Quick Post

Just a quick post to say I am beyond excited for the Giant Haystack! I'm nervous about not knowing how much food and how many prizes to have but it will all come together. I've been getting a lot of great feed back about the fliers we passed out at the schools. Our event was announced on three radio stations, too. We just want to be a light in our neighborhood and provide a safe alternative to Halloween tricks. It will be fun to see how many come dressed up. I don't have time to even think about a costume! Pics and more tomorrow....please pray for us. The weather couldn't be more beautiful. Last I heard it's supposed to be 73 degrees today! Can I get a woot woot for Union City and Jesus!?

Three Days...

Until the Giant Haystack! I can't wait. Randy and I delivered nearly 3000 fliers today and am so thankful for the opportunity God provided. It was such a beautiful day here and by Friday, it's supposed to 69! Can I get a woot woot? Perfect for the haystack! I still have lots of things to do but it's all coming together. It being the first year to ever do anything like this in Union City, I'm not sure how many bags of candy to prepare. I have enough candy to do 350 bags but may get more tomorrow night when folks come to church. We have 500 hot dogs to grill! I am just praying that we can touch many families with some love and friendship and FUN. Building a bridge in our neighborhood!

We have about 200 bales of hay being delivered tomorrow afternoon. Should be quite a sight. The gentleman that we are getting the hay from is excited about our event, too. He's giving us a great deal on the hay and delivering it himself and picking up what we don't split. Sweeeeet!

Side note, Sunday was Pastor Appreciation Day and our church treated us like royalty! So many thoughtful cards, gifts, and a HUGE grocery shower. I'll probably only need to buy milk and bread for a couple months. I found out that some of the older folks in the south call a grocery shower a "pounding"...never heard of that before! For only being on staff for a month, I sure felt loved. Praising God daily for bringing us here.

Second side note...my friend Chrysti back in Iowa had her first baby today! A little boy named Qwintyn Forest Weeks. Can't wait to see some pics! He's an absolute miracle from God.

Third side note...my buddy Devon called from Iowa just to chat. Oh how I miss that boy. He has a birthday coming up, gonna be 15. He and his mom are trying to plan a trip to Tennessee. Sure pray that can happen.

My Kids

My kids..."Pinky" in light blue and Ricky in orange.

This afternoon, I got to experience something new. Here in Union City, we have a Boys and Girls Club that is very well attended and MUCH needed. Many of my new kids go there after school and when school is out, some spend all day there. I met the chief professional officer and the club director, who I have heard run the Club with excellence and love. They were awesome to watch in action as they had a gym full of kids there to receive recognition for making school honor role. Two of "my kids" got straight A's!! Not an easy feat considering some of the things they have to endure.

Several of the kids who ride the van to church were present and it was a little funny to see their expressions when they saw me there. And then... it touched my heart when I got hugs and invitations to come back and asked to come to school programs and those huge, huge smiles. It's hard to understand why some children have to live the way they do. I can only pray that what I do makes some sort of impact and positive addition to their lives. I hope that I can make them understand how much Jesus loves them and how they may still have struggles but Jesus is always there with them, helping, loving, leading, empowering and teaching. Those faces make me pray harder and determined to help them be chain breakers and warriors for Christ. We must be intentional in reaching this generation as time is running out before Jesus returns.

I hope I have an opportunity to spend some time there. Maybe it will be another door the Lord will open. Say a prayer for the club...please.

God's Favor

Just a quick post as I'm at the office but had to stop and give God some glory! I found out on Monday that I have been approved to pass out fliers for the Giant Haystack at UC Elementary and all FIVE county schools, too! That's over 2500 fliers in the hands of our mission field. It was more that I even asked for...isn't that just like God!? I may need some extra hands for the job...anyone coming from Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Oregon, Minnesota, etc. to help? :)

Weekend Stuff

I can't believe I did my fourth Sunday service in Union City! Time is clipping right along. It was a great day in Kid's Inc. We were missing a few regulars due to a nasty flu bug going around here but had a new family and two families that hadn't been to church in quite a while (I was told) come back.

We have been in a series about prayer and today my old friend Lucy made her debut with a doozer of a story that ended with her learning about intercessory prayer. The kids seemed to think Lucy was a little crazy and a lot funny so I think she'll be welcomed back. Good ole Lucy Elizabeth Christina Josephina Smith. And, of course, her BFF, Bear. Tennessee kids are hesitant to kiss Bear just like Iowa kids! Too funny. The story was about Cindy Woo. as Lucy pronounces it, but when the straight person said Cindy Woo, Lucy would get frustrated and say, "NOT Cindy Woo....Cindy Woo!" Then one of the kids would say Cindy Lou and i would reply, "That's what I said! Cindy Woo."

