more church visit, a lake and a birthday!

So much has happened since I last wrote to you. I will start with our visit to the Presbyterian FI church. Did you know that they don't use grape juice for Communion?!? ok I know, go ahead, laugh at me but that was an experience for me! I'll take grape juice from now on, thank you very much! :) Either way, praise Jesus for what he did for us! We owe our lives to Him. Jesus, I love you! I was thankful also not to hear another sermon on Romans, lol, nothing against Romans but that was starting to get a little, ummmm, shall we say thought provoking? now, I don't consider myself superstituos or anything (I believe in a WAY bigger GOD!) but if I heard a 4th sermon in a row on a passage from Romans I was about to go home and disect the chapter and try to figure out what God was trying to tell me! :) fast forward to this weekend, it has been a BUSY one but a funfilled one! Kirsten turned 11 on Saturday, wow, my baby girl is 11 already, that just doesn't seem possible, where, oh, where does the time go?? We took the kiddos to a pumkin patch, ok, I confess, that was for me! Don't get me wrong, they enjoy picking out the pumkins but I'm the one that wants the pics in a sea of orange! :) They get to pick them out but once we are home, I confiscate them all for decoration! :) Kirsten chose Red Lobster for her bday dinner and I surprised her by asking her bff to join us! :) Then Glenn took the girls for a shake and Kirsten got to spend her bday $ on art stuffs at Hobby Lobby while me, the boys and my bff came home to watch the Rangers lose! So glad they won the last two nights though! GO RANGERS! :) Then Sunday we went out to Church at the Lake with my sister's church in Texarkana. That was such a restful day, Roseanne and I with Kirsten, Cayden and Keegan took a walk along the lake. Kirsten collected shells and bird feathers, we saw a lake urchin, sank in the wet sand (once I stepped and sank at least 6 inches! that was a weird feeling), saved a little fish that was out of water, and enjoyed taking our shoes off and walking in the water! :) Then I got baptized in the lake, that was a first for me. I have been baptized before but not in a lake. Kirsten got baptized too. Then we finished the weekend off with a trip to the zoo yesterday. Honey took a vacation day and we just enjoyed a family outing. I love times when we can just relax and enjoy being a family.

thoughts on last week's sermon

Hello all, it has been 2 weeks since I posted, oops. We did visit another family-integrated church last week, one right here in Longview. The message was based on Romans 1, what is it with Romans? we have now heard threee messages in a row at three different churches on Romans! Romans 13, Romans 11 and the end of Romans 1. What struck me about the sermon we heard Sunday was the pastor spoke about the mentioned sins(covetousness for one) and how these things are not to be present in the lives of believers. The closest I've heard to a hellfire and brimstone message in a very long time! Some times I think the church needs more of those! Now I'm not saying we need them every Sunday but i am saying even Christians need to hear that there is a Biblical standard that we are supposed to live by. We have God-given mandates and expectations that we are supposed to uphold and strive to live by (perfecting holiness!) I thought about all this when the pastor said at the end of his message that he wanted to make it known that he didn't see any of these things he preached on as problems in their church and I had the thought that maybe those things aren't issues in the church because he has the courage to take a stand from the pulpit against them! If more Christians knew where their pastors stood on the hard/difficult subjects and knew that they would be held accountable for them, then maybe more Christians would feel the need for change and for living more Godly lifestyles. This leads my mind to thinking about other areas as well, our men, our husbanda, what if they were encouraged to be the spritual leaders of their homes by their pastor and friends and wives. What if they saw respect in the eyes of their wives and children? What if wives were taught the Biblical mandates for submission and in turn taught their children to respect daddy? What if men really loved and cherished their wives as Christ does the church? What if we really grabbed ahold of these concepts and ran with them to truly have GOD as the center and foundation of our families?! What if our children understood that obedince was expected and disrespect would NOT be tolerated? These are just some things to get your brain moving, some of the things I am thinking about. We are heaed this morning to visit another family-integrated church and will try to post an update before next Sunday! Today's church is a presbyterian church. :) I have never been to one before. We are driving all the way to Nacogdoches (an hour and a half) today. Almost there so I will tell you more later! :)

