Honeymoon.

While I have a few minutes and access to a computer (those two don't coincide too much these days!), I figured I would post just a few pictures from our wonderful, fabulous, relaxing, fun honeymoon:).

My sweet husband surprised me with the honeymoon destination and on our wedding day actually gave me a binder chock full of informational pages. For months we used the code word Antarctica to refer to our honeymoon since that was the answer Nat gave at one point when I asked where we were going. Anyway, on the front of the binder was a cover page with pictures of penguins, ice flows, a cruise ship with a snowy background and an acrostic:

Anne

Nat

Take

A

Romantic

Car

Trip

Involving

Coastal

America

When I opened it up, I was THRILLED to discover we were heading up to Maine! Out of all the New England states, Maine was the only one I hadn't been to, but I've always wanted to go:).

We actually had a few different parts to our honeymoon which was fine with me. We spent two days in Westborough, Massachusetts and used one of the days to go to Boston - a place I went to two years ago with friends. From there we traveled up to Booth Bay Harbor, Maine and had a lovely view of the harbor from the bed and breakfast we stayed at.

We then went on to Bar Harbor, Maine and spent three days in and around Acadia National Park

and saw some lovely views like this:

Sunset on Cadillac Mountain

Taking a kayak tour of parts of Acadia

Climbing Gorham Mountain - boulder after boulder!

Celebrating one week of marriage on top of the mountain!

Watching the waves crash onto the rocks

The whole trip was absolutely lovely and my only complaint was eating out for 10 straight days... after a while, the choices all start looking the same:).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since coming home, my brother has finished tiling our apartment kitchen floor, so now we just have to move things in and around our place. We're both working and have other "little" things come up to keep us busy, but eventually we'll have this place put together! In the meantime we are rejoicing in the Lord and His goodness to us. What a blessing to be married to such a godly man!!!

Mr. & Mrs.

Just returned from our wonderful honeymoon trip to Maine and figured my lovely blog readers deserved at least one picture:).

I'll post more when I can!!!

~Mrs. Anne Williams~

Wedding Day.

Wedding day is HERE!!!!

And I'm excited;).

You're Invited!

The craziness of the day is about to begin (siblings are in town, you know!), but in case I didn't have a chance to post later, I wanted to make sure I got this up now for anyone who is interested.

My church is going to be streaming our wedding online, so if any of you had absolutely nothing to do around 2 PM (EST) on Saturday, feel free to watch the wedding from the comfort of your home:).

• Go to Lehigh Valley Baptist Church.

• On the left hand side of the page, you will see this:

Check out our LIVE video stream on Sundays at 10:30 AM and 6:30 PM EST by clicking the link to the right.

• Keep refreshing the page until the live/off air box goes from gray to red.

• From there it will ask you something like do you want to connect through low band or high band. (This is the part where I wish my techy side would be so much more up-to-date!)

It's pretty easy from there; I figured it out every week when I was in Thailand and would watch my church's service online:).

Of course if you want to come in person to the wedding, that would be terrific! The more the merrier:).

No Wedding Woes - Only A Choice To Rejoice!

This morning I read this verse, not realizing how much I would need it for today:

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." ~ Psalm 126:6

Last Thursday I finally decided to take my winter coat to a local dry cleaners and grabbed Nat's wedding suit as well, since it needed to be dry cleaned. I've used this particular cleaner before, so the thought didn't really occur to me to go anywhere else. Actually it did because I had a coupon for another dry cleaners, but that was 20 minutes away and I didn't figure the discount was worth it. So I went to the cleaners, turned in my coat and Nat's suit, and the lady cheerfully gave me my slip with the pick-up day for Wednesday.

Sunday night I had just gotten to bed around midnight when I heard sirens go screaming by for a couple of moments. I genuinely thought maybe someone had gotten hurt shooting off fireworks and was being rushed to the hospital, but that wasn't the case. When I was reading the news on Monday morning, a particular article caught my attention: Fire in Emmaus Strip Mall. My heart jumped into my throat as I read the article and realized the fire started in the very dry cleaner shop I took Nat's suit and my coat to. Trying to be calm and not jump to conclusions, I thought perhaps it wasn't as extensive as the article made it out to be. I called Nat and mentioned the possibility of there being issues with our stuff, but we figured we had to wait to find out for sure because the holiday was still being celebrated.

After trying several times this morning, Nat was finally able to get through to the cleaners and the confirmation was in: everything was completely destroyed. Nat's tailor-made suit from Thailand -- his wedding day suit -- was no longer available.

As the news slowly sank into my disbelieving head, my ever-logical sweetie calmly stated he was going to implement Plan B: go look for a new one and keep his eyes open for divine appointments. It was firmly established in both of our minds that this was no mistake and God was going to use this mishap to get some precious seed out to someone!

