Kat and Kahli leave Cali

Since June 25th Kahli has been with us. It has been a marvelous time and her mom Katrina aka Nana, joined us on July 11th. These are just a few things Kahli did while here in sunny southern California!
1. Took at least 30 dance classes
2. Horton Plaza...an amazing mall
3. The Island of Coronado
4. The San Diego Zoo
5. Sea World from 2:30-9pm with only Faith, Isaac and Kahli pushing a stroller
6. 6 church services
7. Fed the homeless
8. Went to LA
9. Saw Hollywood, the Kodak Theater, Mann's Chinese Theater, the Walk of Fame
10. Went to the beach 5-7 times
11. Watched fireworks on the July 4th and had a marshmallow fight after
12. Went to see the movie Wall - E
13. Ate at least, well I really have no idea, but a she ate a ton of corn quesadillas.
14.Went to Beverly Hills
15.Ate at a Wendy's restaurant on Sunset Blvd.

16.Experienced LA traffic...going nowhere fast!
17.Saw the Red Carpet for Mariah Carie
18.Actually drove in California
19.Toured a Coast Guard ship. A friend of ours is the Captain of the ship and he and his crew were heading for Alaska but stopped over in San Diego.
20.Had her eyebrows waxed
21.Had a pedicure
22.Rode in a convertible
23.Rode rides at Mission Beach
24.Surfed
25.Went boogie boarding
26.Hung out with Uncle Greg
27.Did 30 loads of laundry
28.Emptied the dishwasher 20 times
29.Saw a diabetes specialist

30.Had lots of laughs with her Mimi

31.Went to Old Town San Diego and had dinner with our friend Annie
32.Met a ton of people
33.Watched and recorded,"So You Think You Can Dance" every Wed. and Thurs. night and then we all watched them over again to "critique."
34.Received hundreds of hugs and kisses from Faith and Isaac


35.Lots, and lots of tears at the airport as we all said our goodbyes.

We love you Kahli and Nana and thanks for your awesome visit!!!!!

Harbor Church OB Worship

We had a wonderful time of Praise and Worship this past week. We are quickly out growing our room but it actually makes our times together so special with the Lord. God continues to bring the hurting to this place. We are seeing many reaching and searching for the truth. They have told us they feel led here even though they have no understanding of God or Jesus.

We thank our Heavenly Father for His faithfulness to bring His lost sheep home.

Pray that we will continue to be obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading. Many of our new friends are homeless and have many wounds and scars. We count it a privilege to feed them and mostly love them and share how crazy God is about them.

Congratulations to Andrew and Rebekah! Our church body was so blessed to observe Andrew asking for Rebeka's hand in marriage!!!

We are also thankful for how God is working in others lives to bring them to freedom from addictions. This is a hard road but they are hanging on so tightly to their Saviour.

Work Day At OB Elementary

Back on Saturday, July 12, our launch team gathered to show love in a practical way to the community of OB by painting and cleaning around OB Elementary. Our family has loved this school all school year. It was so encouraging to see twenty five folks share in our love. It was amazing what you can get done in one day!

Let's Get Started

She's Here!!!!

My best friend Katrina Hubbard who lives in SC finally made it on Friday night!!! We have not seen each other in six months. Her daughter Kahli has been with us since June and we've had a blast! Faith and Isaac have been literally counting down the days for her arrival on a specially made calendar. My kids call her "Nana". Isaac thought she and Kahli were here to stay forever, so he was a little upset when we told him for only 2 weeks.

Katrina and I are going on a girls only outing on Tuesday. We are renting a convertible and heading up the coast. It will be 24 hours (a little more actually) of kid free fun and six months of catching up conversation. We are suppose to spend the night in Santa Barbara but the wild fires may prevent us from going that far.

My back has not gotten much better. The physical therapy has only aggravated my nerves but I am still pushing through it. They have me on nerve medication and I can hardly fit into any of my clothes which is so sad since I have a lot of weight to lose anyway. At least I feel good. Still no sign of pituitary problems. I go to LA next week. I am really interested to hear what my doc says.

Please be in prayer for Kahli. She is seeing a diabetes specialist on Monday. My friend and pastor's wife Karen Klein is an Endocrinologist and has set Kahli up with an appointment. Karen and Bob are church planters for Harbor La Jolla and Mira Mesa. She has been such a blessing and help to me during my illness. Kahli is a very brittle diabetic and having some new eyes to look at her case will hopefully be beneficial.

Fireworks, Marshmallows, Oh My!

Last night we had a blast! Our church had a BBQ at our community pool then we were heading out to see some fireworks. About 500 people paddled out by the OB pier to view the fireworks and then the rest of the beach and streets were filled with thousands of people. Jim viewed the fireworks from his surf board of course but we found out at the BBQ that people were actually selling their parking spots for $40-$100. So, Kahli and the kids and me set off in the van to view fireworks from wherever we could. I was just curious about the whole selling of parking spots so we drove downtown OB. They were right! People walked all the way from our house! But, in a moment of divine intervention, an elderly couple got in their car and left only a few blocks from the beach. We quickly took their space!!!! WE were so excited and couldn't believe it!

So we grabbed our chairs and headed for the beach with the masses. Almost every spot on the sand was taken but we squeezed in. We watched all the surfers making their way to the ocean in a long line.

The fireworks were great! They lasted about 35 minutes and the finale was incredible. Now for the really freaky, cool part! OB has a Marshmallow fight after the fireworks. We had heard about it but you really had to be there to believe it. I guess Southern Californians know they are never going to see snowfall and just decided to use the closest thing that represented snow.

The people started chanting, "Marshmallow Fight" right after the fireworks. There were marshmallows going every direction! Faith and Isaac didn't bring any but it didn't matter. Marshmallows were landing at their feet. It was more like an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Isaac was doing the army crawl to avoid being hit but grabbing up all the marshmallows for his arsenal. We found marshmallows of every size. I even had a whole bag thrown at me! Kahli couldn't resist, she jumped right into the fight and I sat in my chair collecting the ones that came my way to hand off to the kids. We stayed until most of the crowd cleared out and then headed for our car.

It was a great way to celebrate our nation's independence. I'm pretty sure our founding fathers never dreamed marshmallows would be used to observe July 4th. I guess it is better having Marshmallows "bursting in air" than bombs any day, at least on American soil.

Happy Independence Day! by M. Huster

You can definitely tell that summer is here because of all of the extra people in San Diego...i.e. tourists. Last weekend OB had it's annual chili cook-off and street fair. Thousands showed up and took over our little community. We couldn't meet at our school because of the festival so we had our meeting at the park across the street from our house. We had the OB pause...planes flying over head but it was a good time.

Tomorrow, we are having a July 4th party at our pool and then heading for the beach to see the fireworks.

Kahli has been such a treasure and we have had a blast with her. Today, she and I got out and did a little girl time. She has been taking dance classes and lovin' it! The kids adore her and Katrina is counting down the days until she arrives!

A few prayer requests and praise...
1. Jim's dad had ear surgery this week and all went well.
2. Please continue to pray for Cameron ( Jim's sis with Leukemia).
3. Courtney...she is in AZ getting help with her anxiety and OCD. She will be back in August.
4. My side of the family which has lost a brother and a brother- in- law.

Have a great Holiday!