Family News

HA – the weekend is over… and it was REALLY productive in a relaxing busy sort of way.

Friday night I took the kids all dressed up to Trick or Treat Town… I don't know if I already told the story of Thaddeus' fickle mind when it comes to costumes!!  He was excited to be a fireman… I even had two choices of hats for him, and a washing machine hose we taped in a circle for him to hold, and his yellow rainboots matched beautifully… BUT when He saw Keenan in the pirate costume (from last year – updated with a new eyepatch and hook!!) he wanted to be a pirate TOO!!

SO we switched him out really quick and took pictures.  THEN he says, I am tired of being a pirate, I want to be a fireman now.. Aargh!! – but going out all dressed up is for the kids not for me, and a crying 3 yr old would make the evening even worse for me (LOL) so we changed him… AGAIN… and all were happy.

by the time we were half way through, We had lost all the props, including the hats! BUT they had fun.

Saturday was an at home day, and we got some rearranging done that helps the constant mess of the sun room.  It felt very productive, and great to be a family!!  I also took the kids to watch one of my old piano students compete in the bowling for the Special Olympics.  They liked that really well.  THEN we had some friends over for a ….. LAMB DINNER… complete with home made bread rolls, Australian baked veggies, and Mama's Apricot Pie.

Mom, you would NEVER have used as many dishes as I did!!!  I felt like I was doing dishes for an eternity!!

Sunday we SHOVELLED snow… for hours it seemed… our drive way is 4 cars wide at least, and just over 3 cars deep… yeah… a friend GAVE us a snow blower yesterday ( THANK YOU JESUS!!!)

AND then in all that fresh snow, and threatening rain, we went on the Great Pumpkin Hunt.  We ended up with only 3 cars of people, “racing” around town for 2 hours, collecting clues, and cell phone calls flying to check if we were right, and get extra clues from MJ (pastor).

We weren't really racing, one of the rules is NO breaking the law, including speedlimit u-turns, COMPLETE stops at stop signs – unlesss you slide through, I think that would be excused!

Anyway, nobody crashed and ONCE AGAIN!!! we got 2 nd place by 2 1/2 minutes!!! That is CRAZY!!! sigh  OH well, we don't need all that candy in the great big pumpking anyway!!!

I'm off this weekend to lead worship and be blessed at an Above Rubies retreat down in Soldotna at the Solid Rock Camp… SO should be fun, and I best be getting a little more prepared than I am.

Worship Gathering October 22

The worship gathering this week was kind of fun!!  the parable was the 10 virgins, 5 prepared, and the 5 unprepared… we set the room up to be the SUGGESTION of a wedding… which was pretty neat!!

We sang some great songs, had the teaching, sang some more, read some great Scriptures!! on us being the bride of Christ, sang one of my favorite songs ever “We Will Dance” – I wanted to dance, but I was stuck behind a microphone, then I saw our lovely little reserved Karen praising God… and I could just tell she wanted to dance, so I had the band continue playing, the let the other vocalist continue singing, and went and grabbed karen and we whirled around the room, joining some other girls.

THe boys are such party poopers!!! what is with that?? 🙂
 So hear are the words…

WE Will Dance by David Ruis

Sing a song of celebration, lift up  a shout of praise
for the Bridegroom will come, the glorious One
And oh, we will look on His face
We;ll go to a much better place

Dance with all your might
Lift up your hands and clap for joy
The time;s drawing near, when He will appear
And oh, we will stand by His side
A strong, pure spotless bride

chorus:
We will dance on the streets that are golden
the glorious bride and the great Son of Man
From every tongue and tribe and nation
will join in the song of the Lamb

tag:
Sing aloud for the time of rejoicing is near
the risen King, our groom, is soon to appear
the wedding feast to come is now near at hand
Lift up Your voice, proclaim the coming Lamb

Halloween at our house…

Our trick or treating days started with tickets bought by Grandma and Grandpa for “Trick or Treat Town” – which wasn't actually on Halloween anyway… which they won more tickets this year, so guess we will be doing that again!!

