holy wonderful easter weekend...

wow, is about all i can say! we had a very busy but a wonderful easter weekend. i am going to put the events over the past weekend in one big post. i will try to keep it short and sweet!!


to start off our easter weekend, on friday evening we went next door to my in-laws house for a cook out. the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. we ate and the kids had an easter egg hunt.

my four kiddos with my nieces!

on saturday, we pretty much stayed around the house, getting ready for easter sunday, ironing clothes, baths, washing hair, etc. we also made some food for the next day and dyed easter eggs. one of my dear friends who now lives in georgia came in for the weekend so i got to spend a little bit of time with her in the afternoon. of course i did not take a picture.

the kids went to find the basket in our closet!

that evening, we gave the kids their easter basket. i think it was last year when i started this tradition, i load up a huge basket full of stuff the kids can use over spring break. it is a way to replenish toys and activities that we are out of and it keeps them busy over spring break. last year, i filled it with a lot of arts and craft type stuff. this year, i filled it with indoor and outdoor activities. it had play-dough, bubbles & wands, hula hoops, jump ropes, balls, painting activity, some candy, silly bandz, gum, water guns and a swing for outside for jaelyn, little people dolls for jaelyn, chapstick for jordyn. they loved it although i don't know how busy it will keep them throughout the week, because they played with most of it today already. the novelty may wear out soon, but let's hope not.

here's some of the goodies!

a quick shot of all four before we left for church
easter 2010

on sunday morning, we headed uptown to time warner arena where we had one huge church service. i was able to go to the service and just attend. we did not have a full blown ekidz, so i did not have to serve. which i missed serving, but enjoyed the little break. let me tell you, the service was amazing. i have never been so proud of my church and my pastor. the time and effort put into pulling off a service as big as this was so worth it. we had over 11,000 people in attendance and over 700 salvations made.





WOW!! i was so overwhelmed and so moved by what God did in that arena. God's presence was felt and known by so many in the large crowd. we had awesome music, videos, our students were on stage worshiping, thousands and thousands of items were donated to local charities and we had 50 people baptized. it was truly amazing. i could go on and on and probably will in another post all about elevation. but until then, we made the news several times. you can go here to watch a news clip on tv and you can go here to read an article in the newspaper.





after a little bit of nap time, we ate dinner with my parents and took a few shots of the kids before dinner. i never did get a great shot of the four of them let alone a family picture.



today, i am still in my pj's and trying to catch up after the busy and extremely emotionally exciting weekend. i hope to get a few things done and out of the way today, so that i can spend some time enjoying the spring break week with the kids! i also plan to spend the week taking some pictures of the kids as we go out and about and do some fun things, we have plans to get together with some friends and also take a trip somewhere fun on friday!!

easter week...

i promise i am still alive and i am doing ok! i know i have been very absent from blogging (writing, reading and commenting) as of late. i just don't know where the days have been going, they have been going much too fast for my liking. i feel like i blink and the day is half over and time for lunch. then i blink again and it is completely over and time for bed. if anyone has figured out the formula for slowing down the days yet, please let me know :)

so these days for me have been filled with the normal things a mom has to do everyday, which has included cleaning out closets and switching the wardrobes over to lighter spring clothing! yeah - i am so glad that spring is here! i am ready for some consistent warm days and let it just rain at night! it always seems that i buy clothes for the kids for the new season and then the weather goes back to the old season. but i think slowly but surely spring is coming to stay!

with easter just a few days away, can you believe it?, i will be busy this week putting the finishing touches on our easter outfits and getting stuff for the kids' easter baskets. we will be spending this week and easter weekend, egging the city of charlotte. our church, which meets at several campuses throughout a normal weekend, will be meeting all together for one big huge easter service. we will be having our worship experience at time warner arena (home of the bobcats basketball team) and we are expecting atleast 10,000 people to be in attendance! holy excitement! i can not wait to be a part of this awesome day!

i make no promises, (but surely hope) to blog again this week before easter! so, if i don't get back here before easter, i wish each of you a happy easter! i have been horrible at taking pictures lately, so i will be sure to do that this weekend so i can share how cute my kids are! i also have some exciting news to share but i am saving that for a post of it's own (nope, i am not pregnant, i know that was your first thought!).

until next time!

many blessings,
dawn

read this instead...

