I thought I would give you a link to the listing for the house we are buying. I do not know how long it will be active now that we have signed on it. There is more to see and we will post pictures when we move in.
http://hfe.buffaloniagarahomes.com/property/detail.cfm?mlnum=276600&property_type=1#
It is situated in the town of Ransomville but as you will discover if you visit us, country is all around. We are a short walk away from where Kaleb will go to school. Joshua will be bussed to the middle school in the next town over. The church is a half mile away. We will have to take photos of that as well to show you later.
The house sits on about an acre and has plenty of open lawn for the boys. It is a bit bigger than our current house and has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. I am going to love having my own bathroom!! At one time it was a 3 bed, 1 bath home but they converted what was a single car garage into a master bedroom and bath. The kitchen is quite small, dark and poorly set up, if you ask me. There is no dishwasher so we plan to try out a couple of new models...the Kaleb & Josh XP...we'll let you know if they're any good!! Our family entertains a lot and this house is not designed to accommodate many people at this point. The thing that would make this house ideal is to knock out the walls to the 4th bedroom to create a large open kitchen/dining/living room area. That will require time and money so we shall see. The basement is finished and offers a large additional space for my stamping studio and rec room. The house is in good condition and other than some initial decorating items we won't have too much to tackle. There is a 2 car detached garage which makes Greg happy. We will need to install garage door openers to make it complete. Oh yeah...and buy a riding lawn mower to put in it.
I do want to add a word about the sale of our house for those of you who have not heard. We listed it late on a Tuesday and our realtor told us we'd have a days notice on showings. On Wednesday we attended a luncheon at church for Greg and when my mom and I returned at 2:30 we had a message that someone was coming at 5:30! So much for notice!! I phoned Greg at work and demanded he come home immediately and we raced for 3 hours to get it ready. We had done a lot already but it wasn't show ready by any means!! I was still watching kids in my home and there was just stuff everywhere. Thank goodness my mom was here to help. By Saturday morning we had shown the house 6 times and by Saturday night we had 2 offers!! We had a non contingent, cash offer very close to our asking price. Is God good or what?! We know that it was a wonderful confirmation that this IS what we are supposed to do and WHERE we are supposed to go. Greg and Dad are finishing the deck to the pool as I write and after that it is a matter of packing up. We close on our house on July 26th and on the new house on July 27. It is amazing!!
Greg has a post he is writing up to share his last camping trip with the kids so check back.
Blessings!!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Pearce Senior Banquet
One of the traditions at Pearce is the annual banquet for graduating seniors and their families. It is a time to celebrate the students, their families and the many people who have made deposits in their spiritual growth all these years. This is the sixth and final one for Greg as youth pastor and what a way to go out!! It was the largest one in our time here and Captain Bob said it was the largest one in his time and that is going back a ways! There were 22 seniors with their families for a group of more than 75. 
This was a unique class of kids, the kind you dream and hope for. It was the first class in Greg's 17 years of teen ministry that he saw through all the way from 7th -12th grade. They are an incredible group of young people. They are tight but not clickish, they are deeply rooted in their faith and they are a wonderful model of what God calls his church to be. You can see their servant hearts at work daily. They are mature beyond their years. They come from loving families. Many of those families are not from Pearce. It was such a testament to how God has worked in and through Greg and these kids that they reached out beyond themselves to love others. A mother of one of the young men introduced herself to me and was so grateful that Greg had walked beside her son these last few years. She said Greg had a deep impact on her son and his spiritual journey. They were grateful to be included in this time despite not being attenders of Pearce.
This year was different than previous years. The kids played a huge role in the evening. They requested to speak, two of them sharing about the mark left on them by their friends, family, youth leaders and Greg. I am going to request a copy of what Andrea shared. She used the Acts 2 model of the church to talk about the youth group. They humble me, they are so brave and strong. They requested to sing. Greg has been working with several of the kids to form a teen worship band and they have been playing for retreats and Wednesday night youth group. They played guitar and sang several of their favorite worship songs. I found this so wonderful since the first two years of ministry Greg could not pay the kids to sing. At one point they stopped because it was so frustrating. I love that they have come to embrace worship in such a wonderful way.
