Weekend away. Sweet quiet time with my heavenly Father!

I was lucky enough to take some time last weekend to go away to the mountains with some wonderful Christian ladies. We had so much fun! Lots of great food, shopping and laughing but best of all...quiet time with my Lord! It was so good for me.

I had a prayer partner for the weekend and I asked her to pray for me about my frustration with my own mental struggles as we prepare to go to Zambia. Although, I often feel SO excited and sure of what God called us to there are other times when I feel completely defeated and overwhelmed. I feel afraid and unsure. It is very hard when I feel that way. I know, intellectually, that God is my strength and it is not about what I am but what He is. I want to rest in Him.

The Lord really spoke to me and gave me such encouragement. The first thing I noticed is that I was singing a song in my mind without thinking about it. As I started to pay attention to the words, I realized God was speaking to me through it. The funny thing is that I do not own this song, really didn’t even know I knew of it! Here is the song and the words. 

"How He Loves"

DAVID CROWDER BAND (originally by John Mark McMillan)

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us, oh,

Oh, how He loves us,

How He loves us all

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us, oh,

Oh, how He loves us,

How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If his grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.

And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don't have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about the way...

He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us,

Oh, how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh, how He loves us...

Oh, how He loves us...

Oh, how He loves us.

As the love of my Jesus poured into my heart and I cried tears of joy, I felt so loved and accepted. It is the amazing thing about faith and the thing that I SO wish for others to understand. How much Jesus loves us, and how He really does respond to our prayers. 

After that, He showed me a scripture verse that spoke against my fears and comforted me. 

You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions, And said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:9-10.

Again, exactly what I needed! So sweet and personal. So God!!!

Lastly, He brought to mind a quote from ‘The Help’. It says: “You is kind, You is smart, You is important.” I want to say that to all of you that may take the time to read this. It is true! We are each loved by Jesus and we need to hear it….YOU is kind, YOU is smart, YOU is important!!!!! 

Blessings to you sweet ones!

JEN =)

Exciting times!

We have started receiving support in response to our letters and God is opening doors for us to share! I am so excited, it is hard to even express the joy of seeing this thing the Lord has led us in, moving forward. Praise be to Him!

Please be praying for our opportunities to share! 

We will be sharing on:

Sunday morning, November 3rd at Putnam Baptist Church 
Sunday evening, November 3rd at First Baptist Cherryville 
Wednesday evening, November 6th at New Prospect Baptist Church 
Sunday morning, November 10th at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church

We are looking for many more opportunities so please let us know if you would be willing to invite us to your church, Sunday school, connection/life group or home!

Lots of New!

New stuff is usually good! We like to get new stuff but with it comes change, adjustment and some bit of discomfort in the loss of the old. I have switched over to MacBook with the hope of getting a computer that will last and be reliable during our travels across the world. I am tired of buying computers! Anyway, with this exciting change, also comes frustration. Feelings of inadequacy and inefficiency come along with learning something new and stretching out of our comfort zone.

This also, is the way I feel as I imagine packing a few bags, gathering our passports, giving hugs goodbye and loading up on a plane for Zambia. It is so exciting and thrilling but at the same time, scary, uncomfortable and hard. It will be awesome! I really do believe that...but it will be a big change!

Those who chose to accept Jesus as their Lord, go through this as well. It is exciting and thrilling to start trusting in Him but it is also scary and uncomfortable to let go of the old ways, old self, old patterns. It takes some getting used to. And that is OK! It will be awesome!

It also makes a big difference when we get some help. When someone more experienced than us is willing to invest their time, talents, energy into our journey. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE! It makes it easier to move forward and we learn much faster by seeing someone else do it. It makes it seem possible. It gives us hope!

That is what I want to do. To walk alongside new believers, live alongside them, and help them walk out their faith. I also need those older and more experienced than me, to walk alongside me. Lead me, guide me.

And, if, btw....you know anything about running a MacBook....LET ME KNOW! ;~P

I Had A Dream....

I wanted to share a neat story.

