Secret Church

We've found a church here that we love, and have been going for the past few weeks. It is everything that we have been praying for, and we are so excited to see what God has in store for us there! The church is First Baptist Church of Beaumont, and is only 2.5 miles away from our apartment. The pastor, Dr. Moody, is very knowledgeable and passionate about God's word, and does a great job at pushing the church towards Christ. He is also the chaplain for the football team, which is how Josh met him. Last week, Josh and I were able to have dinner with Dr. Moody and his wife Wendi, and get to know a little bit more about them and about the church. We definitely feel God calling us to become members here and to be involved, and that is so exciting. There are so many opportunities here for us to serve and for discipleship, and we are just so ready to be a part of this body and to grow with them.

We know that finding a solid church this soon is truly a blessing. We were prepared to spend a very long time looking for the right one, knowing that God would lead us where He wanted us. Praise Him for always being faithful!

This weekend we had a great opportunity to spend Friday night (all of Friday night!) at FBC Beaumont for Secret Church. This was an amazing night! There are people groups all over the world who are unable to meet openly for church like we do. So, they will sneak together to study the Bible, and they will do it for hours at a time. These people are not allowed to be Christians openly, and are persecuted because they are. Secret Church is a time for us to come together as a body and to dive into God's words with no distractions.. as if this is the only time for us to study together. You also focus on a particular area of the world that is having to meet secretly for church. From 6-12, we went through the entire Old Testament and learned about India. In India Christians are being persecuted all of the time. A member of FBC Beaumont is actually from India and here for school, so he gave us a presentation of what the culture is like, and what it is like to be a Christian living there. Heart breaking. We began praying for India, and as a church, will continue to do so. They are planning a mission trip for sometime next year.

We really benefited from those 6 hours Friday night. More knowledge of the Old Testament, compassion for God's people, thankfulness for our freedom, bigger heart to serve and to teach. As these things work through us, we fall more and more in love with our Savior. Our desire is to know Him more, and to make Him known!

Read more about FBC Beaumont and Secret Church!

http://www.fbcbeaumont.org/

http://www.brookhills.org/secretchurch/

Coach Josh Miller

Check out Josh's bio! :)



http://www.lamarcardinals.com/genrel/miller_joshua00.html

Our weekend back in LA... and Lamar vs. SLU

This weekend we got to go home and visit some family and friends! It was a fun road trip :) We stayed at my dad and Jamie's on friday night. Saturday morning we woke up to sweet little McKenna! She is too precious. She's saying her name now.. "Kenna Alec Coo". We ate breakfast and hung out with them for a little bit and then went to Hammond! We got to see Cole, The Chances, ( or as Josh calls them.. The Wayne Chances) and Casey and Joey. Josh had to head to the field, and I went to eat with Josh, Hannah, and Casey. Then at the game I got to catch up with soo many great girls and I loved it :) Hayley, Kelly, Jenee, Heather, Taylor, Cali, Heidi... to name a few! Can't wait to see them all again!

Now about the game...

I was the ONLY Lamar fan in the SLU student section (obviously) and I got some dirty looks! But it's ok... I dealt with it. :) At half time we were down... and when Josh stopped by to say hey before heading to the locker room he said that we were going to win. I was pretty confident that what he said was true! I wasn't sure how, but I just knew that we would win. 2nd half... we score 3 touchdowns and win by 1 point. Oh, how sweet! Before we came to Hammond, I thought that I wouldn't care who won the game, because I'm attached to both teams. Turns out that's not true. I'm a Cardinal! Who would've though?! Josh and I are still talking about the game... and I think we may all season!!

After the game, we stayed the night with The Blacks :) we just love those 2! The plan was to wake up and go to church with them at 9... but we woke up at about 10:30 :( I guess Saturday was just a little too much excitement for us! Great weekend! Love family! Love friends! Love football! :)

The Joy of Cooking!

Cooking is something that I have never been interested in.. ever. Whenever Josh and I got engaged, it hit me - maybe I should learn to cook ( Josh does LOVEE to eat!) So here and there I would find a recipe and cook. Yeah it was fun, I could live with or without it.

