Pray for my friend Cari

Chris and I have become good friends with another pastor's family here in the valley. Josh is the Pastor of Trinity Bible and he and Chris study most every Saturday night side by side at the local McDonalds together. I have been blessed to meet and get to know his wife Cari this year! Two weeks ago she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Being a friend, so close in age, a mom, a fellow pastor's wife, the news hit me hard. I'm so grateful for the promises in God's word to surround ourselves with when trials come. I have been inspired by Cari's evident faith in him as she is processing the news and beginning her fight. One of the things I have always loved about Cari is she is real. She says it how it is and speaks her heart. Her blog is no different. Take a look at it as you join me in praying for her! You will most definitely be encouraged by her genuineness and faith!

Cari's Blog


Last weekend she asked me to take some family pictures for them before she began Chemo. They told her she would start losing her hair within a week or so. These pictures are just beautiful... not because of me but because of what they represent. Take a look!

Tara D Photography

Hospitality With Young Children

My poor little neglected blog. Even though I haven't been very faithful to write on this blog, I was asked to write for the Sovereign Grace Pastor's Wives blog. What an honor! Unlike how I write here, this post needed to have correct spelling, proper grammar and coherent thoughts. Man that took a lot out of me :)

Here's a excerpt from my blog post...

"I enjoy hospitality. And I enjoy my young children. But it takes work to enjoy hospitality while having young children. Do the two really go together? Gone are the days of carefree cleaning and complicated meals. Now I’m apologizing to my guests for the cake that has a small bite in its side - a small boy snuck in an early, unapproved taste! Or come a little early and one might hear me remind my three year old that "No, it's not your birthday, and no you may not blow out the nice scented candle to make a wish!"

For the full article go here.

I do have high hopes of posting some updates and pictures this week!

Grace

Yesterday marked the last day of hosting Grace church in our home. Last day of moving out the couches and setting up chairs. Last day of setting up the kids rooms for Children's Ministry. And sadly the last day that someone else vacuumed my house for me :)

Grace. That's the word to describe the past couple of months. I've counted it a sincere joy to host Grace Church in our home during it's early beginnings. Often as a Pastor's wife and a mom of three young kids, my role on Sunday's doesn't go beyond getting the kids dressed and to church on time. And trust me I'm not minimizing that role! But it's been exciting to play a different role in addition to getting the kids ready. I will miss being there for the set-up and all the excitement before the meeting starts.



But yes there has been grace for backaches, grace in the form of the kids excitement to host church and their eagerness to pitch in, grace in others coming early to set up, grace for the spills and paint that's gotten chipped. And when I wake up monday morning wondering if I could possibly do it again the following week, grace. Loads of Grace! But it is time for Grace Church to move on and time for this family to start living like it's a house and not a church. After doing it week after week we'd found it easier to leave as much as we could set up for Sunday to minimize the work. Chairs left in rooms, sound equipment left in our living room and craft supplies on my dresser. But last week when we left the "Nursing Mom's" sign on Taylor's door I knew it was probably time we head to the Rio Vista :)

After we finished the meeting we had our first Grace Church baptism!



We'd appreciate your prayers as we gear up for our kick off on August 30th!

First Sunday Report & Pics

This last Sunday was a first for Grace Church. As in it's first Sunday. We will be meeting in our home until our "official" launch at the Rio Vista September 13th. It was so amazing watching our team transform our house into church! They came and moved out couches, arranged chairs and moved tables upstairs in our loft for Children's Ministry. There wasn't a room in our house that went unused! We had around 50 people! A couple of them were unbelievers too. Chris preached on the Gospel as being central to the foundation of Grace Church. I had worked all week trying to come up with a plan on how to make children's ministry work. I was concerned with the noise level of the kids during the message. I'm happy to say that was not an issue. The kids stationed through our different bedrooms, music time, craft time, snack time & story time. Afterwards everyone stayed for dinner. One of my favorite parts of church planting, dinner together after church! Being I had only planned on 30-40 people for dinner I was a little concerned but God stretched out the food and only one guy on our team & myself didn't get a full sloppy joe.

