Connecting people with Jesus

Tonight was the 2009 year in review for FBC. It is fun to read the 40+ page document of all the happenings that went on at FBC. All in the name of Jesus!

Pastor Dave said something pretty interesting…

“We do not want, as the newspaper say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world” G.K. Chesterton

I couldn’t agree more! Literally, everyday as the leadership of First Baptist of Cadillac, we’re looking for what God wants us to do regarding the advancement of His kingdom and the building up of the Body of Christ. When I look back on any year, my thoughts don’t go to programs, budgets special events, or attendance. And I’m not downgrading the role of any part of those things. But what I want to dwell on is the changed lives that were affected by the gospel through our work and witness as a congregation! For that information , we need to hear the voices of numerous folk. And believe me, they’re out there.

But the question we continue to ask as leader is: what must we do to help every follower of Christ within this church family take the next step in Loving God, loving people and serving the world. There are involve deeper devotional commitment through:

• Prayer

• Corporate Worship

• Daily connectivity to God’s Word

• Intentional community

• Discovery, development and deployment of one’s spiritual gift(s) and

• Making Jesus Christ known in the world through service, witness, and the generous giving of resources.

Our goal is to offer opportunities and tools for personal growth in Christ. On the other end, your goal [should be] to take advantage of those opportunities. None of us can take all on but what would your “Year-End Report” say regarding your advancement toward Christ-likeness?

I just thought that kind of fit with the theme of my year. One of the other things I like about the yearend report is all the different fonts that people use. I think it kind of says something about their personalities by how they set up their report and the font that they use.

I'm getting there

Kelly and I finished the entire 30 minute workout for the kettlebells. It only took us 2 weeks of working out on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I still an unable to do all of the fancy moves but I kept moving.

The Moon

As I was coming home from Kelly’s house I thought that the moon had a nice look to it. Just very calming site on a very crisp night.

I found them!

Today I found an old journal, from about 2000. That is one thing I find very interesting is reading the thoughts that I took the time to right down. Sometimes I wish that I have done more of is journaling. That is another reason I think this project is so important. I have kept everything I have written for this project and I’m already at 18 pages typed. Some of my posts are longer than others but overall I think that I have kept a pretty good record of just the everyday things.

My mom is going to kill me for this post!

My sister made bread for the first time 3 days ago and I finally got around to making it. She didn’t do it because she thought that the bread dough would never go bad, so when she got to it she got to it. I did have to work my magic on the loaves due to the fact that they were drying out and they weren’t rising. So I placed both loaves in the oven at 200 degrees with a wet towel over them and brought them back to life.

I baked them up and had them ready for dinner. Because nothing goes better with Chicken and Dumplings then homemade bread, I served up the dumplings and mom sliced up the bread, we all sat down for dinner and we took a bite of the bread and it was too salty. Nobody could eat it. My sister doesn’t know what happen but I think that she mixed up the teaspoon and tablespoon. So before dad got home I loaded the bread up into bags and put it in the car. Then I went to Kelly’s house so that she could feed it to her goat.

My Friend Barb!

This is a picture of my friend Barb. Man she is one heck of a pray warrior. I know that we can all be that but this is her spiritual gift. I just thought I would honor her tonight with a picture.

Project Life Tuesday!

I never forgot about you I just didn't have then energy to post and journal so I put it off until today. Enjoy!!

Saturday, January 23, 2010


This is a picture of me sitting in class trying to get work done, which I did but if you notice I was also on facebook. I know, I have class on Saturdays and Sundays. This semester I have them for the next two weekends. So if anyone is keeping track, that means I will have them three weekends in a row. I think I am going need a lot of pray for endurance.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

I took a picture of the clock as I got into bed. After a long weekend of classes and subbing this was the time that I went to bed. This is one of the main downfalls to having weekend classes. I come home exhausted. Sometimes I really thank God that I don’t have a “family” to take care of, that I really just have myself to worry about. I mean I have Caty, but there are 3 other adults that can help so the soul reasonability doesn’t fall on to me.

Monday, January 25, 2010

After a long weekend, I had to sub on a Monday morning, as I was getting into the shower I said a little prayer. “You know I wouldn’t mind a 2 hour delay. I mean I really appreciate the sub job and will go in with a good attitude but a 2 hour delay would be nice.” Well that is what I got. I went back to be for an hour and a half, then got up went in to sub for the school day and extended learning opportunities (ie. Detention), went to work out, came home made dinner, watched The Big Bang Theory, Then went to bed. Overall, a pretty good day.

Go Dawgs, Go!!