Nat returned this evening with the report that no less than three people were those someones!!! As he explained about his adventures to the mall and talking to these three people, my mind drifted back to the verse I read this morning and I realized sometimes the Lord reminds me in a very clear way that there can never be a price tag put on getting some seed to a lost person.

This all might sound very trite and nonspiritual, but the tug of sentimentality can be a bit strong at times. We happened to be very partial to our clothing items, but when I put it all into perspective, I know Nat and I will be married regardless of whether he wore a tailor-made-in-Thailand-just-for-him suit or a JC Penny special.

In addition to growing in grace over suit situations, I've spent the day and now the wee hours of Wednesday morning making pie shells and baking!

I've chosen to have pies and other desserts served at the reception, rather than a huge wedding cake so of course that meant making them all:). In between all the rolling of pie dough, some family members wandered in to stay for several days, so I decided I would rather finish all my baking tonight while it wasn't in the triple digits weather-wise and no little kiddos underfoot:). The last batch is in the oven, 8 apple pies have been delegated to two of my bridesmaids, and that leaves me with 6 more to make on Friday. Overall I feel as if I haven't put too much stress on myself and now I can enjoy time with my family before the big day comes on Saturday!

Only 3 more days:).

Happy 4th!

Having been out of the country a few times on the 4th of July, it makes me appreciate being in the country on this date so much more! Being an American overseas doesn't automatically mean you don't celebrate Independence Day, but it's just, well, different. In fact, I even blogged about it in Thailand three years ago (which I cannot believe I went to Thailand the first time three years ago!).

On Sunday we had a special dinner on the grounds picnic at church and of course that translates into volleyball in the afternoon:). After the volleyball games were over, some of us spontaneously put together a group to head to Bethlehem and watch the fireworks from the Fey Bridge. The memory circuit came full circle for me because my family used to live in Bethlehem and we could always see some of the fireworks that were shot off from Sand Island. Of course it was so special to sit on the bridge with my sweetie (and other friends too!) and watch the fireworks:).

It's always fun trying to work your way out of a crowd and get back to the van. My sensitive-to-the-Lord man took the opportunity to pass out some tracts and struck up a good conversation with a couple of people. How I praise the Lord for my man!

Only 5 more days 'til our wedding!

Camp Closure.

"You're going to camp?!?" I can't tell you how many times I heard that in the days (and hours!) leading up to camp:). Most people were slightly baffled that Nat and I would take off for camp with only a few weeks left until our wedding, but it was such a natural fit for us and so off we went!

Bro. Rufus Edmisten was the preacher for the week and did a fabulous job of dropping quick one-liners and giving me some meat to chew on from the Word of God. I've looked for a site to link to Bro. Edmisten, but alas, I've had no success so I'll just direct ya'll to the messages he preached at camp - here. Bro. Edmisten preached revival meetings at my church 6 or 7 years ago, and I remember the Lord using him in a tremendous way. I was thrilled to hear he was going to be our camp speaker and he left me with a lot of things to ponder...

• I see a wreck, but God sees a great victory.
• I must take sides with God against myself.
• God says, "I love you" and means "I'll take care of you."
• I'm not on probation with God; I'm in!
• In order to walk with God and be in His will, I must abstain from things that displease Him.
• We can't call Him Lord and shirk our duty.
• God requires that we come into His presence with singing.
• Use the Bible as a mirror, not as a telescope or magnifying glass for others.
• A true testimony is not what is said, but what is done.
• There are no tough cases for Jesus!
• Your commitment proves you believe.
• When the ground is prepared, the seed will have no problem bringing forth fruit.
• Sin should wreck my day until I confess and get it right.
• Confession brings caution, helps humility, should lead to victory over sin and brings cleansing.
• Sin makes me dirty before God. God looks through my clean clothes and sees the junk of my heart.
• God would not tolerate sin in a lost person's life so it's not allowed in a saved person's life.
• Sin has a way of silencing my witness.
• There is no security in darkness.
• Get tough on sin!
• Refusing to confess shuts God out. It turns a cold shoulder to the Christ of Calvary.
• No one is too bad to get saved, but some are too good to get saved.
• The security of an anchor is felt through the storm.
• Don't give the devil credit for anything!

What a week! Preaching, canoeing, eating, playing games, encouraging campers, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, sunburn, spending time with my sweetie on a midnight canoe ride, and finally pulling in to the church parking lot Friday night made up our week at camp.

Saturday morning we quickly switched gears and have officially jumped into wedding mode! Instead of having a big wedding cake, I've opted to make 30 pies to serve at the reception. So that's on the agenda for today: buying all those ingredients! Family starts coming in late Sunday night... and next week will zoom by so fast.

Saturday, July 10th has finally come!