Move #1 Begins

About a week before Christmas we were approached by a friend who asked us if we'd consider renting our house out to her & her girls. We prayed about it and felt such a peace. As most of you know we've been trying over a year to sale our house and the market, unfortunately, has only continued to decrease value in Phoenix. Making it harder for us to sale. Renting at this point seems best. Plus we know and respect our renter, making it even better!

The only thing was she was ready to move in sooner then we were able to get out to Peoria. But in God's provision some friends of ours have a house in our neighborhood they've been renting out and their renters (our other friends) just moved out. So this saturday we will be moving into their house, just one street away. In the meantime we will be praying and looking at where to live in Peoria. I'm so thankful that we can stay in our neighborhood. By far the hardest part about leaving this house is our awesome neighbors. I still plan on bringing the kids over to this block so they can continue playing with their friends until we move to Peoria.

So all that to say a minor blogging break is required. This move is tricky in two ways. One it's smaller than our current house and two we are unpacking knowing that we will be re-packing everything again in a few months. I'm doing my best to try to do this all in an organized way. Pray for me cause at the moment I'll just be glad to have everything packed by saturday :)

Four Years Of Trevor

I don't think I've done an update on Trevor in a long time! First off isn't he so stinking cute?! I think he could be a little child model. But good looks is not all this boy has. Although it's saved him a time or two :) He is full of life, energy, ideas and he's pretty sure most of the time, he's right. He makes us laugh with his monologues on life, warms our heart with his "let's talk about God" initiating and he loves his sisters. He's fierce and protective of them. He's also really funny and can get us laughing with his made up jokes and one line sayings. This morning I showed him a picture of right after he was born (cleaned up) and he said "EWW"!

When I began the school year with Trevor this year he knew very few letters and no sounds. By December he knew all his letters, sounds and has begun to put words together! We are so proud of him! He also knows his shapes and numbers up to 20. He has grown so much. Another important skill to dad and mom is this was the year he began consistently sleeping through the night! Praise God :)

Your third year was a big year for you son! Can't wait to see what year four has in store for you!

Happy Birthday Pirate Trevor

Today we threw Trevor a 4th birthday party. This was his first "friend" party and also the last birthday party in this house, as well as living in Gilbert.

Over the past year Chris has been playing this game with the kids where he comes out as "Blackbeard" the friendly pirate and takes them on treasure hunts. Sometimes he makes them work for their treasure by having them help mommy clean up the house. I love blackbeard. So do the kids. And it is for this reason Trevor wanted a pirate party. We invited 8 friends plus two older boys in the church that trevor looks up to and all of them came! He was blessed! The kids showed up and went out back and played and got pirate tattoos & eye patches. Then once everyone arrived I had spray painted mini treasure chests black for each kid to decorate and gave them pirate coloring sheets to color.

Afterwards I sat them down and told them black beards legend. Which I'm told I didn't do very well, sorry honey I'm just not as gifted in this area as you are :) Then lo and behold blackbeard came!! I love my husband for many reasons and this is just one of them... when I came home with a pirate outfit, gold earring and all, he threw it all on and was such a good sport about it too :)


It was so cute to see their faces. He put them through pirate school. Starting with giving them all pirate names. Then he played blackbeard says.


Taught them how to walk the plank and throw gold coins into the ocean. I don't know why that's a good skill to have... but hey the kids loved it :)


Then they went on a treasure hunt through the house which ended with Blackbeard's treasure. I think all the candy was stuffed into bags in a matter of seconds!

Then it was time for presents & cake. Ruth, my talented friend, helped me make this awesome pirate ship cake. And by help me I mean she made it while I did what she told me to do :)


Say "ARRRR"

Happy Heart Day

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".

Taylor's Valentine's

Well my friend Ruth was inspired by my last post and called me yesterday wanting to make them with Taylor. Ruth is my "martha stewart" friend. She can do pretty much anything. Sew, knit, crafts, invitations, cakes. Basically everything I can't do :)

Look how cute they turned out:


Thanks Ruth!

Cute Valentines

Valentine's is just a few days away! I saw this adorable idea on inchmark for homemade valentines. Probably won't be making them this year as I'm gearing up for a pirate party on Sunday for a little guy in my house. But I will tuck this idea away for next year!

Let Your Light Shine Pt. 2

"Therefore, we are all ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:20"

I've been told that there are two kinds of Christians. Those who are so like the world that they will never make a difference. There is no difference to be seen. And those who separate themselves from the world in such a way, that the world would never have a chance to see the difference. Clearly the goal would be to land somewhere in the middle. In my experience, to get there takes work and intentionality.

