Unscheduled

Places to go, things to do. people to meet... those are the things that fill my Outlook reminders but sometimes the most important things are not scheduled.
One busy day this week after
 √ phone chat with my bestie in Canada
 √ breakfast with a friend
 √ ministry meeting
  I was driving home talking to my cousin (hands free phone, of course,) when I spotted someone that seemed out of place, a young man, shirtless walking in 100° weather near my home. I live in the desert and the direction he was heading in held no real destinations for many miles so I told my cousin I'd call her back, and  I pulled over on the dusty 2 lane highway...
Me: "Are you doing ok?" I wanted to get a  peek at his eyes so I could tell a little bit about him...
J: "Yes, I am ok," with a friendly shy smile.
Me: Where are you heading?
J: Not far, just to the 5 fwy.
Me: That's a long way from here buddy, I'll give you a ride, hop in.
J: hesitated
Me: If you were my son, I would hope someone would stop and pick him up and give him a ride...

I reached out to hand him a bottled water, but he had already found one in the seat pocket and paused from gulping to smile at me. He was headed a lot farther than the 5, his phone GPS said he had 17 hours of walking ahead of him. He agreed that a train ticket might be a better idea. As I drove him to the Santa Clarita station we talked about his future dreams and goals, his family roots in Haiti, how God has a plan to bless him. Like today, when he started walking at 6 am, God put him right at my offramp, as I was pulling up at 12pm.
Before we said good-bye I got to pray with him, and give him a little something that would help him on his way.
I pray for myself and my family every day that the Lord will place us exactly where we are suppose to be, just like he did for "J" and me today. Sometimes the most important things are not scheduled but ordained by our Master Planner!

What season is this?

January of this year started my journey of transition, leaving behind my career at Gospel Light and stepping into what? I didn't know for sure. People would ask, "What is God saying?" at first I said He was quiet, but as I sought Him more, I found He wasn't quiet at all. He was speaking loud and clear, through His word. There was one catch, I had to be in it to hear Him.

This morning I woke up with the verse' "He is the Lord of the harvest," on my mind. And when I went to read my bible there was the verse 2x in the passages for today. Matthew 9:37 "He said to his disciples, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his field."  Then I looked out my window to my empty garden plot, not even any soil. I thought have I missed the season for planting and reaping? God says there is a great harvest, and I believe him!

Where are you in your journey? It may look impossible to get a harvest this late in the season, but with God all things are possible. Our life is full of opportunities to share the loving kindness of the Lord, after all that is what draws us to him. I am challenged to be sent into the field the Lord has given me, family, friends, neighbors, strangers, are you?

Gotta go now and get some good soil and plant seeds, later friends!

Anything I can do, my kids can do better...

This past week I worked at the CPC San Diego, it's the premium kids ministry leaders event for the West Coast. Only one thing could make it more exciting and that is having Lisa there as part of the Gospel Light team. There is an old Annie Oakley song " Anything you can do, I can do better." Well I have a twist on that, "Anything I can do, my kids can do better." Most of the things I love to do my kids have surpassed me in thier abilities and they are all still growing. Isn't that how it should be? Some parents want thier kids to exceed them in some way, financial, prestige, titles, education, and that is ok. But I am most excited to see my kids live out thier God given gifts and bring Him glory in that. I was so proud of Lisa, she is the expert in all things regarding kids ministry, loving kids to Jesus, helping them develop relationships with the Lord through her leadership, amazing writing skills and gracious to the inth degree. Working side by side with her this week as she enjoyed helping ministry leaders find thier way to resources that will be a tool to use as they pursue thier vision to reach the next generation, just made me smile all week. She is so much better than me and I am truely ok with that!!

