A Visitor from Virginia

My family is enjoying a weekend with a friend visiting from Virginia, where we used to live. David Willis, the preacher at Olivet Christian Church in Newport News, Virginia, is one of Mike's good friends, and he came up to speak at Cedar Creek's men's retreat this weekend. Tomorrow he is preaching at Cedar Creek and I am looking forward to hearing him. He's a great speaker!
I've enjoyed him being here because he has a great sense of humor and he makes Mike laugh. I love to hear Mike laugh! It makes me smile and it's good for his health.

This week was the start of the new women's Bible studies at Cedar Creek. There are close to 50 women meeting weekly to study the Word of God and I am excited! Good things are going to happen this year as women of all ages seek to know and love God more, and seek His purpose for their lives. To God be the glory!

Movie Night

We just got back from seeing the new movie "Mall Cop" starring Kevin James. Loved it! It had a little of everything; action, comedy, romance..but no trash. How refreshing! I think Kevin James is hilarious.

My daughter is at Lake James Christian Assembly this weekend for the Sr.High Retreat. I pray she's having a great time. Kids are so fortunate these days to have so many awesome opportunities to grow and learn spiritually. When I was growing up, I had Youth Group once a week. My youth leader was a volunteer member of our church. There were about 8 or 10 of us. On a good night. We didn't go on mission trips. We didn't have big conventions. We didn't have a winter retreat. But we had area-wide youth rallies about every six months. And sometimes my youth group got to go. Otherwise, it was just youth group at 6:00 before Sunday night church. No snacks. No videos. No small groups. Just a lesson from the Bible, some time praying to God, and a few minutes to just hang out with each other. And I loved it. My kids don't know how good they have it. I wonder what Youth Group will be like for their kids? And if they will appreciate it?

A Fresh Market Blessing

Last night was the kick-off event of our women's ministry at Cedar Creek. Almost 70 women from ages 17-82 came to the "Fresh Market", where they could "shop" for a new Bible study and/or ministry to get involved in, hear a dynamic guest speaker, sample some great "market appetizers", and just connect with other women. We had some great giveaways, and one winner emailed me to tell me this great story:

--------original message-------------
Sent: January 14, 2009

Okay, this is VERY exciting! This is a long email, but well worth reading!

Mom and I went to a ladies thing at church tonight. It's the beginning of the new year for the ladies ministry at church. Everything is new and fresh and it was all very exciting. The food was very very nice, the room was decorated just beautifully, the speaker was hilarious and yet she had a wonderful message about serving God through serving others. And the information about the ladies ministry was explained clearly and precisely, and we all had a great fun time!

They had some beautiful door prize type give-aways. I wanted to win something SOOOOO badly, because of course, I never win anything. (Isn't that what we all say?) Well, naturally I didn't win the healthy fruit basket (which I wanted the most)! Of course, I didn't win the meat market prize, nor the seafood market prize. Did I win the prize I wanted the least?? No, thank goodness! It was the bakery prize!

When we first got there they had a shopping cart full of groceries. Everyone was to guess the price of the groceries. They were from Scotts and there were no coupons or specials used to buy the items. It was all purchased at regular price. Everybody was checking out the cart, so I gave it a try. I added everything up in my head, rounding up to the nearest dollar since Scotts is a little more expensive than where I shop. So I guessed $131 and I added 48 cents on the end....because that is how old I am.....and it made perfect sense to me! I then wrote down my name on a scrap of paper along with my guess of $131.48.

Well, the prize at the end of the evenings program was the winner for the shopping cart guess. You didn't win the items inside the cart, they went to the church food pantry. The prize was not told until the very end for some reason. The minister's wife was announcing it and she said the person who was the winner guessed it to the exact penny! Well, I immediately knew that wouldn't be me. So I gave up hope and started looking around for the happy winner. She then said the amount of the shopping cart bill came up to....yep....$131.48!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? That was MY exact amount!

And as soon as she said that, she didn't even say the winners name out loud yet, I raised my hands in the air and was saying - YES! YES! Because I KNEW that was what I had written down. Everybody turned around and was smiling and happy for me (or maybe they were laughing at me)! And then she said MY NAME! It really really was me! I actually won! I received a $25 gift card to Jamison's Meat shop. When she told me the prize, I surprizingly realized this was all orchestrated by God.

I know God's hand was in this because we just ran out of meat in our deep freezer. I just used the last of it yesterday. Since we are on a tight budget and have just a single income, we probably wouldn't have bought meat (you know, REAL meat, other than tuna or ground turkey) for another several weeks, maybe next month, or who knows when? Not that we are deeply in need or anything, we just don't splurge on alot of meat that often.

So many many people came up to me afterward and congratulated me! They asked me how I guessed that, and I told them it was a "God thing" because there is no way anybody could guess that exactly to the penny. Although I did tell them all that I "threw" my age in there, just for fun. A few of them told me I didn't even look 48, that they never would have guessed it. That made me feel great on top of how special I already felt!

