Merry Christmas 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Christmas in the New House

Michael and I have been married for almost 6 years now, and this is the first year that we have had a real Christmas tree. Since our new house has higher ceilings than any other house we've lived in, our old fake tree we normally use would look very strange and small in this house. I'd forgotten how much I love the smell of real trees until going to pick ours out this year. Once bringing it home, we started to put lights on it, only to realize we didn't have enough lights to cover the whole tree. After going back to the store for more lights and putting them on the tree, we put the new decorations on it. In the past, we have only used blue and silver balls and decorations on the tree and around the house. However, this year we decided to do red and gold balls on the tree. It looks really good. I absolutely love decorating, especially at Christmas time!

Thanksgiving

Michael and I spent this Thanksgiving with my family in Bainbridge. It's a family tradition to have my mom's family over for Thanksgiving lunch. This consists of about 15 people crammed into my parents living room, dining room, and kitchen. Then, that night, just my grandmother (Dad's mom) and Anna (one of my dad's sisters) comes over. It's a day filled with wonderful family, laughs, lots of food, and afternoon naps! It's also tradition for Michael and I to join all the crazy people that get up way too early to go Christmas shopping. We went to Tallahassee with my parents and shopped until our feet hurt. We set aside a budgeted amount to spend and we actually spent under that amount. We don't want shopping and gifts to be our main concern during Christmas time, ever so we don't go crazy with spending spending money! Overall, we had a great visit with my family. I even got to have lunch with my best friend from high school, Darbi. The Thanksgiving break seemed to fly by, but I really enjoyed the time off to spend with family and giving thanks to God for all He's done for us!! He gets all the glory!!

Weekend with the Kellums

Our best friends from North Carolina came to visit this past weekend!! We hadn't seen them since we went on a cruise together back in March and we hadn't seen their adorable little boy, Bennett, in over a year. It was SOOO good to get to hang out with them all weekend. Michael and I are trying hard to get them to move down here!! But, we will settle with getting to see them a few times a year. We had so much fun having them stay with us for a few days. I can't believe how much Bennett has grown since lasting seeing him. Man, they grow up fast!! Although we had a great time together, all good things must come to an end, and they had to leave this morning. Michael and I are planning a trip up there soon though!

Counting My Blessings

I've been very convicted lately about not giving God the glory and praise for all the many blessings that He's bestowed upon me, so I wanted to list several of those blessings that He's blessed me with and which I am VERY thankful to Him for!!

1. I have an amazing husband that loves me inspite of my imperfections. He is a leader in our household, just as God desires for a husband to be. He's caring, compassionate, and an amazing youth pastor.
2. I have wonderful Christian parents that raised me in a Christian home and instilled good morals and values in me, loved me when I was unlovable, took me to church so that I could grow spiritually, and provided for my needs and even my wants many times!
3. My brother, Jeremy, is a Christian as well and I believe that God is working in His life right now in amazing ways and preparing my brother to be the man that God desires him to be.
4. I love being able to teach at a Christian school where I can share the Word of God with others and see young students come to know Him and grow in their relationship with Him.
5. I am apart of an amazing church - CrossPointe!! I love everything about it, from the awesome worship time, the convicting and Spirit-filled messages, the friendly people, the wonderful staff, and the MOST AWESOME youth ever!! Our youth ROCK!
6. I get to lead two amazing youth life groups, the 9th and 10th grade girls and the 11th and 12th grade girls at CrossPointe and I love every minute of it. They are a great group of girls and truly desire to grow in their relationship with the Lord. They are constantly inviting their friends to church and spreading the Good News not just by their words, but with their lives. I'm so thankful for them!
7. I have some amazing friends that lift me up daily, even though some of them are miles away! They encourage me when I'm down and pray for me continuously.
8. Our house that we just finished building and have been enjoying getting settled into is a huge blessing to us! We desire to use our home for ministry purposes - whether it's having youth staff meetings there, getting together with the youth, having youth families over, hanging out with fellow believers and friends - and we are so thankful for the blessing of our new home!

There is plenty more I could list, but this is a start! Thank you Lord for your many blessings!!