Here's just one story of the many crazy ways God has been at work:

Sunday morning we are at Costco picking up more chairs for church and items for dinner. We are trying to get through the check out. Chris has a massive amount of chairs in his cart, I have a cart full of bulk food items and at the same time I'm trying to keep the three kids from knocking over dad's chairs. I say that to say our only goal at the time was to get through Costco with no major scenes and to get home before our set up crew arrived. The lady begins ringing us up and says to Chris, "Are you starting a new congregation?" Chris, kind of caught off guard, told her we indeed were. She then asks, "Does it meet at night?" Chris confirms. She then goes on to say her friend, who's loading up our cart, needs to find a church that meets at night. Chris strikes up a brief conversation with this lady, gives her a Grace Church card and directions to our house. We went out to load up the car and having two cars, Chris tells me to go on ahead. He felt lead to go back in and talk with the lady some more. He was glad he did they ended up talking for awhile. Long story short, she got saved on Easter and due to working every Sunday morning she hasn't been able to find a church. She came Sunday night, cried through Chris' gospel message and was ministered to by members on our team. She called us yesterday to thank us for inviting her and after talking with her unbelieving husband about her experience, he has agreed to come back with her next Sunday night!! Wow. Could you ask for a better first Sunday?!

I was not able to take any pictures that day but knew there were others who would. Here's a few my friend Sarah took:

Chris addressing our set-up team



Beginning of worship... filled up a little more as time went on


Here I'm going over our craft for the afternoon. Do you like the example? I made it :) Seriously if you know me you know how NOT crafty I am. I lost more sleep that week over this silly creation mobile craft then anything else! But I conquered my fear and the kids loved it!


Here's a couple more:



This is going to be a fun summer!! Thanks to everyone for all their prayers and support!

Let Your Light Shine- Resources

The best way to cultivate a heart for evangelism is to study God's heart for the lost. Studying the scriptures and seeing how God's heart breaks for the unbelievers stirs up my heart to break as well.

Also knowing and being affected daily by the gospel and it's work in our lives stirs up my heart towards evangelism. Recently Chris gave me the morning out and I went to a local starbucks to read. The place was getting crowded and eventually a man sat in a chair near mine to wait for his drink. I had out my massive ESV study bible and he asked me what class I was studying for. I laughed and told him I was studying for the class on motherhood and showed him my bible. It definitely surprised him but he continued the situation by saying something like that's great. And how he thinks he should read the bible too. I asked him if he had ever read the bible and we continued on for about half an hour while I shared the gospel with him. I was bold and asked him lots of questions, he was really responsive and eager to talk. At the end of it all I invited him to church. I wish I could tell you he came with his wife and kids the following day and was saved, but he didn't. I trust that God allowed that conversation for a reason and hope others will cross paths with him one day which will lead to his salvation. The point of this story is that I don't consider myself bold. And I don't have a history of these types of stories. But I had just spent over an hour being fed by the word, convicted of sin and receiving forgiveness. I was pumped and ready to tell anyone who'd listen about the Savior's great love. Thankfully God did bring someone that morning who I could share His great love with!

Here are a few books Chris & I have read on evangelism:

Recently Chris and I have been reading some books by Randy Newman. One is Corner Conversations and the other is Questioning Evangelism. They have been excellent resources in equipping the saints in how to strike up conversations and how to answer the hard questions like "why is there evil in the world" or "why does there have to be only one way to God? Can't all ways lead to God?" I have found these books really helpful and at the same time stirring up my desire to evangelize. This book also challenged me to ask more questions of people rather than doing all the talking. That's always a great reminder :)

Another book I've read is The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever.

Al Mohler has written a book called Culture Shift: Engaging current issues with timeless truth.

Another great resource is Reason For God:Belief in the age of Skepticism by Tim Keller. This particular book is written for skeptics and believers.

Like I referenced in my last post, John Piper's new book Finally Alive just came out. I've read through most of it and at the end he writes about how our new birth in Christ positions us for evangelism.

I hope this week spurred you on to be "bold gospel tellers"!

Quotes from Piper On Evangelism

I've been skimming through Piper's new book Finally Alive. Like all of Piper's he has laid out simple but profound truths. The last two chapters speak on "How we can help others be born again". It's excellent.

Here are a few quotes that stood out to me:

"Haughty, condescending proclamation of Christ, with no feeling of brokenness or servanthood, contradicts the gospel. And silent servanthood that never speaks the gospel contradicts love. 'We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants.' That's what we do to help people to be born again. We tell people the good news of Christ from a heart of love and a life of service."

