A City Life For Me

Something that I have been learning about recently is the practice of Sabbath.  I always equated the practice of sabbath  with the Lord's Day.  My husband preached from Luke 14 a few weeks ago, and in that passage we examined the sabbath principle.  Because Sunday is one of our biggest "work" days as the church staff, it's hard to think of Sunday as a day of rest like it was when I was growing up.  But I have also been realizing that I cannot maintain the speed and pressure of everything on my list at this season of life, so looking for a rest day has been in the forefront of my mind. The word for sabbath  just means seventh, so a true  sabbath would be on Saturday.  Again, this is not practical for our family as a lot of ministry and ministry preparation for Sunday takes place on Saturday.  This has led me to evaulate what and when we could do to create a culture of rest in our home on a different day. We had been taking a half ...

Last week was one of the busiest, overwhelming weeks in a long time.  I’m still trying to figure out the best schedule/order for homeschooling four kiddos on three grade levels, plus the addition of a precocious two year old who intervenes every 3 minutes.  We hosted a five-day Bible Club for the kids in our neighborhood, and we continued our free-coffee Friday outreach.  Saturday we had Bible Study, and Sunday was a full day at church.  Somewhere in there I need to fit piano lessons, Patch the Pirate Club devotions, art class, and monthly grocery shopping trip.  Not to mention that for the last nearly ten years the biggest place we have lived is 1,000 square feet…now we own a house with twice that plus a basement, porch, garage, and back yard.  (Huge blessing…huge responsibility!) We really did have a good week in Bible Club, but there was a lot to prepare and do for each day.  On Saturday I was sweeping and mopping the floors in preparation for...

Something that we have been working toward for a while is Ben’s Ordination.  We knew that it would need to happen before we could start the church in the Bronx.  But how do you study for ordination while you’re traveling full time through 44 states over three years with five kids? Where do you find quiet when everyone is living in one hotel room space?  The Lord provided for that need when our family separated for the month of July this year.  The kids and I stayed with my parents in Colorado and Ben took some meetings in California on his own.  He spent a couple of weeks living in the library on university campuses.  I remember calling him one day during that time.  He said, “Except for the librarian, you’re the only person who has talked to me all day.  And the silence is  wonderful.”  {I was a little jealous!} Ben had to write a paper on the major doctrines of our faith, backing each statement up with Scripture.  He proofed th...

I’ve had this written in the flyleaf of my Bible since high school graduation.  I never would have guessed that 13 years later, God would have led me to serve alongside my husband in the largest city of our country, and one of the most influential cities in the world.  But here I am, and New York City has become home.  God has been so good along each step of the way.

We had a great week of Summer Adventure Club last week.  Our western theme was “Ridin’ Strong: Cross Canyon Trail”.  The kids learned lessons about the Christian’s walk with God – like Ridin’ Faithful, Ridin’ Courageous, Ridin’ Bold, etc. We had 50 different visitors throughout the week, and we averaged 51 kids per night.  The week got a slow start, but ended with a bang! Part of our evening presentation was a skit each night set in the Wild West town of Grand Junction.  Our teens, church staff, and summer intern did a fabulous job (with many late night practices) to put on this production each evening.  The conflict built all week until the resolution on Friday night.  The suspense helped the kids want to return each evening for SAC.  We never knew if Bad Bart (Ben) and his gang would succeed in stealing away the Friday Fair.  In the end, the Lone Stranger and Marshal Mellow prevailed – and Miss Polly even got asked to the Round-Up! Take a peek...

Here are a few of our specific prayers which God has answered… I needed some new sippy cups.  I wanted to buy some, but Ben reminded me we should pray about it.  I needed some with soft spouts for the twins.  I got a $5 coupon at the grocery store, and the sippy cups are $5.49.  We were also given a soft spout sippy in a gift basket from a church where we had a meeting.  “Ironically”, this basket had been packed with someone else in mind – we were filling in for friends who had a baby.  But God knew we would be the ones receiving it! Elaine has been praying for rain boots.  I tried to find some on sale.  I asked Grandma.  No boots.  Then my friend Maggy asked if Elaine needed any boots, because her daughter had three pairs.  Praise the Lord – and Havilah even gave Elaine the boots that matched her rain coat.  I have an excited little girl! Ben’s air compressor broke just before he finished a jo...

As I mentioned, we traveled last week to Alabama to interview with Baptist World Mission as church planters to the Bronx.  I wanted to share a little bit about that process. The Baptist World Mission Board of Trustees We actually had to submit our information by August 15th.  Ben and I completed separate applications, including some doctrinal questions, our testimony, our call to the mission field, and six references.  Ben had to complete a more in-depth doctrinal statement.  We both had to have medical exams and submit some other information.  The in person interview was just the last step in the process of getting approved by the board. The conference started Monday morning with a doctrinal review.  There were four applying missionaries that had to be reviewed – two couples (one of them was us!) and two individual ladies.  We appeared before 3 board members and answered doctrinal questions to be sure that we are in agreement with BWM....