Our New Home

I took some pictures of the outside of our home the other day. Thought I'd post a few of them here. I still need to take pictures of the inside.

Anyway...the pictures show the house, the yard, and you can see the church building just across the parking lot from us.

Camp

The youth group left this morning for camp. They call it "music camp" though there's no actual music involved. They do learn a lot of songs though and it helps them to be better singers.

Tammy, the wife of one of our elders, went with them as a counselor/chaperone. Her daughter, who is home from college, also went with them to be one of the cooks for camp. Tammy asked me if I would take her class this morning since she would be out of town. I told her I would. Then, I found out she teaches the teenage girls/young adult girls class. That made me a little nervous since I'm used to teaching the smaller children!

What I ended up doing was to begin the class by taking time for everyone to introduce themselves (there were 4 girls in the class as about 12 kids went to camp) Their ages were from 17 to 20 years. Then we shared about how long we had been Christians...that sort of thing. I put together a simple topic for us to discuss about growing in our Christian walk. This is what we talked about:


God desires growth from every living thing He has created.

(2 Peter 3:18).“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…”
God wants us to know Him, understand Him, walk with Him and talk with Him every day about everything, just as you would with your best friend. We need to get to know Him better and better.

Matthew 5:6, We also have to hunger and thirst for such a relationship with God. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Discussion: Why is hungering and thirsting such a good illustration? Physically we experience a daily hunger that comes back and needs to be satisfied. As water and food is to the body, so righteousness (to be right with God; to be without sin or guilt because of Christ’s sacrifice) is to the spiritual life. As humans we hunger and thirst not only for food but for satisfaction in life. We search in all kinds of different areas to be filled, to be satisfied, but we always end up falling short. Our satisfaction is not being met in the things of this world. We try to satisfy ourselves with money and power, education, boyfriends and girlfriends and earthly possessions that allow us fun and entertainment for a time, but yet all these things lead to a deeper sense of need, a deeper longing for satisfaction, because they do not fill that need.

How do we have that close, intimate relationship with God?

Reading, Studying ,Meditating on God’s Word. I Peter 2:2 tells us to, “Long for the pure milk of God’s word, so that by means of it, you may grow.” When we first become Christians, we are spiritual newborn babies. Once we see our need for God’s Word, we begin to find nourishment in Christ and our spiritual appetite will increase and we start to mature. Philippians 4: 8-9. To meditate means to think or reflect on.

Memorizing Scripture. David memorized Scripture and wrote of it in the Psalms – “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). We will be amazed at our rapid growth in Christ as we fill our minds and hearts with God’s Word. God’s Word is our guide that tells us how we should live our lives. Memorize and Apply.

Prayer We must spend time talking to God in prayer. Just like any relationship, we cannot get to know one another or build a healthy relationship without quality communication. The same applies to our relationship with God. In Psalm 62:8, David urges us to “pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” Conversing with God, communing (sharing thoughts and feelings) with him at the deepest levels of our soul, listening to his voice are essential elements of spiritual growth.

Growing in obedience, not just in knowledge. In I Samuel 15:22, we learn that “to obey is better than sacrifice,” and James 1:22 urges us to be doers of God’s Word and not merely hearers. Jesus adds, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching” (John 14:23). It’s not enough to hear or read the Word of God. We must also put it into practice. We can measure the effectiveness of our Bible study time by the effect it has on our behavior and attitudes.

We all still have much room for growth. Our challenge is to every day find some way to draw closer to Christ, and we will be prepared to stand for truth in any and all circumstances. It is our goal to help others grow spiritually and move forward in their spiritual walk, but before we can help others we must first be secure in our own relationship with God.

It was a simple lesson, but I wanted each of us to think of the time when we first became a Christian and to see the progress we have made in our Christian walk. We all know HOW to have a closer relationship with our Lord, but are we DOING what we know to do???

Just somethin' to think about.

