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
Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
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
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
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
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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
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
Monday, May 11, 2009
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!
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
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.
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.
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