" Make Acts 4:31 your dream and prayer for the church of Christ: 'When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.' If God would have mercy on us and pour out the Holy Spirit in this way on his church, our eyes would be bright with bold joy and our mouths would open with the story of the gospel. We would become a people who look and sound like we have heard the greatest news in the world- which we have. That is how we were born again. And that is how others will be born again. "

Referring to 1 Peter 2:3, " This is key to personal evangelism: Have you tasted the word of God- especially the gospel- that the Lord is good? Have you tasted it? I am not asking: Have you thought about it? Im not asking: Have you decided to affirm it? I am asking: Have you tasted it? Are there living, spiritual taste buds in your heart that taste Christ as more desirable than all else? This is where we need to get serious. We will spread the seed of God's mighty regenerating power if we have tasted that the Lord is good. The Lord is our delight. The Lord is our Treasure. The Lord is our meat and milk and water and wine. This tasting happens through the word of God. May God loosen our tongues and make us bold gospel- teller because we are drunk with the wine of the word of God and the goodness of the Lord"

That is my desire. To be so in love with God, have tasted his word and believe it with all my heart that I can't help but be a "bold gospel teller".

Let Your Light Shine

Chris and I have been talking a lot about evangelism recently. Which is probably good since we will be planting a church soon. I have personally always enjoyed building relationships with the lost but when it comes time to "getting out the tract", I hand them over to my husband. The actual sharing of the gospel is something I'd like to grow in. No let me say that again, the actual sharing of the gospel is something I NEED to grow in. Sometimes when my mind unknowingly resorts back to it's Arminian ways, I have nightmares of people yelling at me from hell, "thanks for the meal when I was sick but YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT JESUS!". Ok, so I know that won't really happen and God will save all those he wants to save, but it is my deepest desire to be used by him to participate in the Great Commission. And I know it's Chris' greatest desire that our church plant efforts would bring about the saving of many souls.

Life has been a little crazy since having three kids and I'm tempted to think I'm too busy to evangelize. Shouldn't I just leave this for those who are gifted in that area? I believe that kind of attitude is the same as me saying, "I don't have time to pray, I'll let those who are better at it pray." Or, "I don't have time to read and discern what God's word is saying to me, I should leave that to the scholars." So if I have a conviction and desire to evangelize, then comes the question of how? How, in this busy season of motherhood, can I participate in evangelism? I hope to explore that question more and hear from some of you in how the Lord has provided ways for you to bring the good news to the lost in the coming days.

From Spurgeon's sermon, "The Wailing of Risca"

Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ,
if sinners will be damned, at least
let them leap to hell over our bodies.

And if they will perish, let them perish with our
arms about their knees, imploring them to stop,
and not madly to destroy themselves.

If hell must be filled, at least let it be
filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let
not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.


Oh I love Sprugeon's heart for the lost!

Renewed

Today I leave for our Church's 5th Annual, Singles Retreat. I will be joining my husband, our church, and four others from the west coast. This has always been such a sweet time for me get away with the singles for an extended time and fellowship with the girls. Also, I enjoy watching my husband's hard work and preparation in action. This trip is a milestone in many ways. It is not only Chris and I's last single retreat, but really the last major thing Chris will do before we leave to plant. When he returns we will kick church planting prep into high gear. Again I find my emotions all over the place, sorrow mixed with excitement. I am so thankful for the ways the Lord has meet us each and every retreat and expect this one to be no exception! We'd appreciate your prayers this weekend!

Trevor Walking/Falling Down the Aisle

Yesterday we had the privilege of watching our friend and wonderful babysitter of our children get married. Chris officiated the wedding and Trevor was the ring bearer. Anna thank you for the giving us the opportunity to take part in your special day and well hopefully after watching this video you won't regret it.

I learned yesterday that Trevor doesn't like the spotlight. I'm not sure who's child he is but after practicing numerous times with success there was one factor we forgot to add. Lots of people. Trevor turned the corner and well... you can watch for yourself. (Video compliments of Jeff McFadden)



Some thought he tripped, poor thing they said, but make no mistake this was on purpose. He told me later he was trying to hide.

At least he looked adorable!


Trevor and the groom


Like father like son... sort of, Chris didn't try to hide


Anna looking stunning!