Sunday Night/Wednesday Night

About 3 years ago, the elders at the church here decided to have small groups that met at different locations. So they divided up into about 4 smaller groups. In order to kind of get the members back to meeting at the church building, several months ago they started a film series basically about how our country was founded on Christian principles.

Tonight we completed the series. We had about 25 members in attendance. And this morning one of the elders made a statement that they had decided that the church here at Skagit Valley would begin a more "traditional" evening service. So, that means that as of next week, all of the members are expected to once again start meeting at the church building.

We plan to have about a 40 minute evening service (sermon, opportunity to take the Lord's Supper and give if unable to do so in the a.m.) Then there will be a Bible class and a time of open discussion regarding what John preached about that night. This way everyone gets a chance to ask any questions and to give any further insight that they may have regarding the sermon. The plan is to meet from 6 p.m. until about 7:30 p.m.

I'm really looking forward to this. It seems an excellent opportunity to have any questions someone may have to be answered pretty much immediately without having to wait until the middle of the week or until the next week.

Every Wednesday night, the church here at Skagit Valley has a potluck for anyone who wishes to participate. Then their evening Bible study is at 7 pm. Our first Wednesday here we had about 28 in attendance for services. On our 2nd Wednesday we had about 40. So that's quite an improvement over the previous week!

We finished up our Wednesday night Bible study of Philippians. Next week will begin something new. A kind of Bible study/Monday night for the Master type thing. We'll get together to eat at 6, and then have a Bible study starting at 6:30 for about 30 minutes. Then we'll do other things, such as sending cards, visiting, etc. That's just a rough plan as of now. Next week will really be a time of finalizing everything and getting more input from everybody. But everyone seems positive about it for now.

I'll keep you posted on how things work out with it. Please pray for us, that these changes will be a positive move in the right direction for the church here.

And Last (Finally)...

As you can see, we were blessed with such beautiful scenery on this trip. The pictures don't in any way do justice to God's wonderful creation. I posted the pictures pretty much in the order they were taken. I think my personal favorite was the last one I posted.

I'll take pictures of the house soon and post a couple later.

And A Few More Pictures...

A Few More Pictures...

Some More Pictures...

More Pictures Of Our Trip

Our Trip

We drove over 3000 miles from Pensacola, Florida to Burlington, Washington. It took us about 6 days. We had some car trouble the first day (Sunday) after we initially started out. That delayed us for a day. So, we really didn't get started until Monday.
Monday: Day 1: May 28th: We only drove about 273 miles. First stopped off at Ruth's to see her in Oxford, Alabama; then drove on to Hartselle, Alabama and spent the night with Daniel, Tiffany, and Abby.
Tuesday: Day 2: May 29th: Drove from Hartselle, Alabama to Kings City, Missouri, about 556 miles.
Wednesday: Day 3: May 30th: Drove from Kings City, Missouri to Burlington, Colorado; about 593 miles. We attended church at Burlington Church of Christ.
Thursday: Day 4: May 31st: Drove from Burlington, Colorado to Evanston, Wyoming; about 627 miles.
Friday: Day 5: June 1st: Drove from Evanston, Wyoming to Pendleton, Oregon; about 625 miles.
Saturday: Day 6: June 2nd: Drove from Pendleton, Oregon to Burlington, Washington. I'm not sure of the mileage, but it was a little over 300 miles I believe. We arrived here in Burlington around noon.

We took a few pictures on the way, (mostly from the car), so we didn't get too many good ones. I'll post a few that show some of the different landscapes we drove through.

Jared's High School Graduation

We've had a LOT of changes in our lives over the last few weeks. Jared is now a high school graduate. He graduated from West Florida High School on May 24, 2007. The graduation took place at the Civic Center in Pensacola.

Several of our friends came to see him graduate. Pat and Danny Wright came down from Kentucky just for his graduation! Jared will spend the summer with us in Burlington, and then he'll be attending Freed-Hardeman University in the fall.

Check This Out! Baby Got Book!

There's more than one way to spread the good message!