Help for broken hearts

This week I am on the road in Orlando Fl, working at the METRO conference. While I am working, I also get to sit in on many of the great workshops. Today one of the topics was "Broken Families." The speaker asked, who had been touched by divorce, either their parents, their marrages or thier children's marriages? Looking around the room people raised their hands as did I, but I noticed they dropped their eyes, obvioulsy saddened by the memories of what that had meant in their families." Our focus today was on kids, kids who are torn between warring parents and living in two different worlds and how as the church we can embrace them. My parents divorced when I was a young child, I still recall vividly the pain of  siding with one parent over another. I think now about the precious kids in my extended family and in my Sunday School classes and know the answer to my broken heart was learning about the love of Jesus. The faithfulness of Jesus to mend our relationship to the Father led Him to the cross, and taught me to trust again, and He will do the same for them. 

"But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims,

A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people

telling all the good things of God!" Romans 10:14-15

Weekend with Chloe day 1

This is my first weekend to babysit Chloe, I have been so excited about the sweet times that we will share together. Life with Chloe is alot different than with my own kids. Basically I was always on thier schedule, and since they were too little to know much, it was pretty random, anytime my kids would cry which was not often except for Laura :O, Eldon would yell, "feed them, they are obviously starving!"

Not so with Chloe, her mom and dad extroidanaire have her on this handy dandy schedule. When to eat & nap which is the basics of baby life. Last night she slept all night, so quiet that I checked her 4x just to make sure she was ok. So my kids didn't sleep all night until past the walking stage... I remember Bobby climbing out of his crib and going down stairs in the middle of the night (pitch black) and I could hear him yelling, "Maaaaaaa!" Chloe would never, she has a schedule!!

What is not on the scedule is my favorite parts, singing Jesus loves you songs, looking out the window (she loves trees), tea parties with Chloe and her stuffed puppy and watching her strum the banjo with her grandpa. You can't schedule those kinds of priceless moments together, they are an absolute gift. Did I tell you she wakes up singing the sweetest sound you'd ever hear.... gotta go now, Chloe has a schedule and I am gonna keep it :D

Sweeter as the years go by!

Have you ever heard of the book, "Sex starts in the Kitchen?" well it's not what you think. It's about how in marriage romance begins with little kindnesses like washing the dishes, or just helping out with everyday things that need to get done. Valentines day is kind of the same thing for us, Eldon shows his love in his everyday extravagant thoughtfulness.

This Valentines day we had our taxes done in the afternoon and yes you can squeeze blood out of a turnip (in case you are wondering) apparently we didn't pay our fair share...boo! But after that we had a lovely dinner with our besties the Harts, fun banter between the boys and us girls yap, yap, yapping about our awesome kids, and what Jesus is working in our hearts.

We ended our evening, just the 2 of us. Eldon plunking on his new banjo and me sitting next to him reading a book about teaching Sunday School, now that has the makings of a love story that will go the distance. This was our 37th Valentines together and they do get sweeter as the years go by.

Who am I today

I wear so many titles but my favorites are "wifey, mom ."" and my newest is
"grandma." This weekend I was "mom of the new Pastors at the Gathering Place."

There have been times in the past 2 months where just the thought of this new title has made me break out into spontaneous tears for no reason and other times with I am just giddy with delight. This weekend was the latter of the two.

Just driving into Folsom and remembering the more than 20 years of this being one of our vacation destinations of the year, we'd ususally arrive about 2 am in the morning, our 3 sweetbabies quietly sleeping in the backseat, all leaning on eachother. We were always greeted with a sign on the door from Amber which read something like "Welcome Keys, we are so excited you are here," and an unlocked door to the loveliest of homes, the Jones.
In many ways this stay had the same feel, knowing we'd be greeted with genuine love and needing nothing more than just to be together, share stories, dreams, laugh, play, and hugs goodbye.

But this visit had a very special agenda, to see our Bobby & Becky step up to the pulpit and take on the mantle of Sr Pastors of Phil and Donna's beloved flock at the Gathering Place. Like a mom who is waiting eagerly for her child to step across the platform and take thier graduation cert and handshake, all I could think of is when will he speak and what has the Lord given him to say?

Finally, Pastor Bobby began to speak, seems like yesterday he was the kid that I scolded for almost not passing English in his senior year, now speaking with conviction, grace and under the authority of the Holy Spirit. Then all too soon it was time for us to leave but this time hugging Becky and my Bob.....sniff, sniff