Loaves and Fishes

My Pastor Rich was the first person I heard say this about our Nepali- Bhutanese church plant. They are like "loaves and fishes" more and more keep showing up.

When the opportunity came for me to first interact with our Nepali girls, it was to drive them about an hour and a half to a youth conference. I borrowed our Pastor's mini-van and according to the numbers and seats in the car we were good to go. Until that afternoon when there were even more kids who showed up.

Two weeks ago was the first time I met with the young Nepali women to disciple them. Six girls showed up. My heart was full.

This time however, a larger group gathered including the teens, one young girl and several older women, including a sweet old lady dressed in traditional clothes with paint on her forehead who pressed her hands together in a prayer pose and greeted me with "namaste".

We gathered in a cozy room filled with sofas and as I began to speak, there was a knock at the door and one woman entered. Another knock, another woman. "loaves and fishes" came to mind as this happened over and over again. The last I counted was about 14 women. And again, my heart was full.

The age range, the culture, the Gospel being told with the Bible and life stories, sweet translations of a foreign tongue. Captivating.

I'm learning more and more that 1) "missions" isn't a place, it is a mind-set, a way of life and 2) I always thought God would bring me overseas to serve as a missionary, but here in our great city of Manchester, NH, God has brought overseas (international people/ refugees) to me. What a beautiful thing.

Our new dear friend Silvanus reading Abigail her favorite Dr. Suess book after
 introducing him to a dinner of chicken pot pie and pumpkin scone.

How Can They?

It has been too long.
Too long since I have blogged, yet it has not been far from my mind. God has blessed our little family with so much possibility and though much is still unknown or set in stone, it is all too exciting to not share! Alas, this is not the time nor the post to do so. Let that suspense lead you into prayer for our family and ministry Cwtrials.

In reading through Romans 10 today during my precious almost-two-years-old nap time, I was bursting with joy and "amens"! With all that I have strategically planned for blogging, to begin next month, THIS could NOT wait. It is His word that interrupts my grace-filled life, and that I will not hinder.

Let me just whisper to you some of the history behind this and why my heart is so struck-
ever since I was a young girl, the Lord has impressed upon my heart a passion for missions. I married a man who loves the Lord and together we desperately seek to see Him glorified through our lives, our family, our ministry. We just celebrated a beautiful weekend with a friend who poured into us hope and truth and vision for our unique ministry. He's been where we are and God has brought him to a point now where he can humbly pour into our lives from the wisdom he has received. What a blessed time we are still processing through!

My prayer, written out on a piece of paper and again in my journal goes like this "My hearts desire and prayer to God for the (Turkish, Albanian, Greek, Zimbabwean, New Englanders, Napali) is that they may be saved!" It is Romans 10:1 and when I skimmed this first verse yesterday, I was stunned to see Paul's letter to the Romans, praying for the Israelites, to be MY very prayer for these people groups (listed in no particular order).

It later goes on to say in verse 14 &15, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?'" (inside quote from Isaiah 52:7)

How can they?...call on the one they have not believed in, if they have not heard, if nobody has preached it to them? How can they preach unless they are sent? "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17)

Don't get the wrong idea, dismiss that picture in your mind of stoic missionaries to foreign lands, dressed and living as if they never left the US, not willing to get down in the dirt and work with the people they are among, or standing on soap boxes with bullhorns preaching only condemnation.
That is not the Gospel. That is NOT the example Christ set for us, His humble life displayed throughout scripture, befriending the adulteress and washing the dirty feet of His companions... a job meant for the "lowly".

The fact is, the truth screaming here and now even in 2012 with all of the technology at our fingertips if you are reading this... There are still people in our world, in our own country that have never heard the Gospel message, never seen a "little-Jesus" in action. How can they believe if they have never heard?

We don't need to travel to foreign lands or live among the Refugees and immigrants here in America to preach the gospel to ears that have never heard. The question is, if you are a follower of Christ, are you ready and willing to share it? Are you reading the Bible to "know your stuff", are you praying, pleading on behalf of those around you, are you living it out in your everyday life and not just at church or among certain people? Truth is, do you believe the Gospel message for yourself? That Christ came and died to give you new life. For you.

