Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Boy What a Long Time!!

Boy it was been a long time since either of us has posted anything! We have extermely busy! Since the last post we have moved, and it is one of the biggest blessing of last year. It seemed like we had given up so much to move to Texas, and for Scott to Pastor the church. But, in reality God gave us so much more!! I have been so happy since we have moved in. I have a kitchen that I am able to really cook in and it has been great spending time in there! Scott, said shortly after we had moved in that "it seems like all we do is spend time in the kitchen", and I said I think it's great!
For Thanksgiving we were blessed to have Scott's neice and her family come and spend a couple of day with us!! We had lots of fun with Roger, Mindy and the kids. During this time I was given a new title which was Grandma. That was okay, it may be the only way that I am Grandma!
Two weeks after that we were blessed to have missionaries come and stay with us. We were previlaged to have them come and stay with us and it is one more perk of having our house!! The weekend that they were here, we had our Adult Christmas activity. Instead of the normal party with people fighting over a gift, we went to Marshall and we're able to see the beautiful Christmas lights! We had the church van full, plus 10 other people who ended up riding in cars. We had a great time of fellowship over dinner together, and then walking around, watching people ice skate, and children wanting to see Santa, there were also a few adults (from our group, who will remain nameless (one of them was me)) We all had a great time togethe, and it may be something that we do again, or maybe we will change it around to where we go. Then we had our first Christmas Program, and we had a wonderful turn out. We almost ran out of food for the fellowship time afterwards. It was a great time and all of our people did a wonderful job! Christmas we were able to go to Houston and spend a couple of days with Mindy's family once again. It was a real blessing, Mike and Scott were able to see one another after several years of not being able to do so. It was a Great Christmas, and it was good to be able to spend that time with family. New Year's eve we invited all the church people to come over and help us celebrate the New Year with us! It was a great time with everyone, and it will be something that we will do again sometime in the near future! Everyone really had a great time, and I did too! Such a blessing to have them over, and to be able to share the house with them, that they have provided for us! God has truly blessed us with many wonderful people in the church, and they are lots of fun to hang out with as well as to serve the Lord with! the New Year has been great so far and we are looking forward to what the Lord is going to do with us and also with Faith Baptist Church! We are expecting great things. I guess that is all for now, I pray that the next time that we are able to write, that we will have more blessings to share of what the Lord is doing in our lives!!

We Are Moving To Kilgore!!!

Finally, we get to move to the same town as the church! We are so excited!

We have looked at 4-5 homes to rent in Kilgore, but nothing was working out. Rent is so EXPENSIVE!! Well, a local real estate agent has been working with us and she said she had a house open. She gave us the info and we went to look at it Friday afternoon and looked in the windows. She was out of town on Saturday, so we set up an appointment to look at the house on Sunday afternoon, which worked out great because we were able to take our deacon and his wife to look with us. We wanted another set of eyes to look at the house with us. We filled out all the paperwork and gave them our deposit on Sunday, because the houses for rent in Kilgore rarely last more than 48 hours. It is a tough market for renters. I told the church on Sunday night to pray for God's will. If this is the house, make it happen.

Well, the real estate agent called on Monday morning to tell me that 3 other people put in for the house on Sunday. Oh NO!....Well, she said, the good news is...They want to rent to you. Really, I said. Yes, she said, I told them you have no kids, no pets and he is a Pastor in town, they are the perfect renters. Well, I don't know if that is true, but they agreed with her. Yeah! And she says they are going to put in a new stove and doing some work in the kitchen. God is so good!

Anyway, we get to start moving in a couple weeks. We have about a two week overlap between the house and the apartment. Which is great because that gives us time to clean up a little and not have to move everything hurriedly. Yeah!

It is a great house. It is an older home, but is larger than most. It is a country setting on the edge of town. It is a 3/2 with a 2 car garage. and it sets on an acre lot. It will be great for the ministry!

Did I say we were EXCITED! God answers prayer!

Also, not to make it of any less importance. We had a great Missions Conference. The Lord really blessed in all the services and we are thrilled at what God is going to do this coming year with our missions program. Bro. Chestnut did a great job and the people just loved him. We were able to take up a special offering for his ministry in Romania. It was a Great Conference.

