Our Family Pictures

Happy Holidays!

Hey guys!

We hope and pray that your Holiday season is off to a great start! We are very busy with parties, church, and life in general. We are really praying for our Christmas eve service. We want to pack the theater, and reach everyone who needs it. Our theme at The Ridge this Christmas season has been "Let It Be." Yes, the Beatles. Each week we have kicked service off with a Beatles song, then Mark or Eric's sermon goes off of the song. This week Eric will be preaching about "Yesterday." Tune into the website and watch next week.

Around the holidays it seems normal for people to think about what they are thankful for, and how blessed they truly are. And I have to say, I am SO THANKFUL for ALL of YOU! If it wasn't for your prayers, financial support, constant encouragement, we wouldn't be where we are today. After being at The Ridge for a year, we are still excited to go church each and every week. I am excited to see how God will move certain people to a new place, and how God is teaching me to be a better person. It is amazing, and I feel so honored to be here in Milwaukee. I know some people don't feel the honor in a ton of snow, freezing weather, and 5 months of winter. But we do, I guess :)

Truly, we are blessed to have you all in our lives, and this Holiday season our family is giving thanks for your family. We thank God for you all, and may He truly bless you.

Nov. Update

Hey guys! Happy early Thanksgiving! I hope this fall has been going great for you all. We have been so busy with church, but it's been great. The Ridge is growing! We have exceeded our 2008 goal of attendance. It's been very exciting! We are moving into a larger theater in Jan., and then after we outgrow that, we will have to find another place to meet, or open a second site. How awesome!

Eric and 10 other guys from The Ridge just got back from a Catalyst one day conference in South Bend, IN. They all had a great time, and thought it was awesome. Check one out near you!

This Sunday will be our third Sunday in our Jonah series. Check them out on the website. It's been very interesting, and challenging. It's funny because sometimes you think, "I've heard that story a million times, what else could there be to it?" But really, there is a lot! One thing I have learned from Jonah, that applies in my life is that God is not paying you payback, but bringing you back. He did not put Jonah in the fish to pay him back, rather, God was bringing Jonah back to him.

When we get back from our trip to New York for Thanksgiving, Eric will be a guest speaker at a church here, about 45 minutes from us. It is another churchplant that East 91st planted in the early 90's. I am excited to go with him, and see how they do church there. He is preaching at 3 services. So, he'll be a little tired at the end of the weekend.

Molly is growing by leaps and bounds. She is in the 95% for both height, and weight. She has always been up there in the weight department, but now her height has reached up there too. She is tall and lean. All of her little rolls are gone! So sad! She is talking, waving, running, and doing all the little girl things. She also has very blond, curly hair. Molly is such a blessing to us, and we love her more everyday!

I hope you all have a great start to the busy holiday season. Please know that we miss you all, and hope to come visit soon! But more importantly, we pray for you all, and love you guys so much! Please keep us updated on your lives! Have a great weekend!!

Boo at the Zoo!

On Friday night Eric, and I took Molly to Boo at the Zoo! We had a lot of fun, and Molly got to wear her Halloween costume. She dressed up like a ladybug. So cute! It was so cold, but we still managed to laugh a lot and be amazed at the carved pumpkins that were beyond homemade! Here are some pictures of our Boo at the Zoo adventure!

Mark's Blog

Hey all!

I just wanted to let you all know that our minister, Mark created a blog. He updates it on Sundays. So if reading ours wasn't enough fun for you, you can now read Mark's: http://www.markweigt.com

So enjoy! Also-check out this past week's message...we talked about jealousy and the opening song was "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield. So for all of you 80's lovers out there...you will LOVE it!!

Have a great week!!

Harvest Fest

Molly and I went downtown to the Milwaukee Public Library last Saturday, with some of our friends, Andrea and her son, Oliver. They are in our neighborhood group, and Molly and Oli are little play date friends. The library was having a Harvest Festival, and we all got free pumpkins! So we were very excited to partake in the fun, and enjoy a beautiful piece of architecture. The downtown library was beautiful! Lots of marble, and paintings. It was like being at a museum. I think I enjoyed the building more then Molly. She enjoyed the free cookies! Here are some pictures from our time there. I hope your fall is going great, and that you are able to enjoy some time outside playing in the leaves!

birthday wishes

this past weekend the ridge community church turned 2 years old! it was awesome to celebrate. mike breaux came to speak, and he was excellent. his message was so encouraging and uplifting. he preached a sermon similar to the one he preached on sunday a couple years ago, which was turned into a book. it's called "making ripples." eric has read it, and i am going to. his sermon was awesome, and so uplifting. by the end you wanted to stand up and shout "let's go make ripples." so cool.

