You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'General' category.
A friend from church has a beautiful story of how she spent a day with her nephew. When she brought him home, his mom noticed a difference in him and said that it was obvious his little love cup was full. I love that saying! And I know he’s blessed to have such an awesome aunt.
This past weekend, Jeff and I made the trek to Georgia to celebrate AIM’s 20th Anniversary. We got all dressed up for dinner and dancing on Saturday, then headed to the park on Sunday for worship and a picnic. We mingled with coworkers, donors, and friends of AIM along the way. While there, I talked with one coworker of Jeff’s. To say that where she and her husband are today is not at all where they thought they’d be at the beginning of the year would be about exactly right. They literally are not - they’re back to living in Georgia, which was not what they thought this year had in store. I asked her if she thought God had revealed the reason to her yet for placing them in Gainesville, and she passed on a great word that was spoken to her when the changes took place. Another wise coworker at AIM told her (and I’m going to do a horrible job at paraphrasing this, just so you know) that maybe it’s about the people God has called them to be with, and not necessarily where God has called them to go. And she thought that absolutely, these Georgia people they have community with is exactly “her people.”
I loved it. Not only did I love the fact that once again God is gracious enough to answer our “whys?” but to also call us to community, and that she not only recognized it, but that she was seeing the fruit of it.
I feel that way about Nashville, about our friends and some of my coworkers. And specifically, I’m blessed to be a part of a church that has such amazing examples. There are women who are great examples of how to be a Woman of Faith, a wife, a mother (someday way down the road), a friend, a sister, a daughter. And I attend a small church, so each woman is great at a number of these things! I would not be who I am or where I am had even just one of these women not been a part of my life these last three years.
Something that has been impressed upon my heart in the past couple of months is just how blessed I am because of this community (and Jeff, too, by the men). I have been overwhelmed with the desire to just take every opportunity to be with the ladies and to also bless them and say thank you and to learn. I’m so thankful that they’re not only willing to spend time with me (or at least they’re great pretenders!), but that they are honest and vulnerable with me (they’re also excellent listeners!). And that, when I see the opportunity to, they allow me to bless them, and they don’t argue with me about it, but just receive it. And so humbly. I’m such a giver. I’d much rather give you something then let you give me something, so I’m not always good at a humble and simple “thank you.” But I do still like presents on birthdays and Christmas, so you’re not totally off the hook! But that’s not what I’m referring to. I’m talking about just out of the blue blessings.
So I’ve spent lots of time with the ladies, and even blessed a few along the way. I saw Steel Magnolias at the TPAC last week with a dear friend – it’s her favorite movie of all time. I had lunch Monday with another and spent a Friday and Saturday night with a few at an awesome woman’s conference, Finding Grace. I’m celebrating a couple birthdays in these coming days, and I’m so stoked to celebrate the lives of two women that I am so incredibly grateful to God for creating them and for bringing them into my life.
Other blessings, of course, include my husband. If you’ll remember, he gave me ballroom dancing lessons for my birthday. We are in the middle of lessons, and progressing nicely, according to our teacher. It is so great to not only have received such a fitting gift, but to also be able to experience this together.
And then I have my “old” friends. The friends from days gone by. Man, sometimes I feel like I do not see them enough. Thankfully, we’re going to get our fix of college friends soon, as one of our bestests is spending Halloween here with us! I’ll share her with Jeff a bit, but I am going to be totally selfish and steal lots of girl time with her.
And of course, my family is in this category. I’m looking forward to seeing them in a few weekends for family photos. And then we’re all vacationing together over Thanksgiving in Orlando. And just because I haven’t shared the latest (all be it, these are a month old) pictures of Gary and I don’t know how else to close this blog, here you go. He’s getting such a big boy face. But unfortunately, this adorable little guy won’t be going to Florida with us. But that might actually be a good thing.
Somehow Jeff and I are blessed to do our “dream jobs.” I shouldn’t say “somehow”… we obviously know we wouldn’t have gotten here without our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Four winters ago, I sat with one of my high school best friends in a Starbucks back in Illinois, and we both joked about moving to Nashville to work – - her in some avenue of journalism and me in Christian music. To this day I still cannot remember where that thought originated or when I first talked about it. Over ten months later, I was in Nashville. Not working in Christian music… yet… but I was in Nashville. That came six months later! Oh, and my friend, she ended up North… way North. I’m grateful to be where it’s warm!
