...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.
Davis is learning a lot and Noah and I are loving it. He has learned 3 verses in the last 2 months and he gets so excited when we ask him to recite them.
"God is love"
"God made everything"
"Give thanks to God"
Here are some pictures of him with his Puggles class...
This past weekend my mother in-law and I went to the Beth Moore conference. What a God ordained time for me. I have been waiting for this day because I was reading her newest book, "So Long Insecurity." This book has been a saving grace for me and I was eager to hear her speak about this topic. Beth Moore spoke Live via satellite to about 869 churches to over 300,000 women. Amazing!!!!
If you didn't go to the conference you can still benefit to what is means to let go of your insecurities by reading her book. It is a must read and I promise you, your life will never be the same.
I love when the weather starts getting warmer!!! Our family is so ready to do things outdoors and so glad that we do not have to wear jackets.
There are so many signs to notice when the weather is getting nicer:
Longer days
No more heat at night
No Jackets
packed parks/playgrounds
outdoor sports
parked ice cream stands
shorts
flip flops
etc...
My favorite sign is FLIP FLOPS!!!! I love love pulling out my flip flops and making sure I have the colors that I need to go with my outfits. So happy that they are out and I have already started wearing them!!!! Yeah SUMMER!!!
Our small group is going through a Philip Yancey DVD series and reading "What's So Amazing About Grace?" by Philip Yancey. Our group is having a great time digging into then Word about grace and what that all means. Some weeks we were are watching the dvd and that has been a wonderful addition to our discussions. A few weeks ago we were watching a segment about forgiveness and a man shared four steps you need to take when forgiving someone. I wanted to share because it has really helped me change some of my thinking.
When you forgive....
1.You surrender your right to get even. You stop playing victim. 2. You give your enemies humanity back. 3. You get the freedom to wish that person well. 4. You are willing to be open for what God has for the relationship.
Is this how you are forgiving others? How freeing this must fill!
This past weekend Davis started his first soccer practice. We signed him up through Sports 4 All. Davis had a good first practice and I am looking forward to next saturday!!!
I have been trying to teach Davis how to spell his name for some time now.
I started singing the B-I-N-G-O song, but instead of the dog's name I put Davis' name in the song. This really helped teach him his name and finally last week I asked him to spell his name and it went something like this....
I have missed blogging. :( Life has been really crazy for us and I have had too much on my heart to know how or where to start. In time I will be able to get it all out on my blog but not sure how yet. My faith has grown so much during this last month and God has blessed our family in so many ways.
We had a great Easter weekend. I am so honored to have a Heavenly Father that loves me enough that He sent His son to die for me. The Sunday service was great and I loved seeing all the children dressed in there Easter outfits!!!
