UPDATE FROM BEN CRIPPS

Here in Memphis, I am serving as Assistant Pastor at South Woods Baptist Church. Jolie works as a mommy, and is a great help to me. The boys are doing great.Adoniram (Adon for short), is 2.5, and Eli is 15 Months.


benjamincripps@gmail.com
http://benjamincripps.blogspot.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/benjamincripps
http://www.southwoodsbc.org

(Sorry, I had problems uploading the photo - Josh)

Not Joshin' Ya: More Info From Josh Moore

Bonnie and I had a baby on December 18th, 2006 – a healthy, growing, talking 9 month old Girl named Marianne Elizabeth Moore.

My insurance firm where I work was acquired by First State Bank (headquartered in Union City, TN) back in March 2007. I now serve as Regional Agency Manager for Weakley and Obion Counties, TN. Check out the First State Website at www.first-state.net.

I am most likely going to start getting my Masters of Business Administration from the University of Tennessee at Martin starting in the Spring Semester of 2008. I have to take the GMAT in a month. I was attending Southern Seminary for a couple semesters, but dropped that to focus on education that will directly impact my insurance career.

I am currently the Vice President of the Martin Rotary Club and will become the President of the Martin Rotary Club in July 2008. Check out that website at www.martinrotary.org.

Also, I am still the bi-vocational minister of education at DFBC (Dresden First Baptist Church). Check out our website at www.dresdenfbc.org for more information there. We are currently in an expansion project that will increase our sanctuary seating capacity to about 500.

Email change: personal email is josh.moore@frontiernet.net.

Mooney Makes Headlines (In A Good News Story)

We just moved into, as William would say, a "hooose" here in Mtn. Home. The law practice is rolling along, I recently defended a teacher and the case made the state paper -thankfully we won. Rachel now outranks me as an officer in the Lions Club, but that is okay because my title of Tail Twister is funnier than Secretary.

I'm a member of the advisory board of the Salvation Army here and chairman of its Planned Giving Committee. Rachel is teaching piano to several students now and they seem to like it, they keep coming back. William is practicing for the Olympics by leaping off of furniture, climbing up ladders, and throwing everything he can reach. I now know why pet monkeys are not a good idea.

Clark (Not Griswold)

Life is good here in Nashvegas. After three years of intense course study I am now billingual (English/Spanish) which has already proven useful with parents of hispanic students. - not to mention Los Portales!

Heather and I are expecting our first - a girl. We will call her Emily Morgan Clark. She is due to be born January 24th. Nursery and other asundry preperations are underway.

The band is doing well. They came in 2nd at a major competition a few weeks ago, and received excellent ratings at the Middle Tennessee Band and Orchestra Festival.

Heather is taking masters classes at Trevecca trying to get her teaching liscense to join me in the education profession. She is juggling a job, pregnancy, and college - what a multi-tasker!

That's about it for us in the Clark Clan. Life is good, and we are enjoying the American dream.

Email Adam at FieldCmndr@comcast.net

West Wing Whitt?

Paul and Courtney are enjoying their new home that they had built in Jackson, TN. Is it true that the master bedroom is in the west wing of the house? :) Just kidding.

Caiden Wilson - Keepin' it Cool....

Son of Chad and Sabrina Wilson

Are you a Card-Carrying Member?
What's In Your Wallet?

Dan, Tami, and Zeke Shackelford have recently had prayer cards made to remind people to pray for them while we are overseas.

I am writing some of you who have already committed to pray for us and have expressed a desire to keep up with us as we go around the world. I wanted to write today to let you know about the cards so that we can mail you one if you would like us to. If you would, email me with your mailing address and we will be more than happy to send you one (tamianddan@gmail.com)

For those who haven't heard, we are leaving our church in Wynne, AR this Thursday. We're going to take a few weeks to spend some time with family before going to Richmond, VA from August 6-October 3. Within two weeks of October 3, we will most likely be on the field in Central Asia, where we will be working with refugees.

I also wanted to let you know that we're going to be visiting three churches in the next month or so and I thought I would let you know where we will be in case any of you are around and are interested in seeing us. We would love to see you. July 22, we will be at Ridgeway Baptist Church in Memphis, TN in the AM and PM service. July 29, we will be at Springhill Baptist Church in Paris, TN in the morning service and at Wards Grove Baptist Church in Jackson, TN in the evening service.

Thanks again for all your prayers as we embark on this next journey in our lives. God bless.

