God's Unfailing Love

The longer we've been here in Annapolis, the more I am seeing God's unfailing love lavished on me. I often try to take this new church we are starting into my own hands. It's easy to think it's my responsibility (or our responsibility) to make it all happen and to bring it all together. My intentions are pure- I'm a hard worker, that's all I know to do. God it reminding me to be still and to wait on Him. As I was reading this morning God brought Isaiah 64:4 to me
"Since ancient times no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him."

I just thank God that he reminds me he's been here all along and has a plan to bring this all together. I am more excited than I ever have been about Revolution Annapolis! I can't wait for 10/10/10 (our official launch date for the church) to come, but I know I need to savor these precious moments and wait for Him. I am watching God craft something out of nothing. We often refer to this new church as our baby church. Just as you wait for a baby to be born we are anticipating this new baby church! God is refining me and my patience and trust in Him. He's reminding me that God brought us here for a reason- to start a new church for people who don't go to church, to show Jesus' radical love on this community through action and to be a community of people that care for one another. He promises- He'll never leave us nor forsake us! (Joshua 1:5) God's unfailing love is real and I'm learning to lean on Him more than ever before.

Tonight was CRAZY...

I think I just had one of the most odd nights I've had in a long time. I have been doing an amazing bible study called Breaking Free- Making Liberty in Christ a Reality by Beth Moore. For probably 2 years I have been really feeling like this is a study I should do. I would put it off because I knew it would be life changing- ever get fearful of how or what God will use to change you? I know I do sometimes. God has really been working in my life over the past 6 months. He's been teaching me so much I don't think I even have enough space on this blog. Today God taught me that the reason I may be going through hard times with my family is because he wants to change me and for our relationship to deepen. That is the one and only reason- not for me to help or fix someone else, but just to be loved by God! So back to why this was such an odd night for me. On the way to bible study I looked down at my phone to get the directions when all of the sudden I hit the curve on the off ramp at about 40 mph. It felt like I did some major damage. I slowed down, got out and realized that I had a completely flat tire. Oooops!!! I called Josh who was supposed to hang out with an old family friend that lives here in Annapolis. I could barely get out what happened, but finally did and Josh hopped in the car to help. We changed the tire and Josh offered for me to still go to bible study. I felt like this week was one of those weeks where I really needed to go. So, I continued on my way.

This night of bible study we were supposed to be meeting at a different location than usual. I had plugged the address in, thus the having to look down a lot to figure out where I needed to go. I know, I know, looking down is not safe, we are going to get a GPS, the iphone just doesn't quite work the way you need it to. So, I get to the house where bible study is supposed to be. I felt a little odd about going up to the house because none of the usual cars were parked nearby. I checked the address on my phone and the mailbox, and they matched. I headed up to the door and accidentally let the glass door slam. I was already feeling bad for being late and then interrupting by letting the door slam ,so I went ahead and peeked my head in. Immediately a huge lab came up to greet me. A man came from around the corner and asked if he could help me. Immediately I knew that I was in the wrong house. I said, "I'm here for the bible study." He said there's no bible study here and proceeded to try to help me figure out where I was going. I left and decided that this night had been long enough and headed back home. I kept wondering why God had so prompted me to go to bible study and then the address that was given to me was the wrong one. Have you ever felt like you were part of God's story for a stranger, and you'll never know why God prompted you to do something until you reach heaven? That's exactly how I felt. It was totally weird. When I got home Josh and I decided we should pray and ask for God's protection over us and that we would always be open to listening to his voice. There is certainly a spiritual battle going on in this city. I believe prayer from his people plus a powerful God is the hope we have.

What's going on other than snow?

