Jared and I are currently part of an organization called CRM (Church Resource Ministries) doing an internship for a year. Our team leaders, Eric and Lisa Purcell, are great and have been a Godsend to us throughout this last month to a year. We've been blessed to be able to meet with them on a weekly basis and receive encouragement, accountability and mentoring. Jared and myself are titled, "leader residents" for this particular branch of CRM, which is called, "New Minster". This is new to our area and so Jared and I will be part of laying the ground work for this ministry which we want to see become a church plant. We are living in an area that does not know much of Christ, so we look forward to seeing how we will be used. As people who want to fill in the gap between the community and church we will be missional minded about our relationship with the community as well as meeting with pastors of different churches in order to give them encouragement and love. We are just in the beginning stages of this and look forward to seeing what God will be doing throughout this next year! So pray with us as we await the next steps. Especially as we go into support raising and asking God to provide for us financially as well as blessing us with supporters who are willing to pray fervently for this ministry!
This particular week is especially different for Jared and I. Before I proceed to explain, let me tell you a bit about the personalities of Jared and myself, if you don't already know us. Jared is more of a solitude person (I call him solitudy judy) than myself. Me, on the other hand, I'm the extreme opposite of this judy character. So I love to be around people, in fact, if I'm not around people for a long time I may start to cry because it's just one of my love languages...weird, I know. Jared needs time to himself, and being around people all the time may drain him a bit. SO! This week is what is really funny for our personalities:
Jared is on a houseboat trip with a quite a few dudes for a week, every day, all day. People, people, people! And me...well, I was at home, alone, then traveled to Wisconsin, alone, and with my grandmother who doesn't really like to chat with me. So, needless to say I've had to experience this solitude. I usually try to avoid being alone, I hate it and it makes me feel like I can't even breathe at times. I enjoy nature and even just knowing that people are walking by. I LOVE PEOPLE! So this week I was challenged to embrace this solitude as a change up. I'm always use to doing what I usually do...be surrounded by people, or talking people for that matter. Lisa Purcell said to think of it as a cleanse. God is cleansing me of what I am use to, what I default to, or what I tend to be routined in. And let me tell you...this is ridiculously harder than I thought it would be. But I've discovered so many different things about myself and connecting with God. It has been good for me to experience this, and I still have a few more days of this. So some prayer would be awesome as I learn to grow in the Lord through this little baby adventure.
I would also like to ask for prayer for Jared and Eric as they are on this houseboat trip. They head back Monday (I think?) and I'm asking God to fill them both spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally. I've prayed hard for a long time about this trip for Jared and that he would receive the adequate amount of encouragement. Especially since Leena Marie left us a month ago. I know his heart needed this trip and I pray God has done some amazing things in him, I don't doubt that He has already!
Our marriage has grown significantly over the past month, through leaps and bounds! I'm amazed at what God can do in a person in just the course of one month. We are so excited to see how God will utilize Jared and myself throughout the next year. Please pray with us as we continue on this journey and seek the will of our Father!