Go ahead and sing the song "Jesus loves me this I know..." But do you know that even if it was just YOU He was dying for, He would have still died. It is so easy to be caught up in "Jesus died for everyone" and follow that in our heads by telling ourselves lies that we aren't good enough. Honestly, there isn't anything you could ever do to make Him love you more, or love you any less. He loves you.

I say this all because I am learning to embrace this for myself. I'm not who I was 3-4 years ago. I was so eager to share the Gospel, but I wasn't believing its truth for myself and when those Christians weren't around I sure wasn't acting like it either.

Learning to live in God's grace, accepting it and believing it is the first step to living a life of freedom. It is where the road to living a Gospel-filled life begins, enabling you to truly live and giving you the tools to share the Truth of our Life Giver. Embracing the message of Christ, through His word, equipping us to preach it "so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." (Romans 10:4)

A (not-so boring) Education Story

The spring of 2009 was awkward for me to be around people my age. Everyone was graduating from college. I hadn't kept up with most people from high school, but I knew... they were all graduating.

Craig loved high school. I, on the other hand... still have bad dreams regularly. Like the one I have too often about me failing math (which was almost a reality) and not being able to graduate high school early. Sometimes I have to pull out my diploma to make sure I really did finish high school. I DID. I was eager to get out and finished a semester early, skipping the senior events including my own graduation. People said I would regret all of that. Almost 7 years later I still don't. I headed out to Savannah, GA to live with my sister for a while. I was sooo done with high school and New England. I was a fresh 18 and had big dreams.

I ran into a sweet girl who is entering her third year of college in Vermont as an out-of-state student (don't even think about how much it costs her!) She wondered if she had made the right choice. Her friend is going to a community college for her first two years to save money (AMEN for choosing to go into as little debt as possible!) with plans of transferring to a Christian college. This girl wants to be a missionary... and most mission organizations require a 4-year degree... and to be debt free.

My husband has told me, if he could do it over again, he would go this route. After 4 years at a Christian school in the mid-west (which he loved and gives so much credit to his spiritual formation to) I married a man with a lot of debt. Student loans to be exact ;) We have battled the regret of student loans and the blessing of only having one set of them.  

I do not believe he would have his current (or former) job 

if he did not have a degree.

I rebelled against the idea of "traditional college" but I was also broke. Not the typical college kid broke, the-my-parents-don't-believe-in-debt-and-won't-co-sign-for-me-to-get-a student- loan kind of broke.  

I spent 2 years taking classes PAYING AS I WENT in order to help work me towards getting a college degree.

And then I did it. I had everything set up to move to Michigan and do my traditional college education. I was 21 years old and my two roommates were going back to school. I had an apartment waiting for me and was 2 weeks from moving when my loans wouldn't come through. My parents hadn't changed their minds and even though I had been living on my own, I couldn't declare independent on loans. 

You know what? God had better plans for me. 

Seriously, I know that sounds cliche but less than 2 months later my now husband (and then friend of 7 years) and I began dating intentionally and married 5 months later. 2 1/2 year into marriage, I can tell you  how I become more and more convinced that God was behind all of that..  

BECAUSE HE HAD SOMETHING BETTER 

THAN WHAT I WANTED. 

Some people ask me when I will go back to school. I don't have plans to right now. I can't say that in 20 years when Abigail is grown and my hearts feels pressed to pursue my passion for nursing and we have the money that I won't then. 

If I truly believed that it was beneficial to my family and our ministry to continue my education right now, then I would be taking classes.

My ministry is my husband and then our daughter. 

Abigail is my more than full-time job. Whatever odd jobs I can work (working for my Dad's carpentry business, baby-sitting) AND bring her to help provide for our family financially I take them! I started my own business from home (REDEMPTION soap) for goodness sake to help pay off Craig's student loans faster!

