Together

This spring when I learned that Traever would be interning at a church in Tinley Park, IL I began asking friends for prayers. Not because I doubted his teaching/preaching abilities and how God would use him but because I doubted how God would provide for me and my abilities in handling everything in the pews. My anxious mind could just imagine how our summer would unfold with Traever preaching and teaching every Sunday. It would mean that I would be left on my own in the pew managing our 3 very fun and lively children. It meant a 15 hour Sunday which included 5 hours in the van, 3 services, and a few hours sandwiched in the middle of the day with a Church family. Interning in Tinley Park also meant that we would be living with my sister and her family in the Peoria area. It would be our 2nd summer living together with 6 children between the 2 families now ages 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 and then there was my very pregnant self. Growing belly and bulging veins. The summer sounded full and to be honest a bit draining. Refreshing was one of the farthest things from my mind.

But in reality this is how it played out... It was a refreshing, life-giving, and encouraging kind of summer and so much of that came from living life with those souls around us in the pews. Also my sister and her husband graciously kept us and we filled that house with lots of little ones :) and when we weren't there our family was in and out of 2 dozen or more homes catching up around dinner tables, on back porches, and in cozy living rooms with 200 or more friends. Friends from High School, friends from college, friends that were on furlough from all over the world, old small groups and potlucks, friends that we've known for years, and those that God has brought into our lives in the last few, family, and as much of our church family as we were able.God was incredibly good to us in giving those times together. We got to share in lots of joys: celebrating new babies, spiritual growth in lives and the church at large, friendships, and joys in marriage and parenting. And we also got to share/hear about the not so fun stuff like struggles in relationships, parenting, loneliness within the Church, the death of loved ones, the hardness of miscarriages and failing health. All of it conglomerating together reminded me how important it is as Christians to be "knit together in love" and how communing closely with each other grows us in understanding God's love for us (Col 2:2-3) in ways that really nothing else can.  

Living with my sister and her family was again a huge gift. Words can not express how much their family means to me. They are one of God's greatest blessings to my family. Their hospitality, generosity, genuine love, care, and sacrifice is unmatched and has been and continues to be a great example to me. This is our second summer staying at their place. The fact that they let us invade their home a second time still amazes me. It means loudness, more late nights, more crying children, and many many more messes. However it also means a lot of great times, a bunch of giddy little kids getting to have another amazing summer together,  sharing/lightening the load of mundane house work, and encouraging or sometimes just laughing at each other through life's crazy moments. Now that I'm not there I'm realizing how much sharing with Julie made so many things so much better.

My sister (the Governess) and brother-in-law are pretty amazing...

Traever trying to wear the kids out

I think his plan backfired on him...

Sometimes the quietest moments were spent in the most confined places.

And the dreariest days were somehow the best...

The sunny days weren't so bad either.

 

Catching toads in the Hermans' pond.

Getting together with family.

My grandparents with a handful of their grandkids and a 1/3 of their great grandkids.

Time with the Neukomms.

 Spending some quality time with the Guingrich family.

Spending time catching up with dear friends.

And the internship... the internship went really well. Traever and I were blown away by God's faithfulness to us this summer through the internship at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Tinley Park, IL. Every Sunday we would get in the van at 7am and start our commute to Tinley Park and every Sunday evening we would pile back into the van at 7pm and drive back to Peoria not drained but REFRESHED. I got to hear some of the messages preached but more then that it was that the church ministered to our family, they welcomed, loved, encouraged, and genuinely cared for us. They opened their homes and shared their lives with us. Over crock pot lunches they told us of God's grace in their lives and how He brought them out of splintered relationships, Roman Catholicism, through periods of weak faith and how He has strengthened them through His word and the church. How He faithfully has led and continues to lead and grow them. Hearing of God's faithfulness to them encouraged our faith too. And it was exciting and encouraging to Traever as well as he taught Sunday School and preached every Sunday to see a church so eager to learn and grow in their faith. He said he would look up while he was preaching/teaching and all eyes were glued on him, pen and paper in hand jotting down just as much as they were able. He said it was a little intimidating! :) But incredibly encouraging. Anyhow, all of that to say we were incredibly encouraged through our time there and reminded over and over again of His faithfulness!

(Below: Preaching at one of Bethany's Saturday evening services)

Below notice Thatcher has no shoes on. One Sunday I completely forgot to pack shoes for all of the kids (we carried them out to van in their pj's). So that day they the family was shoeless from sunrise to sunset. It definitely was a mom fail but the kids didn't seem to mind a bit.

We hit the road for Cali, the kids fully stocked with snacks and plenty of books and movies. Traever, my hero, armed with caffeine pills set to drive the entire distance in 2 days. Myself, 8 months pregnant and praying that the baby wouldn't decide to make her entrance into this world somewhere between Utah and Death Valley! All went well until we hit the steady climbing roads in Colorado and Utah. Traever wasn't able to get the van over 35mph on some of the climbs, semi's were speeding past us, and so we ended up stopping at a tiny town of 300 people in the middle of no where in Utah where they got us connected with a mechanic 30 minutes away who got us in as his last job of the day. After that all was smooth sailing, Traever still plodding along, kids relatively happy, and baby still in the belly :) We pulled into our drive way just past midnight that second day. Praise God we made it! Now it's time for baby #4 and to finish seminary!