Verse to Consider– Micah 7:18: “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love…”
Hello and happy Summer! Forgive our silence, our summer has been full of traveling and we wanted to wait and sum it all up at once; here goes!
Travels
Our summer started with a two week trip to Samantha’s home town in Homer, AK. Despite our luggage taking a 3 day detour in Japan, we had a smooth trip over, even with Samantha being in the late stages of pregnancy, she’s a champ!
During this trip, we were able to see friends and family, have a wonderful baby shower with our AK church community, and even teach an Inductive Bible Study class for the church. We’re so thankful for that community and have been incredibly blessed by their support! We were a bit negligent in our photo taking during this part of our summer, so forgive our lack of documentary pictures!
As soon as we got back, we had the opportunity to celebrate with one of our Bible School students as they got married to their new spouse, who will also be joining us for the Fall semester, woohoo!
The very next day after the wedding, Samantha and I repacked our luggage and headed to Virginia to see more family and friends, watch some fireworks, and have yet another awesome baby shower!
Along with this, we were also able to help the church get some new flooring down.
Coming Up
After a couple weeks in Virginia, we headed back to Florida, where we are now gearing up for some big life events. The most exciting new event being: we finally got an apartment!!! For all you who have been following our posts and supporting us, you know this has been quite some time in coming! For the first time since we’ve been married (5 years in September), Samantha and I will have our own place. Meaning we will also be able to finally open most of our wedding gifts 🙂 Much of our next few weeks is going to consist of moving and getting our apartment ready for our new family addition!
Along with this, we are also jumping right back in to our Emmaus Ministries work, leading into August. As you might know, we ended the New Testament portion of our School of Biblical Studies in May and said goodbye to our students until the start of this coming semester. On August 13th, we will begin the Old Testament portion of our school and take our students from Genesis – Malachi, we’re so excited! While many of our students will be returning to finish their studies, we will also have a handful of new students who will be beginning their 10 month Inductive Bible Study journey with us this coming semester!
Our semester will start with a couple weeks of seminar classes where we will (re)acquaint our students with the Inductive Bible Study Method and walk them through their first couple books. One of my (Jacob) first duties will be teaching our students about the different literary genres within the Bible and how to approach them. It’s been really fun studying for this and if any of you reading are interested in learning more about that sort of thing, along with some of the other principles we teach in our school, I would highly recommend looking at this book: 
It’s a book we recommend to all of our students before coming to our school and it does an excellent job of setting you up to read your Bible well.
Prayer Requests
– We have a lot to do in preparation for our new students, pray for the Emmaus Ministries staff as we work hard to get it all done.
– Samantha and I also have much to do concerning our own preparation for the baby and moving into our new home. Pray for grace and patience as we adjust, and more specifically, for the pregnancy and delivery process as a whole (safety and comfort for Samantha and the baby!).
– In light of all the changes coming to our life, Samantha and I really need to increase our monthly support, please pray for our provision. (If you’re interested in giving, check out our Donation Page).
Exciting Pictures
While we were in Alaska, Samantha and I were truly blessed by our friend Joshua Veldstra, who gifted us with a maternity photo shoot. Enjoy!
– Jacob & Samantha McRae (and baby)
The McRae Family 