As many of you in this area already know, we've been hit with 2 blizzards in a row. I can only remember a handle full of times that I have ever been in a blizzard before. When I lived in Kentucky as kid we got 2 big snows that I can remember. One was so big that the snow was up to my waste, okay so maybe it wasn't so big if the snow was up to my waste, but it did seem big. We've been spending a lot of time indoors and some time outside with neighbors since being blasted. In fact, I think that God may be orchestrating all this snow so that we can get to know our neighbors better. I briefly got locked out of the house with Savannah this weekend. Josh went out to shovel with our neighbors, and asked that I get ready as well as Savannah so that we could come out and take some pictures together. As soon as I came out I realized the wind was blowing way too hard for Savannah to be out. I turned around for the door handle and it was locked, AGAIN. You see, this has happened once before in the summer time and it's how I got connected with a neighbor that invited me to a neighborhood play group. This time our new neighbor that we had just had over for dinner invited me to come in her house while I waited for Josh to pick the lock- that ended up not working. Eventually he ran to our friend Andrew's place (only about a fourth of a mile away) to get an extra key. It was a great time to get to know them even better and to rely on them. I think that one of the ways that relationships are built and deepened is when you have to depend on each other. Once Josh returned to let us in he ended up running into another neighbor that invited us to their Superbowl party where we met two new couples and got to visit with a few that we had met back in the summer. I believe God has us in the right place at the right time. I am not sure if these neighbors we are interacting with will ever go to our church, but I am going to keep praying that God continues to use us to show them who He is and how much he loves them. This is such a fun adventure!

A Whirlwind...

So we just got back from an awesome week in NYC. This was my very first time to the city and I really had a blast. We were there with other lead planter couples that are a part of The Orchard Group, which is one of our main supporting organizations. Their main focus has been on planting new churches in the Northeast and a primary focus on NYC. We had a great time of just getting away by ourselves and just enjoying time with one another. My favorite highlights from our trip were walking down 5th Ave and going into FAO Schwartz and seeing the piano from the movie Big with Tom Hanks. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was so fascinating too, just looking at all the art and thinking about thousands and thousands of years ago and how developed their artwork was for their time. I joked with Josh,"This is what people did with their time before TV and the internet." In some ways I do think that's true. I've been thinking a lot lately about how I spend my time and asking myself what am I actually doing that's making a difference. How am I living out the mission of Jesus daily? I am really wrestling with this question and asking God to show me my next step. Recently I have been thinking about my what are my passions, what moves me? I really do have a passion for moms and for women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situations. So, I find myself brainstorming ways that I can be spending more time with people and ways I can live out how Jesus lived.

Finding Stability

Having good friends that you can count on makes life feel very comfortable and stable. It is weird to leave everything that is safe. It feels very counterintuitive and uncomfortable at times. I do love a great adventure, but I don't always love change. I never ever moved as a kid and even if I thought about moving as a child I often got myself so worked up that I would be in tears at times. I don't really know what I was so afraid of as a kid, but I think it's the things that we are all still afraid of as adults. Will I ever find new friends that actually like me for me? Will life be the same? Will I find the same stability if I make this change? I really think that's it for me. I love stability and for things to be steady; in a way it is part of my personality. God continually convicts me of trying to hold too tightly to this world and to stability. I believe it is possible to make an idol out stability, and to cling to it more than to God. It never works out to do that though. God truly calls himself The Rock for a reason. He is the only thing steady and constant in life.

When I was 15 years old I realized that Jesus was truly all I needed. My dad went through congestive heart failure and had been in the hospital several months, and things in my family were truly spinning out of control. I'll never forget a song that my youth pastor wrote that touched my heart so deeply, and they are words that I still cling to today: "through all the shifting sand when I could not stand you surrounded me. So many times I cried and pleaded for what I thought I really needed, for you to take this pain and hurt from me. When I thought all my hope was gone I found your grace and it's sufficiency." The sand was shifting in my life at the time as it often does and I realized Jesus was the only thing that would never change. Clinging to Him is what I have done since, not to say I have tried to pick up stability again a time or two. I have realized that my life is about serving the One True God and that's what I need to stay focused on.

I do miss being so close to the relationships I've spent the last 3 1/2 years building. But, I truly am looking forward to the adventure of getting to know some new future best friends. I know that there will be a reward of great friendships when I cling to God for my constant and remember that He is the giver of all good things! He already knows exactly what I need.

What Else is New?

