Overwhelmed!

I cannot begin to understand all that has been happening in my life this past week. God has been working big time, through so many people, books, music, movies, blogs, just life in general and I'm struggling to process it all.

I've been in my Bible a lot this month. I'm doing a reading plan to read the whole thing through this year. But I find myself doing several days reading at a time. For the first time in my life, I just cannot seem to get enough of God's word! It's amazing. I admit it started out with my need to finish things once I start them, but now it is just a thirst for the word of God!! I need to thank the amazing ladies in Thursday night Bible study. We are studying Romans. And the study is good. Women genuinely trying to get at what GOD is trying to teach us. We are not making excuses or trying to twist the words that fit more comfortably in our lives, we're just asking the Holy Spirit to talk to us, to teach us.

This past Wednesday, we had a community dinner at church. We do them once a month. Nothing fancy, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread. No charge, just come and meet your neighbors, make new friends,etc. There is no hard sell, no sell at all, just the opportunity for us to serve. The first month we had mainly people from the church. But each month it has grown. This past week we had 80-90 people. People who attend Grace Church, brothers and sisters from other churches in town, old friends, new friends, people new to Norwood. Very cool.

On Thursday, my friend, Erin, had a beautiful baby boy. He is so beautiful And because we are women and couldn't wait anymore, we called her at the hospital and were able to talk to her right after he was born. And we prayed with her. Gotta love cell phones that allow conference calls.

Saturday morning the whole crew went to a Community Breakfast at New Bethel Baptist, also in Norwood. Several of our church people were there and lots of other familiar faces, friends, family in the body of Christ. I couldn't help think, as I was cutting pancakes for the kids, "this is making God smile! His children coming together to break bread."

This was the beginning of my migraine. A stress migraine because even good stress is still stress. So, as I was sitting on the couch, with lots of pain medications, we through in a DVD that I got for $5. Facing the Giants. All of us watched. It was wonderful. The kids liked it so much we watched it again on Sunday evening.

Sunday. Where to start? A former student of Kevin's came to share his testimony. He was an alcoholic, homeless, watched his father die, lost the love of his life, was let go by the rest of his family. But, he found Jesus in a Taco Bell. He was approached by a woman who offered him shelter, took him to church, led him to Jesus. He spoke to us a good 90 minutes. A really good 90 minutes. Using the parable of the prodigal son. Now, if you are not Methodist, this might not seem unusual to you, but a 3 hour service is really unusual. Praise Jesus, almost everyone stayed to here this young man tell us how Jesus delivered him. I can't tell what he said in anyway to give it justice. But I will tell you that after the service, he gathered up our youth and took them into our prayer room and prayed with them for an hour. I don't know what was said behind that closed door, but I know he loved on those kids with all the love that the Holy Spirit poured out on him.

I was blessed to hear even more of the amazing things God has done for him when he braved lunch with Kevin, the three youngest kiddos and I.

And blogs. I love reading blogs. But there was one that really brought tears to my eyes today.

And so tonight, once again my head hurts. Thank you,Jesus, for overwhelming me! Thank you for this headache caused by good stress, not bad. And Lord, please, continue to overwhelm me with You !

Celebrating Life

On Saturday, the ladies of the church and friends and family of my friend, Erin, gathered to celebrate the life of her son Caleb. Caleb is scheduled to enter this world on the 26th of January. Of course, he might disagree with this date, but that remains to be seen.


Erin and her 'cute husband', Keith, are obviously thrilled to be expecting their first child. A child who will be loved and cherished. We, her family by blood and through Christ, are happy to celebrate this new life with them.

In church on Sunday, we celebrated All Saints Day. They day to celebrate the lives of those who have gone before us to the throne of heaven.

7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7) These are the words of Paul. You see, those of us who belong to Jesus are called saints.



We had six church family members go to be with Jesus this year. And we celebrated their life. And we celebrated our lives in Jesus Christ.

And we should celebrate. We are eternal beings. Born to love God. Born to be saints. We should celebrate the lives of children to be born. We should celebrate the lives of the saints who have gone before us. And, as the saints here on earth, we should celebrate the gift of our lives as children of God. Saved by the blood of his son, Jesus.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19)