Stateside: August

Hello again from Gastonia, NC!  Thank you for reading our blog and for your prayers.  The month of August wasn't as busy as July, but we still managed to do a good bit of traveling and visit lots of friends and family.  Here is a glimpse of how our month looked:
 - July 31-Aug. 10 We were in West Virginia with Jessica's family.
 - Aug. 4 We spoke at Hampton Baptist Church in East Bank, WV.  Jessica really enjoyed seeing some of her old high school teachers and friends.
 - Aug. 8 We traveled with Jessica's parents to drop her brother Michael off at West Virginia University for his freshman year of college.
 - Aug. 10 We spoke at Jessica's home church, First Baptist Church of Nitro, WV.
 - Aug. 11-18 We traveled to Wake Forest, NC, to visit with our sending church and friends, North Wake Baptist Church.
 - Aug. 11 We spoke at our small group from North Wake.
 - Aug. 17 We briefly spoke at the North Wake Sunday morning service.
 - Aug. 19-27 We are currently resting in our mission home in Gastonia with Parkwood Baptist Church.  This week, we visited a small group, a nearby state park, attended the Sunday morning service, and Cameron began his Ph.D. work for the semester.
 - Aug. 28-Sept. 8 We will be in WV, where we will run/walk the Charleston Distance Run 5K this Saturday and speak at Good News Baptist Church in Gallipolis, OH, on Sunday (Aug. 31).

Here are some pictures:

Cameron speaking at Hampton Baptist Church.

From left to right: Jessica's mentor from her first year teaching, Dee Ramsey; her favorite teacher, Mrs. Christy; her friend, Amanda; and her high school counselor, Debbie Stanley.

Great to see Debbie!  :)

Jessica's family the night before taking Michael to WVU.

Jessica's brother, Michael, ready for Adventure West Virginia!

Jessica singing "10,000 Reasons" at First Baptist Church of Nitro with their music pastor, Tommy.

Visiting with Jessica's former youth leader, Steve.

It was nice meeting Hayley's baby, Reagan, and catching up with Hayley, Melba, & Kassi.

Speaking at our North Wake small group.

So sweet to catch up with old friends.  :)

We enjoyed hanging out with Bill & Molly.

The guys from Cameron's old small group: Thomas, Cameron, Brandon, Bill, and JR.

Hanging out at the Coombs'.

Built-in caption in the background: Megan & Jessica first met in the choir at North Wake!  It was really great hanging out with Megan.  Thanks for letting us stay at your house!  :)

Jessica, Megan, Kaitlin, & Jess Coombs

We were so excited that we got to see Thomas & Kaitlin, who recently returned from East Asia.

Cameron with his old roommate, JR.

Speaking at North Wake.

We enjoyed hanging out with Logan & Aubrey (& Hudson).

Coffee with Lonnie & Connie Reynolds, our mentors from our missionary training two years ago.

At the top of Crowders Mountain in Gastonia.