ARC week

This week was ARC which stands for Alabama Revival Conference that is held in Birmingham every year. This year was a little different because we had five small children,and that was certainly a change from years past. We had a great time even though unfortunately my husband had to work this year and had to drive back and forth. The services were great but there was one that i just cant forget and it was titled (The Stolen Babies) Pastor Doug White preached it and it was so powerful, he talked about how satan comes and tries to steal our babies by distracting us with all our problems and stealing our faith. We have to realize that God is there for us and in control of our lives . I'm not willing to let satan steal anymore of my faith. God is a great and mighty God whom I will put my trust in . We have to reach the dying babies before its to late the cities of this nation are full of people who do not know the one true God and it is our responsibility as Gods chosen people to reach them and teach them about him. They need to know it does matter what name you are baptized in, the Bible teaches that we are to be baptized in Jesus name and that you need the Holy Ghost. The evidence given in scripture when they were filled with the Holy Ghost was speaking in an unknown tongue as the spirit gives the utterance. This is the only way to salvation according to Gods word. Thank God for a awesome move of his spirit at this conference. If you would like to learn more truth about baptism here are some chapters in the Bible to help you get started. Acts Ch.2, Acts Ch.10, Acts Ch.19 these will get you started in the right direction on your quest to know truth. God Bless

God and His Goodness

Everyday brings new challenges but God is always FAITHFUL. Recently we had a lighting storm in our area and our tree beside our home was struck by lighting. It was truly a sound that will bring you out of the deepest of sleep. It was about 2:00 am when it all happened and we knew it was very close to our house we just did not realize how close. The next morning when my husband went out he saw that it was our tree, and the bark was striped completely off in one section from the top of the tree to the bottom. This was amazing to see considering the tree is about 90 feet tall. The thing that I realized is just how amazing these storms can be. The most awesome thing about this situation is right next to this tree is another tree that is almost just as tall and is only about 3ft away with a gas tank beside it. So why write about this? Well sometimes we just go about our day thinking we are always relatively safe in our own home, but in fact it is a false sense of security that could be taken away in a moment. Be thankful for each moment and pray often so when things happen that are beyond our control we have that vital relationship with the One who does have control...Jesus Christ.

We All Need A Heart Transplant Every Now and Then

A couple of weeks ago we had Kids Church and what an awesome time we had. We talked about Restoring the Heart and what it meant to make sure that we have good things in ours. Sometimes without even realizing it we allow things to enter in that are not of God like jealousy, lying, cheating, and disobedience just to name a few. The kids really enjoyed it and there was such a move of God. We have a awesome team that is so talented they just get right in make the whole thing happen. We had the room set up like a hospital with a waiting area to the side. Bro Garett was our patient and unfortunately he had some pretty bad things in his heart but thanks to God he was able to make him whole again. When all was said and done we had an alter call and kids were praying everywhere and seeking for the Holy Ghost, and then God swept through and we had 5 kids received the gift of the Holy Ghost and 3 of them were Baptized. What a wonderful thing to see right before your very eyes. Thanks to everyone who helped and made it a success it takes us all to do the work of the kingdom. A special thanks to Michelle O. for all the supplies you got us, as well as Brother Harry for getting us a real gurney. Brother O. and Brother Ronnie Miller helped me to go and pick it up and for that I am also very thankful. We also wanted to thank Sis. Carla for taking the younger children out to another room and entertaining them while alter call was going on as well as keeping the little ones in order during the puppet songs and the skits.

Here are a few pictures from our practice.
Well it doesnt look like much practice was going on below but we did eventually do some practicing.

Here is Sister Camille and Sister Natalie two of our awesome leaders in Kid's Church!

Here are some more practice pictures with the three musketeers!

They are practicing pretty hard huh?

Right at the beginning of the Sunday Service the "Wee Praise" kid's choir went up to sing. Sister Kristie and her talented group of teachers do an awesome job getting the kids ready to sing every Sunday during Sunday School. Here is Sis Von De Leigh running them through another practice before they went up to sing.

While the Kids were singing our Doctors and Nurses were getting prepared for surgery.
Here is Brother Derek getting his gloves on. He did one excellent job at being a Doctor and talking to the kids at alter call.

Here are Sister Camille and Sister Kimi which were the Nurses , and Brother Grant which was also a doctor and they did so awesome (they are also awesome kid's church leaders) . You had to be there to see just how realistic these people made it look. The kids attention were drawn to the action and the teaching. Having a script is one thing, but the people involved in making it come to life deserve the credit.

Here is brother David Brazeel which narrated between the scenes, and Sis Natalie was the mother of the sick child (Brother Garrett). Brother Chase ran the sound for us and Sister Jade was another visitor in the waiting room and also helped with the puppets.

What an awesome group of kids we had too. I think we had over 90 kids in there and it was great.

Here are two of the three kids getting baptized right after kid's church!

I can't thank all the people that participated in making this happen enough. We had many more people helping out behind the scenes like Brother Luke running the lights (which was quite an endeavor in itself) and the many puppeteers that were behind the curtain that put smiles on the kids faces. We look so forward to the next Kid's church and seeing more kids lives changed each and every time we get together, even in the Sunday School classes.

To God be all the Glory!

It's What Is In the Cup That Counts!!!!!!!

My husband received an email from someone last week and it had a little power point slide-show, but I could not get the slide-show to work on here; however I did write the words that went with each caption. These are not my words and the slide show didn't say who's words they were to give them credit, but when I read this it certainly did make me think. Here they are so you can read them for yourselves:

The Wisdom In Hot Chocolate.

