Straight from the Heart

Pebblestone Creek Love Like Jesus!

Let me introduce you to Mrs Fran and Mrs Debbie.  These two amazing ladies invest their time and love at Pebblestone Creek the preschool at StoneRidge Fellowship.  Emily loves preschool and she loves these two women.  I understand why now.  I spent the day there with Emily for her birthday and was so impressed by the programming but more impressed by the love and respect shown to these wee little ones by these two wonderful women.  How awesome that we have Godly women who show the love of Jesus because they believe that children matter!

Mark 9:37
“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Volunteers Rock!

This past Saturday was StoneRidge Fellowship's second Saturday serving opportunity. It is one of the things we do as a local mission outreach. We got the idea from GCC in Indiana and for months now have, once a month on the second Saturday left our church building and gone out into our community to serve for a few hours. Practically we are trying to be the hands and feet of Christ in our city. Second Saturday rocks. I want to take the opportunity to share a story from this weekend that hopefully will encourage our volunteers at StoneRidge.  Two ladies from another church came to serve with us.  They came because two years ago they attended the Leadership Summit at our church and were so impressed by our volunteers that they came back the second year and certainly were not disappointed the second time around.  They went online to our website and noticed that we were running Second Saturday and decided to come out and see what it was all about and to serve with us.  I am so proud of our volunteers and I love serving alongside each and every one of them.  Leadership Summit folks...well done.  You showed excellence and you showed that you cared! Ditto for the Second Saturday folks.  I'm posting the video from our first Second Satuday again as a reminder of how awesome three hours serving can be.  If you haven't been to one we can't wait to see you and can't wait to see how God will use you to touch someone else.  Don't worry if you don't attend StoneRidge come we'd love to meet you and serve alongside of you!

Adoption - Potential, Faith and Hope!

Adoption is the opportunity to turn lives around. Not only the life of a child but the lives of an entire family.  I am feeling so thankful tonight for my family. Emily our daughter that came to us through adoption is the sunshine of our family and she is a gift from God to us.  She has completely transformed our home and our lives adding love and a daily visible picture of the glory of God. Children are our hope for the future.  Many many children (over 140 million) are listed as orphans in this world. So many of these children receive messages that they need not dream, that they need not have aspirations and need not expect to live rich and satisfying lives.  That somehow, because they have lost or never known their parents that they are not only disadvantaged but somehow devoid of the usual potential that many of our children believe they have.  Their only disadvantage is that they have been put in a circumstance that for many is out of their control.  It is sad to think that because they have no parents then therefore, they have no potential. This is not so in God's eyes.  God tells them to trust and have faith in their potential. ""...For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future..."
Jeremiah 29:11.  These children need not be identified by their circumstances and we need to be careful and understand that children will always live up to the expectations that we have for them. Understanding that potential will change children on a level that we can not see.  Today is orphan Sunday.  Please pray for these children.  Pray for their potential, pray that whatever environment they are in that they will encounter nurturing people who point out that they matter and that they are not defined by their circumstances. Pray also for all of the waiting families in this world who are just waiting to bring their heart children home. Emily is our heart child. Emily was always meant to be in our family.  This is not a second best for her or for us this is where God meant her to be. We are so glad and we are so very blessed that God entrusted us with her.

Never Alone

I have a couple of great friends that I serve with that when something they read brings me to mind they send it along.  I LOVE it because really what they are doing is listening to God's prompting and acting on it and almost always it is something that at the very moment that I receive the email is something that is "on my mind".  This happened tonight.  I received a devotional from another woman who thought of me when she read it.  I wanted to share it with all of you because maybe it wasn't just for me. It made me think that as a woman we have a tendency to take everything on ourselves or feel that we must do "it all" and do it all well and if it doesn't then we failed.  This devotion from Zondervan :

"It awes me to think that Jesus wants to help me to help Him accomplish God's desires for this world. I'm not alone in it. I'm not leading a one-woman parade. I don't have to weaken under the pressure. It doesn't all fall on my sagging shoulders. Christ stands with me ... And He's standing with you today too. ..Be comforted; it won't all fall apart without you. Jesus is saying to you, We (we) must do the works of God...Jesus has rolled up His sleeves to help me and partner with me? "
-Joni Eareckson Tada

That's really it isn't it? We have something that we need to accomplish but not alone. We need to remember this and that in all of our ministries that we have a willing partner.   Believe in all that you do that you are not alone and that whatever your purpose it can be accomplished no matter how big or how small "for nothing is impossible with God."Luke 1:37

True Love

I was awake most of the night last night.  Why?  I was thinking about what it means to truly love someone.  We throw around that God has called us to simply "love God and to love others". What does love mean?  What does love look like?