OUR ministry is Cwtrials.  

God has been blessing this ministry like crazy 

and we believe He has BIG plans for us using this. 

My plate is full. I want to do everything well, so I limit myself. My little family comes first. Our ministry doing Cwtrials is second. and my business comes after those first things are DONE WELL. 

This is our season, this is the life God has given 

us when we offered our lives up to him. 

We couldn't be more happy to be serving Him this way.

I recently read an article in Gospel for Asia's magazine. K.P. Yohannan wrote this 

"Man measures the quality and usefulness of a person by his education, ability and expertise. Yet God determines his true value by the condition of his heart: 'Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.' (1 Samuel 16:7)"

If going to college, getting a degree or going for a Masters + is what you believe in your heart is what is right and best for you (AND your family if you have one), and if you know the Lord and He has placed this on your heart - GO and do it, but do it with ALL of your heart. Soak in your lectures and readings. Attend classes and make your money worth it. Use you education to maximize how you can love and serve the Lord, or if you don't know Him, make the most out of your hard work. 

Your value is not in what you do or who people say you are. 

You have value because Christ loves you and 

HE says you are worth it.

  

Soul Fest + Cwtrials

This past weekend we ran around from event to event, meeting lots of new people and reconnecting with some old friends. The one thing that kept coming up among these people (many of whom we haven't seen/ talked to in months or even YEARS) was Soul Fest + Cwtrials. Yes Cwtrials was the hot topic (umm esp since we spent our Saturday at a kick'n event doing 3 demos) but a lot of people asked how Soul Fest went.

Can I just tell you how encouraged and blessed we felt this weekend? People we hardly know were telling us that they have been following Cwtrials and been praying for us. Others were excited to see a demo live for the first time since they had only seen the YouTube vids.

So, let us give a praise report for how freaktastically amazing Soul Fest was for Cwtrials. 

Yes it was exhausting with long hot days (that we expected and well prepared for) and yes we slept every chance we got when we came home, perhaps going to sleep at, say, 8pm? But it blew our socks off! We were on a beautifully exhausted high the week we came home. We were so encouraged by those who came out to see the 10 1/2 shows (one got rained out part way through), people who stopped by our booth and many who eagerly asked how they can get us to their event. We were blessed by those sincerely poured out their hearts of gratitude for the ministry God has called us to. It was so humbling and we soaked in every word of truth spoken to us as fuel for the mission we are set out on. God has given us a big vision for Cwtrials and our family and we are amazed by what God is laying before us. 

So here are the details of our week at Soul Fest. 

Craig and I got there Tuesday the 2nd and spent the night setting up our RV that his Grandparents let us borrow (HUGE blessing!) Little Abigail joined us the next morning with our friend Abby Woodman (who has been an incredibly huge help in preparing for Soul Fest including, but not limited to, designing and sourcing our amazing vinyl banners and making t-shirts)

Our friends let us "borrow" their 12 year old daughter for the week as a Mother's helper. Oh. My. What a blessing that was! Honestly, my biggest stress leading up to this event was our very own sweet daughter. How in the world was I going to be at the booth, prep our meals, support Craig, manage our volunteers and our daughter who still naps 2Xs a day?? Our little helper was amazing! Truly, that could be a whole blog on its own. We are SO thankful for her!

In the 4 days of Soul Fest, doing 10 1/2  15 minute demos and sharing the Gospel, we estimate about 2,500 people were at all of the shows combined.


God first put Cwtrials on Craig's heart in July 2010 and Cwtrials was launched in October 2010. Our YouTube video that we launched with has had over 3,000 hits in the past 11 months. People from New England, all across the US and our friends serving in other countries around the world have asked us when we might be able to come and do an event with them.

Our vision is to partner with churches/ ministries throughout the US and around the world, using the stunts of extreme biking to draw peoples attention and share the Gospel. We are passionate about partnering with ministries so that there can be follow up and an opportunity for people to connect with other Christ-followers to learn about having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Below are a list of links to connect/ follow us via the internet. Sign up on our website to receive our e-newsletter with reports on events, prayer and praises. We are so excited and thankful for you journeying with us in this ministry!

