We just returned home from being with some wonderful, wonderful people whom we love very much!! Tricia turned 30 in March and I am turning 30 in June. This afternoon, about 50-75 family and friends SURPRISED Tricia and I with a SURPRISE combined 30th B-Day party. They rented a pavilion at Watkins Park and had a beautiful spread of food. We were so surprised at some of the people present (from 5 states). We felt extremely honored and loved today. It is remarkable how good the Lord has been to us. I wish I could bottle the feeling of support that we felt today....there will be some times in the next several years where we will want to open it up and take some. ;-)
Thankful for this day,
Noah and Tricia
PS- Special shout out to my family (parents and siblings) who made this happen. You all are dear to us.
Back in October I found these amazingly talented sibling singers, Daves Highway. I found this song on you tube and loved it just as much. If you go to their website you can buy their CD or buy their music on itunes.
Noah wrote this post yesterday and I wanted to share it on my blog. Here are some of the things we will be doing in South Africa.
We don't know. Well, we know some things, but our honest sense is that in many ways the Lord is calling us into the unknown. We have a strong sense that we don't know the half of the reason why the Lord has called us out of CCF and into South Africa. Time will tell.
That said, I thought I would share a little more of what we do know at this point:
We will be officially moving to Cape Town on or about January 15, 2011.
Then, we will take a few weeks to get settled, scope the area, get Davis into school, adjust to culture some, etc.
The first weekend in February, we will begin a six-month Church Planting Training with All Nations called CPx. CPx is an intense church planting training experience where will be trained in how to plant church-planting movements as simple, missional communities. You can click here to read all about it.
By July, 2011 (after CPx) we expect to secure a modest place to live as a family there in Cape Town. At this point, we expect to remain in Cape Town at least one year following the conclusion of CPx. During that year we will serve within All Nations and participate in church-planting and caring for the poor, neglected and unreached people of Cape Town.
During the entire stay we plan to serve, learn, dream, write, communicate, contextualize, and envision ways to carry effective church planting to other places around the world....very possible to this area from which we are being launched.
We plan to be personally mentored by Floyd and Sally McClung, founder of All Nations. We were honored to have him at our Dining Room Table on January 31, 2010. We hope to be at theirs one year later. ;-)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please notice the word "we" appearing throughout this post. That is because this next season of our life is one that we are launching into together. Tricia and I will both be participating in this endeavor as a couple. And Davis will be involved as much as a 4 year old can. This is a call on our family, not just me.
These are some of the things we will be doing that we (think we) know. There are many other aspects that the Lord is preparing and we will take hold of them as we walk in faith....
I love my small group!!! They have been such a blessing to our family and I look forward to every Monday to see them. We get together every week to fellowship, dig into the Word, and pray for different needs. I love having a group that I can be myself with and also get ministered too. This week we had a cook-out but it rained, so we had a cook-in!! We had great fellowship and great food!!!!
Chowing down on some yummy food!
Davis gets excited every Monday to play with his friends!
I have a very special relationship with my mother in-law. I not only think of her as my mother in-law but as a friend too. She had a hard time when we told her we were moving to South Africa. It took her awhile to be ok with the God decision. God gave her insight the night before we made the announcement to our church. She was a guest blogger on Noah's blog today, so I wanted to share on mine too.
As many of you know I am very close with my son, Noah and as a mother, I had been feeling a sense of uneasiness after Noah returned from his sabbatical. I kept sensing that God was doing a new work in his heart, and I was sure that I would know more as time went on.
One afternoon in March, I received a call from Noah inviting us to come over. He wanted to share what God was doing recently in their lives. In my heart I thought it might have something to do with a change regarding his role at CCF, but I had no idea what was about to be revealed. (The details of the calling have since been revealed, so I will skip that story.)
When I heard the words “South Africa” I couldn't believe my ears. This was a devastating announcement to me and I wasn't supportive or excited about this great revelation that Noah and Tricia were so thrilled about. I had a million questions and frankly, Noah had none of the answers. One thing we have learned is that God doesn't always give us the details when he asks us to follow Him. But I am Mom, and I wanted to know about the well-being and future of my Son and his family.
As the time was approaching for the announcement to be made to the church, I continued to seek the Lord for resolution regarding the call and move. As God often operates, I got no clear direction until the early morning hours of May 2nd-- the day of the announcement.