But since we've been married, I see cooking in a whole new light! It is a great opportunity for me to serve Josh and to show him love and value. Anddd, it's so much fun! I love thinking of things that we would like, and then learning how to make them. Josh gets really excited about yummy food, which makes it that much more fun :)

For the past two day I've made dinner in my Crock Pot. ohhhh the Crock Pot. How have you been hidden from me? I never realized how amazing it really is. Throw a few ingredients in the pot, go to work, and come home to dinner. It doesn't get any better than that! Tonight I made meatloaf. Everyone that I told that I was making meatloaf in a crock pot, had never heard of it! So, I just want to let you know that it turned out great! We loved it :) Josh said he could eat it a couple times a week (which is what he says about everything that he really likes... so that statement always makes me happy!)

Today I was just so pumped about my crock pot discovery that I was looking up tons of different recipes. I'm hooked!

Lamar vs. Webber International

1st Home Game!

...and it was a good one! The game was sold out, plus some! There were way more people there then there were seats! Linh and Brandon came to the game with me. We had passes to go into the new facility (which was so great just to get out of the heat!) and to go onto the field before and after the game.

Fireworks at half time...

Fans all over the field after Lamar's very first WIN!





My favorite part of the game :)

This is Josh's new office... Still waiting for his name!

And thisss.. is Mark Henry. Josh's new friend.

He hung out with the team and coaches before the game, and then gave them a pep talk and ran out with them!

A little backround on our buddy, Mark:

• 6'1'' 392 lbs (that's a 6x that he's wearing)
• In high school he was a three-time state champion with records in squat, bench press, and deadlift.
• He broke 4 national junior records in olympic lifting.
• In his first year of competing, he broke the 3 junior American records 12 times, and became United States' top super heavyweight.
• He was named the "World's Strongest Man" after qualifying for the '92 Summer Olympics. He finished 10th in the super heavyweight class.
• At the '95 Pan American Games he won a gold, silver, and bronze medal.
• A year later he became a North America Central America Carribean Islands (NACACI) Champion.
• Now he's a pro wrestler! We watched him on Monday Night RAW this week! :)

Saints ... The Season Begins!

Last night was Saints vs. Vikings, and Josh and I were some kind of excited!! We made the famous "Taco Ring".. Mom and MC's saints tradition (guess we're taking it with us!). Then baked a WHO DAT cake! There's no better kind! haha.

We had fun at our Saints party! Can it be a party if the only people there are the hosts?

Victory for the Saints! 1-0

Lamar Football

So, as you all know... Josh is the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Lamar University. This is Lamar's first football season since 1989! We are so excited to be a part of that! The players are pumped, the coaches are ready, and the people of Beaumont cannot contain themselves. Everywhere we go people are asking about Lamar football and they are so ready for the season to begin!

Anddd.. It's finally here! September 4th was Lamar's very first game in 21 years against McNeese State (Sept 4th was also the one year anniversary of our very first date... hehe)! My family came to Beaumont to stay with us before the big game! All 7 of us (me, josh, mom, mr. chris, tj, cam, & dex) stayed in our little bitty apartment on Friday night! It worked though, and we had a blast. Off to Lake Charles Saturday afternoon for the game.

We weren't exactly sure what to expect from Lamar, but we were so excited and pretty nervous, too! The game was sold out, and there were tons of Lamar fans there. Everywhere you looked you saw red! Our boys start the game off with a touchdown! WOW! Everyone was going crazy! It was a great game... fans were on their feet and cheering the entire time! Sadly, McNeese won the game 30-27, but we are still so proud of them! Their very first game, and they almost won! It was so close throughout the entire thing!

Looking forward to next week :) Lamar vs. Webber International

Happy Birthday Josh!

Josh is 24 today!

Happy Birthday!

This is also a little glimpse into our tiny apartment, or as my mom calls it - "The Love Nest".  I'm standing with my back against the front door and you can see to the very back of the apartment. 387 square feet.  We prayed that God would provide exactly what we needed - no more, no less. He did! :)

Sadly, it's Wednesday.. which is his busiest day. So, we started celebrating Tuesday night. I made him blueberry muffins for breakfast and lasagne for dinner. That was literally the only time that we had together all day! 20 minutes for breakfast and about 2 hours for dinner (from the time he got home from work until we went to sleep)! Crazy! He said that this really felt like a "grown up" birthday :( so sad.