beautiful Annapolis while the boys went fishing and caught losts of fish for dinner and a sunburn!

I love you guys - it was soooooo good to see you!

Madison & Lily

Madison, Lily, & Slaton

Dana and her friend Jenny.

Loving this Saturday

Since we returned from our honeymoon, every Saturday has been packed with events both in town and out of town. It has been exhausting considering it is my one day off and our evenings have been very busy too. Today is our first free Saturday!!!! And it's the only free Saturday for about another month. We're staying home to work on packing (we move in a few weeks) but then we'll have a date tonight to go see Mama Mia. Last night we also had free and couldn't decide what to do to relax. I as in a mood - didn't really know what I wanted and nothing really sounded good. So we played a game and then made a quick run to Rita's water ice for Italian Ice. A plus for living in this part of the country.

Back to the busyness. Can't remember the text off the top of my head but there is a verse in the Bible about a husband having a year off from war after getting married. I'm adopting that philosophy as much as possible. While the ancient rule was probably intended for producing an heir (not our intention for now), I think we should be able to say "no" to as much as possible while we are busy with merging lives and learning how to be married. These new waters were riding in have not been overwhelming to navigate, but I do want to enjoy the ride a little bit.

Hawaii Dream

John and I had a wonderful honeymoon on the big Island of Hawaii. Here are a few of my favorite pics.

View from our room!

One of the pools at the resort. We hung out on the chairs on the right side of this pic.

There were about 7 dolphins living at our resort. You could pay huge dollars to swim with them. Instead we chose to have lunch watching other people swim with them. It was fun to watch them interact with their trainers. I realized dolphins are a lot like puppies. Maybe I should ask for a dolphin instead of a spaniel.......

The resort was huge and they had these boats and a monorail to take us from one end of the resort to the other.

This was one of our beautiful sunset dinners. We ate like kings during our trip. The resort had five great restuarants and we found this great place in town from our tourbook. John totally spoiled us with these meals and we had to roll off the plane in Newark.

Rianforest Bay in Hilo (there is another name for this bay but I can't remember it.) How wonderful to go for a hike in the rainforest and then stumble upon this bay.

Reception at The Old 76 House

From what I hear, the food was amazing. I know the cake was amazing. To me, the memories are the most amazing part. Here are a few pics of the fun had by all!

The Gathering

John studied history at The College of William and Mary and I am a survivor of five years of family Civil War vacations. We both love early American history. The historic town of Tappan, NY was a perfect setting for our wedding. Tappan is famous for the capture, imprisonment, trial, and hanging of British Major John Andre, co-conspirator to Benedict Arnold. Click here to read more and see the buildings where we had our celebration. Early in the day we took pictures at the DeWint house and the reception was at the 76 House.

After the wedding service, John and I went to sign our marriage certificate while the guest gathered in the front of the church. Bridesmaids and flower girls handed out bells to for the guests to ring when the bride and groom appeared. We came out to greet the guests, then led them down the street to the reception at the 76 House with the ringing of church bells accompanying our walk.

Savoring this Particular Worship Service

John and I wanted our wedding to be very Christ-focused. Favorite hymns, favorite pastors leading worship (Will Reinmuth and Joe Novenson), the presence of beloved family and friends, a litany of prayer the congregation prayed over us, John's sister singing the benediction, my beloved standing by my side - all these things made my heart swell up in gratitude to my Heavenly Father. Here are a few pictures of the worship service.

Flower girls walking down the aisle.

(There were five in all!)

Pastor Joe and Christine walking down aisle. (My favorite picture!)

During the service.

Introducing the Bride and Groom to the congregation.
(Don't you love the smile on Pastor Joe's face!)

Recessional as Mr. & Mrs. John Tower Baker II

Stillness in the church after the guest leave.

Chapter 2 - Resurrection

Dead Chuffed Life has been resurrected now that I have interesting things to say again (maybe). And another character has been added. My new husband. Mr John Baker. My Mr. John. More pictures and tales will be posted soon.