Click here for our website www.cwtrials.com
To e-mail us info@cwtrials.com
Click here for pictures via Flickr of Soul Fest, and other Cwtrials events.
Click here for our YouTube link
Click here to like us on Facebook with regular updates and events, pictures and tags.
Click here to follow us on Twitter
Click here to support us via Paypal

Big Vision Big Dream

Last summer, while at Soul Fest I remember whispering to my husband "Cwtrials is going to be here next summer!" It seemed a little far fetched at the time since the vision and launch of Cwtrials had just been born. I'm a dreamer, I know this. But I don't believe any dream is too big when you have God working with you to proclaim His name. 

Just 12 months later, we returned from Soul Fest again... this time as Cwtrials vendors. 10 1/2 demos later, 5 nights, 2 full-time helpers assisting us, and even bigger visions have been cast for next year.

We thought it sounded a little crazy last summer when we felt God pulling us away from youth ministry and working with our church at the time. We stepped away for 3 months as our daughter came into this world, we struggled through unemployment and a dream for Craig's career having been crushed just weeks before sweet Abigail was born. It was a lonely, desperate and scary time for us. We watched our daughter battle something within her as we sought Doctors and Specialists out, sometimes going 4 times in one week.

All this was going on as we earnestly prayed and were ministered to by close friends and family. We both have felt a call on our lives for ministry, but we needed to take this crucial time to see if we were headed in the right direction of ministry- that being church ministry.

I remember so clearly the day Craig came home and shared his heart with me that he believed he was supposed to use his trials biking skills to share the Gospel. I didn't laugh. I didn't cry (though we were so stinkin dirt poor and I was so stressed it would have been an appropriate emotional response) I just agreed to join my husband ENTHUSIASTICALLY on this journey God was taking us. We accepted Cwtrials as our call to ministry. And can I tell you something? God has not stopped blessing our socks off and reaffirming what we are doing. 12 months later and we are going stronger than ever. We have an incredible support system and so many people all around the world have messaged us encouraging us to keep doing what we are doing!

One scripture that I have clung to this past year comes from 1 Corinthians 2:3  "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." (emphasis mine) Craig and I are both gifted in many ways that the Lord has enabled and equipped us to be living examples of the Gospel. In all of it though, we know and we feel inadequate because any good that comes from what we do is not because of what WE do, but rather us allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us.

2 Corinthians 12 goes on to tell how in our weakness, in the trials and hardships we face, Christ is able to shine His light into those painful, dark places of our hearts, bringing about healing, blessing and bringing Glory to His own name. What we went through during the first 3 months of our daughters life was the most awful season of our lives, but having gone through it all and come out a conqueror through Christ's power, I wouldn't trade one hardship.

So this post really didn't share a lot on our time at Soul Fest which many of you have messaged me to hear about. I promise to share more over the coming weeks as we process and as we get to see evidence of our time there bloom. Our hearts are bursting with joy over the responses we heard from people at Soul Fest and with our follow up as well.

Our vision for 12 months from now is to be doing Cwtrials full time. 

It isn't just about Craig riding his bike, but God has gifted us both with speaking and leadership abilities and we share a heart for discipleship training. So while we are excited to see where God takes us around the country and world, we are humbled that He has given us a heart to help teach and train others to be more effective leaders in their community. Pray for us. We need wisdom as we book events throughout this year while Craig still works full time and we have a little one at home. Our journey these past 12 months has been unbelievable. I can't wait to see what the next 12 months unveil!

Check out our website to learn more www.cwtrials.com We also have a Facebook page and Twitter account... and YouTube and Flickr and Paypal... yeah we are a little into social networking ;)

Why I Do What I Do pt.1

This could end up being a long blog entry.
Soo, I'll break it up into a few parts to keep you reading over the next few weeks.
I was inspired to write this after my friend Jessi Connolly blogged about her calling as she started her business. Check it out at Naptime Diaries.