Early that morning, the Lord woke me up and this is what I received:
When you raise a child to go after God never be surprised what He will do. In 1998 I gave Noah back to God as he left for bible college knowing that he would probably never return. But God surprised me by allowing him to return and pastor my church. How amazing was that? So we served and were family together for six years. And then came this call. I didn't believe that the same God who brought my son home would now be sending him to South Africa. So the tears, anger and questioning began. But, that morning, I finally got it...
When you give something to God, you give it forever-- not to have any say so or control over what God chooses to do. He gave Noah back to me for a season and now I must release him with the same bittersweet joy that I felt in 1998 as we drove off the campus of Valley Forge Christian College, believing that God had an incredible ride ahead for our boy. Our hearts are now intertwined with two more people, Tricia and Davis, so releasing comes with new pain. But, praise God for what he is doing and his amazing and very personal plan for each of our lives.
As Loving Mother,
Pam Kaye
PS- If you know Joe, you know that this is a tad easier for him. He will miss them lots, but he was thrilled from the first day he heard the news.
I have been pondering on these Scripture for the past few weeks...
Luke 9:23 -27 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."
I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!!! My day was very special. I LOVE being a mom!!!! I woke up to sweet kisses from my baby boy and flowers from my hubby. With help from his aunt Bird, Davis made me breakfast. I then heard an awesome message at church that blessed me so very much.
Every year Noah's whole family gets together for a Mother's day Meal. Last year we meet at a park and had a blast, so this year we returned to the same park. Here are some pictures of the day....
I love my sweet little boy!!!
Davis and his Aunt Bird!!!
The boys riding their bikes!!! We are bad parents :( We left Day's helmet at home!
Liza and Aunt Bird watching the Whiffle Ball game!
Brayan is up to bat!!!
James' turn!!!
Go Davis!!!
Gabe showing the boys how it is done!!!
Just kidding Aunt Bird is the real deal!!!!
What a perfect day to celebrate Mother's Day!!! I am so thankful for both the moms in my life!!!
...you sing “Dora Dora Dora the Explorer” in the shower.
...play dates have taken over your life!
...you lick your finger to wipe the face of a child AND suddenly stop when you realize that child ISN’T YOURS!
…a night on the town means taking the kids out past 6 pm.
…you give up your cool car for a minivan, and within a few weeks, you really start to like the van, and use phrases like “It’s just so convenient.” And you really mean it.
…you ask where “the potty” is.
…sleeping in means… sleeping IN the middle of three little bodies!!!
...when you walk into another room in your house to get something and by the time you get there you forget what you were going to get.
...you can’t wait to hug your own kids after you see something troubling on the news.
...You can recite Goodnight Moon and Green Eggs and Ham by heart.
Noah wrote this blog post today and instead of writing it in my own words I am just sharing what he wrote on his post....
I said that we would take some time to share some of the powerful ways that God has been at work in our family over the last few months. I love to be open in my communication. I'm not a very private person.As you can imagine, this last few months has been challenging--to hold all this stuff in until the appropriate time to share it.
Well, check this out:
Tricia and I knew that the Lord was calling us on in mid-February. We quickly realized that we needed to move out of our house as soon as possible. Here's why:
Save money for where God is taking us.
Practice quick and courageous obedience. It kinda felt like a symbol of commitment to the Lord-- saying "YES, we will go!"
We thought maybe it was best not to go from 2,700 square feet to who-knows-what in South Africa. Trying to avoid (at least some) culture shock.
We did not need all the space in our house. God has been doing a work on us in this way.
We are blessed with many local family and friends that would let us stay on their front porch. ;-0
Finally, we figured moving out of our house 8 months before actually leaving for the mission field would make the leaving easier. We will have already grieved some of our loss.
So, we put our house up for rent, got some outstanding tenants, and moved out of our house in 8 days!! We did not intend to do it that fast, but the tenants we got were being relocated by the government and needed occupancy April 1. So, yes...we have been out of our house since March 30th. We sold over half of our earthly possessions and stored the rest. We are living in a bedroom at my sister's home and we are as happy as we could be! Davis even has a cool under-the-stairs play area (like a fort)! God has really blessed every step of this process with favor and peace.
Bishop Glenn spoke this past Sunday and he really blessed my heart. He is a great speaker and he did such a great job tying our call to move on and what that means for us and CCF. I liked the sermon so much I listened to it again. This is a sermon that should be listened to because it will speak to you as well and CCF. Click here to listen (you will need to click on the 5/2 sermon). This would be a well use of 18 minutes!!!!
This morning Noah and I shared with the congregation about our call to move on to Cape Town South Africa. It was a hard week leading up to Sunday. Lots of tears were shed at the thought of saying goodbye to a community that we love so deeply.
