We had our 3rd Annual "Moving on Up" Family Orientation this Saturday at the R.D.F.C. This is where we host the families of upcoming 6th graders into our student ministry, feed them, and spend the evening casting vision! We have some GREAT families moving up! Our first service for the new semester will be this Wednesday at 7 P.M. We just installed all new sound in the youth room and we are pumped about Wednesday's worship service!
Yesterday after church, the girls and I had lunch with Danny and Kyle Phillips. These two young men have a special place in our hearts ever since we started having them in our home a year ago for our youth hunting mentoring program. We worked over 4 hours in the 100 degree heat putting up bow stands, chasing wasps out of box stands, and putting out deer corn! A little (or a lot) of work will pay off come fall when these boys are watching deer!
One of Jodi's "heros of the faith" is Ruth Bell Graham. Let me just say she is much more closer to being a "Ruth" than I am a "Billy". Anyways, Billy Graham said he and Ruth were a "team" and her way of contributing was to spend her time pouring into raising their kids so that it would allow Billy to travel and preach the gospel.If she wouldn't have done that then he wouldn't have been able to "go". And if he wouldn't have "gone" then people wouldn't have been "reached." She played as much apart of his ministry than he did. She never spoke, never was much on being "out front", just did her God called duties faithfully. She had a heart "for the lost" and although she never preached a message to the lost in front of thousands of people she was "reaching the lost" by freeing Billy to do what God had called him to do. Although I am able to stay near my family I still feel I am able to "go" because of the freedom Jodi gives me. Although a very outgoing woman she never wants to be in front of the crowds and her ministry so, so very often is done "behind the scenes". It is her contributing to the ministry God has called us to both in the home and in the church. So many times we think "ministry" is done AT the church but it is not limited to that one place. Ministry is done with the people who make up the church.
After the boys and I came in she spent the next few hours cooking supper and serving those boys as if they were her own. While she was busy doing that, my daughter Gracen was right along side of her serving as well. Two lessons here: Ministering to the boys while teaching OUR girls about ministry. We as a family where all ministering together as a "team" although we all played different roles and parts in that effort.
I love you Jodi and I thank God for you! I see you working so hard to pour into the lives of our girls and staying busy brining the presence of God into our home. Thank you for all the time you have spent over lunches, etc. pouring into the hearts of young teens and moms. Thank you for never complaining and working alongside me in ministry. As a team we can build our family while striving to head down the journey towards full-devotion with other families.
I am blessed...