Grace and Peace,
Dan

Jeff Ed Has Wedd!

If you want to wish him well or send him 'married man' advice: jeffedinchina@hotmail.com

Yes, That Really Is Steve Moore's Real Hair

A couple of the brothers hosted a little get together to celebrate my upcoming marriage to Lindsey, when I was in town for my sister's graduation last weekend. It was terribly good to see the brothers and catch up with each of them. Special thanks to Chuck, LawDawg Whitt, and Neal Wager for hosting, coordinating, and cooking -- a great visit and special memory, thank you.

Josh

Clark Clan Climbs - Adam & Heather

It's official - in January Heather and I will have our firstborn!! We're so excited about it, and hope that all of you share in our joy.

We had our first ultrasound last friday, and everything looked good according to the doctor (looked like a peanut if you ask me, but I think that is correct at this point in time.)

I am busy trying to catch up on my "What to expect when expecting," info. As has been said: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies."

SO- we covet your prayers for a healthy & normal pregnancy. We hope you all share in our joy, and thank you for your support.

ZAX,
Bro. ClarkLZ 443
FieldCmndr@aol.com
FieldCmndr@comcast.net

Prayer Request - Brian, Rachel, & William Mooney

Rachel, William and I were involved in a fairly serious car accident [on Friday]. Just north of Jonesboro, a large delivery truck slammed into the side of my car and drove our vehicle into a gas tanker eighteen wheeler.

The delivery truck was apparently trying to cross the highway from a side road and the driver said she just didn't see us. She was ticketed for failure to yield, quite naturally. But the police said that the gas tanker, if you can imagine, is what saved us (I guess since it didn't explode), and our being in a large vehicle. If it hadn't been for the gas tanker we would have probably slid off the road and rolled over into a flooded field. And if we had been in a car he said the eighteen wheeler would have run over us. So it could have been much worse.

An ambulance took us to the emergency room in Jonesboro. Rachel had a head injury from where her head hit the window, which we hope will not be serious, and William had two of his teeth knocked out and some cuts, which caused a great deal of bleeding and just terrified us as you might imagine. Standing there waiting on the ambulance as he bled on me and cried was one of the worst moments of my life, but we were fortunate to walk out of that car. We all got x-rays but William's was the worst because they made me hold him while he was screamed and bled all over me.

So far we have all been released from the emergency room in Jonesboro and my parents took us home to Memphis, but they said the worst was to come. We will probably be here several days to rest and make sure William is okay since we're around good hospitals here.

Don't feel sorry for us a bit though. We all feel very fortunate right now. If you saw the car you would know why. But a quick prayer for Rachel and William would be greatly appreciated by me.

We miss you all,
Brian
IREmoonsic@aol.com

Counting On Getting Married

We're doing well-- busy with life inside the Beltway (jobs, wedding preparations, travel, church, friends, family commitments). Plans are coming along and we are looking forward to celebrating with family and friends soon, at our wedding in Virginia.
Here's an update, by the numbers.....

1 bride
1 groom
1 ringbearer
7 bridesmaids
7 groomsmen
10 days on a honeymoon
39 days until we are married
100 (or so) coming to rehearsal dinner
200 (or so) coming to the wedding

07.14.07 .....The Big Day

G.I. Jeff Reports In -- Man On A Mission: Marriage!

Job at Youth Villages. It has been a great experience and practice to build a set of professional skills. I have worked with some really emotionally disturbed and neglected youth. I currently run a program that serves over 35 youth and consequently have to manager 4 master level counselors, several bachelor level supervisors and then almost 20 more bachelor level staff.

Fiancée. She is actually from Spokane Washington. She moved down here a few years ago and she actually started work for Youth Villages when I met her and started dating. She now teaches 4 years old at private school. She would like to get into international service as well. If you ask her what her mission is, she says" to hold dying babies in africa". She has a thing for dying babies. So we seem pretty well matched in career services.

Wedding. We have dated for about year and half. We are getting married on June 9th this year in Memphis. We are going to try to honeymoon up in Seattle and Canada so we can swing by her family and do a reception of some sort out there.

Take care -
Jeff Edwards
JeffEdInChina@hotmail.com

(Jeff’s explanation of why he kept his email address: If you are wondering about the email address, I am not in China anymore. I taught English in China for a while back in 04. Too much trouble to change the address to Jeffednotinchinaanymore, that just seemed pointless.)