I know, I know…someone already used that as a title of a popular book, but I haven’t gotten to read it yet so I won’t be plagiarizing or stealing even the idea. Ha!
Been thinking that some of you may want to be involved in ministry in Colorado in more tangible ways, rather than just giving online or mailing a check, or maybe in addition to that type of giving. We have reached a point here, thanks be to God, where we can make some specific ministry requests.
Recently, Courtland Baptist Church in Courtland, AL collected items in the missions class of VBS, organized by our sweet friend, April Reding. Items collected include necessary supplies for beginning to host a small group meal and Bible study in our home such as paper products, plasticware, and activities for children who will attend with their families. Also, the mission friends group at Farley Community Church in Huntsville, Alabama collected items we can use with kids who attend our home group and/or backyard Bible clubs we can organize as soon as we settle in Lowry! We are so thankful and blessed by these two groups’ selfless collections!
We have current ministry needs as well. Giving many of you have done through Vanguard individually is helping us meet some tangible needs in Colorado Springs already, but we see more needs springing up, some immediate.
We have a friend whose husband is currently deployed and will be until at least October. Several things have happened since he left, leaving big needs. We would love to bless our friend, Alina, with gas and grocery gift cards so she can provide for herself and her two young boys until she finishes some classes and home projects that will allow her to open an in-home daycare for more income. We have (in common with the south) Wal-Mart, Target and Kroger for groceries and other necessities; for gas, Shell, 7-11, Texaco and Conoco. If you can find a source, we have Safeway and King Soopers grocers and Kum N Go and Loaf N Jug gas that are also popular.
Another immediate need is that the nurse who gives Alex his weekly allergy shot lost her entire home and all of her stuff to the Black Forest Fire. We want to be a blessing to her as well. Insurance will replace most of her things, but not immediately. We praise God for sparing her life, as well as the lives of her husband and dog. Wrapping our minds around replacing everything is impossible, having fortunately never been victims of a natural disaster, but we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Long-term motel living is inconvenient and costly. We would love to gift her grocery, toiletry and restaurant gift cards. We also want to buy her a Bible and highlight some verses in it. Pretty certain she isn’t a believer, but we are praying for God to draw her to Himself through this tragedy.
Eric will be attending the Southern Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief training at the end of June and we hope to know some other tangible needs of fire victims afterward and share them with you. You may want to share these needs with a group you are part of and collect some items, or mail individual items to us at 1416 E Uintah St, Colorado Springs, CO 80909. We will provide updates as needs are met and God softens hearts and builds His Kingdom!
As we approach our move to the Lowry neighborhood of Denver, please continue to pray with us for a placement through Apartment Life. Pray for us as we prepare our hearts and minds for yet another new chapter of life, for peace knowing God goes before us and is preparing a harvest, both here and there!

