Belly!

We are at 25 weeks, but it's been hard getting pictures up to date and on the blog. So, here is a week 23 picture in the meantime :)

First week at UNC-W and the Swine Flu :(

It's the second week of school, but it feels like we've been going for months now! We love Wilmington, and it's been a fun and tiring transition to a new campus with new students and a new way of doing ministry! We've already begun our freshman Bible Studies in Graham and Hewlett dorms (we both were assigned to reach out to the same dorm!) and it's been so fun meeting with freshmen!

Here are a few pictures of a way we tried to meet freshmen---we did a raffle for FREE rainbows! It was so fun and funny to see how students reacted to our larger than life Rainbows we displayed at our raffle table. (thanks to Hot Wax Surf Shop!)
Brittany (my Bible study co-leader) and I at the giveaway table in Graham-Hewlett dorm!

Reece with his Rainbow next to the BIG Rainbows :)

Another fun thing the first week of school was we threw a Pig Pickin out at Carolina Beach State Park. The first weekend of school, freshmen are always looking for something to do, and people to meet. We wanted to offer some fun, games and pig for those sweet freshmen...and upperclassmen too! Here are some pics of the preparation:
How ironic that just days after we were eating delicious pig, the swine flu rolls onto the scene here in Wilmington. I don't know many people at UNC-Wilmington yet but I know at least 6 people who have come down with the swine flu in the past 48 hours...no joke. And somehow I've managed to be with 3 of them the day before they found out they had it. YIKES!

Please pray for us....and baby Johnson...that we won't get sick!!! It's a big deal getting the swine flu while you're pregnant and I'm praying that I will somehow avoid it. thanks!!

We're in our house and the belly is growing!

We have been in our house for over a week now! The paint is on the walls and the boxes are mostly unpacked....thanks to our wonderful family and friends down here in Wilmington! Tomorrow we head off to our leaders retreat with the student leaders with Cru at UNC-Wilmington...please pray that it would be a refreshing time for the students and that we would train and equip these students to reach out to their peers this year.

We'll leave you with a recent pregnancy picture... I'm currently 22 weeks, but this is from week 20!

Baby Boy Belly

Week 9!

Week 12!

Week 17!

Week 18!


I'm at 20 weeks now, so I'll add more pictures as we go!

It's a BOY!!!!

That's right....we're PREGNANT! Sorry for the lateness of this news, but life has certainly been crazy lately. On Easter, we found out that we were expecting and now we are almost halfway through with the pregnancy. Last week we went to our doctor's appointment and found out that we'll be having a baby boy around December 11th! It's going to be a CRAZY Christmas this year!!

So far everything has been great...I really couldn't have asked for a better pregnancy. People tell you that you'll have a pregnancy like your mom and my mom was sick the whole pregnancy. So, obviously I was pretty nervous finding out that I was pregnant before our summer in Sweden. It would have been so difficult to be sick while being overseas, but God really protected me from that. I'm so thankful!

We also have other changes in the works as well...we're moving to Wilmington! In August, we will begin working at UNC-Wilmington with Campus Crusade. We are really excited about this new adventure, but also pretty nervous about moving to a new location during this crazy time of life change. Here is a picture of our new house that we'll be moving into next week:

"I want to believe in something...but I just can't," said Emil. Josh, a student from Duke, and I met Emil, Jonatan and Eric at Stockholms nation (think co-ed fraternity that everyone has to join with a restaurant) during lunch. When the conversation turned to spiritual things, we learned that Emil is an atheist, "but not a belligerent atheist like Dawkins," Jonatan and Eric are agnostics; they have belief in some sort of higher power, mainly just to "cover their bases." The lawyers, as Josh and I refer to them, are great fun, but with their strong personalities, its hard to keep the conversation on spiritual things when they decide to take it elsewhere. We had a great time hanging out and cutting up with them. When it was time for them to go study, they expressed a lot of interest in hanging out again.

Since then, we've been able to hang out with them again and with Jonatan. We were able to ask him a lot of spiritual questions and dialogue quite a bit about his beliefs. Near the end of our conversation Jonatan said that no one is asking these types of questions, but they need to be asked. Please pray for Jonatan and the rest of the law students as they think about spiritual issues for one of the first times in their lives.

2 1/2 wonderful years!!!

Today (June 2, 2009) Reece and I celebrated 2 1/2 GREAT years of being married! We both really enjoy the opportunity to celebrate the time God has allowed us to enjoy each other...it's been amazing! We worked on campus all day-which I'll talk about later- and then enjoyed a nice meal out to eat by the river that runs right through downtown Uppsala!

Here is Stephanie posing on a bridge that runs across the river in downtown Uppsala!

In other news, SO much has been happening with our ministry here! The first two weeks were pretty discouraging because most people you talk to here don't even have the desire to know God at all. It's been challenging and we've needed to cling to the Lord to keep stepping out on campus everyday to bring the Gospel to a people who seem like they really don't want it.

We're starting to see that there are people who want to know God--and we've been privileged to walk alongside some of these students in their journey to know more...here is just one snapshot of what God is doing here in Sweden...there are seriously so many more stories so we'll keep posting! Please keep praying because we are seeing God really do cool stuff in the lives of students who have never ever considered God before!

Stephanie met Sophie, a self proclaimed agnostic the first day we stepped foot on Uppsala University's campus. Through various conversations and getting to know Sophie, she has expressed that she believes something is "out there" but she doesn't think it's necessarily God. One night at dinner, Stephanie was able to share how she had experienced the reality of God in her life, which launched into a long conversation about how Jesus impacted her life. Sophie initiated asking her questions about "Why Jesus had to die?" and "how is God's love shown in Jesus' death." It was so obvious that God had been at work in Sophie's life even though she didn't even aknowledge Him as God. It's been great seeing God at work in Sophie's life! We are continuing to meet up with Sophie to talk through her questions and she is really considering this faith in Jesus that we profess...please pray for her...that God will help her see the reality of His love for her in Jesus!!I'll end with this really pretty random picture of the Domkyrkan viewed from the river. We wish you could be here to see how beautiful this city is!