In Him you will fnd rest...

So after much prayer, my husband and I came to the difficult decision of stepping down from ministry. Don't get me wrong, we are not leaving "ministry" entirely, but we are stepping down from the positions we hold at this moment. We both know in our hearts that we are called to serve and are confident that God will call us back in the game in His timing, but for now He is sitting us on the bench. We have had an extremely difficult year, those closest to us, know every excruciating detail. But we kept hammering away at the ministry and getting frustrated because it didn't seem right. Finally, like I said before, after much discussion with the Father, He laid it upon our hearts that it was time to step down. He kept bringing two words to up, "rest" and "healing". To be honest with you, Justin and I have not really taken the time for us, or our kids, to rest or find healing from this past year. What made this decision so difficult was not the fact that we had worked so hard at it, but the fact that we felt like we would be letting our students and our church down. But what God did was give us peace through our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our pastor was completely understanding and supportive and so were our students. Other ministry leaders were the same, God gave me peace that this was His will through the actions of His children. Our biggest fear was hurting our church, the bride of Christ. It is not something that I ever want to happen or anything I ever want to answer for.

I can not express how thankful we are to our church and our church family. They took us in as their very own, loved us, uplifted us, prayed over us, and guided us. Justin and I grew in ways we never thought we could. God used our church to prepare our hearts for the trials we have faced and to be leaders. But as our pastor said, "even leaders need rest". I know that God will use the traits He has instilled in us through our church to use us in the future. But for now, all we are doing is resting on the bench and waiting for God to call us out again.

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are

 weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

April's Fury....

The next to last post I made was about Salvation, and how to become saved. I couldn't bring myself to post again for almost a month because I wanted it to be the first post you saw when my page popped up. I posted it on March 30th. Now I sit in awe, shock and devastation as everywhere I look is destroyed. For those of you who do not know, on April 27th the state of Alabama was hit by 70 tornadoes according to wikipedia, though, I'm not sure that's accurate, some of the city's listed were hit by the same tornadoes. However, they have confirmed:
1- F5
6- F4
2- F3
4- F2
5- F1
2- F0

The info is still being decided, everywhere you look there is destruction... But one thing is sure for us. 36 counties in Alabama have been labeled a natural disaster, over 250 are dead, the reports are saying that only 8 are missing, but by the account of all the counties I have counted over 400 people not accounted for.  I can't help but be emotional while writing this, it's hard to put into words the devastation that surrounds our state. The communities flattened, communities that took over 30 years to build gone in less than 30 seconds. Mothers looking for their children under rubble, children standing alone and confused because their parents are dead or missing. Neighbors standing over a desolate piece of land, where their homes used to be. Our community has literally been ripped to shreds... What do you say after that? What words can you possibly speak to comfort a mother who found her baby's dead body? How do you explain that God loves them still and will heal us? So today's post is in memory of our state, of our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, who we loved and lost. Today's post is in honor of those of us left to carry on...



My father in law, husband and myself helping to cut up a tree and remove it from a family's property



There are tons of videos on youtube and news websites you can view the tornadoes that affected all of us, but I need to end this post in saying thanks. In helping with the relief, I have met people from all over the country that have no ties to Alabama at all, but came running to aid us. Thank you to all of our first responders, police forces, national guard, red cross volunteers, firefighters, and just people who flew in to love on our state in our time of crisis. Thank you....

Psalm 46:1-2
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.