When we arrived at church on Sunday we were headed into the 9:30 service but there was quite a mess with the bathrooms and we ended up mopping/cleaning during service. :/

BUT, because of that, I met a first time visitor and offered to sit with her in the second service. It was really amazing to see God work in that situation because the lady wanted to go up and pray at the end. I went up with her and she shared a heart wrenching situation that she was struggling with. Amazingly, I had a dream (nightmare) THE NIGHT BEFORE that the same thing happened to me!! (Btw: I am not normally one to remember my dreams). With that, God gave me a compassion and empathy I could never have had without 'feeling' the emotional pain the same way just a few hours earlier!! Unbelievable, Amazing, Awesome God! :))

Just wanted to share. Gods timing, Gods plan, Gods ways...always better than we can imagine!

Jen =)

The Carpenter’s Mission (TCM)

Narrative Description

The Carpenter’s Mission, is a non-profit missionary organization with the purpose to be on mission for Jesus Christ in Zambia, Africa. It is our desire to increase the worship of our Lord and Savior and to make disciples around the world as He commands us as His followers to do. To this end we will partner with other believers in the USA and Zambia to lift up followers of Jesus and to introduce others to the good news of His Gospel in order to make new disciples. There are four main areas that will be integral to our ministry.

1.      Partnership

We firmly believe that the most effective way to accomplish this mission and carry out this ministry is to find synergies with others and partner with other believers to have an effective ministry of reaching the world. In the United States, our base of operation, we would like to provide people with opportunities to connect and serve in oversee missions through support, prayer and going. In Zambia, our plan is to partner with church leaders and believers to advance the Kingdom of God.

2.      Church Planting

A primary and productive way to advance the Kingdom of God is through church planting, and that will be one of our top tools in evangelizing. We will partner with Zambian Christians to plant local Bible-believing churches. The goal is to create and help local churches start new local communities of faith that are healthy and growing in Christ. We want to see them moving toward being: self-supporting, self-directing, self-reproducing.

3.      Develop Church Leadership

Healthy churches are only possible through the wisdom of God, being manifested in godly and knowledgeable leadership. It is the desire of TCM to teach the local leadership in Bible and knowledge of Jesus and how to lead His people. This teaching and training is with the purpose of coming along-side our brothers and sisters in Christ, to help meet their ministry knowledge needs as we learn from each other.

4.      Facilitate Discipleship

As the leadership grows, and as the church matures and expands, the members also need to grow in their knowledge of Jesus and the Bible and to learn more about their faith. To this end, discipleship training is needed for all Christians, and TCM wants to not only facilitate discipleship, train others to disciple, but imprint on the DNA of the local Christian, that they not only need to disciple, but be discipled so that they and all will grow in the faith and knowledge of Jesus.

In summary: The mission is to plant churches, grow leaders, and empower believers for the Glory of God. While this is the primary mission in Zambia; we expect there will be many ways to be salt and light through other evangelistic endeavors, mercy ministries and community development. In all things, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit will be at the center of what TCM is about and we believe in the ultimate authority of His Word.

Jesus Immediately Reached Out His Hand!!

We want you to know that we have decided to proceed with the 501c3 non-profit corporation. We are starting our fund raising efforts and will be sending out letters very soon. I am planning to include a picture/prayer card and a pledge/donation card. Please be praying that God will open up the resources quickly so that we can get out of here and on to Zambia!!!!! Wow, I feel so thrilled to see the Lord work on behalf of this vision. 

I have been reading in Exodus and Moses is so uncomfortable with his speech and yet God moves so mightily through him. Love it!!  I was also blessed while reading in Matt 14:28-33. I have always focused so much on Peter's part in the story....what he did in faith and when he looked at the waves but while reading it this time I was reading it looking at what Jesus did...and it just caused me to weep with joy at the nature of our Lord....v30-31a But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. It showed me that when Peter (I) called out, even in his (my) fear and failing, Jesus IMMEDIATELY responded! It gave me such a sense of boldness in my heart. To know that even if we step out on faith, even if we get scared and look at the waves, Jesus is right there!!! Ready to reach out his hand! WOW! Love it! 

Inspired by some excellent sayings today:

Sometimes I think we all just feel like it is hard to see whether what we are doing really matters. These quotes helped me to re-focus and I am thankful to the Lord for this encouragement.

If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't spent a night with a mosquito. ~African Proverb~

The smallest good deed is greater than the greatest good intention. ~unknown~

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. ~African Proverb~

I hope these words inspire you as well.

Blessings!