Perspective

Ok, I have been chastised by several friends now, who say they actually want to READ this blog, but can't because I never update it...so I guess I apologize :)

Last week Chiara had surgery, so Brian and I spent the weekend there and we didn't meet with anyone else. It amazes me though, how we can see the Hand of God just reach down and touch people...even when we are not looking for it.

Chiara did really well with being sliced open! The recovery hasn't been as hard as we thought it would, she is really a trooper, and hasn't been as pitiful as you would think.

While we were there, there was a little boy across the hall who was on strict isolation...we felt so bad for him! But he got to go home on Saturday night, and Sunday morning a little girl was moved into his room. I was coming down the hall when I saw them wheel her in...she looked like a mummy. Literally, every limb was completely encassed in guaze and wrappings. Her little face was poking out, and her mama walking beside her looked so tired.

I walked into our room and saw my little girl sitting there, watching Diego for the millionth time (gotta love that hospital On-Demand, that was so cool!) and just resting and looking all normal except for the IV, Cathedar and Epidural. It reminded me, once again, that it's all a matter of perspective...no matter how bad off we think we are, someone out there is always worse. And that person is probably looking at us thinking they are glad they aren't going through what we are.

Anyway, Hand of God...at approximately 2:12 in the morning, my daughter was still awake. Apparently she reacts to Oxycodone the same way I do...which is to be completely wired and not sleep for days. So here we are, wide awake (mommy not so much, but what else could I do) and watching Diego, again. I went out to get her some applesauce, since she was awake she might as well eat...and I heard laughing. It was loud for 2:23 in the morning, and it startled me.

It was coming from the mummy girl! She was laughing so loud! I stood there, mystified, and her mother came out and said, "Oh, is she bothering you? I can make her be quiet."

To me, at 2:49 in the morning, that statement sounded like the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. The sound of that little girl laughing, all wrapped up like a burrito, was about the most wonderful thing I think I could have heard. It was a gentle reminder from God to keep it all in perspective.

I wonder how much Lazarus laughed, when being brought back from the dead. Do you think that Mary and Martha apologized for his laugh to the passersby that may have been wallowing in their own self pity over their situations? Somehow I rather doubt it. MR

(Obviously this isn't Lazarus...it's Cameron in his Halloween costume :)

Apparently my walls were too clean...

So, it has become apparent that I will only post to this blog once a month. I guess I have just gotten busy, with Chiara's doctor appointments (which are plentiful lately, but still no flu so thank You, Jesus) and with my business (which is moving a little too fast for our liking, but I am working to reign it in).

Most of the families that meet in our little part of the Ekklesia have been meeting on their own lately, we have just not been able to coordinate schedules so far apart. But we did meet yesterday and have some exciting developments to share:

Doug Belton had been out of work for the summer, and he got a job managing security at the Coliseum in Minneapolis...a huge burden lifted for their family.

Carrie Ellison is still out of work, due to back problems that only get worse not better...Doug even offered her a job, but she can't be on her feet all day. Please pray for her body to cooperate and for the Lord to show her what she should be doing.

Chris Steiner's friend Marcus moved down to Faribault and they started a band. We are hoping that Marcus will meet with us soon, so far it hasn't worked out due to scheduling. Chris also showed us a copy of the first CD he produced...we are so happy for him, God is allowing him to use his gifts, now if he can just get a steady gig ;)

Kim Steiner has a friend from MOPS that is volunteering this week for a homeless shelter...apparently they have a Men's area and a Women's area, and then a family area. Her friend signed up to make coordinate a meal one night for 70 families...the volunteers provide all the food, serve and clean up. I said "we wanna do that!" so I am in the process of getting that info and our group is going to plan to committ to working there one night a month. What a great way to show the love of Christ to people who need Him!

I leave you with pictures of how Caden redecorated Cameron's room...Kim said "Oh look, now she can draw circles" I on the other hand was not as impressed with her artistic ability as her mother was...said mother now owes me 2 Mister Clean Magic Erasers

A real update on our part of the Ekklesia

Some of us got together a few weeks ago for UFC 102, and had a great time. We met early for grilling and some bible study, little fellowship, lots of food. Then we played games for a time while waiting for the event to start...Carrie and Kim both cheated at dice. When it got around to fight time, we all squeezed into the living room (there were a lot of us :) and watched one of the most knock-out packed cards I've seen in a long time. One of the guys who works for Brian came and brought his girl, she had worked all night and fell asleep, poor thing. Everytime something cool happened we all screamed and woke her up, but I think they had fun anyway ;)

Last week we got together twice...Friday night we went to Farmington and cooked out at the Beltons. Doug called Carrie "Kim" and I made a killer chili dip. We talked about Jesus, prayed for people we know and had a great time. Then on Sunday the Beltons came to Owatonna and we met at our house. Doug did a little teaching on Imago Dei...is that too heavy for this blog? He did an awesome job leading a great discussion about the image of God, but I cannot do it justice here. He actually wrote an article about it on his website, www.simeonconnects.com, and I highly recommend checking that out.