God Bless

Busy, Busy!!

Boy have we been busy since the last post!!

We have been to Florida, seen many of our wonderful friends there. We also had the opportunity of being in Disney for several days! Believe it or not it was a very relaxing time! I think it was a great decision going there. We already knew what was there, so we didn't run around trying to see everything at once. We spent lots of time relaxing and also enjoying the great food that was provided on the food plan their offering right now. We ate at places, we would have never had the opportunity to eat in otherwise. The Lord truly did bless us on our vacation.

We also were thrown into the ministry while on vacation. We had one women, who had cancer, when we first left they had given her two weeks to live. Well, she just about made it, and we rushed home trying to get the opportunity to see her one last time. Well, we did not make it home, but the Lord knew that before we ever left Texas to start vacation. Scott did have the chance to speak with her about her wishes before we left, just to show once again that the Lord knew!! Our church family did a wonderful job of being there for her husband and her also, while we were gone! I was so proud of them, they truly were a testimony about what a GREAT church family is suppose to do for each other. We also had another women who had to have open heart surgery while we were gone, and the doctors really did not expect her to make it through the surgery, but our God had other things in mind, and He was not done with her yet!! Today she was suppose to be coming home. What a miracle, I thank the Lord that he allowed me to see his mighty work. So our first week home it was spent at the funeral home and also the hospital. Then we took a small week of just catching up in the office, and we just couldn't continue with doing nothing, oh no, we needed more work. So we began really working on the Sunday School hall way and some of the class rooms. Scott is trying really hard to get it all finished before Missions Conference, which by the way a week from tomorrow. Just one more thing to add to our list. Those last minute things to take care of. I sometimes think that those are the hardest ones to take care of.

It may sound like I am complaining, but really I am grateful that the Lord has place me in the position of serving him. I have been given the opportunity to begin a Kings Kids program on Wednesday nights, and I am also teaching a Sunday School Class. It is great to be able to touch kids lives again. I have missed working with the teens, and I may be working with those who are a lot younger, but really I am looking forward to really building relationships with all of these kids. I have already seen two of the kids whom I believe are ready to seek the Lord for His salvation. It's really amazing that you can see the Holy Spirit working in their faces as they think about what your teaching them. What awesome gift God gives us in allowing us to have a part in showing someone the road that leads to HIM! I just pray that I don't fail, and that I don't ever back down from what they are truly needing to hear! Jesus loves them and He died for their small souls just as much as he did for those of us who are adults and we take it for granted! Except we come to him as a little child!

Enough rambling! Scott is taking pictures of the halls and class rooms that are being changed, so sometime in the near future, we will post them, and let y'all see what God has allowed us to do with his church!

For he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are called, and chosen and faithful. Revelation 17:14b

Senior's Lunch

We had our first Seniors Lunch today. Whew! What a wild time we had. There is certainly still a lot of life left in this bunch. We enjoyed a delicious meal, some good singing, and some fun fellowship. We talked briefly about a name for the group. We haven't decided on one yet but the name "Fruit Loops" did come up!? Also, we discussed some activities and ministry projects we would like to accomplish together. Overall, it was a grand time. I can't wait till next month! Here are a few shots of the day.

Don't ask about the last one---Miss Charlene was in a zone.

God Bless and have a great day.

Let me leave you with a verse I shared with our Seniors today:
Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 1 Pet 5:3 (KJV)

Our Travels

Here are a couple shots from the Brookshires' Wildlife Museum

we went to see with Mom and Dad

Here are a couple shots from the Rose Garden in Tyler

This week we are in the middle of our Vision Building School. It is going great. I will report back later and put in a couple photos of the fun and development.

Here are a few verses I want to share with our folks tonight:

1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; 3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

-Psalm 133:1-3 (KJV)

We're doing Fine!