today is one of those days where i just am at a loss for words, i have been for a few days. no worries, nothing is going on. everything is good! i just don't feel like "talking" that much. my twitter and facebook updates have been lacking too, not just my blog. i am busy this week planning and getting ready for jesiah's birthday. he will be five on saturday. i also have some other things i am working on for church.

while i was catching up on my blog reading, i read this and wanted to share it with you. ephesians 3:20 is the theme for my blog and one of my favorite verses ever. it is one of my pastor's too. so, since i don't have much to say today, read this! i promise it will give you such a great perspective and leave you very encouraged!

oh what a week...

phewwww....last week was a long week!

first, it is hard to believe that over valentine's weekend we were playing in snow and then this past weekend we were outside playing in 60 degree sunny beautiful weather. and now as i sit here and write this it is raining outside - yuck! i am so over this wet weather! i am reading for sunny days, with lots of rain at night!!!

if you remember, last weekend, jesiah had that yucky stomach bug,(you know the one that is going around way too much these days!) and then it spread through most of our family during the first part of last week....







yup, on sunday afternoon, jaelyn began running a fever and was feeling plain awful.


then, jordyn came home from school on monday and complained of a stomach ache and within an hour she started throwing up.



jaelyn's fever continued while jordyn missed school on tuesday and wednesday. i did take jaelyn to the doctor because she kept running a fever and had no other symptoms other than just feeling yucky and little appetite. i thought maybe it could be an ear infection. our doctor tested her for h1n1, which was negative and checked her ears and nothing. she must have had the same kind of virus, although she never threw up. which i am certainly not complaining about. somewhere in the midst of all of that, jamil got sick but it hit him hard and fast he was over it in like less than 12 hours! josh never got the stomach bug, he did have a little cough and cold but nothing stomach related and nothing that required much attention or missing school!! praise God!

and believe it or not, even after caring for a sick family, i never really got it!!! my stomach was a little off but i never threw up. i had one day where i didn't feel great but it could have been a mind over matter thing. seeing and cleaning up after everyone else can make you feel sick!! i was so scared that i would get it, but just kept telling myself that i wouldn't. and that is when i called in my prayer warriors to help me fight it off! and as they prayed for me, i kept praying and speaking health and wellness and i was able to fight it off! i am so thankful that i had people praying for me! one of them wrote this about fighting off sickness with the power of His healing! you should read it, it is good stuff! wow! the power of prayer and speaking truth amazes me

(one thing you have to know about me is that i have never had a stomach bug that resulted in throwing up. never. praise God!! which is so good because i hate to throw up! hate it! the handful of times that i threw up were because of morning sickness in my pregnancies!)

even though the start of the week was filled with sickness, we conquered that and were able to end the week by attending a super special, super fun birthday party for our pastor. and then we were able to go about our weekend as usual, with some family time and lots of time at church!!

so, as i sit here and type this, i am so glad God has healed our family and i am looking forward to a much different week!! i hope that you are having a good start to your week!

one week, one city and 5,000 volunteers...

there is no better way to celebrate elevation's four year anniversary and valentine's day than with love week! last week we celebrated the four year anniversary of our church in a huge way!
and this week it gets even better!

one word that can be used to totally describe our church is audacious! and what we are doing at elevation church this week through God and for our city is completely audacious.

this week we will be unleashing the power of 5,000 volunteer hours spread across our city to reach out and serve. the goal of this project is to have 5,000 volunteer hours logged. it is only tuesday day 3 of the project and we have logged over 3,000 hours already!

at elevation, we invest a large portion of our money back into the city of charlotte. we also invest a lot of time and energy serving with strategic community outreach partners. i volunteer regularly with one of them called safe journey, a program that helps teem moms stay in school. i enjoy every second of time i can put into giving back to this organization.

there are so many ways to get involved in community outreach and this week is a great way to get started. if you don't live in the charlotte area, i am sure there are plenty of ways to get involved in your city. you can go here to find out what we are doing to serve the city of charlotte. check it out and maybe it will inspire you to get involved and show some love in your city.

one way, i will be volunteering this week is by posting on twitter and facebook statistics about some of our community outreach partners. if you aren't already, follow me on twitter - dawnkmassey. or become my friend on facebook, so you can find out how important it is to get involved and spread some love!

you can listen to pastor steven's sermon here, it is all about love week! you don't want to miss this one!

these days...

