Surprises!

We have been in Alabama with my folks for Thanksgiving. On the way we stopped in to surprise our good friend Lauren Laren dirty LB Lolo Brown Armstrong. We had been scheming with her mom to make it happen. We only wish her husband Alex was there, we missed him by one day. The Browns feel like family and I think thats fabulous. I also think surprises are so fun! Right now my husband and I are at the Whistlestop Cafe in Clanton, AL to find internet, and while we were here we used miles to buy a plane ticket for my mom to fly in for our graduation in Fort Worth in a couple weeks. She has no idea! My parents are both full time caregivers for my mom's parents right now and so their travel is very limited. I cant wait to go home and tell her because she didn't think we could make it happen. Now she gets to be there too along with Biscuits family. My dad wont get to go, but he was the hero of the day because he suggested we do it. I like surprising everyone, but there is something special about surprising my mom!

Had lunch after church today with my best friend and her boyfriend, and her mom. Its so good to see friends who live far away, we are getting to reconnect with so many people at this time in our lives. Raising funds is hard and it has its unique challenges, but what a blessing to see people we love along the way!

Keeping the slate clean

Tonight I was talking with a good friend on the phone about a passage in the Bible. Ephesians 4:26. "In your anger do not sin, and do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." I learned so much about this from my family. My parents weren't perfect and I certainly wasn't either, but one thing they got right was this principle of clearing your slate with one another before bed at night. Whenever we had arguments (usually because I wanted my way) or conflict over something, my parents took the initiative to make things right, even if I was mostly in the wrong.

Whenever a conflict arose my parents would always come into my room that night before bed and they would tell me they loved me, they would lovingly explain their reasoning behind what happened, and make things right. They would actually apologize if they had been in the wrong, although of course it was usually my teenage self that was in the wrong, and this taught me how to apologize. I learned how to be vulnerable with my family, because I had learned it was safe. So each night when I drifted off to sleep I would know that no matter what happened that day, we were ok. So now that I am an adult, I dont always have the right solution but I do know how to clear the slate between myself and another person. Its important. Other people may not receive me well all the time, or it may not go as I had expected, but at least if my heart attitude is right I can come to God and others with my slate clean.

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." Matt 5:23-24

We were at starbucks this afternoon with a good friend of davids who is a minister at a large church. We were talking about ministry models in different types of churches. After discussing books and small groups and getting people plugged into serving, he said "love God and love people. If you don't love God you can't love people; if you don't love people you don't love God."
We all know these other things are important and worthy of discussion, but at the end of the day what fuels our ministry?

Some people have been asking if I have pictures of my nephew Jax. I received this yesterday from Brittany on email, she said he is smiling a lot now. Yesterday he turned 2 months old. There are also pictures on my facebook. Its amazing how much babies grow and change each day! Every baby is a miracle!

David and I are leaving for Raleigh today in less than an hour and we'll be visiting friends up there for the weekend. Then we'll be back in Wilmington until Wednesday when we leave for Thanksgiving in Alabama. This trip to Raleigh is going to be great though, because we don't have to completely load our lives back into the car and then unload it again when we arrive. We are actually taking one bag each and thats all we'll have to bring in to the house! This fundraising stuff has brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "living out of a suitcase." Are you kidding me? Living out of "a" suitcase is my dream!

If you had told me in the spring of this year I would be in the process of moving to the west coast to join a church planting team in the silicon valley . . . and raising support to make it all happen . . . I would have asked you what comic strip you had read because it wasn't about my life. But at the same time I never really had a clear picture in my head of what our ministry would look like. Where we would be, what we would be doing, where we would be living . . . all those things were like blank pages in my head. But now we know what God is leading us to do and those blank pages have turned into blurry images that are clearer and clearer every day. What a blessing to be heading toward a ministry at a vibrant evangelical church, with people we know and love and trust like our own family. His plans are always better than my own!