Liberty Graduation 2009...

Here are some pictures of our recent celebration! Benj and I graduated from Liberty University this past weekend and we are so excited to finally be done! The first picture is of the stadium full of graduates, family, and friends. The second is of me and 3 others that were a part of the first graduating class in the Children's Ministry department! And the last two are of our families and of Benj and I! Enjoy!

Finally College Graduates....

Hello from Virginia for the last time!

It is an exciting week here at Liberty University! Tomorrow is finally graduation and I just wanted to write a little note before life at home gets crazy with wedding plans! My parents and several members of Benj's family came down to Liberty to celebrate with us as we graduate tomorrow morning! I will be graduating with a bachelors in Religion/Children's Ministries and Benj will be graduating with a bachelors in Worship/Biblical Studies! We are so thankful that are families and friends are here to share this exciting moment with us and so thankful that God has truly been the One to bless us and give us the strength to carry us through!

Today we spent the day packing, going to practice for graduation, running errands, and spending time with family and friends this evening! Tomorrow morning we will arrive at the school bright and early, there are over 6,000 students graduating tomorrow and it seems unreal! Ben Stein will be our keynote speaker and after the large gathering, we will divided up into different buildings for our department graduations where we receive our diplomas! We are so thankful that God has placed us at this university at just the right time and could not be more excited about where He is about to take us!

After graduation tomorrow, Benj will be staying for a few days and then traveling down with Chip (our lead pastor) and his wife Brittni to move things down to Florida. He will be able to look at a condo for us to rent and we are praying that God will open the doors for us to live there. All the while I will be coming home so that I can begin putting the finishing touches on wedding plans! Benj will fly back after that weekend and continue to work on wedding planning and fund raising! I will be sure to post some pictures as soon as I can of graduation and I am hoping to hear from and see many of you at home soon!

Please continue to pray for Discover Church, Our personal Fund raising, and strength for Benj and I (and our families) as we prepare for the soon approaching wedding!

May God be Glorified in all that we do,
~Steph

3rd Blog This Week.....It's been busy!

Exposure Trip to NC…

This past weekend we continued our preparation for Discover Church. Most of our team traveled to Raleigh, NC to visit Journey Church. We left Saturday afternoon to arrive just in time for their evening service. After a great evening service, we were able to sit in their staff meeting concerning the service. We were able to hear how they wanted some things to change and heard encouragement for the things done well in the service. Afterward, they took us all out to eat and two of the staff members let us all stay in their homes overnight!

The next day we went back and forth between their two campuses to see how their church was structured. Journey Church is about 3 years old and they have just started another campus in a movie theater which we have not been able to see until now. There were some space issue with the children’s rooms but they did a great job with the space that was available! It is amazing to see how much strength and flexibility God gives them each week as they serve in different ways. I especially liked the children’s ministry and how it was structured! The hallways and rooms were painted in interesting ways and they utilized spaces well.

Church planting has opened my eyes to a brand new world of doing church and I am so thankful for the opportunities we have had as a team to see how others are doing it! Not only are they learning experiences—they are also an encouragement as we prepare ourselves and as we will be starting very soon!

Here are some pictures of their set up. I wish I would have taken more pictures (esp. of the theater) but here they are anyway!


This is where the adult services were held. They had great lighting and the stage area was set up well. They video recorded the Saturday night service and used it on Sunday morning for one of the campuses.


Here's the kids room where they came together as a large group. In the back they built an extra room and the orange and green doors spin so that they can go in and out of the backstage area.

Church Plant Convo...

Here are some pictures from yesterday's Convocation. Pastor Jonathan Falwell preached a powerful sermon that the late Jerry Falwell had written years ago and would preach at the end of every school year. Then he had many of the church planters going out this year to plant churches come forward (some to California, Virginia, Florida!, and even South Africa). He challenged and encouraged us all and Dr. Elmer Towns prayed over all of the teams! What a blessing! My prayer is that hearts were stirred for church planting yesterday! Praise God for this opportunity and blessing!!!

To read the full story click here

Only a few more weeks....

Hey Everyone!

We are just wrapping up the semester and are in our last full week of classes! I am so thankful that God has given me the strength to finish strong in school and He is providing daily!





Before Easter Benj had his Senior Worship Recital and did a wonderful job with his team! We had a great time visiting friends and family at home which was much needed as we come near to the end of the semester! This was our first time home since January and the whole weekend was great!

We also had some major blessings come our way this week! Benj and I have received a couple of financial and prayer supporters this week, Praise God! We are also preparing to share with a Sunday School class and the Connection Service at the First Wesleyan Church on May 24th! We are so excited to see how God is providing and ask that you would be praying for us as we finish school, prepare to share about the church plant, and as we prepare for the wedding. We are still looking for housing and trying to plan for moving and such. All of the planning is overwhelming at times but I feel like we are more excited than anything! I am so thankful for all of you who have been praying for us and all of the encouragement that we have receive in our preparation with Discover Church!

~Steph

Visit our website at www.thelitters.com

Unexpected Blessing.....

I just wanted to share some excitement from this week!

On Tuesday I was at work when a girl that I vaguely know from another office came up to visit someone. As we were talking, she shared with me that she had just arrived from being overseas for the semester and that she would be moving to Florida in the next few weeks! She had heard through a mutual friend of ours that Benj and I were going to Jupiter and she asked about it. I was so excited when she said she would be in the Wellington area (only 20-30 minutes from us) as a nanny and Spanish teacher for a family down there! It's exciting to think that we a new friend that will be in the area!!! She was such an encouragement and said she would keep here ears and eyes open for housing opportunities for us! What a blessing to see how God is moving in our lives. Please continue to pray that He will open up doors to get an apartment soon. I was also able to share with her a little about the church plant and exchange phone numbers so that we can get in contact when Benj and I move to Jupiter. I know this may not seem like much but it is a huge blessing to know that we are already seeing God form support systems around us! Praise God for His creativity and His awesome hand in our lives.

For more updates on what Benj and I and our team are doing, you can visit our website at www.thelitters.com

Coming to a close.....

It’s Almost Easter!!!

We are coming to the close of the semester here at Liberty and so much is about to happen! It’s exciting to see what God is doing in our lives and I just want to update you all on some upcoming things…

At the end of this week, Benj and I will be coming home for Easter break and I am so excited! After we get back to school, we will finish up the last 3 weeks of school, final exam week, then GRADUATION on May 9th! God is so good and I am so thankful that He has given me the strength to get through school!!! I’ll have two online classes to finish after graduating but those will come later in the summer :)

After graduation, I will come home to prepare for the wedding and we are hoping that Benj will be able to move some things down to Florida before coming back to Ohio! May 30th is coming quickly and I am excited that we are finishing up the final details of planning. Please be praying for Benj and I and our team as we figure out moving plans. We may have an opportunity to move things down to Florida before the wedding which Benj may do with some friends, however, we are still praying that God will show us what to do and that He will provide through it all! He is continuing to bless us with opportunities to share about our future with Discover Church and we would love to share those things with you!

We have posted some new blogs if you want to check them out at www.thelitters.com
Please email us at thelitters@gmail.com if you would like our monthly newsletters and prayer calendars.

Love and Miss you all,
Steph