My Personalized M & M!

I kept seeing this commercial on t.v. about this website and making yourself an m&m. I just HAD to try it out! If you want to as well, go to this website and try it.
Who doesn't LOVE an m&m anyway?????

It's Spring Here In Florida

The weather has been really nice here in Florida. The kids are gonna have GREAT weather for spring break this week! Though the water will still be cold, you can bet that the beaches will be full of people soaking in that sunshine!

Today it is a little nippy. Supposed to get up to a high of about 68, but tonight the low will be 38! Spring doesn't officially start until Wednesday.

The dogwood trees are in full bloom, as well as the azaleas. This is my favorite time of year here. We have 3 dogwood trees on our property.

Just thought I'd post a picture of our bird Cosmo, or "birdy-bird" as he's often called!

Mike Enjoying The Spring Flowers

Outreach Training Seminar

We just completed an 8 day outreach program at our church. Dennis Menear, from a congregation in West Virginia, was our instructor. The church where he attends actually pays his way to visit any willing congregations twice a year to offer this training. That's pretty amazing to me! I'm surprised that he's not booked up years in advance, but he isn't.

He said that our congregation was the largest group he had had participate (in comparison to the size of the congregation) EVER! That's pretty good! We initially had about 20 participants, but some had to drop out because of illness. And some missed because of other obligations...but overall it was a really good thing for our congregation.

Basically it was geared towards getting us confident enough to begin to reach out to others more; just sharing our faith with others. It's a hard thing to do sometimes. I think mostly because we are all afraid of offending someone, or we're afraid they will say they aren't interested. I think we are all afraid of rejection. But remember, even Jesus wasn't successful with everyone! so how can we expect to be???

We just have to sow the seeds as we go along. I need to share Christ with others because I love them and I care about them and I know that without Christ they are lost. We need to care about that. Because the Bible says that broad is the way that leads to destruction and many will go down that road. I want to do everything I can to help someone who is going down that broad road to realize their need to change; their need for Christ.

It's so easy to get comfortable and content, and to lose that sense of urgency that comes with knowing that Christ could return at any time. We don't know when. Don't we all know someone who is not a christian? We were encouraged to choose 3 people that we would pray daily for; that we would try to "love and influence" (which involves spending time with them, helping to meet their needs and trying to get them involved with other christians). Our ultimate goal is to lead them to Christ.

So...we should all pray for opportunities; for wisdom to know the right things to say in a way that they can understand it. That we would make the most of every opportunity that comes our way and that we would always be kind. But most importantly, we need to get us out of the way and let God speak through his Word.

We should: always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you...1 Peter 3:15

Just A Couple More Pictures Of Our House

We Sold Our House...Already!

Both John and I woke up this morning and realized that we had the same dream last night. We dreamed that we put our house on the market and it sold that same day!!! Well...it wasn't a dream! It really happened, and we're very happy (though still in a little bit of shock!)

They put the "For Sale" sign in our yard yesterday morning, and our Realtor (Audrie Palmer, she's a member at Leonard Street) showed the house yesterday afternoon. They LOVED the house and made an offer, which we accepted.

I also love this house...well, at least as much as you can love a material thing. I'd love to be able to pack it up and move it to Washington State with us. But I am so thankful that we don't have to worry about whether or not it is going to sell before we have to leave. All the worry about that is just gone.

If I had even a smidgen of doubt that God's hand was in this whole process (John getting the job in Burlington, us moving up to the Pacific Northwest, getting the house sold in a timely manner) then they are all gone. God surely has been blessing us and leading us in this direction...NO QUESTION ABOUT THAT!

If I was Elaine Bennis (On Seinfeld), when Audrie told me she was going to use our dining room table to write up an offer and a contract, I would have stood in front of her, pushed her with both hands and shouted "Get Out!" She would have went flying across the room! THAT'S how excited I was! (If you're not a Seinfeld fan, you have no idea what I'm talking out!)

I'm posting a few pictures of our house.