Relay for Life 2008

Relay for life was such a blast this year... I am so glad I was able to be here and participate this year because I was out of town last year. It was inspiring to see the perserverance of the survivors. I was especially affected by one sweet baby that Brandi & I saw walking he was so little and to be working so hard to live makes me pause and thank God for the health I have enjoyed and taken for granted. It was also great to be apart of the community where we will someday (Lord willing) have a church building. SO EXCITING!!! Well here are some of my favorite shots from the night. Great Job Relay for Life team... thank you especially to the Zarates, Earls, Barringers, and Jammers for serving in SO many ways. You amaze me with your servant hearts!








A Little Survivor

SUPERBOWL!!!

The Super Bowl was a fun night of fellowship hosted by the Warnicks (a family from my church) They went all out when setting up and it was definetly fun! It was very nice to relax and fellowship with everyone and to enjoy football. Even though I don't follow the pros much anymore(okay not really at all) I did grow up watching all the Kansas City Cheifs games and doing the Schottenheimer PolkA(circa 1994 okay)... but since the Cheifs are not in the Superbowl I didn't really follow it too much and I even spent the first half of the game hanging out in the kitchen and watching the food network in the Den with some amazing youth girls from our church... these girls are way smarter than I was at their age! I did click some great pictures of the room divided between Giants fans and Patriots fans in the 4th qtr!!! And Jessica and I played with my camera a bit... no one complained about the flashes but we were talking in the no talking room... thank you all for not kicking us out~!

Membership Sunday

MEMBERSHIP SUNDAY!!!!!

One of the things I LOVE about my church is the fact that membership is not something that is entered into lightly. I love that when I decided to join it was after much prayer and study. Let me explain. In our group of churches (Sovereign Grace Ministries) a class is offered prior to membership (it is called Starting Point at my church)explaining the doctrines and practices of our church. I have loved learning about the doctrines because for me there were (and still are) so many things that I had to learn about the foundations of my faith. By the grace of God, I have learned so much by being apart of a Sovereign Grace church and attending their conferences!

SOOOOO the last Sunday in January was our membership sunday, it has in the past been marked by a themed event this time it was a "simpler" affair with our new members being brought before the church and then we as a church body shared a meal following our Celebration Service. It seemed to me as though it would be much simpler this time without the theme but as I was reflecting on the day I was struck by the amount of work it takes to both make our Sunday Meetings flow and to coordinate a meal for our whole body. Let me explain for those of you who may not know our church meets in a schoo. Every Sunday members of the body serve by setting up our location and tearing it down after the service. I have been amazed since first coming to the church by the heart God has given so many to serve heroically. Set up can so many times be a thankless job and something I know I take for granted. I am going to end with a short prayer I hope everyone enjoys the photos!

Thank you God for making me aware of the work it takes for our Sunday Meetings to flow. Thank you for the Men who serve on our set up teams and the hard work they put in week in and week out. Please help me to show them my gratefullness and to thank them for serving me, our church but most importantly You. May you recieve all the GLORY! Amen

CrossWay Progressive Dinner

This year for our annual Christmas Celebration instead of having our traditional adult party we had a wonderful progressive dinner. … It was so much fun and I was able to host with Lisa at the Browns Home… (THANK YOU TAMMY & JIM!!!!) while they are gone.
My night started out at the Balthazar Family home with appetizers and yummy cider! Then I came back to the Browns where dinner was in the oven heating up (THANKS TERRIE) We had Lisa Ryan & the kids, Terrie & grandson along with Stan & Adrienne.
It was so nice to sit and have a meal together and to fellowship. And then off to the “church” for Dessert and entertainment.
The Slideshow went off after a slight delay due to technical difficulties… if anyone has pics of all those of us who walked over to “fix” the problem I would love to see them!

I did take a picture that could have been very bad but it turned out cute and alright! I walked up on a little girl from my caregroup (age 1) drinking out of a coffee cup... I thought she just had water and it looks so cute so I snapped a picture... little did I know that she had picked up her mommy's coffee!!! I am just snapping away... thankfully the coffee wasn't too hot or her mommy saw what was happening just in time. GREAT Kendra just let the baby burn herself. (ah sigh)

Here are just a few pics along with the Menu (& recipes) from the night. Just click on the menu item to see the recipes we used.

Poppyseed Chicken

Pirogues (I buy frozen and just sauted onions and then pan fried them. I put mozzerella Cheese on top when baking them in the oven ~ 25minutes)

Green Bean Casserole (by Sweet Pea & Mommy)

Fruit Salad (by Bubbaroo & Mommy) (Cut up Fruit of your choosing and at last minute mix with cool whip... good light snack or addition to any meal) Lisa's recipe that only Bubbaroo & I could remember her making hehe!

CrossWay

Okay so no real blogs yet but for those of you who are checking I did change my layout and add a picture... thanks to Jessi's help :)

"I did want to share a little of what has been going on. This has been an amazing weekend for the life of our church! A mission X team from around the state of Florida came to serve our church this weekend. We have recently changed our name, as most of you who are reading this know! I was blessed to be able to go out with them and hand out fliers on Friday afternoon. It was so much fun to hand out information about our church and to communicate with people about the changes that are happening some of them who have known of our church for years. Someone even asked me if we were the McKelvey's church! It was great to share with them the changes and the exciting things that are coming in the life of our church from our name change to the pending land purchase. I was constantly amazed all weekend with the children in our church. Their passion to let people know about CrossWay and to talk to people. They were more willing than anyone to knock on doors and invite people to come meet with us.

Group Shot on the Church Land :)

Plus it was such a blessing to me for us to meet for prayer at the land that we are in the process of purchasing. Seeing the land makes it seem so real! What an amazing provision God has provided!!! It really is something that reminds me that God is so good to me and that he is trustworthy. Always learning to trust Him more and believe that He is good. He cares about us and gives us things that we desire, this is something that people in our body have prayed for and looked toward for so long. What an opportunity to praise God!

“What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?" Hebrews 2:6

Check out the Mission X Niceville Blog:
http://www.mission-x-niceville.blogspot.com/

In addition I learned about Dip night which is too cool, and something I should definitely implement! Maybe tonight!

Okay well that is all for now. I hope everyone is starting off to a great week.