Noah started the sharing and he announced the news and then he invited me to share my heart with the church. I wanted to share my notes with all of you.
We all know that I have a crazy husband who isn’t afraid of doing new and risking things!!! So you may be wondering what is Noah up to now and what is he doing to his poor family!! Well I have to say that this isn’t one of Noah’s new things he is trying to do.
There are some times (let me stress some times) in our 8 years of marriage that I have said “alright honey we will do it your way.” Or “ I am going to do it because I trust you as the spiritually head of our home.”
This transition was not one of them. I sensed it was coming and prayed it wouldn’t, but observing Noah after this past summer I knew God was doing a new work in him and in me.
When Noah told me he was sensing God was calling him on in January I heard it but didn’t accept it yet. I am a late bloomer!!!
I started praying harder then I have ever prayed and one month later I had this overwhelming peace that God was indeed calling us on. It was a sad moment for Noah and I but I knew without a doubt God was in control.
We didn’t even know what we were going to do next and yet I still kept the faith and had an overwhelming peace about it.
When Noah started to break the news to me about moving oversees I quickly told him that I was not moving oversees period. I told him I wasn’t called to do something like that. I was not moving to China. I said China because that is where Noah's hearts has been for sometime. Then he said we didn’t have to talk about china but how about Africa. I quickly wanted to go back to moving to China"
It was the weirdest feeling for me because after spending 5 minutes asking questions any women or mother would asked I stopped and looked up at Noah with a big smile and said “I can get excited about this!” And “this is it!”
I am a person that loves my stability.
I love my things and my things love me
I love my comfort
I love familiarity
I love my holidays to look the same every year
That said I know that I know God has called our family to Cape Town South Africa to do some very unknown things for his kingdom and I am so excited and ready to be used by him in these new ways.
I have been coming back to this verse for a while now and I want to share it with you. Luke 9: 23: Then He said to them all:"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."
This isn’t going to be an easy transition for me or for us as a family. I plead with you all to please pray for me as a wife and mother that is moving on to the unknown. Pray for Davis that this will be an easy transition and pray for Noah who desires so much to hear the Lord and obey him and lead us well.
Here is What Noah wrote to post on both our blogs. I will share more of my heart on a later date.
Tricia and I have been waiting for this day for several months...the day when we could freely share with you some huge things that God is doing in our lives! God has been up to some major things in our family throughout the last year. For quite some time now, we have sensed the Lord calling us into the next season of our life and ministry. This morning, the news was shared with our church.
In January 2011, our family will be relocating to Cape Town, South Africa! Yes, you read that right. Eastern Mennonite Missions (our church's mission sending organization) has invited us to be sent to link into a growing church-planting network called All Nations. You may remember Floyd McClung who spoke at CCF on January 31, 2010 (a snowy Sunday). Floyd and his wife Sally lead All Nations. All Nations is a family of communities, working together across the globe, partnering with the Holy Spirit to plant churches in homes, businesses or anywhere Jesus is not worshipped. All Nations desires to not only plant churches, but to initiate church-planting movements (video below). You can check out their website HERE.
The goal of this sending is that we will serve as a collaborative bridge between All Nations and Eastern Mennonite Missions—learning from one another about effective ways of transforming people for Christ. We will participate, learn, and communicate back to our network (Eastern Mennonite Missions, Lancaster Conference, Baltimore/Washington District, and CCF) about new ways of being and doing church.
Currently the plan is to spend six months in an intensive church-planting training called Church Planting Experience (CPx). Then we will reside in Cape Town for one to two years ministering to some of the poorest and most neglected an unreached of the city. Tricia is especially excited about the ways that we will be working with, rescuing, and caring for sick and abandoned children.
Serving and leading at Capital Christian Fellowship for the last six years has been an outstanding privilege and one of the greatest joys of our life. CCF will always hold a special place in our hearts. If we had it our way, we envisioned spending many years leading here. However, the Lord has a different plan for now…a call that has been revealed, strengthened, and one that we must obey.
It is one thing to talk about “living as Disciples,” it is another to do it. We hope that this transition will inspire many of you to new levels of possibility and faith. Over the last few years (more intensely in the last six months), God has strengthened and crystallized a call on our lives to rethink and imagine church in new and creative ways. Although the future is unclear, there is a strong and evident call into new territory and new vision for God’s Kingdom.
We will be both remain connected, invested and on Staff at CCF until the latter part of this year. We will be sharing lots more throughout this week. Stay tuned.