i had planned to run some errands today, but i woke up not feeling so great (sore throat, sinus stuff - yuck!) jesiah and jaelyn also have runny noses. so i decided to take it easy and put those errands off for today and declared it pj day. i do this way too often during the week, it is so much easier to stay home in our jammies on days where we don't have to be anywhere. i finished working on the laundry and making some phone calls, so i thought i would write a post. caution: it is very random, my brain isn't thinking too deep today. but i thought i would fill you in on what is going on around here these days, its been awhile since i was random like this, so here goes....

finally, it's february.... i think january was the first month in a long time that went by kind of slow. i was glad for time to slow down a bit. but why did it have to be during such a cold month of the year? so i am glad that long winter month has come to a close and i am welcoming february because it is a month closer to spring! i long for warm weather!!!

i heart dvr....after not having cable television for seven years, around this time last year we had cable television installed! woo hoo! and just recently we upgraded and now have digital cable and dvr! oh my gosh, how i love dvr. it has so changed how i watch tv!!

bible reading and study....in the fall i did a marriage bible study (love & respect: motivating your man God's way by sarah and emerson eggerichs) led by my friend and amazing leader, lisa shea. last week, i started a new study led by lisa. we are reading a leader in the making by joyce meyer. i am loving this book so far. i am so excited to see how God uses this book in the group of women that are in this study. i have been busy reading the assigned chapters for our study, in fact i have to finish my reading for tonight's meeting. balancing that reading and the new thru 30 reading has been a challenge. thankfully i love to read. i am a day behind on my new thru 30 reading, but i will catch up. this is the last week of the reading. it has gone by fast and i have loved reading the new testament in 30 days.

serving on sundays again...after an extended maternity leave i felt it was the right time to start volunteering again - i was really missing it! towards the end of december i stepped into a new volunteer position at church serving in our children's ministry, ekidz. i am the safari coordinator at the providence campus. the safari area is for our sweet little ones who are 6 weeks through 3 years old. i serve with our volunteer leaders and volunteers making sure that everything is running smoothly in our babies and toddler rooms. i am so excited about this new role and am really enjoying serving in this capacity!

boys & basketball...both of the boys are playing basketball this season, it has kept us busy with two nights a week of practice and saturday games and mixing that with jordyn taking dance one night a week, wow, we are busy! jesiah is kind of getting the hang of the basketball thing. he still likes to do his own thing on the court. but he has come along way since the first game. joshua loves to play and loves to have his daddy as his coach. as for me, as much as i love the boys being involved in sports, i think we may take the spring off. we need some saturdays at home for spring cleaning!!

weekends at elevation....that brings me to what our weekends look like these days. with jamil's role as an armor bearer for our pastor which is saturday night and sunday, and with my new role in ekidz, we get to spend a lot of time at church. i attend the saturday night service at our matthews campus with the kids, while jamil serves. and then on sunday the kids and i head over to our providence campus so i can serve and jamil is with pastor steven. so far, we are all loving our new weekend schedule at church. the kids have so much fun being at church both days! it keeps us busy - but a good kind of busy!

school update...the big kids got their report cards from school last week. they are doing so good in school. we were so pleased with their grades! both josh and jordyn are very bright and school work comes pretty easily to them. i am so thankful for that. they have adjusted to being in school. our brief experience with homeschooling is a distant memory for all of us! i feel so at peace with the decision to put them back in school. we are praying about putting them back into the lottery for union academy again. they both miss their old school and there are some things that i miss about it as well. so we will just see how God leads!

three in school soon....this week is kindergarten registration for the schools in our area. so since jesiah will be five next month he will start kindergarten in the fall! wow! i am registering him at the school the big kids are at. and then if we decide to do the lottery at union academy, and he would happen to get in, he would go there. i just can't believe he will be in school and i will only have one child at home with me. i have no idea what that will look like!!

family photos....you may have seen my last post with the link to our photographer's blog. if you haven't, our new set of family pictures are posted there! please go and check them out and leave a comment on their blog! our last set of pictures received so many comments, that our photographers have challenged us with some prints and discounts if we collect 25 -100 comments on their blog - so when you go there you have to leave a comment on their blog! please pretty please do this for me!!! so go here right now!!!

lots to celebrate this month... so this month is full of special birthdays, special occasions and valentine's day! we will be celebrating a lot and i am looking forward to birthday cake and parties! i am trying to come up with some fun things to do to celebrate valentine's day. if you do something cute with your family, leave me a comment with what you do, i could use some ideas!!!
i hope that you are all enjoying your first week in february!!!

