What a day!

My heart was bursting with gratitude during our service at Harvest Pointe this morning. I have so much to be thankful for. But specifically today there were several things I needed to take time out to thank my Lord for.

Harvest Pointe is a new church plant in Madison, AL. Marshall and I just so happen to be the lead on it. Well, it actually is not a "just so happen" kind of a thing. God actually called us to plant a church! What a HUGE calling. What a challenge. What an honor. Why us?!?! Honestly, Marshall and I did not expect to be where we are 4 years ago. We did not know exactly what God had for our family. We lived in Mississippi, Marshall was graduating from Seminary and we were praying about what our next step should be. We had several options and church planting was not really one of them. We had not even thought about it! But, God opens doors when we don't expect him to and closes some that we think we should take.

We had Jackson at the time. He was a tiny little guy. Almost in passing, church planting was mentioned to Marshall. When we first talked about it, we put it on the back burner. It was not really what we were thinking for our future. But, the more we prayed and the more we gave up what we thought was "right", the more resounding the answer was! The more clear God made it. The wider he opened the door! SO many things happened that were of the Lord. Answers both subtle or obvious that we knew were answers to our prayers. We KNOW that God called us to plant a church. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, we know.

Church planting has been a challenge. I will be honest. Marshall, Jackson, and I moved here with just us. In church planting terms what we have done is called a "parachute plant". Basically, that means our family starting a church from scratch.  The failure rate with a parachute drop is very high. And whether our church succeeds or fails, God has done some amazing things here. We will not look at our time here as a waste, no, God is good and has done much in our own hearts as well as many around us. Today as I sat in our service and sang 2 songs in particular, I was in awe of my sweet Jesus and what he has done.

I cannot even describe to you how He changed me. I was lost and now I am found! Blind but now I see! He has worked in my life even when I wasn't sure He was there. But, today I was in tears when I sang "For I am His, and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ"!!! What powerful words. How deep His love for us.

Then as I thought of those precious faces around me. I could not help but be all the more grateful to Him. God has brought together a group of people that love Him and love each other. The people sitting there in the Harvest Pointe service mean so much to me. Each of them different and each of them my friends. And how amazing is it that Marshall and I could be a part of such an amazing thing as a church plant! To see people gathering together to worship. I am truly honored and blessed to be a part of what God is doing here. It started as just us and now there are more and more families! It has been an invaluable experience that I am grateful to be a part of.

And I have to say that we have some pretty amazing people in leadership. Today in particular I prayed for Rachel and Paul who were leading our worship service. The Lord has gifted them with music and today the Lord spoke to me through their service to Him. These are the two songs that really spoke to my heart today. I pray they will yours as well....