Picking Up

We sat in the conference room today with Serena, our housekeeper and food service person, and looked at the calendar of upcoming events. Starting with this weekend (March 26-28), we have eight consecutive weekends booked. This is a big deal for Shepherd's Staff, who had a total of 16 events in the first six months of 2010. It's also a big deal for the staff (all of us) as we adapt to the changes that a busier season brings. It is that odd phase of growth where we see huge potential, exciting new adventure, and the need for additional staff. However, we cannot bring on new staff before the ministry is ready and God has led us there, so the challenge is to be patient and wait for His timing.

Mostly, though, we praise God for how far He has brought our family and this ministry in the past year. Twelve months ago we were packing, wondering what the future held, and imagining life in Kansas. Now that we've been here a while, we seem to be finding our stride in family and ministry. Tim has met hundreds of pastors, made connections with many churches, and begun the process of discovering how we can serve them. Our family is reaching out to the community through the monthly Free Family Movie and relationships. And our family is growing internally, learning to relate more intentionally within the family and with those we come into contact with.

I was recently reading chapters from "On Being A Servant of God". The author makes the point that each place God puts us is in preparation...whether for growth, the next position, or for serving others. I think we are really seeing how God used our experiences at Camp Rock and Table in the Wilderness to prepare us for service at Shepherd's Staff. I pray that we have also learned from our previous experiences in relationships and service and are applying that to our current lives, too.

God's Grace Always Amazes Me

Really, that's all I need to say. God takes care of us, provides for our needs in ways I could never fathom. When I think of all the times I have whined to Tim or to God about money being tight, about how hard it is to raise support--I feel ashamed. God is in control of this, and He always has it taken care of.

Part of my job here at Shepherd's Staff is to process the mail: bills, information, contracts and payments, donations. I can't tell you how many times I have sat in this chair, almost stunned, at the contents of the envelope I have just opened. Today was one of those days.

God always takes care of His children, and all He asks from us is that we live for Him. How could I not, when He has so lavishly loved me?

O Lord, your grace, your provision...YOU amaze me.

Teaching Hebrews to Boys

Every week I (Gwen) help at the Rexford Kids Club. Somehow I ended up with the 3rd-5th grade boys, which is a daunting task at times. It seems like Wednesdays roll around twice as fast as any other day of the week! Since Christmas, our schedule has been thrown out of whack by snow days and scheduled days off, and it feels like we are just getting into the semester when it's really half over.

A friend from church gave me some Sunday School booklets put out when we was a young teen...in 1979. We're going to be using two of these booklets for the remainder of the year, starting with a study on Hebrews for March. At first this seemed too in-depth, too structured for a group of boys that is distracted by just about anything. But we're beginning this week, talking about WHY Jesus is the one we should put our hope in and trying to understand what Christian growth/maturity is and why we would want to pursue it.

Please pray for me on Wednesday afternoons as I try to maintain order with 12 boys who just got out of a long day of school and for whom learning about the Bible is a pretty low priority. I'll be explaining the need for salvation today so that we'll all be starting from the same base, so a lot to cover.

Thanks for praying!