As for Jeff, he has always had a heart for missions. After graduating college, he spent a year traveling the U.S. and a month in Taiwan doing music ministry through CTI Music Ministries. After that, he came down to Nashville to do something with music or ministry. Oh, and to supposedly chase a girl. He landed an almost full-time job in music, selling resources to youth ministers. But those of you who know Jeff well know he is not meant for a cubicle and the 9-5. What we thought was a lost opportunity to work for a missions organization came back about six months later at Adventures In Missions. Now he works full-time there at AIM as Director of Marketing. As he likes to put it, he’s a mobilizer – - he mobilizes people to the mission field. So he works from home, gets to find creative and cool ways to invite people into mission work, and occasionally gets to go out into the field. No one could’ve packaged a more perfect position for this particular red head.
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure (and I do mean pleasure) of sitting out in the congregation as Jeffery was given the Sunday morning service to speak about his recent mission trip to Costa Rica. I’ve heard Jeff speak (sometimes preach, heehee) over the years, but I have never seen him so confident, so mature, so passionate and emphatic, and so knowledgeable as I did on Sunday. And I’m confident that his time with AIM is only going to continue to get better and that AIM is only going to continue to be used in even more amazing ways for God’s Kingdom. How awesome to be a part of that.
And as for me, I’m coming up on two years in Christian music at Provident. No previous work experience in music, no Tennessee-based music business education, and yet after six months at a contracted accounts payable and accounts receivable job, I walked into these doors and am still here. Doing accounts payable, among other things. I am so blessed to be a part of something that I have seen and heard do amazing works in others’ lives. And I am so blessed to be in music, something I love. And I am so blessed to have the co-workers I do, especially in my department. For those of you who don’t know, today was Administrative Professionals Day. The other part of my job here is to assist the department, and today I was humbled by being “honored.” I received a sweet card in which they all sang my praises, and one of the things I was handed was the “key of success”… in chocolate (Even better, right ladies?!). They are all just as awesome and fantastic and are rockstars themselves.
Picture courtesy of www.schakolad.com
Welp, the weather in Nashville the past few days has been… interesting. We had beautiful weather last week, but then came tornadoes on Thursday. Then absolutely beautiful 70 degree weather on Saturday to only have more storms on Sunday afternoon. Now the high today is 41, and we’re to expect below freezing temperatures tonight and possible snow flurries. The weather people here in Nashville aren’t joking when they say it might be tempting in Middle Tennessee to start planting early when it’s nice but wait until Easter! Thank goodness that is Sunday, and hopefully the temperatures will stay up after that.
While I (along with the rest of Nashville) am here pulling back out the winter clothes and fighting off terrible allergies and sinus headaches due to the drastic weather changes, Jeffery is enjoying nothing but the 90s. 90 degrees that is. Every day this week. And it looks like nothing but sunshine all week, too…
Yep, as of today, Jeff is on day five of being in Costa Rica and day three of the actual mission trip with the Florida-based youth group. For those of you who may not know, Jeff is leading a short-term mission trip for AIM in Costa Rica this week, and his friend Saul has went along to help. Anyway, Saul and Jeff had Thursday and Friday to meet the contacts, familiarize themselves with the surroundings, and determine possible ministry opportunities. Then the youth group arrived Saturday evening. So far everything is going really well, and Jeff’s Spanish has come out of hiding as if he’s been speaking it all his life. Well ok, maybe it’s not that good, but it’s great! And that’s an answered prayer there, because he was a bit nervous not getting to use it very much these days!
So please remember to pray for Jeff and Saul and the youth group. They’ll be ministering through Thursday. They get a day off on Friday to enjoy Costa Rica before leaving at I think 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. Jeff and Saul are due to land in Nashville at 4:30 p.m. To see how you can more specifically pray, click here. And if/when they are able to obtain Internet access (I know there is some, but just getting to it may be tricky), you can more than likely get updates here. In the mean time, just pray for whatever God lays on your heart, and pray for me, too, as I try to hold down the fort and survive! No worries, I am fed and even killed a big nasty brown spider all by myself… and without screaming. That is quite a feet.
And thank you to the ladies (specifically Hannah and the Friday night movie crew) for finding ways to keep me entertained and keeping me busy while the hubby is away. You’re wonderful… and are becoming quite the great excuse to get me out of starting to pack for our move next month. 
