Girlfriends

Let me just tell you something that I way too often take for granted. That is those special women in my life who spurn me on, who pray for me, who support me, and who sharpen me. They are the ones who except me for who I am even when I am irrational, unstable, and obnoxious. I always wanted a sister (even though I absolutely adore my brother!) but I never had one. Instead I got something better--girlfriends who are my sisters in Christ! These are pics of just a few of the fun things we get to do together. These were two women's ministry events that took place about a year ago. Our women's ministry team brought in Lisa Whelchel to speak. She is the most precious, kind, and down to earth woman. I just loved her. She was all I expected and more. She has a way of sharing the Lord that is lasting. My pastor even enjoyed it. He usually does not sit in on these things but he found he could not leave! It was a fun time indeed. The best part of it was that us girls got to pull this event off as a team. We are currently praying about what to do this year. God will show us in due time. Anyway, with the exception of a few special ladies in my life the rest are pictured above. I am so thankful for them. I just wanted to share an example of how God uses them.

First, I am an extremely shy person. I am the girl who just wants to blend into the background. I do love people but just struggle with carrying on conversation! So before the last Uprising speaking event I shared my insecurities and asked them all to pray for me. They all agreed. This would be the first event my husband would be present for and the first my sisters would not be. As the event started filling up, I started to notice that there were a majority of guys present. In fact it ended up to be about 30 guys and 6 girls. This made me completely insecure. God called me to speak at this event but the dynamics through me off. I froze and became a complete mess--at least in my mind. After it was all done many people said I did a great job. But in my mind I could not figure out what happened to me. Were people praying? I just could not understand what happened to me. When I arrived home my sweet husband and I discussed this event through tears (all mine). It was really sweet because he affirmed my call and showed the support at a new level. It was a blessing. See, for me it would be real easy to give this whole thing up. However, this girl who just wants to blend in was not made for that. God has other plans. Our plans are not always His plans. God uses these special sisters in my life to confirm that all the time. That next morning I got 6 phone calls and each one started this same way..."Hey, how'd it go last night? I was praying for you." Each greeting though the same followed by me tearing up and saying, "I did horrible......." Each time, each precious woman had a patient ear and prayerfully spoke wisdom into my life. I am so thankful for each one. Perhaps one day I will get some pics of those tearful times or perhaps those times are better left for the imagination! God knew we would desperately need this. Perhaps that is why His word states, "A friend loves at all times" (Proverbs 17:17a).

A Day at Chuck E. Cheese

http://lizpowerphotography.com/slideshow/cec/

The picture to the right is exactly how I felt yesterday after
our bi-weekly trip to Chuck E. Cheese! My girlfriend
Diana (who took this pic) and I make this journey often! In fact I have some tokens saved up for the next adventure. Click on the link above to view the whole slide show of one of our experiences. She takes out all four of her children and adds them to my two and it makes 6 under five. It has dangerous potential at times. But we are up to the challenge. Plus I think it keeps us on our toes and thinking! It grows and stretches us. It makes us lean on the Lord even more. Plus sometimes you just want to play and what a better excuse than this! Children are definitely a great blessing.

Yesterday on our visit, I had a first. I am not sure why this was a problem since it never has been in the past but my fearless Hannah decided to get scared in the gerbil tunnel. Despite her big sis trying to get her down she would not budge without mommy getting her. So to my best efforts I squeezed myself up the rather long slide fearing it may break any moment to get her. I started the climb up the twisty slide (going against all the rules of don't climb up the slide) to get her. There was no way I was going to fit up the alternative. So during this twisty uphill journey I realized my socks kept me sliding down making this climb very hard. Contorted in this plastic tunnel I am struggling to take my socks off without sliding out. I accomplish this and keep going slow and steady calling out to my baby. Momma is coming just stay still. Listen to my voice I am here. Finally I make it to the top. After several minutes I coax her down the slide with me because there is no way my body could squeeze out the alternative route. She decides to take the slide with me and we come out. The funniest part is that her drama was very loud and many people heard her cries and probably saw me awkwardly venture up there but when we made it down no one said anything. No applause or even eye contact. I thought for sure someone would give me an affirming smile. But nothing. That is okay. We jumped back up and played like usual. The neat thing about all of it was that when Hannah heard my voice and knew I was close, even though she could not see me, she was calm. She patiently waited for me to get to her. God reminded me that He is the same with us. When we hear His voice it calms us, we know He is with us. It is our job to wait on Him and He will rescue us from whatever situation we have gotten ourselves into. He is our Father and He will go any length to come to our rescue when we cry out to Him.

What we have been doing!

