Let's start with the fact that on Friday evening, our family's besets friends in the whole world arrived! I don't know who loves Ben & "Ekka" more, me & Chuck or Kennedy :) They arrived around bedtime, and came in like a stinkin Santa Clause or something. All that really mattered (in Kennedy's mind) was a brand new Little Mermaid costume from the Disney store that she proudly sported pretty much the entire weekend except for church and only because I nixed that! lol. Gosh was it wonderful to have them there for the weekend to support us. With them being there, I realized just how hard it is to be away from close friends and although God has provided us with people here in Jackson that are fun friends, it takes a long time to build up to something like what we have with those 2. On the flip side of that, I know good and well that there is reasoning behind being far from all of our friends & "family" in Sevierville. God wanted Chuck & I to learn to stand strong on our own two feet. I keep hearing the word crutch in my head, and know that in a way, the Gathering was a type of crutch that we had had since we got married. Something solid to always lean on. Not anymore! God wants to heal our limp. And it is working :) Chuck and I are being stretched & as hard as that is, it is going to be so worth it to develop a relationship with Him that can stand the test. Anyway...
Mom came over around 10:30 so that us adults could go over to FCC when The Gathering youth & leaders arrived so that we could run around town like crazies posting up bright orange signs that said "thejourneyiscoming.com 10.10.10." We put them up at a lot of the main intersections around town. So that is what Chuck called our blitz campaign. Afterwards, grandma & grandpa, I mean Ben & Erica, went back home and went to sleep while Chuck and I pretended like we could still stay up and stay alive until 2 a.m. at Steak & Shake with the youth kids. HA! We were so tired it wasn't even funny. lol. But that was super fun & it was a blast to have them all here to support us and help out in any way possible!
Saturday a.m. Chuck lead those guys in some Jehovah Witness type door hanging activities. They got a ton done so it was great. They also helped to prepare for & lead a men's prayer breakfast at my home church First Christian. So that was cool too! Saturday evening some more friends and family arrived for our Van Hook junk food fest 2010. Chuck's Mamaw & Papaw, Alicia & Brent Altum, and Angela all arrived just in time for some good ole pizza, chips and brownies! Chuck and I got to open our home to all those who were in town for the weekend and it was sooo much fun. I miss our old youth nights that we had at our house. Who cares if the kids stained the carpet, broke glasses, stunk up the bathroom or beat each other up?! It was fun! lol. After the junk food fest we all caravanned over to the Fun Zone where we have church. It was set-up time! We took Alicia, Brent, Angela, Erica, Ben, Mamaw and Papaw all over there so that they could see how we roll at Journey Church. And when I say roll, I mean roll! We (all the guys) take out the roll-y cases from the trailer and deliver them to their designated area so that they can be unloaded. It is a fun and for the most part, organized procedure to set-up and tear down. I was glad that they all got to watch the magic of Journey Church unfold! They all thought it was really cool. Chuck says he's going to make a video called "It's my Church in a Box!" ;) He so should!
So that all lead up to a pretty emotional late night for me. I laid on Erica's air mattress crying late Saturday night. I vented to Alicia about everything that was brewing inside of me. From the youth group having to leave on Sunday morning, to being so ridiculously humbled about the whole Journey experience. I cried and she prayed. It was a VERY huge and meaningful moment for me. I am so grateful for a friend like that. A friend who would put herself aside to lift me up when I was a real live trainwreck! After that, Chuck & Ben got home. The mood quickly changed seeing how they had just had a midnight shopping spree for chocolate con leche fuel injector cleaner. Ug. they're so weird. But I'm even weirder because we ended up talking about poop. Tell my why do I always ALWAYS end up talking about poop of some sort?! Anyway, it was funny and we all were rolling...I won't go into details. You can thank me later :) Now for some serious stuff!
So Sunday morning, I got all jacked up on Dunkin Donuts and coffee before we rolled on over to Fun Zone. Everything was set up because we did it all on Saturday night. I just went on patrol duty supervising all the youth kids and making sure they were helping rather than hindering! For example I busted up a couple middle schoolers with their stanky shoes and socks off in our tiny nursery playing a warm and friendly game of dodge ball...I politely told them (I think I was polite) that if I had brought my little JulieAnne to this nursery I would have turned around and left! lol. They straightened everything up and moved the smelly shoes from the doorway and we were good to go!
We had a great meeting with the launch team and all who had come to support us at around 9:30. Jeremy prayed and then asked us to split up and go around the campus covering it with prayer as well. We presented him and his wife Sheila with a fun goody bag of some things they love and God allowed me to cover them in prayer. Gosh I love doing ministry with them! They are amazing, God-loving, spirit-filled people who could not be doing a better job if they tried! So that was really awesome too. After that, which turned me into a basketcase yet once again, everyone took their posts to prepare for what we soon found out would be craziness that morning! I mean to tell you, the folks started rolling in like whoa baby! There was a grand total of 399 total heads that morning, they turned it into an even 400 because of the pregnant woman who was about to pop :) yes. 400 people came to Journey Church on launch day! Can I get an AMEN!! There were about 70 kids total which is incredible. And about 48 who were in the next room yelling Round-Up!! My own included! Jeremy did an excellent job! The sermons & even worship now I do believe are up on our website. All went smoothly and it was so great to be a part of it all. To wrap things up, anyone in town as support, as well as the launch team, went to lunch across the street. Then most everyone headed back home.
In all my time of reflection this week, I always kept coming back to feeling humbled & unworthy. Just a crazy mom, who tries her best to listen and obey. I know that I am unworthy, the good part of it though, is that I know that God has chosen me and that I am His treasure. (Deut. 7:6) He makes me worthy through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. And therefore by the power that I am able to claim in His name, I am thereby made whole in Him. I can do ANYTHING through Him. And so I WILL do anything with Him. I will do it to the best of my ability. And so it balances out my feeling of unworthiness, because I realize that any iota of worthiness that I may have comes from Jesus Christ! And I praise Him for that!!
Welp. My times up. Chuck's going to work and snatching the computer. So I reckon I'm done. Probably a good thing because this bad boy is pretty long! lol. So hope it's not hurting your eyes, and hope you enjoyed. (ps I totally didn't edit this, so I hope there's no curse word type-o's or anything like that! lol)
Living the American Dream~xoxo
I love this crazy mom!!! Girl, fight hard and be used as much in any way possible. What a mighty GOD we serve! [feel free to insert your own version of song & dance] ;)
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