Dear John and Naomi…

Dear John and Naomi Caprari,

After spending an incredible week with you both at Eastport Bible Church’s Missions Conference, I would be remiss not to take some time to reflect on how much we love you both.  So here goes.

John, we met you when you were in Jr. High.  You were quiet, but kind and after a few times of coming around for Youth Group, all of a sudden it’s just like you were always there.  You were one of our core students, showing up for just about everything.  You helped us serve, you joined us for trips both near and far and we loved having you around.  Over the years, we’d marveled at how incredibly strong you grew both in stature but most importantly in your faith.

Your friendship with Jeremy probably initially started with your mutual love for sports.  You guys would go on to spend countless hours talking or playing basketball, football and everything in between.  I was so thankful to see the friendship that you had.  And as you got older, it grew stronger as you shared your faith and grew in pursuing God’s great plan for you.  Jeremy got to be a huge part of that and I know it’s something that he will always consider a great blessing in his life.

When you went off to Grace Bible College, and eventually came home in love with a girl named Naomi, we couldn’t have been happier.  Knowing that you trusted God to lead you to a godly young woman, who would someday be your wife made us so incredibly proud.  We knew that you would both be stronger together and do great things together than you’d ever be able to accomplish individually.

Jeremy was there to take a few engagement pictures for you one wintry Spring day.

And when you asked me to be your Wedding Photographer, I was thrilled.  Because I’ve shot a lot of weddings throughout the years, but being a part of yours was something that I’ll always cherish.  Capturing the wedding day of two people who have such an incredibly love, not only for each other, but most importantly for God?  That was a great honor.

I cried a bit during your wedding ceremony.  I had to blink back tears as I clicked away.  Because Naomi and John, it’s been such a huge blessing to be a part of your lives.  You both are such wonderful and hard working people and you have this wonderful ability to make a difference on everyone that you encounter.  God most certainly has used you both to do great things for him and it’s been so incredibly fun to watch.

Our entire church was blessed last year, when you both came out to be our Summer Interns.  We loved having you both around and loved seeing you be a part of loving and encouraging our church and our ministries.  We celebrated with you in the good times and later on, our hearts would break with yours when God’s plan turned out to look differently than what we had all thought.  But throughout this all, you remained strong in your faith and in your love for God and for others.

This past week was awesome.  We loved having you here for our Missions Conference.  You jumped right in to be a part of everything and we loved each and every minute of it.

I think we’ll always remember how much we enjoyed dinner with the Skarkas.

And then there was that coffee.  Because goodness knows, we’ll never forget getting the chance to watch you drink the world’s best.

On Sunday, we got to hear all about your upcoming trip to Tanzania, where you will both work to love and serve others for Jesus.

I couldn’t help but think of how incredible it was to know you when you were just a quiet Jr. Higher in our Youth Group and to see how you’ve learned and grown in your love and faith for God.  Seeing him bring you to the point of going off to be a missionary in Tanzania?  I don’t think that we could be more proud.

So John and Naomi, please know that as you follow God’s great plans for your life, you have family, friends and a great church community that loves you and that will be praying for you and supporting you each step of the way.  We thank and praise God that we have been able to be a part of your lives and we cannot wait to see the great things that God will do with you both as you serve in Tanzania.

Thank you for loving God and for being willing to serve Him!

Love,
Laura and Jeremy Herr