Brief update on Maine, Pitt & Du Bois - more coming....

Hello Friends,
Just a short blurb to let you know that I (Geoff) got back safely from Maine last Friday in time to see BayLynn score two goals in her soccer game and she scored another 2 goals in yesterday's game - all with her left foot!!! But when I got back then Susan and I left Saturday morning for Pittsburgh (for a college fair) then to DuBois where we were at Du Bois Christian School and First Baptist for a really good weekend of connecting with kids and leaders through music and speaking. Chantine, we used your video again - they really liked it!

Anyway, I am working on some photo collages of our times in those places. Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow and post them right away. Gonna call it a day for now - do some seminary reading and hit the sack. Please say a prayer for the kids we came in contact with these last couple of weeks (I'll have names tomorrow on the post) - that God would continue to work in their lives and that they'd listen and follow.

Oh, and one last thing. We would appreciate you saying a unique prayer for the sale of our home. It appears that something may be on the horizon and we're looking forward to God's perfect timing and provision and we'd love to have you join us in that.

Thanks everyone, and love.

Ohio Travelog

Here are some pictures I promised from my week in Ohio. Just click on the picture to enlarge for a better view. Descriptions are below.

Top row: With Don (Pastor @ Faith Baptist) and Beth (former student of my dads) Workman in Streetsboro (you can see the wind from Ike starting to kick up with my tie flying in the air); with youth group at Reimer Road Baptist in Wadsworth after the power went out when the wind blow a tree into the transformer (the work of remnants from Hurricane Ike)

Center: bird in Medina= a certain kind of tern that I've not identified yet :-)

Lower right corner - my setup at my first college fair in Columbus; Center long strip = a narrow panaroma of the college fair. I think there were about 50 other schools there. Tornado warning sign - outside the men's room at the Christian school where the fair was held.

House next to Tornado warning picture = James A. Garfield's house (20th (I think) President of the US) in Mentor, OH

Lower left picture - a scene in Columbus as a result of the remnants of Hurricane Ike. I drove underneath that pole and cable twice in order to get to my destination because I knew no other way to get there.

from Cleveland, OH

I'll be headed home tomorrow after a college fair tonight. I've had a good time visiting churches, schools this week. The car I have really needed a cleaning so I spent some time doing that last night and this morning. I've had trouble connecting to the internet so communication has been low. But I'm here in a great church with a really nice cafe where I can get internet so........ thought I'd use it while I can.

I hope to post some pictures of this last week, including a tern and a powerpole being held up by power cables (a result of Hurricane Ike). I'll do that when I get back, then on Tuesday it's off to Maine for 3 days. We'll be in touch. You all do the same.

from Medina, OH

I just realized that my laptop doesn't have a cardreader so I'll have to post pictures later but here's the latest from Ohio:
- USC trounced Ohio state (I was pretty quiet about that here).

- had a great college event Saturday meeting some prospective students, parents and alumni.

- had the privilege of teaching High School Sunday School and co-leading the music/worship at Faith Baptist Church in Streetsboro yesterday morning. Pastor Don Workman and his wife Beth are friends of our family. Beth was one of my dad's favorite voice students back in the day. Thanks to Don, Tom, Paul, Sandi, Mike, James and the rest of the worship (music and tech) team for such a great morning. Chantine, if you're reading this, I sang to your video with "What Can I Do?" and it was VERY well-received; a real testimony and model of worship in EVERYTHING we do (Rom. 12:1, 2).

- then after lunch with the Workmans, President Jeffery and the advancement team, it was on to Medina where I would spend the night after I connected with a great youth group in Wadsworth. A great group with some great leaders. The thing was, it was REALLY windy (remnants of one of the latest hurricanes) and the wind blew a tree onto a transormer, shooting sparks all over and thus cutting power to the building. SO, we met in the hallway by the windows; watching all sorts of debris flying through the air. It was a great discussion time led by Jake. Special thanks to him, Autumn and Jen for helping me get there and making me feel welcome. I've got a picture of us all in the dark hallway that I'll post as soon as I'm able.