Anna and the kids the night before... Trevor was oh so happy that I stopped his game to get a picture


Anna is moving to Texas with her husband after their honeymoon. Anna we are so excited for you new life but know you will be missed greatly!

Saying Goodbye

This week we have been busy saying goodbye to our dear friends the Hansen's. We go back a long ways with this couple and have been truly blessed by their friendship. As I write Jason and Chris are in a very packed car, headed for Gaithersburg MA, in preparation for the Pastor's College. As sad as we are to be without them for a year, we are so excited for them to receive the rich care and training we received from the PC four years ago. Also, four years ago Jason was driving back with Chris from Maryland dreaming of a day where Lord willing Chris could drive out with Jason. From the sounds of it the boys are having a great time!

I have been spending some time with Tiffany, attempting to be helpful but more just getting a few last moments in with her before she leaves.

Last Sunday we went out with a group of our close friends to say goodbye. We are all so thankful for the sacrifices they've made to go!


Here's a picture of the guys before they hit road!


So please pray for continued safety and if you are in the Gaithersburg area take some time to get to know our friends- you'll be glad you did! Also you can read about her PC experience on her blog. I know she'll resume blogging once they arrive and get settled. We'll all be bugging her to:-)

New Attitude

I now know why it's so hard for Chris to explain his time at new attitude to me each year. I'm at a loss for words myself, amazing, wonderful, impactful, worshipful, renewing, the list could go on. We truly had a wonderful time.

Let's start with the fun first... I enjoyed seeing my husband lead a community group. El Ocho! Long live the eight.That was the name of our community group and it's family group leaders. Chris prepped the group that anytime someone said "El Ocho", they had to reply "El Ocho" back. It caught on and various time throughout the conference Chris and I would get "El Ocho" from across the room. We even had a nice banner done up before we left (thanks Conrad) so it could proudly be displayed for all to see. Actually on the last day my husband challenged another community group to a paper airplane contest. One airplane, one person, one shot. We, of course, won. The group provided great opportunities for men from our church to lead, begin each day with worship, time in the word and of course fellowship.


(click on the image to see it's full size)



The corporate worship time & messages were outstanding. We learned some great new worship songs and even took some of them home with us on this CD. The theme of the conference was the sufficiency of scripture. I highly recommend them all and they are available online. If you had to pick one and only one I would recommend the last one on adoption. It was so impactful. It brought me and many others to tears to think of God's love for his children. If you ever question if God loves you, this is the message for you. Piper did one on William Tyndale, the man who made it possible for us to read the bible in English today. A man who gave his life for this cause. It was convicting and inspiring. Throughout the message I kept thinking here is a man who was burned to death because he began translating the bible in English, meanwhile I'm lazy and sleep in ignoring the eight ESV versions I have in my house. Yes fresh perspective for sure. For Piper's final message, Fighting for faith with God's word, Chris and I somehow got second row seats front and center (thanks Andrea :-)) Like it wasn't incredible enough that we got to see Piper preach but to be front and center was quite the event! All in all I came back encouraged to read the word, pure word, again and the power that it holds.

Another highlight was meeting shai linne. We've come to know his music through Chris' brother Keith. I don't think there's a bigger fan than Keith! So when we saw him talking to people after the message we just had to go meet him. We told him about Keith and his family and he gave us an autographed CD for Keith as well as we took a Polaroid picture (thanks to Paz) in which Shai wrote," wish you were here keith"! Can't wait to get that to you guys! He was such a nice, down to earth guy who clearly loves the Lord & His word!

But by far my favorite part of the trip was all the time I got with Chris. We had so many uninterrupted, meaningful conversations. Of course most of them were from 12am-3am but time nonetheless :-) I love talking about things of the Lord and theology with my best friend! So thank you dear for making it possible for me to attend with you.


A Few pictures from the weekend:




All I can say is New Attitude is worth every penny spent!

Off To New Attitude

Chris & I leave tomorrow morning for Louisville Kentucky! That's right this time it's not just Chris, I will be attending my first ever New Attitude conference and I couldn't be more excited. We are joined by forty others from our Singles group. My bags are packed, kids bags are packed, babysitting arragements have been made and thanks to my awesome sister-in-law and mom, I got my hair done and some new makeup today! Pray for our groups safety and that the Lord would meet us in new and fresh ways. See you all when we return!