AND that same year, some friends God had brought into our lives that we were building a relationship with invited us to a Halloween party at their house (they had a 3 & 1 yr old… it was pretty tame!!)  Friends of our had made their decision to NOT endorse anything remotely Halloween, so we felt like we should pray about this decision, and finally decided this WAS the opportunity we had been praying for.  to become involved in their lives in amidst everyones busy schedule.

SO we went to this fun party for the kids.  And how CUTE it was, with all of the 15 under 4 year old kids dressed up!!  And in a really friendly neighborhood with lots of grandma's handing out candy and being so interested in every costume.

NOW the tradition is set, the kids LOVE all the sales i find to add things to our humogenous dress up box!! – which is used multiple times daily!!  They love the candy, and we like the chocolate we steal out of their candy 🙂

I totally understand those who don't participate, and I truly appreciate those who allow others the freedom to. 

All that said, Thaddeus looks handsome in his fireman costume this year… except, as he pointed out so clearly ” a shia man needs a hoshe!” so we will find a hose for a prop for him!

Keenan… we are still stuck on, because we do not have an Indian costume for him, and I am to… lazy, unmotivated, untalented… whatever… to make him one.  SO we are going to go out and find something else tomorrow.

AND Sunday, our church annual “Pumpkin Hunt”  (no its not for kids… though we have a carnival for them… its for the adults!! 🙂 )  MJ spends HOURS making tricky clues, and we get in cars with 5-6 people each, and spend the next 2 hours driving all over town, to get to the gargantuan, hollowed out pumpkin, filled with candy.  We ALMOST got it last year, withing minutes… the other team only got it because they broke the law!!! of course we cannot prove it, but we are pretty sure!! 🙂

Worship Gathering October 15

I just realized last week was NOT the 9th! 

This week I was SO SO excited for worship.  I attended a worship conference out in Wasilla (1 hr drive) on Thursday  and Friday night, and Saturday morning.  It was so wonderful, I was SO blessed, and challenged.  It was great to be ministered to by God and His people!!!

Then I showed up for our gathering Sunday evening and everything fell apart.  I was in tears crying out to God.  I know I can worship in adversity and trials… but how do I LEAD during that?  That is my quandary… one I am SURE that God is waiting and willing to share answers with me, and lead me in!! He is good like that, you know!

Anyway, God grabbed my chin, lifted up my eyes… and it was a beautiful time.

Order of things:
on their way in, everyone received a paper sealed with tape, and a place for them to sign their name… when we opened it later it was revealed to be a deed on their life.

 Forever (Chris Tomlin)
Who Is This God (Angela Pinkston)
More of You Jesus
Closer (Charlie Hall – new one for us)

MJ teaching

Scripture: Galatians 2:20
Take My Life (Chris Tomlin version of hymn)

MJ wraps it up… response and prayer time.  Our we “owning” – or trying to… what is NOT ours, but really God's and we are only care takers?

Let Me Give Back to You (Leslie Philips)
We Fall Down
King

The middle was not great.  “Take my life” never seems to gel… I think we won't do it again unless we create some other musical version of it 🙂

by all

Renee

Worship Gathering October 9

What a neat gathering we had this week (or last week I should say!) 🙂 Following is the order of service, based on the parable from “Luke 13:6-9”  each “story” MJ did, was a narrative from the view point of each of the characters in the story.  he did a good job writing these, I thought.  And did it from a modern day view point.  ( A principle, ready to expel a teen student, a teacher willing to do everything to keep him there because he saw potential, and the student response, the confusion and loneliness and despair, etc.)

• Indescribable

Scripture: 
Psalm 104 – (its long but SO fabulous!!)