eric's parents, and brother, matt came up to visit. we had a great time. they haven't seen molly since she started walking, so that was fun. it has officially turned fall here. i love it! and i am trying to enjoy these nice 60 degree days, all before the snow comes! someone at church said the farmers almanac predicts an awful winter. great...we thought last winter was awful, and everyone told us how oh it's a fluke, we never get this much snow. i think they were just saying that to make us feel oh so wisconsin welcomed. haha...

we also started neighborhood groups, and jr/sr high ministry. neighborhood groups are going well. eric and i's group multiplied, and our new group has a lot of new people. our jr. high ministry has taken off in the last 2 weeks. it's amazing. kids are like coming out of the woodwork to come and be apart of it. our sr. high ministry on the other hand is struggling a little bit. because we are a young church, we have a lot of kids, and not so many high schoolers. so the first night we had a meeting, we had 2 kids. which is great that 2 came, but we had 6 volunteers. so we are now trying to put our efforts into something that is going to suit the kids better, and truly meet them where they are. so please pray for us. we are trying to figure out where to go, and what our vision is, and all that stuff.

other then that, things are going well for us. busy, busy, busy, but god is so good. we are reminded of his faithfulness daily, and still so thankful for being in wisconsin.

love to you all!

Molly Pictures

Molly and I recently enjoyed a trip to the park. I thought we would share some pictures with you all. She also enjoys being in control of the TV remote, and running around the house with her bath towel like a cape. We are truly blessed!

fall update

hey guys...we hope you all are doing great! can you believe fall is pretty much here?! i am not sure what the weather is like where you are, but up here in wisconsin it's been in the 60's. we will have an occasional day in the 70's, but it's been beautiful! last year the snow started falling in october, so hopefully this year it can hold off until november.

on sunday we are officially launching our jr. high ministry. we are meeting during second service, and this week is going to be an impromptu get together. we have planned activities, yet it's all unplanned. make sense? it's mainly a hang out time, getting to know you, and getting to know the volunteers. i am pretty pumped. although i won't be there, i am teaching the 4/5's...i still think it's going to be great. our key volunteers for jr. high are awesome, and they are going to be a big hit with the kids. plus we are getting rock band for the jr. highers, and we will pretty much be awesome in their eyes!

sunday night unofficially kicks off our neighborhood groups for the fall. we are having packer parties for every group. eric, molly, and i will be cheering for the steelers that day! but none the less green and gold will be in full force sunday night. most of the groups don't meet on sunday nights, but they are this week for another getting to know you, getting back together after the summer break, and hopefully getting new people to come. our neighborhood group is going to multiply. which is great because when eric and i started going to it last november there were maybe 5 of us...and now we are multiplying! then starting the week of Sept. 28, we are officially kicking off neighborhood groups and we will be following our new series at church that starts this week, "Toxic, What's Killing You?" it's going to be great!

on wednesday (the 24th) we are kicking off our sr. high ministry. that will also be very exciting! we are going to meet at the new offices where we have a warehouse, and the kids can gather there. the volunteers for sr. high are awesome too. god has truly blessed us with great people who believe in the ministry for teenagers, and want to jump in with both feet.

aside from busy kick-offs at church, we are doing great. eric's parents are coming next week to visit. they will be here for the ridge's two year anniversary! we are having a guest speaker come, and i am looking forward to that. i encourage you all to check it out on the website...which i am sure you all watch our weekend services every week :) haha...

molly started swim lessons. it's so much fun to be in the water with her, and watch her explore and try new things. she is the youngest in the class, but she still is having a great time, and learning all the new skills. so we go 2 times a week to the pool.

we hope the school year started off great for you all, and none of you had too much damage from the storm that blew through last week. i am guessing you all have power back now. like i have said so many times before...we would love to hear from you!

have a great weekend, and go do something fun with the family!

a trip to the zoo

on monday, eric and i took molly to the zoo. this is the first time just the 3 of us have gone together. it was a lot of fun! we bought a zoo pass earlier this year, and we have really enjoyed using it. i thought i would share some pictures with you all. oh and one more thing, molly is walking everywhere!