Here is what I learned...I have betrayed God, many times. And sometimes I feel like Judas, but I wanna be like Peter. They both betrayed Jesus, but while Judas just felt sorry for himself and killed himself, Peter learned to look inside himself, hate what he sees, and then truly change and live for the Lord. I want to be like that.

I think that's what Jesus meant when he said (of Peter) "on this rock I will build my church" (Follow me now, I know that if you read that in context it is really talking about building the church on the rock of Truth, not Cephas translated "the rock"....I payed attention in "church" and when Brian went to seminary I learned a lot of stuff. So I don't have that Catholic mindset that says the church is built on Peter, the rock) I think Jesus is saying that he wants us, the church, to be like Peter...to understand that we have betrayed him, learn from our mistakes, come out on the other side with a fire in our souls for the gospel, and spread it out to everyone like on the day of Pentecost. He wants to build his church from people like that...people like Peter, who weren't perfect even if they claimed to be, but realized it and got down and dirty with the truth so they could change. I wanna be like that...Make me like that. MR

Oh Lord, I suck at blogging

That seems most irreverent, I am sure, but I guess if you don't like it you should stop eavesdropping on my conversations with God! (that's what you are doing you know, when you listen to someone else pray. I'm not talking to you, or for you, I am talking to God, and you are just listening. If you think you can do it better than me, be my guest, but while I am eavesdropping on you, I will probably still be talking to God silently)

Egads, again almost a month has gone by since I wrote anything down here. I could blame it on the kids being back in school, or my business being so busy, but once again it really comes down to laziness. It's not that I have nothing to update you on...we have been doing plenty...its just that I am very lazy. I promise I am working on that, but as Yoda and my husband say, "there is no try, there is only do or do not"

So what's up with you? How has your personal time serving the Lord been going? Have you been talking to Him? Have you been listening to Him? How about meeting with others with a like-mind...been doing that? Taught anyone something lately? Let anyone listen in on your conversations with God?

Just figured that it doesn't always have to be about me, or what we are doing. Maybe you have something to say...spit it! Might change someone's life, or at least their perspective on God. MR

2 meetings...1 mind

It actually happened this week!!! After months of un-planning, there were 2, that's right 2 meetings of the Ekklesia held this Sunday!!! That is very exciting for me.

Ok, so we had talked about meeting at Lynda's house on Sunday, because it is so central for everyone. But we never finished "planning" it, and then I found out Brian had to work. So he said, let's have the Steiners just come over to our house early before I go to work (The Beltons were out of town, sort of) but I forgot to call them. So Sunday morning rolls around, and our family all just mosey on into the living room and have a meeting by ourselves, which we often do.

But here's the cool part: later on, after Brian went to work, I called Kim and couldn't get ahold of her. Eventually, Matt texted me about our impending "hangin and bangin" party (more on that later) and I asked him "where in the world are your siblings?" He said that they had spent the night at his house last night and that in the morning they all had....CHURCH!!!

There you have it, spontaneous Jesus-following. I am really excited!!! In our home, we decided to read and discuss the Sermon on the Mount, but never made it past the first Beatitude...typical :) We will continue that discussion I am sure. At the Ellison home, they discussed the difference between disciples, mentors, apostles and all those terms we give to people, what they mean and how to live them out. Good stuff all around...my kids and I ended up going over to the Ellison's later and hung out too :)

Next Saturday is UFC 102, so we are taking a page from Becky and Josh Boyd's book (please continue to pray for them and their group) and having a "hangin and bangin" party...church starting at 4, grillin and chillin, then the event starts at 10. Come on over...Lynda's place. MR

The JSC

I can't even put into words how nice it was to meet with our friends on Sunday. I was so happy to be meeting with them again after so long.

The Beltons, the Steiners, Carrie Ellison and I had a great time of fellowship. We prayed for a friend of ours who is really lost in a sea of selfishness right now, she has lost her fire for God because she is putting all her effort into other people. Pray for C please, we did and continue to, and I know God will be faithful in those prayers.

