What Happens When the Gardners Descend.....

Labor Day weekend was a full weekend as the Gardners, YES all 6 of them came for their first full family visit! In the past, its only been a couple of Gardners here, a lone Gardner there, but this time it was the entire village. It was a full weekend that was filled with the start of college football season, "guy" time, "chick" time, wear-out-Jasper-time, and culminated with birthday festivities for Bear, who turned double digits, 10 on Sunday.

Stuart, Zoe, Danny and I met met up with Bill and Sue in Chapel Hill for the UNC vs. JMU game. You did not have to be there to know what the outcome was going to be. It was most convenient for me as I wore my JMU t-shirt and my Carolina hat and earrings and purse! The weather was nice but HOT in the sun and even Lauren was able to join us near the end of the game. UNC kicked some Duke dog butt with a final score of 42-10. The worst part was when JMU finally made a touch down and the cheerleaders ran around the stadium with the flags to celebrate. Each flag had a letter: "J"  "M"  "U"
Problem was the cheerleaders got mixed up or didn't know how to spell and ran around the stadium in spelling "JUM" ...... The Carolina fans had a field day with that one!

The rest of the weekend Zoe and I joked about how we couldn't do this or that because we graduated from "JUM." Oh dear. I have higher hopes for UVa when they visit in a couple of weeks.....

Sunday we met up with Lauren for church in Durham so the Gardner kids could see her for a wee bit.
After lunch the men all went to get snow cones (flavors to include 'grenade' and 'dill pickle' and 'sour tsunami') and play some putt-putt. The ladies headed to see the movie The Help which lives up to the hype, I recommend it.

We all met up again for birthday dinner for Bear at Five Guys. After that Bear wanted to play tennis with Uncle Danny so we all headed over to our neighborhood courts and played some sort of activity resembling the simplest forms of "tennis" :)  Jasper and the Gardner kids were all terrific ball boys.

I got some much needed best friend time during walks with Zoe and before we knew it, they all left the Dulins as quickly as they arrived. Monday I not only took a nap to recover, but went to bed by 8! Whew!

I have to say that the Gardner kids are truly some of my favorite kids to hang out with. They are all so different but each are eager to engage in a relationship with Aunt Jacqueline and Uncle Danny. Let's face it, having 4 kids in my townhouse could have been a stressful thing, but not with these kids. They are helpful, kind, respectful of our home, willing to serve others and always, always thankful. They aren't perfect kids, but they make being around kids FUN!

More Missions

As you already know, we are headed to Guatemala October 22-29 for our first missions trip together as the Dulins. We are also super excited because we were just connected and invited to go to Kenya in February for another missions trip. This one will be through our church here in Cary and its with the organization "Build The Village." They are having a soccer camp with an 1,800 Kenyans expected to participate. Needless to say, Danny Dulin did a soccer dance when he was invited to go. Perhaps I will be invited to hold a Fashion camp .....

Speaking of soccer, Danny has ordered and received 100 "Wordless Bible" soccer balls for our Guatemala trip. For those of you still interested in supporting our missions trip to Guatemala, there is still plenty of time! Since God has blessed Danny and I with the finances to fund our travel expenses, any support we raise goes directly to the dental/medical supplies and the Guatemalan partnering churches and people. So you are not funding the Dulins, you are giving directly to the Guatemalans we are serving. I pray that God leads you to much generousity.  THANK YOU to many of you who have already given!!

Here is where to write/send the checks to:
Barcroft Bible Church
c/o Andy Richardson
9401 Little River Turnpike
Fairfax, VA 22031

Memo line: "Guatemala Short-Term Missions"
Please do not write our name in the memo line.
So here's a fun fact about the trip for all of you old McLean Bible people out there. Brijet's oldest daughter Rachel will be going on this trip too. WEIRD, huh? Or actually, yikes! Feeling old! Its gonna be fun telling Brijet stories to Rachel. And yes, I've already gotten permission!

Student Dulin

Danny started  his Historical Theology class last Wednesday. It is an introduction to the history of the Christian church from the Apostolic Age through the Protestant Reformation. His textbooks include:

The Story of Christian Theology
by Roger E. Olson

Confessions
by Augustine
(I keep wanting to say "Augus-teen" instead of "Auguston").

Imitation of Christ
by Thomas a Kempis











Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life
by John Calvin










Since he got his syllabus early, he has been faithful in reading ahead and we have so far managed to be disciplined about blocks of time for him to read. He will tell you he is a slow reader and it takes a lot of effort for him to comprehend/retain what he reads. This is not because he is thick-headed, but mostly due to his ADD and being out of school for so long. Its too bad I don't have the desire to read like him and he doesn't have the ability to read as fast as I can. We'd make a wonderful combined seminary student!

One of the things Danny told me he heard at orientation for new students was that if you are married, never say "I'm going to seminary, but say 'we' are going to seminary. You will not be able to accomplish this without your spouse's support and sacrifice."

And although right now with just one class, the sacrifice of "together time" has been minimal. I have enjoyed hearing about everything from the Apostolic Fathers to Gnostics during our walks or whenever. I am enjoying falling asleep to him reading to me from his textbooks. I am enjoying learning from him as he learns. I am a wee bit jealous too!

I have seen an excitement and a hunger being fed in Danny that I have not seen in awhile. Although most the students in his class are young single dudes (there is the first international student from Sudan and an older woman), he is connecting with many other students who are his age. Men who have already been a tremendous encouragement and challenge to him.

Last Friday we got to "meet" the whole student body and faculty at the Convocation. It was a meaningful time where the speaker admonished the students to be about the business and habit of praying NOW before the "work" gets started and how if you don't learn to work hard at praying, its not going to happen when you start full time ministry. It was a convicting message about how we take for granted the privilege of approaching God and calling Him "Our Father" -- that this was a blood bought privilege and yet so many of us don't think twice about ignoring our prayer lives. It was some good and in your face stuff.

I am so utterly thrilled for my husband, who for so long has prayed and begged God to send him men to feed him, teach him, mentor him and be the "Paul" in his life as a "Timothy." And now he is in an environment of godly men passionate to do just that. I am praying that he not only retains the stuff he learns, but more importantly applies what he learns and is more equipped to live out the Gospel fully as he is called.

Good stuff. I'm giving him an A+ already :)