Why I do what I do: pt.1
I was inspired to start REDEMPTION soap this past January of 2011. 
How it began? My dear friend Rob Chifokoyo came to visit us for the month of December alllll the way from Zimbabwe, Africa. (Best Christmas ever!!) He shared about his ministry that he an his fiance Lisa Rouse (check her blog at Redeeming Love) has started back home in Zim. Their hearts for their own people melted mine. They are loving on the "forgotten" people of their country. Orphans. Widows. Elderly. Prostitutes. They are unashamed of the Gospel and when I think about their ministry I just picture Jesus smiling. Sometimes crying because of how beautiful their love is. Their team that makes up Dare2Serve is passionate about being the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

 Rob with sweet orphan kids

And like all ministry, it costs money. Nail polish to paint nails with the prostitutes, pizza to hang with the orphans, small gifts to the elderly. We have seen and learned in all of our short years of ministry that it costs. Time, money, or hearts. So Craig and I live, work and do ministry here in NH, how in the world could we help support Dare2Serve? I prayed and prayed and prayed asking God to show me how I could support my brother and sister.

I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I want to contribute to my family financially (more on that in pt 2). I just didn't know where to begin. I needed vision. I needed passion. 


REDEMPTION soap was born in January 2011. It was literally all of a sudden. I learned of a friend who started a cloth diaper store Petite Bottoms in NH. I was like "WOW I should do something like that! I am passionate about health/environmental stuff." And literally my next thought was laundry powder. I had heard of people making it themselves, so I started experimenting. After countless recipes and trying to just get back to the basics, keeping it pure, simple, inexpensive and mission minded. 

The name REDEMPTION soap came a little later. I asked a friend for some ideas. One of which was Mother Earth's Redemption. I didn't like the Mother Earth part for obvs reasons but I couldn't stop thinking about REDEMPTION. I wanted the name to reflect the heart of the business. I wanted REDEMPTION soap to share the gospel and how fitting- redemption made me think of clean, white as snow. Perfect.

So that was the very start of it. The motivation to start a business and the name behind it.

I am eager to share the mission of the business. Where the moneyssss go and why I am crazy enough to keep on doing what I launched on April 1, 2011.

I try to keep each entry a less than 5 min read, so I'll stop here, write the other parts and post them over the next few days. Check out the links attached and show some love/ support to the people/ businesses mentioned!

Not Big Enough

I'm just not.
I try SO hard.
But I'm just not big enough.
I reached a wall of discouragement yesterday. The kind that hit me like a ton of bricks and I wanted to just curl up on the floor and cry/ go on a long hard run. Does that make sense? Well, it's where I was at.

After a discouraging verbal beat-down from a family member, I was once again reminded how "not enough" I am. (Can we just be real for a sec without pointing fingers- in all of the "mean" people I have encountered, nobody can be meaner than those closest to you. PS this is not a story about my husband.)

Truly, most people struggle with that "not enough" feeling enough in their lives. But when someone straight up bashes you for an area that needs work- and the truth is not spoken in love, my raw weakness is far too exposed.

And then there is my husband. Have I mentioned how next to Jesus, he is my greatest rescuer? Speaking truth in love and building me up when I am down, even if he is down too. Ugh, I love that man.

So here is the battle of my heart/ mind/ purpose.
Why in the world do we think we are "good enough" to pursue full-time ministry, raising support. Who would ever want to support these two broken, inadequate, not "enough" people??? 

I mean really, we aren't perfect. I have such a great hope and purpose in Christ that am confident in who I am and with my life... most of the time. (Not yesterday) And the other truth is, we don't think that we are "good enough" to pursue full-time ministry. We are driven by our passion and our desire for God. 

