We are staying with our family here and having a fantastic time. Johnny’s sister, Bethany, opened her home to us. She and her husband Jeff and their three sons live in a great house along with three of their friends, Jake, Hannah, and Kirsten. I wanted to document one of my days here in this community, to give people a glimpse of what it’s like, so I brought my camera around with me all day. On this particular morning I woke up just before the sun…

Morning lights. Best time of the day.

Quiet moments in the early morning

On the way to Elijah's school- Carter and Riah in their pj's

carpooling, a wild ride

The drive to Elijah's school in Kammetjie is really nice

Tobago Way

back at home, baking bread

Johnny with Steve, Di, and baby Margot in our friend Jake's car, in Masi to visit the team

Masi! This is where our team is living.

Our FAVORITE market. Stopped by after we visited the team.

we love fresh, local produce

back at the house, time for lunch

a lunch worthy of documentation

My sandwich=really, really good

out and about running errands and me meeting girls for one on ones...love those cheeks

We love Carter boy!

later that afternoon, Johnny skyping Jason in the middle east

A very documentable dinner...chicken, sweet potatoes, salad

gathering to eat

brothers!

Family dinner

Well, that pretty much wraps up our day. I hope you enjoyed getting a little peek into what it has been like for us here so far.
We send you our love from South Africa! J+j

I can’t express in fulness all that I learned in my time up at camp. Camp Hammer has been a very special place for me ever since I was a slightly awkward 9-year-old camper. I learned and grew so much there as a kid, and then in later years when I joined staff and spent five summers of my life in the majestic redwood forest, growing in God. It was a privilege to be there again. Sharing this part of my life with Johnny was really meaningful too. He still doesn’t share the same appreciation for dessert as I do, but at least we’re on the same page with regards to Camp Hammer. We really loved being there, listening as the sound of children’s laughter filled the chilly evening air during night games. For me, sharing with a group of kids about God’s love really, really, really opened my eyes even more to the simple truth that each of us is so extravagantly loved by God. It was fun to hang out with kids, too! My friend Dakota, a 10-year-old camper, thought of hilarious questions to ask me everyday. One of my favorites being, “How was God created, and what was the date?” Kids are so fun!
   After my week in Hammer-land I got to spend a day in San Jose celebrating my Dad’s birthday, connecting with some good friends (thanks for letting me crash at your place, Katie and Lora), and hanging out with my mom and other family I hadn’t seen in quite some time. Add in a trip to Trader Joe’s on my way to the airport, and you’ve got a recipe for one amazing, ridiculously blessed week. I look forward to my next time with family and friends, and staying connected with Camp Hammer, but for now I’m happy to arrive safely home.

Just wanted to share some (random) things I’ve been learning lately (this is jenni writing, by the way).
Maybe you’re learning some of the same stuff?

❶God’s love is better than life. It’s just simple truth. For further reading, take a look at Psalm 63. ❷If I ever were to be wrongly accused of a crime and put in prison, my husband would always believe in and fight for my innocence. Or, bust me outta there. Ok, I might have watched a movie on the airplane with a similar storyline, but it’s something worth thinking about and I have arrived at the aforementioned conclusion. ❸Time with family is precious. Well, we already knew that, but it’s great to be reminded! ❹ I won’t truly learn how to do something well unless I try it, repeatedly. Cooking, photography, um… freestyle rapping, or even my blogging won’t improve unless I put in the time. True ‘dat. ❺Spending time “just the two of us” can be really fun on the cheap. Like a picnic. But it’s also really fun to be more extravagant, from time to time. Like staying at a Bed and Breakfast. ❻Reading lots of Bible verses in one sitting can sometimes be a challenge for my attention span and I often end up distracted by other things. But reading verses while immediately writing them in my journal has shown to be more effective for me, and I become quite engaged with what God is saying. ❼The things which I desire most in this life are not material things, money, fancy dishes in my kitchen, gourmet chocolate…nope. But it’s authentic relationship with God and with people. I want to know God’s heart, forever deepening my friendship with him, and I want the same for those around me.

Well, that was fun to write! Feel free to leave a message telling us the things that you are learning. We’d love to learn with you.