So where to start? Well first off we have to actually know unbelievers and be building relationships with them. At an evangelism conference by Jim Donahue I received the helpful tip of getting the fact that you are a christian out as soon as possible when building a relationship with an unbeliever. That way it's out there. For me it's not all that hard as usually the "what does your husband do?" question comes out fairly quickly. But until this helpful piece of advice I would shy away from answering this question.

In some ways it was so much easier to build relationships with unbelievers back in my pre-kid days. Particularly when I was single, working and going to school. I was in the world constantly and given many opportunities. Now it feels like I try to strike up conversations with unbelievers while trying to keep my kids from hitting one another or worse, hitting their kids. This has happened to me. I recently was out chatting with a new face and she was totally talking and listening to me then I look over and Trevor is pushing her son down. Nice. I want to yell, "DON'T YOU KNOW I'M TRYING TO SHARE JESUS WITH HER??" But I don't. I think that would hinder my witness :) I take him inside and THEN yell! No I don't do that either :)

So as my season of life has changed I have had to look for new ways to be in the world. This by no means is exhaustive or a list of what being in the world has to look like. There are just ways the Lord has brought to my mind as I've prayed.

1. Neighborhood
God has physically placed us all in different neighborhoods for His glory. It is no accident that we live were we do and perhaps the easiest way to "be in the world" is by getting to know our neighbors. For me getting to know my neighbors has never been easier. In the pre-kids days it was much harder to meet & greet with those living around us. I had to be much more pro-active and well sometimes it didn't come off as naturally. "Hi here's some cookies... just because:) Yeah for Jesus!" Not impossible but different. I take my kids outside almost daily. That's the advantage of living in AZ. By being outside I'll see my neighbors come & go and over time I learn their names, kids names, work and relationships develop. Before you know it we can invite them into our home for dinner or have neighborhood grill outs. Opportunities abound in this area! But be careful cause at one point or another they really will get to "see" you in action.

2. Park days
If your neighborhood hasn't provided you with as many opportunities as you like, try frequenting your neighborhood park or others parks around you. I have meet many who live in my neighborhood "per-sa" just by going to the same park over time. Most moms are just as eager for adult conversations as I am! I try to be intentional to learn names and maybe schedule a follow up meet up time at the park. One thing I plan on doing with our church plant team moms is picking a day a week or month to meet at a park for the sole purpose of inviting unbeliving friends we meet along the way. What I may not have in common with my new unbelieving friend, another friend may and a more natural relationship will develop with them and opportunities for the gospel to be shared.

3. Church Opportunities
At Sovereign Grace Gilbert we have had something called Life 101. This has been by far one of my favorite ministries at our church. Chris and I have invited friends every time and the times where no one has accepted our invitation we've enjoyed going to meet those our friends have brought. Once I was asked to go because Taylor befriended a little girl in life 101 a week prior and this girl wanted to go back if Taylor was going to be there! What joy that brought to our hearts :)

4. Prayer
Never underestimate the power of praying for God to save. We can have all the right answers, present the gospel in the most perfect way and if God does not move- salvation will not happen! In the harder/demanding times of motherhood prayer was often the only way I was able to participate in advancing the kingdom. I was was happy to have A friend, let alone an unbelieving friend! God saves through prayers. Chris and I prayed many times for his brother Jeff & his wife Brandy. After sharing the gospel and being rejected a certain amount of times, we prayed. For years we prayed. And guess what God saved them! And they now live in Peoria, where Chris & I are moving to and are some of our dearest friends! Their testimonies are attached to their names. Oh how I love to pray for the lost and see God do what only He can do. Save.

5. The Homefront
In my thinking on evangelism I can often forget that I have three precious sinners living with me twenty-four seven that I am called to be the gospel light to. My kids impression of the gospel, will in many ways, be determined by how I live it out. A convicting & sobering thought indeed. My desire is for my first & best efforts to always be at home with my children. Perfect? Far from it. And hopefully it's from my lack of perfection and admitting to them my sin and seeking forgiveness that they will come to learn of their own need of the gospel. Chris and I are constantly trying to teach our children God's word. We want them to hear, read and see God's word, the bible, for themselves and pray they one day will have eyes to see and ears to hear!