Doug and Chris did something fancy with a computer, I don't know it was way over my head :) The girls and I talked and are trying to figure out what God wants us to do with some relationships we have. The conclusion we came to is this...people who call themselves sisters in Christ should also call a spade a spade. If we can't be honest with each other, then there is something wrong with our relationship with Christ. So we must first work on that, then be willing to be honest with each other and try to help each other right wrongs and conquer bad guys in our own lives, then help others do the same. Like a little Jesus Superhero Club. I will call it that now, the JSC.

I did work for the JSC today, and drew first blood on my above mentioned friend C. Prayerfully she sees my heart and will honestly assess her situation. Kim did work for the JSC yesterday, in regards to another important woman in all of our lives, but I am not sure I can call that out here...not really my place. What are you willing to do today to be more honest with yourself, more honest with the people around you, and more honest with God? MR

Couple of meetings

Since we've been back from Vegas, we still haven't met with the Beltons:( But we are this Sunday, the 16th, so anyone brave enough can come to Farmington at 2, we will be there, rockin out.

Last Sunday, Kim, her sister Carrie Ellison, and I met at Kim's house. Husbands working, kids driving us nuts, we sat and watched Louie Giglio and that made us feel good ;) We talked about struggles we are having, mostly with family members. People are still having a hard time understanding what it is we are doing, how this could be as good as "real church" and that makes them scared. I understand that, I am just past it.

My new friend Becky from Vegas, her family is the same way. If you could take a moment to pray for the Boyds, that would be great.

Last night, Matt and the Steiners came over to have pizza and hang out. I told him I thought he was avoiding us, he said he is avoiding everyone. But he came anyway, and we talked a lot about what he's up to, where he's headed and what he's thinking :) We did a little studying in 1st Corinthians and also talked about faith...deep discussion, I missed part of it by going out for ice cream.

I (puts hand on heart) promise to do a better job of updating the blog. Like I said, not too many people read it, but at some point they might and I need to be more faithful :) Pray for me for that please :) Come meet with us Sunday! (is that proselyting?) MR

SLACKER!!!

Once again, I find myself back where I've always been. If I am not held accountable, that which I would do, I do not do, and that which I would not, I do. Guess I am a little bit like Paul, but not the good bits (hmm, that sounded disturbing, but I am leaving it)

Me and Brian in front of the fountain at Excalibur

Ok, a month has gone by since the last post...Here's a low down. Brian and I went to Vegas for UFC 100 and were there July 9 to 13th...while we were there, we made a connection with some new friends, Becky and Josh, who do house church in Sin City, and even though we didn't get to meet with them, we are bonded in Christ and this thing called ministry, and we are looking forward to being a prayer support to them as they are for us.

In the Octogon

While we were out there, we went to Red Rock Canyon, it is so awesome! Anyone looking for some useless knowledge can check out my Facebook page...it has an album with Red Rock pictures in it. We hung out there, hiking and havin church together. It was great...we really needed the time away.


This is a little tree we found growing out of the face of the limestone at Red Rock Canyon. It was really high up there, just growing. What really struck me, aside from it's beauty, was that it was all alone, growing in rock. I remembered the parable of the sower, the seed sprinkled on rocky ground. If you know someone with a hard heart, if you feel like you have been beating your head against a wall...maybe they could at some point be like this tree. MR

Fellowship and Fireworks

This week we decided to switch our meeting of the church to Saturday this week, naughty I know. Oh well, it was fun anyway.

Brian has been establishing a relationship with a co-worker for a while now. "E" lives pretty close to the Church at Farmington, so whenever we are going to be up there Brian invites him. He never comes, but doesn't act totally closed off to the idea. This week he decided to come check it out and hang out with us for the 4th.

When I asked Brian if E was a believer, Brian said, "Kind of." Doug and I got a kick out of that, saying things along the lines of, "Is that like being kind of pregnant?" Anyway, E may have made a decision at one point to follow Christ, but He is certainly not the Lord of his life...E doesn't exhibit any signs of being a true believer, except for the fact that he is convicted of his sin. So that's a start.

We had a great meal and were talking about mixed martial arts at dinner. After dinner the women retreated to the living room to discuss whether or not we were trying save our children...and if that's good or bad. The men stayed in the kitchen and discussed salvation with E. Interestingly enough they covered various subjects from the Bible to Oprah, and just as the conversation started to get good, E decided he needed to leave to go see the fireworks. Brian, not to be discouraged, gave him a parting gift of telling him that no matter what, Jesus is still the answer and no amount of psychobabble was going to change that.

So we will see what happens at work this week. Please pray for E and for Brian's conversations with him. Next week Brian and I will be in Vegas, and then the week after we will be camping with our kids. Anyone wanting to meet will need to put on their big kid pants and take care of that themselves ;) MR

I just realized it's Friday...5 days since I was supposed to post about our last meeting, oops! We met at Big Woods State Park again, that is so much fun. Something about being out in God's creation that just makes me feel good.

