Being the Church

It has been a long time since I type in this space. I have tried many times but putting into words what has been going on in my heart has been hard. God has been good, He is a God who has heard my prayers and has answered - not so much in changing my circumstances, or dreams because really a lot has not changed still in the same place but he has again, changed my heart and has filled me with HIs Peace, Joy and Love... but that will be an entry for another day.

Right now I want to capture a truly God filled day yesterday - a day that will lay in my families memory bank hopefully forever.

Our church has been studying "Tale of Two Cities" The city of God and the city of man for the last 6 weeks. Through the leading of the Holy Spirit - we were challenged to "Be the Church" not attend church - and part of this was taking our Sunday church gathering out for two weeks and challenging us to go out on our street corner, prayter walk, gather in homes, pray, seek God as families, enjoy the Presence of God and celebrate.

I woke up to a beautiful day - the sun shining - I got my ipod on and went for a power walk - worshiping Jesus - everyone else stil sleeping. My heart bursting with thanksgiving for all the blessings that God has poured out for me and my family.

After my walk everyone was up and we gathered in our living room f0r family church. We spent the first half of the morning declaring who God is. Asking for His Spirit to dwell among us and showing himself to us. Reading Psalm 25 and then talking about what Fearing God means. The kids during prayer declared who Jesus with to them - as parents we were humbled. The sincere prayer of kids is powerful.

We memorized Ijohn3:16 - talking about love is - Jesus extrodinary love for us and then how we are commanded to love others. This lead us into a of prayer of repentance.

Next we were goingto go prayer walking in our neighborhood - except in my mind I was struggling with this - we live on a busy street not sure how to do it as a family. So Ally suggested that we go on our roof and pray over our whole neighborhood...

So thats what we did and man did we expereince God. Looking over our neighborhood, gazing at the beauty and feeling a cool breeze. It is undeniable how real God is.

I should add though that God brought me through my HUGE fear of heights. IT was not pretty going up and coming down for me. Fear overtook my whole body. Now it is hiliarious but during it was real and paralizing. But my gracious husband and kids were very patient with me. Believe me they seen a side of me that they never knew (and neither did I) Another great reminder of how weak we really are, and we need each other to cheer us on.

After that wonderful morning we went to the beach with Jake and Tory Weilhower and the Sharma family. The sharmas are a family we have come to love so much. They are a refugee family that has come over from Bhutan they have been here for 3 months now. We have helped them get settled into life here. Its our deepest deisre that they come to know Jesus. It was a beautiful day at the beach - it was fun to bring them there - they have never seen such beauty.

And we ended the day with a campfire with our great old friends - The Dyks - along with danmike and chels. laughing at stories being told by dan. Yes a great day - a Sabbath that we as a family will cherish forever in our hearts.