chrisanddree

We have had a crazy roller coaster ride this summer and just like a roller coaster it is over before we know it!

We started in June by taking our students to the Alive '08 music festival. God did "more than we could ask or imagine" through a music festival! Our students seemed to take a deeper step in their faith. We had the joy of baptizing 6 students a week after we returned and have baptized another since then and have one waiting for his family's schedule to cooperate and then he will also "take the plunge."

I love the way God displays His presence and power through baptism. Chris always says it is an outward expression of an inward change. I can only imagine how the angels celebrate when we see a physical representation of something they have seen spiritually. He makes ALL things NEW!

The thing about it is that these students live in a real world in which their enemy is trying to steal, kill and destroy. It would be naive to think that their battle is finished once they show their commitment. The opposite is actually true, their battle has only just begun. It is our job as disciplers to equip them to fight and to stand with them. The frustrating thing is that we can't do it for them. The choices are theirs. Watching them make poor choices is definitely a low.

The great thing is that that isn't the end. God is working and our hope is fully in Him. Our job right now is to look hard at the way we have always done things and change what he directs us to change to disciple better, to usher them where deep calls unto deep. Our belief that God's people grow best in community is affirmed in us over and over and over again. Relationships are a key to change. Harry (a 15 year old students that spends a lot of time with us and who we love very much) just quoted Proverbs 27:17 to me that states, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpen another." (By the way... He totally showed Chris and I up on that one...)

If you are praying for us, thank you and please keep it up. Bellevue needs Jesus!!!

Well, we have lived in Ohio almost 6 months. In some ways we are still adjusting but for the most part we have settled in and are making this home.

Our youth group is going just fine. We have about 25 students at youth group. They are not the same students all the time, just the same number, funny how that works. We just moved our large group night, called Fusion to Sundays. We will now be having small groups on Wednesdays. God has made it clear to us that he wants us to grow deep and then wide meaning we are striving to deepen our students faith before we grow in numbers. That would be a good way to pray for them!

Chris is also working hard at the Discipleship arm of his job. He has worked at building up the Women's, Men's and SUnday School ministries. He has also started Community Group leader training. We are looking to launch Community Groups in the Fall.

Needless to say our schedule can be fiercely busy and we are learning how to put boundaries in our lives so we are able to continue pouring out our lives here in Bellevue.

We miss our great friends in PA and think daily what a treasure they have been. God has supplied some great friendships here and we are grateful for that.

The girls are doing good. Noelle is learning more and more everyday. She has great interest in her letters right now so we are running with that!

Ashton is chugging right along in homeschool. She is learning to multiply and has quite a good understanding of the concept. SHe has also learned to write in cursive. She does a great job and continues to improve. I am very proud of her and have had a great time teaching her. God has really blessed our time together.

I suppose that does it for now. Sorry for the great delay in communication.

As always, thanks for your continued prayers!!!

This is a picture of us on the bay of Lake Erie. It is really pretty. Cedar Point, the amusement park is very faintly in the background. We are about 20 minutes from the lake. We think that is pretty cool.

We have been settling in to our new surroundings. People in Ohio talk really fast and never say y'all. Other than that they are the same as everyone else in the world!

The people we have met are amazing. We had people helping us like mad when we were getting our house ready to live in. You wouldn't believe the support we had and the number of hours that were put into making our house a home. I will be posting before and after pictures in a bit.

We are not settled in a routine yet, but as soon as we are we will have more regular communication like this one.

Everything we have prayed for for so long is right here in our hands. I cannot express how grateful I am and humbled too. We miss our families and our Pennsylvania family like crazy. I am more convinced everyday that this is right where we should be!

Our students are terrific. We have a good mix of those who are quite spiritual mature to those who haven't a clue yet. We are trying to get to know them better everyday and enjoying every minute of it! We have our fall kickoff on September 12th so we are focused on making that excellent.

I started homeschool with Ashton about a week and a half ago. We are doing half days right now. We are getting the hang of it and God has provided some friends for her already so that is great! I am really looking forward to our year together!

Later for all of you in Blog-land. Thanks for praying and hanging with us!

Well, it is happening. We are moving. I wanted everyone to know how to reach us so here is our contact info...

Address:
Chris, Andrea, Ashton, & Noelle Hogue
146 Robert Ave.
Bellevue, OH 44811

Chris (419)217-6649
Dree (419)217-6652

Emails are the same as follows:
cdhogue@gmail.com
dreehogue@gmail.com

"Pastor Chris'" work:
Bellevue Alliance Church
1001 Monroe Street
Bellevue, OH 44811

We do not have a land line just yet at our new house but if we get one we will let you all know what the number is.

We close on our house at 11 AM on Friday the 3rd. We pack the truck in PA on Aug. 9th after we do some fix-ups to the house in OH.

Leaving our Penns Valley family is terribly hard. We love them all so very much.

If you are praying please pray that as a family we will have unity throughout this time and that we will all stay healthy. Our kids are pretty resilient but change affects them still so please pray for them both.

Off to pack,
Dree

I thought this would be a fun way to document our growing girl! Ashton turned 7 years old on June 26th.

She is such a fun kid to be around. I am so proud to be her mom. As a 7 year old she LOVES to read and write. She reads 3-4 chapter books a week right now. We can hardly keep up! She has this terrific sense of humor and is not afraid to turn it on her mom and dad, which is often well deserved by us!!!

She is a really good big sister as she tries to help Noelle with her daily two year old battles.

I remember meeting her for the first time (after trying for 17 hours to get her out...) and realizing that I did not have to do much to muster up love for her. It was instant and beautiful. It's been quite a terrific adventure thus far. I can't wait for the rest!!!!!

On another note, Chris starts at Bellevue Alliance Church on Tuesday. We are still trying to secure housing. That is our biggest decision that needs to be made right now. We will keep you updated.

Grace & Peace,
Dree

Just thougt I'd give a quick update. We are currently trying to figure out the whole moving process to Bellevue; looking at houses, figuring out how much we can afford, establishing a budget, and (ugh...) finding a cell phone plan. Can I just say that it drains me to go through all the rigamarole of comparing at AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

There are some fun, OLD houses in Bellevue most of which need some pretty good updates. Please pray for us, we really need wisdom through all this. We'll let you know what we find.

Chris

I am sorry I have not posted anything since last week. It was a little busy and Dree and I have both been sick.

We are heading for Bellevue, OH it looks like. After the trip to Little Rock God made it clear that it wasn't the place for us. It is a great church with wonderful people doing wonderful things but it just wasn't the place He wanted us. We came back and contacted Bellevue Alliance and they are getting their final offer put together. We should see it sometime in the next couple of days and then we'll plan our candidacy weekend.

The candidacy weekend is just a formality because this is a staff hire and, therefore, directly under the authority of the pastor. We're thinking that Andrea will be able to give her two weeks notice by the end of this week, at least. We don't know exactly when we'll be moving but it should be sometime in the next month or two.

Thanks for praying with us through this process. It seems so trite to just write that, but your prayers mean more than I could ever put into words.

Chris