Kelcey's Peru Update

Hello everyone!

I wanted to offer a few updates on what I've heard from Kelcey down in Peru. If I've seen you at church I wanted to take a moment to say thanks for all the love, prayers, and concerns for both myself and my wife as she loves on the Peruvian people this week. Some of you might have heard some of what I'm about to share, but others many have not. So, let me bring all of you up to speed on the latest developments.

Kelcey and the rest of the mission team arrived safe and sound yesterday in Lima, Peru. Because of the work they're doing there, they had to take a TON of medical supplies with them. Each member took one bag for themselves and packed another bag full of supplies to give away to the people they come in contact with. One of the team's biggest concerns was that they were not going to make it with all the supplies. If you've traveled at all lately you know how crazy and tight security is. Not only that, traveling that far there's no guarantee you're going to see all of your luggage when you arrive! However, as we all know, God is certainly working for their benefit. When they arrived in Lima (almost 24 hours after they began their journey) every single piece of luggage they checked came through the first time. All the wheelchairs, medical supplies, and of course their clothing made it as planned. What a HUGE answered prayer for them all!

God-sighting #2 came when they arrived. I guess they had some "issues" with their previous lodging arrangement. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I know they didn't have running water and other necessities for them so their team leader was forced to come up with a "Plan B" immediately. Somehow, someway, a leader made connections with someone who had other connections with a Swedish Hostel where they were going. This hostel "just happened" to have 15 spots available for their team which was just enough for all their members. Last I heard, their hostel had running water, free wifi internet, and was very nice for what they were expecting. Obviously, God had plans for them that they didn't even know of, but how exciting is it to see God working so much already within the first few days of being there.

Tomorrow the team begins their clinic. They have spent most of today and yesterday getting set up and ready for the services they will be offering. This morning they worshiped at a local church which happens to be the same location that they will be doing their clinic. Kelcey also told me they saw the best and worst of Peru: from the poorest of the poor villages to the most beautiful scenery on the coast.

Keep praying that God will guide and direct all their paths this week. Thank you to everyone who's been praying for me too. I've had a lot of awesome people in our church invite me over for dinner this week and I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. I'm so proud of Kelcey. It has been awesome to see her grow in her relationship with Christ. Moments like this where she leads everything behind to follow His call in her life make me tearful in so many ways. It's sad to let her go for a while, but then I have to remember that it's not about me. It's about what God wants her to do and I know she's being obedient. Most of my tears are joyful though. Like I said, it's so exciting to see her being obedient to the Lord. I know that when we have kids one day my prayer for them will be the same for my wife: "Lord, take [them] wherever you want them to go, allowing them to be obedient to Your call upon their life." There's no doubt in my mind that this simple prayer will be echoed by my beautiful wife as well. Even now, without kids, she's beginning a legacy that I'm overwhelmed to be a part of.

I'm going to be posted some photos I've received on my facebook. Take a look there to see them for yourself.

I shouldn't wait this long to update

Wow it has almost been 6 months since we updated our blog. So much has happened in the past six months. In May we celebrated our 1 year anniversary, I am officially a 2nd year DPT student, and Brett started his MATS degree at Midwestern. Time flies by so fast!! We were just talking the other day that we will have been in our house for a whole year this coming December. We are so excited to get to decorate for Christmas and actually have our first Christmas tree together. As some of you may remember last year we were somewhat homeless during the end of December! Buying a house and all the struggles we went through were hard at times, but now we laugh about living out of our
car for 3 weeks and "crashing" at a variety of friends and families homes. We were very thankful for our family.

Right now I am preparing to go to Lima, Peru for a medical mission trip with SBU. I am so excited for this opportunity that God has opened up for me. I know that I have been called into the medical field and I am so excited to see how God can use me in a mission trip setting.

Brett has been very busy with church lately. So many amazing things are happening in the life of Hamlin Memorial Baptist Church! It is so exciting to see the Spirit working in the lives of our church members and the neighborhood surrounding the church!! A special note for all the Hamlin people be looking for a Trunk or Treat announcement for Halloween night. I have heard one is in the planning!