being quiet...

a month ago was the first day of the first month of the new year and as i reflected on the past year, i also looked ahead and made a list of goals for this year. i made goals in several areas of my life; personal, marriage, parenting, home and finances.

at the top of my list in the personal category is to spend more time being quiet. as i go throughout my days, i realize several days have gone by and i haven't had a true time of peace and quiet. i haven't had time to reflect or really think. during each day, my mind goes in a million different directions at a very fast pace. and i realized that i need to spend some time each day just being quiet. time that i can just slow down and spend time reading and or praying or just soaking in the silence!

i have found that being intentional about fitting this into my day (or night - whenever i can!) makes such a difference in my mood and that helps keep our family and our home much happier.

over this past month, i have spent a lot of my quiet time reading the new thru 30 assignments. i have so enjoyed fulfilling the goal of reading the new testament in 3o days! God has spoken to me in so many ways and has taught me so much. it has been a great way to start off the new year and my quiet times!!

new year, new week, new thru 30...

as we begin this second full week of a new year, i am hoping that it is a little less uneventful than the last week! with all the bad news and events from last week, i got thrown off track and a lot of things really fell behind. so i will attempt to catch up this week in so many areas of my everyday life!

in the midst of the disappointment and loss over the last two weeks, there are a lot of exciting things going on too! one thing that i am super excited about is the new series we are doing at church. as a church, we are reading the new testament in thirty days. the sermon series is called "new thru 30". there are a lot of other churches that have joined in on this with us. i just love that our church shares the resources they create. they have made the reading plan available on the website, so why don't you join in and take the challenge too, you can go here for the reading plan. you can also go here and here to read more about this series! i can not wait to see what God shows me through His word!

let me know if you plan to join in on the fun!

to uganda and back...

on sunday, i heard one of the most life changing, most powerful, most amazing message. pastor steven preached his message while he, our lead staff and our video crew were in uganda.

one of our goals at elevation church is to reach our community. we want to make an impact such that if our church were to no longer exist, that the charlotte community would truly miss us and feel the effects of our absense. we give back to our community in so many ways. we partner with several outreach organizations by providing volunteer and monetary support. one outreach partner that i have spoken about on my blog, that is dear to my heart is called safe journey (through communities in schools). it is a fabulous outreach that is designed to keep teen moms in school. i volunteer on the lead team from elevation for safe journey.

elevation church is now taking our outreach globally. we are now proud partners with samaritan's purse. our staff traveled to africa with the samaritan's purse. while, in uganda, my pastor recorded the message that we would hear this past sunday. honestly, the video was done so well, that i felt like i was there with pastor and the rest of the staff. and his message was amazing. i was so glad that i had tucked several tissues into my purse!

this sermon was about our response to what we saw and heard about in the message. we can react with greed, guilt or generosity. it was powerful. what i saw and what i heard put so many things into perspective. i have never had a desire to travel to africa or be a part of a trip such as this. but now i do! my heart has been changed and i have a new outlook on my life and how i am living it! to see the people in uganda, to see their living conditions and to hear their stories, especially one about a four year old boy named james has forever changed how grateful i am. to see their passion for God in the midst of having virtually nothing is amazing!

honestly, this is an experience that you do not want to miss. this is a message that will really put things into perspective for this holiday season. you can watch the video here. or you can catch it live here through dec. 4 @ 12, 6 & 8 pm. please make time to do this! you will be forever changed!

**you can also read pastor steven's wife, holly's commentary on sunday's message here

pure joy...

update: in a hurry i posted this before it was actually done and i had time to proof and give it the finishing touches... so i have those completed now! if you read the rough draft, please read this final copy too....

this past weekend we started a new series at elevation called "joy genome". wow! what a great sermon and what perfect timing! lately, i have been feeling a little lacking in the joy area. it isn't that i don't have joy in my life or feel joyful on the inside. there are so many things that bring me pure joy. but sometimes, ok, a lot of times, i allow those not so joyful things to overshadow the joy. so on the outside i may not look or feel joyful. i know the joy is there and i just have to let it outshine the not so joyful stuff. i don't want those circumstances to define who i am. i want the joy that is given to me through Christ to define and shine!!

pastor steven said this, it is a key statement to the sermon and to what i am taking away from it...

