I’m not sure where to even begin. I feel like this blog might be all over the place but I wanted to share with you my day. 

So yesterday the girls went to spend the weekend with Angel. They LOVE her so much! We’re heading to Cincinnati on Tuesday and spending the night there to fly to Haiti on Wednesday. So there is a lot to get done before Tuesday. So this morning we woke up feeling overwhelmed. My mom agreed to keep Gabriel so we could do all the last minute shopping and packing of the crates.

Jose and I talked about going to church tonight because we really wanted to visit our friends from Thoroughbred. At least ten different times today we debated about going – we had so much left to do – we were tired – and couldn’t find all the supplies we were looking for. It was just kind of one of those days where you had to really work at it to make everything happen right.  

So 5:00pm rolled around and we just decided to drive to the church. We arrived at 5:30pm and we didn’t leave until 9:30pm. No joke! God knew I needed to be there and Satan was fighting me all day long.

This church was unlike anything I had ever been to before. We greeted everyone and shared about Haiti’s current circumstances. Then the preacher asked us all to break up in small groups and pray. What? This is the main church service. I mean I’ve heard of the meet and greet – but small groups in big church?

So we sit in little groups and pray. The preacher instructs us have a small discussion about culture…….What aren’t we willing to compromise but what are we willing to do though to impact the culture? What? Small group discussion in Big Church? 

I look around the church – I see people gathered in groups – some on their knees praying – some in deep discussion and all of this happening in the main church session. Is this not what all churches should be doing? I had seen on their website that church was a two-hour service. I tried to imagine what that meant. Did the sermon just go on for forever or what? 

Well what I saw was – the people didn’t just go to church…..they were the church. How often have you gone to church – sat in the same seats every week – said hello to the same people every Sunday – and yet really didn’t know anyone outside of your “circle”??

When I think about church fellowship – I think about what I experienced tonight. I asked them if this was a special night and they said no – this happens every week. Wow….how beautiful!

The preacher was very down to earth – and the sermon went by rather quickly. One thing that was different in this sermon than most I’ve listened to is –  it was right from the Bible! Now don’t laugh because we know all preachers use the Bible. That’s not what I mean. What I’m saying is everyone opened up their Bible and we read the “sermon” which was verses of scripture. Then each verse was broken down and had meaning applied. It wasn’t a lot of “extras and fluff” it was the Word of God in it’s simplest form.

You see we can say a lot of things and imply what we think the scriptures mean but that sometimes allows people to agree or disagree with your thoughts and not what God says.  But you know what…….the Word itself never comes back void. God’s word cannot be argued. So why not really use the scripture and God’s word as simply the sermon? I thought that doing it this way may be boring but what I found was that I left with a better understanding of His Word. 

Now we were a surprise visit tonight. No one knew we were coming. The powerpoint Praise and Worship had already been done. So imagine my surprise when I heard Matthew 11 being sung by my favorite singer –  Curt! Are you serious? The song about finding rest for your soul and giving God your burdens…….the one I have on my blog……the verse that keeps being thrown in my face since this summer? 

I talked to Pam after church and she told me when she heard Curt sing it – she knew that God had lined it up for us to be there tonight. Curt hadn’t sung it since this summer. I mean I’m just blown away by God’s not so subtle way of talking to me! 

Curt was telling me that he is getting ready to drive around for a few weeks – see where God takes him. I asked him what would he do for money and gas? He told me – he didn’t have to worry about those things. God has always taken care of his needs. He told me about a trip to Miami where strangers gave him over 700.00 as he shared God’s word – stopped at churches asking how he could help serve….and just followed what he believed God wanted him to do! 

Now I’m a missionary……I’m supposed to have one of those jobs where we rely completely on God and follow His lead. Yet for some reason – I think Curt is more of a missionary than me. In listening to him talk with such conviction about following God…..with absolutely NO WORRIES about how tomorrow would fold out – I just immediately felt encouraged and convicted to do the same thing. 

I talked to Pam about getting victory over my stress and she gave me such great advice. I love talking to her because she makes the impossible seem possible by simply using scripture. What seems so hard and so big to overcome she makes seem simple and easy enough to start tomorrow. 

There are so many things I took from tonight – so many people giving some of their testimonies about what God is doing in their life and what God is showing them – it just blows me away. 

I don’t want to tell you everything I learned tonight – I want to save some of it so I when I want to write something spiritual again I’ll have some good material!! LOL!!

I just couldn’t contain myself – just couldn’t keep myself from writing what God did for me tonight – how he used some of my favorite people from this summer to move me from where I’ve been – – to where God would like me to go!