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:

'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.

While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

The cup that you 're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups.

And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this:

Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups.

They are just tools to hold and contain life.

The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.

God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything.

They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!!

Why do we tend to think just like that. I want to be the kind of person no matter what my cup looks like I make the best of it with what I have. Sometimes I think we forget just how Blessed we are. I pray Lord help me to be content with the things I have they may not be the best, but if the Lord is in them how could they get any better. He has always provided my every need.

Baptism in Jesus Name!

I received a comment asking us to explain why we believe it is essential to baptize in Jesus' name. In response I wanted to write the reason in a post in lieu of just answering the comment in case anyone else may have the same question. The reason we believe that you need to be baptized in the first place is because the bible records Jesus stating in John 3:5 "Verily verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God", so from that we know that we need to be baptized in the first place. If that isn't enough to convince us of how essential baptism is we can look into what every person recorded in the new testament did once they believed in Jesus Christ, and the answer is they were baptized. Just as important as it is to be baptized it also is important how you are baptized. In Matthew we have Jesus speaking to the disciples in what is commonly called the "great commission" and this is the place that we find Jesus commanding the disciples to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." At first glance that would seem like we are to say those exact words; however, it is speaking of only "one" name, which is why the bible states in the name, and not names. If we look into prophecy we can go to the book of Zechariah and look at chapter 14 verse 9 which states "And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one." If there is any question into what that name was to be we can look to Acts Chapter 4 where Peter is speaking about Jesus and he states this in verse 12: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." We do follow that great commission but we actually baptize in the name he was referring to and that is Jesus. When he was speaking to his disciples they knew what that name was and what Jesus was instructing them to do. We know this because in the very first place after this happened we have Peter in Acts chapter 2 verse 38 telling the people what they must do to be saved, so what did he say? He said "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." If that isn't enough every where after this where people were baptized, they were baptized in the name of Jesus. There is not one place that we read in the New Testament where anyone baptized in the titles. The reason they didn't was because they were titles and Jesus didn't ask them to baptize in the titles Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but the Name of the Father, and the Name of the Son, and the Name of the Holy Ghost which is Jesus.

Using ourselves as examples my husband is a father, and he is a son, but his name is Jeff. The authority is in the Name of Jesus Christ and your name is a recognition of who you are. We believe in Jesus Christ and so we want to be recognized as being his; therefore, we are baptized in his name. A very good example to read in regards to this is Acts chapter 19 where Paul finding disciples said beginning in verse 2 "He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." Then what did they do? Verse 5 lets us know "When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus". So as you can see from this it does matter into what name you are baptized. We also were at one time years ago baptized in the titles, but we could not deny the revelation the scripture gave to us that we needed to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so just as the scripture speaks in Acts 19 referenced above once we believed on Jesus Christ we were baptized in the name of Jesus and filled with the Holy Ghost.

And Like A Good Neighbor!

Well I got this idea in prayer on how to be a better witness to our neighbors, but it still took a little preparation to put it all together. What came to me was to make some goody baskets and hand deliver them and hopefully get to know them (neighbors) a little bit better. So my husband and I put together the baskets to deliver them today. What we started with is this simple ordinary basket we picked strawberries in last year (Below)

I did some baking for part of the goody baskets as well. Here we have little loaves of apple bread. I also made some banana nut bread as well.

Here are the loaves after I put on the topping.

Then we put together bags of Pecans, White Chocolate covered pretzels and chow mien noodles, and plum preserves from over the summer (Below). Oh and I almost forgot we put in some candy canes too!

Then I took the baskets and covered them with burlap material and tied the top with Raffia with the help of the Jeff's thumb to hold the knot. Next I used multi-colored tissue paper and laid it inside and I started putting in the goodies. And here is a close look at the final product.

I had an idea that I would put together five baskets for the five places we wanted to bring them to so below is all five of the baskets and off we go to deliver the goodies.

We were able to deliver 4 of the 5 baskets this afternoon and the neighbors all loved them. We we had some good conversations and a guided tour of one of our neighbors houses. My husband was also able to volunteer his help to one of our neighbors that needs a few things done around the house and are unable to do them. I remember a statment from a while back that we heard and that is "it takes so little to be above average" and I am glad we could do something like this for people we live around everyday. We also are seeking to exceed the expectation of a good neighbor this year!

Life is always changing

Well a lot has happened since my last blog. First of all we have a new daughter (since our son got married), and we are so blessed to have Heidi in our family. Heidi is going to be such a great asset to our family and to our church. We love her and thank God that he sent her for our son. After all that our mom and dad came down from Wisconsin to help do some work around here before winter sets in. I had been praying for the last two years about a mantel and fireplace, but we just could not afford one because the whole unit costs quite a bit of money, but about a month ago a guy that worked with my husband had one he wanted to sell for a $150.00. what a blessing!, but it even gets better than that because it turns out all he wants is a gas heater to hang on the wall in place of the mantel. Well last year we had someone give us a gas heater, so when I told him I had a heater he just said "let's just swap then" wow it opens your eyes to see that God really does care about all of our desires even if they are not always spiritual. In all of this, the wedding and parents coming in, my husband started a new job and it has been a big change for the whole family, So please be praying for us. Well I will be posting pics of the wedding really soon but here is one of the new fireplace. God Bless