leaving cedar hill

I knew this day would come. I just didn't know how hard it would be. Last Sunday night, Brad had to tell our church family that we would be moving on to another ministry field. Since then, I've been thinking back over the past 7 1/2 years. So many memories come to mind. Some I had forgotten about until now. I thought I would share a few. I won't go into detail on each one. You will know if one applies to you!

I remember...

• Meeting with the Pastor Search Team. Sharing with Cathy our year long struggle to have a third child. Not knowing that I was actually two months with child!
• The kindness of the church body. I don't think I had to cook the entire first month.
• The birth of Gracie. How traumatic it was. Amazing how some of our sweet church family sensed that morning an urgency to pray for her birth. I truly feel that God answered your faithful prayers with our little girl.
• The first men's conference. Remember the service that night? That was bigger than all of us, so we knew it was God!
• Christmas. You all spoiled us so much. Phillip, I will never forget that Christmas you brought basket after basket of food! If I remember right, you even brought the ham!
• Women's Trips. We had some good ones. Birmingham, Lexington, Nashville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg. I know I am forgetting more. Then there were our Camp Linden Get-A-Ways. Those were all wonderful. The Lord brought salvation through those and renewed hearts. Then there were those of you who were a teeny-tiny bit mischievous! Oh, and please don't let me forget the canoe trip we took while there!! You know you all wanted to be in my canoe so you could experience my "expertise". I am laughing as I type this!
• Our 40 Days of Purpose Campaign. We all experienced the Lord like never before. Remember that big final event at the High School gym?
• Easter. That first one we had in the High School gym. We expected the Lord to show up and boy did He!
• Our 5 year church anniversary surprise party. You all blessed us with such an amazing gift. I know you all were like giddy little kids waiting to give that to us. I believe that is the only time I have seen Brad speechless!
• Ridgecrest. Remember THE year? The one that had mishap after mishap? Believe me, I double check for keys all the time now!
• One particular family who used their spiritual gift of giving to bless us time and time again. You amaze me at your generosity. It always came at just the right moment.
• Haiti. How my life has changed since that trip (and not just from the airplane strip or the bus ride through town!). Haiti will forever be on my heart.
• Youth retreats. Remember when Kelsey Vincent put the wig on and pretended to be me after the HS retreat? Coldstream Camp for the Middle School was also great. Rebecca and her giant that looked more like Jason from that scary movie (which I do not watch-you all know how easily scared I get!).

Gosh, there are so many! I am sure more will come to mind in the days ahead. I may have to write part two.

How about you guys? Do you have any special memories of our time here?

Oh, how I love you all so much. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above". You all have been a very good gift to me from God!

music and slips of the tongue

Psalm 66:2, Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God,"How awesome are Your works!" Verse 4 continues, "All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; they will sing praises to Your name."

Boy, that is exactly how I felt in worship yesterday.When the choir sings,"There is a Fountain", I have to contain myself for fear that you all might think I have finally lost it. My heart swells with an incredible love for the Lord when I hear that song. I even had to restrain myself during the medley of hymns. They were so rich and powerful. Don't even get me started on the sermon. I wanted to do like the guy in Brad's message and run around the room yelling, "That's what I want too!". Then the little slip of the tongue was just too much. I am still laughing. Poor Pooter, oops, I mean Peter! Sorry Brad, I couldn't resist.

My girls are like me. They love music. We just can't be still and sing. I believe there have been times when driving down the road, the person next to us would have thought we were in need of 911. That's just us enjoying singing to the Lord.

Brad and I both have bedtime rituals with the two younger girls. At first, we used to both tell them bedtime stories. Their Daddy would make up these lavish tales about "Norbert the Dragon". Those girls would be hanging on his every word. The nights that I would lay them down they would beg me to tell "Norbert" stories. Well, I tried. The girls and I both knew it was time I quit when Norbert was playing in the field with his friends and the next thing we knew, he was on an elevator at the mall. Yes, I was dozing off!

I decided to do what I can do best. Sing. Not that I can sing well, I just like to sing. Now our new ritual for the girls and myself at bedtime is Mamma singing them to sleep. I sing mostly hymns. My choice of music is contemporary but I felt like they hear that enough. I didn't want them to lose the love of the faithful hymns that are packed full of Truth. Yes, modern worship music is wonderful, but let's not forget the hymns. Let us pass them on to the younger generation so they are not lost. Recently, Gracie has been learning, "I have decided to follow Jesus". I get so tickled listening to her sing it at the top of her lungs while in the bath tub. I know the Angels in heaven must have their ears bent toward that precious little girl as she worships her Savior with the voice He gave to her.

Just to let Brad off the hook with his, *ahem-pooter* mishap, I will leave you with a slip of the tongue from Gracie. Our choir sings the song, "The Days of Elijah". After hearing the part that repeats itself saying, "There is no God like Jehovah, there is no God like Jehovah...", she asked me one day why in the world those people keep singing, "There is no God that likes to hold ya? Don't they all know God would hold you?" Simply precious.

children and church

Whew! I am still dragging today.

Last night was our TeamKid Kickoff party at church. Let me sum it all up for you: A gym full of inflatables, balloons, pizza, coke, cake, ice cream, registration, 23 volunteers, 54 kids, tons of energy and one very, very happy Minister of Education. Although, I might be wrong about the happy Minister of Education. He could possibly be terribly sad that our summer program is over.... (haha!).

Oh, you know, it sure is a lot of work to pull off a successful kids' program. However, the blessing of seeing the smiles on their faces and hearing their laughter make it worth every minute. The best part, though, is knowing we have the opportunity to shape their spiritual lives.

I was watching some of the children play and began to wonder what impact they will make on the Kingdom. One day, they will be serving in the local church, hopefully passing on the faith to other children just like it was passed on to them.

Please let me encourage you to take seriously the opportunities to serve in any type of children's ministry. It is so easy to pass them over, but we simply can not do that! In the book of Mark, Jesus says, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Right after that is a precious picture of our Lord, Mark 10:16, "And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them." If our Savior finds it important to take the children into His arms, we should do the same. Next Sunday, pass around a few extra hugs to the kids!