the next FI church

This weekend we found ourselves in FW and decided to visit another FI church in Desoto this morning, Covenant Community Church. We wanted to visit a smaller church than last weekend. This one meets in an office building that houses a bank too. When we pulled up, Kirsten said, "I didn't know a church could be in a bank!" The kids were so excited to have their Aunt Roseanne join us too, as was I! :) We walked in with our zoo and immediately felt welcome. The first thing I noticed was that they had an area baby gated for the mamas and young ones. Then we turned the corner to find a seat and we were greeted with a roomful of couches! Very homey, I loved the atmosphere right away! One of the couples moved off a couch so we had one to sit on. I must aside here: I learned something about one need that a church should always meet, The scriptures says not to forsake the assembling of the saints and I always thought that we went to church for learning first and then for fellowship but today I wonder if I had that backwards. I must confess that I was feeling pretty broken this morning when we arrived and I didn't hear much of the sermon but enjoyed so immensely the fellowship that I left there glad I went and full of the feeling that God was with us and did indeed still care about us, I left there with renewed hope. That is how we should leave church, changed! I love that service included old and new testament readings. I loved how the pastor gathered the children around him to discuss catechism with them and pray with them before the sermon. After the sermon we all ate frito pies and just visited with one another, I think we were spoke to by every person there, I have never visited a church and been able to say that. Our children felt so at home and Kirsten even exchanged email addys with the pastor's daughter! :) Kirsten was begging to go back next Sunday! That would be an awfully long drive though. :) I love love love the idea of having lunch every sunday, I love walking into a place where we do not feel out of place because the size of our family. Cayden got in front of one of the moms when we first arrived and of course our first reaction was "I'm so sorry" and she responds "you don't need to ever apologize for children here", it was so refreshing to hear. I even gained a Facebook friend today! :) I also love that homeschooling in FI churches seems to be the norm. I loved how at this church everyone truly seemed like family, they were all laid back and accepting, really just made us feel so welcome. I do not know what next Sunday will bring but I know that we were blessed to be in His presence today with His children and truly enjoyed this Lord's day.

Our first visit to a family integrated church

Upon arriving at Grace Family Baptist Church (held in a seventh day adventist gym) the first thing we noticed were several vans, many of which were large 15 passengers! YES, we are in a cool place! A place that will accept our large family and even be genuinely excited to see it/us! How, refreshing! We walk into the building and you can already smell lunch. We sign in as visitors, send children to the restroom, receive bulletins, gather hymnbooks and find seats. As we sit waiting for the service to begin, we read through our bulletins and find a few interesting things that I will share here. There is an order to their worship involving hymns, prayers, scripture (which you stand for) and catechism (baptist version! who knew their was such a thing?) readings. Also they have a hymn of the month, a prayer gram and catechisms that they encourage families to use in their homes during the week. a few quotes: "At GFBC, families stay together." "Children are Welcome" "Don't bother looking for the nursery; we don't have one." "Cooing babies don't bother us one bit." my fav = "If your children are practicing their sin nature, you are welcome to remove them from the room and practice discipline in the back." Then starts the service, a few things I noticed while standing in the back with my Kayson during the very timely, well-spoken message were: several strollers in the aisles next to the parents, I saw three *rods* of correction (I am sure there were more but those are the ones I saw), several women with babies in carriers and one young girl (about 8 or 9) with a baby in one, women (covered) breastfeeding right there *gasp* (that was sarcastic by the way, I think this is an excellent thing!) in front of God and everybody not hidden away like it was something to be ashamed of and how willingly the young girls helped with the siblings and the serving of the lunch. It was all so very refreshing. After the service there was a dinner and then a q&a time where the men could ask questions they had about the sermon.