• Immortal Invisible (verse 1-3)hymn

 

Scripture: Luke 13: 6-9 – Renee

Story:  MJ (view of fig tree / teen student about to be expelled)

 

Scripture: Jeremiah 2:20-22, 3:12 – 15 )

• Change My Heart Oh God
• Grace Like Rain (Todd Agnew's version of Amazing Grace)

 

Scripture: Luke 13: 6-9 – Ashten

Story:  MJ -(viewpoint of owner of  fig tree, the principal)

 

Scripture: Romans 8: 31-39

• How Deep the Father’s Love for us
• Only Your Love

Scripture: I can't remember!! – but it was the one where Christ is in heaven interceding for us…

 

Scripture: Luke 13: 6-9 – Sean

Story:  MJ – (viewpoint of teacher, gardener, willing to put it all on the line for the student)

 

• Before the throne of God (awesome modern day hymn… at least I think its modern day!)

Closing Prayer – time of meditation on which one of these roles do we relate to today… what does God want us to do about it…

I was appalled when God showed me I was the one ready to “cut down the fig tree” so to speak.  And I am so thankful, God showed me so I can extend the grace and love desired, not the judgement NOT required of me!!

 

the women's retreat

It went great… just wonderful.  God did totally unexpected things.  We thought the point would be to learn about worship. BUT God had other plans.  just to ALLOW them to worship, to share their burdens (of which there were SO many!!! I had NO idea!) – it was a place of tears and healing.  IT was awesome.

And God led me to songs that just washed God's promises and fabulous attributes all over them… US!!

Thanks for your thougths and prayers, and encouragement and comments!!

We ended with nailing our name on a piece of paper to the cross, and the then receiving communion… it was just BEAUTIFUL!

October posts

Oct. 31, 2006: Family News
Oct. 26, 2006: Worship Gathering October 22
Oct. 24, 2006: Halloween at our house…
Oct. 16, 2006: Worship Gathering October 15
Oct. 15, 2006: Worship Gathering October 9
Oct. 12, 2006: the women’s retreat
Oct. 4, 2006: upcoming retreat
Oct. 4, 2006: Worship Gathering October 1

upcoming retreat

I am leading worship this weekend for my women's Bible Study's retreat… it is a great mix of ladies… older and younger, all different denominations and backgrounds and preferences (and opinions!!  ) for music!!

I'd appreciate prayers to follow the Spirit's leading… to not have ANY inkling of an attitude that “my way is better” or that “I am more spiritual”, to not cater to anyone, including myself…

The focus of the retreat is worship and the Psalms… and if you have been reading my blog, you KNOW how much I LOVE that topic!!! Which can make one seem arrogant and overbearing… SO my prayer is that one from the epistles somewhere (excuse my lack of Bible at hand) which talks about sharing wisdom with gentleness and purity of heart, etc.

Worship Gathering October 1

This weeks parable was Mark 4: 26-29…

SO the service started off with everyone getting a cup of dirt

Famous One
Indescribable

had a group “Lectio Divino” – MJ read the key passage 4 times with breaks in between, and we soaked in the Scriptures (Mark 4:26-29)  I thought it wouldn't work, because I thought it wasn't a good passage to do this excercise on… BUT I was so wrong, and God really spoke to me!! YEAH!!

Breathe On Me
Holy

short teaching on Mark passage… planting of seeds 🙂

Breathe
Draw Me Nearer

we broke into 3 groups for communion, and we served each other around the circle.

Not Unto Us

It was a good service.  Felt kind of dry to start with.  I have been struggling with the “pleasing man” mentality… it doesn't do good for Spirit led leadership and worship!! go figure!  But by the time Lectio Divino was finished I was broken and ready to fix my eyes on Jesus, and submit and honor Him…

I notice though, when I am struggling like that, I am unsure of what to say usually, and there are more awkward (for me anyway) pauses.  I have been praying a lot lately, that God would redirect my eyes to Him, and draw me to Him, and keep me wrapped up in Him and not others!!