Its a GIRL!

Our sweet little surprise decided to give us an even bigger surprise as she arrived 13 days early!  Eden Bradlee was born on November 13th at 4:45 pm.  She weighed 7lbs. 4 oz and was 19 3/4 in. long.  Here are some pics of the family on the day she was born!

Prego Pictures!

These fun pictures were taken by our good friend Jenelle on campus at Wingate!  We are officially 3 weeks from our due date as of today!!  

Breakthrough

John 3:19-21 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lets his deeds should be exposed. 21. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”


I know that all of you have experienced a late conference night ending with the joy of coming into a nice, clean hotel room for much needed sleep. You close the curtains making sure the room will be utterly dark hoping that will make up for the fact that you only have 5 hours before you get up. But the next morning you wake up to what feels like a laser pointer of light, that has somehow penetrated your placement of the curtains and landed directly in your eyes. You cover up with a pillow and flip over in frustration as you HAD one more hour of sleep before you had to get up. Instead of getting up you toss and turn for the next hour not really getting good sleep but refuse to get out of bed.

As I have studied I John this semester I have been rocked off of two themes. God sending the Light, Jesus, into darkness and our bent to love darkness instead of The Light. All too often I think we experience this hotel room scenario in our spiritual lives. There is a breakthrough of light in the curtains of our hearts that wakes us up. And we try to cover up our eyes so as to not see it and toss and turn uncomfortably for hours trying to remain asleep and in darkness. God is so committed to us that He sends light into our darkness and as uncomfortable and disturbing as it may be we should run over to the curtains and throw them as wide open as fast as possible. 

Repentance is so counter-intuitive. Why would we want to see sin, why would we want to see failure, why would we want to see disobedience? Because if we can see sin, failure, and disobedience that means the glorious light of our Lord Jesus is shining into our lives. So I believe that John would tell us to “walk in the light” and live a lifestyle of repentance. I have really been convicted at how often I run from repentance instead of running right at it. I pray that the Lord would make us people who consistently experience the passionate breakthrough of light into our own personal darkness. May we be a people who responds to this breakthrough by flinging open the curtains “confessing our sin” and believing our God is “faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!” I John 1:9 And may believers and nonbelievers alike look at our lives and conclude Jesus is a God that is committed to SAVE and BEAUTIFY HIS BRIDE!

Love You All! Praying for personal and TEAM breakthroughs!

Clint

Fall Showers

Rachel with the grandmas-to-be!

Rachel with Clint's very first teddy bear.  His grandma gave it to him at his birth!

Rachel loves the duck! :)

Things have been non-stop in Wingate!  The past 3 out of 4 weekends have been spent away from home for support and baby showers.  Though it has been taxing to travel so much, it has been SO fun!  We have received so many generous and unique gifts!  As the calendar closes in on November 26th, we are becoming more and more excited to meet our new little baby!  The nursery is under construction and we officially have the crib ready for safe sleeping!  Pics of our sweet little Pooh nursery will be up as soon as we get it finished!

The Aldan 4th of July parade....they threw candy...and people were dressed like this...it was awesome!

Philly at night!

Epiphany Fellowship Church

Sunrise at sea!

Chillin' at our new favorite place in the world...Cococay!

Clint and the Wingate boys at the Summer Beach Project in Myrtle Beach,  SC

Our summer was VERY busy but so amazing!  We started the summer as we usually do, serving at our Summer Beach Project.  This is one of our favorite times of the year as we get to watch the Lord changes the lives of the students we have grown to love by using the non-stop schedule, unique fellowship, and intense focus on God's word that the SBP is known for.  Our lives were so radically transformed as students on the SBP, and so each summer brings new anticipation to see just what God will do.  

Shortly after leaving the SBP, we took a "Babymoon" to the Bahamas!  We loved the cruise and scenery, but there was a new sense of enjoyment as we embarked on hours of snorkeling in Cococay!  We have agreed that we could snorkel every day and never get tired of it!  Now we are wishing all the more that Myrtle Beach's waters weren't so....brown.

After returning to our home for a short 4 days we set out to visit some friends in Philadelphia PA.  We had so much fun enjoying the 4th of July festivities (see above parade pic), meeting new friends, and enjoying old ones.  The Lord really did a lot in our hearts while we were there and set us up for a few months of prayer and seeking His will for our future!

Though we love adventure and travel, Wingate starting looking pretty appealing after our late summer return to the SBP.  We are happily home and enjoying the very slow, quiet life that this little college town offers!

   We are THRILLED to introduce to you the newest member of our family!  This picture is of our sweet little one at 21 weeks!  

We found out we were pregnant the night before Easter and decided to tell our family on Easter sunday via "Easter cards".  The outside of the cards simply said "Happy Easter", but when they opened them, we had written "you are going to be grandparents!" on the inside!  The response (absolute shock and overwhelming joy) was priceless!  Rachel's pregnancy has been almost picture perfect so far!  We feel so blessed by the Lord to have had a pleasant and fun 7 months so far!  Baby's sex is TBA...we are waiting to find out in the delivery room somewhere around November 26th!

Darst on the Daily

Hello Friends!  Welcome to the Darsts' blog!  We hope that this new addition will help you all stay a little more in the loop with what goes on in our crazy lives!