CrossPointe New Building

We are so excited about the progress on the new building. God is moving in mighty ways at CrossPointe and we are all super excited about being able to move into the new building soon! Our youth got to help with some work at the new building and it's starting to look like a church on the inside. Our new sign was put up last week on the front of the building, which has sparked interest in many that have driven by it. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us at CrossPointe Church!!

Slowly But Surely

We have been so busy lately that I haven't written anything in a while. We are still working slowly to get the house complete. We have finally gotten the pictures hung and the fireplace tile complete. We also have closed on the house, praise the Lord!! Now, with that behind us, we can take out time putting the finishing touches on it. We have already been busy using our home, that God has blessed us with, to entertain guests. We love having people over and are so thankful that this house allows us to have more room for entertaining youth, friends, family, church members and so forth. Our goal is to have everything complete before Thanksgiving. We will be spending the next few Saturday afternoons working to complete the tiled shower and the touch-up painting and after that it will be complete!

Getting Settled

We moved into the new house about three weeks ago and are still trying to get settled in. We still have a little work to do but we are mostly settled! Yesterday we laid sod in the yard and this week we will finish landscaping the yard. Several people have asked to see updated pictures so I took a few and wanted to share them.

Give Me Your Eyes

Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Wasnt it far beyond my reach?
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
again
again
yeah
yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
Theres a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
Hes out of work
Hes buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus

I've Been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone

Chorus

*Ok, so this song seems to be on the radio EVERY time I get in the car, and the funny thing is, I'm always changing the station between the three Christian stations in town because I don't like hearing advertisements and talking. When I'm in the car I want music and when the song ends and talking begins, I'll change the station. So, when I started hearing this song I thought that it was just because some stations play new songs over and over. Then, I realized it's always on different stations but I'm still constantly hearing this song. That's when I began asking God, "Are you trying to tell me something here?"

At first, I thought very briefly about the words to the song and then kind of dismissed the idea that God was trying to speak to me. That was, until this weekend. This past weekend I had the opportunity to be around some people that are less fortunate than I am in several ways and I really got a small glimpse into their world. Most of the time I get way too busy with my own life and issues, that I don't realize there are others around me hurting, struggling, and feeling forgotten.

This weekend I was thinking about ways that I could help those people and that's when it hit me. That's what God was trying to get me to realize for several days now. I sing that song all the time because I really love it and I love the message behind it. But, I was failing to really grasp the message. I need to see others through the eyes of God, I need to see them the way He does! Too often, I don't even give others a second glance because I'm so caught up with my own life. Lord, open my eyes to those hurting around me so that I may be a help to them! Help me see them through your eyes, and not my own!

Unexpected Blessings

In the past two weeks, our pastor (David Rogers) and some of the other pastors at out church have had the opportunity to go up to the Atlanta area and meet with pastors from different churches to get ideas for when we move in to our new building. While in Atlanta, they visited Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church which is the church that Mark Hall (Casting Crowns) is the student pastor. During their visit, David was telling them about our church and what God is doing in and through the church. Through this visit, God blessed our church in a big way. Their church donated stage equipment for our sanctuary and game equipment for our youth/college game room. Our youth are SOOO excited about the donated equipment (nice air hockey table, pool table, and several other arcade games). All total, they donated several thousands of dollars worth of equipment and all we had to do was go pick it up. So, this past Monday, Labor Day, Michael and several guys from the church borrowed a semi truck and went to get it! When they got back in town Monday afternoon, it was amazing to see how many church members came out to help unload it! What a blessing this donation is and will be to our church! Praise the Lord!

We're Moving On Up

We are surely gonna love that tub!!
The kitchen isn't finished in this picture. We have a tiled backsplash up now! It looks so good.

The floors aren't that dirty now!!



We moved in the house this past weekend, although it's not 100% complete. There are still a few little things here and there that need to be done. We have to do some touch-up on the painting inside in a few places. We need to finish up the laundry room tile and trim, but other than that, the inside is DONE!! As far as the outside, we just have to landscape the yard. We are so excited to be in and I haven't stopped thanking God for this new house. We had several friends come out to help us move and then a friend and my mom and dad came the next day to help us clean the old house. We are so blessed with amazing friends and family that helped us this weekend and we are so thankful for them all!! God is good!

