God has Bigger plans for us!

I have been sitting here trying to decide what to write and I am not sure if this is going to be anything more than me rambling on but Here goes. After talking with a good friend today, about me coming back to OHIO to visit and the changes at the church and the programs there, she said something about you know last year about this time Christina you said you felt God was prompting you for something more, something deeper than what you have now. And at the time (January 2008) I couldn't even imagine that less than a year later that I would be living in Augusta KS, that I would be a pastors wife (Yes I know that's what all the schooling was for:)), that after leaving everything I knew and Loved that in just a few months that I would be feeling so connected so a part of things so much like this is where I belong. After all that I put into things there I never felt as part of it, as connected, as appreciated, as I do here. I have heard Thank You more here in the past few weeks than I did there after almost three years of service, not that, I was only doing it for the recognition but we as humans I think or at least I do need to know that people care. Please don't get me wrong I love and appreciate all the things that I experienced in that time because I have grown and learned to trust in God so much more because of my experiences there. Since we have been here I have had, no wait I have made the time to connect with God and to seek out his will for me. It's funny to think that a year ago today I was happy with where I was and thought I would always be there, funny thing God does he begins to prepare our hearts for change but sometimes we are so closed off that we can't see it. Last year when I went to Mars Hill Church (January) and saw their program and heard the way they worship and the way Rob Bell preaches, I realized that I needed more than what I was getting I just couldn't see any way to get more, to experience more. I was already loaded with all that I could possibly handle. And that's the problem I was looking for what I could do not How God could work. He (God) put somethings on my heart that weekend away in Michigan and I was faithful and followed through, only it didn't have the outcome I expected, does that mean God wasn't in it? No I believe that He (God) gave me certain tasks to do and I followed through, and he slowly reviled to me more and more that He has bigger things for me, for my family. In March 2008 we (Earl and I) began feeling God moving, at this time we had no Idea what He (God) had in store for us but we both could feel a change coming. And boy did it! June 2008 we got the call to Interview for a position at First Baptist Church in Kansas of all places, I thought~ seriously God Kansas home of Dorthy the Yellow Brick Road and Tornado's, No Thanks!~ But we knew that this calling had to be from God you see Earl hadn't submitted a resume in almost three months and this was a church he had interviewed with the previous fall, and it was a bit of a different position than what he had originally interviewed for. So we prayed about it, talked about it as a Family and applied for the position... and you know the rest of the story we are currently serving at FBC. And when I compare what I had then to what I have now I see that God has brought us to something deeper, our Worship at FBC is Amazing there hasn't been a week that has gone by since we have been here that I don't feel God at work here, feel His presence with me, with the Church. And He (God) is continuing to show me more and more that when we will let go and allow Him to work through us He will! We have to get out of our own way sometimes to do this. So as this year 2008 comes to and end that's what I hope to do in the coming year. Get out of my own way and Allow God to work through me. And that in the coming year I will see my experience as an opportunity to Love deeper, to Live better, and to be the Woman God has called me to be!
I truly Believe that we serve an AWESOME GOD! Who Loves us in spite of us.

So Love God, Love People (all people) and all the rest will work it's self out!

Know you are Loved, Thought of & Prayed for!

Christina