Don't mind me....

I'm just dancin' to the beat!

 

F-O-U-R !!

So basically I have a S.I.L. who gives Martha Stewart a run for her money. Like literally could be a co-founder of all things creative on Pinterest. It makes me sick so happy! And I almost never get jealous {insert sarcasm} when Birthday season rolls around for our family and she continually amazes me at her ability to execute the worlds cutest party; year after year! I have come to accept my place in our family as the one who lives in her creative, cute, artistic, tissue-puff ball, banner extraordinaire, center piece awe, cake-tastic shadow.

Haha.
But seriously.
She is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, especially when it comes to this kind of stuff. I love to see her vision from the beginning and then see it actually happen. Every year we run around like chickens with our heads cut off working together to make "it" {said birthday vision} come together and then it magically happens. The entire time I am harping to her how crazy she is for doing all of this "stuff" and then once showtime happens, I am in awe of just how darn cute it turned out. Makes me want to just hire her, because Lord knows I do not have the patience for it, but boy do I love seeing the results.

Here is the latest Family Party. My nephew, Layton turned 4. What a doll he is. Mady just adores him.

The party took place at their churches family extension center which had a huge Gym and massive blow-up, bouncy, play "gym" for the kids. They also had balls for shooting hoops. Right up this 4 year old's alley, as you can see....

I don't think he had any fun! {Insert more sarcasm}

What does this face say?

Enter more creative things that make me sick so happy!

Haha. I actually do really love this stuff. 

Little Miss embraced the Tom-Boy within and learned how much fun "Baskeet-ball" can be.

Especially when you are playing with your daddy! 

She had a ball!

"Quit taking my picture and let me at this cake!!" 

Ha.

Fake smile, but still a cutie-a-tootie!!

Proud parents and their adorable birthday boy! 

Make a wish!

This is the face of almost 2 year old learning all the benefits of what Birthday Parties are all about! 

Partied out! 

What a fun day it was. 

Happy Birthday Little Man. We've loved you from the moment we first heard about you.

Looking forward to many more parties where my S.I.L. can once again put pinata's, balloons, and pin the tale on the donkey to shame! Such a fun day.

Call the exterminator!

We've got a bunny loose in the house!!!

Little

Bunny foo-foo

hopping through

the forest, 

house...

...scoopin'

up the field mice Calvin

and 

boopin' 

him on 

his 

head!

Watch out Calv, she's coming for ya!!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday to a very special boy

You see...
I have two of the cutest boys in the world that I call nephews!
They are special to me because boy stuff just comes natural to me because of all the boys in my family.
Don't let the pink shirts fool you, they are all boy!

And especially, special on this day is this boy who turns 4!!
Where has the time gone?

He is such a delight. Caring, loving and full of fun!
This boy is a great big brother, big cousin, son, grandson, friend, but most of all a wonderful NEPHEW!

Don't get too strong on us too soon Mr. Layton!
We love you little, but know you will be big soon enough!
Happy 4th Birthday!

Madelyn "The Mooch"

Madelyn will quickly be your best friend if you will share your food with her.
This is definitely a trait she inherited from her Daddy's side.
As you can see proof here with her Pops, Bryan's dad.
Too cute.

"Yum Poppy! More?"

and of course whenever Bryan is eating breakfast guess who's asking to be up on his lap? You guessed it, The Mooch. She loves her some bran flakes! Just because Daddy does.

We love our little Mooch!

Reflecting on NYC

I am sitting in my house which is currently roasting at a temperature of 87 degrees!!! Did I mention its August? Hot, hot & hot is how I feel. Sticking to everything. That may be on my list of most hated things...sticking to things because of heat. Urgh. Because there isn't much that you can do to take your mind off of being so hot, I thought I'd finally do our "reflection of sorts" post about our recent mission's trip to NYC. (and also, we stayed in a place in NYC that had no AC, so the heat is also reminding me of our hot nights at the New York School of Urban Ministry).

For those that don't know what we did:

• We had a team of about 15 Southern Seminary students (plus two spouses and one teenager) making 18 total people who were on this trip.
• Trip lasted Saturday to Saturday.
• We were broken up into teams of four and sent to our assigned churches during the week (from about 9ish to 4ish) to help serve, based on that particular churches needs. 
• Our church was Maranatha Grace, which was located in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Literally the first stop off the George Washington Bridge from NYC. Believe it or not, we had less of a commute than some of our team that stayed in NY. 

Bryan and I both went into this trip knowing a little bit of what NYC is like and loving the fast-passed, diversity-driven urban atmosphere. We definitely had/ have a heart to see the many ethnically and religiously diverse people that live in these densely populated areas reached for Christ. We also came into this trip with an open heart and an open mind regarding how the Lord will use us in future ministry with such a growing passion for cities. We prayed and sought the Lord to use this experience to help better "fine-tune" our desires and give us a more realistic and focuses vision for future ministry in urban atmospheres.

When we received our ministry plan to be assigned to a church in New Jersey, several weeks prior to leaving on our trip, we were a little confused. We thought this trip was to minister to NYC church plants, not Jersey! We laughed and considered it one of the many ways the Lord humbles us....and boy did He! We were so naive to think we (and maybe I should only be talk from my perspective, because I am not sure if Bryan felt the same way I did)  knew better than the Lord.  He knew exactly what he was doing, of course.  My skepticism was even supported when a few members of our team seemed perplexed when we said we were assigned to a church in Jersey. However, quickly did I realize the error of my ways.