After church, I fed the Kid's Inc. team some of Amy's famous chicken and rice. (side note....it would have tasted oh so much better if Amy would have come here and fixed it for me personally) After we ate, we had our first full team meeting and I think it went well. Everyone is always on board with changes and tweaks and it sure makes my job a lot easier. It's a great group of people who have the biggest servant's hearts. We got some planning done and a whole lot of vision casting. Thanks team!

Following our Sunday PM discipleship classes, we were invited to have dinner at George and Evy's house. We had the best potato soup EVER and as good as the eats were, the fellowship was even better. Our friends Ken and Debra came along, too. It's so cool how the family of God can bind together in a small amount of time. Feels like we've been buddies forever.

Heart of Compassion

Wednesday night, Pastor Tommy preached an awesome message about having compassion towards the lost people around us who need Jesus. It was such an inspiring word and lined up with what I've been praying every day. I've been asking the Lord to show us people everywhere we go that need some love, compassion, and hope. I know I'm guilty of going about my daily life and not being aware of divine appointments that I'm sure are all around me. I'm asking God to help me pay closer attention. Is my agenda so important that I can't take five minutes to stop and really talk to the grocery store clerk or the cashier at Walmart? Am I too busy to be kind to a person I pass on the street? Am I so afraid of rejection that I can't be bold enough to invite someone to church? What about that server who is knocking themselves out to take care of my dining needs? Can't I appreciate it enough to tell them about our church and maybe have God make a huge difference in their lives? Maybe they have kids who have never heard the name of Jesus. Get over yourself, Lori.

Pastor Tommy used an example from his own life that just happened the other day. He saw a woman who was obviously hurting with the cares of life. He was on a mission and got in his truck and pulled away and the Holy Spirit spoke to him and he knew he had to stop, go back and talk to that woman. When he turned back, she was gone. He had missed a prime opportunity. I know most of us have had that happen and probably on more than one occasion.

This is my prayer today....God, help us to be more aware and in tune with what you are showing us as opportunities. Let us see past the outward evidence of sin and have compassion. Let us not assume the person who seems to have it all together is "right" with you because of appearances. As Pastor Tommy said, let us see people through Your lens of redemption. Lord, people scoffed at Jesus for hanging out with tax collectors and such but let us not care what others think. Let us have Your heart and remember You died for ALL. Amen!

Awesome Sunday and Even Monday

We had great services in Kid's Inc. on Sunday morning! We had 60 in the children's department and five brand new kids to love. I preached the first part of a three part series on prayer and our first sermon was based on Matthew 18:18; I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven. Our Big Idea was "Jesus Gives Me Authority!" As I preached about the authority we have in Jesus name, I also taught how we cannot receive that authority until Jesus is totally in control of our lives and we have received Him as Lord and Savior. Seven children came to Christ that morning. I am praising God for each soul and humbly asking God to allow us to minister to more each week. We spent part of Saturday afternoon visiting some of our van kids in their homes and I saw first hand the suffering that these babies endure each day. I left there broken and overwhelmed at the needs but trusting the Lord to give us the time, manpower and resources to reach these kids. I am so blessed to have a team of people who have servants hearts and are open to me changing and tweaking things. Together, we are going to do our best to reach out to a cross section of kids in our county. I found my pastor in the Kid's Church area Sunday morning praying his heart out for the kid's services and I was so thankful for him taking time to come back to do that. We always pray together on Sunday mornings but usually in his office. I know his prayers made a huge difference.

The Lord was showing me this morning in prayer that the Giant Haystack is going to be the first slat in the bridge that we need to build into our own neighborhood. Our church is blessed to be located in a very nice section of the city. When you drive down the streets you see nice homes with new cars and all kinds of "toys" that the whole family enjoys. Their lives are seemingly perfect...they have what appears to be all they need. But they are as lost as those in that needy area of town. They may look happy on the outside but they have sin, dispare, loneliness, addictions and sadness just the same as anyone. God, please give me your creativeness and wisdom to know how to bridge the gaps and love all who need you!

Monday meetings are very exciting. No...really...I love Monday meetings. I'm NOT being sarcastic! It's a joy to go over all we need to do because our team is operating with like-mindedness and the attitude that we are working together. It's not the children's department vs the youth, or that "Big Church" is the most important. We are all supporting each other and it's fun to put our heads and hearts together for this vision for Union City! We pray together over each area and seek God's leading. It's great, too, that we can laugh together! We do know how to have fun and everyone is finding out all my quirky ways and have plenty to tease me about.