In my brokenness I am reminded of why we do what we do. Jeremy Camp wrote a song called "My Desire" It beautifully plays out my heart in song. My desire is to be used by God.
This all started when I was 12 years old and I felt God's call on my life to live for Him, serving Him. I thought that maybe one day that would mean going overseas. Never once would I even allow myself to think it would be right here, where I grew up.

This guy Paul wrote to some of his friends telling them that none of us are good enough, we all mess up but because of Jesus' grace, we are redeemed. (Romans 3:23-24) That is some good stuff. And this is the Gospel I strive to live, breathing in and out the truths of the Gospel so that the lies (the ones I tell myself, the ones others tell me) have no leverage in my life.

I cling to this truth, and others daily. Being refreshed by spending time in the Word while my little girl naps each morning. Write key verses out on an index card to remind me of the HOPE I have in Christ.

No I'm not good enough. And I never will be. Each day I am being refined by Christ because I allow Him to work in my life.

 This picture has nothing to do with the post, but I just wanted to share how amazing my little family is. My husband is wearing Abi on his back in the Moby while he picks apart the chicken for me. Love these two people more than I ever thought possible. I can't understand how Jesus loves me even more than I love them.

Can we end this with a little prayer? Is that weird to write out a prayer on a blog? I have no idea who is reading this or where your heart is at.

Father, Thank you for the sunshine today. Thank you for the beautiful Book You have given me, all the letters, stories and truths for me to cling to- the Bible. Without You, I have no hope. Without Your Word, I don't know how I would pick my weepy self off the floor, or what I would meditate on during a run. Thank you for my husband who is a walking example of Your love. And my little girl, she radiates Joy. I need You, I desire You, I can't get over hurts and pain that people cause without You. I wouldn't feel this passion and desire to live my life the way I do without You. Can you remind me that every day, please? Thanks for loving me when I get angry, act and think in ways that don't make You proud. Thank You for my life, each breath, my family (even when it hurts) and my health. I have so much more to tell you, plead with you, thank you for, but I'll chat more with you later. Prob in like 5 mins. Thanks for always being there. My rock. My shelter. My redeemer. I love you. Amen.

Church. Really- it's about leaving a church.

You may have read this blog title knowing that my husband and I recently left the church we had been involved with for the past 3 years. Maybe you want all the juicy details. The gossip. The drama. I pray your sweet spirit is not looking for that. You will not find it here. I have seen too many families leave churches on a bad note. Hurting their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as they shoot a quick e-mail letting the staff know that that they will not be serving at church the next day. I have been that person to help clean up the mess they have left behind, to feel hurt, degected and awkward when I run into them, wondering if they hate me too because of the way they left. 

This is not about why we left our church. It is about how. 

First off, leaving a church is not easy. Especially when you aren't leaving for a "reason". You don't like the preaching style. You are angry about the way the church spends money. You have a funny feeling. They talk about Jesus too much. Their coffee is gross. 

Hey, I get you. I have been to churchs that have gross coffee. Or no childcare. Or use flashy lights that make me dizzy.

However, these are not reasons to leave a church. 

My husband and I started praying about church, our family and ministry. We were simply praying to have more sensitive ears to hear God and a sensitive heart to feel His direction. We were not praying about or planning on leaving our church. That is the beauty of it. We could truly see the evidence of God transforming our hearts and redirecting our ministry focus. 

Our "plan" was to finish our last week of serving in Sunday School by the end of December 2010. We gave the Kids Ministry Director a month notice to let her know where our family was heading and to help her look for replacements. Shortly after that, my husband met with the pastor to let him know what God had put on our hearts. 

Having gone through the pain of experiencing people, and not just anyone- fellow leaders and sojourners in planting this church, leave on a bad note, only causing division and hardship for their brothers and sisters in Christ, we made every effort to leave on a "good note". We bought children's Bibles for the Kids Ministry to be given to children who did not have a Bible at home. We thought of it as a parting gift. It was a need that our church had and it was one way that we could show our love and support for the church and staff as our family moved on.

