Well, we've been in our new little apartment on the Covenant Theological Seminary campus in Saint Louis for just over a week now, and while we've made a lot of progress, we still have quite a bit of "settling" yet to do. I think most of our furniture now rests where it will stay, but we still have quite a few boxes to unpack and things we haven't yet found places for. We also don't have an Internet connection yet, so I'm taking this brief opportunity to give you an update on life for the Beans.

Things ended well in Orlando with our assignment at Campus Crusade's Headquarters. We had a great year in Orlando and made some great friendships that were difficult to say goodbye to. Having lived in 5 different cities in the past 6 years (Lubbock, Dallas, Baton Rouge, Orlando, and now Saint Louis) has been difficult for us in many ways, but we don't ever want to become too good at saying goodbye. It was wonderful to have the community that we experienced in Orlando on the Lake Hart Stint, especially for Joshua Stephen to have so many little friends to play with. We had a lot of help loading up our moving truck on our last night in town which was a real blessing.

Our truck wasn't scheduled to arrive in Saint Louis until 6 days after they picked it up, so we decided to take a little detour through Baton Rouge to visit friends and enjoy some free hospitality! Louisiana is not exactly on the way from Florida to Saint Louis for you Geography buffs out there, but what better way to kill some time than to visit old friends? We had a great visit and I don't think we ate a single lunch or dinner alone while we were in town, and we even had a couple of breakfasts with friends! For a couple of extroverts like us, that's like heaven on earth ;-). Sunday morning, we worshiped with our friends at our church in Baton Rouge before we left for Saint Louis. When the service was over, Shanna ran to the restroom with tears streaming down her face. She was sad that we had to leave Baton Rouge again, and I have to admit that I was too. We have so many wonderful friends there and so many fond memories of ministry in Baton Rouge. Perhaps we'll be able to return to ministry there again one day, but only the Lord knows what our future holds for now.

We arrived in Saint Louis at our new apartment early Monday afternoon and we were greeted by several new neighbors and other students who cheerfully helped us unload our trailer that arrived a few hours after we did. My parents also drove in to help us get settled in and they were a great help in keeping Joshua Stephen occupied while we moved in and unpacked over the next few days. Our college friend Salena Allen who is on staff with Campus Crusade at Texas State also came to visit this past weekend and gave Shanna a much needed break from unpacking as they went off and did girl stuff and ran errands. We've been so busy unpacking and organizing that we haven't even left our apartment very much, but we have had a steady stream of Covenant students dropping in to welcome us to the community. One of the primary reasons that we chose Covenant Seminary (in addition to its academic reputation and theological distinctives) was for its reputation of having a very tightly nit community on campus amongst its students and faculty. I can honestly say that we have already seen and experienced that first hand, both when we visited the campus last December and now that we are here.

Today, Shanna and I attended New Student Orientation just about a hundred yards from our front door at the Chapel. In addition to taking in a whole lot of new information from the Dean of Students, Director Admissions, and Financial Aid, we registered for classes. I signed up for 5 classes for the Fall semester- Beginning Greek I, Covenant Theology I, Spiritual & Ministry Formation, Preparation & Delivery of Sermons, and Gospel-Centered Parenting- for a total of 13 hours. Because Covenant Seminary has a scholarship program that pays 100% tuition for spouses of students, Shanna was able to sign up for two classes that she will take alongside me- Spiritual & Ministry Formation and Gospel-Centered Parenting. After registering for classes I took my schedule over to the campus bookstore and bought 13 textbooks for the classes I'll be taking. I actually needed 16, but 3 of them weren't yet in stock!

As for ministry, we are currently exploring our different options here in Saint Louis. My ministry with Didasko Ministries will in effect pay me (through the generous contributions of our supporters) to be a pastoral or campus ministry intern with a local church with a need for laborers, but who don't necessarily have the ability to pay me otherwise. For the time being until September 11, we are still missionaries on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and we are asking our supporters to continue giving through Campus Crusade until our transition to Didasko is complete. In many ways our ministry with Didasko will be very similar to what it has always been with Campus Crusade, Evangelism and Discipleship. Only the context will change.

Please pray for us as we received a short paycheck last week from Campus Crusade. With our transition from Crusade to Didasko we have submitted all of our back reimbursements for ministry expenses that Campus Crusade still owes us and as a result our ministry account balance with Campus Crusade is very low right now. We have only received a short paycheck one other time from Campus Crusade and God was gracious enough to provide enough support soon afterward that we were able to receive back pay a couple of weeks later. Thanks again for your prayers and God bless.