Happy Birthday, Karla!

41 years ago, "Abraham and Sarah" Layne had a baby - and I am glad! Karla is always so much fun. As Sis. Stephens said in church this morning, she is a "bundle of joy!" (The church gave her a trip to a spa which I am sure she will be using very soon.)

I am thankful every day for her— the blessing that God allowed in my life. She has not once complained about where God has called us and the sacrifices that have had to be made. I believe God has some great surprises for her this year!

One of the great gifts she got this year was for Alayna Elms, her great-niece, here for a visit. She was with us in service this morning and was worshipping throughout the songs! Her mom and dad are missing her, but she has been so much fun! "Knock-knock!" "Who's there?" She is full of those!

Her best friend in the world, Sharon Bivens, took off work to spend this weekend with her. They have talked non-stop since Sharon's arrival. I left the house for about 2 hours and came back to find them in the same spot - talking and laughing! Thanks Sharon, for taking time to come visit (and bring Alayna with you), it really means a lot to Karla.

One of the things about growing a year older is that your children are also getting older AND TALLER! Here she is with the boys who LOVE being taller than her. . .and me! Chad is almost there. Happy Birthday, Karla! We all love you so much.

Cedar Park

Our friends, Mel and Lisa Reddy, are starting The Sanctuary of Cedar Park. They are such great people with a passion to see a church serving the Cedar Park area. Cedar Park is Northwest of Austin and our home, Pflugerville, is Northeast of Austin. We are excited about what God is doing through their efforts! They recently had someone baptized and have had several filled with the Spirit. No one has ever been able to start an Apostolic church in this city, but they are determined to stay and dig it out.

Two weeks ago, Lisa went through major surgery and also had two people in her immediate family pass away. The week of her surgery, Mel set up the whole church alone! I could not let that happen again. I believe anything we do to further His Kingdom is our calling, so the boys and I had the privilege of helping them today and have committed to be there every other Saturday for a while. They have another family committed to help the other weekends.

They rent a school and store their things in a trailer through the week. They are looking for a storefront location and land also. Cedar Park is an area that has nothing low-cost! Be in prayer for them as they need a miracle. They have had up in the 40's in attendance on some weekends. The thing is, when you have people coming who have not been used to attending church at all, it is major for them to come once or twice a month! It is a long process to disciple people, but it will happen. We have some of that in our church as I'm sure every church has. My family has been in church my whole life, so church is a regular part of each week. Patience. It takes so long to get it!

May God bless each church and those who minister in them this Sunday! Hang in there—
"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galatians 6:9

All in a day's work...

I just thought I would share some pictures of a property showing I had today.  It is hard to believe, but I really needed my Jeep to do the job!  We ended touring two different properties— one that was 78 acres and another that was 134.  There were weeds that were 3 feet taller than me and more than an inch thick.   In fact, they were so close together that we really couldn't even walk to the back property line!

On the second piece, we came across a dead cow that evidently died while giving birth.  This is not something you would expect in the days work of a REALTOR®!  I didn't take a picture of that one because... well, you know!  There was a vulture and some sort of wild cat eating away!  I really didn't want to interrupt their feast.

30th Anniversary

While Karla was gone to Ladies' Conference, Cameron and I went to the 30th Anniversary celebration at Magnolia Apostolic Tabernacle.  Chad stayed with a friend— he does not enjoy events like this!  Pastor Steve and Karen Wehrle went to start a church there 30 years ago and they have done a great work.  (Karen is my first cousin— her Dad, E.L. Holley was my Dad's brother.)  The church honored them with a gift of $20,000 on the biggest check you have ever seen!  I hope they can get it through the bank doors to get it cashed.

Their choir did a fantastic job of ushering in the presence of God and Bro. Paul Mooney spoke from God to me.  Our presbyter here in the Austin/Hill Country Section, Bro. Charles Stephens, was the master of ceremonies.