Sorry for the delay in posting! We have been busy this week. It seems like a non-stop kind of week. We are definately looking forward to our Sabbath-rest! :)

Here are some pics to show you what has been up lately. With the college ministry we (Tony) have played paintball, recover from paintball, prep for the awesome event Uprising, and pull off the event. Here are pics of that. Please do keep us lifted in prayer. God is doing some amazing work but without Him that is all it is, work. In His power it is awesome ministry. Thanks! Much love! Angela



Here is the backbone of the program! Tony learned a new program and was able to run sound, clips, and all that needed to be done. He learned this on his own. He is a talented guy!

Here is Dave Wiley. He is such a gifted speaker. I cannot speak highly enough of him. If you need someone to speak to your youth who loves Jesus and is relevent he is your guy. More about his story can be found at www.uprisingonline.net. His website is being updated shortly.

Here is a shot of me speaking. It was an honor to do this alongside such talent and for such a wonderful ministry. Our crowd ended up to be more intimate. There were probably about 35 or so there which is good for a Thursday night a week before finals!

Okay here is our praise band! Who agreed to do this gig pretty much at the last notice. This would be the very first time together! They named themselves 3 days notice! This shot is a pretend shot! The next one is the real thing! I just love them and their servants hearts.

The real shot during the event. This is a couple of the paintball gang! Tony went out with them too. There were about 10 or so of them. They had a blast. I am being recruited now!

Here is another shot of paintball prep. If you look real close you will notice that these two were in the band too! :)

Okay well that is all for now! Have a blessed day.

More College Pics

This is the best pic I have of you so far Annette! One of our great helpers with the class. Her husband Scott did not get captured yet by the camera! Stay tuned!
Here is the awesome cook(on the left) I told you about who brought the cupcakes. The other two are just as gifted! They fed us a wonderful breakfast!Here I am caught in the act of enjoying the wonderful breakfast! Here is Kara my good friend who came to be a guest speaker and help me with my little ones.

Here is the birthday boy! Thanks Matt for sharing your 21st with us! Oh and that goofy girl is Megan! Now I know...don't be asking for her number because she is engaged to the one who is playing the guitar in the first post.

Here is Kara again with her beautiful daughters who were the most wonderful babysitters for me! Thank you so much girls! God knows how much help I need! :)

This is Chris. Chris is one great guy who loves the Lord with all his heart. He is going to be one great preacher and really he already is! I am blessed to know him. He was the other guest speaker I talked about.

Tony with his favorite hat from the cabin! Isn't he handsome? Not just anyone can carry this look off!!! Okay that is all for now. Thanks for viewing our crazy world! Again, Sunday is paintball day! I see the welts the pros come back with! Please be praying!

College Ministry

I just got done reading a book by Josh McDowell called "The Last Christian Generation." It is a really good book that speaks on the reality of us needing to get a hold of this generation for Christ. Through the influence of the culture and lack of parents availability something has gone very wrong. Our beliefs in Christ and the relationship with Him is being missed. It is our job to pass that on to the generation behind us. Tony and I have a HUGE burden and calling to be a part of this movement. We LOVE this generation of people and ache to know that the numbers of believers from them will increase. For they will also be the leaders in charge of our children when they are graduated. If I have any say in it this generation will turn around.

The picture above is of about half of the students we are blessed to have in our group. We have a group of about 30 which is very encouraging since the stats say that most kids in the youth group drop out of church after graduation. Our group is very faithful to coming to class each week and participating in outreaches for the community and each other. They bless us so much. So this is another thing that I spend much of my time doing. The summer months are by far our busiest months. Also, having small children has been an interesting challenge doing this but since we started this ministry from nothing about four years ago these students have seen our children grow up and really love them and are so kind to them. This class is such a precious blessing to us. I have learned so much from them and I only hope to return the favor. Please if you think about it lift up a prayer for them and us. They are the next generation of leaders and are making life altering decisions right now.

I also have to post this pic! This is my absolute favorite

pic from this retreat in Gatlinburg, TN. It is so precious

to me. I call it "caught in the moment of indulgence!" One

awesome cook in our class made cupcakes for another

student who was celebrating his 21st birthday on the

retreat. We also had two guest speakers come in and they were great! I think it is good to bring others in who love the Lord to share. I am sure the group gets tired of hearing us week after week! Also, we were blessed with two new wonderful leaders to help us with this large group! I was trying to post some of the other pics but I keep getting an error-so perhaps at a later time! The girl to the right is a very gifted opera performer. Keep your eyes out for her in the future! Much love to you! Oh yeah and on Sunday after class a big group is going to play paintball. I will not be there because I am watching the children! Good excuse huh? Well, I hate to miss it but I am sure it will be a great time! Pray for Tony!