As most of you already know, our area of Colorado is currently plagued by wildfires. One of the fires, the Black Forest fire, has already been named the most destructive fire in Colorado state history. Many have asked, and we are in no danger, as we live 10-15 miles from this fire line. However, our hearts are broken for our city. Thousands of people are displaced, evacuated from their homes. Over 400 homes are already listed as “total loss”. Two people have died as a result of the fire, who appear to have been feverishly packing items they couldn’t bear to leave behind. Though it is easy for us to say homes, vehicles, and home contents are just material things, the reality is that those same things represent years of hard work, strong family memories, and high sentimental value. Many responders are working to contain and extinguish these fires. The firemen on the front lines are constantly on our minds. The emotions wrapped in a wildfire in a residential area are difficult to imagine and impossible to empathize with if you haven’t lived through it. Though we haven’t ever experienced a fire or a loss like that, God has placed many prayer and ministry opportunities within this tragic circumstance and He can use this inferno for His Glory! We believe He will! So many great stories of the rescue of people and animals, care for responders, and community building are beginning to be reported. Several have spoken boldly of God’s protection and provision. In an area where Mother Nature has gotten most of the blame and/or credit, it excites me to hear God’s name glorified and praised.
At a children’s event at a local public library this week, I was able to minister to an older lady who was awaiting word on the fate of her home and her stuff, just by noticing her tears. She told me some stories of her evacuation day and expressed her deep grief over possibly losing photos that keep her memories alive. We talked about grieving with hope, but she didnt know the Lord, just knows of Him. After talking, she did allow me to pray for her. I prayed scripture over her and begged God to reveal Himself to her, even in her grief. In the quiet corner of a library, while kids/grandkids learn about bunnies, ministry happens, if we allow God to use us. This is an area where He has really stretched me and grown me…boldness amongst strangers. I pray He will continue to grow me and mold me to be more like Him and give me the privilege of ministry and Kingdom growth. Pray for this woman, Deborah or “Gran”, for her salvation and her future, life after this devastating fire. I may never know the fate of her home, but I am trusting and believing that she will be saved!
Though so many homes and “things” are being destroyed, we must continue to give thanks, knowing His love lasts forever!
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From the time our call was confirmed, and even more so once it was mutual and our move to Colorado was fast approaching, we’ve shared our journey openly and referred to ourselves as “church planters”. We are even being trained through Frontline Church Planting Center. This month, in fact, we became official “church planting intern(s)” with the North American Mission Board. However, I’ve come to prefer “missionaries” as our title, if we have to have one. Perhaps it is only semantics to most, but the 8 months we’ve lived and learned in Colorado have made me more comfortable being considered a missionary than a church planter. Our goal once we move to Lowry isn’t to build a church building or even immediately rent a meeting space. God hasn’t led us toward a large, planned launch date, flyers to encourage attendance, and hundreds in attendance that we haven’t even met yet. This is what many people think of when they hear of us as church planters. This works very effectively in some cases, in fact! However, God has molded and shaped our call into one of moving into a new “neighborhood”, building relationships, loving people like He loves, partnering with them before, during and after salvation. We will be on mission in Lowry, and even in other areas. Christ’s Church will grow out of these relationships, and we pray He transforms enough lives for us to have gatherings and build a local church, but we will continue the mission, regardless of whether a building and physical presence of a local church is ever wanted or needed there. We are missionaries, being sent to Lowry. Love and “The Great Commission” are the call and the priority. God is in control of it all! May His Kingdom be made great! What a privilege to be a part!

In light of all that is happening in out nation and on our globe recently, God is continually drawing my thoughts toward scripture and songs about hope…a lasting hope found only in Him!
Two things would be much easier for my weak flesh to dwell on…fear and judgment. I could choose to believe the lies of the enemy, that nowhere is safe anymore, that God would stop the evil if He was loving and caring, and that there is no hope for this world. I could choose to focus on the evil, considering myself better than the ones behind the evil act, and believe there is no hope for them to be transformed. BUT GOD…loves a world plagued by evil and sin, SO MUCH that He sent Jesus to die, WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS! “My hope is in the Lord, from this time on and evermore!!” In the shadow of tragedies, personal and global, “(He is) our hiding place, our shield; our hope is in (the promises of) His Word” (Psalm 119:114). “(He) is our portion, therefore we hope in Him” (Lamentations 3:24). God has great plans for us, “to prosper us and not to harm us…to give us a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Friends, if we don’t cling to the hope His Word speaks of and we are not able to “rejoice in our sufferings,” knowing this leads us to hope, we cannot show the world the hope of Christ! He is our cornerstone, holding us together, even during the storms of life. He has allowed tragedy, and we choose our reaction. I believe Christians are watched closely in the shadow of life’s storms, and if we allow our weakness to be made strong in His love, and we cling to hope, His light will shine bright on the darkest days our world faces! Our local church sang this song last weekend and, to me, it felt like a glimpse of Heaven. Whatever storms you may be facing, close your eyes and listen to this song, praying God will remind you He is Lord, Lord of ALL!
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We spent last week “on the ground”, actually in Lowry, CO for several consecutive days, a team of 10 from FBC, Boaz, AL alongside. All 12 of us knew this was mainly a recon trip, a gathering of info about this neighborhood God has called us toward, our future home and a place to make His name great. In addition to the recon mission, though, we knew our missions needed to be bathed in prayer, before, during and after. In small groups, we were able to prayer walk the entire “neighborhood” of Lowry, praying specifically over individual housing developments, each public park/space, businesses and schools, and each store and restaurant in the town center. We prayed that, beyond the gathering of info, our hearts and the mission team members’ hearts would be truly broken for the current residents of Lowry and that the people we met while there would be open to talk and share. Pleading for life transformations and opportunities to bless others rang out. We begged God to make any Christians in the neighborhood known to us. I believe God hems us in, just as His Word said he would, going before us and behind us. Several of those specific prayers were answered, to some extent, in our short week there.

