Mustard Seed Faith

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law, Scott! Hope you had a great day!

~Scott with his family~

I want to wish my Father-in-law (Dale) and my Sister-in-law (Joy) a very Happy Birthday! God bless you both!

~Joy with her family~

 To Joy: You truly are a blessing to me. Who would have ever thought that growing up as childhood friends would one day lead to us becoming sisters? I just LOVE it. I remember so many slumber parties and birthday parties. Nights when we didn’t go to sleep at all. Playing Sardines and wondering if you really did disappear… Only to discover you had been hiding in the closet all along, and I just never saw you there. Hot summer days in the swimming pool that seemed to last forever… Being almost blistered from staying in the pool all day, but we didn’t seem to care. I still have “before” and “after” pictures of our many makeovers. I’ll never forget how you almost pinned me against the wall just to get eyeliner on me…lol! The days we spent doing school work together and the many homeschool field trips we went on. Camp meetings we went to…you being beside me, and praying for me the night I got saved! Being completely soaked after riding the Blazing Fury ride at Dollywood so many times in a row.  I remember when you went to Crown College your first year and how nervous you were. I remember praying for you that God would help you in those first days with being so homesick. I remember you traveling to so many places and the letters and post cards you would send to me. Then you would come home and I remember how great it was to see my friend again. I remember the night you told me that you and Jamin were engaged. The look on your face was priceless as you showed off your ring to everyone. Being one of your bridesmaids and thinking that day that I had never seen a wedding as beautiful as yours! Seeing you wipe tears from your eyes when I came in the hospital room and saw you holding Jackson for the very first time. It was so precious! So many little fun things I remember from us growing up to the big events in our lives as adults. These were just a few! Thank you for being such a great friend and now such a great sister-in-law.

 ~My Mother and Father-in-law, Dale & Peggy~

To Dale: I remember when we first met your family. I believe I would have been around 10-11 years old. I remember thinking that you must have been considered a giant because you were the tallest man I had EVER seen! I remember being at your house one time to spend the day with Joy and you came home for your lunch break. Before you left to go back to work you put me and Joy in your bucket truck and lifted the bucket as high as it would go…I also remember closing my eyes and hanging on for dear life until we got to the top and then opening them to see everything from so high up and thinking how cool it was to be as high as the tree tops! I remember the first and only time I’ve ever rode a horse was at your house. You let me ride Magic and as you led him around the back yard I started to fall off. I remember you grabbed the saddle and pushed me back up… It wasn’t but just a few minutes later that I asked to get off. HaHa! I remember one morning we were sitting at the table eating waffles for breakfast… They had batman imprints in them and you were humming the song from the batman movie! I remember playing softball on your team and learning so much about the sport I loved. You were the first coach I had ever had to put a broom handle in my hand and say that if I could hit a mini sized ball with that then I could definitely hit a softball with a great big bat! I remember hearing you preach many messages and I remember some of the Sunday school lessons you taught. Some of those things have stuck in my mind for all this time. I pray I will never forget them! You seem to me to be a man of few words but when you do speak you are respected and people listen. Your wisdom and knowledge of God’s Word is inspiring. I remember the faith that you have always had in the Lord. Even when there were hard times you always showed that there was no other way to live than to trust in Him knowing HE would take care of everything. I can’t imagine having a better Mother and Father-in-law! It was a wonderful day (in more than one way) when I became apart of the Snow Family! Thank you for the example that you have always been and for all y’all do for me and Jonathan now!

This past Sunday was our missions day at church… I just LOVE missions day and being apart of a church that has such a heart for missions is so wonderful! Pastor had Bro. Dean Hamby come to preach for us, and he brought two wonderful messages. His wife, Ms. Karen has been battling breast cancer and it was a blessing to see her there and that she seems to be doing well. They were Missionaries to Africa for many years and now Bro. Hamby is the assistant director of Macedonia World Baptist Missions.

