Wedding memories!

Wow!  What a fantastic weekend we had!  It was busy, but so much fun!  Some dear friends from our small group got married on Saturday!  We had a blast!  Kelly & Rich are 2 of the sweetest folks you'll ever meet and they complement each other so well!  I have no doubt that they will have a beautiful marriage!  We had a great time with wonderful friends!  We "party'd" til no one was left at the place but our small group!  I don't think Rich & Kelly minded though!  They know that all those folks showed up for the wedding because they care about them!  

Jason performed the ceremony.  It was nice because Lora got to actually BE at this wedding (the 1st one was Randy & Laci in FL and Lora didn't get to go).  

We have another couple in our group who will be getting married in June, but they are going to Jamaica for their wedding.  We will have a big celebration for them when they get back!!!!

It made me think how blessed I am to have a Godly man as my husband.  He tells me every day how much he loves me.  He honors me in his actions.  He lives to please the Lord before anyone else.  What more could I ask for?!?  

Now, I know he wrote in his blog about his "husband points" for spending the evening with me instead of going to the UFC fight night, but he WAS tired!  So technically, he doesn't get "points" for doing something that in all honesty he was going to do anyway!!!!!   Either way, it was great!  The guys who came over were so quiet that we couldn't tell anyone was upstairs watching TV.  

Memories like this past week are just part of what makes being up here and being a part of Discovery Church so awesome!  

Thanks Rich & Kelly for letting us share with you on your big day! 

Thanks small group for making it fun and keeping it real! 

GO JOEY!!!

I love the ministry!!!

OK, I know that God blesses and that He gives back so much more than we could ever hope for, but WOOHOO what a blast we have with the students!  We had our 2nd youth lunch this past Sunday and had over 30 people show up at Pizza Inn!  (Of course, 7 of those were ebelings, but still, a great turnout!)  We had so much fun just hangin' out and fellowshiping with each other.  It's cool to see a shy girl come and sit down at the table and start talking with the other girls. This is a HUGE step for this girl!  I don't think I'll ever get used to the joy I get from these kids!  

Thank you Lord for allowing us to be a small part of the kids' lives.  Thank you parents for letting us be involved with your kids.  

Give Thanks!

I want to share a bit of thanks with everyone for some folks that blessed us yesterday.

Jeremy & Jessica Carter are a couple that go to Discovery Church.  They  bring so much to the church and are always willing to do what they can to help!  Last night, we set up (a day early) for church and they showed up to help.  They brought individual ice cream cups from Cold Stone for Claude, Todd Wallace, and myself.  Don't panic, no one was left out because we were the only ones that were there for setup (we did have another person show up, but we were already done!)!  We also had 3 teenagers help out!  It was a fun night!  We sat and ate the ice cream, then we decided to all go over to the Wallace house to play Wii!!!!   Claude is the cow racing master!!!!  He beat all of us!  It was so much fun!  

Anyway, Jeremy & Jessica were alot of fun to hang out with.  Up til last night, we hadn't really spent much time with them outside of church functions, so it was great to get to know them better!  

I just love doing that!  We have been blessed to be able to spend time with several families over the last few weeks!  We've hung out with the Rennies (a totally cool family!), the Hansens (what a blast!  We created a Wii character for Claude, but by the time we were done it looked more like Michael Jackson than Claude!!), & the Ellingsworths (also, fun, but their dog ate the meatloaf!).  It's one of the BEST things about Claude being in the ministry!  We are able to develop friendships with folks and bless them.  They, in turn, continually bless us!  

So, I encourage folks to give thanks for their friends and to look for ways to meet & make new friends!  Grow where you are planted people!!!!

What's new!

Well, it's been awhile since my last blog!  It's been busy here so I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up!  

We had our 2 year anniversary (Discovery Church, not me personally!).  We also had our baptism and had a good group get baptized.  3 were from our youth group & 3 were from our small group!  Needless to say, it was a very emotional day for me!!!  The youth, Izzy, Kevin, & Kyle, were excited about their videos!  They got to share their experience with the Discovery family!  The small group was all there to support our friends!  It was so great!  

Keep something in your prayers if you would.  We have been praying for a bus.  Our first reason for this is for our youth group.  We've grown so much that it makes going places together difficult.  The group is fairly young and we only have 2 teens that drive!  We have several adults that can drive, but each can only take 1 or 2 students.  So, our desire is for a bus that can allow us travel to places together.  We plan on taking trips this summer to different places and are hoping that the Lord will provide the bus for us!  Also, we have several dozen college students that do not have vehicles so they are unable to come to church.  We have several people who would be willing to make a "bus run" to pick up the students!  We are also hoping to utilize the bus to take DC folks to conferences and on missions trips!  

WOW!!!!!!  I am so awed to be a small part of what God is doing here!  It's just so amazing!  Praise God for the great things He is doing and for what He plans on doing!  