Top 5 Ways To Not Welcome Your Husband Home

I remember a time when I would use Chris’ out of town trips to do a special project. Life would often slow down while he was gone. There would be no night ministry meetings and once the baby was in bed I would have a whole chunk of time to myself. I would brainstorm things that I could do to bless Chris and it always seemed to make the time that he was gone go by faster. One trip I decided to give our master bedroom closet a makeover. It was in need of some serious help and was one of those tasks that would just get pushed to a “one day” status. I went through our clothes, gave things away, built shelves for shoes etc. I was so proud of myself and he was totally surprised when he got back! As our number of children has increased, as well as the demands on my time while he’s gone, those big projects have faded into the distance. I think the last time he was gone I cleaned out his car and got it washed for him and I was struggling to find time and energy for that small task. Well this trip has been a little different to say the least. No special projects, painting or car washing this week. Actually I feel sorry for what he has to return to. I’ve seen some great posts from ladies who’s husbands are at the same conference this week. I’ve been spurred on by their Godly attitudes and sacrifice while their husbands are gone and I don’t have a thing to add. No instead I thought I’d post a few ways to NOT welcome your hubby home from a trip:

1. “Chair, what chair? Oh that chair… the one you sit on while working tirelessly for your family…yeah your son kind of got loose without a pull up and pooped on your new computer chair. And well after many cleanings I just couldn't get the smell out of the porous fabric and we had a realtor coming... so it’s in the trash.”

2. Look really fat and bloated because the prednisone you took all week for your illness made you gain 6-8 pds of fluid

3. Do I even mention the car…and how I actually did us a disservice for putting the fire out. I learned yesterday insurance only covers fire damage and apparently there’s only a couple hundred dollars worth of actual fire damage and that doesn’t even meet our deductible. I asked the guy, “So let me get this straight, if I would’ve let my car burn longer or say burn up, the insurance would by me a new car?!”… good to know for next time! Verdict is still out on what caused the electrical malfunction or what we are going to do. Just in time for his return!

4. I lost our i-pod. Yeah seriously, can’t find it anywhere. Maybe I can say it was in the car and is now apart of “actual” fire damage.

And the final way to not greet your husband when he returns home from a trip….

5. Wake him up early in the morning with… I know your tired after a along trip and got home a midnight last night but GET UP a realtor is coming!! (this is a future event that will happen tomorrow morning as I just got a call for a second showing)


Thankfully there will be many more trips in our future where I can work on my welcome home efforts :-) As this week comes to an end I really do want to say how thankful I am for the church and friends. I have received so much grace and help from my parents who probably would've thought I'd have leaved and cleaved a long time ago and the days of calling tow trucks and mechanics were over. They also sacrificed their clean house to my children so we'd have a place to stay with another rush of realtors in tow this week. Ruth for staying with me and just being my friend! Thanks to Lory for giving up her new van for me to use for the week so I wouldn't be without a car, Janelle for the popsicles and encouraging card and many others who called and encouraged me this week. I am truly blessed by wonderful friends & family!

Strep throat, car fire... that's just day one

My husband left for T4G today. Leading up to the trip Taylor & I were diagnosed with strep throat. I Saturday and Taylor on Sunday. Although I had a couple days of antibiotic's in me I woke up still feeling a little under the weather when he left this morning. Add in a couple of realtor showings this afternoon and I was ready to call it a day. That is until I loaded the kids in the car to go over to the Ross' with my parents for dinner and a special announcement from Ryan & Danae. It was then I heard Taylor say from the back seat, ""Mom there's smoke back here!" I looked back and sure enough there was a small trail of smoke right by her seat. Thankfully, and I do mean thankfully, I was at my parents. My dad came out and helped me get all the kids and their car seats out and away from the car, which at this point began smoking even more. We called over Matt Ross who was a block away and knows cars in and out. He ripped off the side paneling on Taylor's side and sure enough there was a small fire. Unable to find an extinguisher my dad call for the fire department. They came lights & all... the kids loved it and we sure made the best of a not so great situation.







Well we finally made it to the Ross' for Ryan & Danae's big announcement. They informed us all of what the gender of their baby was. It was very exciting and a nice distraction from knowing my car was destroyed and my husband's gone :-) I of course can't tell you their news but feel free to check out Danae's blog... I'm sure it'll be there in no time!

