I'm going to start puting Michael's article from the church newsletter on the blog. Here goes:
"Hi there everyone! I hope that you took the opportunity to love and honor your spouse this month . . . and I'm not talking about Valentine's Day! Sure, Valentine's Day is the time when we buy flowers and chocolates and do special things for that special someone, and it is a good thing to celebrate. But God desires that we render love and honor to our spouse everyday, not just once a year. Ehpesians 5:33 says, "let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." God wants this to characterize our lives, that we consistently cherish our spouses and thereby stand out form the rest of the world. So, I hope you enjoyed Valentine's Day and did something special for your spouse, and then remembered to love and honor them the next day as well.
Pastor Michael."
Also, an update. I accepted a part-time position at the pharmacy here in Columbus. Next week we'll figure out a training schedule.
Thank You, Lord, for your continuous provision for us in the material as well as the spiritual things.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Valentine's Day
My valentine is slowly recovering from the flu. He's actually doing pretty well, now. Last week at this time he had a temperature of 102!
I had a job interview yesterday. I haven't heard anything back yet, but I also haven't gotten a clear word from God yet on wether to take it or not, either. The prospect of starting a job with my house in its current condition put a little fear into me, though. So, I'm going to give another big push to try to make the house visitor ready.
Michael's choice for a Valentine's Day treat is Tres Leches, so I have to go home and cook. My choice? Take-out pizza :) I know, romantic, right? Now he has the job of coming up with a fun valentine activity. Fun, in this case, means cheap or free and he can't wear himself out and have a relapse of the flu. Here's hoping you have some Valentine's plans to look forward to.
I had a job interview yesterday. I haven't heard anything back yet, but I also haven't gotten a clear word from God yet on wether to take it or not, either. The prospect of starting a job with my house in its current condition put a little fear into me, though. So, I'm going to give another big push to try to make the house visitor ready.
Michael's choice for a Valentine's Day treat is Tres Leches, so I have to go home and cook. My choice? Take-out pizza :) I know, romantic, right? Now he has the job of coming up with a fun valentine activity. Fun, in this case, means cheap or free and he can't wear himself out and have a relapse of the flu. Here's hoping you have some Valentine's plans to look forward to.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Directions
Hello, all. I thought I'd try to give everyone a smile, if not a laugh, by showing you the directions we were given to the Super Bowl party we attended. I'll add explanatory comments in parenthasis.
East on Highway 10 to top of East Hill (there is no sign for "East Hill")
Turn left on Columbus-Molt Rd.
Follow road signs to stay on Columbus-Molt Rd. for 8 or 9 miles to Teeters Hill (this hill does have a sign)
You're Half Way!!!
Now we are going to count cattle guards
(Cattle guards are a series of metal rods stretching across the road with gaps in between making it hard for free range cattle to walk over them and escape)
There are 6 (cattle gurads) to count.
Oil Well Rd. is a half mile past the 6th cattle guard
Turn right on Oil Well Rd
Two cattle guards to go!!
After the 2nd, go 1/4 mile and turn right at 212 - OK Ranch
The blue house is it!
Make sure you have the following:
coat
spare tire
water and food supply
half tank of gas
compass
flashlight
Hope to see you for the game!!!!
P.S. Cell will only work on Teeters Hill.
!!!!!GO TO THE RESTROOM BEFORE YOU LEAVE TOWN!!!!!
East on Highway 10 to top of East Hill (there is no sign for "East Hill")
Turn left on Columbus-Molt Rd.
Follow road signs to stay on Columbus-Molt Rd. for 8 or 9 miles to Teeters Hill (this hill does have a sign)
You're Half Way!!!
Now we are going to count cattle guards
(Cattle guards are a series of metal rods stretching across the road with gaps in between making it hard for free range cattle to walk over them and escape)
There are 6 (cattle gurads) to count.
Oil Well Rd. is a half mile past the 6th cattle guard
Turn right on Oil Well Rd
Two cattle guards to go!!
After the 2nd, go 1/4 mile and turn right at 212 - OK Ranch
The blue house is it!
Make sure you have the following:
coat
spare tire
water and food supply
half tank of gas
compass
flashlight
Hope to see you for the game!!!!
P.S. Cell will only work on Teeters Hill.
!!!!!GO TO THE RESTROOM BEFORE YOU LEAVE TOWN!!!!!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
What is cold?