- when I got back to the hotel (OK, it was a Motel 6), the entire corner (where there are many businesses and restaurants) was completely dark. The power was out. Well, the room was paid for and there weren't going to be any refunds so I stayed and enjoyed the adventure - watching even more transformers blow, giving a dazzling 10 second lightshow of sparks. Sometime before 2:23am the lights came back on. That's when I woke up and noticed the bathroom light was on. So I turned it off and went back to sleep. Fun times! Oh, and I must comment about my first experience eating food from a "Sheets" gas/service center. Very cool. Southern California needs to get some of these. Basically you order from a wide menu on a computer touch screen. It shoots out your number and they make it right there. I can now testify that they have very good Chai tea, french fries and Angus Burgers (I had a VERY big and healthy salad for lunch :-).

- so today I'm headed back down to Wadsworth to connect with the youth pastor and school administrator there, then down to Columbus for my first college fair.

Thanks for reading and praying. Let us know how you are all doing and how we can pray for you. Onward!

Geoff's heading out!!!

Geoff would appreciate your prayers this weekend and next week as he is on his first road trip for BBC (www.bbc.edu) . He will be in the Cleveland and Columbus areas starting tomorrow (Saturday) and will get back home next Friday. The trip includes a special regional event for the school, a couple of college fairs, visiting churches and working with a worship team on Saturday afternoon (rehearsal) and Sunday morning (church gathering). On the college level, pray especially for fruitful connections with God-focused young people and their families and leaders. On the church level, for people to come to Christ and grow in their faith in Him. Geoff will try to post some pictures and keep you updated while he's out. The following week he'll be in Maine and the following weekend he'll be in western PA including the Pittsburgh area with more churches and schools.

We exist to glorify God by developing committed followers of Jesus Christ who attract others to Him. (thank you Grace Church :-)

GOOOAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!

We don't have a picture but BayLynn scored the first goal of the season for her soccer team today. They ended up in a tie, 3-3 but it was a well played game and it was fun for her. She's playing for Summit Christian Academy but as you know she's taking "online school." The school if gracious enough to let "home/online school" kids play on their team. She's having a good time with that and we are grateful.

On the Eve of the the Next Chapter

This week marks the beginning of some significant things. I (Geoff) will start my new position at the college tomorrow and Connor and BayLynn will start at their new schools on Wednesday. We're ready and excited for this week to be here. We're grateful to God for bringing us to this point.

Since today was Labor Day we were able to go to the Italian Festival in Scranton (top pictures). We got some great Italian food including some gnocchi (sp?) and cannoli. We like to see if anyone can beat Nonna's (Susan's mom) gnocchis, but so far nobody can. :-)

Then we came home for a Labor Day BBQ with two very important couples (mid right picture). These are the only two couples here in PA who have known all 4 of us for much longer than the 2+ weeks we've been here; and they're the two PA couples who God used most powerfully to help us discover His call for us to come here. The first couple is my parents, Don and Judy Ellsworth, who's generosity, balance and modeling we have been blessed to receive; and if I were to elaborate on it would make for a very long post. The second couple is Chuck and Loretta Emert. Dr. Emert was both Susan and my Bible teacher at Christian Heritage College in El Cajon back in the late 80's/early 90's. He also spoke at our wedding 17 years ago. And besides knowing me since I was a kid, both Dr. and Mrs. Emert have been a tremendous example to us in how to truly live by faith.

Anyway, the BBQ wasn't really planned (by us anyway) to be THAT meaningful to us, but it was just neat that we were all together on the "eve of the next chapter." We all count it a great privilege to have both family and friends like this (and like so many of you who read this) in our lives to be used by God to guide us and give us great counsel along the faith-way (Proverbs 13:20). Thank God and thank all of you for the role you each play in our lives.

In news from yesterday (Sunday), we were back at Grace Bible Church in Dunmore where I helped lead the music again because Josh (their main leader) was ill. We had a great time again with our friends there. Then that afternoon my Aunt Joan and Uncle Bob came up spontaneously from Orwigsburg and we had a great visit with them for the afternoon and into the evening; a visit that included some playing on the Wii where Gma beat us all in bowling with a 214 or something crazy like that.

On Saturday, Connor played in his first soccer game. He played most of the game actually and did really well. We won 1-0 against North Pocono, the team that Daniel Tarr is on (see here for context of that relationship). It was cool to reconnect with Daniel and his family on the soccer field that day, and then again at Grace Bible on Sunday.

On Friday, we were able to squeeze in a quick trip to the lake to try out a kayak (we hope to get a couple of these sometime) and a paddleboat (lower pictures).

Thank you all for your continue interest in our life. Please feel free to write us a short hello at ellsworthg@gmail.com

Onward! (Philippians 3:12-14)