VBS 2011

So many of our friends have recently asked about our story being in LifeWay's VBS material this summer. I am sorry I did not do a better job about letting everyone know! :)

The North American Mission Board sent a team to Houston in 2009 to follow us around for 5 days and capture a bit of our story and ministry. They made a video about our story and the church that can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpYHTXVXYCI

For VBS, they used the same content but dubbed over using a kid's voice. For some reason I can't find that video on YouTube. (and we all know YouTube is all-knowing!)

For the record, Landon is doing well. We just had his yearly check-up in April and he was released for another year of being a normal kiddo! We are so thankful for this.

Edited: here is the link to the actual VBS video:

http://mediasuite.316networks.com/player.php?v=v76s5m98

Meatless Mondays

In order to help out a family in our area, Ben (husband/pastor) challenged our church to give up one dinner a few weeks ago, and eat only rice for that meal. It was a two-fold challenge: to eat a meal that much of the rest of the world considers normal, as well as to save money to donate to this family.
Now for those of you who know me, I enjoy cooking. A lot. (yes, I'm weird) And I love to eat even more. So just making and eating rice? Hmmm..
But this night was amazing. Really, truly humbling. As my husband said on his blog, we ate pretty early and were both starving (well, not really) less than an hour later. And, we both had two bowls of rice. Many people in this world only get one, if that.
So we decided as a family to designate Mondays as "Meatless Mondays." I will cook a simple meal, without meat of course, for our family when possible on Mondays. We would really like to be able to give more to the poor, both in our city and around the world, and this is one small way we can do this. God has a tremendous heart for the poor, and we are praying to have the same.
Here are some of the benefits that we have thought can come about by giving up meat only once a week:
* The main reason, which is to save money to give away
* To be able to identify with others who eat very simply
* To teach our children that Americans live in excess, and we can do with less
* To be a little healthier: giving up meat once a week can only be good for us
* To have more time with my family that evening, with much less cooking preparation and clean up time.

I would love to hear of more ideas of how you are giving back this holiday season.

Preview Sunday

Wow! It is amazing to see God work around us, and Him letting us join him!
Yesterday was our "Preview Service"... leading up to our "Launch Service" on October 5th. It was a great day and I'm so excited my parents and father-in-law got to come.
I should have some pictures soon. My friend Yessica was so sweet and took tons of shots of the whole service for us.
So, if you live in the Houston area, join us next week as we offically kick off our brand-new church in the Medical Center. We'd love to have you join us in our quest for Relevant Truth, Authentic Relationships, and Compassionate Service.

PS The preaching is great, even if I'm a little biased! ;)

Our First Sunday as a new church!

Today was a very exciting day for the Church in the Center. We had our very first worship service in our new meeting space! It was a great time of bonding together as a core group and renewing our vision for our church to be a ministry to the Texas Medical Center.
It was absolutely the most incredible/strangest feeling walking out of church and immediately seeing Texas Children's Hospital about one block away, which of course is where this whole journey began for us. We are finally here!
Ben and I went on a date tonight (thanks to Andrew and Fabia!) and we were just saying we couldn't believe that we actually were beginning what began as just a thought almost two years ago exactly.
We thank God for this incredible culmination of two years of prayer, hard work, excitement, nervousness, moving, faith, doubt, and most of all, his hand of mercy upon us!

God's ways, not ours

So I have finally decided to join the world of bloggers. Hey, I was an English teacher for a while, so why not write? I also figured now is the time to start... new city, new church, new life, new blog.
So far I am loving Houston. Not loving that I miss my family terribly, but I know that we should be here. Period. God is opening some amazing doors for our church and I can't wait to see what he has in store for us.
Before the move, I started the study "Experiencing God." It is an excellent study, and today I read something I wanted to share. Henry Blackaby states, "Human reasoning will not give you God's perspective." So simple, yet I forget it so easily.

• EVERYTHING in the medical center is SO expensive... but God knows that
• There are so many people to reach, so few of us... but God knows that
• I, personally, am scared to death... but God knows that

In His infinite mercy and grace, God has chosen us to be here at this time. It may not make sense humanly speaking (2 country folks in Houston!), but God's perspective is so different than mine. It is my prayer that my persepective becomes more like his.