Tennessee vs Iowa

Just a fun post for y'all....and remember....I love both states.

In Iowa, it's called a shopping cart. In Tennessee, it's a buggy.

In Iowa, your teacher's name is Mary Smith and you'd call her Mrs. Smith. In Tennessee, she would be called Mrs. Mary.

In Iowa, you would say, "I got an A on my report card!" In Tennessee, you'd say, "I made an A on my report card."

In Iowa, if you were misbehaving I may have to "get after you." In Tennessee, I would "get on to you."

In Iowa, one might say in fun, "Oh, she's crazy." In Tennessee, it would be "Oh, she's a mess."

In Iowa, you might order a pop to drink. Or specifically say I'll have a Dr. Pepper. In Tennessee, you would order a coke and then they would ask what kind and you'd say Mt. Dew (or whatever).

In Iowa, four inches of snow is basically flurries. In Tennessee, real flurries are a disaster and shut down the city. I'm not even playin'!

In Iowa, if you carry a hand gun you're probably in law enforcement. In Tennessee, you're weird if you don't carry a hand gun.

In Iowa, you wear camo to go hunting. In Tennessee, camo is half your wardrobe and you probably have dressy camo and casual camo.

In Iowa, I'm going to go to the store. In Tennessee, I'm fixin' to go.

In Iowa, your acquaintances at church are called by their first names. In Tennessee, they would be addressed as Sister Mary and Brother Bill.

In Iowa, if you asked a child a question and the answer was yes, they would probably say, "Yep." In Tennessee, the answer better be "Yes, Mame or Sir." or you could expect to be sternly reprimanded!

Can I just tell you about the birds here? I am fascinated by the HUGE flocks of birds in Tennessee. I have said many times that all the birds who leave Iowa when winter is approaching must come straight to TN!

In Iowa, you very rarely see a robin before the end of March. In TN, they are here year round.

In Iowa, you might see a blue jay or cardinal on a beautiful day but not all the time. In Tennessee, I have seen small flocks of blue jays and several cardinals together. So beautiful.

We have tons of pretty mockingbirds and lots of graceful hawks and I have heard that there a many eagles out at Reelfoot Lake.

And the coolest is Bob! Bob Crane that is....he was named by Randy and visits our pond when the weather is above 40 degrees. I love to watch him walk in the water, especially when the pond was way down. Not sure how he would do now that the pond is full again.

I love Tennessee!!! If I could move all my Iowa, MO, MN, NE, MI, etc. family and friends here, I'd have heaven on earth. :)

Missions Trip

Many of you may have heard by now but I am going to Turkey in June. An old friend of ours contacted me through Facebook last week and asked me if I'd be interested in ministering to some missionary kids. What? Me? Rick and Dianna Lang have been on the missions field for 20 years ministering in Lithuania, Russia and Siberia. They are organizing a yearly retreat for many of the Assembly of God missionaries from several different countries in the area. Dianna said she was praying about a children's pastor who would come and do kid's services for the week and I came to mind. Then later in a conversation with their missionary associate, Melanie Reed, who is also a friend of ours, Dianna mentioned the need and Melanie suggested me. Dianna felt it was a confirmation and contacted me.

I prayed about it and asked God to clearly tell me yes or no. I take any ministry opportunity very seriously but ministering to missionary kids is a whole other matter. They have been set apart and give so much more than we could ever imagine. After praying about it for a couple of days, I had the yes from the Lord. I will have to raise my own support to go as it is considered a missions trip. I don't know exactly how much it will cost but it will be in the neighborhood of $3500. It doesn't really make sense in this financially difficult time in our lives as Randy is unemployed but that has been happening a lot in the past year! :) God doing things that doesn't make sense in our eyes, that is. If I have learned anything it is that if I walk in obedience, God will bless and be faithful to see whatever through to the end. He does NOT start something and then not finish it!

Turkey! Can you believe it? God is already giving me sermons and I'm very excited about meeting these missionaries and their kids. Wanna go with?

The Last Few Days....

I have had a busy few days but they have been great. Friday afternoon some of us from church went to a children's and youth ministry combined conference in Dickson, TN. It was a fun road trip and we stayed in a super nice room. The main speaker of the conference was Randy Coleman who I knew from Des Moines First AG several years ago. He was the children's pastor there and we hung out at JBQ and camp. It was so great to reconnect with an old friend. He now works at Lifechurch.tv with Craig Groeschel on their leadership team. I had the opportunity to lead one of the workshops for the kid's side of the weekend. It was fun and I think it went pretty well.

Sunday was full but I was very excited to preach the message God gave me. We are in a series on Moses and I spoke on the 10 plagues and the Big Idea was inspired as I studied the scriptures and saw with each plague the statement "and Pharaoh's heart was hard." So the Big Idea was "A hard heart leads to a hard road." I encouraged the kids to always keep their hearts soft and easily molded by God. A hard heart led to Pharaoh losing his son in the 10th plague. Death is a pretty hard road!

I'm working on Saturday night's Daddy Date Night! We have a very special speaker lined up who is also singing and it will be so fun to see all the girls dressed up. Such a special time for them. Randy has a date, too. One of our girls that doesn't have a dad. Unfortunately, that is pretty common around here. He will show her a great time. Can't forget to order her corsage!

T.A.L.K.

T.A.L.K. stands for Teaching and Loving Kids. It's a networking group that I was a part of in Iowa and have tried to establish here in Tennessee. In Iowa, we did the meetings over lunch with people from all denominations and rotated to different churches as hosts. Here, though, I have found I am an oddity. (insert all your smart comments :) ) I am one of VERY few full time children's pastors in all of west Tennessee and the ONLY one in Union City. Soooooooo T.A.L.K. has had a slow start until I moved the meeting time to 6:30 PM so all the people who work other jobs can come and be inspired, resourced, encouraged, equipped, and connected.