The Roberts, the Schiells and the Beltons (minus Justice, plus Maya's friend Avery) all met and we decided that if we want to meet and start cooking at 1 we should tell the Beltons 10, lol. They did show up eventually and we had a great time of food and fellowship.

Various things were discussed at the meeting, not the least of which was our (mine and Brian's) impending trip to Las Vegas. I surprised Brian with a trip out for UFC 100 - we are staying with family and going to all the hullabaloo, but not the fight because we can't afford tickets. We are in the process of looking for a church body to meet with while we are out there, and part of our discussion focused on this. We also talked about Revelation, Jesus' command to make disciples, the Parable of the Sower and politics...yes, we were there until about 7 pm.

Ryan felt led to suggest we celebrate the Lord's Supper together, and we had a great time of remembrance with each other. Avery was confused about what to do, being a believer but still shuffled off to children's "church" she of course had never been involved in Communion before. So we were able to teach her what it meant to remember the blood and body of Christ and celebrate that together.

Good times had by all! We will be meeting on the 4th for fireworks and church at the Belton's.

Can you hear me?

Wow, we had a great meeting on Sunday in Faribault. I know that Brian wants to expound upon some of the things we talked about, so I will let him work those thoughts out and post them here when he is ready. In the mean time, you can check out Simeonconnects.com for some great stuff from people from our group there as well.

Do you know what the voice of God sounds like?

Right now at the Roberts house, we are trying to make a few tough decisions. So, since there are 3 believers here, we all decided to pray for a few days, and listen for God to tell us which of 2 specific things was the right thing to do. We explained the importance of this to Cameron, the 9 year old, and talked about Jesus, James, John and Peter in the garden. We prayed together and covenanted to pray over the next few days, asking God for an answer.

Today we came together to talk about what God said. Brian and I both got very clear answers, the same answer (go figure :) Cameron said that he didn't hear from God. We asked if he thought he had put in the time speaking to God the way he should have, and he of course said no.

Here is the thing...if you don't speak to God on a regular basis, how will you know what His voice sounds like? I hear all the time, from non-believers and believers alike, "I asked God for an answer but He ignored my prayers" Well, my response to this from now on is going to be, "Do you talk to Him enough to know what His voice sounds like?" Perhaps He is screaming at you, but you can't hear Him because you are not in-tuned enough to His "frequency".

Lynda Ellison and I were at a ministry event the other day, and saw a woman standing a few feet away that we recognized from another ministry we are involved in. So we went to say hello, because that's what you do. Mary Anne, the other woman, looked at us as we walked up and after we said hello, she said, "I thought I recognized you standing over there, but didn't know who you were until you started talking." I laughed and said, "Oh man, is that bad?" and she said, "No, I just recognize voices. Once you started talking, I remembered who you were."

God isn't like Mary Anne...He recognizes you immediately because He created you, every hair on your head and the breath that you breathe comes from Him. He doesn't need to wait for you to start talking before he realizes who you are...He wants you to talk to Him though!

You should be like Mary Anne...as soon as God says something to you, you should recognize the voice as His and be ready to listen. But you never will if you don't open those lines of communication. MR

This week's thoughts...from Brian

I was listening to the radio recently. A song came on from a famous country music singer named Tim McGraw. The song is called Live Like You Were Dying. It hints about a guy who found out that he was going to die in the very near future from a disease of some sort. In the opening verse his buddy asks him, after he gets the news of his impending demise, "how'd you take it, what did you do?" The song then breaks into the chorus: I went sky diving, Rocky mountain climbing, I went 2.7 seconds on bull named Fu-Man Chu... The second verse then describes that this news made him a better man, a better husband, a better friend. Essentially this news caused him to do all the things that he wanted to do and hadn't done. It caused him to get his priorities straight and to finally be the person that he knew he was supposed to be.

The scripture is clear that sin has brought death into the human experience. Where once we walked along side a Holy God in a perfect place, with no thought, feeling or concern of death or dying we now have to suffer the consequences of our actions. The wages of sin is death. The subject of Tim's song comes to this realization in his 40's, the words tell us. He realized through the doctors information that he is, in fact, dying.

But the simple matter of it all is that we are all dying. From the moment we are conceived in our mothers womb we are destined to a physical death. It shouldn't take a doctors note or a painful message from a police officer or a verdict from a judge to make us realize that we, and everyone around us, are dying. I guess because most of us think that we have "time", we don't live like we are dying, to the point of Tim's song. But the song makes another crescendo building point. The writer tells us to ask ourselves, "if you were living like tomorrow was a gift and you had eternity to think about what you'd do with it...what would you do with it?" What would you do with tomorrow?

