been forever…i know

So to all of you who still check blogs, here is an update.  I have barely sat down at the computer the last few weeks.  We have been ridiculously busy.  I’ll try to touch on the highlights

Paige and Jaime have two weeks of school left and then they will be free for the summer. They and we are very excited for this. I just plain old miss hanging out with them.  Everything has been so busy.

Ben is happily working managing his new store.  His employees are wonderful and he has even found a few Christians in the mix. He invited the assistant manager from the store across the street to visit our church and she came last week with her whole family!  It was really cool. He has been on call alot, and we are learning to get used to his phone ringing with important questions as sometimes inoportune moments. But all in all, this store has been a great blessing.

Ben’s parents have officially decided to stay in Albuquerque and live with us.  They officially declined the jobs in China on Monday.  We are all very excited.  It’s kind of a long story but, in short, there were issues with Debbie’s work visa, the job got a little fishy, and we desperately wanted them to stay (secretly they desperately wanted to stay too). So we are all feeling very peaceful and happy about the whole thing.  Ben’s parents feel like it is a total God thing and they are so glad to be living with us long term again. We are blessed like crazy, not only by their company, but also by their incredible care.  They bless our socks off and make the huge amounts of things that we have been taking on, alot simpler.

I have been asked to come on (in a way I am not yet aloud to disclose) at the our church. I am very excited about this and feel great about the timing.  It’s going to be mostly focusing on prayer and building a prayer ministry for the church, but will also touch worship and possibly be starting and running a new service once a week.  I’m super excited about it. I will say more as final decisions are made and announced.

Three weeks ago, I took a solo trip up to KC for a little prayer and refreshment. I was actually going to get final assurance from the Lord to go forward with the opportunities at the church.  I mostly just sat in the prayer room. It was wonderful.  I got to visit our pastors from Louisburg (a little town outside of the city) and stay with them for two nights.  I got to ask their advice on some things and actually got help them with a situation they were facing in their church. It was a blessing being with them.  I felt alot of confirmation on some things I had been praying through and just soaked up the atmosphere out there.  I also got to solidify the plans for a mini-onething that we are going to be hosting in July.  Luke Wood and a good part of his team are coming down (including some of our favorite people in the world, the Offutts!) and they are going to do worship, teaching and some workshops for the weekend at our church.  Organizing the dates has been a little tricky, but it’s all nailed down now.  We are totally excited to have them all down here! 

Bible study is still going strong.  We are about to wrap up our study on Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets.  It has been amazing.  Our Friday night worship nights have been growing, and we are loving the sweetness of those times together.  We have also joined another life group at the church which is now meeting at our house twice a month.  We are helping on the worship team every other week and having a great time getting to know all those people.

Two weeks ago we got to help our worship leader record a live worship album for the church.  It took place over a week with 4 live recordings.  And the funnest part about it was that Jason Upton’s sound guy, Sean, flew down to run the whole recording.  He is such an incredibly nice guys.  We had such a blast hanging out with him all week and getting to know him.  We even got to have a special dinner with he and his wife on Saturday night.  (at their request!) They are fantastic people and it was a wonderful blessing to get to know them.  They really spoke into our lives and encouraged the heck out of us.  It was awesome.

During that week of recording, on Wednesday, we had dinner at the pastor’s house to discuss the things I am not supposed to explain quite yet.  There was much crying (happy tears) and they prayed over us, and encouraged us, and welcomed us as their spiritual kids!  It kind of blew our minds.  We were so blessed.  And then to finish off the evening they asked if I would be able to go, all expenses paid, on Monday to Lakeland, Florida with the pastor’s wife to check out the healing outpouring going on out there and bring back the annointing and testimony!  So last Monday, I jumped on a plane at 6:00am and we went down to Florida for the whole week.  It was incredible. Then I got back Friday afternoon, led worship at 7:00, fell asleep around 11:00 and woke up this morning to go to Ministry Training at the church to prepare for the other amazing thing that happened in the last two weeks…

We were asked to go to Kodiak, Alaska on a mission trip in June.  They wanted us to come as intercessors, worship leaders, and to train intercessory teams.  We said we would love to, but we didn’t have any money to go. They said not to worry about it and it would all work out.  Well we got down the deadline, and didn’t have any money, but they called to tell us that it was all taken care of!  We are going to Alaska! So we have to teach two classes to the team on intercession in a couple of weeks and we have training just about every week up until we leave June 6th. 

Let’s see, what else…oh, I have to co-host a tv show with the pastors wife in two weeks on revival.  Being in front of a camera is definitely not my favorite way to spend a day, but she said it’s usually very relaxed and so I have nothing to worry about. 

Oh, and there is a church right outside of town that is wanting to set up a regional house of prayer. They would like us to do regular sets and train up all their up and coming worship leaders and teams. And there is a group starting a community, city wide prayer website and they want me to write articles and prayers for them.

I guess that about covers it.  I’m sure I probably left some stuff out, but that’s the gist. 

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!