Update

Since there is a lot of craziness and transition in our life right now I thought I should give a brief update!

I recently was offered a job at a non-profit organization called Mercy Ministries of America, headquartered here in Nashville, and I accepted!! Mercy is a home for young girls who are troubled with either drugs, abuse, self-harm, eating disorders, depression, unplanned pregnancy and everything in between. Mercy gives these young women freedom from these things through teaching them who they are in Christ and His power to forever change their lives. It's an AMAZING place! I will be Director of Development and will be working primarily with developing donor relationships, and I'll be working mainly with new homes(as far as I know). There are lots of new homes being planted around the America (and also the World!) so my job will be to develop relationships with surrounding businesses, churches, and community leaders in the area of the home to form partnerships with them in supporting the home. I'm SO excited!!

Moving on, Michael and I are in the process of buying a new house! Yes, we did just buy our townhome a few months ago, but the plan was always to use this as a rental property. So we found an amazing deal in a new neighborhood very close to where we live now and are hoping to close at the end of the month! I know this is LONG overdue, but for those of you who have never seen our townhome, and because I want to document our first home purchase, here are some pics.

I will post pics of the new house when we close on it, but nothing is set in stone yet so I'm a little hesitant!! Stay tuned for that.

Our first home as a married couple...

Hallway looking into guest bedroom

Master bedroom (we haven't really done much decor wise to the upstairs, it's been a little neglected!)

So that's our little townhome! We love it but it's already feeling too small for us. We found someone to rent it out for a year in less than 5 minutes! No joke. We put it on Craigs List and within 5 minutes started getting calls and emails!! What a blessing!

That's what's going on in the Cantrell's lives right now! Thanks for checking in!!

I was watching the news this afternoon and saw and heard something that absolutely appalled me. Today is the first day gay marriage is legal in the state of California, but that is not really the thing that has me all fired up. They showed clips of crowds of people opposing this new law and picketing against the gay people who were getting married. They were claiming to be Christians and one woman, ON CAMERA actually said, "They will spend eternity in the flames of hell!!!" and even worse things than that. WHAT?! Can someone show me the love in that sentence and what good saying that could possibly do? It completely burns me up to hear the things people will say in the name of Jesus. I don't believe anyone has the right to say who will be spending eternity in Hell except for the one and only Judge. I believe our number one priority on this earth, as Christians, is to love and serve others in a way that shows God's perfect love, and to be able to testify as to where that love really comes from. People who are so openly judgmental and ugly about certain lifestyles are not showing love at all. That just gives non-Christians MORE reason to want to never learn about God's love. It's a terrible, terrible thing. I just wish I could shut-up all of those people.

Anyway, had to take a moment to vent! How does everyone else feel about this kind of thing? I would be very interested to hear your thoughts.

South Africa pt Deux

Ok for some reason I am having trouble posting pics on this one and I'm tired of trying:) so...if you would like to see the rest of the SA pics you can view them here on my facebook page. Enjoy!

By the way, please keep Kelee and especially her host family in your prayers. 3 days after we left, a mob of 50 people came in the middle of the night and basically ambushed their home. Kelee, Michael and I had already left so none of us were there. They broke out all the windows and rolled burning tires into their house. Everyone is ok, but this is all about them blaming Kelee's host father for something he didn't do, mainly because he is "wealthy" and they are jealous. Everything is so political there. Anyway, Kelee cannot go back there after all those relationships she is built so I know she is just devestated. She is waiting for her next assignment living in Vryburg which is a town about 2 hours away I think. Praise God everyone was alright and that we weren't there when it happened!! I will keep you guys posted on where she will be assigned next. Please pray that God will lead her exactly where she needs to be, and to comfort the family as I know they are very shaken up. Thanks!

Maria Chapman

For those of you who don't live in Nashville and may not have heard, Wednesday night Steven Curtis Chapman's 5 year old daughter was accidentally killed when one of the sons was backing out of their driveway and hit her. It is so terribly sad, especially for the young boy I think. We need to pray for them. Here's the article from the Tennessean: http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/TUNEIN/80521174/1005/ENTERTAINMENT

Our South African "Holiday" pt. 1

They call all vacation time a "holiday" over there. I like it:)

We had one heck of an adventure last week!! We got to see our great friend Kelee which was definitely the main reason for going, but we also got to do and see some really cool stuff!! I'll try not to bore you with too many details, just a few highlights from the trip.

This was our first night in Johannesburg (Joburg) at this really cool African themed restaurant called "Moyo". They came around and painted our faces! Too cute.

This was the view from our balcony. Really cool "square" of restaurants and bars.

The next morning we left to go on our road trip to visit Phillip, Kelee's boyfriend.
Here's a pic of Michael trying to figure out how to drive on the RIGHT side of the car, and the LEFT side of the road!
A picture of Kelee and her honey! His name is Phillip and he is a farmer in a town called Bray. He owns tons of land there and sees it as his purpose and calling in life to help the oppressed people where he lives have a chance of a better life. He's amazing.

I thought this was just a really cool pic of Kelee The next morning we went out to Phillips farm and went exploring on a four wheeler and a dirt bike! It's about 40 thousand acres of land!!

Us on the four wheeler:)

Phillips goats...

Doesn't this pic look sort of fake?? It's like they were posing! hehe.

More to come...

Help!

Ok ladies I need some major help and/or advice. Our laundry situation is out of control, and it seems hopeless! I mean, we don't even have kids yet! It's very very disheartening to me that I can't gain control of just 2 people's seemingly endless amount of laundry. The thing is, I'm great at washing clothes. Love it. But when it comes to folding or hanging up clothes once they are done, it just gets totally out of control!! If I get behind on even ONE load, then it just snowballs and we have a sea of clean laundry in our guest bedroom. What do I do about this? This is seriously bothering me, I even had a major breakdown last night (with tears and all) because the situation seems hopeless. Help! Any advice is welcomed.

South Africa!!

We are leaving tomorrow morning bright and early for South Africa!! We will mainly be going to visit my great friend Kelee who is in the Peace Corps there! We could not be more excited about this ADVENTURE of a vacation! Please pray for a safe trip for us! I'll definitely post lots of pics from our trip when we return. Lions and Tigers and Cheetahs, oh my!! :)