august update

hey everyone! we hope you all are doing great! i just wanted to update you all on some things going on at the ridge. on aug 13, eric took 7 high schoolers and 5 volunteers to the lake for an overnighter. they had an awesome time! the kids are still talking about it. they rode the jet skis, tubed, water skied, and had a campfire. they also ate very well. jim, the guy who owns the house they stayed at, cooked for them, and they ate ribs, chicken, gourmet desserts, and a bunch of other great things. so next year we plan on going to the lake probably 3 times or so, just for all of the kids who didn't go this year, and also for the kids who had a great time and want to go back.
this past wednesday, eric took 8 jr. highers and a couple adults to six flags. they also had a great time. so student ministries is getting rolling. come the end of sept. we will officially launch, and start small groups. so please be praying for our official launch, and for our volunteers. also, for the kids and that we can have an impact on their lives, and ultimately for a relationship with christ.
eric is very busy with neighborhood groups too. thankfully he has some help. the ridge just hired 3 more staff. well one staff member left to start her own business, so we were able to find a replacement, and then we hired a part time worship guy, and another lady as our director of details. the ridge also will be moving into some bigger and better office space next week. so they all had fun picking out "new" used office furniture. we have a lot more office space, and a warehouse to use now. so we are pretty excited.
other then that, things are going great here. i am still plugging away at school, and molly is almost walking. she walks a little bit, but it's still faster for her to crawl. so after about 6/7 steps, she will get down and crawl. at her one year check-up the doctor said she was pretty much perfect, which we all knew that. molly is also talking a lot. she doesn't really say too many words, but lots of babbles and squeals. we have a lot of fun, me and her. i feel so blessed to stay home with her, and watch her grow and change everyday. thank you to all of you for allowing me to stay with her. thank you for your continual prayer and financial support too. we have almost been here a year! it's gone by so fast. we are gearing up for the ridge's 2 year anniversary on sept. 28. we have an awesome speaker coming, and it's going to be a great time. if any of you want to come up and celebrate with us, we would love to see you!
well that's all for now. again...please keep in touch. we love to know what's going on where you are! thanks for everything!

ps-how could i forget?!

oh, another thing happened when we were in ohio, our niece, mandy got baptized!! it was awesome to be there with her! it was on molly's birthday too. so now both granddaughters were "born" on the same day! we love mandy so much. she is an amazing girl, and god is going to do great things through her!!

august, so far

hello everyone! we hope you are all doing just great. eric and i just got back from spending 11 days in ohio. i know what you all are thinking, "you guys were in ohio, and you didn't come to visit!" we tried, but the day we set aside to visit, molly got her top tooth and it was an awful night and day! so we will hit you all up the next time we come to ohio, or we may just plan a special weekend trip to go only to cincy. trust me, we wanted to see you all! we just ran out of time. we were so busy running around visiting family, and friends. but trust me, we will see you all next time!

while we were in ohio, molly turned 1! i still am shocked that she is 1 already. this past year really flew by. we had a big party for her at grandma and grandpa's house. it was so much fun planning for it, and it was great to have all of our family there for it too. we made a plate at a pottery store and painted it, and then had everyone at the party sign it. so now she can eat off it on her birthday every year.

also in ohio, eric performed the wedding for his best friend, ryan. we had a great time! we got to see a lot of people we haven't seen since college, and just seeing ryan get married was truly amazing. he has always said he was never getting married, then karis came along, and bam! now he is married. they are awesome together. god is going to do great things through them.

i can't really remember all of the other things we did in ohio, but we were busy. eric played a lot of golf :) i will leave you with some pics from our ohio visit.

also, please be in prayer for our student ministry. tomorrow eric is taking the high schoolers on a lake trip. it should be awesome. we have been planning for this for a couple of months now. and then next week the jr highers are going to six flags. but in sept. we are launching our small groups for students. we are trying to do everything with excellence, and more importantly, with gods timing, and help. since most of our adults have not been "churched", it's hard to get their kids involved in activities. so please pray for participation, and encouragement for our students.

if you are ever in the area, let us know. we love visitors, and love to hear from you all!

just checking in

hello everyone!

eric and i really have nothing new to share, but we wanted to say we hope you all are enjoying your summers! we can't believe summer is half way over aleady! we are busy getting student ministry ready to launch, and starting neighborhood groups back up for the fall.

have a great rest of july!!

4th of july parade

so up here in milwaukee parades are very popular. the ridge has had the opportunity to participate in new berlin's 4th of july parade for the past 2 years (this year being the 2nd). last year they won best entertainment, and this year we won the highest honor, the council award. very exciting. the council award is presented to the organization that best represents the community in the parade. how exciting for us. we all had a great time. the only word i can really use to describe the whole thing is...fun. eric and i had so much fun, and i think molly did too. we passed out beach balls, candy, cards with our info on them, and had a trailer pulling a live band. i mean seriously, who could not have fun there?! enjoy the pictures, and we hope you all had a safe and fun 4th of july weekend!