A New Normal

It's hard to believe a new school year has begun. Car pools to three different schools, homework, early bedtimes, early mornings...Where did summer go?! God has blessed our children with wonderful schools and wonderful teachers. Every year we're amazed at how God has cared for Ali, Erin & Quinn in this way. He is with us in our "new normal"!
God did some amazing things on our Mexico mission trip. I'll post an update & pictures soon!

Beautiful Feet

The Global Outreach Missions Team leaves this afternoon for a week of ministry in Chapala Mexico. The Holy Spirit brought this verse to my mind, and I have been meditating on it all week. It is found in Romans 10 verse 15 ..."As it is written,'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!' "

Please pray for our safety, and that we will be bold in our witness. We have a group of 23 people that will be gone August 3 - 10. We will be ministering at the local orphanage each day. We plan to attend two worship services at the local church and work on several maintenance projects for the orphanage as well as the church.

You can find out more about the ministry we are partnering with at http://www.shmius.org/.

We will be joining another CrossRoads member already serving in Chapala, Lydia Hopkins. You can learn more about how she has been ministering this summer on her blog!

Thank you for your prayers!

Unity in the body

Pastor Steve reminded us on Sunday that all believers make up the body of Christ. We are all one body.

Ephesians 4:3 says "Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace." I continue to learn that unity does not just happen. We all have to work at it. Differences among God's people can lead to division, but this should not be true in the body of Christ.The book of Ephesians has reminded me to stop concentrating on what divides us, and remember what unites us:

Ephesians 4:4, "We are all on body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future."

Called to Pray

The Lord has been leading me to pray a passage of scripture over our people at CrossRoads . It is found in Matthew 9: 36-38.
"He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they didn't know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples,'The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields.'"
Do we have any "fields" at our church in need of workers? I see our children and teenagers as our greatest mission fields right now. Within those ministries lies a great harvest of souls. I especially look forward to what God is going to do in the lives of many children through our VBS program this month.
I am praying for more workers to accept God's job offer. Being on mission with God is not always easy, but seeing a person fall in love with Jesus is worth it all.

Tire Problems

I was driving my car this week and felt a horrible vibration in the front end. I thought the worst... Probably something in the front end of my 1992 Honda Accord went bad.
I checked the front tires and found one of them had separated. A big chunk of tire was missing. I went to a store near our house and was told that the belts had separated due to hitting something like a big pot hole at a good rate of speed. I have to ride around on one of those spare tire donuts until they get a replacement tire for me.

This reminded me of life. We were created by God for unity. Unity with Him and with one another. His love should bind us together. But the pot holes of life may cause separation if we are not careful.
So, my "tire lesson" taught me to pursue unity in Christ. Separation causes major problems if left unsolved!

Family Vacation to Edisto Island

Our family vacation to Edisto Island was awesome -relaxing and fun. It was our family's first visit to Edisto. It was very laid back and has a slower paced feel. I mean really, the only grocery store on the island is a tiny Piggly Wiggly. Love it! Thank you to so many of you who asked how our vacation went!

* Got a break from the lap top since there was no wireless service.
* Great weather allowed us to hit the beach every day. The water was warm and we were in the ocean riding the waves every day.
* Bocce Ball on the beach was our competition of choice.
* Learned to play Wii tennis and bowling.
* Got to ride my road bike around the beach to prepare for the Tour de France - Ha Ha.
* Loved walking on the beach with my family. We searched daily for good shells. The big find was sharks teeth.
* Started a new read called Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders.
* Lots of fun with my brother-in-law's family. Their four teenage boys provided a lot of laughs.

Back to reality!

Today my daughter Erin had her hair cut to donate 8" to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Hair donations are used for real-hair wigs for women who are battling cancer and the effects of chemotherapy. She has been looking forward to this day, and I must say I'm mighty proud of her!