Office Remodel

Here's a couple photos to show the work that we are doing in my office. We are adding a study area with a desk, cabinets and bookshelves by taking out a closet wall and expanding it. We are taking out the hanging ceiling and installing ceiling joists with sheetrock. This will raise the ceiling some and keep more attic heat out.  If you look in the upper right hand corner of the photos, you will see a piece of Bro. Ensey's mural from when the building was first built almost 30 years ago!  I believe it was a forest with lots of orange leaves to go with the trendy orange carpet!  Everybody was using those colors then.  More to come...

Déja Vu

Tonight while sitting at dinner with my family I had an overwhelming flashback to days with my Dad.

For as long as I can remember - all the way back to Fresno - my Dad was in some kind of building "program." In Fresno, he built a new church. In Rialto, he built (almost literally himself along with my grandfather) another church. When we moved to Mesquite, we built a house then he built another church. THIS has been my life. Always building, always improving, always moving forward. I never knew anything different. We would be sitting at dinner, Daddy would pull out a napkin and a pen then start drawing his next set of "plans." Whether it was something to remodel or another church to build, he was always thinking ahead.

My life didn't change much when I married Gene Holley!!! If I remember correctly, the first large building project after we were married was the remodeling of Life Tabernacle. Then Gene and his Dad (along with Todd Shahan) built a house at Possum Kingdom Lake. We built two houses in Wichita Falls before we moved to Pflugerville. While in Pflugerville, Gene remodeled 2 "warehouses" - the first one was for the sanctuary, the second for the youth center. We had just finished the youth center before moving back to Wichita Falls. Now that we are here, Gene and his Dad started working on the remodeling of his office today and more plans are in the making - other remodeling in the current location, a Family Life Center, etc.

Back to the Déja Vu... While sitting at dinner, Gene started describing something to me then asked for a pen. I gave him one and watched as he straightened his napkin and started drawing me a diagram. I just put my head in my hands and started to laugh incredulously. This was almost an exact replica of my Dad!!!

I LOVE it!!!! I LOVE being married to this man who is always thinking "forward" and wanting to see what else he can "build." It's a good life...

Sunday Update

Just wanted to take a second and update you on the weekend:

• Friday we had a new gentleman, who has not been to service yet, baptized in Jesus name! He has been taught a Bible Study and saw his need for baptism.
  
• Sunday morning we had a backslider pray back through and several seeking in the altar.
  
• Sunday night we had a brand new gentleman receive the Holy Spirit... during prayer request time!
  

That brings us to 3 brand new souls being filled, 3 who have returned to their walk with God and 1 baptized in the last month.  It is so exciting to see lives being changed!  Have a wonderful week and expect to see God working on your behalf.

XTreme week!!

We had a photo session of our family and took over 400 pictures!!!  We are needing pictures for several purposes and we were pleased with what a great job Kassie Dutton and Priscilla Venegas did with them.  They are wanting to get into photography and they really have an eye for the settings!  Above is a sample.

I have lots of stuff to share...

Last Sunday was an incredible weekend.  The Lord is calling us to a place of stretching... because the miracle is in the stretch.  It always seems that before our miracles take place, we must stretch as far as we can go and then He steps in and does His sovereign work!  We had a blowout Sunday night with two refilled with His spirit (after being away for over a year), but I still felt to preach.  I told the staff before going into service that they could shout if they wanted to, but I had a message that I was going to preach.  So, I did.  God did a work and it has continued to work on me all week.

Our pantry was restarted this week with Barbara Loveland (and her family) as the director.  God has opened several doors just this week to minister around Wichita Falls through this ministry.  One was a family who just had a baby and living in a motel.  Another was an elder couple who have lost everything due to physical sickness, which you can read about here.  We are being salt and light to our world and it WILL make a difference. 

Monday morning was a meeting with Linda Howell, our Sunday School director and Joseph Ouellette, our Children's Minister to plan for our upcoming "XTreme Kids" on Sunday mornings.  We will be suspending their regular Sunday classes and having "XTreme" through January 2009.  Monday afternoon was meeting with our Youth Minister, Trevon Norman, about upcoming youth activities and his vision.  I am excited about both of these departments and the plans we have for the future!

Tuesday we had a three hour lunch with a neighboring pastor, Kendall and Dawn Graves, catching up on all kinds of things and had dinner with, Brian and Gloria Pursel, a minister in our church.