We finally got some winter weather here in Montana! We got about 8 inches of snow over Saturday and Sunday. Both of our Moms wanted to know if we cancelled church. The Huttons, whose usually 30 minute drive into church took them 1 1/2 hours on Sunday would have been very disappointed if we weren't there for church! Our attendance was down a bit, but cold and snow don't stop us up here!
Monday the snow clouds cleared out, so thing got pretty cold. When we left Columbus at about 2:30 pm it was a balmy -4. We went to the state evangelism conference in Bozeman. That night in Bozeman the temperature dropped to -25! The coldest it ever got in Helena was around -15, so this is my new coldest temp :) You may not believe me and may roll your eyes, but not having humidity makes the cold much less cold, just like it makes hot much less hot.
Michael and I are full of ideas of things for the church to do to reach out to the community and get involved in the community, but we are having to hold ourselves back a bit. We don't want to overload the church and we want to make sure ALL the families are getting involved, not just the usuals. We are excited about what God is already doing and we are looking forward to having our first new membership class sometime soon.
We love you and are thankful for your love, support and prayers.
Monday the snow clouds cleared out, so thing got pretty cold. When we left Columbus at about 2:30 pm it was a balmy -4. We went to the state evangelism conference in Bozeman. That night in Bozeman the temperature dropped to -25! The coldest it ever got in Helena was around -15, so this is my new coldest temp :) You may not believe me and may roll your eyes, but not having humidity makes the cold much less cold, just like it makes hot much less hot.
Michael and I are full of ideas of things for the church to do to reach out to the community and get involved in the community, but we are having to hold ourselves back a bit. We don't want to overload the church and we want to make sure ALL the families are getting involved, not just the usuals. We are excited about what God is already doing and we are looking forward to having our first new membership class sometime soon.
We love you and are thankful for your love, support and prayers.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
"It's been a long time" along with "The back-up singer" and "High-tech shepherds"
Well, folks, I'm sorry to have been so out of touch lately. Don't take it personally - we are actually out of touch in every way. Due to the quitting of a satellite TV employee which delayed our receiving service and the fact that we live 6 miles outside of a rural town and therefore don't receive a signal we can pick-up with bunny-ears, we haven't even watched the news since the beginning of December! We are also too far out of town for DSL, so we are using the library computers until we have the Internet hooked up at the church.
We are moved into our new house, though. Praise the Lord! We still have painting to do and because of that we still have picture-less walls. I'm going to be working on putting out some of the "pretties" that will make our house feel more like a home. Please pray for us and we discuss a land line with the previous owners and the telephone company. There is a "situation" and/but as this is a small town we don't want to start off on the wrong foot. Michael will be talking with the telephone company today to see what info we can find out and we will be meeting with the previous owner tomorrow.
Now on to the promised funny stories from our Christmas season at our new church.
"The back-up singer"
The church has been very excited that Michael has musical talent and they were happy to welcome me onto the praise team, as well. Michael sang a special one of the Sunday mornings before Christmas. I was his back-up singer. Seriously - it wasn't even a duet because I didn't sing half the time! So, after the service we were talking to people as they left and one family came up to us and told me (the back-up singer) what a wonderful voice I had. I don't say this to pat myself on the back, I just still can't get over it! Michael sang such a beautiful song, while he accompanied himself on the guitar, and I got the compliments! I said that I was just the back-up singer and they proceeded to tell Michael that he had a pretty good voice, too. Thank goodness my husband is humble, otherwise we might have had problems (and I wouldn't be sharing this story with you) :) We've been having lots of laughs.