The only team my dad will ever support is the Mesick Bulldogs. He is not into any sports team other than his DAWGS. It doesn’t matter what sport they are playing if there is a home game he is there with his orange and black yelling at the dawgs to “Get on them. Don’t let them shoot!” until he has lost his voice. Tonight, dad and I went to one of the varsity basketball games at Mesick. I thought that today’s picture might try and capture the intensity of just how much he loves his dawgs. I know he looks angry, he is just really into the game! Win or lose both the girls and the boys played one heck of a game.

Dobby found a place to sleep!

Update: I was able to get the picture to load.

Since Oreo died, my little Dobby has been very scared to do anything. Most nights my mom and dad have to sleep with their bedroom door open so that he can sleep near them. Tonight we found him sleeping in a pile of dirty laundry. To be completely honest, Dobby has come alive and become a completely different dog since Oreo’s death. He is more loving, moves a lot quicker, and he comes when he is called more than he did before.

Big Time Accomplishments!!!!

I'm not posting my picture today due to it being one of my students and I don't know the laws that go alone with that. but I will tell you about her.

Today I took a picture of Mindy, on Friday she will accomplish something in her life that no one else in her family ever has. She will be a high school graduate! Mindy I’m so proud of you!

Stepping Up!

For my new visitors coming from Jessica Turner's blog. I keep up on this daily so that I don't get behind. Have fun looking around I would love to hear from all of you.



  

Today at FBC’s women’s Bible study we are starting Beth Moore’s Stepping Up: a journey through the Psalms of Ascent. I’m really looking forward to starting another Bible study. So I think I’m going to end this post with a prayer!

Dear Jesus, As I start another Bible study please open my eyes and reveal to me what you have planned. Use this study to bring me closer to you and give me a holy passion for your word. AMEN

Ps. In case you are wondering my Bible cover says “Jesus loves you a latte.”

Kettlebells

One of the other parts of my journey is the fact that I want to get into shape. And for the last month I have worked out here and there. With the YMCA opening I have thought about joining, I even went with my mom one night. Saturday night I called a friend, Kelly, and asked her if I could come over and use her elliptical machine. She said yes and then called me back and told me to bring my kettlebell because we were going to work out. While I was there Kelly, Krista, and I decided to start working out together on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Today is Monday and Kelly and I started. We decided that it was so much better to work out together because we could keep each other accountable to keep doing it, and we can celebrate our victories together as well.

We have also decided to do different things so that we don’t get sick of it and tonight we started with Kettlebells. We could only do about 20 minutes of the DVD, but you have to start somewhere.

Hint of Jealousy

Today after church Caty and I thought it would be a great idea for us to watch the movie “Up.” And it was, I love that movie. There are so many things I can talk about after watching that movie but that is not the purpose of this picture. Since it was just me and Caty I decided to stretch out on the couch. I also thought it would be a great idea to spoon with Dobby-Tron, doesn’t he look thrilled to be sleeping with me. So I grabbed Dobby and laid down with him. It didn’t take long for Caty to see him. She was not too happy that someone else was spooning with her Bubby. So, she comes over and tries to pull him off the couch. He was not really willing to go anywhere. He started growling at her and that is when I snapped the picture.

This is also the same child that is praying to Jesus that I never have any children so I always love her the most. I have tried to explain that I will always love her the same way as I do now, I will just love my children differently.

Janurary 16, 2010

Jesus didn’t really teach me anything here. I just had to make this the picture of the day. The title:”Papa gets a tattoo... or two!”

Janurary 15, 2010

Today was full of things that were not extraordinary. They were ordinary things for me. I did laundry, made more laundry soap, made dinner, and put Caty to bed. There were lots of other perfectly normal things that I do every day. But one of my favorite everyday normal things is putting Caty to bed.

Yes, I know it is not always a treat when I have to fight her the entire way from getting to put on her jammies to brushing her teeth then the “oh yes I forgot I have to get…” but when we are settled down into the bed that is my favorite. When Dee (my sister) works I get to “spoon” with Caty. Spooning is what we call cuddling in our house. Every night it is the same thing. I have Caty brush her teeth and then we crawl into bed. We spend 5 minutes getting EVERYTHING that we need for a comfortable night’s sleep, 15 blankets, 10 stuffed animals all having their own name, a drink of water and then I turn off the lights but not before forgetting to turn on the nightlight. I have had to tell her that the nightlight is not going to be on if she is wearing an eye mask to make the room darker.

