the rest of summer.....

This is my life- only finding time to blog at almost 12 at night!! Oh well, I guess! Anyways, been thinking alot about the church and what we are about.  This has alot to do with the outreach that we have been planning and praying about and for at our church.  About 2 months ago or so, our pastor shared with us something that the Lord had burdened his heart with.  For too long all of our churches have been reactive- never proactive- in our communities!  We need to actively pursue a relationship with the people in our community- we need to let them literally see the love and caring of Jesus through His church/people!  So we have joined our pastor and, I believe, the heart of God in this new outreach.  For the first month we simply ( but most importantly) PRAYED for our surrounding neighborhood.  Then we MET them- we went door to door with goodie bags and information about our service times and TALKED to our neighbors!  Our goal wasn't to ask them to come to our church- our goal was to show them that someone cares- WE CARE!  We did three nights going door to door, with varied reactions from people, most went well though.  Thad and I went out the last day ( Saturday) and it was awesome!! I had gone door to door before in the Philippines ( very intimidating mostly bc of the language barrier, but the people were hungry for the Lord!!) But it was really a great feeling to not just be the church sitting up on the hill, but to really be a place where people know they are welcome, and that no matter where you come from, or where you are in life- we genuinely care about you.  I was telling a friend the other day, that for about the past year the Lord has been speaking two very specific things to me. For the first while, it seemed like every time I would go to prayer, I just felt the Holy Spirit impressing on me to be reverent before the Lord.  I guess I would describe it like, how we tell our children that when they pray, to talk to God like he is your buddy ( which I know we can talk intimately with the Lord, and that that is a great way to describe prayer to our children) but, I felt like I should just stand in awe of the Lord- be totally aware and consumed with the fact that HE is holy, and righteous, and just and He in no way needs me, but I desperately am in need of Him!! Then the last part of that year, I felt like the Holy Spirit just always led me to pray specifically that the Lord would go before me and come behind me and be all around me, protect me, and guard me.  That He would provide for me and take care of me, that He LOVED me! I think, this is what people desperately need to hear- that God is holy and righteous, and demands that we strive after that in our own lives, but that He loves us with a greater love than we could ever fathom!!  I know I need to hear that! Anyways, I am so excited about what the Lord is doing in our church and in our little town!! 

I know my title said the rest of summer, so I'll get to it! :)  Jude had a birthday this summer and we had a pool party with all his friends

He is such a big kid now- ugh, I hate it! I want my kids to stay babies ;)  He had a great time and we are so thankful for all wonderful friends and family we have that came out to show Jude love on his birthday!  Jude got some serious cash for his big day, and he decided that he wanted to spend it on one big thing instead of alot of little toys.....it was daddy's idea ( isnt it always??)

The hamster is blurry, bc they are fast little guys, but he ended up getting two hamsters, a cage and all the accessories that go with hamsters.  He let Elsie name one ( she picked "Watermelon") and he named the other ( "Tommy", slightly less exciting, but more normal ha!)  Now, I know this ALWAYS happens, but who do you think cleans out the cage, and feeds and gives water to these little guys?? Thaaaat's right....ME!! Haha, why do moms always end up with these jobs?  

Jude also took swimming lessons this summer, and loved them!

The last few things we did this summer were church related- we had teen and junior camp, and our annual conference.  I made it out with the kids for two nights of teen camp, and they thought the play was so awesome!!

We made it to one night of junior camp, mainly bc I was 9 months pregnant and I was just plain tired, or we would have made out more than one night.  

I also sang on the worship team this year for conference again ( the week before my due date!! aaahh!!) But it was awesome and the speaker was awesome too!  Conference ended on a Thursday and I had Thatcher that next Tuesday!!  So since then we have been adjusting to having three kiddos! Thad took two weeks off work ( Thank You Jesus!!!!) and then my friend Nesa came and stayed with us for a week and helped me out with the kids and baby ( and we had VBS at church this same week!)

  Shew, Im tired again just thinking about this summer!  Life has started to slowly get back to normal and back in our routine.  The weather is cooling down and all the kids are in school ( we are homeschooling Jude- more on that next time maybe) and life is wonderful, and I am blessed!!  Well, Im falling asleep, goodnight friends :)