SUNDAY SERVICES:

This weekend a part of our church family heads out on a retreat weekend - our middle and high school students! We will be exploring the depths of Scripture together - from how the Bible was put together and the lenses that we bring to how we read the Bible, to looking at the big story of God that Scripture tells and where we find ourselves in it.

We need your specific prayers!

"I don't like Lent."

Who said that? Full disclosure: I did.

Is that even allowed?  Before you decide one way or the other, ask yourself this: Do you like Lent?

“We’ve checked into the hotel earth overnight on our way to the heavenly Jerusalem.  Earth is not our home.”  I heard Brennan Manning say these words many times.  

So where is our home?

Home is where the heart is.

Home away from home.

All Roads lead to home...or is that Rome? 

These colloquialisms go on and on. At this stage in my life I often feel like this:

Home is where the noise is.   

However, my home hasn’t always been that way. 

Scripture says that in heaven there will be no more weeping and sorrow or crying or tears…. that is our destiny, our eternal HOME, but what about as we journey on this earth? 

We are "walking each other home on this earthly journey toward Heaven" but what is home here on earth…what does HOME look like in the meantime? Where and how do we share our tears and our sorrows (along with the joys) while we are here?

My husband and I built our dream home on 10.5 acres in Virginia. We contracted the whole thing ourselves, and Peter himself laid all our heart of pine floors.  I picked out all the colors of paint. The walls were mostly a creamy yellow, which I consider the happiest color.

We planned to raise our family there. We installed a full swing set in the backyard even though our oldest could only use the baby swing. We had plenty of space, extra bedrooms, and scenic views from every window. We joked that this would be the house we would die in. (That's pretty dark humor, I know.)

We lived there for 1.5 years.

Our entire lives turned upside down at that moment. The life we were building in Virginia? God decided to close that door abruptly and without much warning. 

We sold out dream home in a week and moved to Florida. We shoved our furniture in a storage unit and moved into 2 bedrooms in my inlaws' house. Our two kids in one room, Peter and I in another.

The whole thing was shocking, sad, and God-led.

In 2002 when we felt the Lord call us to move to the Orlando area to be closer to all of our children and grandchildren, we first had to sell our home in Pittsburgh to afford our new Florida home.

No offers came for several months, until a husband and wife came one evening, looked quickly at the home, spoke to me briefly, and left. I said to Ida that I strongly felt this was the couple who would be the buyers.

This Sunday, January 16 we will be celebrating three decades of ministry on staff by our Missions Pastor, Sheryl Curbow-Shaw, and commissioning her as a missionary sent from New Covenant!

My Christmas tree is a fire hazard.

I look at it and simultaneously have two thoughts: "Oh, you are so lovely with your twinkling lights," and "Please don't kill us all."

I suppose that is what I get for buying a live tree right after Thanksgiving. My children picked it out, and when I pointed out the brown bits on a branch, they carelessly brushed my concerns aside.

I asked the tree lot manager, "Is this tree dying?"

"Lady," he replied brusquely, "this tree's been dying since it was cut."

I was not appeased. And then he said the magic words, "But I'll give you 50% off."