But while we are lying in bed I have insisted that we say a bed time prayer; so after we have gotten all of our wiggles out and gotten comfortable I ask the same question, “So Caty, what do you want to pray for tonight?” I have gotten some different answers, the time I had to say hi to Sally-Potkins (her dead cat) was interesting. One of our usual prays include both of us having a good attitude for the next day. So I have her go first and then I finish up. So tonight was just like any night I snuggle down in with her and she asked Jesus to let Papa let her have a kitty. That was a new one, I kind of giggled when she made her request be known because I was remembering what Papa had said. “NO, no more animals!”

I finished up with praying for Caty to always love Jesus and for her mom, her dad, Nina, Papa and myself to make good choices because our choice affect her.

But I’m not going to tell Dad about the little pray that Caty sent up to see how God works in his heart. This picture is of me and Caty spooning in her bed as we were getting ready to pray, she is pretending to be asleep.

Janurary 14, 2010

I got a copy of photoshop today. I was playing around with it so I could practice doing all of the cool things it can do.

I turned in my first assignment today for a new semester. Right now I’m praying for a good attitude so that I can do all things without argument or complaint.

Janurary 13, 2010

A couple of weeks ago the Shay Station was offering a free bag of coffee with the purchase of one of their stone coffee mugs, so I went and checked it out. I found the mugs and really liked them but then I looked at the price. $15 dollars! I couldn’t really see spending that on a mug that was just going to end up broken. Even all the mugs I get from the Disney store are about $6 or below. So I moved on with them always in the back of my mind.

If you didn’t know I am an avid Goodwill shopper. I love going there; I have a lot of fun. I sometimes have referred to it as “treasure hunting” because I find some of the coolest things there. Well… on one of those treasure hunts I came across one of the mugs that I had seen at the Shay, but this time it was $.99. I picked it up right away and never let go of it. I was SO excited.

So, thank you Jesus for allowing me to find the cup I wanted for a much better price.

Janurary 12, 2010

It has been one month since I have stopped biting my nails. It has been a really hard month; I’m not going to lie to anyone. If you are wondering I had to file my nails really short a couple of times to help in resisting the urge to bite them. I know how silly it is to be celebrating a one month anniversary but I don’t think I have ever gone an entire month without biting my nails in my whole life.

Janurary 11, 2010

No, I did not run over a cat, but that was the first thing that I thought when I got out of my car and saw that mess.

I was going to Mesick to sub for a half day and went to back my car out of the driveway and it wouldn’t move. So I thought the most logical thing I could think of and got the fertilizer to put under the tires because I thought I was on ice.

When I saw the red puddle under my car, I did say a little pray. I also tried to remember if I heard grinding when I was backing up which I don’t remember, and I would have remembered that noise. This is not my first rodeo with transmission problems. So instead of worrying about this little things that I would normally worry about I have decided how this was a blessing.

1. I was in my driveway and not on the road driving-That has happened to me and I was in Kingsley not fun.

2. I was in my driveway and not in Mesick High School’s parking lot. So that made it only $40 to get it towed from my house to the place that is going to fix it and not $140.

3. I didn’t hear a grinding when I was trying to move the car. I’m praying that this means that it’s just a broken line and not a blown transmission.

Janurary 10, 2010

In the last two days Caty has hit this streak where she is just plain naughty. I mean she usually behaves this way for her mother, but rarely does it happen when she is with my mom and me. For instance yesterday we were at the Amish store in McBain and I had both of my arms of full of things, and had accidentally dropped a couple of items on the floor. I asked Caty if she could please pick the things up I had dropped and she responded by kicking them under the shelf. There are several other examples from yesterday but that was the moment I knew that I was in trouble.

Today’s picture is of Caty sitting in the closet after being asked to get a towel and clean up the mess she had made. It is so hard to remember that our battle is not with Flesh and Blood, when the flesh and blood is sitting in the closet. But I will try and remember.

Yesterday, I told you about the leak in our kitchen and today I’m going to show you how we fixed the problem.

No, I’m not showing you the best 2 meter antenna in the neighborhood, by the way we do have the best, and that is not our attempt to make the house look sexy. My dad filled old pantyhose with fertilizer and threw them on top of the roof so we can start melting the ice dams off our house. So to fix the “small” problem in the kitchen we first had to fix the big problem outside on the roof, but here is the cool part, all while fixing all of the problems when ice melts it will be fertilizing the lawn and flower bed.

I just like how this works. While fixing a huge problem other small things are happening at the same time. And there happening really without realizing what is going on.

And this picture was to thank Jesus for the first glimpse of sunshine of the year. THANK YOU JESUS!!!

Janurary 8, 2010

Wednesday night I was getting some water before I was going to sleep. And as I walked into the kitchen I heard something dripping, so I thought to myself it was a good thing I walked in when I did so I could make sure the faucet was turned off. After I checked it the dripping continued. So I investigated a little bit further. Turns out that water was dripping from the top of the window molding. My first thought at 11 pm was “NOT GOOD”. Luckily, we do know the reason and we will take care of in the morning. There are ice dams on the roof and water is getting backed up in the walls. That drip got me thinking about life. We never would have known ice had built up in the walls if that drip didn’t start. I often wonder how many little things in my life get backed up and then I only realize that there is a problem when there is a small drip. But really that drip is covering a bigger problem, from the inside of our house we would never be able to see the ice dam forming on the roof. And looking at the ice dam on the roof would we be able to see the little drip on the inside.

Janurary 7, 2010

One word for you today: FRICKLES!. Mom and I went to the Food Factory in Lake City today for lunch. The only place I have ever found them. So, I’m sure you are wondering what in the world is a Frickle. Well I’m so glad you asked so without any further delay I will tell you. They start with a wonton wrapper and to that they add a pickle, Swiss cheese and ham. They roll the entire thing up like an eggroll and deep fry them. When they come out of the fryer they cut them in half and serve them with ranch dressing.

Janurary 6, 2010

For the last 3 or 4 years, Ali Edwards has come up with a word that she wants to define her year by. This year her word is “Story.” While trying to win free loot I had to think of a word to define my year with, so I came up with the word “FIND.” Which I went on further to describe that I wanted to FIND Jesus and FIND who I was in Christ. So the more I thought about my word for the year being “FIND” the more the phrase “SEEK and you will FIND” has been coming to my mind. So I looked up the complete verse.

Matthew 7:7 (ESV) “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

ASK, SEEK, and Knock are all active present tense verbs. They are all things that I have to choose to participate in because if I don’t I will not get the results that I am after.

In the six days that I have working on this project, I have realized how passive I have become about my spiritual life. For at least the last 2 year, I’ve just kind of let God do his thing with me and I’ve been pretty content to just go along for the ride. I made a joke in one of my last classes about me producing mediocre work. I spent about 1/3 the amount of time and did about 2/3 of the work as someone else and got a better score because that was the standard I had set for the teacher. When my life is over I don’t want mediocrity to be the standard I set for doing work for Jesus. Just kind of passively walking through life, I think I starting to make that change with this picture project. Yes, I had to stage this photo, at first I thought that I was going to miss a day because I didn’t find something, but I want to not be passive anymore so I printed it off and took a picture. I would have loved it if I found the “Passive” on a t-shirt, but who is really proud of the fact that they are passive.

If anyone sees me making a passive move or decisions, call me on it. But please do it nicely.

I just thought I would let everyone know that it has been 3 and half weeks since I have bitten my nails. I have had to cut them really short a couple of times because I was really tempted, but I have not bitten them.

I read four chapters in Exodus, but I reread some of the stuff from yesterday, so does that make me up-to-date. I’m going with yes. My goal was to get further then yesterday. I am planning on listening to all of Numbers. I have heard a couple people tell me it is hard to get through. I don’t want to quit, because quitting would be a passive move!

Wordle

Janurary 5, 2010

In the last couple of weeks Caty has really challenged me in my pray life. She didn’t do it on purpose, but on several occasions I have just been taking back by how quickly she thinks to pray. That seems to be her very first thought. For instance, when my Mom and Dad took Oreo to the vet to have him put down, Caty and I were standing outside waving goodbye. As the jeep was pulling off into the distance, I went to turn around to go in the house; Caty says we should pray for Oreo. I tell her that she had a good idea and she starts. And it was a sweet little pray.
Dear Jesus, thank you for this wonderful day, and come with your hand and heal Oreo. Amen!

I’m just going to try and work on that for the year too. I know that this isn’t a picture of Caty praying but it is very hard to get that. For I’m usually trying to get her to go to sleep when she does pray, maybe I will get one, maybe I won’t but this is a picture from today in her Halloween costume.

I’m also up-to-date with my Bible readings. Well I totally cheated and listened to them on my i-pod. A couple of years ago I got The Bible Experience: the Complete Bible for my birthday. So I loaded up Exodus and did the dishes. I really like it. The different voices and the background stuff, make it an experience. No pun intended. I mean they had frogs going in the background when Moses was talking to Pharaoh during the plague of frogs. Forest Whittaker does the voice of Moses.

I did load the entire Bible on my computer so that will make it easier as well and now I have no excuses to not be up to date. Oh yah, remember those emails I signed up for through biblegateway that would send me daily reading, well they never came. Thinking that I made a mistake, I went and signed up again and then read the fine print. They aren’t doing that for everyone at this point in time, but when they are I will have about 15 emails to let me know.

Have a blessed night and day, until I write again.

