Last Sunday our Senior High students had a competition on best/most creative and well-done gingerbread (or graham cracker) structure. This is what they came up with...from the top: Oklahoma Bombing (5th place), Abe Lincoln's Cabin (4th place), Church (3rd place), Jedi Temple (2nd place), and winning 1st place was the Lemonade Stand!!!
Sorry for the lack of posting from the Gurney's. With 3 jobs between us life just doesn't allow much more than texting and facebook. We are starting to sound like the students we serve. Anyway, life continues to move at a frightening pace. Not the typical kind of scary but the unusual awe inspiring kind. Christmas is upon us or at least beside us. Jen has continued to have growing interest in her as a piano teacher. She is now up to 10 and will probably have a few more this spring. That along with teaching has made for some pretty long days. Noah and Tucker are full of energy and testosterone (in seed form). They love all things rough and tumble and love to be up early on sleep in days while hating to get up when they have to. We had a great time in MS over Thanksgiving with Jen's family. We ate, slept and played. Just what we needed. Somewhere right before Thanksgiving, someone stole my guitar and case out of the church. So I am now in the process of trying to purchase a guitar. We will be heading back down to MS next Tuesday to spend 4 days there with my family. Jen's mom and dad will be here in KY from tomorrow night until Friday. So we are trying to take it easy while still being very busy. We do know that the difficulty that we were placed in by God has refined us and continues to draw us to deeper dependence and passion on and for Jesus. So, again we would never have asked for what we have but we have such a good and wise Father who knows what we need even before we ask for it. Sadly we will not be attending Elevate your Refuge as we have stuff sandwiched all around those dates. So here's to all of you: may the joy of knowing Christ and God's precious gift of Himself consume your hearts and minds this Christmas that you may truly cherish the good news of great joy that brought us all into His family. Merry Christmas from the Gurney's.
So our life has continued to be crazy and we feel like maniacs running around most of the time. But we're striving to stay focused on the Lord and the joy that He gives us in abundance and look for ALL the things we have to be thankful for.
Update:
During Fall Break we went to the Cincinnati Zoo and had a blast. I think we could have done anything together and had a blast, because we were all four together...a rare occurence these days. Noah was very fond of the gorilla and got a stuffed one and named him Kickess!!! Tucker picked a polar bear and named him Roar!!! haha
We had a great Fall Retreat with our youth last weekend. Noah and Tucker went (a college girl went with us to keep them) and they loved being at CAMP!!!
We can't believe how big our boys are getting. Noah is getting taller and taller and actually thinning out (those of you that saw him at birth..almost 11 pounds...probably have a hard time imagining him as thin)!!! He's still doing well in school. He's learning so much about letters and numbers...how exciting!! Our new bible verse this week has been Col. 3:9 "Do not lie!!" So you can guess what our temptations has been lately.
Tucker is saying new words and sentences everyday. He loves the MooMoos and Neighs on the way to his friend's house everyday with dad. He's started singing along with Crowder and Shane and Shane in the car. He is now the one doing most of the tackling to his older brother (which really shocks Noah)!!! When this happens, Noah's expression is priceless!!
Matt and I are constantly fighting for time with each other amongst the busyness, but God is so gracious to give us the time we need.
All for now.....
So I did complete the 5k and no walking!!! That was my goal. I beat my time from summer of '06 by 5 seconds!!! Any improvement is good, I guess. I ran it in 32 minutes 25 seconds. I can't wait to train now for a better time. I think there's another race in Frankfort the end of October. Hope everyone had a great Monday...ponder God's grace and goodness today and enjoy His presence in your life!!!
Sorry it's been so long since a Gurney post. Unfortunately there's not a lot of time for the internet these days. Well a brief update on us....teaching is going well (just taking it a day at a time). Tucker loves going to Kristy's house Monday-Thursday. He's talking so much and doing so many new things. He mocks everything that we are doing, it's hilarious. He loves to read books, sing songs, and play with the "ba ball." (That stands for football, baseball, basketball, big ball, etc.). Noah is still loving school. He's learning his letters, learning how to write them, and learning words that start with certain letters. It's so fun to see him interact with his friends at school. He had another stomach bug thing this week. I'm beginning to wonder if it's allergies b/c this is what he did last fall. I'm just glad his "bugs" only last about 6-8 hours. Matt is really doing great things at Central. The youth group is growing in quantity and quality. The junior high ministry has gone from 6 to 25!! The senior high ministry went from 1 small group to 6!!! There are definite challenges, but that comes with anything. He continues to have a strong desire to preach the Word to these students even if others seem to want him to entertain them and babysit. Matt's suffering from a knee injury this week, so pray for that. I'm doing great. Actually running in a 5k tomorrow morning!! I have a friend that I've been running with for a few months and we're doing it together in downtown Lexington. I'm loving the small group of girls that I'm leading (9th & 10th graders). I'm really seeking to foster such huge accountability for them and a love and wonder for God's Word. I do feel quite chaotic most of the time with everything we're juggling, but, again, we take it one day and step at a time by His grace!!! Love you guys!!
