January 14, 2011 in
Adultery, Church Planting, Faith, Family, Guest Bloggers, Life Experience, Marriage, Ministry, Missions, Paseo with
RefineUs.org has been doing a series on Transitions and I was asked to guest post over there today.
Check it…
My first 20 years of life was spent under a roof of overbearing control and dysfunction. I learned if I could level out the flux of change, I was better off. The more my surroundings stayed constant, the better I could deal with the unexpected. The more I prepared my harness of control, the less the eggshells would crack under my feet.
I learned CHANGE would hurt me. Change was bad.
So I lived my safe Christian life. I thought if I stayed safe, I could protect my heart and keep it from being trampled on. I kept my heart from everything. From my husband… and even from God. The only thing I fought for was control. Man, was I feisty when it came to control. And it worked… until I lost ALL control and broke myself.
Something crazy/amazing/painful/exhilarating happens when you transition from being broken by other people to breaking yourself. If you’re being completely honest, your heart transitions from allowing yourself to make excuses to having nowhere… and no one left to blame…
… You can read the rest here at RefineUs.org...
Check out all the previous posts too! Some really great writers in this mix.
Thanks, Justin & Trish, for hosting me today!
January 13, 2011 in
Family, Friends with
Yes, I’ll miss Portland when we move. But you know what I’ll miss the most?
My friends.
My life-long friends.
One of them wrote about our little lunch we had on Sunday. Instead of writing my own version, I figured I’d just link it all here. She’s the one who took all the photos anyway.
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALLI’S WHOLE POST.
Alli… I love you. Will miss you more than you’ll know.
… oh yeah. You too Jay.
January 12, 2011 in
Church Planting, Faith, Family, Life Experience, Ministry, Paseo, Prayer with
… till we hit the road.
Exciting times, people. Below is the newsletter Brian just wrote. Since I’m not doing so well with keeping up with my blog right now, I thought I’d just re-post his words 
First of all, a huge thank you to all the prayer supporters, notes of encouragement, phone calls, text, twitters or FB messages and $$$. We are so thankful for every kind of support we are receiving and feel so blessed in our relationships.
We’re writing this extra newsletter this week because it’s crunch-time for us and so we thought we’d send out a request for extra prayers.
We are beginning to really feel the loss of leaving Portland because…
… to read more… CLICK HERE!
Thank you all for your continued prayers over us, our family and ministry in this new year. We feel it and are SO thankful for every breath you lift up on behalf of us!
Now… your turn…
What happens in 12 days for YOU?
January 3, 2011 in
Church Planting, Family, Home, Organization, Paseo with
It’s January 3rd.
We move in 21 days. My to-do list is my constant right now:
1. Sell Washer & Dryer
2. Sell VHS movies
3. Shred unnecessary documents
4. Take Christmas decorations down
5. Move Patio furniture into garage, clean and store
6. Clean outside fridge
7. Pack books into boxes
8. Pack up winter jackets (minus one)
9. Pack up Chance’s 4T clothes for storage
10. Organize garage for truck packing strategy.
11. Disassemble bookshelves & bundle for move
12. Pack up desk contents
13. Pack up Mac
14. Disassemble Jenni’s desk & bundle
15. Take down wall hangings, wrap and pack
16. Patch up walls & match paint.
17. Purchase moving paper & plastic protective wrap
18. Reserve moving truck & trailer for Durango
19. Inventory what gets packed into the Durango
20. Write two newsletter updates for January
21. Clean out closets for Goodwill
22. Organize scrapbooking stuff
23. Sort and pack up least used clothing
24. Pack Brian’s computer
25. Disassemble Brian’s desk & bundle
26. Pack up bathrooms
27. Pack up kid’s toys
28. Pack up linen closet
29. Pack up music
30. Pack up entertainment unit
31. Pack up kitchen
32. Pack a weeks worth of clothing and toiletries in suitcases
33. Recruit moving team to pack up truck
34. Pray while accomplishing every one of these tasks
35. Love on my family
36. Nail down housing in El Paso, Texas
Thank you all for praying. Here’s another list to pray through. I’m pretty good at getting the job done… I already have a good amount of the list crossed off so we’re ahead of the timeline so far.
Anyone in Portland wanna help me with #33?
December 29, 2010 in
Church Planting, Faith, Family, Ministry, Missions, Paseo with
There’s only a couple more days left in the year, and there’s three things that we typically do at this time:
1. We reminisce about the year that is ending and think about the good times and the bad, the funny times and the sad.
2. We look forward to the coming year and consider the changes that we want to do and the goals we want to achieve.
3. We find ways to divert our money away from the tax man and look for good causes to support.
Here are my three things:
1. 2010 finds us answering a call for an adventure
2. 2011 brings us an 1800-mile change of address
3. and along with that, a need for your partnership and support!
And here’s how I can help you with your three things:
1. I would love to share a memory I have of/with you… or maybe a funny story I think of, when I hear your name.
2. Please, please, please… let me tell you what you should change!
3. And boy, do I have a great cause for you to support! (It’s all tax deductible, after all!)
Will you take me up on my challenge? Who’s in this with me?
December 28, 2010 in
Chance, Faith, Family, Friends, Home, Life Experience, Marriage, Ministry, Missions, Paseo, Paxton, Personal Entries with
