(pictures coming soon.)
Larry and Betty came down to Indiana to celebrate Elisha and Larry's birthdays! They got a hotel room and Brad, Elisha, and I stayed with them! It was nice to be with them and see Elisha have so much fun. She's so full of life. I enjoyed the big queen bed and so did Brad. It was quite a blessing to have breakfast prepared for you to eat in the morning! I made Elisha a birthday cake and we went to Mr. Gatti's to celebrate! It was a small intimate party with Brad, his parents, myself, the birthday girl, Nancy, Chris, & our dear friend Calli. Elisha dug her fingers into the cake before she could blow the candle out. LOL After eating and opening a few gifts we went back into Gatti Land and played some neat games. My favorite of course is; Skeet Ball. Elisha loves the basketball games and she liked sitting on Daddy's lap to play an arcade game of car racing.
The next day, Monday, we all got up and headed back to Nancy's house and decided to take a walk. It was an absolute perfect sunshiny day! Elisha played in the park as we talked plans of Elisha and I going up to Michigan to visit for a few weeks. Now here we are and I'm so glad we're here. Elisha is really enjoying her grandparents, and of course missing her daddy, and so am I... that is my husband.
Brad and I had a date night and saw To Save A Life. It's about this young white teenager who had a best friend growing up who was black and saved his life. They were playing "trick or treat" in the middle of July (as most boys do) and the one boy wasn't paying attention as his young black friend pushed him out of harms way from a vehicle. The young black man was injured to the point of being crippled. He cheered his friend on as he played in all kinds of sports. Later in Freshmen year of High School the young white teen was a basketball star and gained a lot of attention and decided to ditch his friend who saved his life for popularity and a girlfriend. The story goes on and one day the young black teen commits suicide. The young white teen's life, a senior then, is changed forever... and at that you'll have to see the movie for yourself to find out what happens and how many lives are changed.
Official movie website: http://tosavealifemovie.com/index.php
I will tell you during the movie I was weeping and being broken. I was being broken because the L-rd was showing me faces of people I knew as a single woman and married to Brad that had been touched and were changed b/c we chose Jesus instead of ourselves and it saved a life (lives). That's what it is all about. You can't have true revival until you take G-d to the people. I believe that the body of Christ is outside of four walls and that she will become united and more powerful to touch others when she reaches out to the hurting world around her. To the dirty, needy, poor, and most wretched, to the loners, the cutters, the ones left aside who feel so alone. G-d wants to use you and me, my family and yours through prayers and intercession, through the works of love and faith to change lives. If we don't love the convict, if we don't love the kid messed up on drugs or alcohol, the lonely girl who cuts herself, the girl who clings to any boy, the guy who walks alone crooked and mocked at who will?
Once I hugged a homeless woman and it was the greatest hug I have ever received and given. I wanted to keep holding her and pouring love in her that she beamed with it. Being on the streets and being empowered by the Holy Spirit in love and the authority of Christ in me is my greatest desire. I wait upon the L-rd as He is doing a mighty work in me and my family to bring us to the most humble place that we can be used in the highest places. Those places are where my future brothers and sisters await. Those places are where we'll see many receive their L-rd and King, be healed, delivered, set free, made whole. Right now that place is Bedford, Indiana. The youth in that town are being so affected by the Love of Christ we're seeing them so transformed they are looking more and more like love and living in it. Many of them have seen the movie and are being moved by the Holy Spirit to do more and to be there "brothers keeper" to love their neighbors as they love themselves.
The greatest lesson Brad and I are learning is: to know nothing except Christ Crucified. A crucified life. I know I've received the revelation of Jesus Christ and who He is but Brad and I are receiving the deeper knowledge of bearing our cross and the true joy that comes out of loving and serving others and denying self and diving into the Glory of our King.
“Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him." (Matt. 28)
We love all of you and thank you all for your prayers over us and for us. We pray our lives will bless you because of Christ in us the Hope of Glory.
"And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimonya]">[a] of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of humanb]">[b] wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." (1Corinth. 2:1-5)