There was a great number of ministers, friends and family there to show their support and I enjoyed getting to see many that I hadn't seen in a while.

Congratulations to Magnolia Apostolic Tabernacle and the Wehrles!

L.U.V. - "Ladies United in Victory" - Conference

Today I returned from the South Texas Ladies Conference. I am exhausted - but refreshed. I went to the conference needing to hear from God, and I am excited to report He didn't let me down.

The conference was held in Sugar Land, TX. We stayed at the Marriot Hotel. The picture below is a view from our room.


The conference began on Thursday afternoon at 1:00. The first speaker was supposed to be Vonnie Lopez, but she was very sick and not able to make it. Ken Gurley was asked to take this session. He spoke about the bride being ready for the wedding - a very timely message in this day. Towards the end of his message, he said, "I saw Karla Holley walk in today and was reminded of the last time her Dad ministered in our church." He proceeded to tell how Daddy had preached about Heaven (is anyone surprised at this? LOL). Bro. Gurley told how Daddy sat down in front of the pulpit and "made a pact" with the Pearland church to meet him in front of the Throne! He said family by family people came by to shake Daddy's hand and make that commitment to him. Of course, I was bawling! I got to thinking about how MANY people are supposed to be in front of the throne - now I'm beginning to wonder if we'll be able to find Daddy!! LOL! I'm hoping he'll get it all figured out before we get there. Maybe he could step up a couple steps so we can see where he is!

On Thursday night Bro. Ewing spoke. THAT was MY message! I bought the CD so Gene can hear it - but I bought it mostly for myself, so I can listen to it as many times as I need to. God spoke to me DIRECTLY - it was awesome. I'm so thankful that He knows where we are and what we need, when we need it. After the service was over, I got to spend a few minutes talking with the Ewings. They are such sweet people. He was in tears as I told him how God used him to minister to me.

The next highlight came when Sis. Jerry Ann Guidroz sought me out in the crowd. She came over and said, "Sis. Ewing needs to see you." I went with her back to where Sis. Ewing was. We stepped out into the hallway so we could hear better (altar service was still in full-swing). She asked me if I knew this particular song. I did, so she asked me if I could sing it at a particular moment in her presentation on Friday. I was honored to be asked by Sis. Ewing to sing for her. As it turned out, God changed his mind in the middle of the night, so I didn't end up singing, but it was really awesome to be asked by her.

The rest of the conference was great. The theme was Generation to Generation, so there was much emphasis on equipping the next generation for the Kingdom of God. Lisa Marshall (UPCI prayer coordinator) spoke on teaching our children to pray. Sis. Ewing spoke about Heaven and getting our children there. Elizabeth Shivers (the Haney's 4th child) spoke about prayer, discipline, example - all to our kids. It was awesome. Friday night, Sis. Haney was the speaker. I always enjoy hearing Sis. Haney - it brings back many memories.

Today - we came home!

Sis. Donna Stephens from our church went with me. We had a wonderful time and were able to spend some fun times together and with several ladies from the Bernard's church.

It was a great trip - and I'm excited for next year. JANICE SJOSTRAND IS THE SPEAKER!!! (those of you from Wichita Falls will know how excited I am about that!!!)

Easter Planning

We are in the midst of planning our upcoming Easter events. We had QuantumDigital send out 400 postcards with the above graphics to the area surrounding our location. I would have loved to do more, but that will come in time. We also sent these postcards to all of those who have visited our church in the last year. The members of New Life will be distributing these to their neighbors and friends as well.  We also have 50 yard signs ordered from SuperCheapSigns here in Austin to put out around our location on Saturday afternoon.    We will actually only put out about 25, but it was cheaper to buy more and keep them for backups.

I cannot believe Easter is just two weeks away!  But, we plan to use it as a catalyst to introduce our new Youth Center and have a Friend Day two weeks following.  We also want to take a Block Party into a neighborhood to introduce our bus ministry, but we really need God's provision to make this possible.  We have been praying and are believing that God will provide leadership for some of these ministries.  Please be in prayer for this need.  I know that God has put an open door in front of us and He will provide what is needed to step through it.  Our theme is "Beyond the Open Door" and we plan on going beyond!

