Wow! It’s seriously mind-blowing to think that November starts in just a few short days! So much has happened this year that’s made it fly by! After the end of July (want to see what happened then?? Check out our last video blog) we expected life to slow down a bit so we could focus on building the youth ministry and re-vamping vision in a number of ministry areas until closer to the end of the year. We were completely wrong about life slowing down for a minute or two….once life starts going…when does it ever slow down?

While life didn’t slow down all that much (except for the week and a half when Seth’s mom flew us to Italy with her to celebrate her 50th birthday…..that was a blast! We gained a few pounds each from all the pasta, cheese and gelato….now we’re on a health kick) we still took the opportunity to seek God for new vision for the youth that we lead and GenAlive as a whole. In doing so we also re-formed some of our leadership teams and launched new vision in the youth ministry. Tonight we conclude the latest Genalive series “Wide Open”. God has done so much in so many lives including our own..it’s amazing what can happen when you truly open up your heart and life to Christ. It truly has been amazing to see what God has done in these last four weeks that I’m so excited to see what he does tonight as we conclude and jump into all that God has in store for the future.

This week Seth has been working with a team on redesigning the stage at church….and it will continue being re-vamped right up until when the 1st service starts on Sunday morning. They are re-carpeting, adding stage pieces, rewiring all the sound and MORE! Seth is truly a champ and one of the hardest workers around! How did I get so lucky?

In the end of September my sister and a friend visited from Portland. While they were here we went up-country with a team of youth/worshippers to help put on the first ever youth conference at a church there. It is amazing the influence that God has given to Life Church and it’s leaders. The church where we went for the youth conference was inspired to host one in their community after attending our GenAlive conference. They have attended GenAlive for a number of years and decided that they wanted to do the same thing for the youth near them! How awesome is that? Not to mention how awesome it was to have my “big sis” and a friend come join us in life and ministry for a few weeks! The fact that they helped us move and get settled in a new house while they were here was just the icing on the cake. (yes….we moved again….so far we move once a year). The new house is awesome! A bit cheaper in rent but “nicer” than the other place…that’s a win win.

Even more of a win is that we’ll be in America for 2 1/2 weeks starting November 11th and leaving just after Thanksgiving! While were there we’ll be in Tacoma, Tri-Cities, Bend, Pdx and Centralia. We would love to hug your neck and say hello to you on this quick trip! Personally I am SO excited to be with both Seth’s mom and my family for Thanksgiving! It’s been two years since any proper holidays in the U.S. and who am I kidding I’d also like at least ten white peppermint mochas from good ole Starbucks!

As always, thank you for loving and supporting Seth and I with your friendship, prayers and finances. We are so grateful we get to serve God by following the call that He’s put on our lives.

p.s. In case you hadn’t heard that we lost our sweet little Mud dog and replaced him with Hamlet…here is a picture of the new pup! He follows Seth around like a little shadow….it is SO cute!

Love,

Seth and Diana