Gas Shortage in Asheville

This past weekend, Reece and I came down the mountain for a fun weekend...One thing we took for granted somewhat was having gas to drive around on our merry little way. Gas in Asheville has been expensive...a few gas stations raking in $4.75 per gallon...but we had gas nonetheless.

Fast forward to this Monday. We were on the way home from Western Carolina in Cullowhee. We were running a little low on gas, but we had enough to make it home. Reece was on the phone with a friend from church back in Asheville who had gotten off work early and was driving to get gas before heading home. He went to 11 gas stations and still couldn't find a station that had ANY gas....that's right friends, 11. So, on the way home we looked at each station we passed to try to get gas, and none had any either.


So, Wednesday morning when the gas stations up the street from us...one in the morning, one in the evening...had a shipment of gas come in, it was a madhouse. We took pictures at the massive lines in front of the stations....we couldn't capture how crazy it was, but people were literally lined up for about 1/4 mile on the main road just to get gas. Here's what we saw:

So, hopefully that made you thankful for having a full tank back home!

The whole earth is full of His glory

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isaiah 6:3)

Recently I was thinking about this passage and how when the seraphim see the earth, they see that it reflects both God's presence but also His glory. Just seeing what God has created is a testimony that He lives and is good. It was awesome to think about how much more I would be able to see God in the world if only I wasn't sinful. It makes me really excited to meet God face to face...what we're experiencing here is only a shadow of His goodness and greatness.



I was on campus a few days later, and was meeting up with a freshman at UNC-A. She was interested in talking through a few of her questions about Jesus and Christianity. Growing up in Raleigh, she wasn't used to seeing the beautiful mountains every day (we really do live in an awesome part of the state) and since moving to Asheville has really been moved my how awesome creation is here. Because she had never sought out God and connected with Him personally, proof of His existence in creation really began to open her desire to check out who He is when she came to college. What I had been reading about and thinking about was taking place in her life!! She saw that the whole earth is full of God's glory! In fact she said that she desired to know God in a personal way more than she ever had. When I talked to her about the Gospel--that Jesus is God in the flesh who came to live on earth to die the death we deserve so we can know God for all eternity, it totally made sense to her. She saw that God's love led Him to make that type of sacrifice for her...that He cared for her intimately and personally. I walked away from that awesome conversation so amazed at the Lord. He allowed me to step into her experience for the privilege of seeing what He had done in her life. It was so humbling to remember that although I am trusting God to use me to bring people into relationship with Him. He really doesn't need me at all. Thank God that He is all powerful and able to do exceedingly more than we could ask or imagine. Amen!

Our beautiful niece Ava Kathryn!!!

This past weekend, we celebrated our little niece being born...her name is Ava Kathryn Johnson, and she is a heart-breaker already. She is so beautiful!

Reece with sweet Ava.

this is me realizing how hot babies are....I was burning up while holding her!

Look at that face....seriously, she's the cutest ever!

Another highlight to our weekend was spending time with our other niece Elizabeth. One of the things we hate about living in Asheville is being so far away from Reece's family...his mom, dad, brother and sister (along with their spouses and kids) all live at least 4 hours from us. So, having a whole weekend to play with our little niece was such a sweet surprise! Here are some pictures of her:Yep, that's right...she's a cutie too! Jeremy will have his hands full with these two beauties!

We're so thankful for a special weekend with family. Thanks for letting us dote on our nieces as well :)