our weekend
Friday-Saturday Seth helped with a Disciple Now weekend for a youth pastor friend in the area. He ended up being the group leader for the middle-school guys. Last night he slept for 11 hours. That means he's pretty much recovered except that he'll probably be sore for another day or two. Spiritually, the weekend was awesome - God showed up in a big way, and it was obvious that it was Him. How exciting to get to be a part of it!
Yesterday we drove down to Chase City, VA to speak at Salem United Methodist Church, where one of Jessica's long-time friends and her husband go. It was a great! The church building was beautiful, old, and little. The people were friendly, generous, encouraging - and a lot of them were little, too (there were tons of babies)! We are really enjoying watching God work and following His lead in this process of support-development!
Labels: our ministry, our support, travel
Jazz Notes
Seth just finished reading the short version of
Blue Like Jazz which is appropriately called
Jazz Notes. Seth likes short versions, because you get the major ideas without having to spend as much time reading. Seth is a slow reader.
Enough with the third person. Here's my initial reaction:
The book recognizes a problem we've had in the church: that a lot of Christians tend to keep their faith in their heads and never let it have any effect on their lives and hearts. True.
In response,
Jazz Notes makes some great points about how Christianity (or, as the book calls it, "Christian Spirituality") is not something that can be explained - God is too big for that - and how being a Christian is all about falling in love with Jesus. True.
However, I think the book overreacts and swings the pendulum back too far. The author (Don Miller) bases his points (most of which are pretty good) on his own feelings, needs and random observations. In doing so, Miller does more than correct an unhealthy over-emphasis on our heads - he essentially denies reason a valid place in "Christian Spirituality".
But what if I feel that I need reason in my spirituality because I have observed that reason is a beautiful part of the human experience? What then?
Labels: miscellaneous
Ohio
We drove to Wapakoneta, Ohio on Sunday morning and presented our ministry at Wapakoneta Nazarene, where Seth's uncle is the pastor. Uncle Ward also commissioned Daniel for missionary service (that's what's going on in the picture below). After church we had a great visit with some of Seth's family that we hadn't seen in years!
Sunday afternoon we ended up close to Cincinnati at the home of one of Seth's cousins and his family - who graciously let us stay the night and introduced us to some of the best ice cream we've ever had! The next day we drove home, but on the way we stopped and saw one of Jessica's friends from college and then stopped again to see another good friend of ours.
Now we're home and thankful for our own house, but we're also super-thankful for a wonderful trip!
Labels: family, travel
Indiana, still
We are still thanking God that the sun came out here!
Wednesday we spoke at Kessler Krest Baptist in Indianapolis, which went well. We are really enjoying the opportunity to see different churches and meet new brothers and sisters in the Lord!
Yesterday we met with several students at Indiana Wesleyan University and had a great time talking about what God is doing in their lives and ours. It was nice to be able to walk around outside between meetings (refer to sentance #1). We also got to have dinner with a group from Grandma's church, which was great!
Daniel is doing very well with all the new places, people and experiences. He is generally happy to meet people and his favorite thing to do these days is walk around (with help from Mom or Dad). He has had a bit of trouble at night, but that's what coffee is for.
Labels: family, our ministry, travel
More from Indiana
It was cold and rainy when we got here, but the weather has gotten much better and we've been able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine with Grandma!
Yesterday, we went to Taylor University and met with some students who were interested in Ireland and missions - we had a great time! Plus we got to spend some time looking around at Seth's parents alma mater!
Labels: family, our ministry, travel
Indiana
We drove to Indiana on Saturday. Seth's grandma lives here, so we're staying with her and having a wonderful time! We got the opportunity to speak at her church, too - Exit 59 Church in Gas City, IN - it's an exciting church of mostly college students from the two Christian universities in the area (Taylor and Indiana Wesleyan). We met lots of great folks, and we're excited because we're going to get to meet up and talk more with some of them while we're here this week! Thanks for your prayers!
Labels: travel
47 Months
that's 47 months of marriage for Jess and I today! Hooray for us! It sounds like a lot when you count in months. After our first term in Ireland, though, we'll have lived there for almost as long as we've been married here. That's kind of a wierd thought, since it already feels like we've been married forever...
Labels: family
Calvary Brethren
We spent the day yesterday in Buena Vista, VA with Calvary Brethren church. What a blessing! We've decided that it's one of our favorite churches around :) Everyone was super-welcoming and hospitable (especially the Carters - thank you!!) and we had a wonderful time sharing in both the morning and evening services. It's always wonderful to meet our brothers and sisters in the Lord we didn't know before! Plus we randomly found one lady who lived in our apartment 30 years ago... it's a small world after all...
In other news, Daniel has started "talking" to us a lot lately - mostly "abababa" and sometimes "mamama" - but he's still working on figuring out why we get so excited when he says "mama"!
Labels: family, travel
