New friends and big decisions

Good morning all. Hope you are doing well. We have alot going on here. My neighbor, Zayatre, just left from our tea together. She is Indian and has a 1 year old girl named Suruthi. They are very kind. When I visited them they gave me some lotion and when they came here today they brought Audrey some rattles and a book. I am behind in giving them a gift. If you have any suggestions on what I could give them I would love to hear them. She is also going to bring me some Indian pickles this weekend.

We had a nice conversation over strawberry lemonade. They are definitely Hindu. It was nice to talk to her about Indian culture and their life here. They are very tied into a group of Indians here in the apartments. All of the women walk together in the evenings. I would LOVE to get in on that somehow. Not sure if I would be invited into a group thing like that or not, but it sure is worth praying about.

I would appreciate your prayers for my relationship with Zayatre and any suggestions you have on how to be hospitable to her.

On another note... we are looking at houses. We have decided that it is not wise to pour money into renting when we can pay less for a monthly mortgage and can be putting our money into something that we own. You can definitely pray for that as well, that we will be wise in this decision and that we will find the place that God wants us.

And lastly, we are really thinking through where we should be in church. I would love your thoughts on this. As you may remember, we found a church a few weeks ago (and have been out of town every weekend since). This church (Hill Country Bible UT) is a plant, about 4 years old. It is very strategic in reaching the UT campus, which we really love. They are starting these missional communities on campus and the adults are mentoring the students who are leading these groups. The leaders were very interested in us helping to mentor these students. This is right up our alley. The church is majority college students. like 75%. The church is downtown right across from campus. It will probably be a 20 minute drive from where we will live...it is 20 min. now. And there is not much for kids. Nursery, yes, but not too much to offer.

As we think about church we aren't quite sure where we need to be right now. Do we need to be in a place like this where we would definitely be plugged into a vibrant, strategic ministry? Or do we need, at this place in our lives, to be in a church that has more people our age - in the same place in life as we are? A place where Audrey could grow up with a great Sunday School and friends her age. We do really long for friends that we can share life with. And we really want a solid place for us to be taught God's word. The preaching is good at the UT church. Very solid and scriptural, but there is no adult Sunday School and we kind of want that for ourselves. We've missed that. It's been awhile.

And do we need to be in church near where we live or right downtown?

So we are asking the question - what is more important for us now?

In moving here we wanted to be involved in reaching the lost in Austin (both through friendships outside church and Troy's job). The campus is a pretty lost place. But so is the city in general. We aren't totally sure that we have to be working with college students. I just want to disciple women - whether college or not isn't so vital to me. I am also hoping to have opportunities to teach more.

We do know that this is something we really need to pray about and seek direction in. We would also love your thoughts.

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