"My joy is not determined by what happens to me, but what Christ is doing in me and through me."

so i began the week with a new approach to joy! i want joy to explode from me and i want others to see it and i want to be able to really feel it. so i am going to let the good things outshine the bad things that happen every day. i consider those good things a reflection of who He is in me.

i had two moments yesterday where i was overwhelmed with joy! and it made me realize that i want to approach my life with daily reflections on the things that brought me joy and made me feel joyful.

so i am going to share two moments with you...

the first moment was in the parking lot of aldi's (do you shop there, if you don't you have to give it a try!) i was loading up my groceries, when i saw a lady parked next to me and she was wearing her baby in a sling. as she started heading toward the store, she turned back around to go back to her car, she got a floppy seat out of her car and took her baby out of the sling and put him into the cart. i thought to myself, how she reminded me of myself. i often have to figure out if wearing the baby or pushing the baby will work better. sometimes i change my mind and do what she did. as she walked by me, i said something to her about that and then we began chatting. her 6 month old was a sweet chubby baby and she said that she just couldn't get him to fit well in her sling (she was wearing him across her body cuddled up). so i shared with her two different ways she could wear her baby (on her hip and sitting up facing out) in her sling. i loved being able to offer that kind of support to her. i could tell she was encouraged by learning something new! it gave me pure joy to do this for her. it reminded me of the passion that God has put inside of me and how much i love encouraging and supporting other women, especially moms!!!

the second moment was when i was walking into the second grocery store (lowes foods, just opened near our house!) i went to. i put jesiah and jaelyn in a little cart that looked like a car. they were so excited. and just that little simple moment gave me pure joy to look at my kids and be reminded of what a blessing they are to me. it reminded me of a time when i had joshua and jordyn out and about and they were close to the same age as jesiah and jaelyn are. and it made me think about how i have two wonderful big kids in school and i still have two wonderful little kids at home with me. God knows my heart and knows my love for babies and little kids and he has given me four of them!!! i feel so blessed. to be a mom of four kids all in different stages and ages. they keep me so busy and my hands are so full, but i am blessed and they bring me pure joy!!!

what things bring you joy in your life??


if you need a little joy in your life today or need a little reminder about joy...you can hear my amazing pastor preach a great word here!

killing my sin...

i love sundays.
i love my church.
and i love my pastor (and his wife)!

yesterday, was no different! pastor steven delivered a powerful message! each and every week i could (and should) write a post about what i have taken away from the amazing worship experience at elevation church. you can read a weekly commentary from holly furtick, pastor steven's wife.

pastor preached the third sermon in the series called "kill switch". pastor furtick preached from colossians 3:1-6. pastor talked about killing the sin in your life before the sin kills you. wow. what a touchy feeling message, huh? um, no, not really, but that is what i love about my pastor, he is not afraid to deliver a message of truth and one straight from the word!

here are a few points that i took away from the sermon. first, everyone has sin in their life, if you think you don't - pray about it, God will show you. i have prayed that for myself. because, i don't ever want to be complacent and think that i have it all together and live a sin free life.

once we identify the sin that we want to change we have to make a daily decision to set our hearts and our minds on the things above to get rid of the sin. we have to mortify not moderate our sin. just like a weed we have to kill it at the root! we have to completely destroy the things in our life that God hates, if you don't those things will destroy us.

God has shown me some sinful areas in my life that i want to mortify, destroy and kill at the root.

as a mom of four children, i do not have the patience i would like to have sometimes, ok most of the time. when i get overwhelmed, i can get angry at my kids very quickly and i raise my voice way too much. sometimes i have an issue with controlling my tongue, i speak way too harshly to them. i have gotten in a bad habit of not having as much self control as i would like. i have been working really hard to change this behavior. it seems the harder i work the more ill behaved my kids become. and i realize that is the enemy trying to get to me, he knows what buttons he can push so that i will fall hard into my sinful nature.

i will kill this anger and sinful behavior at its root. i will destroy it and mortify it. i will not let this sin destroy me.

when i start to get upset or angry i just repeat this scripture to myself...