We do not have pictures yet of us moved in. I don't want to take any until it's all put in place. Right now we still have many boxes to unpack. Hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks we will have those pictures up. In the meantime, there are some updated pictures of the house from right before we moved in. Check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/apb4jc/OurNewHouse

All For Him

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man." Colossian 3:23

This morning during chapel for my students, we were challenged to live each day by this verse. This is a verse that I have hanging in my room over the board, and I always talk to my students about it at the beginning of each year. I've heard this verse so many times, but for some reason today during chapel I felt like God was speaking directly to me through this verse. Boy, was I convicted this morning.

I needed the reminder that whatever I do, I should do it with ALL of my heart. I know for me, it's easy to only put 90% into something and then blame it on having too much going on at one time, or to complain the whole time I am doing a task because I didn't really want to do it in the first place. But, God desires for me to work at it with all of my heart and to do so without complaining and grumbling (Philippians 2:14). When I'm doing something halfheartedly or complaining about doing something, I'm not glorifying the Lord. My desire should be to glorify Him in ALL I do so I was definately challenged with that this morning!

At the same time, I need the reminder that in EVERYTHING I do, I should do it for the Lord - not to please men. This may sound easy, but most can testify that it's something we forget about from day to day. Too often we get caught up in trying to get the approval of others and we take our eyes off of Him! I don't want to take my eyes off of Him, because when I do, I fall into sin. My desire is to turn from my sin and keep my eyes off of Him, but I fail at that daily! I'm so thankful though that my God is a forgiving God, because I need that forgiveness daily. Lord, help me to live out your Word!!

Yet Another House Update

We have been so blessed with many friends and family that have come out and helped with the house and we praise God for that blessing! We are prayerfully only two weeks away from moving in. We are in the process of touching up the trim paint and laying tile. The lights are in now so we can work past dark. By the end of this week, hopefully all the tile will be completed and then we can work on laying the hardwood. As soon as that's done, the carpet will be installed. The plumbing will be done by the end of this week as well. The garage door was installed yesterday. Our kitchen appliances will be delivered the first of next week.

We can't wait to move in and get settled! Praise the Lord for the blessing of this new house!

What a Blessing!

God has blessed me in so many ways and I don't take enough time to thank Him for all His many blessings. So many times I take for granted all that God does for me. One of those blessings that I take for granted too often is my husband. God has blessed me with an amazing man and I'm so thankful for that. If you had asked me in highschool if I thought I would "grow-up" and marry a pastor, I would have told you a quick "no". Not because I wasn't saved then, I was. But because I just didn't see that for my future. But, God has other plans and He orchestrated my life in a way that I met Michael Buffaloe at just the right time. Michael and I often joke that if we had met in high school we would have hated each other, we were just so different then. But, God was working on us and allowed us to meet when He knew we were ready.

For those that don't know, Michael and I met at church when I was a Junior in college. We became fast friends. We had a large group of friends that we were always with and all of us were very close. Michael will tell you though, that he knew we were supposed to be together way before I did. He even told me one day that he was going to marry me. I thought he was crazy....we weren't even dating, and at the time I didn't see dating Michael in my future. But, once again, God's plans are different than our own....and better than our own as well!! God was working in my life during that time in ways that I didn't fully understand. And eventually, after much running from listening to God, I realized that my future did indeed include Michael Buffaloe! We began dating and after 8 months we were engaged. Now, 5 1/2 years later, I can look back and thank God for placing Michael in my life just when He did.

I'm so thankful for the gift God gave me, when He placed Michael in my life! Why?? Oh, there are SOOOO many reasons!