Statistically speaking, 90-95% of Denver residents are lost, currently living apart from Christ and destined for Hell. That’s 9+ people out of every 10 in line at the Albertson’s grocery in Lowry! I knew the statistics while living in Alabama and I’ve heard them while living in Colorado Springs, but the conversations with Lowry residents in shops, parks, and restaurants have made the gravity of the situation very real. We engaged in many conversations about the neighborhood, what’s to love and what it needs, and the people were generally so open and friendly, so we pressed on and talked to quite a few about his/her “spiritual heritage”. Though we talked face to face with 50-100 people, we only engaged one Jesus follower, a Lowry store manager who recently moved to Denver from Virginia. She is desperately seeking a local body of believers to come alongside. I was excited to meet a good number of people who believe in one true God, but humbled by the enormous field before us, so many who don’t yet believe in the forgiveness, grace, and redemption made freely available through Christ’s death and resurrection. My heart is broken and saddened to realize the statistics are true, and I’ve been humbled beyond words to see it firsthand. I know that, apart from Him, I can do nothing about it but, in His strength and power, He will use us in Lowry and He will transform lives.

I told a friend that we “planted a handful of seeds in our days there, and dug a dozen or more holes where a seed can be planted, and broke the plow with some”. But I know God loves the people of Lowry and He has changed my life, so “there is a fire in my bones and I grow weary of holding it in”!

We are specifically praying for “a tithe of the people”. Currently, Lowry has about 10,000 residents and another section is being redeveloped, adding housing for another 5,000 in the next few years. We are praying, believing, that a contagious movement of God is in Lowry’s future and that God is graciously allowing us to be a part! We are certainly not in the Bible Belt anymore. This whole town was redeveloped, purposefully leaving no space for a church building. We are having to pray, study, and relearn what church is. We won’t be able to choose a service time, advertise, and expect the people to come to us. We will be missionaries and true neighbors way before we are a pastor and pastor’s wife in Lowry. Church will be small groups in homes, doing life together God’s way, studying His Word together, disciples who make disciples, all the while praying that when others see God transformation, they will be drawn to Him and want to help us build His Church in Lowry!

Believe with us, pray for big things, and join us in prayer each day at 10:02 (AM or PM) for more laborers for the harvest (Luke 10:2).