I am always being asked what else is new with the church plant and how it's going. I thought I would take some time to give a quick update. Since we've gotten here we have being working on discovering what the biggest needs of the community are. It's been neat to really have our eyes wide open to figuring out how we can help the community of Annapolis. Many of you know that we decided to feed 100 families for a week over the Christmas break. This has led to tons of connections with the local public schools, local churches, and social services. This past Sunday morning we visited a newer church here in Annapolis called Centerpoint. They are just about 3 years old and doing some awesome things. The lead pastor and his wife are awesome and actually live in our neighborhood. They are just as excited for us to be here as we are. We have been amazed at the warm welcome from all the churches we have visited and pastors Josh has met with. If I could sum up their mindset and attitude it would be Matthew 9:37: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." God has put us here to accomplish His will and to build up His church here in Annapolis. I am excited to be a part of this adventure. We've been meeting all kinds of new people and am always amazed how God brings them into our path. It definitely is scary at times, and I am fearful at times, but so were a lot of cool people in the Bible. I think that's right where God wants me, and I am learning that He is there for me and that this is His church. God is going to bring the people and the resources together to bring this off. A friend has recently reminded me what Jesus says to us in Matthew 11:30: "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I have to constantly give this church back to Him, because when I take it up and try to do it on my own I feel a huge burden. When I let God carry my burdens my heart seriously feels light as a feather. If you have time this week would you lift up a prayer for us that God would continue to remind us that He is at work building His church here in Annapolis, and pray that we would respond to what He's already up to.

Vacation + Awesome Retreat = Myself Again

There is just nothing better than taking time away to relax- especially when all that relaxation happens at the beach. Some wonderful friends of ours were able to bless us with a week at their beach house. We arrived at "Answered Prayer" (cool name for the house) on Friday night and got out to the grocery on Saturday. Our friends had prepared a list of things like how to get to the beach, how to get to the grocery, and at the very bottom of the list was something that totally brighten my day, how to get to Target (refer to my last blog and you'll understand how excited I got). Don't know if you've ever taken vacation with a 10 month old, but we had very very early mornings. Savannah woke up at 4:30am on Saturday, our first morning there, and I was so tired and delirious that I actually turned cartoons on for her, which I never do. We did have a great time sleeping to catch up from the early mornings, shopping some, reading, playing and going to the beach. It was so much fun to show Savannah the beach for the first time- she did eat a lot of sand though. My favorite part of vacation was the fact that this vacation was actually at the same place we honeymooned. Never thought we'd be bringing our daughter back to the same place to make new memories together.

Josh and I read an amazing book while we were on vacation called Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, and it has totally opened our thinking to how we will serve Annapolis in Jesus name. My favorite quote from the book is when the author says, "I choose to believe that no one is too poor not to having anything of worth to offer." He was speaking of serving the poor and helping them get their dignity back by empowering them through the gifts they have to offer. Everyone has something to offer!

Sadly our vacation came to an end on Thursday when we drove 11 hours to get to Johnson City, TN to drop me off at a Lead Planter's wife retreat (wow that's a long title for a retreat). Josh continued on to Louisville with Savannah, while I enjoyed a life changing retreat. I have been going through some pretty tough family stuff lately. I knew I needed this retreat and that God had some things he wanted me to hear from him. On Saturday morning I went out for an hour long quiet time and I think I could have stayed for hours. I found the perfect spot up on top of a hill overlooking the TN mountains. God had prepared a beautiful morning for me. The trees were multicolored and the sun was warm and shining. I meditated on the names and qualities of God, what a powerful thing to do. To be reminded that God is my comforter, my help in time of need, the builder and architect, the perfector, peace, hope, my abba father and the God that is there. After all the names and qualities the one that just kept hitting me was that God is there, He really is there for me. I needed to hear that. I needed to let God be there for me. I let Him take the wait that was on my sholders and put it on His. He is taking care of me, my family and this new church. All I can say is that I am relying on God, I'm keeping my gaze on him, and I want to lead others to know Him the way I do. He is an amazing Father, the perfect Father, what a blessing to know He is There!