For us believers the fact that we are dying right now is not breaking news, nor is it very scary. Maybe the way way we will leave the earth is scary for some of us, but mostly the destination seems exponentially better than our situation right now. But I have to ask, if this was your swan song, if this was you last moment, if the fat lady was in fact singing for you right now...what would you be doing...saying...thinking? Would you be the best husband you could be, would you have your priorities in the right order...would you be leaving a legacy that is eternal? Would you leave behind thoughts, memories and words about yourself or about your Savior? Will the writings of your life be those of a rock star or a disciple of the God of the Universe. I heard Louie Giglio say this..."the Name that is echoing through the corridors of heaven, is the Name of Jesus Christ." When all others names and accomplishments are dead and gone, the Name of Jesus and the cross of Calvary will be on the lips of the eternal for 10,000 millenia and beyond.

If you are living like you are dying...and you are dying, whether you realize it or not...will you leave anything eternal behind? Buildings or houses?.. will one day fall to the ground. Wealth or an inheritance?.. will one day be spent or stolen. A rock star resume or university degrees?.. will one day be forgotten. A beautiful love song or breath-taking painting?.. will be replaced by another song or painting. A fortune 500 company or brand new invention?.. will one day not be so fortunate or new. Religions and traditions?.. will be challenged and changed.

But if you leave nothing but the person of Jesus you leave The Way, The Truth and The Life for all who would look. When they remember me, I want them to remember Jesus...just Jesus.

I hope someday you take the chance to live like you were dying. BR

Hospitality, baked not fried

Wow, have you ever seen my apartment? It is small, like 700 square feet including the storage areas small. Yesterday we had a meeting here, and there were 17 people here. That's a lot, considering we used the kitchen, office/dining area and living room only (cuz, come on, let's face it, no one really needs to go into my bedroom...) It was AWESOME!!! You couldn't go anywhere without stepping on someone, it was very cool. And 2 of us were trying to cook in my little kitchen...haha that was an adventure.

Have you ever taken one of those churchy "Spiritual Gift Assessments"? You know, where you answer a bunch of questions and they give you your top 3 Spiritual Gifts? I won't tell you what I really think of those...I am sure you could guess :) But I have taken them, several times, and the answers were always the same - Administration (tell me where that is in the Bible), Mercy (I'll by that) and Evangelism (I believe that a true assessment would have shown up as Exhortation instead, but whatever). I think you see where I am going...Hospitality is not one of my gifts. I LOVE having people over, but I am bad at it. However, yesterday was so much fun. I was not nervous or edgy at all! I did throw a toy at Kim when I found out she let her 2 year old eat yellow cake with chocolate frosting in my son's bedroom, but she cleaned it up herself and all was better.

Here is my point...I AM GROWING!!! I know that there is probably a lot of speculation about whether or not this "is working" and can we really "do church" this way. Do we really fulfill all the scriptural commandments for a church meeting? Are we really growing closer to God? I think the answer is yes, and I think yesterday was proof of that for me. The point is to get rid of all the distractions and focus on getting to know God better...we really do that. Is there still rabbit chasing, yup. Are there times we get ready to leave and realize that we never sang, there sure are. But we are seeing growth, amongst the adults and the kids. All 3 of the nine year-olds sat with the adults for almost the entire meeting, and that's amazing.

Next week, we will be meeting at Lynda's house in Faribault, around 12. A lot of people will be in town, visiting or getting ready to do Berean's camp. It should be a lot of fun!

Tammy's test...

Help! God has told me to do something. It involves (as usual) an enormous test of faith.

Why is it that God always asks you to do what doesn't appear to be ... right? At least at the time it looks like He's got to be crazy!

But I know that He's in control - how do I walk through this without so much fear?TB

Ekklesia Praise reports

This past Sunday, Doug presented a really awesome praise report to the group. It wasn't your typical "God gave me what I asked for" praise, it was so much more real than that. And it got me thinking....

I asked all the people who have been meeting with us to send me a praise report. Not a lame one, like "Cameron got a really good report card" but a raw and bleeding before Christ, even if it doesn't look like a blessing it is, only God could show off that way PRAISE REPORT!

I will post them here, or if they come in the form of a comment I will just leave them as comments. I am still getting the hang of this blog thing, and I wish there was a way that other people to could post instead of just having to comment. Oh well, I will get it eventually!

UPDATE...here is Doug's praise report. Keep them coming!

Knowing that my time of employment was soon coming to an end, God left me an awesome bread crumb trail of information that allowed me to leave the company the right way. By way of His blessing, I was able to sustain my family and start up two new businesses that with His grace will not only sustain my family but become a blessing to others as well.

