Returning From Narnia

A friend's email described our PC experience as that of going to Narnia. She said, "It's as though we had an experience inside the wardrobe, came out and in the real world no time has passed and life was going on as normal but for those coming out of the wardrobe SO MUCH has happened and none of us are the same." How true that is for us that in those 10 months our lives were imprinted by the Ricucci's, the Purswell's and all the SGM staff and Covenant Life Church. And now after a wonderful season of gleaning from all of them we have entered a season of application.

We have been in Seguin for almost 2 weeks now and have settled into a routine in our lovely home. Our Lifegate Church family or "Lifegaters" as I have heard them call themselves have welcomed us into their family. We already are having our hearts knit together with many of the people here and are grateful for their friendships.

Missing Marylanders

I miss my 6am gym buddy, Starbucks runner, pedicure survivor, iron sharpener and picture angle friend!

What can I say that this picture doesn't already communicate?
Well, lets just say that M.B. was Sydney and Noah's dearly beloved babysitter while we were in G-burg and we miss her duck duck goose, bubble blowing, singing, parent downloading friend. She was not only loved by our sprouts but us as well and we enjoyed many a conversation after date nights with our friend. Our door is always open if you get a hankering for a road trip to Texas.

Miss Deborah was Sydney's beloved Sunday school teacher.

If she just happened to be sick or out of town on a Sunday then good luck getting Sydney to go into her class. :)

Missing Mr. Paul and his hugs.

Lizzy Grace's birthing coach that cheered her on as she made her grand entrance into the world (I still think you need to look into this as a profession).

We are grateful to God for the season we had with all of you!

Joshua's Graduation

Jeff Purswell opening the graduation ceremony.

The evening was filled with reminders of all that God has done for us and through us this year. It was the most amazing graduation ceremony I have ever been to, not just because my love was graduating but because God got all the glory from beginning to end.
The ceremony ended with us singing "Not to us but to Your name oh Lord, be all the glory, the glory forever. For Your faithfulness and steadfast love be all the glory, the glory belongs to you!"

At the reception we said our bitter sweet goodbyes. Knowing that our 10 month season together was a gift from God to be trained by the best and to begin some of the most rich relationships of our lives.

We love you all and will miss you!
Until we meet again...

Gary Ricucci encouraging the graduating class.

C.J. Mahaney giving his pastoral charge to "never lose sight of Calvary."

Joshua N. Jordan receiving his diploma.

C.J. encouraged each one of the PC students as they walked across the stage.

Whoohoo! I'm so proud of you sweetheart!

Graduated PC class of 2009

Graduation Pictures

My Love and I

Gary & Betsy Ricucci

Jeff Purswell
Dean of the Pastors' College

My fellowship Group
Tiffany Hanson & Marie Hughes

Friends
Paige Prater & Melissa Goins

Fellow PC friend & our Pastor
Darrel Schiel & Craig Cabaniss

Powlison

It happened after 6 long years of Dr. David Powlison not teaching at the PC this was the year.

For anyone who knows my husband this truly was a lifelong dream of his to be taught by Dr. Powlison. Joshua has told me many times, "There is not a man alive that has affected me more then this man." Dr. Powlison has written several books on biblical counseling such as "Seeing with New Eyes" and "Speaking the Truth in Love".

This was a gift from God for my sweet husband that the year he comes to the PC, his hero is teaching. I heard from several of the PC guys that he was literally beaming all week! =)

Thank you God that you would orchestrate this blessing for my husband.

Last Day of Class!

PC Class 2009

Today was Joshua's last day of school! It is so hard to believe that he is finished. His dream of coming here is almost complete with Sundays graduation. What a joy and a privilege it has been for him to come and study in a context with doctrinally sound and pastorally driven instructors.

Several of the PC wives got up early this morning to surprise their husbands with treats and cards at their desks. Sydney spent at least 45 minutes making her special card for her Daddy. I asked her what she wanted me to write inside and she said, " I love you Daddy and I pray for your study." Noah had me write, " I love to play with my Daddy." We then topped it off with one of Joshua's favorite treats, a cookie cake! The sprouts and I had fun making memories together to bless Joshua on his last day at the PC.