"High-tech shepherds"
I've seen Christmas shows on TV where, in the children's Christmas play, all the kids come wearing their bathrobes with bath towels on their heads. I've never seen anything like that in person. Perhaps that's because I've never lived anywhere where children regularly have bathrobes - I guess it's cold enough here that that's a regular thing. I must admit that I've been using mine more and more. Anyway, at least half of the kids in our church's Chrismas play were wearing their own bathrobes for the performance. That's just some fun background info. On to the shepherds. There were several groups of shepherds divided by age and therefore ability. Some groups had lines to memorize and the 4-6-year-olds sang a song. They came up to the front of the stage while everyone else took their places around the manger, admiring the baby Jesus. Most of them stayed at the front singing the words to "Away in a Manger" while they were accompanied by the piano. But there were two who were no dummies. They put two and two together (that they were singing and that the praise team uses microphones on Sunday mornings when they sing) and started trying out the microphones that were lying to the side of the stage. They kept picking up one after the other, over and over again, in hopes that they would find one that was on and become the star of the evening. I thought that was pretty good for two 4-year-olds. I think at least one of my nieces might have been in that crew :)
The new year is here now. Michael challenged the church to commit to reading the Bible through this year (thanks Pastor Paul for the idea). The Women's Sunday School class has decided to be brave and try to accomplish this even with all their kids and their work so we will be studying on Sundays what we have been reading the past week. Please pray for us as we get settled into the church and learn all the things we don't know yet (like exactly what people have to do to become members). Please also pray that God will send to me the job He has picked out for me already and that we will have the patience and financial planning to wait!
We love you all, hope you were blessed as you celebrated Christ's birth, and pray that God will draw you closer to Himself in the new year.
We are moved into our new house, though. Praise the Lord! We still have painting to do and because of that we still have picture-less walls. I'm going to be working on putting out some of the "pretties" that will make our house feel more like a home. Please pray for us and we discuss a land line with the previous owners and the telephone company. There is a "situation" and/but as this is a small town we don't want to start off on the wrong foot. Michael will be talking with the telephone company today to see what info we can find out and we will be meeting with the previous owner tomorrow.
Now on to the promised funny stories from our Christmas season at our new church.
"The back-up singer"
The church has been very excited that Michael has musical talent and they were happy to welcome me onto the praise team, as well. Michael sang a special one of the Sunday mornings before Christmas. I was his back-up singer. Seriously - it wasn't even a duet because I didn't sing half the time! So, after the service we were talking to people as they left and one family came up to us and told me (the back-up singer) what a wonderful voice I had. I don't say this to pat myself on the back, I just still can't get over it! Michael sang such a beautiful song, while he accompanied himself on the guitar, and I got the compliments! I said that I was just the back-up singer and they proceeded to tell Michael that he had a pretty good voice, too. Thank goodness my husband is humble, otherwise we might have had problems (and I wouldn't be sharing this story with you) :) We've been having lots of laughs.
"High-tech shepherds"
I've seen Christmas shows on TV where, in the children's Christmas play, all the kids come wearing their bathrobes with bath towels on their heads. I've never seen anything like that in person. Perhaps that's because I've never lived anywhere where children regularly have bathrobes - I guess it's cold enough here that that's a regular thing. I must admit that I've been using mine more and more. Anyway, at least half of the kids in our church's Chrismas play were wearing their own bathrobes for the performance. That's just some fun background info. On to the shepherds. There were several groups of shepherds divided by age and therefore ability. Some groups had lines to memorize and the 4-6-year-olds sang a song. They came up to the front of the stage while everyone else took their places around the manger, admiring the baby Jesus. Most of them stayed at the front singing the words to "Away in a Manger" while they were accompanied by the piano. But there were two who were no dummies. They put two and two together (that they were singing and that the praise team uses microphones on Sunday mornings when they sing) and started trying out the microphones that were lying to the side of the stage. They kept picking up one after the other, over and over again, in hopes that they would find one that was on and become the star of the evening. I thought that was pretty good for two 4-year-olds. I think at least one of my nieces might have been in that crew :)
The new year is here now. Michael challenged the church to commit to reading the Bible through this year (thanks Pastor Paul for the idea). The Women's Sunday School class has decided to be brave and try to accomplish this even with all their kids and their work so we will be studying on Sundays what we have been reading the past week. Please pray for us as we get settled into the church and learn all the things we don't know yet (like exactly what people have to do to become members). Please also pray that God will send to me the job He has picked out for me already and that we will have the patience and financial planning to wait!
We love you all, hope you were blessed as you celebrated Christ's birth, and pray that God will draw you closer to Himself in the new year.
Monday, December 17, 2007
My Daddy
Michael and I love being and aunt and uncle. Our neices and nephews are great and they have never been confused about the relationship between us. This is not the case with the small children at our new church. One mom suggested that it might be because we don't have any children of our own, yet. I met Michael the other day at a shop one of the church members owns. Her grandson saw me give Michael a "hello" kiss and told his grandmother that he thought Pastor Michael had a girlfriend :) If you think that's good, you'll really love the next story. The little girls in two different families are convinced that Michael is my Daddy!!! One of them started by asking what my Daddy's name was. It was a question which I thought was a little weird but answered anyway. Then the mom told me what she thought her daughter was thinking. I've gotten some fun laughs out of this. The other little girl told me I could sleep in the downstairs bedroom and my Daddy could sleep on the couch :) I just love it.