As the fire truck drove away, my car a mess and water and film all over my car and parents driveway I looked at my mom and we just laughed. It was a great moment.

I am eager to see how God will make his faithfulness known through this unexpected trial... I do know he will be faithful and am trusting him in the unknown! I'm not sure what this means in general. How much money are we out? Is it even remotely possibly for us to fix/buy a new car & buy a house? One thing I do know- none of those things really matter to me in the end. I am truly humbled and grateful at how he protected Taylor who sat next to the fire for a short time.

We would appreciate your prayers :-)

Chris' New Attitude Article

Wanted to let you know that my husband wrote an article for New Attitude's blog and they put it up today. Read his article and more about New Attitude here: Jesus, Meet My Unbelieving Family.

Speaking of New Attitude... Chris & I just bought our tickets. This will be my first year attending and I'm very excited to join Chris and the singles of our church on this trip!

Oh and feel free to leave any encouraging comments for my husband here :-)

Life As A Mom

This morning we had our first moms to moms meeting at our church. This is a meeting for mom's with children five and under that will be taking place once a month. We began with breakfast, heard a wonderful message on having a devotional life as a mom with young children and then discussed the message in small groups. I had the privilege of helping out with the creative aspect of the meeting. I just love doing things like this!! A few of you asked me for the words to the song we did, so here ya go, just as a side note this was meant to be funny. I don't seriously change 525,000 diapers etc. I really love being a mom and the last verse would more reflect my heart in being a mom to my kids. But hey it's good to laugh at ourselves sometimes :-)


Life As A Mom- lyrics by Kelli & Tara
Sung to melody of Season of Love; Rent Musical

Group
525,600 diapers, 525,000 bottoms to wipe. 525,600 diapers – how many will I change in one life
up all night, with feedings, and crying- I need some coffee
no shower, no makeup, no reading- no time
With 525,600 corrections, how can I get them to obey every time
What about God? (Repeat) Life as a mom, My life as a mom

Solo:
525,600 dishes, 525,000 things to get done, 526,600 messes
How can you measure the life of a wife and a mom

Soloist 2
With truths that you've learned, with God on your side
Live daily in His word with the Gospel in mind.


Group
It's time now to sing out, though the job never ends
let's celebrate and cherish our life as a wife and a mom.
Remember our God! Remember our God!
Life as a mom.


525,600 memories
525,000 tears wiped away
525,600 kisses
I want to cherish every moment every day

And Glorify God…
And Glorify God

Life as a mom

Life has been busy this past week. I spent a good amount of time on finishing details of the above song, Chris left town for four days and I've had a slew of realtor's coming through our house- so basically I've been trying to stay sane :-) I feel like we've recovered from the weekend craziness and now I can't decide if I have really bad allergies or a cold. Nevertheless we've been having fun around here enjoying the beautiful weather and our cute kids. Taylor was able to watch the skit this morning with Chris. She has gone around here all week singing the song with me. She came home today and decided she wanted to write her own. I thought that was funny, a parody from a parody. She titled her song, Life as a Kid. It was more sweet than anything. She'd add in her own lines like "I love my mom and dad... life as a kid" It was very cute!

Beholding is Becoming

The winter retreat was a huge success!

The basis of Glory was that to behold Christ is to become more like him. So that's what we did. We beheld him in his birth, death and resurrection. When Chris first brought the theme to me back in June I knew the temptation of the retreat for myself and others was to think we've heard all that we need to hear on these subjects. But God blessed the messages and that was no where near the case. I left again humbled by what my Savior has done for my, an undeserving sinner. I left secure in the promises that the resurrection brings.

Driving up to the retreat I stopped to get some gas. As I stepped out of my car a homeless man asked if he could wash my windows for some change. I said sure and drew him out while he did. The man professed to know Christ and went on to say how hard it is to live life like this. He just wasn't sure what God was doing. God laid it on my heart to share with him that he is not to live for this life but the next. That the joys of Heaven will far surpass his trials on earth. The man broke out in tears and was overjoyed by this message from the Lord. He said he was praying all day for God to bring him some sort of encouragement and this was it. I too left in tears and prayed for Curt. While at the retreat I was convicted at how excited I can get at the Gospel at work in others lives. My neighbors, the man at the gas station, my family but I've grown to familiar with it to allow the Gospel's work in my own life to bring me to tears. I am quick to see how it can change other's lives and long to have that same passion and perspective for myself. I'm thankful that's no longer the case and pray that I would not again grow familiar with it's work. See it's much, much, easier for me to focus on becoming and to skip beholding the Glory of Christ.

