Rock the River: Baton Rouge

Joe and I were given the awesome opportunity to help out at the Rock the River tour in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For those who don't know, "Rock the River is a high-energy music tour traveling up the Mississippi". RTR(Rock the River) is hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association(BGEA). At RTR Baton Rouge they had a ministry tent to help with awareness of all the amazing ministries the BGEA fosters to bring the Good news through evangelism for God's Kingdom! Whoo, with that said, Joe and I got to share with people our passion of My Hope all day. The event was a hit. They had seven hours of great bands including Flyleaf, RED, Mary Mary and others! Franklin brought the message of Jesus in a clear and relational way that impacted many and planted seeds in numbers we may never know. The turn out was over 11,000 and over 500 decisions for Jesus Christ!!!! In saying it was such an awesome experience for me, does not begin to express some of the comments left on FACEBOOK by those who were also there, one wrote..."well even the protesters couldn't stop the amazing power of Jesus.... if only 1 person was saved, then it was worth the heat, sunburn, and sprinkles. God also painted a glorious sunset across the sky - who in their right mind could say there is no GOD. The thunder & lightening stayed in the distance, just enough sprinkles to cool everyone down." The lightening she was referring to actually occurred behind the stage as Flyleaf was beginning and added chill to the praises they were singing. We are heading to RTR in St. Louis in a little less than two weeks and are so excited to see God work there too. Please Join with us and pray for the upcoming cities: St. Louis-Aug. 2nd, Quad Cities-Aug. 8 and Minneapolis/St. Paul Aug. 16. Please pray for the staff, the weather, the message(Franklin Graham and the testimonies from the bands),and for those traveling to and from the event! Also know that if you are within a do-able distance of these events, COME!! Bring friends, bring family, bring the neighbors kids!! Please also know that they are still looking for volunteers in the remaining cities! For more info and to sign-up go to http://www.billygraham.org/RTR/RockTheRiver.asp. Here are a few photos to get you excited(please know some of these photos were taken from flickr, and I have no ownership rights to them)

Meagan is Married

This weekend was so amazing. My younger sister got married. It was so wonderful to get to see my older sister Bethany and her husband Aaron who live in San Diego, so we don't get to see them often! Also my aunt and uncle and their not so young kids (they are teens) and other extended family came! While home we were able to get to know and spend more time with Eddie, Meg's new hubby. Though it was so much fun, it was also bitter sweet I think. This was my parents last child to get married. My mom had wedding planning down to a science! What chapter in life comes next? Well many say pets, though Bethany and Meagan already have them and Joe and I probably never will(we move too much). Kids? Yikes! Not for us anytime soon unless God has other plans.
The cute couple!
Bethany and Aaron
Aunt Gigi and Uncle Tony
At the rehearsal dinner!
Me, Mom, and Bethany

Joe and I with his parents

They were threatened not to smash cake on each other!
Father daughter dance
These two had so much fun dancing!
Grandma (She is the one who always threatens about the cake smashing, it has become a tradition beginning with my moms wedding)
My cousins Jacqui and Jon

Super quick update

Last week, Joe's friend(and really he is my friend too now) Drake came to visit. Drake is so great, so far he has visited us everywhere we have been except for one. I will post more on his visit soon. But today I am rushing for the airport headed home for my little sisters wedding! Yeah! I am so excited to get to see my WHOLE family! Some how we always wind up in helmets with Drake!?!


Hiking in El Yunque rainforest.

La Noche de San Juan

Last night was "La Noche de San Juan", Saint John the Baptist Night. John the Baptist is believed to have been born on June 24th, so many countries celebrate this day on the eve. Here in Puerto Rico, it plays out as hundreds of thousands of people flock to the beach for what can only be described as a Puerto Rican Mardi Gra or Spring Break beach party. At midnight all those participating flop backwards into the water, like they are being baptized....it is to ensure you have good luck for the next year. Some people may flop once, others, several times. Joe and I ventured out last night to see what all the fuss and traffic was about....Perplexing,interesting, as it was, like Carnival last year in Brazil. Luckily for Joe and I we believe in faith and not luck.

They apparently plan on sacrificing the sand alligator to John the Baptist also...

This is real video I found on YouTube from 2 years ago, but if you listen closely you can hear the countdown and then see them all flop! Kinda Funny.
">
And this clip is even more interesting..."Ace, uniquely Puerto Rican detergent, commemorates Puerto Rican tradition of San Juan night when the island residents dive into the ocean at midnight. Even when you are far away from your homeland, your pride of being Puerto Rican will make you follow Puerto Rican traditions."(quote taken from the person who posted the clip)
">

Play date in Old San Juan

Ponce

Ponce is the the second largest city in Puerto Rico. It is situated on the southern side of the island and is nicknamed "the Pearl of the South". As you could probably guess, Ponce was named after Ponce De Leon. Ponce was the first town in PR, built in the late 1600's. Joe and I headed down for a day of exploration and fun. If you meet a native of PR they always tell you, you have to visit Ponce. If you meet someone from the US who has moved here they will say, I can't figure out the hype! It was fun to see how well preserved many of the building were and it only took us an hour and a half to cross the island. Unfortunately we got to Ponce about 10:30 and everything shuts down from 11- 2 in Ponce. So we enjoyed the outdoor scenery and then explored some of the local beaches. The sand on the southern part of the Island is dark grey/black. We also learned that no matter where we are most likely we are going to stick out like a sore thumb! So us trying to drive into a local hang-out all inconspicuous-like...NEVER works, I haven't figured out what gives it away. We had fun!

Costco and Quicken

As we have been settling into our new home that has also come with setting a new budget and familiarizing ourselves with the area and our shopping options. We have been here on the island for about a month and after analyzing all our grocery reciepts, taking a tour of Sam's club, Costco, and Walmart. Joe and I decided that Costco could fulfill our needs at a better rate than the local grocery could (as long as we controlled our buying). It is easy to walk around and fill a cart with your hearts desires(ice cream, chocolate, pickles, top my list)but break you at the check-out. How do you remedy this? Make a list of what you need, decide if it is an item you will use in a timely manner if bought in bulk, and then ask will you spend more buying it at a grocery store in smaller installations in the amount of time it would take to use up the same item bought from costco? For example: We bought a box of 140 Glad ForceFlex Kictchen trash bags for about $11, our hope is we never have to buy trash bags again while living here. The grocery store carries the same bags in boxes of 34 for $7.99.
But also to help control our spending at Costco we signed up for Quicken, which is a banking solutions system that combines all your accounts and helps you categorize and track your spening, it will tell you how much you have left in each budget category. I know personally I use to log onto my online bank account and say "where did it all go?" Quicken will even give you spending predictions with a 10-day outlook. And if you are really couragous you can look at a graph of your spending! The best part of this is it is FREE, it isn't advertised on their home page but if you go to their products and services tab at the top, you too can have their free online product. We have enjoyed having it, mostly because it allows us to be good steward of the money we have!