Is it Monday again already? Christmas has come and gone. One week of Christmas break is already over and I haven't done any of the projects that I had intended to take care of over the break.
So for what has become the traditional Monday Morning Update - I really am excited to begin seeing several families start to grow some roots with the Crossroads. It's neat to see people catching the vision and wanting to be a part of the family. In my limited wisdom, I wish that we were growing a little faster. But in God's infinite wisdom we seem to be growing deeper. Of course 3 baptisms, a few more professions of faith, one guy licensed to the ministry, and several families starting to get plugged in are not exactly poor results for a church that is not quite yet 6 months old.
Speaking of licensing to the ministry. I was really sad to say goodbye to my good friend and church planting intern, Brad, today. He was such a strong reminder of God's timely provision for our church. However, it is awesome to see people pursuing God with all that they are and chasing after their dreams. Even when their dreams take them on a new journey. Brad will be attending seminary in Waco and preparing for a lead role in ministry.
Shawn's sermon series about the real Jesus has been so incredible. It is amazing as his wife to see God take him and use him to speak such truth. He has always been a gifted speaker, but it seems that maybe now God is going even beyond Shawn's own ability to discern truth and to communicate it effectively. God seems to be doing some supernatural stuff in my husband's life. I am excited to see him being surrendered to God and to see just how God is using him.
Loved the worship set this week. (do I sound like a broken record?) Seems like I always say that. I did, however, really miss two of our guitar guys this week who were unavailable to play with us. We are praying for some more musicians so that we can cover for each other when we have to be out. Yet, God's spirit is not bound up in how many guitar players we have or whether the keyboard player is hitting all the right notes to be able to move in a service. God moves among people who are hungry for his presence and so we are very blessed every week to experience amazing worship.
This afternoon we loaded 638 blankets and tons of stuffed animals to prepare for The Crossroad's first mission trip to Mexico. We will be leaving Wednesday. We will be going door to door handing out blankets and gospels of John as we lay groundwork for a church plant that is being started. How incredible is it that a baby church is already going to help out another church!
Today I was eating buttermilk pie and visiting with a family that's been with us since the very beginning. We were talking about how exciting it is to be in church planting. Very low pressure, but very focused energy on making our lives count. I just don't think I could ever go back to just sitting in a pew ever again. I love the active, passionate, hands on, hard work of planting. I was made for this mission.
Just a confession: Way back in the day when we were doing 40 days of purpose at Hagerman, God began to speak to me about getting ready physically for a mission that he had in store for me. I giggled and dismissed Him. (Always a bad idea, by the way) Today I remembered what He said as I was helping to move the countless heavy boxes of blankets. It may be time to schedule some workouts into my busy schedule.
Warning - I have just about finished Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This last bit of the book really nailed me hard and challenged me about my ideas of Christianity. Tomorrow I'm planning to share that - so if you don't like the heavy, convicting blogs you have been warned.
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