(You can't see me right now, but I'm dancing for joy!!!!)

 

Being challenged

I grew up in a Christian home. Both of my parents were Godly Christian people who loved the Lord and did their best to raise my brothers & me to do the same. We all went to a Christian school from K5-12th grade and we were in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, & Wednesday night (not to mention any time something else was going on, we were there!). I can't say that I always enjoyed the "bubble" I felt like I was in. I just didn't realize at the time how much my parents sacrificed and how much they loved us and wanted to totally saturate our lives with Jesus. Now, I am SO THANKFUL for the blessings my parents gave us. I'll tell you why!

A great guy in our church, Brad, posted on his blog about one of his pastor friend's and that some folks were really ripping into him about his church celebrating souls won to Christ (check out Brad's blog http://bradchristian.blogspot.com/). I started reading the comments and the back & forth bantering between people about whether God has "predestined" people to be saved. I was so baffled. I believe that the Lord wants all to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but that there are those who will never accept it. These folks (referred to as Calvanists or Old Truth) believe that the Lord has already determined those who will truly accept Him and that the others' hearts are hardened by the Lord. I believe that sin hardens our hearts to where we can't hear the Holy Spirit calling us. Claude likes to call it "subtle numbing". Think about it: do you remember when cursing in public was an outrage? Do you remember when an unwed mother was hush-hush? Do you remember when living together before marriage was considered "living in sin"? Look at society now! All of these things are readily accepted (and not just by the unsaved). Thus - subtle numbing. I believe that the Holy Spirit calls us, but because of the sin in our hearts, some don't answer. I am no where near being a Bible scholar so I argued my thoughts with 2 Peter 3:9. The rebuttle was that this was to believers, not non-believers. Well, why would Peter need to tell them that God was not wanting any of them to perish, but for all of them to repent? They were already believers! I must say, it confused me more than helped clarify. I just know that the Holy Spirit is the only one who can truly know the hearts of men and their decisions. We, as humans, should see the RESULTS...fruits, good works, etc.

Thanks for letting me go on & on. If you have any good thoughts about this, please let me know! I am a curious one!

Count your blessings!

Yesterday, Claude & I spent the day working in the yard. Now, I know that doesn't sound like fun to most people, but believe me it was enjoyable! You see, it's been so busy for the last 6 weeks (or more) and so we haven't really had alot of "free" time. Our yard (front & back) was becoming an eyesore to us & our neighbors!!! Anyway, we decided it would be a good thing if we changed the bed around the mailbox. It was sooooo great!!!! There were no distractions, errands, phone calls, issues, etc. that came up! Just me and Claude working together! I normally don't like yardwork. I'll mow the yard, but don't ask me to do much else because it's just not my thing! But I had so much fun just working with him and talking thru what we wanted it to look like. It's funny how God gives us times like these! I am thankful that He allowed us a day with very minimal interruptions. They are a nice blessing every now & then!
This morning was also great because I felt refreshed after having some time alone with my husband the day prior. I was eager to get back to working on stuff for church. In fact, it was fun! Thank you Lord for the opportunity to do the stuff I do for my church that I love! I like doing it, I get to be at home, I am pretty good at it (although I'm sure there's some that could be better!), I get to work with my husband which is really awesome!!! I even get to work with a pastor that I respect & enjoy!
Some other things I'm grateful for:

• wonderful friends at church
• great folks who are willing to help out in any way they can (thanks Wallaces!)
• people like Hazel Haynes who does our church bulletin every week!
• Randy & Laci Strickland who give so much time to the youth ministry! You guys ROCK!
• Encouraging folks like Frank & Michelle Lodeserto who always have time to listen and give you an uplifting word!

I'd say that God gives blessings in lots of little things in our lives. We just have to be willing to look for them.

With friends like that...

How many of you have friends who when you are in the wrong will call you out on it? Studies show that most people would say they only have one or two "real friends". Well, I think that it's probably zero or one! I started thinking about it after a phone call from my friend, Lora. Now, it's taken me a LONG time to feel like I can open up to her. After all, she's practically perfect in every way (Just kidding Lora!!!). She actually hates that! However, what I've learned is that she's NOT perfect. She struggles with things just like me. Alot of her struggles are strengths of mine, and my struggles are her strengths (obviously, she has MANY MORE strengths!!!). The point is that she is one friend that I know will, in a loving, Godly way, call me on something that she sees I need to fix in my life. I love her for that! Now, I hate being wrong and I hate being told that I'm wrong, but I realize that it's a part of life to be wrong. I need to be willing to fix or change whatever it is in my life so that I am not a stumbling block to someone else.
BTW, I have 2 other friends like that. Diona & Cindy. Both of these wonderful ladies live in FL and I miss them, but I am so grateful for their love and the acceptance. They take me as I am and see me through our Father's eyes! I only pray that I can be this type of friend to Lora and to my lady friends back in FL. Proverbs 27:6