Our Epic Adventure Part I
"If you want to see crazy miracles, obey the crazy promptings of the Holy Spirit." -Mark Batterson "The Circle Maker"
Our Craziest Year Yet
About this time last year God had dropped an epic sized adventure on our laps called Ireland. We were trying to decide what road to take; the road that made sense, that we had planned for, that we had spent years in college working towards. Or this adventure of bringing his kingdom to earth through the Church in a country that we had only dreamed of seeing.
At the time we were making that decision we were already in a pretty crazy situation. I was living in San Antonio, Texas pursuing a child life internship and my husband was in Abilene, Texas finishing up his Master's of Marriage and Family Therapy. We were living apart and would be for three and a half months. We felt like we were doing the right thing despite the long distance marriage. We felt like we were taking one heck of a leap of faith.
AND then God had the audacity to make us choose a legacy defining decision, smack dab in the middle of our only communication being one hour of facetime each day. What I didn't get at the time is how amazingly good he was to do that. He was weeding out the distractions for us so that we could clearly hear and rely on his voice. What he was really asking us was,
"Do you trust me?"
"Do you really trust me?"
"Or, do you trust your plans for your life more?
We decided to trust him more than our own plans. And we ended up in the craziest, coolest, most epic adventure we have ever seen in the 23 and 24 years we've been on this earth.
"If you want God to surprise you, you have to give up control. You will lose a measure of predictability, but you will begin to see God move in uncontrollable ways."
-Mark Batterson "The Circle Maker"
It scares you half to death, to give up that control. It's scared me countless times in 2014. But to see God move uncontrollably in your life, in the Church, in the country your living in is WORTH IT.
Alive Church Advancement
During our crazy, scary, epic year the church we were being called to minister in was having one of its' own. The word that God had give them for the year of 2014 was advancement. That word was one God saw through in every part of Alive Church. It looked like this,
- Highest average weekly attendance in history of the church
- More new people came through the doors of this church than ever before
- More people were saved this year than ever before
- 6 people were baptized
- Alive Church began supporting 4 international ministries
- Alive Church sowed into 2 churches' building funds
- Two sets of missionaries came to help build up ministries in Alive Church (Stina Prim from January to August and James and I from September onward)
- We now have live worship for the first time in years
- Our youth group had the highest attendance ever
- SuperKids Camp (in partnership with Beltway Park Baptist Church) was the biggest it has ever been with 380 kids attending this past Summer
This is mostly numerical data I know, you'll have to look back and keep reading our blog for the personal testimonies. (Or your welcome to call us and ask, there are plenty we have on hand). But it does give a clear picture of what advancement looked like at Alive Church in 2014.
It's been an amazing year for Alive Church, the best one yet, but there is always more. For God is infinite and we are not. We get to keep diving in deeper to all that He is and all that He has for us on this side of Heaven. It's what the epic adventure is all about.
Touring Ireland with The Bass Family
James' parents and brother came to see us for 10 days and we got to show them around our neck of the woods. It was such a sweet time of connecting and making memories. Here's some of the places we got to see...
This is Vinegar Hill, it overlooks our town of Enniscorthy. Its' views are drop dead gorgeous on a clear sunny day! It's also the site of a very famous battle between the Irish rebels and the British military.
This is our new home here in Ireland. We were trying to be modest by not showing any pictures. Just kidding, I wish, it is Kilkenny Castle. It is even more grand on the inside.
Kilkenny is known for its' medieval structures. This is St. Canice Cathedral and it was built in the 6th century.
This may have been my favorite part of their trip. Stephen really wanted to climb a mountain while we were here in Ireland. So we found one for him in County Carlow, called Mount Leinster. These are the hills across from the mountain.
The views from Mount Leinster were out of this world!!! I was in awe.
Dublin, oh I how I love thee. James' parents and brother really loved it too. There were a lot of buscars (street performers) on Grafton Street for some entertainment.
This was Stephen's Greene Shopping Center, still lit up for the Christmas season.
This was at Trinity College, that campus is rich with history, cobblestone sidewalks, and majestic architecture.
Thank you friends, family, professors, internship supervisors, and partners in our mission to Ireland. You have paved a way for 2014 to go down the way it did and for all that is to come in 2015. We love you all so very much.
Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog post...