The Fight

Hope deep inside...

A fight, no where to hide..

A fight with darkness,

But the light will win.

A struggle of life,

defeat, strife,

Down trodden and oppressed.

But truth abreast.

Fall down, but up

again.

Fall seven times

or even more, 

God is there 

to help you soar. 

On your feet, 

head held high 

there's a war to fight

You must try, 

there is power within you

and an armor of truth around

Claim his promises, 

His love abounds.

Claim his power, 

Cause in the end we will win

Look up, claim it 

There is power in him

Here I am Lord

     I wrote on our blog about how on the trip down to St Pete we were asked for help on several occasions. While I am used to Danny being approached, I am seldom approached. We joke about Danny being a magnet for that. Often times on family trips, I will look around and Danny is handing some stranger some money or pumping gas into someone's car that asked for help. Although Danny got asked for money this trip as well, I too got asked.  Danny often says he dosn't care what is going on in that person's life, but that it is a test of our heart to see if we will give or help out in some way.
  I had gotten out of my car and had caught the eye of the lady beside us and I smiled as her son was playing. I began to do the gas pump routine when she approached me with her gas can. She said in a pleading voice, will you please give me some gas, I am trying to visit my sister and I am afraid I will run out of gas. The lady was a Hindu, she had on a dress, and had the dot between her eyes. I had recently studied of Hindus and I also have a co-worker that schooled me as well on the culture as she was a Christian from India. The lady asking for gas, referenced God alot and repeatedly asked for God's blessings on me. I gave her some gas and she spoke more blessing toward me.
   As I got in my car and contemplated on this, I was surprised at all the need we had encountered on the way down and wondered if this was any indication for what we were gonna experience in St .Pete. I have heard and read about all the homeless here and I know we will experience the dire straights and need here as well. I began to think of the lady and wondered did she believe in the one true God, our God. I know that Hindus believe in many God's, but my hope was that she was talking of our God.
I also read somewhere that Hindu's believe the eyes are windows to the soul and I wondered if when she looked in my eyes she saw Christ, and a hope that she reached out for. I so wished I could have witnessed to her or prayed with her, but it happened so fast.  If nothing else it helped me to know and take inventory of myself that I need to be more ready for anything..... ready to pray, ready to speak your word, ready to give your hope that others are looking for so desperately.
Here I am Lord, send me.....(Isaiah 6:8)
With your help Lord, I am ready to do your work, I want to do your work. I pray I can represent you well and be a light to a needy world out there.
Please pray for me that I can find the balanced needed to not only minister to my family and be what they need but to also minister for the Lord to that one person out there who may need hope.

Not our works....

I kneel in awe this morning at the foot of the cross and in tears thank my Lord and Savior for his provisions. For his works. He is in control.  His hands are leading us in all that we do. He has a great work in St Pete and we get to help him with this and he is taking care of us and I am in awe......

  Earlier this week we broke down on the side of the road in Greensboro, NC in our New Car !!! (well it's not brand new, but newer)
We found out it was the transmission and the cost would be about 2800 dollars to fix it.  I made some phone calls to Buick customer service and the dealership and we had to rent a car to get home, but God orchestrated it all and the results are better than we anticipated, and I give all the glory to God !!

    I was reading in the wonderful book of the Bible and stumbled across this verse. I really love the verse before it," God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind...". I love that verse and I read on down below it and was blown away even more as the verse is so fitting for ministry work. I feel closer to Paul as we have been going through the book of Acts and as he started churches and did ministry work the verses become real and applicable to us. Not just now in our new venture but in everyday life.
This particular scripture is written by Paul too and its great:

Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.(2Tim 1:9-10)

But I really like he called us----All Christians, he called you, he called me, he called the great preachers, but he called the lay-member as well, he called us with a HOLY calling to him.

Not according to our works----there is nothing WE can do, it is all Christ !!
According to his own purpose !!!!

We are not going on mission and ministry for our selves... but for him, not through our own works, but through him, his hands, his strength, and his will.

GOOD IS GOOD!!!
He is on the throne and he is mighty !!

On Mission

With my job in the hospital, I often meet all types of people, patients, and other staff come around and the topic comes up about me moving. Then they start asking questions about my move. I tell them we are starting a church in Saint Petersburg and they give me the oddest look. I realize some people cannot fathom the faith it takes to start a church, or go into the mission field, but I usually leave the conversation feeling foolish.( A feeling I am sure Satan wants me to feel)  Maybe I am not wording things right and should just say "we are moving to do missions in Florida"...haha....
     I find it interesting as well how it is really more acceptable to be going to do foreign mission than to actually be doing missions right here in the USA, because that is what were are going to be doing. Of course establishing a church as well, but if you have read the book of Acts that's what Paul was doing, preaching, healing, meeting people, establishing relationships and starting churches.
   When I think of Jesus and the Great Commission, he commanded us to go out.... and there is such a great need right here in the US as well as overseas. So at the end of the day, I claim my faith and the trust found in Jesus Christ and know what we are doing is not of ourselves. I know there is a need and I know that Christ will be right there with us cheering us on!!