Chris & I also desire for our children to see their parents model evangelism. For them to know that our family exists not unto itself, but to bring glory to the Lord and proclaim His name! And one of many ways we can do that is to have hearts for lost people.

Most of these things are ways, as a mom, I can be in the world. But as I've been convicted of, being in the world isn't even enough. Having unbelieving friends isn't enough. Doing good works isn't enough. We have to take it to the next step and share, speak, proclaim the Gospel to them. As I mentioned earlier, that's hard. I find it scary.

I would love to hear of any ways that some of you place yourself in the world for the purpose of evangelism. Please share!

Next I will post some resources I've gone to for aiding with evangelism, namely sharing the good news.

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!

A New Friend

I've recently made a new friend. He's living on my front porch and at night he likes to connect things from my bushes to the top of my porch. He's quite the artist. My husband decided enough was enough and well it's not all that welcoming for our guests. We broke it down yesterday but apparently the artist didn't get the hint and began another impressive one last night :)

Bruschetta n' Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Breast

We had this at a friends house awhile back and I just got around to making it myself. It's super easy and very delicious!

Ingredients:
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
1-1/4 cups KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Chicken
8 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (2 lb.)
1/3 cup KRAFT Roasted Red Pepper Italian with Parmesan Dressing

HEAT oven to 350°F. Mix tomatoes, 1/2 cup cheese and basil in medium bowl. Add stuffing mix; stir just until moistened.

PLACE 2 chicken breasts in large freezer-weight resealable plastic bag. Pound with meat mallet or side of heavy can until chicken is 1/4 inch thick. Remove from bag; place, top-sides down, on cutting board. Repeat with remaining chicken. Spread chicken with stuffing mixture. Starting at 1 narrow end, tightly roll up each breast. Place, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish. Drizzle with dressing.

BAKE 40 min. or until chicken is done (165°F). Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake 5 min. or until melted

makes 8 servings

Can be found at kraftfoods.com

A Humbling Experience

For Christmas Chris and I enrolled ourselves in our gym's boot camp. They had a specific one for mom's and another general one for guys & girls. The mom's time worked great for my day schedule and gets the kid out of the house a couple times a week. We thought that it was something we could do together. Focus on getting healthy in 2010. We are going to need all the stamina we got for this next year's adventure. Well mine started three weeks ago and Chris' got canceled. Nice. But don't worry he found another "bootcamp" sort of thing to do with a friend.

I did my assessment the first day of class and the instructor being oh so sweet, after taking my measurements and weight, was like, "tara! You're so skinny girl. Probably the skinniest I've got so far." So I'll tell her I'm nothing but a skinny wimp and find myself dragging pretty much every day. I'm desperate for some more energy. All true, but I left feeling pretty good about myself. Day 1 begins and HOLY COW I'm so out of shape. Not only am I out of shape but I seriously cannot keep up with these girls! It's so humbling always being the one lagging behind.

Today began week three. For our "warm up" we go run a little less then a mile outside. I did ok. Came in dead last and like most runs felt like I was going to die. But hey at least I ran the whole time. That was progress. We go inside, do some cycling and weights and time for another run. She says, for my benefit I'm sure, "if you can't keep up, cut through this sidewalk area and we'll all get back around the same time". So I started off well, then about halfway through I fell behind. There was the sidewalk. Pride says "Don't do it LOSER!" Asthma, out of shape body, says "don't be proud, take it." So I cut through. I'm spotted by some little girls having recess outside. One sees me and yells, " CHEATER! THAT GIRL IS CHEATING!! CHEATER, CHEATER, PUMPKIN, EATER!!"

I can't believe I pay money for this.

Super Bowl Joys & Sorrows

We made signs...


We cheered for our team...

Father's bonded with sons...

We thought we were going to win...

Oh no...


Suddenly, it was over :(


What do you think owen? 2010?


Well AZ cardinals we truly are proud of you! It was quite the game. And let's face it we weren't really sure we would ever see you in the super bowl. At least not in our lifetime. Here's hoping we'll get to see you there again!

Blue Roses

Trevor came into our bed in the middle of the night last night saying he had a bad dream. I cuddle up to him and ask him what it was about. He said people were chasing him and ate all his birthday cake and he didn't get any. Then he said can we pray mommy? So I said sure buddy... " Jesus please help Trevor to know he can trust you in all things. Even in him getting some birthday cake. Amen."

I started to fall back asleep then he prays " Jesus help me to dream of good things. Like blue roses. Yellow sidewalks and pink skies. Amen."

I love it!