I love computers and the Internet. As I write this I am listening AND WATCHING Live Worship at The Crossing Church in Tampa. This is the ultimate lunch break!
http://www.crossingonline.org/crossing-live
Check- it out. It is on 11:30am - 1pm every wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
IT IS Freezing...
I am wearing long sleeves, gloves and sometimes jackets, INSIDE my house! This is crazy and it is 40 degrees outside...what is the deal?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Another God Story
If you have not read "the Magic Pliers" post scroll down a bit and a enjoy. This goes right along with the amazing stories God is telling through our lives.
So Cessie has not felt good since we moved here 12 days ago. She just was not feeling right and had really nagging crumby sick days...12 in a row. It culminated Monday morning with an excruciating tooth ache...like the side of her head/jaw was going to throb out of her skull. We both were thinking, "great, here comes the laundry list of dental bills, that we cant afford right now." But, there was no avoiding it, the pain was too great so we had to 'bite the bullet' (excuse the pun) and send Cessie to the dentist.
Cessie does her best to find a reasonably inexpensive dentist that will cut us a break on the initial exam(remember, just moved from another state, no insurance)cuz its all going on credit at this point. Meanwhile I am at home, jobless preparing for the worst.
The Diagnosis was that she had an infected tooth, an infected cavity in one of her wisdom teeth. She needed some antibiotics and to remove the tooth. The catch is that you can't just remove one wisdom tooth, you have to at least remove the top and bottom of that side, better yet remove them all.
We heard this all before cuz a year ago it was going to be over $1100 to get them removed on top of the other work she had done. (curse calcium sucking pregnancies, it is war on the teeth!) Well at this point we could only remove one set and it was going to cost $700, ouch!
There was really no other option at this point, so we scheduled it the next day...today at 11am. ....So here is where it gets good.... We prayed last night and this morning that God would watch over all of this from the finances to the surgery, all the kids prayed and we went forward believing that I would get a job and things would be fine.
Cessie gets in the chair and proceeds to get her 2 wisdom teeth pulled on the left side of her mouth and as they finished one of the dentists came into the room and said that they talked about it and decided to do a SPECIAL TODAY ONLY, GET 2 WISDOM TEETH PULLED GET THE OTHER 2 PULLED FOR FREE! The special only applied to Pregnant women who had an 11am apointment. They totally blessed us and saved us several hundred dollars...We didn't offer a sob story to manipulate the situation, they just decided that we deserved a huge discount. On top of that Cessie said (almost in tear at this point) that they were the nicest, most helpful, most accomidating group of professionals she had ever experienced.
So God keeps amazing us with His favor and Greenville, NC keeps impressing us with the great people here.
Grace = getting what you don't deserve...we are soaked in grace, praise God!
So Cessie has not felt good since we moved here 12 days ago. She just was not feeling right and had really nagging crumby sick days...12 in a row. It culminated Monday morning with an excruciating tooth ache...like the side of her head/jaw was going to throb out of her skull. We both were thinking, "great, here comes the laundry list of dental bills, that we cant afford right now." But, there was no avoiding it, the pain was too great so we had to 'bite the bullet' (excuse the pun) and send Cessie to the dentist.
Cessie does her best to find a reasonably inexpensive dentist that will cut us a break on the initial exam(remember, just moved from another state, no insurance)cuz its all going on credit at this point. Meanwhile I am at home, jobless preparing for the worst.
The Diagnosis was that she had an infected tooth, an infected cavity in one of her wisdom teeth. She needed some antibiotics and to remove the tooth. The catch is that you can't just remove one wisdom tooth, you have to at least remove the top and bottom of that side, better yet remove them all.
We heard this all before cuz a year ago it was going to be over $1100 to get them removed on top of the other work she had done. (curse calcium sucking pregnancies, it is war on the teeth!) Well at this point we could only remove one set and it was going to cost $700, ouch!
There was really no other option at this point, so we scheduled it the next day...today at 11am. ....So here is where it gets good.... We prayed last night and this morning that God would watch over all of this from the finances to the surgery, all the kids prayed and we went forward believing that I would get a job and things would be fine.
Cessie gets in the chair and proceeds to get her 2 wisdom teeth pulled on the left side of her mouth and as they finished one of the dentists came into the room and said that they talked about it and decided to do a SPECIAL TODAY ONLY, GET 2 WISDOM TEETH PULLED GET THE OTHER 2 PULLED FOR FREE! The special only applied to Pregnant women who had an 11am apointment. They totally blessed us and saved us several hundred dollars...We didn't offer a sob story to manipulate the situation, they just decided that we deserved a huge discount. On top of that Cessie said (almost in tear at this point) that they were the nicest, most helpful, most accomidating group of professionals she had ever experienced.
So God keeps amazing us with His favor and Greenville, NC keeps impressing us with the great people here.
Grace = getting what you don't deserve...we are soaked in grace, praise God!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
My First official Sunday @ Discovery
Jason is the lead pastor here and a long time friend...almost 10 years...wait I think it has been 10 years this year...yikes. Well he gave me a chance 10 years ago to minister to students in his student ministry at KABC. I was a goofball, 19-20 year old who was very green and unfamiliar with church life and how to "do" ministry. Jason took me under his wing..errr...put up with me because I wouldn't stop showing up Wednesdays at around 2pm and leave for home around 10.