1st God put me in a car with two other managers while they were discussing severance packages. At that time I knew nothing of severance packages and had no intention of leaving my position, so while the information was interesting, it seemed at the time of little direct importance to me.

2nd The day I knew I was on my way out, God put me in another meeting wherein two different peers discussed the importance of a person quitting the company before being fired in order to receive a severance package.

3rd About 30 days before I left, God reached out to a coworker/friend whom I had not spoken to in months and prompted him to contact me. When I told the friend I was on my way out of the company, he put me in touch with someone who had gone through almost exactly what I was going through a couple years earlier. This man, a brother in Christ, gave me detailed instructions on how to get the best possible severance package.

4th God gave me the courage to do exactly what this brother in Christ told me to do and the result was a package much better than what I had expected.

God is good!

June 7...Fruitcake in Farmington

Well, last week (May 31) a bunch of us went to the Big Woods State Park in Faribault for a picnic and hangin out. TAMMY was supposed to write a blog entry for that...hmm, notice it's absence! We (the Roberts), the Beltons and the Schiells had a blast, grilling too much meat, eating too much watermelon and discussing politics...yes, politics. It was fabulous and hopefully someone else will eventually tell you about it ;)

Yesterday Brian and Chris Steiner both had to work, so Kim stayed home (slacker, good thing we aren't being religious or you would be in trouble). I took my kids and went to the Beltons, were we did some boys against girls baking and watched "Fruitcake and Ice Cream" from the Passion series by Louie Giglio.

If you haven't seen this video, I highly recommend it. I really like all of his stuff, he has a way of relating complex matters of science and God in a way that is easy to understand. This talk was about Grace, and I really needed to hear it this week. About reconciliation between ourselves and God. About how Jesus didn't just come to sign our list of sins with His Name and then we could get into heaven, but how His Work on the cross accomplished something so much more than that...all our wrong being put INTO Him, and all His right being put INTO us. I loved how Louie said, "A person like me could become a person like Him" And the redemption story at the end of the video was so powerful...highly recommend it. I know I already said that, but it's true.

Maya asked me a doozie this week..."What's spiritual warfare?" Wow, I did my best to explain it, she said she understood. What I love about our group is that every time we meet, someone (whether a 9 year old or a 35 year old) will ask a question that opens up so much discussion and prayer and study. It's awesome how God works, to put together the people that have questions and the people who know where to find the answers. You are amazing, Lord.

Next week, I think we are going to be at the Steiners in Faribault. Till then, MR

So, this week its a song

My girls and I have been working on various things in our personalities and personal lives that God has been trying to dig out. I wanted to post these lyrics to a Jennifer Knapp song, they are sooo true.

A Little More

Turn Your eyes from on this way
I have proved to live a dastardly day
I hid my face from the saints and the angels
That sing of Your glory
What You had in mind
Oh, my weakness shines, shines
Show me grace

A little more than I can give
A little more than I deserve
Unearth this holiness I can't earn
It's a little more than I can give
A little more than I deserve

For all the sin that lives in me
It took a nail to set me free, ah
Still what I do, I don't wanna do
And so goes the story
What You had in mind is that
What we seek we find
Shine, shine Show me grace

A little more than I can give
A little more than I deserve
Unearth this holiness I can't earn
Its a little more than I can give
A little more than I deserve

With all this motivation, I still find I'm hesitating
Deep in my soul, oh oh oh
Despite all my demading, I still find You understanding
Show me grace, show me grace
I know its a

Little more than I can give
A little more than I deserve

Before and After Garage Pictures

Thanks to Kim for all her hard work in taking and posting pictures! I know that was a big job.

Ok, this is the BEFORE picture...

This is the HALF WAY picture...all stuff to repack and keep

TA DA!!! After 3 full days of working, one 6-foot and one 20-foot dumpster, we finally had a beautiful finished garage!

We also found some treasure! Here is Matt holding up a full set of Raisin Guy figures from Hardees, circa 1990. Also in the bag, a full set of Smurfs.

And we found someone's wedding dress! Yes, that's me...no, it's not mine.

Please be in prayer for us as we try to figure out what God would like us to do for our next ministry project. This was such a great work; we all really bonded with like-minded believers and we knew God's money was being used for His kingdom. We fulfilled the scriptural command to care for widows and got to hang out witht the church. Nothin better. MR

Garage Ministry, Part Deux

DISCO TIME!!!