Ladies Retreat

I had a wonderful time at our Ladies Retreat last Friday and Saturday. We traveled about one hour from Union City to Paris, TN to the conference center at Paris Landing Tennessee State Park. It's located on the Kentucky Lake and was breath-takingly (is that a word?) beautiful! Our speaker was Kelly Woods, the pastor's wife and worship leader at Raleigh Assembly of God in Memphis. The girl could flat out sing AND preach! She really challenged us but we all fell in love with her sweet personality and passion for Jesus.

I got the biggest kick out of my pastor's wife, Deana. She was a hoot playing Spades with some of the gals and I got to witness her competitive side. She's soooo much fun and so real around everyone. Love, love, love her! We had to laugh at ourselves because we kept getting turned around in the hotel and loosing our way.

It was fun getting to know some of the ladies in the church that I hadn't been around very much. Everyone enjoyed some girl time, which I know doesn't happen often enough for most.

Giant Haystack

Here it comes...Union City's first Giant Haystack! On Friday, October 31, we are reaching out to our community with a city wide event to help redeem Halloween for the Lord! This family fun night is right in the backyard of Union City First Assembly of God, 1810 Pleasant Valley Ave. The evening starts at 5 PM and will finish by 8 PM and we will be serving FREE hot dogs, hot chocolate, and coffee. Every child attending receives a bag of candy with all of our church information. Kids will enter the Giant Haystack in age groups, 3 yrs. old- 6th grade, for a 15 minute mission to find a specially marked ball to redeem for a prize. People are encouraged to register for our family gift basket with something for the whole family! The drawing will be at 7:45 PM, after the final group in the haystack. Invite the whole city!

Entering the Giant Haystack:
3 yrs. old – 5 yrs. old (preschool) 5:30-5:45
Kindergarten – 2nd grade 6:00-6:15
3rd – 4th grade 6:30-6:45
5th-6th grade 7:15-7:30
(if needed, we will have additional times for larger groups)

Meetin' the Mucky Mucks and Cool Stuff

Tuesday night, we had a dinner hosted at our church for all the Assembly of God pastors in our section of the district. We had the pleasure of meeting the Tennessee state superintendent and some of the other leadership. One guy I was super impressed with was the state District Youth Director, Terry Allen. What a great guy. He and I have had a few e-mail conversations but we got to talk about one of my favorite things in person....CAMP! He showed a video of one of their youth camps and I just sat at our table with tears running down my face as the video highlighted kids lost in worship and prayer. I cannot wait to take my new kids to camp! It was nice to meet some other area pastors and our dinner was delllll-ish. Can't beat Joe's Steak House and their flat iron steak!

I had a great meeting with the assistant principal at the UC Elementary today! God is opening doors for us to have opportunities to spend time with kids and have influence. Thank you Lord for these opportunities and may we be good stewards with each path you are clearing. The principal invited me to come to their programs and said "We would love your presence at any of our events or programs." Wow! I am praying hard for the schools to allow me to do a Character Connex by next fall. I truly believe that if UC is gonna be won for Jesus, it will be greatly dependent upon children leading them! The kids of UC are going to be "chain-breakers" in this community. It's a place where single moms abound and in Jesus name that will no longer be the "norm"!! As we touch kids with the love of Jesus and are careful to disciple them, they will carry the Gospel to places I cannot go and influence a circle of people I cannot influence. It thrills me to think how Jesus is going to do this and keeps me crying out to Him for inspiration and creative thinking to reach as many kids as possible. I have my third principal meeting scheduled and I'm praying for more favor.

Tonight, before service, it happened. I felt "the connection" starting. I had two little girls who are sisters come find me and give me some un-asked-for hugs and they were super excited to tell me the scripture verse from Sunday. I was so proud of them and Pastor Tommy arrived just in time to hear the older one recite the verse. I get so blessed when a child can tell me what they learned 3 or 4 days later and sometimes even after a month when you aren't sure if they are listening. God's Word never returns void! I've had so many parents and church members tell us how thankful they are to have us in UC but they don't understand it is we who are blessed.

Randy's foot is doing much better and he is able to walk some without the crutches. Yeah! He is still waiting on job news. I am at peace about it...trusting in God's perfect timing and fully confident that He is my source, not a paycheck. We are praying, of course, but not panicking.