"i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" philippians 4:13

i am raised in Christ and will not let this sin bring me down.

i definitely didn't touch on all of what my pastor preached, so you can go here to listen to the sermon from yesterday. please do!

and the winner is...

melanie
@ imperfect living

melanie is the winner of my first blog giveaway!
she is going to receive a copy of elevation's newest cd, god with us!

congratulations melanie!!

check out melanie's blog when you have a chance.
i "met" her through a friend's blog! and i am so glad that i did!
she is so sweet and encouraging. she has four beautiful kids.

first, second, third...

just a few things to share, in no particular order...

first, if you didn't know, i am doing my first ever blog giveaway, it is for a copy of elevation's worship team's new cd called god with us. you can check it out here. to enter just leave me a comment and tell me your favorite song of all time, it doesn't have to be from the cd, chances are if you have a favorite song from the cd, you wouldn't enter the contest bc you would have a copy! i was going to close the contest tonight but i will close it on sunday night and announce the winner on monday night. so go here and enter ~ i can't wait to bless some lucky winner with this awesome cd!!!


second, it has been a really rough week around here, i have felt very overwhelmed. my kids are a little out of control, i am a little stressed out and i am just very short on patience. whew! now that i got that off my shoulders... the lack of blogging this week represents the lack of anything positive to say. so i am going with my motto, if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.

third, despite my rough week, God is working; molding and shaping me for so many things right now. it is a little scary. it is a good kind of scary. he has been showing me how He wants to use me and that is a little overwhelming too. a wonderful friend of mine said this to me once, "you are right, dawn, you can't do it but He can do it through you" and i am holding tightly to that!

elevation's kind of new cd & give away...

so, i know it has been a month ago, but i just wanted to share a few pictures and tell you about our {elevation's} worship team's newest cd!

plus at the end i will tell you about my first ever blog giveaway!!! fun stuff!!

in july, our extraordinarily talented worship team at elevation released their brand new cd, called god with us. during the week of the release there was lots of celebrating. jamil and i felt honored to attend the cd release party which was held uptown {charlotte} at suite at epicenter! yes, our church rented out a nightclub in the heart of the city to praise God for how He has blessed our church and to celebrate Him as He worked through our worship pastor and leaders! we had such a great time! it was so much fun to hang out with a small group of staff, staff wives and key volunteers!!

jamil & me with our friends jill & billy

i just love this cd! i have been playing it nonstop in my van and on my ipod! i personally have no musical talent, although i love to listen to music. i can tell you this is good stuff! the music is awesome and the words are so full of worship and praise! you have to check it out! oh and it is on itunes!!!

ok, i just happen to have an extra copy of the cd...

so i am having my first ever blog give away!!

so if you would like to win this awesome cd here is what you need to do...

1. leave me a comment telling me you want it and tell me what your all time favorite song is.
that will give you 1 entry)

2. if you share about the give away on your blog, let me know that too ~ that will give you a second entry!

3. i will close the giveaway friday night 8/14/09 @ 11:59 pm and announce the winner by monday 8/17/09.

thanks for joining in on the fun!!! and good luck!!

just jill & me!

click here
to see lots more pictures taken by
our talented photographers at elevation!!
you will get a taste for what the event was like and
see a few pics of me, my hubby and our friends!

b90x...not p90x..

today is the last day that the big kids will be in camp. i choose to overlook my to do list and just spend some time looking at homeschool curriculum online while jaelyn took her morning nap. when she woke up i focused on caring for her and trying not to multitask. after she ate her lunch, we played on the floor. when she decided she wanted to occupy herself and play with toys, instead of trying to get something done, i continued to lay on the floor will she played and i read my bible. { the picture above is jaelyn trying to reach for my bible! }

at elevation church, the staff & their wives along with some volunteer leaders {including armor bearers & their wives ~ which means us!} have embarked on an awesome bible reading plan. on monday, we began reading the bible in 90 days. pastor steven is calling it B90x. kind of like the intense diet & work out plan, but with the bible.

it certainly is a challenge, but i am choosing to do it and do my best. here is my thinking; even if i get behind or only end up reading half of the bible ~ guess what? that is huge, it is way more than i have ever set out to do before. this week i did get behind, but i took the time today to get caught up. my goal is to do the best i can and read as much as i can!

i can not tell you how grateful i am to be a part of a church which challenges me in so many ways. it is awesome to be a part of the leadership at elevation church. and to take on huge goals in the name of God. we have continued to see God moving in so many ways over the summer. and we are looking forward to an amazing fall. {one of the highlights of the fall is we are opening our first permanent facility! more on that later.}

two years later

two sundays ago, not only did our family celebrate mother's day, we also celebrated our two year anniversary of being at elevation church! i will never forget that day, walking into a brand new church and not knowing at all what would lie ahead for us. we were so uncertain of just about everything. we were still feeling so much loss from the weekend before.