Michael loves the Lord with all his heart. And he loves me despite my imperfections. He is caring, kind, and considerate of others and their feelings. He takes care of me when I'm sick. He's a provider and a protector. He goes above and beyond what is expected when it comes to ministering to our youth. He makes time for me even in the midst of the chaos that seems to be our life right now. He spends time with me doing what I like to do, not just what he likes. He leads me, even when I don't want him to! :) He'll always do what it takes to get the job done, even if it means staying up until 4:00 in the morning. He's fun, adventurous, and spontanious. He is gifted in many areas, like preaching, teaching, and painting. I could go on and on, but what it comes down to is this: He's AMAZING and I'm SOOO thankful for him!!

Thank you God for placing Michael in my life!

Gone are the Days of Summer

This summer has been super busy with the youth and working on the house. However, summer has drawn to an end and it's back to school for me! I started back last week and then the kids came back this week. I have a really good class this year and I'm so thankful for that. Unfortunately, I'm sick. I've been sick since the first day of school and it's getting worse. It's bronchitus, I'm assuming, because normally I get it twice a year. Needless to say, I haven't felt well this week. I'm praying that it passes quickly though. Now that school has started back, I teach during the day and then work on the house each night. It makes for long days but we are praying to be in the house in the next three weeks. Once we have actually moved in and all the hard work is behind us, I know I'll feel SOOO relieved and thankful for the blessing of this new house! Praise God for his many blessings!

Cabinets, Finally!

They finally came and put in our cabinets this week and they look so good! We are super excited that our house is coming together. Please pray that it's finished in the next 5 weeks! We need to be in by the end of August. I didn't include all the pictures, only the ones of the kitchen and the master bathroom. On a side note, someone said that our kitchen looked green in the pictures but it's not. The kitchen, living, and dining rooms are all the same color, a deep yellow. The pictures don't do the color justice! The master bedroom and bath are sage. Our study and guest bath are both brown. And the extra bedroom is painted gray and will house all our red and black....Go DAWGS!! Yes, we have a "UGA room" in our house.

Jesus Messiah

Chris Tomlin led the worship for Student Life Camp in Daytona Beach, where we took our youth last week. He introduced us to this song and I fell in love with it. The words alone are SO powerful. Please listen to the song and actually focus on the message!

House Update

We are still working very hard on getting our house ready to move in. We were hoping to be in by the first of August, but it looks like it will be closer to the end of August. We've finally finished the outside of the house as far as painting and have put the first coat on the inside. This week we are putting in the trim inside. The cabinets will be installed this week as well, and hopefully the final coat will be done inside too. We'll see! After that, we have to lay the tile and hardwood, the carpet will be installed in the bedrooms, and that will pretty much complete the inside. Then we have to pour the concrete for our patio, driveway, and sidewalk. After that, we'll landscape the yard and be ready to move in. We are so excited and thankful that God has blessed us with this house!

Here's more pictures of the house: http://picasaweb.google.com/apb4jc/OurNewHouse

The Way - Student Life Camp at the Beach

This past week, Michael and I took our youth group to Student Life Camp at Daytona Beach. Our speaker was Louie Giglio and our worship leader was Chris Tomlin. Our prayer before leaving for camp was that our youth would experience God in a great and mighty way, and now that we are back, I know that God answered that prayer. I can honestly say that I saw our youth grow in their walk in the Lord this past week. Many of them finally GOT it! It was such a blessing to see how our youth's lives were transformed this past week. I could spend hours typing about all the amazing things God did in the lives of our youth this week, but I won't do that right now.

Blast from the Past

This past weekend, Michael and I went back to my hometown to attend my 10 year high school reunion. It was very interesting, to say the least. I did have a good time and it was good to get to see people that I hadn't seen since graduation. Right after graduating, I moved to Valdosta to go to college, so I haven't lived in Bainbridge in 10 years. Although I do go back occasionally to see family and some friends, there are still SO many that I haven't seen since moving to Valdosta for college. It was funny to see how some people haven't changed in appearance at all and how others have changed a lot. There were a good bit of old friends that didn't come, for whatever reason, but I am glad that I got to spend a good part of the weekend with Darbi and Becca.