We finished Lynda's garage on Sunday. Woo hoo, it was a great feeling. I am waiting on Kim Steiner to supply me with pictures, ahem. She is a busy mom, with 2 small children...well, make that one small girl and one small Tazmanian Devil...so I am sure she is cleaning up spilled milk somewhere and will get me the pics when she can :)

Wow, we did so much this week, it's hard to remember it all. The Beltons, including Justice which was very awesome, The Roberts (us), and the Steiners all went to Lynda's for the garage minsitry, and there we met with Lynda and Matt (her son) Ellison. We actually got to Lynda's early, before she was back from her institutional church service, so we plugged in our crockpots and hung out with the church until she came home. We had a rousing discussion about things we are teaching our children, how to make sure we don't pass on any frustration or animosity to them...good stuff, good ideas.

We ate, of course, and had a time of music and Bible study outside. It was a gorgeous day in Faribault, so we took full advantage and bothered the neighbors with our singing. Cameron, Matt and Chris even did a pretty good accoustic rendition of "Jesus Freak" During lunch, we discussed Doug's new website, Simeonconnects.com. There he is starting a Book Club, and we discussed what approach to take on secular books. Our conclusion was that we should read them as a group, because God may be speaking something to a non-believer's heart that we could illuminate but only if we have common ground. The comment was made, "what if I am subjecting myself to undue worldy influence; I don't feel strong enough sometimes to withstand, so I just avoid it." Lively debate ensued, because the Bible DOES say to flee temptation, BUT locking arms with fellow believers and pushing yourself toward that refining fire will make you stronger in the Lord. This was a great discussion and of course, I couldn't put all of it here, but if you have questions about this subject matter, or any, feel free to contact us!

We did eventually move into the garage and clean the rest of it...and it is definately big enough to park 4 cars in. We decided that a disco ball was in order, and that we aren't too religious to dance. We also received an unexpected blessing from the experience...we found an old canister, Slim Jim I think, that had $116 in it!!! So we used some of that to buy pizza and had dinner together too. All in all, a fairly productive day.

Who has an idea for our next ministry project? Who has an idea for Simeon's book club? I am still not sure that anyone reads this, but it is fun to do, and maybe someday another religious burn out will stumble upon it and realize that it is ok to let go. MR

Garage ministry...Part One

Argh! These are pics of the back of the garage!

Here is the view from the front Here is the back corner, dread!

We had actually worked an hour at this point!

This past weekend, we decided to do Garage Ministry for our friend, Lynda Ellison. Her life/house has just been returned to her, after having been taken over in recent years :) As such, her garage looked like, how shall I put this?...a dog's breakfast. Previously, she had rented a dumpster, with every intention of cleaning out the garage, but then it was again taken over and we never really got more than one foot into it. So, Tammy Belton said, "Do we need to do garage ministry on you?" And the answer, as you can see from these before photos, was a resounding YES! All of us who have been meeting together have been putting our 10% into separate accounts, to be used as we, individually or as a group, see fit for ministry. This qualified, and we pooled our money, rented the dumpster and got to work May 9th and 10th-yes, Mother's Day, but it's what we wanted to do.

I am rubbish at putting photos on here, but will do my best to get them on. I can't seem to figure out how to put on captions! All of these are before and during pictures. We need to finish next week, as the dumpster was full and will need to be dumped and then redelivered. I will post final pictures when we are all done. Suffice it to say, there was only a small path before, and after she will be able to park 4 vehicles in there. Wow! MR

May 3rd...Pianos, Enchiladas and Trampolines, OH MY!

I have found that if I am not held accountable, I don't do what I am supposed to do. Anyone else like that?

Because no one reads this blog (yet), I have not kept up with it! I will post about our weekend at the Belton's house, which was last weekend.

We, the Roberts', the Steiners and Ryan and Jillian Scheill (plus one, arriving this fall) had church with Doug and Tammy Belton. It was a full day, starting with lunch of course :) While the men and Jill did some intense Biblical study (and talked about life outside of this planet), Kim, Tammy and I did some pretty intense confession and accountability.

Do you know what a secret struggle is? They are the deadliest kind of sin. They are the kind no one knows about. You can basically be a good person, no drugs, alcohol or sleeping around. But when you harbor anger in your heart or give in to laziness, you are headed down a slippery slope. No one sees that...they may see the effects, but you can play that off and never really change it about yourself.

So we girls decided that it was high time we started acting like the women we are. We will now be asking each other hard questions, and not allowing each other to be defensive about the answers. That's what I love about this "new" way of meeting with the church...it weeds out the people who don't want to be raw and bleeding before Christ and each other. I would suggest that anyone wanting to meet with us not wear mascara to the meetings.