We are doing fine! We have been visiting with Scott's parents. We did some site seeing while they were here. We went to the Brookshire Museum, the Rose Garden in Tyler, and also the Board Walk in Sherveport, LA. I think that we all enjoyed our time together! We also got in a couple of card games, which we won't mention who won. It was an ugly time when it came to that!!! We have some photo's I will have Scott post those soon! We still didn't get around to seeing the Oil Museum, maybe sometime in the future!

We went last weekend to check on a camp, that has been given to the Temple Baptist Church & Clarence Sexton, to run. The camp's name is Independent Baptist Youth Camp. It was a very encouraging time for both of us. Scott was not able to get peace about what camp to send the kids to camp this year, so they didn't get the opportunity to go. We have been praying that the Lord would direct us to the camp He wanted us to attend. After the meeting it truly felt like we had an answer to prayer! The philosophy is what we want our kids to be exposed to, and Pastor Sexton, wants camp to always be an uplifting place for our kids to be at. We sure do miss the camp that we were attending in Georgia! Venture of Faith was our answer to prayer in Florida and we're praying this camp will be the same for us here!! One of the great things is that the camp is only 3 to 4 hours away from us! Less travel time. Also it's close enough that we can take the teens and juniors on seperate weeks. We're already heard from one of our teens that teens going by themselves was going to be fun! Anyway that was truly and encouragement to both of us!

We are having a "VBS" this week, and no it's not Vacation Bible School. We're having Vision Building School. We will all sit down together and share what we want to have the church do to reach our community, but how we can also help each other have a closer walk with the Lord. Where do you want to see your church in 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years from now. We want the kids to realize that this is their church as well, and their opions really do matter! We're both very excited about what this can do for our church! But more importantly it has potenial of bringing us all closer to the Lord if we will allow that to happen!

Next month we will have one of our teens going off to college, the church will really miss having her, around all the time. We are all excited about her desire to attend Champion, and we're all excited to see how her life will change because of this step away from home, and what she is really comfortable with. She will do wonderfully! So pray for Donna, and also her parents, their nest will be empty, so just keep the whole family in prayer!

Scott and I will be celebrating 21 years of marriage next month also! Boy, it seems like only yesterday, we were those two young kids walking down the isle, our life truly has changed since then! The Lord has truly blessed our lives together! We have done some really fun things together, and the Lord has moved us all over, but we've been together so it couldn't have been any better! I am thankful that God allowed the two of us to be together all these years, I am grateful for the wonderful loving husband, who really loves the Lord, and really wants to please Him! I have the BEST HUSBAND in the whole world!

Enough of the running on! Keep us in your prayers, we're going to start working on the Church some more next month, we need to start on the Sunday School areas and get those cleaned up and up to date! More work, it shouldn't take long, but it will be exciting to get it all finished! So keep checking back, I am sure Scott will post those pics. also!

Well, it has been a while since either one of us have said anything on here! Yes, we are alive and we are doing well. We have been doing the normal things in life, of work and church! Sunday, we had a wonderful day! One of our largest crowds and there wasn't a special occasion, and the kids were not doing anything special, the Lord just blessed us with a full house and it was great! We also had two more families join our church, what a blessing, we are growing! We had a meeting for the whole church last night, the men had a meeting and the women had "Ladies Nite Out" (our monthly ladies meeting) there were 24 people that came out and we had a table of desserts, for everyone to share when the meetings were over!

We're really learning to enjoy East Texas, and we are so excited about the time when we can move over to Kilgore!! No Longview, is not that far away, but we want to be closer to the church, and the community. We're learning Kilgore pretty well, we know Longview very well, just ask, we can tell you where just about any store or restaurant are, Not that we should, but we can find the food!! But, we still have 6 months on our lease, we're hoping that we will be able to find something here in town when the time arises!

We will begin working some more on the church again soon!! We want to get the halls and classrooms painted and new carpet put down. We would also like to put a kitchen in the other building, and continue using the large room for the fellowship hall. It won't be a complete kitchen at first, but as time goes on we will do all the necessary work and get it finished. We are so excited about what the Lord is doing here, and the renewing spirit that is taking place. In the buildings, but most especially in our hearts!

We serve a Mighty God and He is worthy of our praise!!!