I've known Darbi pretty much since we were born. We grew up in the same church together, even though we didn't go to the same school until middle school. We've definitely gone through a lot together! Even though we haven't lived in the same town together since high school, we still remain close! I've known Becca since middle school and she was also my first roommate in college. We've had some very memorable and unmemorable times together. :)

The three of us spent a lot of time together this weekend and although it was super busy for us, it was fun! The three of us were on the committee to help plan the reunion, which also means you have to help set up and clean up. I'm SOOO tired now that it's over, but it was enjoyable while it lasted!

Cardboard Testimonies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvDDc5RB6FQ

Check out this video. It's amazing!

House Update

Michael and I have been super busy working on the new house. Since I've gotten out for the summer, I've spent several hours each day working on caulking and painting the outside. We are so excited about the progress of the house and hope to be in by the second week of August.

WHAT? It's Not all about ME??

As sinful beings, we all get wrapped up in the "it's all about me" mentality. It's very easy to do, in fact. I find myself doing it daily, even hourly at times. I am constantly thinking about what I need, what I want, where I need to go, things I need to do, places I need to go, errands I need to run, people I need to see....you get the picture. I'm not saying that it's wrong to worry about these things. However, we can easily become SO wrapped up in ourselves that we neglect others around us that are in need.

A few weeks ago, I was studying the relationship of Ruth and Naomi in the Bible. Just this week, I was confronted with this same message again during chapel at school. The bond between the two women is amazing to me and both of them show a tremendous amount of UNselfishness. Naomi had already lost her husband, and then she lost both of her sons. She still had her daughter-in-laws, though. Naomi was at a point in her life where she felt she needed to go back to her home land. She didn't want her daughter-in-laws to go with her and leave everything they were used to behind. Naomi could have easily only thought of herself and demanded that her daughter-in-laws go with her, but she didn't do that at all. After telling them to stay, Ruth decided she was going with Naomi. What she said to her mother-in-law speaks volumes about her unselfishness. Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17) To Ruth, it wasn't about her own desires and wants - it was about taking care of, being loyal to, tending to the needs of, and loving Naomi - her mother-in-law. Wow, again!

Would you leave all that you knew behind to follow your mother-in-law? Not many, if any, of us would. But, more importantly, will you put aside your own selfish desires, to do the will of the Lord? Will you stop worrying only about yourself and tend to the needs of others? I have been challenged many times just this week with this. It seems that everywhere I turn, this same message is screaming at me. Apparently God is speaking to me about my selfishness. Is He speaking to you, too?

Sacrifice

We can probably all recall a time that we had to make a sacrifice for someone else. Maybe we sacrificed our time that we could be resting, to help a neighbor work in their yard. Maybe we sacrificed going on a trip, in order to help a family member pay off a medical bill. Or, we sacrificed watching TV to spend more time with our Savior. In all these situations, we found ourselves sacrificing something, in order for good to come for someone or something else. Well....that's what sacrifice is! We must give of ourselves, even if it hurts sometimes, to give to others. Maybe it's our money we have to sacrifice, or our time, or our car or house. Whatever it is, sometimes God calls us to sacrifice so that others might benefit.

Well.....God has recently called Michael and I to sacrifice something and it's been on my mind a lot. This sacrifice is not going to be easy, in fact, it will be very hard for me. But, for Him, I will do it!

Our church, CrossPointe, is doing a fundraising campaign to raise money for our new building. I'm super excited about this new building and how God provided us with it at just the right time. However, we need to fix the building up and that will take money! Every church member has been asked to pledge money for this campaign and to then find 6 other people outside of the church to pledge as well. Well, Michael and I prayed about what to pledge and felt that we wanted to give more than what we knew we could physically give ourselves. We wanted this, so in the end, only God would get the glory. We also wanted to sacrifice something, so that we could give even more. After praying about what to do, God laid on our heart that we are to give up going out to eat during the week and on Friday and Saturdays. Wow....that's a big one for us because our lives get so busy sometimes that we tend to eat out a lot.

As of now, it has been two weeks since making the pledge and it has been a challenge. Michael and I are used to going out for "Date Night" on Friday nights and we haven't been able to do that the past two weeks. We have several more weeks left before we have raised all our pledge money and it will be hard few weeks. But, I pray that God will be glorified through it all!