Janurary 4, 2010

I was at the Shay Station today getting only the best hot chocolate in the world. In my humble opinion it tastes like the hot chocolate they serve on the Polar Express, not that I know personally it is just how I imagined it would taste. While in the Shay Station I was looking with eager eyes, God always speaks to me in there. I have seen so of the coolest stuff in there, with the colors, shapes and textures it is hard not to find Jesus speaking to you in there. I looked through the entire store and didn’t find anything, until I stepped into the bathroom to wash my hands. I found this little plaque that someone had taken the time to type up frame and place it in the bathroom. And it was really neat.

Take a closer look at the plaque.

I know that I have heard Psalm 46:10 numerous times. “Be still, and know that I am God.” It sounds so easy, but being still is one of the hardest things in the world for me to do. There will be days that I set aside to do NOTHING for the Glory of God and someone will call and ask me to go with them somewhere and before I know what I’m doing I walking out the door to meet up with that person. I really like the sentence “To guard your inner life you first have to guard your outer life.” I do a terrible job of guarding my outer life so that I have time to think about thing. Then I also have the opposite problem of thinking too much about a problem and working myself into a frenzy about something that hasn’t even happened. Maybe that is why I don’t give myself time to sit and think, maybe that is why I have a hard time being still. I guess this is something I’m going to have to pray about.
Just in case you were wondering. This summer I am taking on Beth Moore’s Believing God: Experiencing a Fresh Explosion of Faith. If you want to join us for the just the videos that is fine if you would like to get the member book and work along with me that is great. Either way it you will get so much out of the series. I’m not sure when I’m going to start it. I think at the end of May or early June. I just want an idea of how many people are going to be doing it so that if we need to find a bigger place to watch the videos we can secure that location.

I know, I get it, but I'm going to try.

Simple Stories by Memory-Works is offering a free kit to anyone who promotes their product so here I go.

I would love to win a kit to help me with my project it would be fantastic. I just love the colors. the kit looks great.

Simple Stories by MemoryWorks from Amber Crowell on Vimeo.

Janurary 3, 2010

Today in service Pastor Mike gave us Luke 11:1 as part of his message.

Luke 11:1 (ESV) Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

What struck me about that verse was even people who were around JESUS everyday were self conscious about their prayer life. Pastor Mike was right this is something that has to be learned and doesn’t come naturally to anyone. So I just need to stick it out and keep working on this part of my spiritual life.

By the way: I need to send out my thank you for the night to Ms. Deb Simon, who felt the call to ask me about my goal to read the Bible. I did start that part of my project and I decided to start in Exodus since I have started this little project about 4 times and always make it through Genesis. So I have read Genesis about 6 times and the rest of the Bible not so much. Love you so much Deb.

Ongoing Prayers:

• My brother Chris is planning on deploying to Iraq. He is a non-believer and hardest part for me is that he is a Calvary Scout. What makes that so hard for me is he is one of the first men in and one of the last men to leave dangerous situations. I know that I would feel a lot better about the entire thing if I knew where he was going when he took his last breath.

Today Pastor Mike asked us to pray for God to bring someone’s face to our minds that we can build a relationship with so that they could have a relationship with Jesus, Chris’s face was the one that came to my mind. The funny part was he came to my mom’s mind too.

I also have prayed that a Godly man from the Army will influence his life.

• That I just keep on keeping on. I feel good about this journey but I’m only 3 days into it.

I forgot to tell everyone. If you were wondering where I got the font I put on my photos. I used the Ali Edwards font. Right now it is free from Creative Keepsakes. So go over there and get it.

Janurary 2, 2010

I’m finishing up my Esther study and after I read this little part it spoke volumes to me. The entire study I have heard Jesus speak to my heart by telling me, “See, even when you think I’m not there, I am 100% there for you and I have a plan for you. Trust me.” This was found etched into the wall of one of the Nazi death camps. Talk about not feeling like you would never be able to see God again. I went to listen to a missionary from Chosen People Ministries speak at First Baptist this past summer, and that gentleman said that most Jewish people feel like the Holocaust was their punishment for killing Jesus. That kind of stopped me in my tracks. Even when I read those three little lines I’m reminded of me of how God is working in everything even when I cannot see him.

Janurary 1, 2010

I went to Rockford, Mi yesterday to hang out with some people that I met through a friends wedding. So all day long I was looking for a picture, and on the way home I was thinking about how beautiful the day was. Because the weather man said that we were suppost to get a lot of lake effect snow all day. When I got to the rest area just outside of Cadillac I had to slow down to 35 miles per hour. So I just want to thank Jesus for keeping me and Caty safe on the way home.