Yes, I’m alive!  It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything.  Sorry about that.  LOTS have changed - mostly inside of me.  Some tangible changes will occur as a result of these changes, but I’ll have to share all of that a later day.

For now, I want to talk about the sermon series we’re doing at church (along with over 1,000 other churches).  It’s called One Prayer (see oneprayer.com for details).  For our local church, our pastor’s prayer is “Lord, make us courageous!”  What an appropriate prayer, at least for me.  Fear has gripped me in ways I didn’t even realize until these last coupel of weeks, but praise God - He has broken those chains!  A nifty little part of this One Prayer series that our awesome Tech Team put together for all us attenders is a forum where we can post our own one prayers for the Church.  Since everyone reading this page might not check that one out, I wanted to share my one prayer here for all of you.

My one prayer for the Church is Lord, make us effective!  This prayer to be effective is a two part prayer.  One is for the body of Christ to be effective within its own members.  If we can’t unite and share each other’s needs within the different local bodies of the Church, we will not be effective in our outreach to the lost.  Do we really want the lost to see a broken, incomplete picture of who Christ is?  Part two of my prayer is for the Church to be effective throughout all the nations to those outside the body of Christ.  I believe part two will come naturally once we achieve part one.  If we Christ-followers share each others burdens and joys, live our lives dedicated one to another in Christ, the lost and dying of this world will notice.  The love we express toward one another, that Agape love, will draw the lost to their Savior.  Oh Lord, may it be so.

I know it’s a short blog considering it’s the first one in weeks, but this is all I have at this time of the night.  Until next time…

Sunday morning was AWESOME!!!! 

 The highlights:

• The “ooooo’s” and “aaaahhhh’s” of the kids at the site of the puppets.  It was nice to see all  the kids paying attention to the skit.  GREAT WORK BECKY RAY!!!
• The gasps from all over the room when Adam (aka Vicky) threw oranges across the room.  Then the hysterical laughter when the bird was conked in the head with one.  The kids loved it!!
• The awesome moves (and voices) of the worship leaders.  Alicia and Victoria, you both did a wonderful job.  You really got the kids involved in the hand motions.  Thank you.
• The small group teachers did a fantastic job in their activities and teaching the kids more about their responsibility to take care of the world and the animals in it.  The kids were overly excited to say the least, but the teachers did such a great job at controlling the volumes within their ‘curtain’ classrooms.
• The two youth who helped with the tech stuff definitely deserve a big thank you.  They found out what we needed them to do only about 10 minutes before each service - sorry guys :(  But you both did great! 
• The kids had fun learning about our God-given responsibility as humans to take care of the rest of this world that He created.

Saying that we were all nervous Sunday morning would be a huge understatement; with live skits, new (live) people leading worship, and classroom walls made of curtains, we had plenty of reasons to be nervous.  But God met us in our futile efforts, and we had a great time.

WOOHOO!  Tomorrow’s the day - day one of the annual Living Proof Live conference and ‘getaway’ for the ladies of Pointe North Community Church.  This year we’re off to Jacksonville, Fl - a bit different from the usual Carolina venues.  I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while now, but my anticipation has grown exponentially over the last couple of weeks.  Even today as I work hard to close the loop on a few things here at work, I find myself wondering what last minute details may be surfacing for the other women attending.  I imagine the enemy is on the prowl, doing his best to deter many of us from attending.  I believe this conference is a divine appointment for all of us, so stand firm.  I am anticipating and praying for this conference to bring a fresh Word from God and renewed commitments on all levels, along with deep encouragement and new challenges - all in all, a deep breath of fresh Spirit-filled air.  Meet us there Father.  We long for more of You.