The Ministry of "Yes"

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up the habit of meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another- and all the more as you see the Day approaching." - Hebrews 10:24-25

The Lord has used these verses the past few months, and the past weeks especially, to teach me a huge lesson... one that calls me to a counter-cultural lifestyle.

Admittedly, there are more than a few times I feel the pressure to "have it all together", or at least to put on a convincing show of such. You know what I'm talking about.... those Sunday mornings when you're rushing to church, frustrated because one child can't find his or her shoes, the other is an emotional wreck because her favorite dress has to be washed (she's worn it the past 5 days after all), and something in the kitchen smells putrid... but you can't find it, then you walk into the building and a smiling face greets you "Hello! How are you doing today? How was your week?" Moment of truth....  "We're great! It's been an awesome week!" and you quickly walk away and try to remove the hangar prying your lips into a smile :/

I'm quite confident there's a ruckus of "amen"s going on out there. We all feel this at times. This isn't the post to deal with living transparently vs wisely sharing life details, but instead an encouragement for what to do next. Jarrod and I talk often of what opportunities we have to serve others in the up-coming days; it's been ingrained to us that as believers, this is what we do. And that's totally true. Even before accepting the call to come out west as pastor for GHBC, our family was called to serve others. There are a plethora of examples of Jesus charging the apostles to serve (ie: John 13:14-17) and of the apostles urging all believers to do the same (1 John, Galatians 2).

God has been teaching me that a great ministry, one that I have often overlooked, is the one of saying "yes" to others serving our family. So often I want to be the one serving and growing in my faith through those opportunities, I forget that in order for others to experience the same blessing, I have to say "yes".  When juggling groceries, a diaper bag & three kiddos then the neighbor asks if he can carry something for me.... I should say yes. When a friend at church asks if they can hold a cranky baby or help your preschoolers get to their class..... I should say yes. When my husband asks if he can help with getting dinner to the table.... I should say yes.

I don't have to have it all together. Praise Jesus, He is enough to carry me and my mess. He graciously gives us the body to build one another up. When I think of reasons why I most often say no to offers of help, it's because I don't want to seem weak. (Lame, I know!). I am weak. More than weak. Without Jesus I am dead. In Him, I have new life... a life He says is for doing together with other believers. In our world where self-sufficiency is king, others will look at us differently as we lovingly depend on each other.

Self-directed sermon over. Thank you all for being used by the Lord to teach me this!

One Week In

The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing - Zephaniah 3:17

Hooray! We made it through our first week. To say our days have been full is an extreme understatement. The Lord was kind and brought our stuff here safely and we had many, many kind hands from the church to help unload. Downsizing from the Florida house to an apartment here meant every room was piled waaayyy high with boxes. Jarrod and I looked anxiously at each other wondering how it would all fit. 5 days of unpacking later, we have a living room! Most things are finding their places and the stress levels are greatly decreasing.

It hasn't all been work.... We took some time to satisfy E1's desire to see snow! Mt Rose is just a short drive away. The verdict was split among the kiddos... E1 thought it was great and literally dove right in, E2 seemed pretty convinced the snow would eat her. E3 slept through it all, so the tie-breaker will be decided next time :) We are excited to go on more adventures as a family.

 This is moments before E2 sunk hip-deep into the snow.... she didn't like it so much after that!

The girls kept shouting "look momma! There's snow everywhere!"

We were blessed to participate in the Lord's Supper with GHBC this past Sunday. Jarrod's big fear was dropping the lid and clanging the plates..... He made it through! We have been warmly welcomed and "pounded" (people bring a pound of something to help stock our pantry) by the people here. We've heard countless stories of God moving mightily in the lives of believers here- redeeming them out of some tough stuff. We can't wait to be used by Him to draw others to Himself, and for Him to make us more like Jesus.


Thank you for faithfully carrying us in prayer. Here are some new requests:
- Jarrod will be leading the youth on Wednesday  nights, pray for wisdom and compassion as he engages these young adults from a variety of backgrounds
- For E1&2 to make friends. They'll be in awana Wednesday nights, pray they enjoy it.
- For E3, he seems to hate sleep. We were trying to remedy some health issues before we left FL, pray for wisdom in dealing with those here.
- Pray for the marriages at GHBC, for their protection and growth as we all learn how to mirror the relationship between Christ and the church.
- Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue moving through Reno. This beautiful city is far from the Lord and most people we've encountered outside of church clam up as soon as "church" is mentioned. We know that our God is mighty to save, and that He is pursuing the hearts of those far from Him (Zephaniah 3:17, Romans 5:8)

Thank you all and we love you!!

The view from Mt. Rose overlooking our city.
Join us in praying for God to be glorified here.

Humbled, and many thank-yous

Immensely grateful, humbled, encouraged........

Just a few words to describe the events of the past week. Since we last wrote, the outpouring of love and encouragement has amazed us. How kind of the Lord to provide us with such affirmation above and beyond what we asked! Thank you for your kind words. 

Some events.....
Jarrod had his ordination council on February 24th. The room was filled with men and women of ugliest ties, I mean, there's not even a competition. Pics to come when we get unpacked and can find them again :)

great faith: former and current pastors, friends, family. Thank you to all who were able to make it and to those who prayed for him. On a white board near the end of the table were some very daunting questions. I asked Jarrod later if he was worried about any of them; he confessed to not recognizing at least two names! Luckily, those never made it to the discussion table :)  Many words of encouragement and charges were given to Jarrod and we were blessed by a great time of prayer for our family. As a token, the Chets staff wanted to make sure Jarrod was entirely prepared for ministry... equiped with the world's

After the council, we had the blessing of being presented and commissioned by Chet's Creek Church. How humbling! We thoroughly enjoyed getting to celebrate this time with our church family and long time friends who were able to come join. Perhaps the best moment of that day was going to Jarrod's parent's lifegroup. They asked us to come share our story and then prayed for us. I felt like the cowardly lion from "The Wizard of Oz" who finally found his courage! All the fears that circle through my mind regarding life out west were trumped by a sincere and calming peace that this road is exactly where we need to go, I was reassured that He is faithful to carry us. Prayer partners, knowing you are supporting us gives us great joy and courage!

E1 was able to (early) celebrate her 4th birthday! She had a wonderful time bouncing with friends and eating cake. Please continue to pray for her heart; daily she tells us she doesn't want to leave her friends here. We are thankful children are resilient and are trusting the Lord to provide a special friends for her once we arrive in Reno, but it is still so hard to see her brokenhearted. She is such a joy to us and we see a love to people growing in her.



We allowed ourselves to celebrate Sunday, then it was a race to the finish as we packed up everything left in our home and prepared to send it ahead of us. Our last big items sold, praise the Lord!, and the trailer arrived. After 6.5 years and 5 moves, we might finally have this packing thing down. Multitudes of muscle turned out to help Jarrod load the truck (THANK YOU!) and it's now well on it's way to our new home.

Now we are trying to fit in as many meals and times with friends and family as we can before we go. Please lift up these conversations, that they would be encouraging and leaving nothing left unsaid. Continue to pray for our families, that the Lord would give them joy in sending us to do His work in place of the sadness of change and felt loss.

I'll leave you with these verses that have greatly impacted me this week.... Colossians 3:15-17
 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do,whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.