I pray that through raising the money for our new building, that others may see the blessing that sacrifice and obedience to Christ brings. But, also, that through this new building, many lost people may come to know the Lord!!

Watch God Work

This past weekend, our church's youth group participated in M-Now. This is much like D-Now (DiscipleNow) but with a focus on missions. The week leading up to M-Now was very busy and chaotic for Michael and I. Satan was definately trying to attack, but we knew that God was with us.

First of all, Michael found out the Monday before M-Now that the speaker for the event had been in a very bad car accident (he's fine now) and would not be able to come to speak. Since it was very last minute, we knew there was no time to call in another speaker. Michael immediately prayed about what to do. Through prayer, Michael knew that he would be the one speaking on such short notice. This meant that he had 4 sermons to prepare in one week. On top of preparing sermons, there were errands to be run, food to be purchased, materials to be printed, emails to be sent, and phone calls to be made. We set to work!

The morning of the event, we had a host home have to bail at the last minute. Of course, this wasn't expected, but God prepared the way for another host home to step in to help. In the chaos, we did not allow for Satan to get a foothold. We knew that God was going to do a mighty work in the hands of our youth that weekend. We had 30 youth and about 15 youth workers involved in the weekend, and we knew that God was working in their lives.

On the first night, several youth came down for prayer. Many were wanting to recommit to living their lives for the Lord, not for themselves. Many were laying sin down at the Lord's feet and praying for help in turning away from that sin completely. It was powerful and humbling to see how the youth responded, and that was just the first night. After the message on Saturday morning, the youth had recreation time were we played several group games and just had a chance to hang out. After lunch, we went to a very poor area of town and got to pour our lives into the children of that area. We set up stations for the children to come around to. Some of those stations were face painting, jewelry making, balloon animals, crafts, and games. Before going to the stations, the children listened to a Bible story. It was amazing watching our youth with those kids. No one just sat back and watched, everyone got involved and enjoyed their time we spent with the kids. Afterwards, many of the youth asked if we could make this something we did once a month. How awesome to see the youth respond that way to doing missions. That night, I had the privelege of being with a group of the girls when one of them prayed to receive Christ.

God is so awesome and I'm humbled and blessed to be a part of the plan He has for CrossPointe youth. God was glorified and honored during M-Now and it was great seeing our youth grow spiritually this past weekend!

Bahamas

As the last blog stated, the past few weeks have been busy. However, being a teacher, I have Spring Break around this time of year. Months ago, Michael and I decided that we were going to use my Spring Break as a vacation time for us both. We booked a cruise to the Bahamas with our best friends from North Carolina way back in October. Last week, we set sail!!

Out of the four of us (Lauren and Keith - our NC friends, Michael and I), none of us had ever cruised before so really didn't know what to expect. We have a 4 night, 5 day cruise to the Bahamas, stopping in Freeport and Nassau with one day at sea. It was one of the BEST vacations I have ever experienced.

We enjoyed some of the shows on the boat at night, while during the day we spent our time on the islands. We really enjoyed Nassau! We rented scooters and drove all over the island. We saw Atlantis and spent time on the beach, soaking in the sun in the ocean. During our day at sea, we ended up being very lazy. We lounged around our room watching some t.v. before finally venturing out to the top deck to lay by the pool and get some sun. Every night we ate in the dining room and made sure we took advantage of the wonderful food being served. We ate stuffed mushrooms, escargo, kalamari, steak, beef wellington, lobster, shrimp, scallops, and so much more during our dinners on the boat. Every night they served several different appetizers, salads, main meals, and desserts. It was all very wonderful! We were so spoiled on the ship! As soon as we got back home, we started looking online to book our cruise for next year. We are hooked on cruising now!

