Celebration of a Life That is Changed!

On Palm Sunday we had a fantastic celebration service at Redeeming Grace Church. I am excited for my friend who was baptized along with a neighbor and Elijah, the Shay's son.  There is no way to adequately explain God's faithfulness in the details with how these lives were changed. 
To see God's faithfulness in our lives is overwhelming to me.  It was only a few short weeks ago that my friend and I met and began conversations about life.  She began coming to Bible Study on Sunday nights and soon after professed Jesus as her Savior and Lord.  She has quickly become a dear friend and I am so excited to walk along this journey with her.  Isaac, our neighbor who was baptized has been a faithful attender of our weekly bible study since the very beginning.  He has become a fixture at our house and has adopted us as his second home even though all the boys bounce back and forth from his house and ours.  He asked Jesus to be his savior a few weeks ago after a bible study one Sunday and immediately wanted to get baptized.  So here are  a few clips and pictures from the baptism service.

We are so thankful for our new brothers and sister in Christ. The first step of obedience for a person who accepts Jesus as Savior is Baptism.  Baptism is a rich symbol, publicly proclaiming the decision made to accept Jesus Christ as Savior.  The water is not what saves the person, but is a symbol of what has been done in the heart and an important way of professing one's faith in Christ.   Romans 6:3-4 says, "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
Salvation is a gift of God, not something we can achieve on our own. (Romans 12:3). Baptism is a gift to the Church to allow the faithful a means of expressing their faith and gratitude for God's redemptive work.  Baptism is a walk of obedience to Christ after accepting the free gift of Salvation. As Jesus was baptized by John in the River Jordan, we follow Jesus' example when we accept the Lord as our Savior.
Matthew 28:19-20 "Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Cross references:

1. Romans 6:3 : Matt 28:19
2. Romans 6:3 : Acts 2:38; 8:16; 19:5; Gal 3:27
3. Romans 6:4 : Col 2:12
4. Romans 6:4 : Acts 2:24; Rom 6:9
5. Romans 6:4 : John 11:40; 2 Cor 13:4
6. Romans 6:4 : Rom 7:6; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 4:23f; Col 3:10

Running the water hose for the baptistery

All hands on deck getting set up!

The Camp Curtin YMCA gym being transformed into church.

Here is a shot of the friends and family who showed up to celebrate along with us. As I look at all the precious people the Lord has woven in our lives I just don't have words to express the depth of joy it brings. We pray our bible study groups will continue to grow so we can soon gather together for worship each week. God is faithful.

Billy is introducing the gang and explaining Baptism. God is faithful.

These two young ladies blessed our time of worship with song.  Their hearts are so tender and are pursuing the Lord. God is faithful.

Pizza and hanging out after the service. God is faithful.

It is privilege to have all these ladies as neighbors. God is faithful.

The crew with the pastors. God is faithful.

While the lives being changed are personal and the connections are deep for both us and the Shays, we are excited about how God is building His church here in Harrisburg.  It is impossible for both our our families to separate life and ministry and for that we are all thankful.  God is faithful in the lives of all the people we have met and we are excited to watch His faithfulness continue as lives are changed for His glory.

No Chores

Yep, It's Friday and usually I put up chores in preparation for Saturday morning, however not this weekend! I went down with the stomach bug almost 2 days this week and welp, the house took a hit. Company is coming this weekend and really even when I felt better, I allowed myself to let go of the usual frantic pace of preparing and cleaning for the weekend. With a busy weekend ahead and a lot on the conversation bucket list with Billy. He quickly planned a night out on the fly for time to catch up. Out we went to a great new local restaurant in midtown Harrisburg, Crawdaddy's. We had a very nice evening, not to mention we had a connection with the owners of the local restaurant. An encouragement indeed when they asked "Did you move to H'burg for work?" (always with a puzzled facial expression)  I love that question. A perfect opportunity to share why we are here in Harrisburg. Her response, you said.... "Redeeming Grace Church" ohh yeah I have heard of that church and the conversation filtered through one of the service projects at the YMCA. How cool is that folks?  What an encouragement to be knitted into a community and to be a part...truly be part of the thread of the community. That is totally the work of the Lord. When Billy and I came home the kids were in bed and the house cleaned. Yes cleaned.   Was it perfect? Nope. Did they work with integrity and love? Yep. The moment any parent absorbs and savors. Now, if I can only remember this moment when the next teaching opportunity comes.

Crawdaddy's Restaurant in Midtown Harrisburg, be sure to check them out!

This is usually the chore chart but not today!

Here is the Chore Chart today......

Basketball to Baseball to Artsy

This was Maddy's last week of Basketball. All the girls improved during the season. Maddy was invited to participate in a select basketball team this summer but we have not made that decision yet. We enjoyed crossing paths with some familiar people from other sports and meeting new faces in the community. Totally excited to have met some ladies that live just a street over from our house.

 You certainly don't have to teach these girls to be aggressive. There were some games I thought they should have put on football pads to keep everyone safe. The league spent a lot of energy focusing on the fundamentals of the game which we liked a great deal.

Billy had a great time coaching this year and getting to know the girls. This age is so fun, they listen and are eager to learn. Maddy showed much character in persevering through a foot injury without many complaints.

 On to the baseball field. Logan is improving on the pitching mound. In PA they do kid pitch for his age group so this will be an adjustment to see the ball thrown at you (yes literally most of the time) by a kid. I must say, we landed on a great team. Lots of great coaching and knowledge of the game.

