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where we are

June 20, 2011 in ministry, our life with 25 Comments

I haven’t talked much in the last 7 months about where we are. What we are doing. But I felt the need to spill my guts, and bring you guys in a little more on the inside of our life. Mostly because I need to talk it out and plead for prayers and encouragement from you guys.

My husband and I work in ministry. We were at our church for years, before we left and moved to California. We absolutely loved CA, and had a blast being a part of our church and life there. But, we felt the urge to move closer to family. We were beginning to try to get pregnant with our second, and start the adoption process with number 3. The thought of doing all that so far from family was difficult for me. We packed it up and moved to Oklahoma right before Thanksgiving of last year.

That’s the back story. The hard truth is: we’ve been unemployed since. Thankfully, my husband being a worship leader he has been working a lot of weekends. We got pregnant immediately after moving here, and it’s been a blessing having hubs at home to help out. Since for about 4 months I could barely get off the couch I was so sick.

We’ve been through some testing. A few job opportunities have come and gone, but we aren’t letting that get us down. Typically with no steady income, a baby on the way and a toddler eating us out of house and home (or living on goldfish)…that would be very stressful. But this time in our life hasn’t been stressful. I can’t wrap my mind around the peace I feel, and the fact that God is providing for us.

I feel blessed.

I feel taken care of.

And most importantly, I know that my babies are taken care of.

My precious little family.

Yes, we have had to cut back some. We only have one car right now, and we live in my in-laws Oklahoma house while they live in Alaska. It’s an honor to me to take care of their home for them, and make a home for my family. I am getting to spend so much time with my husband, which is an amazing blessing.

We are really learning to rely on God for the little things.

And it works. Every month. A random $400 here. An unexpected $200 there. Brook continues to get calls to lead worship, which pays pretty good. God really does provide all our needs.

Philippians 4:19 You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus.

Thank you all for your prayers and support as we continue down this road of uncertainity. We appreciate all the love and encouragement we feel from each of you!

our new family member

December 14, 2010 in ministry, our life with 11 Comments

I’m excited to introduce you to Angie Chica, the newest member of our family! Angie was born on March 25, 2010…um, the same day as Munchkin!! She’s from El Salvador, and oh-so-cute! Instead of buying our daughter mountains of toys for Christmas, we got her the gift of friendship. Of compassion. Of love.

To teach her that there are children in the world with less, and there is a way we can do more.

I can’t wait to watch Jessi Girl grow up with Angie Girl (as we call her). In hopes that my daughter will be forever changed by this relationship. And in hopes that someday they will meet and it will be a friendship of a lifetime.

I encourage you to give your children a different kind of gift this year. A gift that keeps giving, and a relationship that will change their lives (and yours).

These are 2 great organizations I recommend sponsorship through: World Vision & Compassion. Go scroll through the kids, and it will be hard for you to walk away without doing something.

I dare you to try.

Continue Reading…

catalyst west recap

April 27, 2010 in ministry with 0 Comments

Last week we attended Catalyst West, which I’m sure if you follow us on twitter you heard a lot about. We kinda had a good time. Last year Brook attended, but I had to work and wasn’t able to go. I was so excited that it worked out this year for both of us to attend. Jessi girl tagged along too. That was interesting…but she did amazing and was such a trooper for both days.

Catalyst is a conference for church and ministry leaders. There are an endless amount of incredible speakers pouring into us for two days. It’s a little overwhelming to say the least, but in a very good way. I came away feeling encouraged, refreshed and ready to keep going. Believe it or not, sometimes ministry can get hard and downright exhausting. It’s so great to come together with people who understand and know the right words to say.

One of my favorite parts – worship. There is nothing more beautiful to me than a couple thousand ministry leaders who are completely in love with Jesus worshiping in a corporate setting. It’s incredible. I always feel like we get a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like. People completely in love and on their faces before Jesus. What an amazing picture. As a Worship Leader’s wife, I rarely get to worship standing next to my husband, so I always love these precious moments of standing close to him and praising our God together.

We learned from some amazing church leaders and non-profit leaders. Our hearts were opened, stretched and mended. The hubby and I are beginning to talk about possibilities for our future that God opened our eyes to a little more. It’s all so exciting and we so look forward to what is ahead for our ministry and family.

Tomorrow, I will touch on the area I was most encouraged and impacted. Exciting stuff.

bragging rights

February 8, 2010 in marriage is awesome, ministry with 3 Comments

Sometimes I fear that I don’t take the time enough to brag on my hubby and tell him how proud I am of him. I always hope he knows, but I never want to take for granted that he does. Being a pastor’s wife isn’t always an easy job, as I’m sure my fellow PW friends can agree.

It’s a difficult balance of “work and life”, when your life revolves around your ministry and serving others. My hubby is amazing at this. Sure, sometimes he brings his work home. But he does a good job of knowing when it’s time to unplug and focus on me. He’s practicing well for being an amazing daddy by taking his days off to spend with his family. I’m so thankful for this. Although him being pulled in a million directions can get hard from time to time, it’s a blessing to get to be a part of what he does. It’s not just his ministry, it’s OURS. I love that he makes me a huge part of it and always values my opinion so highly.

I’ve been a bit of a wreck for the past 8 months. It’s not been easy on me to be pregnant, and that could have put a lot of pressure on our marriage because it’s hard for me to focus on it a lot of the time. He has stood by me every step of the way. He tells me I’m beautiful when I feel the size of a house. He encourages me. He tells me it will be over soon (that’s the best thing I can hear these days…). He never questions his feelings for me.

As women, it’s not always easy to be vulnerable with our spouses. Especially when we want them to see us as beautiful and as perfect as possible. But we’re in this thing…for better and for worse. I’ve had my fair share of “worse” days lately, and he’s not left my side for a second. And he won’t leave my side during our better days either.

One of the best days is to come, when we see our baby girl for the first time. I can’t imagine a better man to share this with and to be the father of my children. Thank you baby for all you for our ministry and our family. You are truly my hero.

i'm terrified of small groups

January 27, 2010 in ministry with 3 Comments

Ok…maybe not terrified. But honestly, they are difficult for me. Most churches have moved away from Sunday School, and focus more on Small Groups/Life Groups/Community Groups…whatever you may call them. I think this is awesome. I truly believe that it is so important to have people you can pour into and vice-versa. Hear me out…I think they are extremely important.

However, I’m terrified of them. I just simply don’t like them.

Oh….and why do all of our church graphics for small groups have to have people holding hands?? What group of people actually sits in a circle and holds hands?

Anyway…

Being a pastor & pastor’s wife, as hubby and I are, we draw a lot of “attention” from people who attend the churches we work for. Sometimes good attention and sometimes bad. But there is something about the pastor that people are drawn to. And they think the pastor’s wife is absolutely holy & perfect. Oh my…if only they knew.

All that to say, it’s difficult for me to be vulnerable. It’s hard to open up. It takes a lot of trust and many things for us to feel completely comfortable to talk about deep spiritual things going on with us, especially to people who look up to us so much.

We have some amazing friendships that we sink into so comfortably and can openly share anything. Most are either fellow pastors & wives, or are friends/family we have known for a long long time. I’m so thankful God has placed those people in our lives. I really think we’d be lost without them.

How do you allow yourself to open up and be vulnerable to a new group of people?

If you are a pastor’s wife, what’s the best way for you to find “community” and relationships and actually be able to let your guard down?

the way to give

January 20, 2010 in ministry with 1 Comment

So many times when we find ourselves in the midst of a tragedy, we (as humans…and sinners) want to broadcast what we are doing to help. We proudly march up to the front of the church to drop off our money and hope that people will see how many zeros there are on the check. Something I learned from Jesus:

Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

With the terrible tragedy that has hit Haiti, I ask you to do something to give to these innocent and hurting people. Do your part. Whether it is through a financial support, prayer or going to help out in some way.

