new year news...

happy january...yes, almost february! hard to believe. it has been a busy start to the year in our Embrace Office and many of our pastors, excited about a new year, have hit the ground running with planning projects and outreach for the coming year. we are regularly making comments about how much farther along we are this year as compared to last January. praise the Lord for progress!

i've had the privilege of working with one of my AR churches (shout-out to FBC London!) to help get them set up for the (BIG!) possibility of coming to serve with one of our churches this summer. it will be exciting to see some familiar faces and let some home folks experience the joy and burden of this city that i love.

i also have the marvelous opportunity of being one of the missionaries at this year's Global Impact Celebration at FBC Rogers, my home church. so excited about that. i told a friend today, i felt like a little girl whose "grown-up" dreams had all come true!

a number of sermon messages, my own quiet times in the Word (specifically Genesis and Isaiah), and the past Christmas season have all had me thinking a lot about salvation and sin and grace. i cannot and will not ever understand the full depth of God's grace in my life, but i am inexplicably thankful for that grace and for the salvation that set me free as a small child. after a challenging year of changes and adjustments and new environments, i am overwhelmed by God's perfect and all-consuming love for me. delight has been the word on my heart lately...i have been delighting in my Lord like i haven't in a long time. i am finding fulfillment in hearing from my sweet Father's heart and learning what it means to trust in His plan and be content with His will no matter what. i'm not there yet, if there's anything i've learned this year, it's that we are ALL on a journey. a journey to know Him and make Him known. i praise Him that the longer we are on it the closer we get to Him. i'd encourage you to thank the Lord for sweet salvation today and then perhaps we ought to ask Him to help us live out loud with the joy of that salvation.

as you pray for us this week i'd just ask for you to remember a few things...

- That our churches and their VBS planning teams would think beyond the event and put in place effective follow-up teams
- For our national partners as they pray, plan and prepare to travel to Baltimore to serve with our churches in 2009
- For our association as a whole to develop a burden for discipleship and seek to develop Christ-followers and not just converts
- For our churches to catch a vision for ministering to youth and training up leaders who will commit to investing in students
- For me personally to learn creative ways to encourage and equip my churches and to continue to delight in the work God has given me

thanks for your faithful prayers and love and support. you all are a treasure and a blessing to me. praying you enjoy Jesus this week...

maria