So… What is missions day exactly? It’s a special day devoted to missions, and we have several special things that our church does with the missionaries.

*Faith Promise – this is where each family that chooses to be involved will pledge an amount of money that they would like to give. This is money is given to help support the missionaries financially. Our church does not hold anyone accountable if they don’t give it’s just between them and the Lord. You can give weekly or monthly, whichever you choose. Then each time, you put the money in a small envelope put it in the offering plate and then the church sends out a check to each missionary we support.

*Prayer Letters – we receive these letters back from the missionaries to keep us here at home up to date on how things are going in the field. It’s nice hearing back from them each month and knowing what is going on in their lives and in their work for the Lord. Some of them even have blogs we can follow to be even more involved with them. But anyway, something we do with the prayer letters is each year you choose a missionary to partner with and you pray for them specifically throughout the year. Then when their prayer letter comes in, you will be given a copy of the letter so you can read through it and know how to pray for their needs.

*Missionary Wives – Along the same lines as the prayer letters our Pastor’s wife, Ms. Tammy has encouraged our ladies to be involved in something new this year. Praying for the wives of those families. As our Pastor said Sunday, “It seems like sometimes the wife is over looked because she is not in the for-front like her husband is, but her role is just as important.” She faces many battles of which I could not even begin to imagine. Yet, she is there because God placed in her heart to go.

These families many times leave behind their families, friends, church, and all that is familiar to them to go to a new place unlike anything they have ever known. They sometimes experience culture shock because everything is so different. They don’t speak the language, the food is strange, they’re sometimes exposed to diseases and became sick, they experience financial difficulties, they are homesick, their lives are sometimes put at risk being in dangerous situations, some countries have political unrest. I’m sure they are faced with those who don’t want to hear what they have to say. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. They do this all because God’s love constrains them to go. In Sunday’s message one thing that Bro. Hamby mentioned was “How can you love a world and all those people more than yourself? He said, It comes from the Lord because He loves through you.” If you have His love in you then you can’t help but tell others what HE has done for you, and that they can have the same joy as you. REAL joy and peace can only come from the Lord!

In some ways we are all missionaries! God didn’t say that only preachers, evangelists, and missionaries were the ones to tell a dying world about Him. We have ALL been called, but some of us He calls to go around the world, while some of us are supposed to go out and reach our own community. The lives and souls of our own neighbors are just as important to Him as the ones in a far away country. The question for all of us (me included is this) are we willing to go wherever HE would have us go?

I suppose this post has been very scattered, but those are some thoughts I’ve had going through my mind the past few days. Our church supports 40 different mission projects! What a blessing! It is all through the Lord and HIS blessing that we have been able to do what we are. Like I said above, our church truly has a heart for missions, and I pray it never stops because being apart of something so great and seeing how the Lord is working through it all is really so WONDERFUL!

Here are a few pictures I took on Sunday.

Bro. Dean & Mrs. Karen Hamby

Ms. Barbara playing the organ

Bro. Dean Hamby preaching

Pastor opening up the worship service with a few words

Special singing done by Bro. Randal Landrum

Opening Sunday School devotion by Bro. Keith Williams

Mrs. Tammy playing the piano

There were others involved through-out the day, but unfortunately these are the only pictures I was able to get.

Check it out! These things are pretty neat. A good friend of mine told me about these and so I had to try them out for myself. It made a HUGE difference and took my cluttered up mess and made it so much easier to see what I had. I had spools of ribbon laying everywhere and strips of ribbon in a basket but they were so tangled that when I would try to pull out one piece the whole ball would come out with one strand. Very frustrating… But these are very functional and practical especially when you have a lot like I do! Check out their website. I highly recommend them, and the prices are pretty reasonable. www.ribbonrings.com

Hi Everyone! I hope you will like my new website! Please visit often. I am trying to keep up with my blog a little better than I did before. Stay tuned for my next post!