"Love is:

patient
kind
does not envy
does not boast
is not proud
is not rude
is not self-seeking
is not easily angered
keeps no record of wrongs
does not delight in evil
rejoices with the truth
always protects
always trusts
always hopes
always perseveres

It never fails!" 1Corinthians 13:4-8

Sigh...a work in progress that is what I am.

The Real Deal - Authenticity

A few months ago my husband told me to go to the car he was driving me somewhere for a surprise.  Surprises make me nervous but deep down inside I do love them.  He drove me to the Tim Horton's in Bedford for a Coldstone Creamery ice-cream. If it was just an ice cream that would have been awesome however it was a Coldstone creamery ice cream.  We didn't have Coldstone in Canada UNTIL NOW!Whenever we travel to Granger Community Church in Indiana you will find us, at some point,at the Coldstone Creamery for a treat and now we can be treated here at home.  As I sat in the Tim Horton's the folks dishing up the ice cream began to sing.  Yes I said sing.  They sang some cut little ditty about loving work and ice cream blah blah blah.  Which when done by the Coldstone Creamery folks makes me happy and want to eat more ice cream but when done by the older folks at Tim's it left me feeling all icky inside.  It made me think about authenticity.  Somehow the people at Coldstone seemed to be happy and mean it when they sang but when the same thing was done at Tim's it just fell short.  It was sort of like the happy birthday song at the restaurant where the staff would rather pull off their fingernails rather than sing to someone. We are all uniquely gifted as individuals as well as churches.  This is also transferable to any organization.  God has uniquely gifted churches with people who are skilled in certain things and He wants us to figure out a way to give that a way.  There is a certain problem or problems in the world that these specific gifts are needed to address.  We should learn from and recycle from other churches. However, we need to be very careful not to end up like the gals at Tim Horton's singing the ice cream song when they really should be singing the coffee song!  Those churches are growing and thriving within that framework because they have discovered who they are and are doing it consistently with excellence.  Another church could take that exact same thing and also do it consistently and with excellence and get not so great a result.  Absolutely learn and recycle but understand how that can be adapted to fit your churches unique shape. The same goes for individuals trying to be replicate other individuals. Be authentically you.  Embrace who God made you to be!

No - No - No!

I had lunch a few weeks ago with a good friend who I serve with at StoneRidge Fellowship.  We went to the restaurant directly beside this "place of business".  I wanted to knock on the door to see if they actually wanted customers.  This is classic "what not to do" if you own a business. "No you can't park" and in case you missed the first sign there are two more". "No you can't solicit"! No, No, No and No! It's also classic what not to do if you are a church.  I'm not simply talking about the signage I am referencing the fact that this business is telling us what not to do instead of what they actually do.  Often as a church body we are also focused on the No's or the can not's. Often those that do not go to church don't because of the perceived things that they think that they might not any longer be able to do. I've always been a strong advocate on focusing on what we should DO. We should be mobilized as a church within our church, communities and world.  We should be building relationships with people from all walks of life not simply those within the walls of our buildings.  We need to build teams that grow, learn and serve together.  We need to love God and love our neighbors. Sometimes I think that the "do not" part of faith is religion and there are too many people who have tried religion but haven't tried God! We need to learn to walk in grace and humility.

"Don't look down on anyone unless you are helping them up" - Jesse Jackson

Four Small Words Equals One Large Communion Moment

Just before the last session at Innovate09 we had the privilege to celebrate the Lord's supper together with everyone attending the conference.  Some of you may know or recognize it if I called it communion.  Since I was twelve years old and confirmed in the Anglican church I have been participating in the Lord's supper. However it wasn't until 10 years ago that I truly appreciated what it meant to partake in the Lord's supper.  I love it when God takes something familiar and adds a twist that I've never seen before.  There was a video played and I would suggest you go to the Innovate website and watch it (Session 8). These are my notes on the communion.  There are four different times in the Bible Jesus sat down for a meal with His people.  The miracle with the 4000;the feeding of the 5000; the last supper and the meal on the road to Emmaus. It was during these four separate occasions that he used the same four words: take, bless, break and give. In each of these instances Jesus took the bread, blessed it, he broke it and gave it. However, this wasn't just about sharing a meal, it wasn't just about bread and it wasn't just about His life.  Jesus always goes deeper.  This opened my eyes to something awesome and hopefully I'll be able to pass this along to each of you.  These four words that Jesus used over and over again: take;bless;break;give was a calling to all of us to what it truly means to be the church.  It is a calling, it is a challenge and it is a commission.  He was taken from heaven, He was blessed by the Father, He was broken on the cross for you and me and the world and He was given to us in His Spirit.  How does this apply to the life of the Christian? We were taken from other things to be part of the church.  God has blessed us. Many of us have been broken along the way and our lives are meant to be given to others.  We are God's plan for this broken world we are meant to give our lives to others as Christ gave our lives to us.  Christ was called to die but we are called to Love! Awesome.   

