February 21, 2008

good morning. Today is a wonderful day. We are getting so excited about the things that God is doing in us. It is so hard to not want to do things in my own time. Last night we had a lunar eclipse and we were able to see Saturn and a really bright star called Regulus (which is in the constellation Leo) making a triangle with the moon. The total exclipse lasted for almost an hour. I was thinking that if God is not in a hurry to uncover the moon, then probably His timing for uncovering The Awakening is just right too and I should not be worried about that :-)

much love to everyone out there who prayed for my heart scan yesterday. It went fine. i am just waiting to hear back from the doctor. But, Praise the Lord, it was nothing life threatening because they let me leave the hospital yesterday ;-)

Have a great day in the Lord and think on those things that are lovely and pure!

February 20

Well, it has been quite an exciting month. The last two days we have been at a churchplanters.com conference. It has been so amazing. We learned so much new stuff, validated the wrong stuff we have learned, and validated the right stuff we have learned! The best nugget I came away with was "The Bid Idea" which simply is that everyone is on the same page from the very beginning with lots of time to prepare. On a weekend experience the songs, giving message, the message in the adults and children and students, even taking it out into the week and the small groups that meet are all talking about the same BIG IDEA. It is all in unity and harmony and alllows for the group discussion to happen with friends and more importantly with family members. The large session speakers were amazing. They spoke on Leaders. How to be a healthy, resilient, couragous (audacious), spiritual, and secure leader. Every message was encouraging and challenging! One of the things I remember is that everyone is going to be modeling themselves after the lead. We were so encouraged by God that this is the very thing that he has called us to do and that we are to go after it hard and strong. We are to swing the bat until our hands bleed. We are to go after this even when family and friends do not understand or agree with what we are doing or if they decide to help us in any way. That God will provide everything that we need... finances, buildings, people, staff, location......you name it.. This is not something that we need to beg God to help us out with....But something that as soon as we can get this point that God is waiting for us to surrender and he has something so much bigger and better than we can even ask Him for!
So needless to say we are fired up right now and anyone that comes in our path we are audacious to tell them about the awesome community called "The Awakening" and the journey that we are setting out on!
Please pray for us! We are so excited and want everyone to be just as excited about this as we are!
Also, today is my CTA (heart scan). We are about to leave for St. Joseph's Hospital in a few minutes. The test is this morning. Please pray for me and for the doctor's ;-)

Much love -
Connie