Our New Church Home - McCarthy Baptist Church

Hello, everyone! This is my first post in over a month because Jimmy and I have been busy moving and getting settled in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

We have been in Saint Joseph, Missouri for almost exactly a month now. We love it! We like to say that it has many of the things that you like about the city--like things that stay open all night--but you still get the benefit of a small town feel. It's even beginning to feel like we actually live here and it's not just some long mission trip that we are on.

We are also excited that our church family that we have left behind are already moving on. They have recently hired a new full-time music and youth guy. We are praying for them as they step out in faith to make this position full-time. We are also praying that they will be able to re-connect with youth that have fallen out of church in the last few months and to reach new youth in the Hazelwood community. We wish the best for Villebrook Baptist Church and pray God's blessings be upon you.

Things here at our new church home are different than they have been for the past four years. First off, Jimmy is now in the church office on a daily basis! PTL! It's great to see him getting out of the house and being able to interact with the other staff memebers face to face on a daily basis. I am proud of what a great job he has been doing! Another change is that I am no longer able to work for Missouri Baptist Children's Home and have been on the job hunt for the last few weeks. It has been great to be at the church more without the stress of having my own full-time employment. Also, the school set-up is different here. We still are reaching many different schools but all but one of our youth are in the same school district rather than covering three school districts. This makes life and planning considerably easier.

Best of all...Now that we are settling into being mostly unpacked and getting into a routine, I should be able to get back into the habit of blogging more. So for better or worse you might see more of me on here than you have in the last few months. Until next time...

Grace and Peace,

Christiana

Moving to Saint Joseph, Missouri

It's official. Jimmy and I are moving to Saint Joseph, Missouri. Ok, let me back up a little and tell more of the story.

For a little while now, Jimmy and I have been praying about whether or not God was leading us to the Kansas City area. If you don't know that's where Jimmy's Grandfather who raised him lives. Grampy is well over 80 years old and his health has gradually been failing and Jimmy has really wanted to be close to him and have a chance to take advantage of the time that Grampy has left. So we prayed and prayed and prayed about what God was wanting us to do. A little over a year after we began praying His answer began to show itself.

A couple of months ago Jimmy got a call from his friend Mike. Mike wanted to know if he could send our resume to a church he used to work for in Saint Joseph, Missouri. We said "yes" so he contacted McCarthy and sent them our resume. We didn't really know what to expect.

In July, McCarthy contacted Jimmy and asked him for a phone interview. I thought that was pretty positive but Jimmy just shrugged his shoulders and told me "nothing ever comes from me doing phone interviews. I have never had one that resulted in anything." So we tried not to get our hopes up. Needless to say, something did come from this phone interview :)

No after another interview and a busy, long weekend of meeting people and answering a million questions Jimmy has officially been voted in to become the full-time Associate Pastor of Student Ministries for McCarthy Baptist Church! We are so excited! God has really been in this process and even though we didn't always see him at work--He totally was!

Please forgive me if I don't post regularly over the next month or so because I will be cleaning, packing, and moving. We plan to have our moving day on Friday, September 16th. If you are in Saint Joseph, you should come and see us on our first Sunday which will be September 25th.

Pray for us as we relocate and start a new ministry and a new chapter in our lives. It's very exciting and very scary all at the same time!

Grace and Peace,
Chrsitiana

Watch Your Mouth

I don't know who made up the little saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." I know that I have heard that a million times and I probably even chanted it on the playground as a child. Let me tell you--as if you didn't know--it's a LIE!

It drives me crazy how "innocently" people will say things but their words strike you to the very core. I had this experience a couple of weeks ago, and it was over something totally trivial. I missed church one Sunday because I had been cleaning our apartment and preparing our things to be moved out in a few weeks. There was a ton of dust and my allergies kicked into high gear making me very sick. The next time that I returned to church I was asked where I was last week and why I had missed church. I told the gentleman my story and he preceded to tell me that if I took the time to clean my house every week then I wouldn't have that problem. Ouch!

Words cut like nothing else. Chew on this... James 3:5 says, "Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark." Here James is comparing the power of the tongue to a spark that starts a raging forest fire. James draws several other comparisons that all lead us to the same conclusion--the tongue is a small but powerful weapon. It can be used for either good or ill (James 3:9-12).

Although I know that this older gentleman probably didn't mean any real harm, I wish that he would have chosen his words with a little more care. They weren't funny and they didn't do anything but cause hurt and make me feel like an inadequate wife/woman. I hope that the next time I start to say something careless I will pause for a minute and remember how I felt in this moment before I just blurt something out with considering the cost.

Other Resources:
"Like a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death is one who deceives their neighbor and says, 'I was only joking!'" Proverbs 26:18-20

"LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to a neighbor,and casts no slur on others;" Psalm 15:1-3

God's Love Letters to You Book Review

Recently I was looking for some new devotional so I was totally stoked when I saw that “God’s Love Letters to You” was up for review. I thought…what a great opportunity. I read the description on the website and the back of the book and I was really excited about this book. Sadly, I was very disappointed.

Dr. Larry Crabb has an easy to understand writing style. He also presents a solid scriptural point of view. However the forty, one to two page devotionals were simply fluff pieces. They teased a deeper spiritual meaning and lesson but left you feeling like you hadn’t really study anything at all.

I like that each love letter contains reflection questions. I think that helps you to pause a moment and find some relatable qualities. I do wish that the scriptures referenced or at least one key highlighted scripture had been printed out in the devotional. People don’t always have their Bibles handy when they grab a devotional book or sometimes they are simply to lazy to look the verses up. However, if they are printed out on the page then they will usually take the time to read them.

Overall I don’t think this book was really for me. I guess that I was just looking for more. This book would probably be really great for people who are just starting to try to get into the habit of doing a daily quiet time. Then are short and to the point and do provide biblical knowledge. If you are looking for bite-sized devotionals then this could very possibly be a great devotional for you.

If you want to really dig in and go deep then steer clear of God’s Love Letters to You because you will simply be disappointed.

This book was provided to me at no cost by Thomas Nelson Publishing for review purposes.