Marathons are for lunatics...

It's been 8 days since I ran the marathon now, and I'm still feeling the effects. This is what happens when you marry into a running family, and I even dragged my Uncle Dave and Aunt Brenda down with me! What a rough road this whole marathon training was. I signed up Katie and me for the marathon back in March and I gave it to Katie in April as her college graduation present. Shortly afterward, I was in the hopstial having 18 inches of my intestines removed. That slowed down the whole training process for a few months. This summer we put in some good miles, but about 2 months before the race, Katie started having some IT band problems (a muscle in your knee). She cleared up and was able to start running 2 weeks before the marathon, at which point I inherited her injury! So I didn't run for 2 week before the race and we decided to give it a shot.

The weather was perfect for us, I have no complaints there. However, by mile 9, both of us had some killer pain from our IT bands, and we were miserable. We decided that we were going to finish this race. Katie and I had to drag each other along (she dragged me more than I dragged her), and we finished in 4:38. Wow were we in some major pain. However, it was a great picture of our lives. It shows that we can push through just about anything together! It was a great experience for us to have together, and we will always remember it!

Katie is already talking about running it next year. As for me, I'm done.

I've Been Thinking...

So I'm preaching this Sunday at my church, and I'm not quite sure how it's going to go yet. I'm really fired up about what I have to say, which is often very dangerous. Katie tells me I usually scare the kids, so maybe I'll tone it down a bit.

You see, I've really been challenged lately by Jesus' call for us to go and make disciples. I feel like we're dropping the ball so huge here, and I feel like God wants me to shout the wake-up call, so I'm going to do it. How do you change the way people think? How do you get them to care about a call from Christ that should dictate and overwhelm their whole lives? Well, that's what's on my mind. Also, I am equally guilty of not living up to this task, so I'm working on it. Pray for Laura. I ref with her, and she is very lost and confused right now. She's captivated by culture and by the lies of Satan, as so many people are, and we're working on her.

And finally, I'll challenge you...start bringing up Christ in your conversations with people. It's both your privilege and your responsibility. If He has changed your life, then be different and live the life He has called you to! Have a great day!

Big Decisions

We had an awesome weekend going to Minnesota for Katie's cousin's wedding! It was great to see the fam again, get to hang out with the cousins (Bill and the ladies, it was a blast!), and get to know some of them much better. There was plenty of dancing, which is always scary with me on the floor, but they didn't seem to mind too much. We rode our motorcycles up there, that's right, Katie rode her own bike almost 700 miles this weekend, and she did a great job!

So, here's the major development: I (Billy) am going back to school! I always thought I would eventually go back to school, but I wasn't sure when. Luckily, our interim pastor told me last week "What are you waiting for? You think you're busy? You will never be less busy!" Well, this got me thinking, and researching, and I decided to go back to school. I am hoping to attend Wheaton and get a Masters in Counseling Ministries. I've always had a desire to learn about counseling, so here I go! I will begin my pre-requisites in January and then my graduate program in the fall, which will take me 3 years (because I'm still going to work full time). I'm really excited to do this, but it will be taxing in many ways, such as time, finances and stress, so please be praying for Katie and I as we enter a crazy new phase of life. Thanks so much for your interest in our lives!

So we're new at this...

Hey Everybody! So Katie and I have talked about sending out update letters to let everyone know how we're doing, but that's just so 20th century, so we're going to start a blog. Seriously, we'd like to keep you all involved in our lives and we'd like you to keep us in your prayers, so we're going to use this to keep you updated on our lives. We'll try to post a blog once a week or so.