Not everyone takes a family leaving a church well. We left knowing that not everyone understood our heart and reasons for leaving. Even now, 3 months later, when people learn that we are no longer attending that church, they gasp and ask why. As if they are anticipating a horror story. Waiting to hear the drama. Why can't leaving a church be seen as a move of the Holy Spirit in our hearts? God does not always call us to one place for our whole life, we often experience things during seasons in our life. My husband and I were single when we started going to the church and left married with children. Our life had changed drastically. And our hearts did too. Our relationship with the LORD had only grown deeper and been strengthened during the trials we faced in 2010 and during that time we set aside to stop serving for a season and seek the LORD's direction for our family.

So why did we leave our church? Are you ready for this? Go ahead and gasp! Let that anticipation fill, but don't let your sin-natured mind wander too far. We left because we felt called to. God has been moving in our hearts and lives for the past 7 months or so since we first felt His calling to start CWTrials- an extreme biking ministry dedicated to sharing the Gospel. That's it. No "big deal". But really, it was. Our leaving the church was an act of obedience to the LORD. It wasn't because what they were doing was bad, I often think of obedience as turning from something that was bad. This was not the case. Our obedience was listening to God and in Faith, turning our focus and attention onto what He laid before us. Can I tell you something- God has richly blessed us because of our obedience. Not solely based on us leaving the church, but creating a habit of obedience in our everyday lives.

Where God brought us is a perfect fit for our family, our ministry, our marriage, our gifts and talents. That is another story. THIS story was about obedience. And how to leave a church on a "good note", out of obedience unto the LORD, showing love to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Time + Money

I was recently talking to a friend who is considering cloth diapering. People were discouraging her saying that it is too time consuming, messy, you don't actually save money because of start up costs and the washing process.

WRONG

From my experience cloth diapering. Making food from scratch. Making laundry & dishwasher soap from scratch. Making home made cleaning products. My oh my, the money we have saved. It pays to put a little elbow grease and carve out some time to do it home-made. Most of the time anyway.


I was recently asked to share my "money saving tips" with another stay at home Mom. I wrote up my list. Several pages later... She told me that I should blog about it. I thought blogging was weird. People just write on the internet for the whole world to see? They share their thoughts and lives with people they don't even know? Weird. Maybe you think so to. Yet, here you are. And here I am. Writing a blog. I have been inspired by two blogs that I follow and have peeked at a few others via their suggestions.


So here it goes. Not my effort to blog in general. But to blog with purpose. I actually wrote up a list in my personal journal of "goals" I have with my blog. Here is a little looksie at what I hope to write about:
- Our family and ministry. (www.cwtrials.com)
- My passions (too many to list write now)
- How we choose to live intentionally (we are talking about MONEY here. Resources. Food. Clothing. Etc.)
- Recipes and ideas of what I make from scratch/ repurpose.
- And to tie it all up and the #1 reason why we do what we do- our love for Jesus and passion for sharing the Gospel by living it out in EVERY area of our lives. This is a daily, moment to moment effort. And we fail a lot of times. But this is about the hope we have found in Christ.

I am working on the whole posting pictures thing. I really would love to have a pic or two to go with what I write about. We recently got a Mac (awesome story behind that!) and I am still learning it. My camera is dying... and not just the battery here. We have poor internet connection. So, I'm working on it. Hang tight. I promise to put some serious effort into this rather difficult task for me.

About Blogging

I have found new reason to blog. After regularly checking out a sweet friends blog, I was inspired to write more. And I have. In my journal.
People ask fairly often for an update on Abigail's health, Craig's job, the new ministry we have started and such. Hence the Christmas letter. We have so much joy to share with people, exciting news, hard times to work through and different seasons in life that I don't want to just tuck away my thoughts and prayers in a journal. I want to share them.
So, this is where we are today. Nothing fancy. Just updated the background and found something cheery and springy. (ahem, 2 feet of snow outside my window!?)
One thing that needs to happen... is pictures. Our lack of good internet adds frustration to my attempt at sending, posting and receiving pictures. But here is to some good 'ole effort!