They introduced every senior and they shared their plans for the next year. We have two foreign exchange students that are returning home to the Czech Republic. They were a joy to have and we know the seeds of faith planted here will grow and spread as they live a world away. We have someone spending a year in Romania as a missionary. We have a young man attending Bible school with the goal of becoming a pastor. We have students attending college in CA, PA, OH, MA and NY. We are so excited to hear about their journeys in the world. They have been well equipped and are ready!! (the parents on the other hand I am not so sure about, there is great sadness to see their children leave the nest!!)
At the end of the evening they asked to lay hands on our family and pray for us. What a precious time! What a precious people!
It seemed that no one wanted to go home, no one wanted this time to end. We were there past 10 pm. Poor Josh and Kaleb were slow to rise this morning. It was a bittersweet time for me and many people there last night. You could not have planned a better time to bring Greg's ministry here to a close. Yet, I am saddened that the events and decisions made by our church have brought this end about. I am saddened that they did not know how wide and deep the teen ministry at Pearce is because if they did, they would not have settled for any less than the best.
Greg shared last night that it has been a privilege to serve the teens and families of Pearce, and it has. We pray God continues to bless the socks off these kids and that they will continue to grow into the men and women God desires them to be.
You can click on any of the photos to get a bigger view if you'd like.
This was a unique class of kids, the kind you dream and hope for. It was the first class in Greg's 17 years of teen ministry that he saw through all the way from 7th -12th grade. They are an incredible group of young people. They are tight but not clickish, they are deeply rooted in their faith and they are a wonderful model of what God calls his church to be. You can see their servant hearts at work daily. They are mature beyond their years. They come from loving families. Many of those families are not from Pearce. It was such a testament to how God has worked in and through Greg and these kids that they reached out beyond themselves to love others. A mother of one of the young men introduced herself to me and was so grateful that Greg had walked beside her son these last few years. She said Greg had a deep impact on her son and his spiritual journey. They were grateful to be included in this time despite not being attenders of Pearce.
This year was different than previous years. The kids played a huge role in the evening. They requested to speak, two of them sharing about the mark left on them by their friends, family, youth leaders and Greg. I am going to request a copy of what Andrea shared. She used the Acts 2 model of the church to talk about the youth group. They humble me, they are so brave and strong. They requested to sing. Greg has been working with several of the kids to form a teen worship band and they have been playing for retreats and Wednesday night youth group. They played guitar and sang several of their favorite worship songs. I found this so wonderful since the first two years of ministry Greg could not pay the kids to sing. At one point they stopped because it was so frustrating. I love that they have come to embrace worship in such a wonderful way.
They introduced every senior and they shared their plans for the next year. We have two foreign exchange students that are returning home to the Czech Republic. They were a joy to have and we know the seeds of faith planted here will grow and spread as they live a world away. We have someone spending a year in Romania as a missionary. We have a young man attending Bible school with the goal of becoming a pastor. We have students attending college in CA, PA, OH, MA and NY. We are so excited to hear about their journeys in the world. They have been well equipped and are ready!! (the parents on the other hand I am not so sure about, there is great sadness to see their children leave the nest!!)
At the end of the evening they asked to lay hands on our family and pray for us. What a precious time! What a precious people!
It seemed that no one wanted to go home, no one wanted this time to end. We were there past 10 pm. Poor Josh and Kaleb were slow to rise this morning. It was a bittersweet time for me and many people there last night. You could not have planned a better time to bring Greg's ministry here to a close. Yet, I am saddened that the events and decisions made by our church have brought this end about. I am saddened that they did not know how wide and deep the teen ministry at Pearce is because if they did, they would not have settled for any less than the best.
Greg shared last night that it has been a privilege to serve the teens and families of Pearce, and it has. We pray God continues to bless the socks off these kids and that they will continue to grow into the men and women God desires them to be.
You can click on any of the photos to get a bigger view if you'd like.
Harp Family Goes Live!!
You have found us!! Welcome to our family blog!! I have been blogging for quite some time with my stamping (see here--http://inky-doodles.blogspot.com/) and with all the family goings on we thought perhaps a family blog would help us document our journey as well as share it with those we love. I hope it becomes a way to communicate better with friends and family. Feel free to leave comments.
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