Matthew 28:18-20 
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV)

Change

     As I waded the slush of snow and rain, and melted snow the other beautiful march afternoon, I realized that this might be the last bit of snow I see for a long, long while.  A wave of sadness washed over me, as I realized how quickly this journey of life is about to over, not only am I turning a year older this past week, but we are moving soon to the beach.  That should excite me and it does, but we have made such connections here in Virginia these last 4 years here.  To move again at this age seems crazy, we should be settled somewhere with a mortgage and roots, but here we are moving......
........................but I am trusting HIM.....................

   We have been going through the book of Acts and I have been reviewing the awesome works of the disciples after Christ's death and how he empowered them to do his work. I am renewed in spirit when I think of how God's power is with us, how he sent the Holy Spirit to indwell within us and empower us to go out and do his work, how we are his vessels and he can work through us if we allow it. How refreshing it is to visit this known wisdom from God.

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit."

Ephesians 3:16 NLT

   We truly serve an amazing God whom I am relying on and counting on. An awesome God who I know will take care of us and help us along the way.  An omnipotent God who sees all, knows and can be all we need. 

  As I close this chapter of life and begin another all this change is kinda hard, but I am claiming His promises and clinging to his hand as we begin yet another amazing journey with my Lord and Savior !!

If you are dealing with any changes in your life, trust in him to help you through..... he will. And YOU can get through this with his help. 

...................................................................trust in HIM, the one sustainer and creator that will help you.

work, work, work

   So as we are nearing June, we are in constant motion. Constantly doing things for Reliance and trying to get our name out there and saturate the campus here and this town as well. We are having team meetings/church every Monday night, going through the book of Acts, and sometimes other meetings in between those meetings. Planning, filming, writing letters.....A lot of work and sometimes you step back and you say wow, now what are we doing this for?  This seems like a lot of self sacrifice for not much return. Yeah, I put self in there, too much thinking can lead you down a road with a lot of self pity and selfishness and before you know it, you are crying inside or on the outside and you are saying God I need time for me !!!!  God is this the right thing, I seem to be juggling so much stuff, work, family, church, church, school.....why isn't it easier? So much work to be done, are you sure God that I can do this, do you think you have the right person for the job?
    I know we are going to a place to bring your word and your hope and help and promises Lord, but how quickly I forget....
 
Then he reminds me.... of the song"I am weak but thou are strong"
3Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: Psalm 71:3

He says come to me and I will give you rest..... 

I am reminded, nothing of significance is easy and I know God will help me, but I must help myself and saturate my being with him and his word.... 

Lord, Help me to ever trust,pray and read your word and never be too busy for you and I know you will strengthen me and help me.

Pray for us on this amazing journey,  asking for amazing grace, so that we can better serve our Amazing God !! 

our journey

     I had just sent a messge to someone and put in there how we miss them and miss our home in the South and I wrote, We are having an amazing journey with God, but please pray for us. And I thought about that. I thought about Danny and my life together, and how dramatic it has been.
  When I married Danny he was a christian and working as a heavy machine operator, or as he says sometimes ditch digger, he was in a family owned business and I thought that is how things would be, one day he would take over the family business and that's that. That all changed oneday when Danny accepted the call, the call of God and being a man of God or preacher I will say. Things started changing, hearts started changing, a few years passed, Youth Pastor, .. then off to Liberty to get more education..... So we moved to Virginia on Faith and a prayer, knowing God would take care of us and he has. Now Danny has almost finished  his Masters of Divinity degree at the Largest Christian University and working at one of the Largest churches in America... and here we are, God is Awesome. He has taken care of us and brought us through a lot these last 31/2 years. He has provided for us, he has sustained us and he has humbled us in so many ways to prepare us for our next journey.
   I was thinking the other day, how do I do this? I worked all night, slept for 3 hrs and here I am with the kids at a function, spending time with them expending energy that I shouldn't have, only God can sustain you like that and I am so thankful for what he does for me !!!

  So I always thought Danny would finish school and get a great job at some big church as Senior Pastor or even move up the ladder here at Thomas Road, but God had other plans. So when Danny comes home earlier this year and says I think God is calling me to be a church planter and we should pray about it, I knew God was dealing with him. Danny has always been about the existing church and we always kinda felt church plants were trying to do away with the traditional church and closing down the little churches all over America. He wasn't against church planting, but I never even thought he would consider it. He said no, God has shown me, church plants are needed.   Here in America we have unreached people groups.  There are areas in the US that are growing rapidly and do not have enough churches for the amount of people, there are places that are not hearing God's word, that are at ropes end and they need hope, they need God and we are going there. So we prayed about it for a while, looked up demographics, prayed some more, and God put the Tampa Bay area on his heart and we prayed some more and then some more and researched some more and he's narrowed it down some more specifically to the St Pete area. So St Pete here we come !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   Please be in much prayer for us,Satan dosn't want us on this amazing journey with God, he dosn't want hope brought to a people group and he dosn't want God's word expressed, so be in much prayer for our Journey.... this AMAZING JOURNEY WITH GOD !!!!!!!