Wednesday was preparing for the Word for Life and then getting ready for our Spanish service on Saturday.  

Thursday, our church hosted a community funeral for Pamela Brown Walker.  Our church lovingly cared for every detail and their concern was warmly received by all who attended.  Our building was filled with people from the community.  

My family and I left before the funeral was over to head to Pflugerville.  We had to go catch up on some things and meet with the new Pastor in Pflugerville, Chad and Cassie Harper!  We are so excited about them taking over the work there!  Wonderful things are already happening and we can't wait for them to double in size again!  It won't be long.

We had lunch with Rodney and Stacy Shaw and family on Friday and Cameron got to spend some time with Lindsey!  

Today, we got the house ready for an Open House on Sunday and then headed back to Wichita Falls to arrive just in time for, Tabernaculo de Vida, tonight!  We had an awesome crowd again and God moved in a mighty way.

Tomorrow is a full day and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do!  I pray that you have a blessed Sunday and see miracles take place.

Tabernaculo de Vida

Tonight was our first service as pastor of Tabernaculo de Vida! We had a great time together at the Ramirez home with over 50 in attendance. We will be having service each Saturday evening at 7pm. It will be held in homes and at the church fellowship hall for a little bit and then we will be launching the church in a storefront and then adding their own satellite church pastor in time. We are so excited about the possibilities to reach the Spanish speaking community. Thanks to all the Life Tabernacle saints who are supporting this cause and even came tonight to help out in the 100° weather!

I will be speaking most weeks and spanish-speaking saints will be interpreting.   We will be having classes to improve their spanish skills.  It is a process, but I believe that if we will step through the open doors and be willing to do what it takes, we will reap a harvest.  God will honor the effort.  It is the will of God that all His children be evangelized.

The crowd kept growing!

First time guests joined in and we enjoyed a time of fellowship together afterwards.

Please keep this new church start in your prayers.

Settling In

Our family is settling in to the new schedule and life here in Wichita Falls!  We are having an awesome time and looking forward to what God has in store.  This Sunday cannot be described in words.  We had a young lady filled with the Holy Spirit on Sunday night in our worship service!  That makes two since we arrived on June 15th!  The other was an elder gentleman and he also was filled during our worship time.  This Sunday night following the eruption of the Spirit, we tried to continue on into the Word and the Lord took over again!  I believe that we are going to hear of great victories that took place during this service even in days to come.  It was one of those services where we ended up taking the offering at the end... to God be the glory!  We are meeting almost nightly with department leaders going over their ideas and plans to figure out what our biggest priorities are.  It is exciting to see what the future plans hold for Life Tabernacle.  We have also been looking at houses while we lease the Elms' furnished home.  A special thanks to them for allowing us to live in their home while things get settled and as we search for a place to of our own!  We just got our DSL working here in the house...things take so long to transfer.

Anyway, here are some pictures of some of the happenings of the past week or so:

My birthday at McBride's Steakhouse.  The boys always love to give me crazy cards and want to see my reaction...  As you can see below, it was funny!

We have enjoyed having Joel and Sheree Bean here for a few days.

The guys have enjoyed having access to a pool.  Thanks to the Bivens for opening their home and backyard to them!  They are such awesome people.

We enjoyed a time of food and fellowship at the Frazier's home on July 4th.  They are always great hosts for these kind of events!  Everybody had a great time together and then joined with a crowd over at the Pursel's after dark for shooting fireworks.  You can see (l-r) Rita Frazier and Tammy Bryant below.

Aunt Ashley with Alyssa and Alivia Bean...

Karla and I snuck off in the Jeep with the top down for a little while at the Sheppard Air Force Base fireworks show.  We drove through Sonic for a big drink and just sat in the Jeep watching the display.

This past Sunday night after service, we had our first meeting to plan for our new Spanish-speaking satellite location.  We are having a Home Fellowship Group this coming Saturday at the home of one of the Spanish speaking families we are working with.  They invited us to come together with them, their neighbors and friends.  We will be having hot dogs and all the trimmings along with singing and little time of devotion.  They will be interpreting as I speak.  We are in search for a location to begin holding services when the time is right.