Return from Chicago

Thank you for praying for Joshua and his travel to and from Chicago. He had a wonderful time with only a few flight delays. His sermon will be up on line in a couple of days so I look forward to listening and sharing the link to it when it becomes available.

Chicago

Please be praying for Joshua as he flies to Chicago,IL tonight in order to preach in the morning. He will be preaching on James chapter 1, "Looking in the Mirror". Pray for safe travel on his flights and for his rest to be sufficient with day light savings being tomorrow morning.

Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges was the instructor for this past week and he took the time to come down for gym day to meet the PC students families. He has been walking with the Lord for 60 years now and has served the church by writing almost 20 books such as "The Pursuit of Holiness", "The Disciplines of Grace", and "Transforming Grace".
It was amazing to meet this humble man who has had a great impact on the church as we know it today.

Jerry with all the PC kids.

Sydney and Noah are at the bottom right corner.

Cheeburger Challenge

The 2008 PC class have set the bar high for the following classes. All 20 guys ate a 20 oz. burger within a 20 minute time limit. This was Instructor Bruce Chick's challenge to the guys that if they all ate their burger and got their picture on the Cheeburger wall of fame he would drop 2 quizzes. They were the largest group to complete the restaurants challenge.
Great job guys!
Joshua is back row, second from the right.

Pageant Queen

We had our November ladies meeting Saturday morning and part of our time consisted of show and tell. Three ladies go every meeting and this time it was my friend Hannah's turn to go. She started out by saying that she was getting ready to share a deep dark secret with us that she normally shares with people she has known at least 1 year. She then proceeded to pull out of a bag a big beautiful pageant crown. There was an uproar of laughter and excitement from all the ladies to hear the following story. She won the Ambassadors pageant contest in her home town of Minnesota. For 1 year she got to travel around in beautiful ball gowns and make appearances in parades and county fairs. She then gave us much needed instruction in the pageant wave which is not elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist but is just wrist, wrist. She then was going to show us "The Turn" but because of time restraint she picked Betsy Ricucci to do the demonstration alone.

Betsy said "You want me to do what?".
She then graciously put on the crown and proceeded to follow Hannah's instruction.

Hannah demonstrating the turn.

The two gorgeous pageant ladies in the middle of their turn.

Betsy gladly relinquishing her crown.

Betsy taking her bow.
The gift of laughter was a highlight for all of us at the meeting.
Thank you Hannah and Betsy!

The PC in DC

We had a great time at the National Mall this past Saturday.
We started the tour at the Lincoln Memorial.

It's a tradition every year that all the PC guys get a picture taken together in front of Lincoln.
Joshua is in the back row 6th from the left.

We had to have our "National Treasure" picture taken on the steps of the memorial.
Louisa Nickel is probably the only friend who will appreciate the significance of this.

This is a picture of the WWII Memorial.
It is beautiful in every detail from the Atlantic to the Pacific sides of it.
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There are 4,000 gold stars displayed around a fountain.
Each star represents one thousand American lives lost during the war.

This is a beautiful view of the Jefferson Memorial across the Potomac river.

This is a picture of the Vietnam memorial. Everyone is quiet out of respect as they walk through the memorial. It is amazing to see the names of so many solders who lost their lives in this war and even still to see the names of the missing in action. Those that have never been recovered are marked with a cross in front of their name. Joshua's dad served in Vietnam and we are so grateful to God that he protected him from enemy fire and the terrain.

Joshua and I 34 weeks pregnant in front of Lincoln.

This is the interior of the Lincoln Memorial.

Abe one last time!

