Life here in my home town!

What a year it has been, wow what a few years it has been. God has done such amazing things in our lives and I am so thankful for that. Now I will be honest the road here has not been easy and it certainly is not about to start to ease up now! After all we are living Christian lives and there is no doubt that Satan will try to fight our every move. As many of you know Dathan decided to attend seminary over the past couple of years as he felt God calling him into ministry. I could not argue because his love for Christ and sharing him and his ability to interpret, teach and preach is so strong there was no doubt that this was God's plan. We have seen God work through the blessings of Isaiah 41:10 all the way. We have felt love of friends and family and had no doubt that we were being prayed for.

Dathan was called to be the Interim Pastor at Howell's Baptist in Concord in 2010 and then we were placed with a decision to make when he was called to Pastor First Baptist Church here. After much prayer and seeking of God's will for our lives we moved from Concord in April back to my hometown and it has been a interesting but blessing filled adjustment. I am so thankful to God for placing everything in our lives in order that we could see Him simply by praying and seeking His will for our lives. We left many friends who we have grown to love so much over the years, left the ministries that we were part of, uprooted the kids from all that they had ever known and stepped out on faith. We are now living here and it is wonderful to know that God will continue to lead our path. The kids have adjusted very well and Kaylee even had a friend from Concord come and stay, we ended up with a stomach virus while she was here but it was still a great visit. Kaylee also was able to go to camp last week with her friends from Pitts Baptist! What a blessing that was for her. Dathan is now the Pastor of First Baptist Church here in town and his daily prayer is not to get in the way of God's work but for God to work through him to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ! I have the same prayer. It is not easy being a Wife, Mommy of 3 beautiful but very energetic children, daughter, sister, friend, Pastor's wife, and full time Rehabilitation Counselor. I am sure there are more hats but I do not label them to brag, I label them to remind myself that not one of them can be listed as important if I will not choose to honor God through them all and not one of them will be God honoring without diligent prayer.

We are doing a Book Study on A Woman After God's own Heart at church right now and it is such a blessing each week to see how the words of the book come to life in each ladies own reality as we study together. We have all realized the importance of prayer in all that we do and how it will help God to guide us as Christians and wives so far. We have only made it through 6 chapters. The sweet ladies overruled me and canceled this week because I have been quite sick. They decided I needed to rest! That was such a blessing to feel the unselfish care of those ladies and be thought of and respected that much. It is is humbling. Things are going great at church right now, we are seeing people really desire God and desire to share Him with those around them; what more could we ask for. We are gearing up for a family fun day and VBS this month as well as a patriotic service and picnic this week. I pray that these events will be used to reach not only some of the children that may come but also the adults and increase their knowledge of God's will for their lives and the amazing Grace that he offers through Jesus Christ. God is such an awesome God and I just love seeing people realize that and come to His saving Grace! It fills me up inside with joy. Grace is the most amazing word to me. I need it everyday as I try to stumble through this life.

Work is getting better. It was quite an adjustment when I first got here. I just kept thanking God for providing me with a job to help support our family and prayed that He would show me how He needed to use me through my daily work hours. He is doing just that and things are settling well. Good days and frustrating days but in the end I always try to look for God to reveal to me how I can learn from the day I just spent at work. I have not spent to many days at work this week being sick so next week will be interesting. Another prayer for me!!!!

My mom is helping me with the kids and some things around the house, talk about a blessing. I have not had her close by since high school and I am so thankful to have this chance to be close to her and Daddy. Today we teamed up to put up 200 ears of corn. she shucked all day and I cut the corn off the cobb all evening. Hard work but so glad to have it! She has been such a big help to me since moving back here and I pray that they are getting as much out of the time with me and the grand kids as we are with her and daddy.

I have had a lot of heavy things on my heart lately so I do ask that if you pray that you will include my unspoken request! There are some people in my life that need to reach out to the hand of God so badly but they just can not seem to do it. So much could change in their lives but I will continue to diligently pray and seek God's wisdom on how to minister to them. There are also so many people with heavy hearts that I know, surgeries, loss of parents, sick loved ones. I pray that each and every one of those people will realize His blessings through the storms and trials in their lives! I pray that they will be still and know that He is there.

On a lighter note I have been reading updates on some friends from Concord who have a young boy from Ukraine, I think it is, staying with them as they are a host home for him for the month of July. He does not speak any English but they are seeing so much how we can communicate with anyone if we ask God to help us! I pray that they will receive as much through this time with him as he is receiving by being here. I also pray that if they continue to consider adopting him that God will work it out as His will would have it. What a wonderful ministry they are providing to this young boy who has never known of the luxuries that we take for granted. How wonderful that we are all being ministered to as they share comments, video clips and pictures of this journey! Thank you God for working in all of their lives and in ours through them.

Well it is late. As I said to you all in my first blog on here I do not expect anyone to read this but simply want a place to put my thoughts and the ups and downs of this life that God is allowing me to lead! Please do not feel obligated to read but if you do I ask that you pray with me. I also ask that you contact me if you are in need of any specific prayer and I find this to be such an important ministry! My friend you have read my whole post for some reason, now let me pray for you!