I encourage you to let this be a reminder to you that there are hurting people all over the world. Don’t let it take an earthquake or some kind of disaster be all that brings you to help out.

Pray about it, seek God and how He would have you to get involved. Ask for a pure heart, and then give out of a pure heart. Don’t boast in what you were able to do, but encourage others through the purity of giving to give of themselves as well.

When your Father sees what is done in secret, He will reward you.

And that is the sweetest reward there is.

starting over!

October 5, 2009 in ministry with 2 Comments

Well we did it!! We launched Kingsfield in the theaters! This weekend went GREAT. I wasn’t so sure after getting up at 3:45 am to go set up if it was really worth it, but it totally was.

I was exciting to see our volunteers there early and so excited about all God is doing. We are so thankful to have some really great people on board and willing to help us set up and tear down.

I have the honor and huge responsibility of leading our volunteers. We officially launched our “Host Team” this weekend. It’s exciting to be a part of this and lead our amazing volunteers! Yes, it’s a lot of work but again, totally worth it.

By 12:30 when we left, I could hardly walk I was so tired and sore. Oh yeah…and I’m 4 months pregnant and this baby must be sitting on a nerve or something. Not really helping with set up and tear down (don’t worry grandparents, I didn’t lift anything heavy!). Please be praying for my body as I work a full time job, lead our volunteers in my free time, find time to hang with the hubby and grow a child! It’s a lot of work I tell ya!

Here’s a couple pics! I left my camera in my car and forgot to take very many on my iPhone…oops!

Welcome to Kingsfield

Brook leading worship

Thank you for your prayers as we move into this new phase as a church! And a HUGE thank you to all the amazing volunteers who made it happen!!!!!!!

here we go again!

September 28, 2009 in ministry with 0 Comments

Yesterday was the last day in our permanent location at Kingsfield Church! We have sold the building and we are getting out into the community. It’s interesting because after doing set up & tear down for so long at LifeChurch, I swore I’d never do it again. Little did we know…this is what God was calling us to do. And I’m totally excited about it too!

We will be meeting at the theater in a very busy shopping area. We did a “practice” setup and tear down on Saturday and it went great! Sure there will be little kinks to work out along the way, but I know that God will show up and things will go GREAT!

I intended to take a bunch of pictures on Saturday to post, but I left my camera at home and only took one with my phone. Here is the inside of the theater (prior to the stage being set up).

main theater

Please be praying for the church as we move into this new and exciting phase to really reach out to the community! Pray for our staff as there is a LOT going on and to prepare for this huge move. Pray that everything goes smoothly our first weekend.

lets get excited!

September 25, 2009 in extremely wise thoughts, ministry with 0 Comments

Why don’t we get more excited about Worshipping our God?

I can’t stop watching this video. It’s so cool to see how thousands of people can come together and get so excited about something! Wouldn’t it be great if the church looked more like a Black Eyed Peas concert?

Let’s get excited about what our God is doing!!!!!!!!

dreaming for bigger things

August 7, 2009 in ministry with 3 Comments

dreams

As children we are told to reach for the stars, to dream big. Our parents tell us we can be anything we want to be. We dream of being firefighters, doctors, princesses, and knights. We daydream all day about what it will be like to get big.

Why does this stop? Why when we get older do we stop dreaming? Why are we constantly told to come back to reality?

No, I don’t think we should still be playing dress up and acting like a princess (unless of course that’s REALLY what you aspire to do). I think our dreams should change as we do. Being in ministry, my husband and I like to dream big for what is ahead for us and new and better ways to reach people. We don’t like being tied down to “standards” and the “way things should be done”. I don’t think that’s how Christ calls us to dream and to live.

Keep dreaming big. Keep reaching for the stars! We CAN change the world for the better.

Ok, I’m going to find my princess crown.

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