Spending time with family is so special, and we’ve been privileged to get lots of time doing exactly that these past couple weeks. My mom, Lynda, spent a few days in Kona just a couple weeks ago. We had a great time, ate some good grub, checked out different beaches, and laughed a lot. We got to show her around our “life” in Kona because the last time she was in town was for our wedding and everyone was pretty occupied with all that goes along with such an event. Anyhow, we had lots of time to hang out and we also took a lot of really flattering photos of ourselves (see below… I sure love me some self-timer settings on my little camera).

…And now…we are in England! We surprised Johnny’s family with a quick trip over to Cornwall. It was really fun to see them a bit stunned when we casually walked around the house greeting them early Wednesday morning, when everyone was still in their PJ’s. We have a few more days here before we head back to Kona. It has been a great trip! Just hanging out, making (and eating) delicious things in the Gillespie kitchen, and connecting with people we love. I’m snapping photos left and right and I love having time to edit and upload them almost instantly. So fun to do that. We always feel so at peace in the Gillespie home, and both of us are feeling rested after just a few days with the family. We are really grateful that God provided an incredibly affordable (and basically ridiculous) ticket price for us to get over here. He is just so so so good to us.

Please join us in praying on behalf of the people of Japan. Encourage your friends to pray, get groups of people together to pray, get your whole church praying. We are going to see God do so many incredible things in that nation!

There are so many amazing people we get to see out here- it’s a little bit overwhelming. But really, really fun.

We were picked up at the airport by our good friend Ryan, who staffed my DTS back in 2006. We’re staying with our friends, Don and Angie, here in H-town. They have four teenage kids (sheesh!), and we are so thankful to get some time with their family during our time in PA.

Tonight we already got to do two amazing things:

one:  met Simeon Rain, the newest addition to the Bardwell family, born 1-1-11

two: saw two of Johnny’s cousins (from his mom’s side), and their families.

Below: Darcey (cousin) and her husband Jason, and their daughter,
and Alisha (another cousin) and her husband Micah, with one of their three daughters

I started by cutting out rectangular pieces of fall-colored card stock, measuring somewhere around 1/2″x1″. I glued slightly smaller pieces on top of the slightly larger pieces. Then, in black ink, I used a rubber stamp to imprint the word “Thanks” on the top layer, and wrote the word “giving” somewhere beside or above that. And instead of having it say, “Thanksgiving,” each piece read, “giving Thanks!”

Next I glued these two-layer stamped pieces onto 4×6 pieces of cardstock in more autumn inspired colors.

The next step was to write a note of thankfulness on each card. Then I put them in coordinating envelopes and mailed them to some friends and family around the world. If I had the time I would have made, written, and mailed about 500 of these because I was really happy with how they turned out! Unfortunately, I have lots of other things going on currently so I couldn’t. But maybe next year??

Tell me what you think, if you’d like, and please tell me about your own homespun fall creations.

Sorry it has been a while since we posted something new! We got back to Kona just about two weeks ago and have had lots of things to get caught up with here, so our blogging slowed down. But only temporarily. I have lots of ideas of things I want to write about, so stay tuned for some new stuff soon.

For now, I’ll tell you a tiny bit about what we’ve done since being home…

• met up with lots of our fellow YWAMers for various appointments • attended a Toy Story 3 party, thrown by Asher Byrd (the 6-year-old son of the family we live with) • attempted to catch up on emails • saw the movie Secretariat • babysat for some friends • spent a morning at the beach • taught fitness class (that’s jenni) • called some of our DTS students who are now home, asked them how they’re doing, and prayed for them • baked delicious fall things and made a fall craft (that’s jenni again) • attended various staff meetings here and there • hung out with our nephews, whom we adore • taught in the Foundations School • had our friend Jeremy West over for dinner • celebrated our second wedding anniversary • ate sushi

This music video is a little less than four minutes in length and is positively worth the time, in my humble opinion… so I hope you enjoy watching it! Johnny’s brother, Josiah, has just released his first single from his album, The Ache and Answer. We just bought the album ourselves and have enjoyed listening to it so much. I find myself constantly singing this song, Say Anything, as I go about my day. We hope you’ll agree that Josiah is a talented musician with a unique style and thoughtful lyrics. Enjoy!

You can buy his music on iTunes.

You can also go to these sites to find out more about Josiah and his music: Tumblr, MySpace.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcDYrEOudqk]