hope...

Hope.

We finally got a tree... okay not a real one - We are friends with a local fire chief... he said it wouldn't be the best idea, since we live in a building made out of wood.

I guess it is okay.

I even got LED lights (the lights that are from head lamps that are supposed to last a lifetime and don't start fires so that I could comply with NYS fire code.)

I spent 19.99 on this new tree - decorated with strings of popcorn and cranberries and of course the KNUHA favorite ornaments... cinnamin and applesauce stars and snowflakes.

Brendon and I went to Geneseo on Saturday night so that he could prepare his lessons for the following day... I read out of a book I got for my friend Dee last Christmas, "Girl Meets God" by Lauren Winner and drank my gingerbread latte with one pump of white mocha.

Lauren never ceases to encourage my heart in things I think - but don't communicate well - (sorta like Sara Groves in that respect of my life). She writes, "It is advent, the weeks before Christmas, which means we are waiting for Jesus. It is the season of expectation, of being primed and pumped, the season during which you are supposed to cultivate longing for Him, the type of longing you feel when your beloved has been out of town for three weeks but you know he is coming home tonight."

Hmm... that resonates with me this season... as I know I must cling to hope. Hope for the days yet to come that Jesus will once again reign... hope in the smaller things like knowing that he is going to be faithful to Brendon and I - no matter what comes our way. Children or no children - Minnesota or no Minnesota, Grad-school or no grad-school, job or no job, in fighting sin and in learning to love. We find hope in discovering places where we have been led by fear instead of love for another... instead of hope and fear in our Great Redeemer.

Lauren also wrote about the Jewish tradition of celebrating Sukkoh... a time that Jews walk through the pains of their ancestors time in the desert... in present day, the build rickety huts with grass roofs (similar to what they think the huts that the Jews lived in while in the desert 40 days. This symbolically reminds them to trust in their dependence on God as they eat meals and share laughter with friends.

How cool is that.

Dependence on God, in the midst of the good.
Dependence on God, even when you need every ounce of hope.

Brendon and I want to have a Christmas party in January... to remind us that we still anticipate the coming return of Jesus... even after Christmas.

now there is longing ... turned to reminders of hope.

oh christmas trees.

Welp... here is a little Kirkbride update on our Thanksgiving break. Tonight Brendon and I are chilling in front of the TV again... watched our favorite reality TV show, Amazing Race and now a good east coast football game (Eagles vs Patriots). We are both still under the weather - fighting a bug we shared last weekend - can't seem to shake this one.

Although, we were sick... we still found room to be thankful and to celebrate along with the nation... eating some yummy turkey. We ate with the Tuckers from church - it was a diverse crowd - some of their extended family -a young family with two toddlers and their grandparents - also a "80 something" year old woman who is a 40 year native of the house across the street from the Tuckers... It was a fun experience and a great way to begin our Thanksgiving's together.

We also spent quality time with our friends the Brubakers, Sara and Joel - Joel is on my RA staff (but still a month older than me) and Sara is his loving wife that has been fun to get to know... We did lots of fun things... went to a wedding of my boss, traveled with them to Walmart and Starbucks in Geneseo and ate lots of meals together and watched a few movies. The Lord blessed us with another young married couple in a very similar place in life to share life with for this year.

So... this may dissappoint you but due to the illness in out little family - there was no trip to Cleveland to Caribou and Chipotle... and no trip cut down our first live tree together. But we did have a successful shopping trip, where we bought eachother presents with out the other knowing... man, I still hate secrets.

So ... Bren is now asleep on my shoulder... I should take him to bed... (I love this man)

We will check in again soon!

grateful for you all - thanks for reading our boring blog!

The brides.

It is begining to feel a lot like home...

So, here I am the "sneaky" blogger of the family... Brendon set this thing up but I am the one who thinks to write in it. He is off to a men's residence life event this morning, "Intercourse and Ice Cream"... I am fine with missing out on that one.

For Thanksgiving break this year... no plans to travel home, we will have Thanksgiving with a dear family in the church who have three young children (one they just adopted from Guatemala this summer) I am really looking forward to getting to know this strong God-fearing family. We do plan to bring MN to us - we are headed to the closest Chipotole and Caribou, in Cleveland, to celebrate Thanksgiving in a non-traditional sort of way- 2 days after the real celebration and feel a little Minnesota love.

I must say though, this place is beginning to feel a lot more like home. Being a part of Fillmore Weselyan, is the first time since, South Hills Community Church in California where I feel at home in the church. I know people would miss us if we weren't there (pardon the fact that we program all the needs of their children...) Sunday morning becomes a good time to reconnect with those who have been busy throughout the week. The families in the church are so kind and interesting to get to know - it is like one big adventure discovering the connections between the families and discovering their stories of why they live in Fillmore, NY.

This afternoon, I am headed to my favorite "treasure" in the surrounding Houghton area, I am taking 2 of my girls from last year to, what many of us affectionately call, "Coffee plus Coffee" because the sign out front says "Cafe plus Coffee" (Cafe is French for Coffee). It is not much like a Starbucks but it is close second... the classic coffee shop, with "the regulars." I am one now, my RD staff and our boss head out every Friday morning to hang out and catch up on life at the Coffee Coffee, Alyce the server knows what I order every week... Tall stack of pancakes and a coffee or a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and coffee. She wasn't there one week... her mom was... now, that was an experience.

The life and the people...

Well... it has been a while since our last post... sorry to keep you all in suspense - because I am sure you were... :)

Bren and I are currently watching a movie and I of course am "multitasking" because I have recently been finding it impossible to just sit and watch a movie with out falling asleep!

We just returned home from a trip to Minnesota for my oldest sister's wedding... everything went well and the wedding was beautiful. We are sorry that we missed seeing many of our friends and family because of the busy wedding week but for those who we saw, we were blessed and encouraged by our interactions with you! It was fun to come home to a wedding and experience the wedding from an outsider's perspective again.

I write to now allow you to explore a bit of our new community out in Houghton... those friends who we interact with daily and who are now shaping our lives during our first year together...

At the local corn maize with 30 of our youngest friends from the Fillmore Weslyan Youth group...

A group of our new friends, Houghton students, after a long roadtrip and awesome Shane and Shane concert in Grove City, PA.

A night of Settlers fun...

So the movie is almost over (interesting movie... Reign Over Me) as I have been distracted ... we are gonna sign off now.... we will update soon - Enjoy the last days of our gorgeous fall - New York, Minnesota, California and abroad!!

The Kirkbride's

Life with the Kirkbrides... our place.

September 18, 2007

So Emily here this time, finally posting some pics!! Since most of you live far away- we decided to bring Houghton to you! Hope you enjoy our photos!

Today is Brendon's first official full day of work - after being announced in the church on Sunday and pastor's traditional Monday day off - he headed off to a morning prayer meeting and other things throughout the day! Wow, we both keep looking at eachother in awe of how the Lord is orchestrating our lives day after day... God is so good - I love seeing Bren in his prime out here...

To the left is a pic of our house... just kidding it is one of the buildings I "direct" there are 4 other buildings - We just happen to live in this one!

Above is a picture of the front of the church where Bren will be spending most of his days!

Below is a little tour of the place we call home!

Here I am coming out of the bathroom into our "living room" - Grandma Kate's dinette set is working wonderfully... Bren painted the place our "Kirkbride Shade of Yellow" (the first yellow we had was disatorus... but I am thankful for Bren's painting expertise!)

This is our HUGE kitchen... love it!! I marinated 200 pieces of chicken on that counter and cut up 60LBS of potatoes - all at the same time! Thank God for hospitality and big kitchens!

Here are two pictures of our cozy living room...

Below is our tiny but cozy bedroom... I love how it all turned out - the walls are just waiting for some paint in the coming weeks... Thanks Grandma Harvey for that great blanket... it matches our bedding beautifully... who woulda known!

We love you and hope you enjoyed our tour!

Joy to you!

The Kirkbrides

1 Thessalonians 5:16 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus... hold on to the good. avoid evil."

Amish Paradise

As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain

I take a look at my wife and realize shes very plain

But thats just perfect for an amish like me

You know I shun fancy things like electricity

At 4:30 in the morning Im milkin cows

Jebediah feeds the chickens and jacob plows... fool

And Ive been milkin and plowin so long that

Even ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone

Im a man of the land, Im into discipline

Got a Bible in my hand and a beard on my chin

But if I finish all of my chores and you finish thine

Then tonight were gonna party like its 1699

We been spending most our lives

Living in an amish paradise

Ive churned butter once or twice

Living in an amish paradise

Its hard work and sacrifice

Living in an amish paradise

We sell quilts at a discount price

Living in an amish paradise

__________________________

On any given day it is quite common for Emily and I to see the Amish rolling around in their horse and buggies- harvesting grain and shopping in our local "marts" or the Jubliee - 5 minutes down the road. Just yesterday Emily saw an Amish woman carrying her baby into Joann Fabrics - not something you see everyday in Plymouth, MN. We find ourselves daily adjusting to living in the novelty of our little Western NY Amish paradise.

I know it has been sometime since we last posted so Emily and I want to catch you up to speed. We love married life, although it is sometimes hard, Emily and I are learning a ton about eachother which has been quite a journey (you married couples know what I am talking about). Emily has been busy transitioning from buildings and getting to know new people. She has a great staff of RA's and we spend a lot of time with them. Emily has some awesome events coming up ranging from a chicken bbq (we get to cook some 200 pieces of chicken, 60 lbs of potato's, and tons of corn for the residents living in the FaT's), and a drive-in movie which requires us to set up a 30x20 ft moving screen on the lawn in front of where we live.

I have recently been hired by Fillmore Wesleyan Church as the Assistant Pastor. I will be working with the Children's and Youth Ministry along with a handful of other things like taking out the trash. I am actually really happy to be working here. The people are great and I am doing something that I love and have a desire to do. With this position I'm pretty much like a little kid jumping into the deep end of the pool and learning how to swim. I am working with another young pastor - so we look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for the church. It is good to begin this new journey and finally beginning to feel like the man of our family. Aside from work and ministry, I am playing on a intramural football team with some college guys (we predict winning the championship) and of course miss Emily keeps me on my toes.

As we both transition and adjust we look forward to seeing what the Lord has instore...

-the 'brides

Since the Wedding

Family and Friends,

Emily and I would both like to say how thankful we are for all of you. I know we took off in a hurry after the wedding and honeymoon and were not able to say good by to many of you, but we want you to know that you're loved and missed.

Emily and I arrived in Houghton on the 2nd of August. Some people say that life is an adventure and needless to say the trip out here was an adventure in itself. For us to move out to the college we had to rent a truck that was roughly 16 ft long and a tow dolly for our vehicle. But when the day came to pick up the truck and dolly the rental company that we were using didn't have are stuff we needed even though we had a reservation stored in their computer system. So they gave us what they had which was a 26 ft truck and a car carrier! This was way more then what we need and it felt like we were driving a Semi-truck halfway across the country. IT WAS AWESOME! With that said, Em and I arrived safe and sound and ready to begin our lives together NY. Just for the record I am still a Twins, Wild, and Vikings fan (Sorry Jake...even though I am closer to Boston then you are and in the mist of Yankee followers I can't go over to the Sox's side. Got to stay true to my roots!).

As many of you know, my BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING wife Emily is a Resident Director at Houghton. Now...some of you are thinking that she is just a glorified babysitter of out of control college students but shes not. She is actually overseeing Five, yes five resident buildings called the Town Houses and Flats (a.k.a. the FaTs). These buildings consist of upperclassman who all throughout the week are getting high, drunk, and sleeping with their boyfriends and girlfriends. Just kidding this is a Christian college people...that stuff doesn't happen here...right???! Anyway...in all seriousness, what Emily basically does is oversee and manage a staff of 5 RA's and their buildings, programs and organizes resident activities, develops student leaders, handles disciplinary issues, and among other things she will be get a masters in higher education, in the meantime she is working on getting a masters in being married to me. So she has a lot going on and she LOVES IT!

Currently I am looking for a job...which is something you can be praying about. I want to be the man and be able to provide for the wife and I can't do that if I am spending all my time reading books, playing board games, hanging with my wife, and going to 24 hour coffee shops with college students till the wee hours of the morning. The truth is that I am actually looking for a job and not just sitting around on my but all day wait for one to fall into my lap. I have had a couple of interviews and still one to come. Right know my best two options are an Assistant Pastor position at a local church and a Programing Assistant Position here at Houghton College. So really be praying for that...because...I want a job!

Well I believe this blog entries is coming to an end. Just a little FYI, Emily and I are going to be in Minnesota the third weekend of October, so mark your calenders. The reason for our visit is Emily's oldest sister Kimberly is getting married which is very exciting and something that we are looking forward too. We hope all of you are doing well. You are in our thoughts and prays. Know that we love, miss, and look forward to seeing you sometime in the future.

The Kirkbrides

P.S. We will be posting pics of the area in which we live and our apartment to give you a better feel of where we are living. So keep checking the blog for updates.