Church of the Spilled Blood

I have mentioned that mom and I went to Europe in May. You’ve already heard my luggage woes, but there was so much more to the adventure than that.

When we were finally on our trip, I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around all of the history, the culture, the beauty of what we were seeing.

…Look over here, remnants of the Berlin Wall!

…Sure, let’s eat reindeer for lunch in Helsinki!

…Ahhh, I can’t believe we are standing right in front of original Van Goghs and Picassos and Rembrandts in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg!

And the churches, oh, the churches…they are everywhere and they are amazing. The one I was most excited to visit is the Church of the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, and it did not disappoint.  The entire inside is built out of teeny-tiny mosaic tiles. Here is what it looks like upclose.

And here is what all those teeny-tiny tiles look like all together.

It was breath-taking, beautiful, overwhelming. I kept thinking of the patience required by the artisans who created it in the first place. How were they able to take all those little bits of color and create such magnificent panoramas?

It wasn’t until I got home from our trip that the Lord reminded me that while it may be nice to visit The Church of the Spilled Blood, I AM THE CHURCH OF THE SPILLED BLOOD, every single day of my life. And you are too.

I Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

God is the master artisan who is creating the mosaics of our lives. He is the one piecing it all together, all of our experiences, all of our heartaches, all of our joys…they really can come together to create something beautiful. Through the blood of Jesus, we get to be the ones who house His presence, allowing Holy Spirit to illuminate us from the inside out.

My pray for us today is simply this, that when others get around us, they would feel that they had visited the true Church, the one where Jesus is seen and Holy Spirit is felt.

Long Overdue

We have just seen two full years at Kingsview Community Church (www.kvcommunitychurch.com) come and go. To be honest, it doesn’t even seem real that we have been senior pastors for that long already. I still feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of it all, but so honored to be part of such a wonderful community of people that love Jesus tremendously and care for each other deeply.

This fall promises to be the most exciting season yet during our tenure as pastors at Kingsview, and I just have to get some of my heart’s excitement out on paper, er, keyboard…

We are currently anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new children’s ministry pastor Heidi Jarrett and her husband Paul. They are right now in the process of closing up their life in Calgary, Alberta, in order to make the long trek east to Stoney Creek, Ontario to pour into the Kingsview kinds. At this point all I can say is… they cannot get here soon enough!

This past Sunday morning was our official fall launch, complete with a “chowtime” lunch afterwards. Poor Jeff…on Saturday night he seemed a little mope-y as he kept hearing from people that were not going to be able to be in attendance, and he definitely wanted the service to feel like a “Launch” and not a “Toss” into the fall! He didn’t have anything to worry about…there were 180+ in attendance!!!

The Women’s ministry just kicked off this past Tuesday night with our once-a-month Ladies Night Out. I told the ladies that the theme for our upcoming year is “Rest a Minute”. Sometimes we forget to breathe and take care of ourselves, and just enjoy each other…We hope to do that this year. When Jesus said in John 10:10 that He had come to give us abundant, full lives, I am pretty sure what he had in mind was different than the way we seem to be interpreting it. We often seem to think that this means to cram as much as we possibly can into each day, only to be in a frantic, hurried state all the time. We need to learn to live freely and lightly (Matt 11:28-29 Message).

This upcoming Monday 41 Women of all ages are launching into a 10 week Bible study, “Esther” by Beth Moore. AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I have been wanting to start a Bible study for 2 years and now is the right time, obviously. I would have been thrilled if 10 ladies had said “Yes” to feeding their spirits through an in-depth Bible study. I am now quite sure that the Lord is trying to teach me to have a little more faith! God’s Word is going to come alive in our lives, and I know it’s going to be sharp at times, penetrating at times, and definitely illuminating in our innermost places (Hebrews 4:12). Holy Spirit, do your work in us…ready or not, here we come!

On top of our monthly meetings and Bible study, we also have scheduled Saturday, October 23rd to be a one day, “Day Away”, appropriately entitled “Breathe” for all the Ladies. Then Saturday night, November 27th will be a wonderful concert with Mandisa and night out.

I could go on and on about all that is happening right now at the church…This upcoming Sunday is a Water Baptism Sunday…. The Marriage Small Group is running strong again with around 15 couples strengthening their marriages…. The Men’s ministry is  meeting weekly for times of accountability and growth (I have never been invited to these meetings, however, so I can’t say for sure what actually is going on there! HA!), and is also looking to start a focused Bible study in the near future…Worship ministry is going strong, Volunteerism is up…see, on and on!

Thank you, Jesus, for the last two years of ministry and relationships at Kingsview…and thank you in advance for all that is to come!

Frightening

Occassionally, ok, more than occassionally, my kids say things that cause my jaw to drop open and leave me completely speechless/stunned/or hysterically laughing. I hope you’ll enjoy the following two snippets of our lives which provided me with much enjoyment this past week…

Mykah received her first Barbie doll for Christmas.  Now, you should know that I was a Barbie-girl growing up. My sister and I had the big Barbie houses, cars, boats, and more clothes and accessories for our dolls than we had in our own closets upstairs. Yes, it’s true, we had so much Barbie stuff, that we  had a whole room in the basement just for our Barbies. (Dad,if you’re reading this, any chance I could get a picture to post of our Barbie shrine?)

Anyway, there is once again a Barbie in my house. Mykah calls it her “Darbie”, not because can’t say her “b’s”, but because she was convinced that “Darbie” was what she was called.

She was sitting at the table last week, staring at Darbie, and I began to hear her calling out Barbie’s body parts with the word “beautiful” in front…”beautiful eyes. beautiful lips. beautiful eyebrows. beautiful hair. beautiful arms.” and  so on. Then – “beautiful boobs”.   WHAT!?!?!    

Another day she told me that I’m just like Darbie because I have boobs, but that she doesn’t have boobs. I’m sure I am not the first parent of a two year old girl to have to discuss boobs with my girl, but I find it strange nonetheless! She is also randomly telling people that she doesn’t have boobs or that she will have boobs when she grows up. All in all, I think I should have stuck to My Little Ponies for Christmas…I would rather explain why she doesn’t have  4 legs and a pink mane!

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Carter and I passed a church while I was driving the other day. He pointed it out and I told him that was the church our neighbors attend. He told me that we should go there one Sunday, just once. I told him that we couldn’t because we have our own church, and people would miss us if we weren’t there. He thought about this only briefly, then, “We could pretend to be sick.”

Ummm, how about no!

Flooded or aka, I love my Carter – Part 2

I didn’t get the memo. You know, the one about how summer in Ontario was being replaced with rain and floods.

see this link for the visual…http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/video2/newflooded/

On Sunday, it started downpouring during Jeff’s sermon. In the lobby afterwards, I was telling people that it would be ok with me if they wanted to drive right through the lobby to pick up their families! (Have I mentioned that I don’t think our church knows quite what to make of me yet!?) I then had to transfer carseats from Katie’s car to my truck in the deluge. To make matters worse, Mykah must have kicked the back window crank open that morning because she ended up with one extremely wet seat.

The rain lets up slightly just as Jeff exits the church. (Is it possible that God really does like him better?)

I agree to drive home, but am quickly regretting that decision as we descend down the Red Hill Parkway. It is flooded. Water is gushing across the road all the way down to the QEW. I found myself clenching the steering wheel, as if my white knuckles would procure better traction for my tires.

We finally merge onto the QEW and I start breathing a bit more normally.

Then Carter in a very somber voice speaks out from behind me…

“God is going to flood the whole earth.”