Sunday Update

Can you hear my sigh? I just sat down to unwind. :) What a great day! The weather has been nothing but picture perfect here in Union City since we arrived last week. We had one hitch in the week that involved a trip to the Baptist Hospital ER. And it wasn't for me! Randy's right foot was super sore after loading the truck and driving for so many hours. It seemed to be getting better but Friday morning he stepped down and heard a loud pop and was suddenly in horrible pain and couldn't put any weight on it. Off to the ER for xrays. Thankfully there was no break but a horrible sprain involving crutches, ice and being house bound for a few days. I'm telling you, he'll do anything to get out of unpacking boxes! Hee hee. He's doing better and I think he'll be up and around by Tuesday. Unfortunately, this delayed the unpacking a bit. Grrrr...boxes. You know me, I'm a get 'er done gal and this is trying my patience. How can a person have so much patience with children and very little in such trivial areas?

Today's services were great. We had some technical glitches but I think I can figure out what I need to change...just have to play with our Media Shout program. We have a great problem that we need to iron out. We have so many kids who want to ride the van that we are making multiple runs. We are in need of some extra hands to man a staging area for the early arrivers on both Sunday AM and Sunday afternoon for discipleship classes, Rangers and MPact girls. Like I said, great problem to have and I'm so thankful that we have such an awesome facility in our Activities Building where we can greet the early van kids and let them blow off a little energy. So this week me and Jesus will be spending some extra time together to figure this all out. Like my pastor says, "I need to get the mind of the Holy Spirit on this." Glad I don't have to solve it alone!

Micaela has a couple friends coming home with her for Thanksgiving. Yippee! I can't wait for our new church family to meet our girl and for her to meet them. I think almost every time we talk I mention some other person or family I want her to meet. I know she'll love Pastor Tommy and Deana, Pastor Justin and Hope but there are so many others I want her to meet. People who are so precious like Ma and Pa Smothers! The just ooze the love of Jesus. Thanksgiving will be super fun but not the same without Keaton. He'll be working at the Apple store. Retail...whatya do?

I'm looking forward to Friday afternoon when the ladies of the church will be leaving for a little women's retreat. We are traveling to Paris....Paris, TN, that is! Excited to build some relationships and get to know more people. Our speaker is a pastor's wife from Memphis. Sounds like there may be a little shopping involved...even some window shopping will be fun.

How's Your Prayer Life?

How's yours? Mine has been evolving the past two years. I love the following quote that I found on one of my fav blogs.

"Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. God does nothing but in answer to prayer." — John Wesley

I cannot pretend to be some incredible prayer perfectionist. Sometimes I'm sure God wonders if I can make anyone understand what I'm trying to spit out but He knows my heart, mind and intention. I'm sure sometimes my prayers are selfish and spoke in frustration. But none the less, it is communication with my Father and He would rather me fumble through what I'm trying to say than not spend time with Him at all. Thank God (literally) for the Holy Spirit and having the gift of a heavenly language that is perfect and only understood by the Lord. Prayer builds my faith, especially when my faith is lacking. You may say, "Duh, PL, everyone knows that." But when our faith is lagging, we don't always think clearly enough to do what is obvious.

When I think about the vision God has given me for the children of Union City, I am overwhelmed with a sense of unworthiness and that there is no way I can accomplish what He has asked me to do. I hope I always feel that. What, you say? I want to always feel like everything and anything that I do relies on God. I can work hard but I need to pray harder! Like Mark Batterson says, "I need to work like it depends on me but pray like it depends on God." Lord, please let me always remember that!

I have learned the power of praying right on the spot when a need arises. I have tried to stop saying, "I'll pray about that." and start saying, "Let's pray now." I need to get better at it but I'm practicing. One thing that I'm learning about my new pastor is that he is an incredible man of prayer. I want to learn to be more like that. He will spontaneously start praying while having a conversation about something and I LOVE that. Does prayer come naturally? Not for most. For most, it's a practiced habit. When I teach kids about prayer, I usually speak about how they get better in a sport or activity when they practice. Same goes for prayer.

One other thing that I have always known but haven't always taken full advantage of is praying scripture. How better to communicate with the Lord than using the very Word He wrote? Jesus did it....if it's good for Jesus, it works for me!!

Randy and I have not always made it a habit to pray together and I can tell you it makes a HUGE difference in your marriage relationship. It not only binds your hearts together in a beautiful spiritual way but it has this amazing trickle down effect that changes the dynamic of your whole relationship from daily conversation to even the bedroom. Yes...I said it! (Micaela is now officially embarrassed.) Try and prove me wrong, if you'd like! What do you have to lose? Pray with your spouse...and I mean more than dinner time. :)

What works for you? Early morning, late night, in a quiet, private room, on the spot, when you can have a list in front of you, in your car. I have to be careful how I pray in my car. I have been too emotional sometimes and about drove off the road cuz I can't see through tears. Anyone care to weigh in?