Phhhttttt.....

Um... yeah.  That's what my brain feels like these days... total and complete mush.  What does church planting entail you may wonder?  Well I can tell you from these past few weeks that it's a whole lot of little things that will eventually culminate into one big thing, for one big cause.  And it will make these little things worthwhile.  The reason that my brain feels like mush is that all these little things?  Yeah, they all happen at the same time.  Multitasking has taken on a whole new meaning as I feel like I'm constantly doing about eight different things at a time.  So here's the latest updates about our journey:

• Our first informational meeting is on Monday night in the Paris, KY community.  To say we're excited, anxious, and full of anticipation would be an understatement.  A few weeks ago we created and mailed out about 225 six-page newsletters introducing ourselves, outlining the vision a bit, and inviting folks to join us.  Yesterday we hit them up again with reminder post-cards.  Mind you, the first mailer entailed the creation, proof reading, printing, and hand-writing the addresses on them.  The second one was much easier to create and we printed them at home, but we wrote personalized messages as well as hand-written addresses on each and every one.  I felt like we were doing wedding invitations or thank-you cards all over again.  We both feel like a personal invite will go a long way in getting people to join us, and we wanted folks to understand that we care about each and every one of them.  We prayed over ever family as we worked and I truly hope that we get to put a lot of faces to names next week.
• Getting organized has been a challenge thus far.  We're living at my sister and brother-in-law's house, which has been a huge blessing by the way and we're so very grateful, but with no dedicated office space, it's a bit tough to keep up with everything.  My sister did upgrade her filing cabinet recently, so I took her old one and have set up shop in the guest room where we're staying.  Slowly but surely we're getting there and my next big task is to learn how to use the budget software and reconcile what has been given with what has been sent.  I'm a geek and love that sort of thing, so I'm actually looking forward to that project.
• We're still trying to get our website off the ground, and unfortunately, the process has been slowed down mostly by the company that is designing it.  It's been a bit frustrating, but we're updating the pages that we can as we can get to them and the "fancy parts" will hopefully be up soon.  Ideally we would love to have it looking great before our Monday night gathering.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but add that in to working full-time, raising a son, finding a place to live, and making connections with people we meet here (which Josh is doing a far better job than I am!) and it adds up to quite a bit.  Not to mention that there is never a dull or quiet moment in a house where nine (yes nine... my parents have been in town for a couple of weeks, too) people are staying and you can't even really hear yourself think.  

The only real hang-up we've had so far is that we really haven't had a whole lot of quiet time for devotions, reading, or prayer.  These are probably the things that we should be most focused on, as we're taking a huge leap of faith to even start this journey, but finding five minutes of peace and quiet is not something that happens a whole lot.  And when I do find it, I just want to close my eyes and bask in the silence... it's such a beautiful thing.  I still talk to God quite a bit, but I know that He would probably have a whole lot more to say back if I just made the time to listen and let Him.  The void gets bigger everyday and so it's something that even just tonight we talked about changing.  We're both better people, spouses, parents, friends, and pastors when we carve out that time.

Just like the title, I feel like this has been a very blah post, and so for that I apologize.  I've also somewhat neglected my little blog for no better reason than a lack of time and energy.... well, that and not really knowing what to post about or where to begin.  People ask all the time how it's going or what we've been up to and it's difficult to even put into words, which is crazy since I rarely run out of things to say.  Maybe one day I'll be able to sort through it all and put it into a recap of the entire adventure, but sometimes when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to see the forest through the trees.  There are just so many things that you just don't learn from reading books on church planting- truly living it out is a completely different and unique experience.  What I can say, however, is that we're still enjoying everyday, still learning a lot, and still feel like we're exactly where God has called us to be.  I know my husband feels like he's not doing enough, but I have never been more proud of him.  He's been a great leader thus far, he's working his tail off, and he is so very encouraging.  There is not even a glimmer of doubt as to whether this was the right move for us, and we have not even seen any fruit yet!  But everyday I remind myself that Jesus taught that He is the vine and we are the branches.  With this in mind, I also remind myself that branches don't have fruit on them all year round... there are seasons of growth and preparation for the harvest and that is where we sit.  Even though the grapes have not shown up on those branches yet, a farmer must do all that he can to prepare, grow, and foster that plant for a harvest.  Grape season is coming and we're praying for a harvest that is bigger than we could have imagined... and when that time comes, we will be ready.  One baby step at a time.