children's church musings

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I have written! A lot has happened (most of which can't be disclosed here in a public setting), maybe someday I will be be able to more openly share about and be able to show someone else in a similar situation encouragement and hope but for now the wounds are still too fresh, however I know the Lord will see my family through this and the things He is teaching us now may change our lives forever! We value your prayers as we seek our Heavenly Father's guidance as He shows us His truths! We are learning about what it means to be a family-integrated church and how God sees children. The modern idea of Children's church has bothered me for sometime bc how are children supposed to know what a church service is if they are never in one? you know when I was a child, I attended sunday school and usually children's church on sunday mornings but on sunday nights, wednesday nights and any revivals in between, I was in service, sitting right next to my parents on the bench or when I was little at their feet! :) When I aged out of children's church there was no youth group with seperate services, I was in "big" church. How funny that we have this idea that there is a "big" church and a "little" church. So we have been introduced to this idea of a family-integrated church where there are no age seperations in their services and families worship together. We have been listening to some sermons by pastors of these types of churches and found one in the Houston area, which brings us to this weekend's adventure! As I type I am sitting here in a Houston hotel room, watching Free Willy 2, waiting for little ones to fall asleep. We are excited to be visiting a family integrated church in the morning! I expect to tell you all about it tomorrow on our way home. There is so much more we have been learning and I am still digesting a lot of it so I hope in the weeks to come to share more with all of you.

to my precious Kayson

Oh my precious beautiful baby boy, you are so amazing and so special to me! you bring so much sunshine into my days. I hope your teethies come in soon and don't hurt you anymore. When are you going to start walking? I think soon because you are standing more everyday. Oh, my, you look so much like your daddy! that red hair of yours and my you can have a temper! I don't think I have ever seen a baby get so mad so young! :) I love you so much, the other day I thought you might have said "eat" and you do say mama and dada and I'm not sure that you haven't called Kirsten mama on occassion. lol you are so smart and I love to see you trying to think things through. and you love your daddy so much! you want him whenever you see him. I fin it so hard to believe in less than two months you will be a year old, wow, this year has flown! I really need to start thinking about your first birthday party, I wonder what you would enjoy? We are very blessed to have you in our family and I thank God for you. I am so excited to watch you grow and to see all that God has planned in your life. We all love you so much! I pray you grow up knowing that our love for you is so strong and that you grow up knowing that God wants you and that you love Jesus ans accept Him as your saviour and your Lord. I pray that you follow God's word wholly and completely.

My Keegan!

My precious Keeegan, how I miss thee! I hope you are getting better under Marmie's care, there is a piece of me missing without you here with us. I didn't get to go to church tonight bc Cayden is sleeping so I thought I would write to you. You have so much passion and I just love your smile. I hope I don't start crying while I type. I love your hair! I know some people want me to cut it, but I love it! especially how it curls when it gets wet. so cute! Sometimes I wish I could see in your brain, what you're thinking! like why do you call Kirsten "Dorothy"? You can say Kirsten and you used to call her Mimi! the only place I can think of that you have heard that name is wiggles but I can't figure out why you would associate your sister with a green dinosaur! ha! I was so scared when we couldn't get your temp to stay down and had to take you to the ER. I am so glad we didn't wait! when I think about what could've happened, it just scares me to pieces! We chose you're name for you bc it means fiery, passionate and you are! I know you love Kayson but he ix very sensitive and just doesn't ike to be yelled at right in his face, I know you are just playing but it scares him! I was just thinking if you were here at camp with us, we would have probably already had you at the nurses station for rolling down the hill on the way to our cabin! You would've needed your monkey on just to walk from the cabin and back! I pray protection over you and that you would learn some caution (without any serious side effects!). It really scared me to hear how you jumped in the pool without a floaty on! I am so glad Chris was there to save you and that he moved quickly! I pray next time you wait for a floaty and for mama or daddy! We first heard your name in the movie No More Baths and loved it. Your middle name is after your Uncle Kelly. Sean, just spelled different than his but y'all both have the same initials. I think that is neat! I love you baby boy! love your mama!