JABP!

What a wonderful week it has turned out to be. We are both very excited to be spending this Christmas with our new family. Over the last few months we have drawn extreamly close to them, however, that does not mean we do not miss our families back home. We miss them terribly. This is where we both agree that we were raised by our parents to be strong. We are experiencing new traditions and working with others to give eachother a little piece of home.

It is snowing today, no surprise there. The temperature at the highest it's been in weeks. What a beautiful day here in Homer, Alaska. The trees are up, the lights are on, and the christmas songs blare from everyone's rooms; the spirit of Chirstmas is here. All I can do is smile, and sing along. So...do not worry about us, we are surrounded by people we love, who love us as well. We are protected by God, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

A small prayer...

    "God I want to thank you for this day and for who you are. In this season I pray that we bring glory to you, songs of love, peace, and joy. We lift our hearts to you, and pray that your will be done...whatever that may be...our eyes are fixed upon your face. Thank you for saving us, for loving us, and for the son you gave to us. We will follow you, being obedient, living the lives you gave us. I pray that you watch over our families and friends, be with those of higher authority, and those who need you. You are the almighty God and we love you, so much. It is in your precious and holy name I pray....Amen"

Jessica and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. For it is in this season (a season of darkness) that we remember who brought us light, hope, faith, and undying love.

I realize I haven't written anything in a while, and that all of my entires and very short and random and yeah... so I apologize to all of you who expected greatness from us On that note... Thanksgiving here went well. Brian (our cook) and his wife Heather and all their helpers prepared a wonderful turkey feast for us with all the traditional yummy things. It wasn't home... but being away from home, it was about as good as you could get! Break is over now, as is school started again this morning. We have about three more weeks before we get off for Christmas break. We both have Christmas trees in our rooms now... Brittany's name is the Hulk and mine is Heraldine They're both beautiful... I love Christmas trees. Right now we're both sitting in the school building. I was getting ready for our drama meeting before I got on here and she's sitting right next to me playing the guitar and uploading pics. It's been snowing here ALL DAY!! It's CRAZINESS!! But we love it. It's more snow than either of us have ever seen in our entire lives... maybe combined... haha jk. Ok, well I'm going to go now!!

<3 love you all!

-JABP

We have officially been in Alaska for over a month and still agree that it is AMAZING. God is really working in both of our lives and we are seeing and experiencing so much of Him here that it's simply beyond believeable. Like every other entry I'm not going to have time to elaborate on much because I have so many things I need to do and get done, but... our drama group is really going well and our cast is so talented! They're catching onto the Everything skit REALLY quickly and we're only having a little bit of trouble with Lauren wanting to way-lay Dara out at the beginning of the struggle scene. We're working on that. haha. We've also started doing some evangelizing in town and for me, this has been such an eye-opener. I can't believe I spent so much of my life just living, and walking right past people when I could have been talking to them, and witnessing to them, and passing out tracts that could really affect someone's life. It's just so amazing and honestly I can't wait to hit Kirkwood whenever I get back home There's not a whole lot of selection here in Homer lol. But yeah, prayer meetings every wednesday night that last for hours and crazy awesome and our new church on sunday mornings that just keeps expanding and getting bigger, and being more and more inspiring every week! and house churches on sunday nights and out of this world praise and prayer meetings on thursday nights with live music and worship and then huge group prayer..... life here, is simply amazing, and it's helping us to grow into who it is we've always wanted to be! All thanks to Yeshua

gotta go! love you all!!

-jessi (and brittany lol)

OK so..... i never know what to write in these posts because i never have enough time to write about everything that i want to! lol Well, last sunday i was in a play and it was a lot of fun.... now i've gotten asked to be in another one for a talent show. it looks like i'm becoming quite the actress without really being any good at it. haha. brittany and i are loving class, and ace-ing all our tests, thank you God! : ) um.... SO MUCH MORE TO WRITE!!!! but i have to get back to Christian education class!! LOVE YOU ALL <3

I apologize for not writing very much but it's been crazy ever since the moment we've gotten here. ABI is the most amazing place I have ever set eyes on. We are both absolutely in love with this entire place. Not only is the scenery beautiful but the atmosphere is just so... perfect. For growing, and maturing, and finding direction in your life; it's the perfect place to be. God is so evident in every little thing involved with this place. From the big to the small... from us having the PERFECT room mates, and the perfect classes for what we need to know, to going to a healing service and seeing someone visibly be healed and looking out your window and observing the glory of God in every direction you look. Spectacular, awesome, inspiring, absolutely perfect... that's the only way to describe it. We've definately unpacked, got recuperated from jet lag, found us a church, done a couple loads of laundry, finished our first week of chores (just about), set up a drama group, made new friends from the school and the community, started taking hospice volunteer training classes.... we're on a roll. We even walked up the mountain that everyone from home told us we couldn't!  Well, I have to go do homework! Catch ya later!!

we are not dead. i just haven't had time to write!!!! i will at some point..... i apologize for being such a slacker lol!!! nevertheless please continue to keep us in your prayers. this place is amazing!!!!! love you all!!!!:)

Well I don't have much time but I will later. Right now I just wanted to let everyone know verbally that we HAVE made it to the Institute and settled in. Orientation was today and classes officially start tomorrow. It is too amazing here to describe in words. Truly like Heaven on earth. The view.... wow. and that's just right outside the classroom windows!! Gosh, outside the window i'm looking out right now!! It's so peaceful and amazing and perfect and wonderful. i can just feel that God has a plan and that I'm right smack dap in the middle of it. Thank you Lord for bringing us here!