For some reason, Chad always has a crowd of kids around him and it is no different here!  Here's Ryan Isom and Alayna Elms with him.  This picture was taken at the church and then they had a blast playing at Pizza Hut (we had 8 young children with us, plus Chad!)  It was good to see Andrew and Mandy home after a month of camps in Lufkin!

We may be settling in , but we are definitely not settling down!  Have a great week!

Smiley Face

I bought a new camera last week, and it has the coolest feature on it. There's a setting you turn it to that has a "smiley face" - when you use this setting, the camera waits until the subject of your picture is smiling before it will take the picture. It will also take up to 6 pictures in a row without resetting the camera - as it waits for a smile. In other words, if you are taking pictures of a child, it will stay focused on that child and take up to six pictures with each smile. If you want a better description of this feature, go to Sony and read/watch about the Cyber-shot camera. They say, "It knows when you're smiling. The new Sony Cyber-shot camera with Smile Shutter technology allows you to automatically capture a smile the moment it happens."

Anyway, it's quite hilarious. I was trying to take a picture of Lindsey and Cameron before we left Austin - using this feature - we ended up taking about 16 pictures trying to capture just the right smile. Then we started playing with it Sunday after church and caught some pretty funny sights, also. Below are some of the "best" smiley pictures. LOL! Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY....

.... to the most wonderful husband and father in the world!!!  You bring so much joy (laughter) into our lives.  Thank you for being who you are!!  We love you more than words can say.

Your wife & sons!!

Last Week in Austin

Cameron, Chad & I have been in Pflugerville this week for them to finish out their obligation to help with VBS at New Life UPC in Austin.  We've had a good time - just relaxing and taking care of some last minute details and appointments before moving.  As a rule this week, we've made it a point to eat at places we won't have in Wichita Falls.  So... we've hit TGIFriday's, Bennigan's, Mellow Mushroom, Krispy Kreme, and hopefully Chuy's tomorrow.  

Chad still wants to make it to Rudy's, but I don't know where we'll work that one in - maybe on our way out of town on Saturday.  It's not like we won't be back EVER - but it's been fun.

I have shopped in several places I won't have - DSW, Marshall's, Steinmart, Burlington, - don't worry, Gene, I didn't buy something at every store.  LOL!!

ONE of the things the boys are excited about is being able to play paintball again.  So, we've had to get a few things together for them.  When we got home last night (late!), they put all their "gear" on and we took pictures.

Tonight and last night we ate with some of the "kids" the boys have become close to - Lindsey, Cheyanne, Erika, Lorraine, Brooke & Bonnie.  We love these girls and can't wait for them to come see us in Wichita Falls (maybe before the summer is over).

Saturday we load up the car and head home!  I can't wait to see my husband and to be in church with our "new" family on Sunday!!

Answered prayers this week!

I had to take a few minutes to let you know of some awesome things that God has done this week.  He is still in the business of answering prayer!

While getting ready for service tonight in the office, a lady who is in our church came in and starting explaining a miracle that happened in her life this week.  Sunday night she came down to the front for prayer.  I had just mentioned how that all it takes is simple faith and then expect an answer.  Shereé Bean had also testified about miracles that she has just seen take place.  This lady was on oxygen and has been for some time now.  When she returned to her seat, her lungs began hurting, so she took the oxygen tube off and the pain went away.  She came to the office to tell me that she has not been on oxygen since!  She had a doctor's appointment and they told her that she was at a 96% oxygen level which is unbelievable for her without using the oxygen tank!  She said she has not been able to walk anywhere in her house without the tank - but now she was free of it!!  Thank the Lord!

Also, one of our ladies came up to me after service and told me of another miracle that happened tonight.  When leaving her work today, a gentleman that she had been inviting to church, suddenly told her that he would see her tonight in service.  He said that he was needing an answer from God.  She was so excited that he was there.  After our Bible Study tonight, he approached her and said that he had chill bumps.  He got the answer that he needed.  I began a series, "Thirty Keys to Wisdom" from Proverbs 22 and it included the key:  "Never co-sign a note for someone."  He could not believe that I talked about this because that was exactly what he needed an answer about!  All I can say is that God knows exactly what we need and when we need it!  You don't very often hear a preacher say, "Never co-sign a loan!"  But tonight someone really needed it.  This gentleman will never forget the time that God talked directly to him and where he was!  Isn't God awesome?!

Keep asking, believing AND expecting.