and now, two years later, we feel so much joy and a tremendous amount of gratitude. we are grateful for the pain we had to endure because it has gotten us to where we are now. we are so thankful for our church. we have learned and grown so much in our faith. we are a part of such an amazing move of God. and we have been blessed to be able to experience from a front row seat!

we are so thankful for where God has brought us from and for where He is taking us. and we know without a shadow of a doubt that the best is yet to come!

mother's day weekend...

basically whenever a holiday comes our way, i love to celebrate it for a couple of days!! it has taken awhile for jamil to realize that in our family it isn't just a birthday it is like a birth-week or weekend depending on what day it falls. and if it is father's day or mother's day it isn't just celebrated on that day but throughout the weekend. so today is the beginning of mother's day weekend!! we have a fun one planned. here is what is going on at our house...

this morning, i went to jordyn's classroom for "muffins for mom". it was so sweet. i will post pictures later. tonight we are going to have a family fun night!! we are going to eat pizza and wings, hang out and play games!

tomorrow, jamil has to be out early but when he gets home, i am going to do a little shopping for myself. tomorrow night, we will be eating dinner at our friend's house. and another couple will be joining too! between our three families there will be six adults and twelve kids!!! so much fun, i am sure it will be wild and crazy but we can't wait! we are looking forward to it!

and then on sunday, of course the highlight of our day will be going to church! i am so excited, pastor steven's wife, holly, is going to be preaching! i know she will be delivering such an awesome message on mother's day. i can not wait to hear the words she will be speaking, they will be straight from her heart and inspired by God. not to mention, i know she will just look absolutely beautiful!!! and that afteernoon we will celebrate my mom and jamil's mom too.

and i will be back at the end of the weekend, until then have a fabulous mother's day weekend!

on the other side...

i wonder if there will ever be a time when we stop reflecting and thinking about this day, the first sunday in may. it has been two years since we walked through what has been the most painful time of our lives. on this day two years ago, we were part of what we call "the funeral". it wasn't the death of a person. but it was the loss of a very important part of our life at that time.

it was so hard to imagine life without the church that we were leaving behind. a church that we had been a part of for six years. the only church our kids really ever knew at the time. the church that we helped build. a church that we served at, giving our time, money and energy to. we had family at this church. there were relationships and there was community. everything there we thought was good. until the weeks leading up to "the funeral".

"the funeral" took place with the kids from our youth group, their parents and our volunteer team. we listened and said nothing as they were told that it was our family's last sunday. we weren't given a chance to say good bye in our own words. in fact, the letter we wrote to the rest of our church family who weren't there was never delivered or even read to them. i witnessed tears of sadness and grief as the kids learned the news that their youth pastor and his wife were no longer going to play that role in their lives. nor would they see us at church. i saw sweet teenage girls crying and hugging each other tight. i saw big high school football players with tears in their eyes, sobbing. it was like a funeral. really. it was the hardest thing i have ever had to go through. and to think, why?

it is never easy to say good bye. but we had to. God was calling us away from our church. He used people and different situations to make us go. people we thought we could trust, we could no longer. situations that were suppose to work out, we couldn't. it was beyond our control. He was calling us away from what was so unhealthy and what was potentially going to suck the life out of us. He slammed the door shut on that season of our life.

this pain that we went through is part of our story it is part of who we are. we have chosen to forgive and move on. but, i don't think we will ever forget.

today, i didn't want to think about where we were two years ago, or what we were going through, but it is part of who we are. it is what makes us so grateful for where we are and who we are today. it is hard not to reflect. and reading this, what a wrote a year ago, i realize how far we have come since last year. i have already forgotten some of the painful details and let go of so much bitterness. and i have seen God work in mighty ways in our life.

we have come so far. God called us to an amazing church, where we feel alive and we feel God's presence. we know He is working and we get to be a part of what He is doing. we are so grateful for what we went through, the pain we endured, because it brought us to where we are now. God turned something awful and painful into something so good. our lives have been forever changed by the way He shut the door to that season of our life. He is so faithful, He showed us He has something so much better for us on the other side of that door.

over 7,000 & over 700...