Countless times, before we moved out here, we were told that Colorado is a “unique culture” and what benefit it would be to us to be on the ground here, living immersed in the culture. From afar, we weren’t sure how to take that, confused as to what it really meant and how largely our “transplant” status may impact our ministry here.
Having been on the ground here in Colorado for a little over six months, transplants from Alabama, I am so thankful we were advised wisely. These months of training as church planting residents are invaluable, of course, but immersion in so many aspects of the culture gives us life on life experience that just isn’t possible from another state. We have found that Colorado is truly a unique culture, but much of that uniqueness is very positive. We appreciate that there isn’t a “status” focus here; most everyone seems open to conversation and friendship, no pressure about personal appearance or socioeconomic standing. Folks here are very genuine, overall, masks off and willing to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. We’ve been able to share our testimony, or stories, often and love hearing the stories of others. People want to know you really care, see you as genuine. It’s been said that it takes longer to earn the trust of people here, but then the conversation is very open and freeing, in my opinion.
Of course, the Gospel truth never changes, but how we share it must fit those we share it with, in order to be received well. We are so privileged to work with, hang out with, and meet such a wide variety of people here: all ages, different ethnicities, various political views, etc. We know Christians, “dechurched” individuals and families, people from various religious backgrounds, and lost people. One thing we’ve learned we all have in common is life and breath and that everyone who has life and breath has a “spiritual heritage”. When we get a chance to build a relationship here, we find that saying, “Tell me about your spiritual heritage” is met with such a positive response. This gives a person’s story value and doesn’t make Christianity the “right answer” straight out of the gate, which is often a turn off at first. We are loving hearing where our new friends and aquaintances are in life, what they believe, and why. This conversation starter opens the door for the Holy Spirit to speak through us and make Himself known, no matter what the response is. We are forming some deep bonds here, strong friendships with the lost, the very ones God began to break our hearts for before we ever moved. These are the people many of you are praying for, alongside us. We love to talk about God, Jesus, the Word, and what knowing Him has changed in our lives. He is opening ears and softening hearts, we are beginning to see fruits of our heart labor. We can’t wait to celebrate these first fruits. We are trusting God to save these friends. We are so privileged to be a part of the next chapter in the spiritual heritage story of these, and others we are praying for…pray and believe with us that true transformation in Christ will soon be part of many more life stories told here!

Matthew 5:13-16 says, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
What a unique opportunity we have been given to participate in Food For Thought, a program sponsored by the Colorado Springs Diversity Forum. Interestingly, the motto of this program is “Breaking Bread, Building Bridges”. A limited number of applicants are selected each quarter and assigned to a group of people, purposefully diversified in race, political views, and spiritual heritage. Each small group commits to meet 5 times over the next 6 months, and “topics which tend to generate a variety of opinions are discussed with the support of ground rules and a neutral facilitator”, while sharing a meal.
We had an introductory, get acquainted meeting on January 31, hosted by the forum group. Last night was our first of five, or more, discussion dinners. In attendance were 7 group members and 2 facilitators; we were missing 6 or 7 members, who can hopefully join us next time. We met in a conference room at the office of one in our group and enjoyed casual conversation as we dined on lasagna, spicy meatballs, brownies and banana pudding. Participants in our group range in age from college students to senior citizens, representing three different ethnic groups, varied sexual orientations, and raised across a variety of geographical locations.
Our discussion topic last night…achievement gap in education…wasn’t highly controversial amongst our group, but certainly generated some great discussion! Issues contributing to the achievement gap in our nation in K-12 education led to thought provoking discussion, but suggestions for improvement and solutions are more difficult. We adjourned with plans to each come up with some suggested action plans before our next get together.
Communication is very open in our group, was even in introductory gathering. It is no secret in our group that Eric and I are believers who are preparing to plant a church in Denver, but also a bus driver and his wife who love others and want to engage our culture, no matter individual background and beliefs. The group even asked us last night, during casual conversation, if it is scary to start a church from scratch in Denver and we answered honestly; some healthy fear, but big trust and faith as well. Ultimately, in a culture largely turned off to church because of past hurtful experiences, but still open to Jesus and His grace, mercy, and love, we want to exude those qualities of Jesus in us and let genuine love, regardless of differences, be used to draw others to Him. Last night gave us an opportunity to be real and love others, really hearing what they have to say and praising God for the chance to be in our culture, yet still of His Kingdom! Praise be to God for filling us with His light and allowing that light to shine before men. May the Father be glorified!!

Lately, I’ve been camped out in the Psalms. So much good stuff to absorb there! This week, I spent time really digging into and studying Psalm 34 and taking it to heart. Such good words!!