Chris did such an incredible job. The Lord really used him! I'm always amazed at the multi-level gifting he has. He administrated the retreat, helped in creative elements, lead worship, prepared and gave three passionate, fruit bearing messages and ministered to people afterwards. I'm proud to be his helper in this short life!

Taylor was wonderful. She sat through every message coloring and reading quietly next to me. She enjoyed seeing patches of snow and hanging out with the Singles. I enjoyed having some special time with her. Ruth and Luz thanks for the way you cared for her too!

I'll post some pictures in a separate post.

Glory

Today Taylor and I will head up to Prescott to attend the fourth annual singles retreat. This year's theme is Glory. I'll let my husband's words explain the retreat, taken from a recent blog post:
Glory.

One little word. Gigantic meaning.

How do you define Glory? What exactly is it? How do you adequately describe it? It’s hard to talk about, but easy to understand. We know God is glorious. We know His creation is glorious. We know His plan for the ages is glorious.

But sitting atop them all with particular brilliance is the glory of the gospel in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It all revolves His glory.

His glorious life. His glorious death. His glorious resurrection. That’s the focus for this year’s Winter Retreat. Come with hearts that are open to seeing Christ anew. Come wanting God to make you more like this glorious Savior we are going study. Come anticipating the glory of God at our retreat!


This year two other Sovereign Grace Churches singles ministries will be joining us. Which I believe will add up to about 120 people. My husband is so pumped about all that he's learned and the way his own study prep for these messages have encouraged him in his walk with the Lord. I'm eager to see his hard work unfold and be to be refreshed by the word. I'm also excited to have Taylor with me. It'll be interesting for sure but I really think it's going to be a sweet time for her & I. Chris and I have had some amazing spiritual conversations with her and often it's hard for me to find the time during the day in and day out of life to sit and really listen and answer her questions. Something to grow in. Well her and I will have plenty of time this weekend. She is really excited to see her daddy lead worship, preach and of course snow:-) Pray for us and the singles in attendance!

Treasure The Word Promo

Today we began pre-ordering for the memory verse cd that will be out next week. It's been so much fun being apart of this project and we can't wait to share it with you all! You can take a listen to a few of the songs that my husband put together for this mornings announcement. And yes that is my precious daughter singing the last song!

If you attend our church you can purchase a CD at our bookstore. All others can contact our church through the website to purchase your copy. The cost is only $5 and will make for a great present or stocking stuffer :-) I can attest to what a help putting scripture to music aides in memorization for both kids and adults alike! Our family now has 13 key verses of Ephesians down pat! I used Taylor's picture as a place holder for the song in imovie so I could put the mp3 up... so sorry you have to look at her cute face during the promo :-)

Retreat Away

Chris and I returned last night from a little getaway. Pastors at our church take two to three retreats a year to refresh their souls, plan for the upcoming year and think for an extended amount of time on their ministries etc. Wives are welcome to attend although with an already busy travel schedule and our season of babies I never have. Well my husband worked very hard to make it possible for me to come with him on this one and have a retreat myself! To which I am so grateful! Some friends of ours own a place about three hours east and offered it to us to use for the retreat. All I can say is wow, this place was absolutely unbelievable! Once I got there I knew why he worked so hard for my being up there with him. We had such a great time together! It was romantic, productive and our souls and marriage were immensely refreshed. I got some extended time in the word, read some outstanding articles and with Chris' help, I was able to identify sin areas in each of our children and write up scriptures that speak to that particular area for us to memorize together throughout the week. I also came up with a master schedule for my day and each of the kids... now I've just got to get to the implementing part :-) I have been gathering a pleathera of homeschool materials for quite awhile now and took part of a day to just sit, look through and think upon each one. It was so fun! Oh yeah and I also got some sleep. Trevor's been in a "waking up in the middle of the night" phase again. Although I can't remember how long exactly we were out of it :-)

So thank you my love for taking me away with you, and giving me one of the most memorable times together, thank you to all who served in watching my three darlings and thank you friends for letting us use your AMAZING mansion in the woods!