Can you believe it has been so long since I've sat down to blog? Boy I can! A lot has happened since March. I'm going to give you a quick overview to catch you up. Let me start by referring to this picture. If you remember our word for the year challenge, then you remember my talking about ordering our word bracelets. We were all very proud of them when they came in. Bradley's word is "FINISH", my word is "REFRESHED", Bailey's word is "RESPONSE" and Brody's word is "THINK". And we've been working on all of these things in our home and our personal lives. But the one I
am most proud of is Bradley's, because he did! He FINISHED seminary and graduated on May 6, 2010. It was a very proud and emotional day for us. I can't tell you how excited I was to watch him walk across that stage and receive his degree. Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on until completion until the day of Jesus Christ." The degree is done, but we both know that God's work in Bradley will carry on until the day He calls us home. We are forever grateful for His calling upon Bradley's life, and we seek to serve Him fully. Way to go, baby! And then summer hit. Our kids have been so busy, growing up...it is hard to believe, but that is just how it happens. Brody recovered from a broken thumb to finish baseball season. Bailey attended cheerleader camp and her squad won the Jr. High Division camp championship! If you know me, you know I am a very proud momma of this. Brody went to kids camp and was a blessing to
his sweet friends. Bailey is still leading the KidStuff worship team, but she "crossed over" to the youth group in June. This meant that she would be attending Flight 360 Student camp. What an exciting time for all of us! I was in charge of making the camp set...and since we are a ministry family, we did this together. Yes...child labor is wonderful when you have creative kids who love to help their mom! Together with Bailey's friend Alice, we painted the entire camp set. And we were so proud of our hard work. There is nothing like seeing your ideas come to fruition and it blessing others. But my plans for attending Flight 360 camp to produce quickly changed as we got some of the most exciting news of the summer. A new worship pastor had been chosen and was on his way to Texas to serve alongside us at First Euless. Now if you remember how the beginning of the year started out, it was with the move of our best friends here, The Elkins. God called Robert (my boss) to First Orlando to be a worship pastor there. It is always wonderful watching God begin a new thing in your life and we celebrated with them in this move. But we also grieved our personal loss as a family. Two BFF's moving 1200 miles away does not make for a great New Year's celebration. And then we were in an interim period at church. God has been so good through that. Our team leader, and friend, Aaron Wade, has done an amazing job! And God blessed us with a fantastic interim choir director and he became our new friend as well. But the waiting was hard. The journey was long and filled with a lot of questions about just what God wa
nted to accomplish at our church. And "Who But God" can give you beyond your own expectations? What a faithful God we serve. And so we happily welcome Jeff Brockelman and his amazing family to our church. He's been serving at Grace Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN for the last 8 years. His view of a call Sunday was an amazing worship experience for all of us. So, our anticipation of this family moving to be our new friends and co-workers is filled with excitement for all God is preparing to do here at our church. Personally this interim time and now the getting ready time has been filled with challenge. I want to take some time to write about all that God has taught me through this faith journey. Putting those lessons in this overview blog post just doesn't seem right. I can tell you that I have been so lovingly reminded of how personal God is with me. He has been patient and tender. He has been faithful to meet me right where I am. He has been loving to not allow me to remain where I might have wanted to be selfishly. He has been forgiving for when I just plain got in the way. So, if you can wait, I will share more...soon.