This Psalm begins with, “I will bless The Lord at all times. His praise will continually be on my lips”. I’ve been praying this for myself, Eric, and our children. We’ve been having a joy campaign at home, rewarding positive thought, praise to God, and great attitudes, especially when external circumstances threaten and tempt otherwise. I am so beyond blessed and I want to praise the Lord at ALL times. What a powerful testimony to the world when we, as Christians, keep our joy regardless of circumstance!!

This Psalm also speaks to God taking away fear. It actually says “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them”. I don’t know about y’all, but God has delivered me from some BIG fears in my lifetime, some very recently, when I stand in awe and reverent fear of Him. I need delivering and to know His angel encamps around me is a powerful word picture for me to cling to always! No fear or doubt is too big for my God to deliver me from! Amen?!?

This is also the Psalm that says we should “seek peace and pursue it”, another very familiar quote in our home, some days easier said than done. We want to honor God by being peace seekers, peace pursuers…another outward testimony to a lost world, of Christ in us!

Lastly, Psalm 34 says God hears us when we cry out and He delivers us from troubles. “He is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit”. I know many, if not all, of you have big hurts, large wounds, some physical, some not. God is so personal and caring. What comfort I find in knowing He cares for me and for you.

May the people in our lives see change and transformation that boasts in God alone! May our lives reflect what we learn of Him in His Word. May revival fall on our land and God’s name be made famous…our Deliverer and Comforter!!!!

As we quickly approach the 5 month mark of life in Colorado Springs, it is so nice to feel we are putting down some roots, even though we know our stay here is temporary. It feels like a huge blessing to be able to walk into church, ice skating lessons, or a library event and call some people by name and recognize others. Eric knows quite a few coworkers by name at the bus barn already and has been able to have great conversations with trainers and other drivers during these training weeks. The family of the precious child I keep each day is a great match for our family, as friends. We have also been blessed with friends to hang out with, share meals with, swap childcare for date nights with, and pray for/with. Everyone has a story and it is great to get to hear those and share our own, bringing Jesus’ grace and mercy in quickly, as that is what has changed our story forever! God is continually bringing people into our path, but has really ordained specific people for specific purposes…some to encourage and exhort, some for us to love on and evangelize, some for us to learn lots from. So nice to know we have lifelong friends in other states, bonds that will never be broken, and that God is still blessing us with new friends along life’s way! Pray specifically for the lost and hurting God is bringing our way…may we never miss or waste an opportunity to minister and be salt and light! The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few. May we always make much of Jesus and daily make His name famous! Simple, yet true that “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life!” He did it all for love…pray we will look like Him to the world.

Only God could orchestrate the happenings around here! Not only did He provide jobs for both of us, He had such a God sized plan behind it all! The family whose daughter I am keeping found me when I wasn’t even looking for a job actively. I had talked to several families about child care needs, but most had 3 children and/or needed evening and weekend help. These didn’t seem like match for our family routine, homeschool demands, or church planting residency requirements. This family came into the picture and we sat down to talk with them about specific needs and it was all such a great match for both of us. Shortly after we agreed that care would begin in January, Eric was hired by a local school district as a bus driver. He had applied for the same position in multiple districts. It turned out God, in His infinite wisdom, had orchestrated this. The mom of the child staying here in the daytime teaches in the same district Eric will drive for, making all of our off days the same! This will allow for trips to Lowry and ministry as a family, here and there, and only God can make that happen!! Not fate nor coincidence!
In addition, no sweeter or smarter 2 year old exists than the one we are blessed to be enjoying our days with. She is such a perfect addition to our days!! She also naps each afternoon, allowing perfect time for teaching new skills in school. All three kids play very well together and seem to love each other already! Eric passed two written tests yesterday and got his Colorado CDL, with school bus and air brake endorsements! Praise God for these jobs that help provide for our needs and still leave us personal growth, family growth, and community ministry time! “He has done great things, bless His Holy name!”