Nobody can convince me this isn't a God Moment in my life! God cares for us so much, He cares for the tiniest details in each and every one of our lives. How in the world could anyone ever guess the amount of groceries in that shopping cart, to the very penny, if not for God's Divine Intervention?? How in the world would it ever happen that the very day after I used up the last of our meat, I win a gift certificate to a specialty meat shop? We have purchased meat there in the past and love that place. That is definitely God working in my life!

And another thing, mom told me that morning that she was not going to go to the program after all. Joel had to work both jobs so I didn't have a car. The other lady at church who was going to give me a ride ended up not being able to go either. So I resigned myself that I would not be attending. Mom called me at 3:00 in the afternoon and said she had been thinking about it all day and felt compelled to attend the program that night. She advised me that she would definitely be going. I explained to her I still needed a ride and so she picked me up and took me. God wanted us to be there. God has plans for us at Cedar Creek Church of Christ.

God is Awesome, Majestic, and He loves each and every one of us deeply! He has provided for me and Joel and our precious little family countless times when we've needed it. And most of the time, whether it be the $350 we needed to pay an unexpected bill or $25 to put some more meat in our freezer, He provides in the most unexpected ways.

From everlasting, to everlasting, HE IS GOD!!! I sure hope this blesses your day as much as it has mine!

Love you all!
Kimberly

God is awesome! I hope we all can recognize His work in our lives and give Him credit instead of chalking things up to mere circumstance. Thanks for the reminder, Kimberly. To God be the glory!!!

New Year-Happy!

2009. Fresh. New. Year. What is it about the beginning of a year that makes you want to try harder, do better, be better. Today is just the day after yesterday. Yesterday was no big deal. Except that we all used it to eat large amounts of really bad food that we swear we're not going to eat anymore. Starting today. Why today? Because it's the first day of the first month of a brand new year! We humans are so silly. Why wouldn't yesterday be just as good a day to start being better people than today? It's that resolution thing. It happens every January 1. Or sometimes it happens on Mondays. Usually we're talking about the dieting here. I never quite understood the Monday thing. You're already sooo far behind on Monday because you went so ridiculously overboard all weekend knowing that Monday was the big "start" day. Silly.


But I do get motivated come January 1. It really does have that "starting fresh" feeling. My son has decided to read through the chronological Bible this year and read his first reading this morning. I love that. I just hope he has more stick-to-it-ness than we adults do.

This year I want to be used by God in ways that stretch me and make a difference in others' lives. I want to be more of a servant, and I want my leadership to teach servanthood to others. I want to be a friend to those I usually overlook. I want to recognize potential in others and encourage them to grow and serve. I want to see women get excited about their walk with God and passionate about serving Him. I want to have influence for the glory of God.


Also, I want to lose about 20 pounds.


New Year. Happy!

Black Friday

I went Christmas shopping with a friend yesterday, on the biggest shopping day of the year. We braced ourselves for the traffic, the crowds, and the long lines, but were surprised to find that it wasn't that bad at all. In fact, in one store the checkout people were waiting for us! The worst part was when we were ready to eat breakfast (it was actually close to lunchtime and we were very hungry) we found out why the stores were not too busy. The people were all at Cracker Barrel! No kidding, not a single parking space to be found. So we drove to Starbucks and settled for a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee that could put hair on your face! We got them to brew some Christmas Blend, since it's Christmas time and we didn't want any Thanksgiving Blend because that would ruin our Christmas spirit. After all, Thanksgiving is over and it's just not right to drink Thanksgiving Blend in those fun Christmasy red cups!
So, we drank all we could of the overpriced, way-too-strong Christmas Blend, then went to Dunkin' Donuts for dessert and another cup of coffee; not too strong, but not that great either.
At least the donuts made up for it. Oh, and quality time with a friend.

I've been busy and haven't blogged lately. Besides the daily wife and mother things, most of my time has been consumed with the launching of the 2009 women's ministry at Cedar Creek. Many women have jumped on board and are already involved in making next year happen. Meetings are taking place all over town. Bible studies are in the works, publicity materials are in the making, menus are being planned, prayers are going up, creativity is happening, and teams are formulating strategies to meet needs. It is so exciting to see so many women plugging in to service in the body of Christ!

I can't wait to see what God will do through women's ministry at Cedar Creek in 2009 and beyond. May we always watch for where He is moving and then join Him there!

Goodbye, Midnight

I've got the "blahs" today. Yesterday we had to have our sweet dog Midnight put down. She was not doing well for a couple days, so we took her to the vet and found out she had a tumor.
She was the best dog. So gentle and obedient. The house is very strange without her. We will miss her for awhile. We had a "routine", ya know?
The kids already want to know if we're going to get another dog. Mr. Soren and I aren't ready to go there yet. It would be hard to replace such a great dog as Midnight.