We had an amazing time serving the members of Marnatha Grace. It was more of a blessing to us, I am sure, than we were to them. Each day we had a different task, which was such a joy. One day we spent clearing out a members yard of weeds, another helping with VBS decorations and canvassing, and our big finale was hanging out with some parents from the church with their kids at local history museum. It was such a fun week of serving and getting to know some wonderful people.  We spent some awesome one on one time with Won Kwak, the pastor of this church who wisely answered many of our questions about Church planting and ministry in general. Bryan and I quickly realized that we discovered New Jersey's hidden gem's in the evangelical world. Won was immensely helpful and super encouraging. The kind of pastor you really want to learn from and sadly is extremely rare in this area, as well as a gospel centered church. He is loving this town and watching the Lord do marvelous things in His ministry. We greatly appreciated all his (and the entire churches) wonderful hospitality. We were so blessed by the time we were able to spend with several of the church's members, one on one.

A few things I've learned:

1.) I think we both came away from this trip laughing at how good God was to get us out of NYC (hah) and into Fort Lee, NJ. Granted, Fort Lee is a bustling area with lots of diversity and literally a 10 minute drive through the Lincoln Tunnel to Times Square, we did enjoy seeing some familiar places like malls, Moe's Southwest Grill and houses with yards. We greatly enjoyed being in NYC. We love the buzz and the ministry that is currently going on, but we feel the Lord brought us out of the city for good reason. We were pleasantly surprised that you can live in Jersey and still maintain all the benefits of living in NYC!

Especially when you consider a place like Fort Lee.  Possibly as diverse in demographics as NYC, Fort Lee and its adjacent "towns" have a more family friendly feel. Not, that the NYC isn't, it is. We just felt less intimidated by Fort Lee and less inhibited.  Living in NYC you must make certain sacrifices to live. I don't mean that in a morbid way, just a practical way. Like for example; you may want to limit the number of children you have based on the sizes of apartments and price.  If your ministry is in Manhattan and your forced to live, based on affordability in Brooklyn or Queens, you really have lost a great area of influence in your ministry area simply because you aren't living there.  That is just one example. We're not sure if we are at the point where we want to start making some of these limitations on our family plan. Of course there are other sacrifices; but to us, these are all understood based on the nature of living in an urban enviorment, like taking public transportation vs. owning a car,  easy grocery shopping,  in-house laundry and so many other things we take for granted living in the suburbs. Having said these things; it isn't impossible to do with a large family, just very difficult (and maybe impractical based on what we are currently accustomed to).

2.) Being so close to such a major city is a glimpse into the nations. It goes without saying that NYC (and its surrounding cities) has the most ethnically, racially and religiously diverse demographic than any other city in the world. You literally have almost every nation accounted for and only a stones throw away. I love this. At any moment, and depending on what block you are on, you can literally be transported into the streets of China, Egypt, Arabia, Italy, etc. Which, to me, made evangelism and "connecting" to people so much more difficult.

I found it insanely difficult to have impromtu conversations with strangers; much less trying to work the gospel in there was needless to say, hard! It made me super convicted about the extreme lack of urgency I have with the same opportunites at home. How easy is it to have random conversations with people here in the south? Super easy. Most of the time people want to engage. They don't like not saying 'hello' or commenting on the weather. Our biggest blessing is Mady and her glasses. I get stopped EVERY WHERE, EVERY DAY about her glasses. How easy would that be to turn into a gospel conversation? SO EASY. I was very convicted at my lack of diligence and even plain disregard for the eternal destiny of those around me and the obvious opportunities I have squandered in the past. Especially in reflecting on how very difficult it was to engage people in NYC about anything, much less the gospel. Don't get me wrong, we love these people and lots wanted to talk...but many wanted nothing to do with Christianity.

Some Praises:

1.) Two of our team members were able to see two different people of middle eastern decent and religion come to know the Lord!

2.) Bryan was able to witness to a Buddhist Monk, Church of Latter Day Saints man on his mission and a Jehovah's witness.

3.) We saw many prayers answered in sustaining us during a very hot week (on record) for NYC.

4.) We grew in friendships with many new people; from our teams and the churches we served.

5.) We are thankful for the connections made and the doors opened on this trip. We feel we have the "answers" we need regarding future ministry for our family. We expect and know that the Lord is good and will continue to use our family for His glory as longs as we keep our hearts and plans open to Him.

I'm a little over summer

yes, I said it.

I am.

I love being in warm weather, but I really feel like this summer has been quite ridiculous. No breeze, lots of humidity and sweat immediately pouring off you as soon as you exit the house. I feel like I still live on the East Coast. Our summers growing up always felt like this, but in KY I've enjoyed the occasional breeze and high 80's even low 90's I can handle.

What I can't handle is any more days at 95+ degrees, with a heat index up to 105 degrees. Excessive Heat warnings flashing on my phone text alert every stinkin' day! Ok, enough is enough. Where is my breeze?

I know the rest of this year is going to fly by and our summer next year is going to look different for multiple reasons...so I am trying to soak it all in.....but literally soaking in sweat has got me a little less nostalgic.  Ya hear?

Anyway, enough complaining.

God is good. I've been meditating on this verse lately. I want the Lord to use my life, in every circumstance for His glory. I don't want to doubt any of His promises. I want to trust Him, with all things and no waver. I want to live radically.  This verse helps put that into perspective. Especially as you consider who its about, Abraham and the promise he received directly from God. A promise that seemed SUPER impossible. But, with God nothing is impossible. My life verse: "He is before all things and in Him, all things are held together." Col. 1:17, truly reflects this.

here is the actual verse that has been resonating deep in my heart and repeated in my mind during the stillness of my day.

" No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. "

Romans 4:20-21