Four Meetings

We have gone to 4 meetings between the two of us in less then 48 hours. The first meeting was Thursday night for Joshua. It was a Q&A time with C.J. Mahaney, President of Sovereign Grace Ministries. They spent the time asking questions about how to preach effectively. This meeting came on the heels of a week discussing preaching in Homiletics 1.
C.J. Mahaney Bio

The second meeting took place on Friday over lunch. C.J. ordered food from a deli for all the PC guys and they discussed sports, preaching, and pastoral ministry. He then threw a football around with some of the guys ( he said Josh caught like a Cowboy). His goal was to graciously humble them with his athletic ability, fill their bellies with delicious food and bless them with the gift of laughter, especially after 3 hours of Greek that morning. It was a great time of enjoyment for all the PC guys.

I had a meeting this morning with my fellowship group. Our group meets twice a month for 2 hours. Tiffany Hanson and Marie Hughs are the 2 ladies in my group and they both have been a gift to me in this season. Our goal for these meetings is to encourage and admonish each other in applying the gospel to every area of our life. It has been a very fruitful time of growth both in the area of sanctification and in gaining wisdom from each others counsel.

The fourth and final meeting was with Betsy Ricucci, Valori Maresco and Marie Silard. The PC wives were blessed to have a Q&A session with them during our monthly meeting together. We heard wonderful testimonies from Valori and Marie of the impact Biblical fellowship has had on both of their lives. We then spent the rest of the time asking them questions about the importance of opening up our lives to others to recieve and give counsel (Biblical fellowship).

Biblical Fellowship Class

Hi Family and Friends,
The lack of a blog post yesterday will not become the norm so for those of you who were beginning to panic (Grams) this was because we were busy from dawn to dusk. Grams by the way is Joshua's mom who is a faithful reader of our blog and it is partly on her behalf that we try and post everyday. We love you "Gramsies the Great"!

Joshua and I were at a biblical fellowship class from 9am till 4pm which took much planning and preparation to go to. From prepping milk cups and breakfast the night before to setting up babysitters weeks in advance. Trying to write out a detailed schedule so that no one would lose sanity like mom does everyday trying to take care of our children. Thank you Evelyn and Jenna for serving us yesterday. I was up at 6am, showered, dressed, maternity vitamin, breakfast and was out the door by 8:30. Thank you to my sweet husband who led me well in planning for the day.

We learned so much to take with us and apply to our life as individuals and by God's grace teach and model to people we will be serving in ministry together. We heard several lectures such as "Accountable Pastors/Accountable Churches" and "Change Happens When You... Target the Heart" to name a few. It will take much needed time to digest it all and by God's grace we will be able to implement it in our life. We are grateful to Kenneth Maresco for coming and teaching this class. What we learned will serve us a lifetime.

This quote was very helpful to see the importance of biblical fellowship from "Instruments In The Redeemers Hands".

"The reality of spiritual blindness has important implications for the Christian community... I need you in order to really see and know myself. Otherwise, I will listen to my own arguments, believe my own lies, and buy into my own delusions. My self perception is as accurate as a carnival mirror. If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God's word in front of me." - Paul Tripp

PC Gym Day

Every Thursday from 10 to 11 am Covenant Life Church opens up one of the gyms for the PC kids to come and play. One of the best parts is the last 15 minutes the Dad's are released from class for their break and they get to come down and have relay races with their children. Sydney and Noah were ecstatic when their Daddy walked through the door.

Sydney had lots of fun rolling the ball back and forth with Mommy.

Noah for the first 15 minutes or so stood in the middle of the gym trying to
take it all in. There are 47 kids this year in the PC class.
It was a little overwhelming for the little guy.

Noah was excited that one of his friends brought their riding airplane and that they
were kind enough to share it with him.

Joshua was having fun spinning Sydney around in circles during his brake.

This is a picture of the PC Dad's cheering after winning their relay.
Joshua and Noah are far right.

Our Host Family

The Rohwer's
Several of you have expressed interest in getting to know our host family.
Paul and Lauren have done a wonderful job in opening up their home to us.
We have been here a little over two weeks and already feel like we are home.
Here is the link to their blog www.therohwering20s.blogspot.com/
so that you can check them out first hand.

Balloon Fun

What can I say besides that's my girl?

Noah showing off his cool hat.

Balloon wars in the middle of PC orientation.