I see that many other people have been publishing "it's been a while" posts, so I'm throwing in my hat with everyone else. Everything from our appartment has been packed in boxes since last Friday. It has all been unloaded into some storage facility or another since last Monday and we are currently between houses. I can't wait for Thursday - we close on our house on December 20th, Merry Christmas! We have enjoyed staying with various church members over the past week and are thankful for their generosity and the chance to get to know these families.
God really is blessing us here in Columbus. Our church is very warm and friendly and has a very sweet spirit. Here are some blogs you can look forward to once we get settled in our house and have an internet connection: "The back-up singer" and "High-tech shepherds."
Merry Christmas everyone and I hope to be in touch before the new year.
I see that many other people have been publishing "it's been a while" posts, so I'm throwing in my hat with everyone else. Everything from our appartment has been packed in boxes since last Friday. It has all been unloaded into some storage facility or another since last Monday and we are currently between houses. I can't wait for Thursday - we close on our house on December 20th, Merry Christmas! We have enjoyed staying with various church members over the past week and are thankful for their generosity and the chance to get to know these families.
God really is blessing us here in Columbus. Our church is very warm and friendly and has a very sweet spirit. Here are some blogs you can look forward to once we get settled in our house and have an internet connection: "The back-up singer" and "High-tech shepherds."
Merry Christmas everyone and I hope to be in touch before the new year.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Freedom
My friend Joy had her status on facebook set as "Joy is so blessed to be living in the freedom of grace." Since then I've been thinking about freedom. I shared with her that:
"in Bible study we have been working through the first chapter of Ephesians. We talked about redemption (v7). I explained that this imagery has to do with Christ purchasing us for the purpose of setting us free. We are now free to reject sin, among other things! We couldn't do that before! Amen!"
Since sharing that with her, I've been striving to apply the truth that I am free to reject sin to specific areas of my life. Well, mostly one specific area - food! I generally try to eat healthy things like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The problem is that in doing this I don't cut out the unhealthy things. Not only that, but the purpose of food is to nourish our bodies, not satisfy a craving. So, instead of trying to convince myself that I don't really need whatever it is I'm feeling like eating or trying to convince myself that "I really shouldn't" I've started reminding myself that I'm free NOT to do it. It's a good perspective shifter and redirects my thoughts to "things above, not earthly things."
In what area of your life has Satan been able to convince you that you can't help the way you feel or you are powerless to change the way you have been? Remember that Satan is the Father of Lies and that YOU ARE FREE! As some of us enjoy the freedom of a day off work, as we remember the national freedoms we have because of the sacrifices others were willing to make, I pray we will remember the sacrifice that Jesus made and the spiritual freedom that we now possess to reject sin. Today I pray that you will experience the blessedness of living in the freedom of grace.
"in Bible study we have been working through the first chapter of Ephesians. We talked about redemption (v7). I explained that this imagery has to do with Christ purchasing us for the purpose of setting us free. We are now free to reject sin, among other things! We couldn't do that before! Amen!"
Since sharing that with her, I've been striving to apply the truth that I am free to reject sin to specific areas of my life. Well, mostly one specific area - food! I generally try to eat healthy things like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The problem is that in doing this I don't cut out the unhealthy things. Not only that, but the purpose of food is to nourish our bodies, not satisfy a craving. So, instead of trying to convince myself that I don't really need whatever it is I'm feeling like eating or trying to convince myself that "I really shouldn't" I've started reminding myself that I'm free NOT to do it. It's a good perspective shifter and redirects my thoughts to "things above, not earthly things."
In what area of your life has Satan been able to convince you that you can't help the way you feel or you are powerless to change the way you have been? Remember that Satan is the Father of Lies and that YOU ARE FREE! As some of us enjoy the freedom of a day off work, as we remember the national freedoms we have because of the sacrifices others were willing to make, I pray we will remember the sacrifice that Jesus made and the spiritual freedom that we now possess to reject sin. Today I pray that you will experience the blessedness of living in the freedom of grace.
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