He is learning all the techniques for pitching in baseball. He is gaining speed and becoming more accurate each time on the mound. Yes, I am a proud momma.

Breanna usually has some sort of art project she is working on from, charcoal, acrylic, water colors etc. here are just a few that I had pictures of on my computer.

When I hear Breanna's record player turn on, (yes, a real record player) I know we will soon see some fresh new art work appear. 

Bargain Room field trip

I attend a mom's in touch prayer group once a week and a few of the ladies and I shared a common interest and that is Bargain Shopping! One thing lead to another and we had a field trip planned in no time at all to the large Bargain bin store in Lancaster. I know, I know it might creep some of you out however I love to find a deal and more than that I love the time hanging out with some neat ladies! We had a fun time digging, laughing, chatting and getting to know one another more.

This is our crew that went on our bargain shopping field trip. My sides hurt from all the laughing. Good times for sure and I look forward in our next outing.

Yep, we all found stuff. I mean come on really you can't turn down good deals right?

Video of the RGC Playground Restoration at Camp Curtin School

Yes, it has been very busy the past few weeks however I wanted to make sure I posted this video of the Camp Curtin Playground Project in case you missed it on Facebook or the RGC website.

The write up and video are on the Redeeming Grace web page under the "Serve HBG" tab or click here.

We had a great time serving along side the group from Faith as well as friends and neighbors who joined us.  Here is the video that was put together after the event.

Camp Curtin Playground Project from Redeeming Grace Church on Vimeo.

You can certainly see a small glimpse of the fun we all had over the weekend. We have watched this video several times, and it cracks me up every time! 

Faith & RGC Camp Curtin Outtakes from Redeeming Grace Church on Vimeo.

¹ Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.
² Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
³ Know that the LORD ^[b]Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and ^[c]not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

⁴ Enter His gates with ^[d]thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
⁵ For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100

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Registration

Papers, Papers, Papers! Wowzers. Well, at least this time it is only one set of papers and for the last time to fill out the sea of papers to enter school. The school district is pretty small, which I like a lot.  The lady who helped us register the other 3 kids last summer remembered me and asked how all the children were doing and how they transitioned this year to their new schools. I appreciated that and thought it was very nice to be in a small district that it is so personal.  The registration process today was very organized and an exciting experience (for Olivia). Olivia wanted to take her book bag this morning and asked for lunch money as we were leaving the house, she was totally ready to go and stay at big school. (Me, not so much, but her eagerness and excitement makes it easier to process having an empty house during the day this fall)

They had a variety of stations. No one appeared to be in a hurry & the helpers/teachers really seemed like they were enjoying this process and paid special attention to each child as if they were the only one in the room.

 

 Olivia had the opportunity to observe a classroom and to sit on the big bus. The bus driver talked with  the kids about bus safety and a few rules, he also gave them a coloring book. Olivia was ready to go for a ride and wanted to ride on the bus with Logan. Unfortunately this won't happen next year either since Logan will go to a different school for 3-5 graders (with Maddy). So, Olivia will be alone as she travels on the bus for Kindergarten. sigh...okay. We will just cross that bridge in the fall.

Sunshine, flip-flops and the count down

Olivia and I made it back safely from FL. We drove 17 straight hours on the trip down but on the way back stopped in VA overnight and then made the rest of the trip. We went with a friend of ours that lives in PA & whose parents live near mine. She has a little girl the same age as Olivia. The girls did great, better than I could have ever thought two kids would do riding in a car that long. They played with barbies, colored, played their Leapsters and played on our phones. Well lets just say I learned my lesson about allowing Olivia to play the "free" games on my iPhone.  They are not so free after she clicked upgrades within the games racking up over $125 worth of games! Apple was kind enough to remove the charges and we changed the settings to no longer allow in app upgrades.

Here are a few pictures of the journey and the week with my parents.

 

The girls looked forward to Mindy leading exercises whenever we stopped.  Seriously these girls played non-stop. Laughing most of the trip and only asked a few times "when will we be there?"

Olivia loved going out in the evening to hit golf balls with granddaddy. She is still talking about this and how big their back yard was (she doesn't understand they live on a golf course) Also, my parents live in a community that drives golf carts around their community. They have golf cart parking at Wal-mart and the grocery stores.

 We stayed busy all week, going to the State Fair, strawberry picking, manatee watching, going to the zoo, shopping, going to a sea food festival, taking a tour at my parents community with all the activities they keep very busy with during the week. We had such a good time talking and catching up and spoiling my little "sweet pea" to the core!

I just love this picture, My dad is pointing at fish in the tank.

It was great to catch up with some friends in the area. Small world we live in!  Met up with Angela and Dale for lunch. It was nice to sit and talk & so good to hug their necks. Also, one of my friends from High School, Emily lives very close to my parents. It was so sweet to sit and catch up as if time had never passed by.

We took off one day to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa

I think he wanted lunch!

Not a good idea to get in the way of this little fella

We got so close to the animals at the Zoo. We stayed at the zoo  all day and walked a lot. Olivia studied each and every exhibit...we just might have another animal lover in our home besides Maddy.  

One of her favorite moments at the Zoo!

She was like.... "Mom, for real??" It's winter time and we are in bathing suits?

After a week of shorts, flip-flops and sand we are excited spring is only 

18 days away,

2 weeks 4.654days

26862 minutes

1.612x10^6 seconds

...but really who is keeping track?