wow!!! wow!!! wow!!! i am in amazement of how God is working and moving in our church! elevation church held ten services this weekend, saw over 7,000 people attendance and had over 700 people accept Christ!! this is only our fourth easter as a church and i am blown away by the way God is all over us! Pastor Steven has such a way of delivering a message - he preached six services out of the ten! jamil said he had as much energy on the sixth sermon on sunday evening as he did at the first service on saturday evening. that strength and energy is all God working through our annointed pastor!!! i can not say enough about our pastor and his wife, holly. they have an amazing calling on their life and they are so obedient to it. the staff and volunteers at our church are so awesome!! our worship team and creatvie department rock!!! we had a break dancer on stage during worship -wow- and the most awesome opening video (you have to click here to see it, do not miss this one)!!! we couldn't have had a weekend like this without everyone pulling together in prayer and in service. simply amazing!! everyday, i feel so blessed to be experiencing a move like this!

yesterday, was a little hard because i was on my own as far as parenting. jamil was with our pastor pretty much all day and we didn't see him but for one hour. but you know, it was so worth the sacrifice! and instead of letting it get to me, i choose to be thankful to be a "single mom" yesterday and really most sundays. to know that i make a small contribution by allowing my husband to serve all day in his sweet spot with our pastor is how i serve right now at elevation. i choose to serve with a grateful heart and not a complaining one. i choose to think positive and turn what could be a bad day with four kids and a ton of sugar into a good one. i do this because i so believe in our pastor, his wife, the staff, the volunteers and our church! i believe that we are impacting our city for Jesus Christ! i know people far from God are being filled with life in Christ. i just know this!!!! i am so honored to be a part of what God is doing at and through elevation church.

you can go here later today to check out pastor's sermon, it is life changing! it was an easter message like i have never heard. from isiah 53, pastor laid it on the line and spoke the fire out of the message stating if you do not "esteem to be like Him, you do not believe in Him" wow! what a challenge. if you didn't hear the message, take a little time please and check this out!!! it will be life changing for you too!! leave me a comment and let me know if you watched the video and/or heard the message and what did you think??

specific answer to prayer: elevation church

next month, will mark our two year anniversary of our first sunday at elevation church. words can not express how grateful we are for our church. elevation was a complete answer to our prayers. we had to begin "church shopping" on mother's day 2007 after leaving the church we attended for six years. the pain that we endured while we were in the midst of leaving was unbearable at the time. we experienced a major loss in so many ways. needless to say it was hard to think about looking for a new church. but we did immediately after leaving the old church. i was very worried about finding a new church. i was worried about finding one that felt like home, one that the kids would be comfortable in and one that would preach God's word with no fluff and no apologies.

we prayed that our transition to finding a new church would be smooth. we prayed for the kids to adjust and do well. i was very nervous about taking them to different nurseries and kids' programs. how would they do, how would they feel. we prayed we would feel comfortable. we prayed for a place where we could heal from what we had been through. we prayed for a church where we could grow in Christ. it would have been very very easy for us to put going to church on hold. we were really in a rough spot. and we didn't know how to go about looking for a church. but we knew we had to get back out there right away. we made a list of five local churches that we think we would like. we decided to begin the process the sunday after leaving our old church. no breaks or time off from going to church.

on our first sunday visiting churches, we chose to go to elevation church. honestly, i only remember a few things about our very first sunday. i remember it was mother's day. i remember being greeted by a lot of friendly people. i remember it taking awhile to get our children signed up to go into ekidz, but i didn't mind. i remember being in awe of the worship experience - it rained on the stage as people were getting baptized by the hundreds. yes, we experienced spontaneous baptisms during the series they called deep. i remember loving the music and the teaching. i remember josh saying, "mom, this is the best church i have ever been to!". i remember thinking is this our church home? could we have found it this easily?

God answered our prayers!!! we continued going to elevation for a few more sundays and decided that it was our church home. we never made it anywhere else to visit. God called us to our church home right away. He made it so easy for us to find a church home.

we know that God has called us to elevation! we have seen God move in so many ways through our church and in our lives. God has healed us from the pain we endured from our old church through the trust and belief we have in our new church. God has grown us so much through elevation and through our pastor's teaching. we have been given a very special way to serve at elevation. God has blessed us with a church home and we wouldn't want to experience God in any other place. He is clearly at work, elevation is growing and there is huge life changing events happening and people far from God are being filled with life in Christ....

....and the best is yet to come!!!