I know there is so much more that has happened lately but if I caught you up on the last 6 months this post would be way too long! I will leave you with a few pictures from recently.

Spring is Here!

If you're Kelcey's friend on facebook you can get a good look at the progress we've made on our new home. It's hard to believe that spring has arrived already especially when you live in Missouri. The first day of spring for us resulted in a freak snow storm that dumped a few inches of snow on the ground. It was also the start of Kelcey's spring break, so it made it even harder to get into "swing on Spring" with it being 30 and icing/sleeting/snowing outside. However, the week of spring break, the temps climbed back into the 60's and 70's.

At the end of the week we had the privilege of going to a marriage retreat weekend with our Sunday school class down in Branson. If you're already married or engaged, the conference we went to was fantastic. I would highly recommend going. You can get more information about it at www.familylife.com and research the many conferences they do all over the country.

As far Kelcey and I are concerned, we are really looking forward to taking advantage of the spring weather and updating our house even more. I've got a lot of yard work to do, and Kelcey wants to do some miscellaneous jobs around the outside of the house like putting up shutters and a little landscaping. This spring and summer looks to be very busy for the two of us as far as work and school are related. Kelcey is trying to finish up her first complete year of classes, I'm planning all kinds of events for the youth this spring and summer. I'm really looking forward to taking the kids to Orange Beach, AL this summer for camp. I'm sure it's going to be a blast.

God has been very good to us lately. There are so many small blessings we see each and every day in our lives and for that we're very thankful. We're getting along great with our new pastor and his wife. They have become very good friends of ours over the last couple of months. We're excited to see where God takes us as a church. Hamlin is a fantastic church and God is watching over her everyday. Be praying for us as we continue to seek His will for our lives, our marriage, and our ministry.

Blessings!

The Blairs

New Year...New Home

Well, we are officially in our new home. We are so happy to have a place that is ours! After renting only a short while we realized that we NEVER wanted to do that again! We thank God daily for all the opportunities that we have had for the year 2010 already. We closed on our home on Dec. 31 and moved in Jan 1 so we really did start the new year with a new home! Maybelle and Laylah are very happy to be settled and not be traveling anymore (however they miss a fenced in yard that actually has grass). Before closing on the house we stayed with the Wright family a few days (a big thank you!), then we went to St. Joe and visited my family for Christmas. While there we were snowed in for days (12 inches of snow!!). Even though we were snowed in we made so many memories with my family and will never forget this Christmas, and Jack was very happy to have his big sister to play every video and board game under the sun with for days straight. After spending time with my family we visited Brett's family in Neosho for a few days and then came back to Springfield to close on the house. Hunter came with a few days to help move in and we had so much fun spending time with him. He is growing up so fast!

Two days after moving in I started Winterfest classes (Neuroanatomy and Teaching and Learning). Winterfest was 3 straight weeks of studying and going to class. So, since I spent every waking hour studying the human brain you can only guess that our house is still not completly unpacked. We have moved all the unpacked boxes into the guest bedroom so at least they are out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind I guess...haha. I started my Spring semester of classes this past week. It is a very busy semester but so far very enjoyable. I am very much enjoying school and learning how to incorporate my faith into my future career.

Brett has been super busy this past month! Hamlin Memorial Baptist has found a pastor (Pat Findley) and he started the first week of January. Brett and I are so thankful to have Pat and Becca to serve along side with at Hamlin. We can't wait to see what God is going to do with Hamlin and the Hamlinites. With that said Brett has been so busy finally seeing what it's like to have another staff member at the church, planning his summer activities, running the bus ministry, and of course enjoying his time with the youth. He is doing amazing things and it is a blessing to get to work alongside him! I love listening to him tell me what he thinks God is showing him and how he is going to incorporate that into his ministry. He has also started taking online classes to work towards his Master of Divinity degree. Which he informed me yesterday that at this pace will take 6 years! Haha....I guess neither of us can get away from school!

***Pictures of the house to come soon****