Back to school

The kids are off to their first day of school. All three kids go to different schools, a bit different than in NC. The Elementary schools are split with K-2 in one and 3-5 in another.  A few tears of nervousness from Logan but we heard a loud "LOGAN" as he was getting on the bus from a kid in the front seat. Thankfully, he had a friend from football to sit with on the way to school. What a relief, and it will be nice to have them all back home this afternoon.

Breanna 10th grade

Maddy 4th grade, Logan 2nd grade

All in a Day

Just when I think one day can't be any fuller than the day before, I wake up and begin a new one.  I was surprised at how full yesterday was for our family; emotionally, physically and spiritually. We started off the day with Logan's football pictures. It's always more than just going to take pictures or another practice. Its about people, being available to talk, recognizing hurt, caring for the brokenness, and just plain hanging out with some new friends.  Everyone has a story and I pray that I am available when someone is ready to share theirs.  After the pictures we cruised quickly to Hershey to pick up a dresser that I have been looking for since the move. We dropped Logan off at the house then Billy and I went to meet Janice a sweet lady who has contacted us through emails about wanting to know more about our ministry and Redeeming Grace.
Billy and I spent a little over an hour talking with Janice and my heart ached as this woman of God shared with us the depravity of spiritual presence in the area she lives (about 20 minutes away from us).  Her testimony of reading the bible for hours each day and not having a sound church to plug into throughout her life was heart wrenching. Although we are here in Harrisburg, PA my mind struggles to comprehend that someone in the US does not have a solid biblical church to attend. Janice shared a story about asking her husband to take her to Washington, DC (about an hour or two away) to church for her birthday....this was her gift. Her gift was to attend a church that had sound doctrine while worshiping with like minded people. (we are very thankful to have support locally with a few area churches)  I realized at this meeting that the people who are here and desire a solid bible teaching church to attend need encouragement, they need prayer, they need support, they need people. They need more laborers.

After we left the meeting we headed home to prepare for our first home bible study. We hadn't anticipated starting a formal gathering so soon but we felt The Lord was leading us to begin now.  We certainly felt the Lord's leading and prompting when we had  people asking and making comments like "when do you meet"? "When is your bible study?"  "When is your first service?" "I don't have a bible", "I don't understand the bible", "my church closed it's doors", "I haven't been to church in years". Billy and I prayed and decided that we would start a bible study in our home for our family and invite people to come along with us to study. It never hurts to study the bible as a family right? So we printed our little invitations and handed out about 3-4 to people that have specifically asked about coming. We had a few respond very positively and a neighbor and her daughter showed up to eat tacos and study the bible with our family.

We started studying the book of John inductively, verse by verse. The questions started and clarity filled the room with the gospel, the good news. We quickly realized that we had to adjust our wording on a number of things as we talked about what the scriptures said.  We didn't realize how we can complicate the simplicity of the gospel with such "churchy" words.

As I looked around the living room, I couldn't think of any other place I would rather be, to see our children taking notes, reading the scripture, praying for each other and to have a neighbor excited to take home a new bible, her very first one in a translation she could understand.

Maddy and Logan watching our neighbor walk over to our house.

We started in the book of John walking through  verse by verse. Many questions were asked and many words were defined. The gospel, the good news was presented. God has called us to share the good news. However, its not up to us who accepts the invitation to the bible studies or who chooses to make eternal decisions. We are called to sow and water, its The Lord that causes the growth. That part is out of our hands....praise the Lord!

The kids participated and followed along. We were asked to do another study this week before Maddy's friend goes back home to NY. 

When I woke up Sunday morning, I looked across my living room and I am so thankful for open bibles that were left all across the couch. I don't mind so much this kind of "mess" in my living room.

NOT stopped movin!!!

Our feet have not stopped moving since we pulled in with the moving truck four weeks ago. We have had steady company with us since the move. We had a team come up from Faith the week after we moved and they served us and the community. We were encouraged as the team was able to see the vision first hand and witnessed God's movement in this area. Billy was invited to give a gospel presentation at a sports camp in Enola one evening, and we will have a team coming at the end of Aug. from Appalachian Outreach Ministries who will work with us to distribute book bags and school supplies to families in our school district.
Recently, our living room served as a counseling area for a family in our neighborhood going through a tough situation. We had the opportunity to open our home and love on the family.  Yesterday Billy went to the DMV office and started a conversation with a lady who was very excited to meet someone starting a Baptist Church in the area and to come to find out she lives on our street and said she could walk to our house to join us for Bible Study. We have also had 3 emails inquiring about where our church was located because people want to be a part.  Everyday we seem to have a story about how the Lord is moving in this area and where he has planted our family

We have been diligent in trying to learn the culture and The Lord continues to teach me that despite the culture HE is bigger and HE has put us in a specific place for HIS specific plan.  We pray that we will be Holy Spirit driven as we become part of the Susquehanna Township community. We pray for friendships to be built quickly but ultimately they will become friends of Jesus.
Here are a few pics of recent events, enjoy!

This is the team from Faith Baptist, our home church in Youngsville NC. We had a great week and we were so encouraged by their visit. This is a  picture with the principal at Logan's school. We cleaned and planted flowers around the school. (there is a video of this group on Facebook under Reedmening Grace Group and also on my page)

Here is our house. We enjoy the front swing and spend a lot of time meeting neighbors as they pass by on the sidewalk walking dogs or exercising.

We have spent a little time exploring our new community. This was taken at "city island" a few miles from our house.

The Shay's came to visit one weekend. They are all gathered around to watch their favorite music artist,  Lecrae on the computer.

Billy was invited to give a gospel presentation at a sports camp across the river from us. This area doesn't have a local church to follow up with families that attend the outreach sports camp. We met a few families and connected with one in particular whose daughter played softball and was a pitcher. Most of you know that I was a pitcher and this was a treat to go watch her play in a tournament the next day.

 

We went to watch the Harrisburg Senators our local minor league team one evening.

Evelyn, the kids' cousin came up to visit from York and spent time playing together.

Billy's mom came to visit from VA for a few days. "Nana" was glad to see all her grandchildren spending time together.  It was good to hang out with Kelly and Evy for the evening.

This is Maddy's new friend, she has spent some time playing at our this week while she visits her grandmother, our neighbor.

Here are Ines and her mom Tanya. We all laughed at the kids dancing in the living room while storms rolled through the area.

It's football time in PA!!! Logan is so excited to be on the field again. The cool thing about this area is all these boys you see in this picture will all go to the same school. Logan is meeting lots of new kids and it will be nice for him to know a handful of boys before school starts in a few weeks.  Meanwhile, I am lovin meeting new moms and watching the boys practice.

He just can't get enough! This was the first day of wearing pads. Logan had his helment on at 7am that morning ready to play football.

Some of the High School players have been at practice this week watching and they nicknamed Logan

"Hulk" because he is a hard hitter and runner.

Logan is giving Billy all he has in a defensive drill.

Group huddle, boys are learning more than just football on the field.

Go Indians!

Grandma & Granddaddy also came to visit for a few days. We went non-stop sight seeing in Lancaster, Hershey and outlet shopping.

We now have a couple week break before any more visitors arrive.  We are looking forward to relaxing and exploring some more while we continue to connect with our friends and neighbors.  It has been great having so many people come to visit and everyone who has left has said how it is evident The Lord is doing great things here already.  We are all excited to see how that will continue and so thankful to be a part of it.