I dont know what got into him lately, but he heard my ideas and read my ministry plan over a year ago and felt like God has something instore for our ministries...TOGETHER. Old friends reunited? or maybe a green 29-30 year old tagging along to learn a thing or two about building ministry from the ground-up. I'd like to think both...I think he agrees too...I definitly know Lora (his wife) loves me around, being a bad influence on her kids and teaching them lots of sneaky annoying tricks (Luv ya Lora!:))
Jason gave us the week off, since we moved in Thurs, and where frazzled and the kids were sick...actually he is awesome and said that he just wanted me to attend for a few weeks and not feel pressure to jump right in and start running things (I tend to do that).
Jason had a tough week and Sunday service was a doozy, he said the word "Homo-sexual" a number of times. That word and others tend to raise the stress level and make Sundays hard...spiritually and emotionally. My first order of business and as the new tag-a-long from Florida (yes there have been others before me...many others...if you are missing a friend they probably moved here to Greenville and go to Discovery) I plan to pray. I want to pray on Sunday mornings and get as many people (especially men) to join me. Simple but not easy, Powerful but extremly mysterious. I would love to raise the level of anticipation people feel as they enter our service, like they expect to meet with God and offer their very best to Him.
I dont know what got into him lately, but he heard my ideas and read my ministry plan over a year ago and felt like God has something instore for our ministries...TOGETHER. Old friends reunited? or maybe a green 29-30 year old tagging along to learn a thing or two about building ministry from the ground-up. I'd like to think both...I think he agrees too...I definitly know Lora (his wife) loves me around, being a bad influence on her kids and teaching them lots of sneaky annoying tricks (Luv ya Lora!:))
Jason gave us the week off, since we moved in Thurs, and where frazzled and the kids were sick...actually he is awesome and said that he just wanted me to attend for a few weeks and not feel pressure to jump right in and start running things (I tend to do that).
Jason had a tough week and Sunday service was a doozy, he said the word "Homo-sexual" a number of times. That word and others tend to raise the stress level and make Sundays hard...spiritually and emotionally. My first order of business and as the new tag-a-long from Florida (yes there have been others before me...many others...if you are missing a friend they probably moved here to Greenville and go to Discovery) I plan to pray. I want to pray on Sunday mornings and get as many people (especially men) to join me. Simple but not easy, Powerful but extremly mysterious. I would love to raise the level of anticipation people feel as they enter our service, like they expect to meet with God and offer their very best to Him.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
It felt like I was sprinting a marathon...
So much goes into an out-of-state move! I didn't realize this because this is the first time we've moved out of state. There is still so much to do and everything that was last minute yesterday is even later today...but our lights are on and the rooms are starting to look a little more normal as we clear the boxes and bags out. I am very beat, yet there is a sense of adrenaline, excitement still keeping me going, but the tank is getting low. It is like the last turn in a track race; you know, when you sprint to the finish, trying to beat your old record...yeah well no one told me it was NOT the last lap, I got a couple more to go!
I am definitely not complaining. God has been leading this whole thing (see The Magic Pliers post) and people from Discovery have already planned on bringing some meals by next week. I still have to find some part-time or full-time work, follow-up with a couple of partners who committed to support us here, write a newsletter for February, and help Cessie get the house organized...so just keep us in your prayers. We need more energy and to work efficiently, and of course to keep our eyes on Jesus!
I am definitely not complaining. God has been leading this whole thing (see The Magic Pliers post) and people from Discovery have already planned on bringing some meals by next week. I still have to find some part-time or full-time work, follow-up with a couple of partners who committed to support us here, write a newsletter for February, and help Cessie get the house organized...so just keep us in your prayers. We need more energy and to work efficiently, and of course to keep our eyes on Jesus!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
I think it's sinking in...
We had an awesome time this weekend. Saturday we had family pictures with my parents, my sister (her boyfriend Brad and their daughter Leah) and of course our little rascals...we had a photographer come to the house and setup a mini backdrop in the living room and we just had a circus in there. This is the best deal for a family picture, I will never go to a mall studio again, it was great.
Saturday night we had a little party with our boardgame friends. They gave us a great night of laughs and a very touching wall hanging thingy...they prayed for us and encouraged us. Cessie lost it...like crying and stuff lost it....it hit her that we are really doing this.
I was feeling pretty confident, until....Sunday at church. Then it hit me that we are really doing this. I cried, but not too blubbery. I think it's sinking in...we are moving to North Carolina and it is awesome
Saturday night we had a little party with our boardgame friends. They gave us a great night of laughs and a very touching wall hanging thingy...they prayed for us and encouraged us. Cessie lost it...like crying and stuff lost it....it hit her that we are really doing this.
I was feeling pretty confident, until....Sunday at church. Then it hit me that we are really doing this. I cried, but not too blubbery. I think it's sinking in...we are moving to North Carolina and it is awesome
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