Creative Avoidance

I was in a class today and the term "creative avoidance" came up.  Actually, it is another term for the old standard "procrastination!"  It is when you know you need to do something, but you get creative and find an excuse to do something else that is more fun.  Instead of calling someone to ask for business, we end up spending time on the computer "researching" so we can answer their questions better when we finally make that call.  Or, maybe we check our email before working on that flyer, because there may be something in our email that will we need to put that flyer together.  We learn to be creative when we are avoiding something we really don't want to do.  

I think we are all guilty of this.  There are just some things we don't like doing or don't want to do at all and we put it off for some of the craziest reasons!  We must learn to do today what is today's task.  If we put it off, then we are postponing the inevitable and possibly making the inevitable task even harder than it would have been in the first place!

What are you avoiding?  I have found that a lot of people avoid God.  They find creative ways to put off checking the innermost part of their soul.  The problem is:  we will have to answer for our soul and the longer we put it off, the more life takes its toll on us and the harder it becomes to reverse the patterns that have been set.  And, there is coming a time when it will be too late.  We only have a certain number of days and we don't even know what that is.  We don't have time to make excuses and leave the weighty matters of life unanswered.

Today is the day.  Whatever it is you are putting off, stop all the creative meanderings, and get it done.  

McCain Sighting

John McCain made a stop in Round Rock yesterday about 3 miles from my house at Dell Headquarters.  I had forgotten about it and just happened to turn the corner at an intersection and there was the McCain bus.  The McCain Train was leaving Dell and headed toward I-35!   I could not get my phone out fast enough to catch a picture.  Oh, well, it was neat to be so close.  Isn't it funny how we react to national figures when we come in contact with them— when, any day of our choosing, we can be so close to the Creator, Jesus Christ?  We can talk directly to Him and He can REALLY make a difference in our lives.  My plan is to capture a glimpse of the King of Kings, giving me strength to carry on.  I look forward to it.  How about you?

Church-in-a-Day, Jarrell, TX

I had the privilege again to be a part of CIAD this weekend.  The Austin Hill Country section had our second CIAD in one year's time!  This time it was in Jarrell, Texas which is about 25 miles from our home.  We started Friday morning at 7am and these pictures were taken today (Saturday) at around 11am.  It always amazes me to see a new church be built and ready for the services on the same weekend.  Pastor Fliehs and his family are great people who are doing a wonderful work for the Kingdom.

We did a jumbo postcard mailout to a 5 mile radius around their location announcing CIAD and their service this weekend.  They already had people show up to see the building being built from the cards and others who promised to be there for service on Sunday!  The impact of these projects are so amazing.  People cannot believe that it is really built that quickly.

May the Lord bless Pentecostal Lighthouse with a wonderful service and crowd this Sunday!

Donation

We are thankful for a recent donation to our congregation. We were blessed to take a U-Haul and receive a donation of what we estimate to be around $4000 worth of goods. The first being a pulpit. The pulpit we have used was handmade by someone who used to attend before we came to Pflugerville and it was nice, but this one has all the built-ins!  (our camera put some discoloration on it)

Chad asked why we had a flashlight in the pulpit and I thought I would answer your question before it was asked... because if the power goes off in this building— IT IS pitch-black!

There are 50+ nice chairs that connect together for large crowds or work separately around tables or discussion groups. They look almost brand new! They are waiting in our garage until the Youth Center is completed.

We also received 2 long plastic (light!) folding tables, a HUGE white board to be mounted in one of our new Sunday School rooms, a folding puppet stage, a rug, a submersible baptistry heater (we will use it in a portable trough), and two miniature Christmas trees in planters, along with a beautiful silk tree.

We really do appreciate these wonderful gifts. They will be put to good use.