Peace. Where does it come from? How does one obtain it? Is peace that passeth all understanding even a possibility in the world we live in today? And even when you get some peace, what does that mean?

So where does peace come from and how does one obtain it? In my humble opinion peace comes from the Peace-Giver. Has money or the pursuit of things or family or friends ever brought anyone peace? If you’re dealing with people, then conflict is going to arise, which is the OPPOSITE of peace. Peace comes from a source outside of ourselves. It comes when we trust. Trust who or what? When we trust the Peace-Giver.

Peace has come up a lot in the last couple of weeks. The thing about it is, when you have peace it’s great and when you don’t, life pretty much stinks and is just a big ball of confusion. Personally, I don’t like it when my life feels like a big ball of confusion. But does anybody?

In the past when I have lived with the big ball of confusion, I lived with it for a while. Searching for answers from everybody and anybody, taking on the opinions of others instead of making my own, and most importantly, not seeking out the One who gives peace.

I have found as I have gotten older and continue to mature spiritually that I depend less and less on what others think and am able to take advice, counsel, or whatever you would like to call it and think critically about it. But the main thing I have learned since…probably leaving for Italy… is to ask God and to seek His face and what He wants from me. And the great thing about that is when I have prayed and searched out what God wants from me, after I have an answer from Him, I cannot be swayed. I have peace. I have a peace that doubt or fear cannot penetrate. That, in itself, is peaceful.

So what does this look like in the unrestful world we live in? The best example I have for my own self is that at this moment I am trying to find a job. I have too many applications out to keep track of and have not heard anything back in weeks. A music education degree is about as good a bible degree in the secular world. And although I have no idea how things will work out by the time the new baby arrives financially, God does. So, I’m ok with not having a job. I am going to continue to do my part in finding one, but ultimately I am trusting the He knows our needs and He will provide for them. With that trust and knowledge comes peace.

So how do you find peace? Where are you looking for rest in an unrestful world? Where, in what or in whom do you put your trust, which leads to peace?

Corn…a delightful food that comes in many forms. Corn pudding, creamed corn, whole kernel, Mexicorn. Lily likes corn on the cob though. I think if she could she’d eat the cob. She just naws the poor thing until there is nothing left but a nubby stub that slightly resembles what used to be corn on the cob.

We have discovered that Lily really, really likes water. We already knew she liked the camera, but water might trump the camera. For proof, please see the pictures below.

Do you need more proof?

The newest member of our family is going to be a BOY!! We’re pretty sure his first name will be Caleb. Due date is still November 23. I reckon I’ll make turkey and sweet potato casserole the week before. Maybe I can get a turkey for cheaper.

We sang the “God of this City” by Chris Tomlin today at church today. I really like the song and thought I’d share the lyrics with you.

As we sang this today, I found myself thinking not of Winston-Salem, but of Napoli, the city that was home to me for three years. My eyes filled with tears as I thought about the 4 million people living there, most of whom don’t know they have a wonderful Savior who gave up everything for them.
I’m not saying I think the people in Napoli are any more lost than the ones right here in Winston-Salem, but my heart is still broken for that city and probably always will be because a little bit of me will always be there. There is something incredibly powerful about standing on top of San Elmo Castle and looking down at a sea of apartment buildings that are filled with an ocean of people. For that lostness, I weep…I cry out…I hope that God will move and use a country that saw some of the first Christian churches so long ago become alive with the power of the Holy Spirit and experience a revolution of life change through Jesus Christ.

Lily hunting eggs

The 9 grandchildren and grandmomma…when did we grow up? I remember races and playing baseball in the yard.

Laying with Pop in the grass

Lily with cousins Faith, Elena and Isaiah

Me and Daddy walking turkey hunting.

A lot has happened since I was last able to blog. I’ll try to recap quickly…and also that I’d start with pictures.

1) We found out we were going to have another baby! YEAH! It was really exciting for about 2 weeks. Then….then….it hit. It was only slight nausea at first. But it slowly got worse until I was laid up in the bed or in the bathroom (I’ll spare the details of what was happening in the bathroom). After about a week or so I decided it was silly for me to be sick all day when I KNEW I could get a little pill that would make it all go away. I got said pill and said pill did not make it all go away. Much to my disappointment. So I have been laid up in the bed, more or less, until recently. A friend told me a couple of days ago, “You’re finally getting some color back.” I guess I don’t look quite like a zombie anymore.

2)We have moved to Winston-Salem, NC. We are currently staying at a mission house. In two weeks we will move to another mission house and then begin looking for a house to buy. Weird. I have never even bought a car…or a washing machine for that matter. Now I will soon be buying a house. At least I hope soon. I refuse to unpack my suitcase because I refuse to have to repack my suitcase in a short amount of time.

3)Paul is loving his job as the missions pastor of Revo Church. He led his first mission project last Saturday and I think it went pretty well from the people I talked to. He is so happy with what he is doing…he’s busy, but so happy, and that makes me happy.

4)Lily has taken to crossing her arms. She just walks around like that. Sometimes when she’s waiting on me she’ll do it too. She has also finally gotten some more teeth. I was really concerned about that for a while. And she has fallen for baby dolls. Maybe it has something do to with us telling her there is a baby in mommy’s tummy.

Sunday, February 27 at 10:30 Revo church launched it’s first service. Yes, we’ve had three preview services, but this one….this was it. The pastors, several of the staff, and some volunteers started at 6:30 a.m. to load a huge U-Haul trailer with all our equipment. At 7:00, more volunteers and staff showed up to help unload the U-Haul at the Milton Rhodes Center For the Arts, where we are having services. By 9:30, the place had been transformed.

