I was reminded this morning in Scripture that the Lord is madly in love with us. He calls us to remain in His love as He says in John 15. Not that I forgot this fact, but it is so very good to read the truths of His Kingdom and how our God yearns for us to be in His arms. It is indeed a love relationship!
I want to encourage everyone including myself to spend time with the Lord daily. I don't know what that may look like for you, whether it is just sitting there in silence, taking a walk, listening to music, reading the Word, or praying. "Remain in me and I will remain in you." As we draw close to the Lord, He will draw close to us. One of my favorite pictures is that of Jesus holding a lamb close to His chest. It gives me such peace and joy knowing the Lord desires to hold us so close to His heart. That is precisely where He wants us.
May we all seek, find, and live out the love our King has for us.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
"Gut Don"
So, one of the areas of ministry I have found myself in these last couple of weeks, is serving in the Kidz Club. This is our church's ministry for children ranging from 2 years old to children in 6th grade. As crazy at it may seem, this is a time of some sort of therapeutic relaxation for me!?!? Wait, what? Does that even make sense? Anyways, what I am trying to say is that it is so very different from what we usually do here, that it takes my mind and heart off of the heaviness of ministry in Aliquippa for at least an hour :) Basically, my friend Diz and I play games with the kids and act a complete fool; the kids have a blast annnnd so do we.
You might have noticed the title of the blog though, "Gut Don." We realized and observed the first night that having kids, gives you a straight gift of understanding and translating what the heck other kids are saying. My other friend Sarah, who is married and has 2 kids of her own was also helping us this night; she is hilarious. The last group we had that night were the 2 and 3 year olds. They came in so shy and quiet; they sat down exactly how we asked them to. One by one we asked the kids their names..."Gut Don, Icksy, and Eyyaw" were all names Diz and I heard. Thank God though Sarah was there. Needless to say after each child said their names we stared at Sarah for the translation and just cracked up hysterically waiting for the real names. "Justin, Ricky, and Lydia" were the names of our wonderful kids. In saying this, I came to a conclusion, I need to either have kids quick or never work with 2 and 3 year olds again because when I am thinking they are saying "I have an outty," what they're really saying is that they have "to go potty." Yiiiiiikkkkkkkeeeeessss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh the humor of ministry at times . . .
Love Deeply
You might have noticed the title of the blog though, "Gut Don." We realized and observed the first night that having kids, gives you a straight gift of understanding and translating what the heck other kids are saying. My other friend Sarah, who is married and has 2 kids of her own was also helping us this night; she is hilarious. The last group we had that night were the 2 and 3 year olds. They came in so shy and quiet; they sat down exactly how we asked them to. One by one we asked the kids their names..."Gut Don, Icksy, and Eyyaw" were all names Diz and I heard. Thank God though Sarah was there. Needless to say after each child said their names we stared at Sarah for the translation and just cracked up hysterically waiting for the real names. "Justin, Ricky, and Lydia" were the names of our wonderful kids. In saying this, I came to a conclusion, I need to either have kids quick or never work with 2 and 3 year olds again because when I am thinking they are saying "I have an outty," what they're really saying is that they have "to go potty." Yiiiiiikkkkkkkeeeeessss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh the humor of ministry at times . . .
Love Deeply
Thursday, September 16, 2010
A Couple Highlights of the Week
It's too hard to decide what to blog about this week, so I just want to share a couple of highlights with you. I was able to visit my friend Angel on Saturday. It was a very humbling conversation, as I was able to see how God had and continues to completely answer our prayers for her. This was the most coherent I have ever seen Angel. She is a very wise woman, but when she is in the midst of struggle you can't see that. Throughout our conversation Angel spoke truth over her life and spoke against the life she once lived on the streets. I see change in her. I see God at work. My prayer for Angel is that she will continue to see how the Lord is transforming her life.