I had the awesome privilege of meeting three ladies from the AG in Martin, TN last night. Martin is just 10 minutes away from UC and their church is a little smaller than ours. We had a great time getting to know each other and looking to see what materials we have that we could share with them. I hope they were encouraged as much as I was.

I love people who work with kids. They are unique. They are passionate. They are fun. They are my tribe. They understand me and "get" why I do what I do. You may not work with kids but you should also surround yourself with people who love what you do. Iron sharpens iron. They will help you grow and challenge yourself to be better.

Bible Basics and Sunday's Message

The Holy Spirit spoke to me at the end of 2008 that I was to focus on Bible basics for my kids and to use the superheroes of the Bible to teach those basics. We started in Genesis with Noah, then Abraham, Joseph and now we are heading into week two of Moses. I was praying for the life application for this segment of the Moses story and it leaped off the page of my Bible this afternoon. I'll be covering the ten plagues that fell upon the land of Egypt. As I was studying the scriptures, it jumped out at me. In each segment of the listing of the ten plagues, the verse repeats..."but Pharaoh's heart was hard." How great would it have been to learn as a child about the dangers of hardening our hearts towards the things of God? I want my kids to be tender hearted towards the Lord. A yielded, soft, pliable heart is a thing of beauty. Oh, some may look at it as a sign of weakness but I think it's a sign of ultimate strength! To be purposed enough to always give into God's plans, correction, teaching, rebukes, direction, and Fatherly love shows character, grace and submissiveness.

So many times we know exactly what God is asking of us and yet we harden our hearts and ignore His voice. We feel the sting of rebuke or conviction but we refuse to get out of the pew and walk towards an altar of reconciliation because we don't want others to wonder what is going on in our lives. Pastor Tommy says there is no shame in the altar...only the shame of not getting out of your seat.

Lord, I pray that this Sunday my kids will be in awe of the story of Moses and how you used a flawed and ordinary man in such a powerful way as bringing the ten plagues. But, Jesus, I pray that even more than awe they understand that a hard heart brings a hard road; a life of pain, disappointment and ultimately death. May those kids grasp the strength and blessing of a tender heart towards all the things of God. Use me God...

BGMC Winning Barrel

Here's my buddy Devon who's Buddy Barrel won the heaviest barrel contest at a whopping 12 pounds! The other guy is Tommy, one of the other team members from children's church. Devon was allowed to invite one other team member to go with us for our dinner at McDonald's. We are two weeks into the five week $500 challenge and already have about $250 towards me getting pink hair! So thrilled that my kids love missions giving and are having fun doing it!

New Name

Here is the new name and logos for our children's ministry at First Assembly. Let me know what you think. It is based on Luke 2:52. The JR. logo is for our toddler church area. My beautiful daughter Micaela is the designer! She is for hire if you need anything. We will be using this on a new back drop for the stage and on all print materials and maybe even t-shirts!

Springfield

I had a quick trip to Springfield to see my kids. I'm so thankful for any time I can spend with Micaela and Keaton! I got to Springfield just in time to pick up Micaela and head to Branson to meet Keaton for dinner. He was there for a ministry conference with the Iowa DYD, my old buddy Pastor Heath and two of my dearest friends Pastors Laurie Rich and LeAnne Krell. We all went for steaks at a nice place in Branson. It was a short but very fun visit. I'm so proud of all Keaton is allowing God to do in his life. He has an amazing year ahead of him.

After laughing a lot and eating a great dinner, Mic and I headed back to her dorm at Evangel. Friday brought a flurry of activity but started with a bit of time by myself enjoying a bagel and coffee at my fav Panera! I then met Mic back on campus for chapel time. Fun to worship with several hundred college kids! We went to lunch with another great friend, Lori Warning, who used to be a children's pastor in Iowa. Always awesome to catch up on what God is doing in a person's life. After lunch, we headed to James River Assembly of God to meet with their children's pastor and a couple of his staff members. They were so generous with their time and info and gave us a tour of their children's department. WOW....inspiring to see what could be. The minister to about 3000 kids on Sunday mornings!

Friday night we hung out with Mic's bestie, Jerrilyn, and some others. We went to their fav coffee house, dinner at Macaroni Grill (yummo), hit Mardel's Christian Book Store (amazing) and I RULED at Trivial Pursuit 80's Addition. Well...maybe not ruled but I did pretty well! It's so fun to hang with Micaela's buddies.

Saturday morning came too quick and on the road again. It's not a bad drive and only about 5 1/2 hours but long when you're driving by yourself. Always good to get home but sure miss my kids already!

Dropz of Hope

Check out the new blog for my buddy Angela's ministry to foster parent families! Dropz of Hope is going to touch so many people for the Kingdom of God and support families who open their hearts and homes for a generation of hurting kids. God Bless this ministry and those who serve in it!

Road Trip

I'm super excited...I get to see both of my kids!! I'm heading to Springfield, MO on Thursday afternoon to stay with Micaela for two nights and a huge bonus is that Keaton is in Branson at a ministry conference so we all can have dinner together Thursday night! Woot Woot!! I can't wait to see them. I also get to see all of Micaela's buddies, which is always a good time, AND four of my other dear friends from Iowa! I am a blessed woman.

I have a meeting with the children's pastor from James River Assembly of God on Friday and am getting a tour of their facility. I've been to Springfield several times but never made it over there to check it out. I'll have my camera ready cuz I'm sure there will be ideas to be stolen...I mean shared! :)

It will be a quick trip and I'm traveling alone so say a prayer for me. I'm sure y'all will get more details than you really want to read when I get back.