Worship was great, the sermon was great. There were about 280 people there, about 40% or so being donors or family.

We have to be out of the Center by 1:00 so immediately after the service people start tearing everything down and loading up the truck again.

It was so exciting to be there for the launch. So much time and sweat and tears had gone into everything leading up to that day. It was a great day, exhausting, but great. But out of everything I was a part of last during our week in NC, one thing stood out. And that was how well everyone worked together. We all had one goal and we all worked together to accomplish it. There was no bickering over doing it a different way. If someone needed help doing something, someone went and helped them. I also saw a lot of smiles while people were unloading a truck, putting a stage together, or taking down pipe and drape. Everybody was happy to be serving, happy to be doing what they were doing.

And I was excited to know that I am a part it…or soon will be.

Last week we made the long 11 hour drive up to Winston-Salem, NC, our soon-to-be new home. We had planned to leave Lily in MS with my parents because we had so much to do in NC that we could NOT get it done with her in tote.
So we started packing for the trip on Saturday, planning to leave early Sunday morning. We would stop in SC to see a friend and then head on up to NC on Monday morning. But because nothing goes according to plan none of that happened.

Lily, who had had an on and off fever, a leaky faucet for a nose and a little cough since the incredible four inches of snow a couple of weeks ago, had a 103.9 fever Saturday at 4:30 p.m. My first reaction…call my mom, who told me to call me friend Neeli who is an LPN. Neeli told us to take her to the ER.

I did not have high expectations for the ER. I’d heard horror stories, some of which have been experienced by members of my family, however, Lily was seen rather quickly and after blood test, a nose swab, and a chest x-ray the conclusion was that she had a mild case of pneumonia and an upper respiratory infection. She was given a shot and we were told to take her to her doctor on Monday.

Lily’s doctor was out Monday. So instead she saw a really nice LPN (not my friend Neeli), who told us that she also had an ear infection. WHAT?? We were also told that she did not need to be around other small children for 48 hours. My parents keep my 2 year old nephew so we went home to contemplate our trip and what to do. We really needed to go and by this time Lily was acting just fine, except for the nagging cough. So, after much consideration and a couple of doses of way to expensive antibiotic later, we loaded the car and left. My mom came and stayed with Lily at our house until the allotted time period had past and then took her to her house.

The thing that amazed me about all this was that immediately after we called Nathan and Russ (two of the pastors at the church in NC) a prayer email was sent out to all the people at REVO (that’s the name of the church, FYI). More than one person called or texted us Sunday and Monday. We are not even there yet and the men and women who make up REVO love us and pray for us. It was amazing how quick it happened.

I’ll keep posting more about our trip to NC. So check back in this week.

If you want to know more about REVO Church check out www.discoverREVO.com.

Tomorrow we are traveling to Winston-Salem, and we’ll be there for a week…without Lily. This will be the first time I have ever been away from her for longer than a few short hours. I’m already crying about it.
But don’t worry all you worry-warts, I”ll be fine…as will Lily. She is staying with my parents and hopefully will have some good bonding time with her slightly older cousin, Isaiah. They’ll either bond or I’ll come home to two small children who can’t stand to be in the same room with one another. Let’s all hope they bond.

So why are we leaving our baby for 8 long days? Reason #1 – Revo has its launch service on the 27th of this month!! YEAH!! It’s finally here! We are so excited. Then we remember that we have to come back here to finish fundraising so that we can actually be a part of everything that is going on up there.

Reason #2 – We have to find a place for our family to live. With all the other things we have to do to help for the launch service, we will have limited amount of time to do this. But we have a plan and I think we can get it done.

Reason #3 – To try to find a nice bank who would like to hold my money for without charging too much to do so and who will hopefully give me free checks.

Reason #4 – To do lots of other stuff that you don’t want to read about because you are probably bored by now anyway.

So thanks for reading this and please pray for us as we find a place to live, are apart from the most precious child I could ever have asked God to allow me to parent, and the church starts (that one is a huge praise and prayer request at the same time).

Trusting God. It can sometimes be a hard thing to do. For whatever reason I would question, doubt, have fear. Maybe it was because people in my life had left me disappointed, lied to, heartbroken, fearful, hurt, sad, or angry. Maybe it’s because at some point in my life I had made decisions that left me disappointed, lied to, heartbroken, fearful, hurt, sad, or angry.

Over the last few years in my life, especially the last year and a half I have learned to trust. Completely trust. That does not mean that I always like the things that I am asked to do, told to do, or led to do, but I do them because I trust that the God who has lead me this far in my life…who has always provided, always answered prayers, always been good, always forgiven me, always held me in His loving arms protecting and sheltering me…will never let me out of the palm of His hand. He loves me. I am His and He is mine. This is truth. This is why I can trust Him, more than any other. This is why when He says “Go, be a part of something new, in a place that you do not know, with people you do not know” I can say “Yes, sir.”

I say all this to tell you about how amazingly God is providing. Most of you know that we are in the process of raising our own support for the position Paul will be serving in North Carolina. Our salary with the IMB ended in December and we have not been able to draw anything from the support we have already raised yet. That being said, we have not gone without. People have given and I don’t just mean to our monthly support. I mean, randomly someone will give us $10 or $50.

I have yet to have a moment when I have thought, “How am I going to buy groceries?” God is always providing what we need.

So I daily have to make the choice to trust in the Lord with all my heart and I daily have to pray that I will not lean on my own understanding. Because in my own understanding our bank accounts shouldn’t balance, this move to North Carolina is nonsense, starting over again at almost 30 is absurd. But in trusting Him, it all makes perfect sense.