Size versus seismic - Innovate 2009

I'm flipping through my notes from the Innovate conference that we attended last week at Granger Community Church - our home and church away from home. So many great contributors and so many AHA moments from God for me. Shannon O'Dell pastor from Brand New Church a pastor who has a heart for rural America and Jesus said some things that I believe are very wise and worth noting for all of you.  The first was that "it isn't the size of your church but how seismic are you" specifically he was referring to the fact that size (numbers) isn't necessarily what should drive us but what impact can the number of people have on our church, our community and our world. It is the idea that we are to be seismic in our activity. Answer.com defines seismic as earthshaking...the shaking of the earth as a result of an earthquake. What is different because we are gathered together what has God gifted us with and how are we using that to make a difference. Size is a great measuring stick but size alone will not impact it's what the collective body does.  We are growing with a goal of being a church of 5000 and this just struck me that 5000 as a church on mission is unstoppable but 5000 as a church not outside the four walls is a "club" of like minded people.  I'll leave you with final words from Shannon (he's a guy by the way ...sorry Shannon) "Sometimes we are so concerned about our significance in the eyes of others that we'll give up success in the eyes of God". Let's be praying that the body of believers at StoneRidge fellowship becomes an earthquake that is so high on the Richter Scale that it is of epic proportions and provides life change that is incredible and that this change in our city would be unstoppable so "that the people would know that the great things of God have not passed"!

Photo copied from Innovate 09 Exposed.

Reflections

We arrived back from Ecuador 12 hours later than we were supposed to in the wee hours of the morning but we arrived safe and sound minus our luggage which still hasn't arrived in Halifax.  I've only got  one pair of shorts with me and a couple of t's because I happened to stuff a few dirty clothes in another bag but that is ok.  I've been doing lots of thinking about our trip to Ecuador and reflecting on the time that we spent there.  God worked big time in our group but for the purposes of this post I can only speak to my own life change.  I needed the time away.  With Mom's death and everything else going on in my life it wasn't until the 6:30 stroll on the beach at Camp El Faro that I realized that I needed to get away.  I need to regroup and I needed to pull away from all the distractions and draw close to God.  The people of Ecuador are wonderful loving people.  Many of the people and children we met were poor in possessions but rich in the love of Christ and full of joy. They exhibited the fruits of the Spirit in such a visible way and told us that "their house is our house" and that we "were family".  I began to see North Americans as people who measure their joy in stuff and possessions and these people showed me that you can have a one room home but if your children are there and your family is there and you have a relationship with God you truly can still have joy.  A revelation for me...I knew this but I've never seen it like I saw it there. I saw how God can work miracles in the life of a man who doctor's said could never walk again but yet he does.  I saw God reinforce verses that He had placed on my heart spoken over and over again as a reminder to me that He is there and in control.  I saw a man of great faith have his prayers answered for the building of new classrooms and the beginnings of a high school.  I saw how things like school supplies and t-shirts and other things that are so insignificant in our world be something to be cherished in another world to the south of us. I saw another church family encouraged by our willingness to serve.  We have made friends that will stand the test of distance and time.  God is good and faithful in all things.  These trips are life changing and are filled with God moments.  It was a privilege to co-lead these people who sacrificially gave of their time, talents and in many cases money in order to make a difference in another part of the world.  This is Acts 1:8 in action and brought to life and I was so glad to be able to be a part of it.  Children from the Heart is God's dream placed in our families heart.  It has taken a back burner with all that life has thrown at me these past 12 months but now more than ever I am determined to be used to make a difference and in Ecuador a difference can be made in so many ways with such an incredible local church to work and partner through.  God is good.  I am working through my pics to post my favorite shots over the next few days.