brooks, swings, games, and God all in PA :)

"Cheese" from PA
(and a little mischief!)

So here we are... over a thousand miles from home with no family and initially no friends. The Lord has no doubt sent us here to do His work and to be His hands and feet within the ministry of Faith UMC and we find ourselves in a position of being ministered to - WOW! It brings to my mind the old hymn that says "where He leads me, I will follow; where He leads me, I will follow; where He leads me, I will follow; I'll go with Him, with Him all the way." and also the old Audio Adrenaline song Hands and Feet that says "I am willing yet am so afraid! You give me strength when I say ... I wanna be Your hands. I wanna be Your feet! I'll go where You send me, go where You send me. I wanna be Your hands. I wanna be Your feet! I'll go where You send me, go where You send me. And I'll try, yeah I'll try, to touch the world like You touched my life, And I'll find my way To be Your hands....." We have found ourselves a thousand miles from what we have always known as familiar and what we have always considered "home" and have learned a thing or two! 

after a game of Rummikub
and we still like each other!!!

We have learned about ministering to others and all the while we have learned by way of example about how to minister to others. We find ourselves full of gratitude beyond expression for the opportunities to fellowship with other people, even just sitting around watching children play, eating a tomato sandwich with tomatoes grown and picked from someones garden that they wanted to share, or by a simple note of encouragement from someone who just wanted to say "thanks for what you do." We find ourselves in a position that I have begun to wonder if the Lord sent us up here for Faith UMC or if the Lord brought us up here to show us another means of grace in our own life. A grace that is far beyond the comforts of what you know and that you find in the shadows of the things you find frightful and lonely. Those moments when you are able to stand still after a day with new people and know that the Lord is doing a mighty work and not through us or with us. But realizing that He is allowing us to experience and watch a mighty work that He is doing all because HE IS KING! 

LLWS game - New Jersey vs Oregon

Pennsylvania is absolutely a beautiful place to be with beautiful people and warm hearts! It has taught me a thing or two that I have now added to my Southern Hospitality repertoire.  Pennsylvania  has also taught me a thing or two about the wonder of a new place and how new is good for the soul! It keeps you young and energetic, always willing to go

it really is the Goodyear Blimp!

 and explore a new place - because it is ALL new right now! I find myself wanting to share about what I'm doing more, take more pictures of our family and of Chip, and to just sit back and admire the amazing masterpiece our God has created! I have seen the greenest mountainsides that I have ever experienced, felt the passing of a mountain brook and watched it ripply by - is path only interrupted by a stone or a stick that might be in its way. We have also watched kids play

splashing in a brook -
one of my favorite pictures
as of yet in PA

on the biggest baseball diamond in a 12-year old's life, Little League World Series,  and experienced things that make me feel like a kid again such as watching the Goodyear blimp land at the local airport. I have had quiet moments with my husband that measure up to those first moments after I knew that we would marry and have seen expressions on Chip's face that replicate pure and absolute joy and peace in his little world! All of these things, I think, I find myself noticing because I want to take it all in and not miss anything or take the time up here for granted!

After a fun afternoon of
swimming. Resting and
warming up!

Isn't this the life we are called to live each and every day? We are called to in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to "Rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's Will for you in Christ Jesus." If I was here and missed what the Lord has given me and the place that God has brought me to because I was looking back to Alabama wistfully and with sorrow, would I be any better than Lot's wife? We are told in Ecclesiastes that there is a time for everything! I am not saying that I haven't had homesick moments, or opportunities that have passed that I didn't miss the south, but look at what all I would be missing if I were not getting up and fighting the good fight! What use am I to the God who sent me here in the first place and to the Kingdom, then? I told a friend on the phone the other day 

I see this as a jigsaw puzzle -
just beautiful!

that Tony and I had been through the refining fire that you, as a Christian, hear about and truthfully dread, and through the grace of God, the heat and pressure of the last 6 1/2 years of our lives have not burned or broken us, but they have refined us. They have continually changed and molded us into the people and the couple that we are today and we are so much better for it! Look where God has brought us now, on the other side of a refining moment in our lives, and look what He has done for us! He has blessed us beyond measure and beyond words!

   

a fun day at the Faith
UMC playground

All of this rambling tonight to ask you to live a little. If that means to borrow someone's toddler and go to a park and see everything through the eyes of the child, then slide down the slide and swing on the squeaky swings! If it means to find a new place and visit it and be 

we 'hatched' a moth!
SUPER COOL!!!

open to the wonder of it all that God has created, then go exploring! And if it means living through a time in your life that you don't fully understand with a determination that will last, then be refined and 
strengthened, and then endure the heat with hope! Be encouraged today! There is beauty all around you and a purpose that you are standing in the spot you find yourself in! Learn what you are there to learn and then take that into the world! Share the silly things you see that amaze you and laugh about the things that don't go as planned!

This is the view from just up the hill from our house. We don't see sunsets like this in Alabama!