A shout out to family.

Rory and I spent the summer at my favorite place on earth, Mount Carmel Family Bible Camp. I love this place because I love how God sets us up in families to pass on the faith, to love one another, to encourage, protect and support the people we know the best and who know us the best. My folks were able to come two times during the summer, and those were my favorite two weeks because I had my family around.

This past Sunday morning, Rory and I went to Shepherd of the Valley (my home congregation) for the early service and heard my dad preach. It was so good to hear him preach again, it feels nurturing to me. I spent a lot of time in the narthex after the service catching up with lots of family friends I haven't seen in a long time. And I walked to the car feeling loved, affirmed, supported, encouraged. Shepherd of the Valley is family to me.

Then we drove to Cedar Valley Church (Rory's home church), where our niece, Maddie (in the picture below), sang powerfully as the special music for the morning. We sat down with Madison (home for a few days to take his docks in) and were surrounded by Groves family friends, so excited to see us. Sara, Troy and Ruby came and sat with us, too. The entire service I was left thinking how fortunate we are to have two churches that love us so well. No matter where Rory and I end up, we have these two congregations of family friends absolutely cheering us on. God is so good.

After church we went to Don Pablo's for lunch where we had equal number kids to adults. Here we are doing the wave, led by Ruby. Sundays are so good.