Bele Chere 2008

This past weekend we had the wonderful privilege of proclaiming the gospel on the streets of Asheville with several other precious siblings in Christ! Tony was able to take Friday off; our original plan was to leave the house by 5am... but we didn't leave until 7:15am. We had stayed up late the night before, packing and completeing school work. Tony only had about an hour of sleep, which was four less than I... He started driving and made it about 15 minutes down the road before I took over. ;)

We were on a mission to find white "Mini King Spinnerbait" lures on our way to Asheville. We stopped at three Wal-Marts. The first one didn't have any white ones in stock, so we walked out empty handed. The second one was out of stock too. So Tony settled on the "second best" - a navy blue one. As we were heading toward the cash register, we noticed a shelf with several bottles of cologne and perfume marked down. We ended up buying 6 bottles of cologne and 2 bottles of perfume (which would have retailed for $192) for guess how much?? 16 cents!! Yeah, we could hardly believe it! They were clearenced for 2 cents each. As we were ringing them up, we kept joking that this is what you call a "steal". So Tony is stocked up on some good smelling cologne for quite some time!! As soon as we got in the car I called my sister and my mom to let them know of our great bargain find!! It was exciting! Now, we did stop at one more Wal-Mart; we made our way to the fishing section and there they were... the white mini king spinnerbaits! yay! Tony bought all six that they had in stock. :)

About 4o minutes out of Asheville we stopped at Lake James State Park - which is a HUGE lake!! We had packed a lunch and found a picnic table right along the water. The scenery was beautiful and we very much enjoyed each others company!

Once in Asheville, we still had some time before we had to check into our hotel, so we walked along the French Broad River.

We met Nathan, Mary, Don, Marcus, Raul, and Tom at the local Shoney's for dinner. When Tony & I pulled into the parking lot we noticed two preaching stools strapped to the top of Raul's van. Apparently, they were the only things that wouldn't fit in the van... it made for a good laugh!

After a time of prayer, we made our way to the festival. And we finished the night/morning off at Denny's.

Saturday we went to the nearby abortion clinic to minister to the people there. From there, Tony & I had plans to go take a nap at the hotel for a few hours and then join everyone else at the festival. Well, that plan didn't exactly work out. Tony recieved a phone call saying that he needed to confirm some things online regarding his school loan. So that's how we spent our "nap time". Oh well. We met everyone at Trinity Baptist Church for a time of prayer and then spent the remainder of the afternoon/evening at the festival (with the exception of a dinner break).

(As Marcus was proclaiming the glorious gospel,

the guy in the white shirt just knelt down in front of him

with tears streaming down his face. Pray that Jerald

will be strengthened in the faith.)

(The older gentleman you see above is named Frank.

He is 87 years old and is a local to Asheville.

He has joined our group each year at Bele Chere

to proclaim the everlasting gospel. He is such an

encouragment to us younger folks and I praise God for him!!)

(Tom was able to catch this picture of me. Since I am usually
the one behind the camera, it was neat to see a picture of one
of my encounters. The two ladies were Christians and offered
a lot of encouraging words. It is always nice to have encouragers!!)

Sunday morning, Tony & I joined the VA clan for a farewell breakfast at IHOP. It is always sad when it's time to go our seperate ways again. :( From there, Tony & I went to the French Broad River for a while and then to the 11 o'clock service at Highland Christian Church. I must say this was the most refreshing, God-exalting service I have ever been a part of. God's Word was faithfully preached! And God was worshipped!!!! HE alone is worthy!!! On the way home we thought about visiting my Mimi... but she was actually on her way to the airport to visit family in Massachusets for a week. But we did stop by the Whole Foods Market & Trader Joe's to stock up on a few items. And we used our giftcard to Texas Steakhouse for dinner. Yummy!

(Marcus found this picture of us on Flickr.com.
Apparently some random passer-byer snapped a picture
of us and uploaded it onto the world wide web. I tell
you, Tony & I have grown so much closer to our LORD
since we started sharing the gospel with people on
a regular basis. And our love for one another continues
to be strengthened each and every day!
I love my husband so very much!!!)

Grape Freezer Jam

Tony's parents so kind to let me pick some fresh concord grapes off their vine! :)

Tull's Mill Pond

Basil Galore

We have this plant...

So I made some basil pesto...

Our Weekend

Tony made a request for homemade biscuits with homemade gravy... so that is just what we had for breakfast this morning. It was a nice treat, since we usually don't eat a "big" breakfast on a work day. :)

Saturday evening, we were able hang out with my parents at Books A Million. Tony enjoyed a Joe's Espresso and as for me, I tried their seasonal Orange Creamsicle Frappe. Woah!! It tasted oh so good. And I was even nice and shared some with Tony!! :) We specifically wanted to read up on how to pay off our house mortgage quicker - so we picked up the book titled "Debt Cures They Don't Want You to Know About" by Kevin Trudeau. It was very intriguing. Tony was actually taking pictures of the pages with valuable information. But the pages just kept going. We considered buying the book... the cover price was $25.95. "We'll probably be able to find it cheaper online." But then we noticed a red sticker on the front of the book noting that it was 40% off!! So we bought the book for about $15! Praise God! Now it's just a matter of putting what we learn to practice.

As we left the parking lot, Tony juggled the idea of going to Wal-Mart to look at their fishing section. We went. We looked at the different lures. We overheard a conversation going on in the next isle over. "What would work better for you? A bookbag that you carry on your back or one that you can roll?" We walked over to the next isle, just browsing. The scene filled my heart with joy. There stood two guys - one was a little older and apparently homeless. The other was a younger guy, pushing a cart filled with some basic items for the less fortunate guy. As we passed by them, we said a casual "Hello". The younger guy said "Hey. I know you. I saw you at the Center Street Jam Thursday night." Yes, we remember. Tony was wearing his sandwich board, we were passing out gospel tracts, and this same guy had walked up to us and shook Tony's hand to express his gratitude for us being there. And now just two days later, God crossed our paths again. So neat!! We made some small chit-chat and ended up exchanging e-mails. :)

After a much needed nap on Sunday, Tony went fishing at a local pond and I went to hang out at my parents house. After a few hours of "separation", Tony came over to my parents house and said that he needed to get a new battery for the truck, as he had trouble getting it started. So I jumped in the truck beside him... beside my sweet husband who I had missed dearly!!! It was so nice to give him a hug and catch up about our time apart. We arrived at Auto Zone five minutes before they closed and they were able to install the new battery for us. Then we went back to my parents house and enjoyed some homemade peach icecream with brownies! What a combo!! :)