The second highlight I want to share with you is regarding a breakthrough at one of our small group Bible studies. Beginning last year, we started meeting with a woman who is in her 70's I would guess. Hmm . . . I'll call her Patience! She is beautiful. We meet with her every week and needless to say she has been through tons and tons. If I could describe Patience to you besides the obvious, I would say she is full of an enormous amount of love. She actually marched in the Civil Rights movement when she was a young girl. Oh she has stories! I love meeting with her, because she poors out wisdom when she talks. She reminds me of a Maya Angelou of sorts. When we pray at the end to close down our time together my friend and I usually pray and that's it. Patience has just never felt comfortable enough to pray out loud I guess. She always says, "na na I don't like to pray out loud" (waving her hands in the air). Well, yesterday I was supposed to be the last one to pray. There were two other people who had prayed before me, so when I finished praying my friend and I quickly said Amen, so Patience wouldn't feel uncomfortable. But before you knew it, our dear friend Patience, so softly spoken, started praying out loud. My other friend and I just looked at each other with huge smiles and bowed our heads quickly. It was hilarious, but at the same time so beautiful.
Hopefully, these stories gave you a little encouragement as they did me. It is no secret at all that our King is working in the hearts of those around us!
Love Deeply
The second highlight I want to share with you is regarding a breakthrough at one of our small group Bible studies. Beginning last year, we started meeting with a woman who is in her 70's I would guess. Hmm . . . I'll call her Patience! She is beautiful. We meet with her every week and needless to say she has been through tons and tons. If I could describe Patience to you besides the obvious, I would say she is full of an enormous amount of love. She actually marched in the Civil Rights movement when she was a young girl. Oh she has stories! I love meeting with her, because she poors out wisdom when she talks. She reminds me of a Maya Angelou of sorts. When we pray at the end to close down our time together my friend and I usually pray and that's it. Patience has just never felt comfortable enough to pray out loud I guess. She always says, "na na I don't like to pray out loud" (waving her hands in the air). Well, yesterday I was supposed to be the last one to pray. There were two other people who had prayed before me, so when I finished praying my friend and I quickly said Amen, so Patience wouldn't feel uncomfortable. But before you knew it, our dear friend Patience, so softly spoken, started praying out loud. My other friend and I just looked at each other with huge smiles and bowed our heads quickly. It was hilarious, but at the same time so beautiful.
Hopefully, these stories gave you a little encouragement as they did me. It is no secret at all that our King is working in the hearts of those around us!
Love Deeply
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Finally . . .
Let me first start off by saying I hope everyone had a great Labor day. I know I am a couple days late on this, but days here come and go, and before I know it a week has passed by. We spent our Labor day going to the Pirates/Braves game! I thought baseball games in Atlanta were boring . . . dang, Pittsburgh tops it off. We were able to have a little fun though and we also stopped by to see our friends Timmy and Kathleen, so that is always great. Please pray for them, as they had a meeting yesterday to see if they could get some housing. I do not know how it turned out.
We are finally back in the swing of things this week; making house visits, going to our kids' sporting events, street time, meeting people for small group Bible studies, ect. It is great! I also have some other wonderful news; those of you who keep up with my blogs are familiar with my friend Angel. I lost touch with Angel last Spring because she had gone and served time in jail. However, I had not seen her and didn't know where she was following her time in jail. I made a few phone calls this week and found out Angel is in a long term rehabilitation center not far from where I live. If you recall, I blogged last Spring about our staff praying for Angel to go to jail. I know that sounds funny and strange, but unfortunately this is the place we knew for a fact she would be safe and hopefully get some help. It is an answered prayer to hear that Angel will hopefully be in this long term facility for about a year. I plan on going to see her this weekend!
Be encouraged my friends that our Lord and Savior's hand is never to short to reach down into a situation that calls for a King.
Love Deeply
We are finally back in the swing of things this week; making house visits, going to our kids' sporting events, street time, meeting people for small group Bible studies, ect. It is great! I also have some other wonderful news; those of you who keep up with my blogs are familiar with my friend Angel. I lost touch with Angel last Spring because she had gone and served time in jail. However, I had not seen her and didn't know where she was following her time in jail. I made a few phone calls this week and found out Angel is in a long term rehabilitation center not far from where I live. If you recall, I blogged last Spring about our staff praying for Angel to go to jail. I know that sounds funny and strange, but unfortunately this is the place we knew for a fact she would be safe and hopefully get some help. It is an answered prayer to hear that Angel will hopefully be in this long term facility for about a year. I plan on going to see her this weekend!
Be encouraged my friends that our Lord and Savior's hand is never to short to reach down into a situation that calls for a King.
Love Deeply
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