To see more pictures from our cruise: http://picasaweb.google.com/apb4jc/Bahamas

Through It All

Wow, what a very busy month March was and now almost half of April has passed. It has been awhile since I last had time to write, so I have some catching up to do. This past month has been much of a blur between planning for Missions Now (just like Disciple Now) at our church which happens to be this coming weekend, to going through the motions of getting approved to build a house, buying land, choosing a house plan (which is harder than I thought it would be - guess I'm too picky), figuring out what to do with my car that's messed up, celebrating my 28th birthday and our 5 year anniversary, and taking time to actually have a much needed vacation.

Michael and I are super excited about what God has been revealing to us lately. One of those things is being able to build again. We have found a great lot in a great subvision that is newly being developed. It's a pretty big development with three different phases so far (more will be developed soon) and we are only the 8th house to be built in our phase of the subdivision. It took forever, but we finally decided on our house plan and are "patiently" waiting on the bank for final approval. We are preapproved and will hopefully hear the final word of approval by the end of this week so we can actually start the building process. We are so excited to finally, once again, have a house of our own. God is SOOO good. This process, however, didn't go as smoothly and easily as I first thought it would. I kept praying for open doors and closed doors before even starting this process to make sure it was God's will for us to build right now. Michael and I completely felt that God was telling us to move forward, so we did. To make a long story a little shorter, after several closed doors I started feeling discouraged. I asked God what to do.....He had already told us to build....so why the closed doors? I finally had to decide to just leave it up to Him and not to worry. After doing this, there seemed to be open doors everywhere. God was teaching me to completely rely on Him. When He says He's going to do it...He means it...but it's always in His timing, not our own!! Lesson learned.....until next time unfortunately. Why is it that God teaches us something and we get it, only to forget it later? I guess it's just our sinful, prideful nature that kicks in and tells us that we can do it on our own. I'm so glad that I don't have to do this on my own though. Praise God! I'm so glad that He is with me through it all!

More on the rest of our busy month later....

Pursuit of Happiness vs. Pursuit of Joy

While driving down the road yesterday, I passed by a sign that caught my attention. The only word I remember seeing on the sign was PURSUIT! Immediately, my mind begin going a million miles a minute, thinking about this word. All around us, people are in pursuit of something. We pursue friendships and relationships with others. We constantly pursue higher education. Some pursue jobs just to help pay the bills, will others pursue their "dream jobs." We pursue bigger and nicer houses, cars, clothing, etc... We pursue, pursue, pursue things all day long, yet they are just earthly things. We do this because we think it will bring us happiness. Is there anything wrong with pursuing happiness through friendships, relationships, education, jobs, etc? No, but where is our heart when we are pursuing these things? Are we pursuing them to further God's Kingdom and to bring Him glory? Or, are we pursuing them for our own glory and happiness? Sure, they may bring happiness, but is it happiness that we should be pursuing? I've found that happiness does not last. It changes based on your circumstances. So, why do we pursue things that will make us happy only for a while, and not things that are more lasting? Why not pursue the one thing that brings JOY, real joy, not just happiness? Joy doesn't change or go away based on our circumstances, our JOY comes from our relationship with Christ. So, why not pursue Him? I find myself constantly desiring a closer relationship with Him, I find myself constantly wanting to do things to further His kingdom......yet I constantly find myself letting my pursuit of momentary happiness get in the way of complete JOY! Why? Because I'm sinful, we all are. But, I believe that God spoke to me through this sign today, calling me to evaluate the things I pursue.....calling me to be in pursuit of HIM......where I can find complete JOY!! What are you in pursuit of?

God's Working

Michael and I have been living back in Valdosta, Ga for about 8 months and have seen God working all around us. Before moving back to Valdosta, we were living in Wake Forest, NC for the past three years. We met some amazing people there and loved our church, friends, and jobs. However, God moved us back home! Michael is the youth pastor at our church, CrossPointe, and I teach 4th grade at a private Christian school. Our church, a church plant, was started about two and a half years ago. It was started in the pastor's living room with about six couples. It now has over 500 in attendance each Sunday...so obviously we are not meeting in their living room anymore. God has been, is, and will continue to work in our church and Michael and I are so excited to be apart of that now! Of course, we miss North Carolina, but our home is here now and it's been amazing watching God work in and through our lives. I can't wait to see what all God has in store for us and CrossPointe!!