Devin had a piano recital, so we all piled into vehicles and drove to an institutional church building and listened to him be the best one. I realized later that Devin was the only one in our group who played music that day...I missed it, but we aren't being structured, so some things won't be done every week. We went back to the Belton's and had dinner and testimony...everyone shared about when they accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. That was nice, because we haven't all known each other for very long.

After yummy enchiladas, it was time to put up Tammy's new Uppercase and head home.

Oh, the trampoline...it is right outside of Doug and Tammy's 2nd floor window. We were all wishing Tammy would let us jump out the window and onto it. She said no. She is so stuffy.

What we've been up to for the past month

We have held all our meetings so far on Sundays, because that is still the day that most people have open. We decided we need to be open to meeting whenever and wherever, so at some point we will meet on different days, but for now it's just been Sunday. I am diggin not having to get up early though :)

Our first meeting was April 6th, in Farmington. The Roberts (that's us) and the Steiners (Chris, Kim and their kids Eben and Caden) went to meet with the Beltons (Doug, Tammy and their kids Devon, Maya and Justice...I am almost certain I spelled at least one of their names wrong) at their home. We planned to meet at 11, and I think we were on time! We ate, sang, prayed, broke the word and laughed all day...we didn't leave until almost 8! Brian was ready to go around supper time, but God was not done yet. So we stayed and had dinner, and then had some more awesome teaching! Maya was able to ask a question and we had a long discussion with the kids about sin and forgiveness. We wouldn't have been able to do that if we had left before dinner, so I am so glad we decided to let God prompt all the discussion and meeting times...it is really refreshing to let Him lead.

We met at our house (in Owatonna) on Resurrection Sunday...that was so great. For the first time in a looonnnggg time, we didn't get dressed up in paisley and pastels and worry more about the meal than the meaning. Brian's mom and step-dad were in town, so that was fun. This change will take some getting used to for a lot of people, including Brian's mom. She and his dad (who died when Brian was 19) raised Brian "in church" and I think she secretly loved that her son grew up to be a pastor. She will realize in time that he is still a preacher, God gave him the gift of preaching and teaching and he will still use it! He certainly did that Sunday, but God also prompted teaching by other people. So fabulous!

April 19 we met at the Steiner's home, again with food! I am lovin this food thing...it's biblical too, read Acts 2:42. The Roberts, Steiners, Beltons and Kim's mom and brother all met together, along with our children of course. Doug brought a message of encouragement and challenge to the parents in the room, and Chris was prompted to lead us in some singing of really old hyms. I didn't know any of the words, but it was cool anyway. I was chastised by the Holy Spirit after the meeting...I felt that we didn't pray enough, and exhortation is one of my gifts, so its on me to be willing to step up if no one else is.

I think as we go along we will need to be careful that we don't miss the Spirit's prompting to sing, pray, praise, edify, preach, listen...whatever he is prompting we must obey. I won't be an idle pew sitter anymore, and I won't be serving in a way that I don't feel Jesus leading me to anymore...I have a responsibility to God, my family and His people to use what He has given me for His Glory, so be it. MR

About a month ago, we quit going to church

To introduce ourselves...My name is Michelle Roberts and my husband's name is Brian. We currently live in Owatonna, MN, but both grew up in Wisconsin. We have two kids, Cameron and Chiara. Brian works for Target and I am a SAHM and also a demonstrator for Uppercase Living. Until we quit church, Brian was a full-time pastor as well as working in retail--fun during the holidays? Not so much.

About a year and a half ago, we started feeling really burned out, tired of spinning our wheels. So we started praying about what we could do to really make an impact on this world for Jesus Christ. We felt like everything we were doing while we "did church" wasn't getting us any closer to "being the church". We decided to really dig in to scripture and see what the disciples did to get closer to Jesus, and what we found was very simple and clear...

Stop Serving...Start Knowing

So here we are. We decided to see what happens when you get rid of everything except Jesus. No programs for evangelism--we do that everyday. No sermons--we know God will always teach what he wants us to learn but no one writes down 3 points and a poem and gives an oration. No children's church--our kids meet with us, see us worshipping and want to do it too. No form, no function. Sound like chaos? Perhaps it is, organized chaos anyway. We meet in homes, but we aren't a "church that meets in homes". We have several leaders, but no one is in charge.

What's the bottom line? I don't know. For now, we are an every member functioning group of believers that meets together to fellowship, pray, praise God, sing, and find ways to show other people the love of Jesus. We are all servant leaders of each other, we hold each other accountable to prayer and bible study, we expect that anyone who meets with us will utilize their spiritual gifts each time we meet no matter what.

So that's it from me today. I don't know if anyone will ever read this, but we plan to use it as a chronicle of our journey. We are pretty excited to see what God does. MR