*There's no better place to be than in the middle of God's will, unless it's in His presence.*

Wow. Alaska is like a dream come true. This entire place, everything I can possible lay my eyes on, is just so incredibly beautiful. Coming down out of the air in the plane was so exciting. You could see the tops of the mountains covered with snow and ice and the land stretching out in every direction with hardly any houses or people at all! Drawing closer to Anchorage that changed a little, but surprisingly not a bunch. Even the city seemed more rugged and down to earth than Indy or any other bigger city I’d ever been to before. We rented a car and spent twenty minutes trying to cram all of our luggage, and ourselves, in to it. It was quite a task and we felt pretty accomplished afterwards! The only problem is that Brittany and I were pretty much sardined into the back seat with a lot of the luggage and by the end of the trip my legs were cramping soooo bad. I hardly noticed towards the beginning though, because everywhere that I looked, except to my right, where I saw luggage, haha, there were mountains twice the size of those I’d seen in Wyoming and lakes more clear and blue than anything I’d ever seen before!! Talk about putting Lake Monroe and Griffy to shame! These lakes were like mirrors and you could see all of the trees from the mountainsides reflected in them perfectly. It seemed as if you would be able to walk on them if you tried! We saw seals in the water, and Linda saw a mountain goat… Loretta pointed out a glacier to us. Brittany was snapping pictures like a maniac so I’m sure you’ll be able to see all of those in the gallery  The highway we took was pretty much the only road around and it weaved in and out of the mountains for a long while. Eventually it took us to a town where we stopped and got Starbucks and it turns out the lady working there was getting ready to leave for Indiana in nine days! I guess her boyfriend lives there? Crazy huh? Well the last stretch of the ride was in the dark. Mom was driving and we only got lost once or twice; no one’s fault it’s just hard to blindly navigate Alaska when we’ve never been here before. We eventually discovered the Raven though, which is the lodge where everyone is staying while Britt and I head to ABI. It’s a nice place and the only problem I’ve discovered is that the water kind of smells like rotten eggs. It’s like Bradford Woods… home sweet home. Lol. Seriously though, everything they could possibly need is here and the view is spectacular! The back deck looks over Katchemak Bay and the water seems to go on forever and ever. You can see the mountains in the distance though, and the snow on their caps. We tried to look for ABI, but we weren’t sure where to look. Alright, well I’m going to go get dressed and ready to head out try and find our school. Can’t. Wait.

Today is Friday: our last full day in Indiana. Tomorrow we take off at 7:00am. Yesterday was Brittany's 19th birthday! She and Kyle met up with Bobbie Leigh, Felisha and I at the West side Starbucks to say goodbye to Bobbie and Fishy because they had to leave right after to go work their emmaus. Jackie stopped by and said hello too... and this weird monkey LOL. Anyway, the first time I almost cried in relation to leaving was when I hugged Fishy by for the last time. She got all teary eyed and I was like GOTTA GO!! LOL It was sad  Well Britt and Kyle hung out all day and went and did something with the orchestra at North I think and I went home and finished packing. Chris came over around six and we headed out to Brittany's house for the party. Braidy and PJ, and Brendan were there of course, but Deanna and Jon and his wife and little boy came too. We listened to a lot of country music... danced a little, ate a little, wrestled a little (not ME actually haha), tickled a lot *glares at Buzz* and then hung out outside and chatted about random movies. Oh yeah, and Kyle played and sang us some songs with his new guitar! That was awsome  Overall it was a really fun and entertaining night. I know that Britt had to say bye to Kyle later on though. She won't see him again until we get back... that had to have been tough.  But that was yesterday and today is today. We're both 19 now and the age transition is complete for another year lol. I'm finished packing and Brittany's putting the finishing touches together. It actually wasn't as difficult to pack as I imagined it would be... So anyway, there's the catch up, and believe it or not the next time I post an entry it will most likely be coming from Alaska!! Or maybe an airport somewhere.... we shall see. haha

I can count how many days we have left with ONE hand!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!   Being away from home for a few days reminded me of how much I'm probably gonna miss it when I'm gone for 18 months.... Still can't wait to go! It's gonna be amazing... I KNOW God has a great plan for Brittany and I and I can't wait to get started