A Great Job

What do you do all day? This is a funny question that people ask me when they find out that I stay home with our two precious children. I am just amazed at that question. I still have not found a proper way to answer it. Of course any of you moms out there completely understand what I am talking about. So, I thought I would take a moment and explain. We don't have normal predictive schedules like everyone else. We have what I like to call go with the flow type of days. We get out on play dates with friends a couple times of week as God allows and lines those up. We learn many things including the most important things about God. Most days we have some sort of chore to do to keep the house in order. On this particular day (pictured above) we had run out to pick some stuff up from the grocery store and stopped by the drive thru at Taco Bell for lunch (rarely do we dine in anywhere alone because of unpredictability!). When we returned Hannah HAD to change into her princess PJ's. And we did the project that my precious Kaitlyn begged me for a few days to do. They made rice shakers and you would think it was the greatest thing ever! On the table there are a few bills I have laid out to handle when a moment comes by. Also, we picked up the latest cookie mix for the Easy Bake Oven which was coming next. In my spare time I write, read, and study my Bible. So really each day looks different but is filled with tasks that need to get done. So...if that helps any to answer the question. Most days are invested in redirecting and training my girls to live a godly life. You have to be alert and on your toes to teach these lessons as they come. Life lessons are the best ones.

On a recent trip to Walmart we had to wait in a longer than normal pharmacy line. My children were precious angels. The lady waiting on me heard them say, "yes ma'am" and saw the sweetest conduct. She commented to me how lucky I was. I just thought if you only knew. Minutes before we got out of the van to come in they were having the biggest fight of the century. I could take them again two hours later and HUGE fights could take place. I wonder what would be said then? God is teaching me unconditional love and that means loving through all circumstances, good and bad. I am so blessed to get to do this awesome job. My children teach me so much and it is the best thing I have gotten to do yet (as well as the hardest!). So for you moms out there. I am definitely in the trenches alongside you and I want to encourage you to keep up training them and don't give up! No matter how many times you have to redirect and discipline for wiping peanut butter on the television. One day it will stick. Parenting is definitely a walk of faith.

Happy Easter!

Okay here is our family. The real deal. Yesterday we decided to try the sunrise or really 8:00am service. I am not sure what we were thinking when we decided that but there was breakfast that started at 7am and well it just seemed like a fun thing to do. So, here we are right before we were ready to leave. Tony looks great like he most always does. I am not sure what happened to me but I look kind of crazy and I realized by looking at this photo and many others of myself that I am really not a photogenic person. Perhaps that is why I shy from cameras! Hannah on my left woke up full of energy and revin to go. She was just like "can this be over? I is killing me to sit still!" Kaitlyn on the right is just waking up and not really believing we are going out before the sun is up. So here is our little family. Hannah the little bundle of energy had the privilege of sitting in big church worship today instead of the nursery. This had some very humbling or in other words embarrassing potential but she was a doll the entire time. Which was good because the church was filled at 8am. Many morning people I suppose. But our service was called CELEBRATE! It was filled with praise and worship and the Word about our risen King! I just love this time of year. Oh and yeah it was in the 20's this am. We actually saw some ice sickles hanging from a fountain outside of our church. But it was a good day anyway. So, to all of you who make it out the door to church successfully with children, my hat goes off to you! I understand your challenge! But when you do not forsake meeting together it is well worth it! May God bless you richly this Easter day! He Is Risen!

Some common ground

Hey all! I am really kind of mixed up right now. First about a week ago, I woke up all stuffed up and looked out my window and it was the land of the yellow! Pollen had what looked like an explosion and was all over the place. It was crazy! My white minivan now took on a nice shade of yellow. Actually every car that I passed on the road sported this new shade. And it got hot. Really hot. I thought we skipped spring and moved right into summer. But then yesterday and today it hit winter again! It is now so very cold and I have heard reports of some snow. How crazy is that? Okay now I have that off my chest, off to the topic of common ground.

When you are married it is important that you find some interest to share with your mate. My parents took up square dancing and it has brought them closer. It is something they really love so I thought I needed something like that to share with my husband. Square dancing was out of the question for us though so in trying to find an activity to have in common with my him, I joined an online gaming group called Christian Gamers Online. It is found at http://www.christiangamers.net/. Now I do not "game,"(perhaps one day he will persuade me) however, what I found there was a nice place to fellowship and share God's word. This group is like a little family to us and we are glad to be a part of it. The people in this ministry are from all parts of the country. It amazes me that God has given us this technology to reach others from around the world.

So today we met a really nice couple from this group. They were heading home from a Disney trip and since Chattanooga is a pass through place we got to meet them for the first time in person. This was a fun thing to do. All of our children played at McDonald's play land and we chatted. Now if you know me this type of thing is EXTREMELY hard for me because I am so very shy. I find it hard to talk to people I do not know. I do know that this probably finds itself rooted in pride but God is working that out of me. I am finding out that the common bond that we hold with others in the Lord makes it easy for us to talk. That is a special blessing from God. Thanks for sharing your lives with us! May God bless you!