A new season of our lives

I have a lot I want to say in this post, so please forgive me if I jump around to much here. There is just so much I want to share and don’t want to leave anything out.

You know that we each go through “seasons” in our lives. Most of us have gone from the season of living with our parents to either getting married or just having our own place to live. Then there comes the season of having children, maybe a change in jobs or even a big move to another city, state or country for some people. 

About five or six years ago Chuck felt the call to go into full time ministry, which meant he would leave his job in the secular world and pursue the call of Associate Pastor with the Church we are members of (a new season of our lives). Our Church voted to call Chuck as a full time associate Pastor ( he was leaving a job that paid very well and going to something that didn’t know how much they would be able to pay. Talk about living on faith, but that is what we did. To look back on that time in our lives it is so neat to see how God provide for our needs.) The finance committee came up with an amount for his salary and we have been blessed with the way God worked everything out. 

Lets look at the spring of 2009. Chuck felt the call of God to go, and plant a church. The Great Commission of Jesus, found in Matthew 28 to “go and make disciples of all nations”, has become more than a goal of church life, but a personal commission requiring radical obedience.  After God spoke to Chuck about this calling, he spent the next six months in prayer that God would call me as well. I can remember sitting across the table from Chuck at a restaurant and he asked me, “What do you think about church planting?” my response to him, while shaking my head no was, “I don’t  think about it.”, meaning I don’t want to do that.  Well Chuck didn’t say anything else to me about it and he just continued to pray that God would call me to church planting.  You know God is faithful, and this past May, we surrendered to the Lord to go wherever God would lead us. We have answered “YES!” to the call, we will let God determine the place.

We have had people in our church praying for us, some knowing our call to go and some just praying, based only on the knowledge that God was working something out in our lives, and we have coveted those prayers.

Now that the call of God to go and plant a church is clear to us within our spirit, and we as a family are together committed to go; the question at hand now is “when do we go?”.

As Chuck was giving his “resignation” to our Church family last Sunday he shared this:

In Luke 9:59-62, Jesus was walking along the road and He called out to a man and said “Follow Me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow You; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

So to our church family he announced that the time for us to go is now. Chuck is resigning his position as Associate and Youth Pastor (our last Sunday will be October 3rd)  in order to devote his full focus on actively pursuing our call in church planting. As with any new ministry, there is training and equipping that is needed, and we will pursue this immediately. As Chuck and I and our children are being equipped for the mission field of North America, we desire your prayers as a continual bond of support that can never be separated by distance or time. Please pray for God’s leading in our lives that we live in obedience, faith and with clear vision of where God will lead us.

In Isaiah 6 God had a plan, and then He called a man to take part in carrying out that plan. God asked, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us?” Isaiah’s reply was, Here am I. Send me!”.

As things become more clear and we start to see the direction that He is leading us in, I will share that with you as well. This is going to be in exciting time in our lives and I am looking forward to see how God is going to use me and my family to reach out to others and share the Gospel with different folks. I know that it is going to be a lot harder than what I imagine it could be but I also know that it is going to be so much greater than what I ever expect it could be.

Grandparent's Day

On Friday, I had the opportunity to join my mom and two nephews Waylon and Wyatt at their school for "Grandparent's Day". I know, I'm not a grandparent I am the aunt, but that's okay the boys didn't mind me being there. Our morning went something like this, at 10:15 we joined Waylon in his room to make a little craft for Nana, then at 10:45 Nana went to Wyatt's room for lunch and I stayed with Waylon and ate lunch with him. After having lunch with Waylon (and then him going outside with his class to play on the playground) I headed over to Wyatt's class to have a quick visit with him. I am so thankful that I got to be a part of this special day with them at their school.

There’s just “Something About Silver “ . . .

Recently I started following this blog:

Frugal Mommy of 2 GIRLS

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you know that I just “LOVE” a good giveaway. So here is another one that I want to share with you.  She is giving away a personalized necklace from Something About Silver. Here are just a few of the pieces that she has made.

   

Don’t you just love these? I really like the heart with the two names and birthstones. So go ahead and visit Frugal Mommy of 2 GIRLS for your chance to win. The contest will end on  Friday, September 10, 2010 at 9:00pm EST.

My last day . . .

Four years ago I started keeping this little guy.

Then a year later this little guy came along.

I started keeping Waylon when his mom (my sister) went back to work when he was just about three months old.  After Crystal had Wyatt I started keeping both of them when she returned back to work.

Last August, Waylon started Pre-K so that left me and Wyatt to  days with just the two of us. We would take Waylon to school and then we would pick him up after school. Then when school was out of session for summer break I was back to keeping both of  “my boys”. This summer we stayed at home and played, and played and played some more. We had our routine, I would be at there house at 6:30 on the mornings that I kept them. We would leave their house around 7:45, heading back to my house where we would have breakfast and play. Then we would clean our toys up and start getting lunch ready. After lunch it was one of my favorite times of the day, NAP TIME! Oh, yeah those two can sure make you tired. After nap we would have a snack and play some more, then Nana would come by and pick the boys up and take them home to see their sweet Momma.

I say all that to say that yesterday was my last day keeping them. Wyatt will be following Waylon to school next week. So my days of keeping them are now over. It was a bittersweet day. I decided that since it was their last day with me that I would take them to get some lunch, (instead of fixing something at home) so we headed to McDonalds. Wyatt wanted to know if we were going to get a “Happy Meal” and I told him we would. Waylon then proceeded to tell me, “No, we are getting SAD, SAD meals”.

Wyatt and his “Happy Meal”

Waylon and his “SAD, SAD Meal”

Waylon was sad that he didn’t have his fries yet. (Just a side note, we were parked in the parking lot and Waylon had pushed the buckle for his safety belt down. We did not ride with it like that.) Not to fear when he got his fries he was happy again.

I have had a great time keeping these two. Sure I will miss my days with them, but I will still see them all the time. I do believe that I am ready to just be an Aunt to them and not a caregiver. I know that they are both going to have a great time at school this year. Thanks to my sweet sister for giving me the opportunity of spending so much time with Waylon and Wyatt.