No Backups

First, let me begin by saying this: When dealing with God NEVER say NEVER! :) When Alf and I left St. Louis in June of 2004, we swore off full time ministry for all time. We just couldn't imagine going back to that vocation...EVER! Don't get me wrong, the 6 years we spent there grew us in numerous ways. Our church home was awesome. The people rocked. And we loved our students will all of our hearts. We were just plain exhausted...and quite honestly, we felt we weren't cut out for it. Maybe we weren't "ministry lifers." Maybe ministry was just a season for us. Well, we were wrong and we are SO glad we were!!

Let's take a trip back to 2004 when we left St. Louis. We heard God speak to us numerous times that it was time to head back home to Texas. That fact we do not doubt one iota! We left believing we would start a youth and family camp. We had the passion. We had the land. We thought we had it all planned out. Almost immediately after moving back, God began slamming doors shut on the camp front. We ran the gamut of emotions during this process. Did we not hear Him at all? Did we hear Him incorrectly? Was this all in our heads? What would friends and family think when the camp didn't happen? God had an entirely different plan in mind...

I wrote here about Alf and I finding our current church home. God knew what we needed even before we did. First and foremost, He moved us to save our marriage. We were in a horrible place as a couple and we both needed healing and refining. We found that in our church body and through an awesome, Spirit-led counselor. He needed us pliable and usable when He presented this current chapter in our lives.

On its 3 year anniversary, I am proud and humbled to introduce you to Wakeboard Church. When I met Alf in the Fall of 1995, he was already deeply addicted to wakeboarding as a sport. I mean the let's skip class and hit the lake kind of addicted! :) Little did we know that God could and would use it to bring people into a personal relationship with Him.

Here's what it looks like: Every Thursday night anyone who wants to can reserve a spot on whatever boat is going out on the lake. The group rides until dark. When the sun is gone, they tie up all the boats in the cove and have a devotion and a time of prayer. What began as an idea in Alf's head has turned into full time ministry for our family. Alf quit his job at a local boat dealer on Saturday, July 12th. We had a informational/support meeting for Wakeboard Church on Friday, July 18th. We were blown away as 65 of our closest friends and family filed in to learn about this thing called Wakeboard Church and how they could get involved. We shared the vision for the ministry along with our heart for the culture. We discussed what we needed financially and closed with a question & answer time. It totally rocked!! I wish I could say that we walked out of that meeting with all the money we needed. We didn't and that is okay because we are witnessing some COOL ways that God is providing for us as a family and for the ministry.

A few months before Alf and decided that we needed to step out in total faith, we began to ask God what His PERFECT will was for our lives. I will be the first to admit that I was terrified at the thought of Alf quitting his job. Things were already tight so how on earth would we make it? Would Wakeboard Church be able to totally provide for our family's needs? Time and again we heard the Lord tell us NO BACKUPS. When I say time and again, I really mean it. It got to be absolutely humorous! He continued to have patience with us as we asked for more and more confirmation. He had grace when we kept conjuring plans B, C, D...backups. So, on the July 12th, we totally stepped out. It was the most peaceful, freeing, and scary day of our lives.

It's been a month and we are still completely floored at what He is allowing us to do. It's hard. It's awesome. It's exhausting. It's exhilarating. It's humbling. It's hard to balance it all. We are learning that each day and each week looks differently from the one before...and that is okay. Our home is always filled with stinky boys and I LOVE it! They now have a safe place to hang out, be real, ask questions about life and God. They are now part of the family...

My advice is this: NEVER say NEVER! If you are open to it, God has a plan so awesome it will completely boggle your mind. You wouldn't want to miss out on that, would you?

I am driving myself CRAZY!!

Okay, so really my perfectionism is driving me crazy. I can't tell you how many times I have sat down to write and immediately retreated to another room. Here is the deal...God is doing some AWESOME stuff right now and I want to tell you all about it! My hang up is that in order to get everything out of my head I will need to tell you our latest adventure BACKWARDS. My personality cannot handle that!! It needs to be in chronological order!! But if I try to tell it in chronological order then I will get even more behind... I know I sound like a CRAZY person, but this is how my brain currently functions.

So here is where I need some accountability: my plan is to write tonight while the kids are asleep and Alf is at Wakeboard Church. If you wake up Friday morning and there is not at least one new post, then you have my permission to call me and yell at me!! :)

Birthday Wishes!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Hubby today! I love you!

Did I mention she likes pasta?

I obviously didn't learn the first time around...

She dove into the ziti like no tomorrow!

Trey was doing his part by egging her on BIG TIME!! I absolutely LOVE the last picture of them together!! I couldn't have posed that shot if I tried. It was TOO sweet watching her lay her head on her bubba.

The Yogurt Incident of 2008

I'm not quite sure why I thought it was a good idea at the time, but I let Shaefer feed herself the other night. She had a blast! And then she had a bath!

First the apples, now Cheerios

I posted here about God providing apples for Trey. Well, God did it again! :) He provided something "little" that we needed. Here is what happened:

My daughter, Shaefer, is 14 months old and just now has her first tooth coming in. She is too cute! Needless to say we go through LOTS of "mushy" foods and TONS of Cheerios. It was time for her afternoon snack so I headed to the pantry. As I reached for the bag of Cheerios, I thought to myself, "I really need to get to the store for some more snacks." Then I thought, "How am I going to do that? I already used our grocery money for this week?" Honestly, the entire situation left my mind at that point.

We went to church that night for our first financial support meeting for Wakeboard Church (more details to come on another post!). It was so cool to be surrounded by my sister, her husband, my mom, my father-in-law and countless friends as we embark on this new adventure. The meeting wrapped up at about 9:00pm and we headed home. My sister, her husband and Trey beat the rest of us home. When I walked into the kitchen the first thing I saw was 2 boxes of Cheerios sitting on the counter. My sister has gotten them CHEAP with a few coupons and knew they would not go to waste at our house! :) She had NO idea what had transpired earlier that afternoon, but God did and He used my sister to meet a need in my life. The need was little. The need was simple. But it was a need none the less.

This is the God I am madly in love with. He is fully capable of doing HUGE things while at the same time being fully active and intentional in the LITTLE things. He desires to be so entangled in our lives that we are unable to tell where we end and He begins. That is my desire as well...to live my life filled with Him so that I simply disappear.

To Casi, my sweet sister: I know you had NO idea when you stopped by Albertson's that day that God would use you in my life, but He did! Thank you! He has given you such a compassionate and giving heart. You inspire me in HUGE ways! I LOVE YOU!

Honestly, I didn't mean to lie...

I told my friends that I was writing again. I think I did twice since my e-mail. Honestly, I didn't mean to lie...

I've been caught in the horrible trap of perfectionism AGAIN! I hate it! I've had so much to say. God has been doing so many amazing things in me and in my family. I got stuck on the fact that I was going to be unable to fully express my heart, so I wrote nothing at all. It bums me out. In the next few days I'll take some baby steps in writing out our latest adventure. Here is a sneek peek: