It is easy in life to get discouraged and think that things are going pretty badly. The thing that I have learned, especially or the last year or so, is that you don’t have to look very far to see people that have it worse than you do. You look around and there is hurt and pain all around. Broken families, broken homes, broken hearts, broken lives. I found that at times of great discouragement God is always there as well. He is never far off. All you have to do is look for him.
The last year of my life has been a learning experience for me. There are times where I have started to feel pretty sorry for myself, but through everything that I have been through God has blessed me beyond anything that I could truly imagine. There are three specific blessings in my life that have been huge for me.
In October of 2009 I moved to a new church. I have never felt more at home in church than I have felt over the last several months at Lewisville Bible Church. If I had to describe it, I would say it is just a small country bible church. It is filled with good God loving people. It never cease to amaze me how God’s people are capable of such friendship and hospitality. God has brought Bernie and Deigh Moore into my life as well at church. It is a little strange because they have a lot in common with my own parents. They have reached out to me with love and hospitality so much over the past several months. It has been awesome. I truly feel like I am part of their family.
Bernie and Deigh are the directors of the AWANA JV group at LBC. When they found out that I had been involved in AWANA all of my life, they encouraged me to get involved at LBC as well. I really felt that God was leading me to get involved with it as well and I was very excited about the opportunity. I thank God for all of the AWANA leaders that were in my life from the time that I was five years old all the way through the JV program at Alpine Baptist Church. They gave of their time and energy to be there for me every single week. I never really realized what a commitment it was on their part until I started working with the JV group this year. It has been such a blessing and encouragement to me though. It is awesome to work with these young men and woman and encouraging them to memorize scripture. I know my line is getting worn out on these young men, but I tell them every week that there may come a time when we may not be able to have bible and that is why it is so important to memorize it. It’s awesome watching them take up the challenge.
You know when God works his plan is perfect. It’s unbelievable. So almost fourteen years ago Jake VanOwen started having a men’s prayer meeting in his home on Saturday mornings. Fourteen years ago I was twelve years old. Jake didn’t know me and he certainly did not know where my life would be at now, but for fourteen years he has been faithfully meeting with a group of guys on Saturday mornings and praying. Only an amazing all-knowing God could have known where my life would take me and only he could have known that this Saturday morning prayer meeting that I would start attending fourteen years later would be one of the single greatest sources of encouragement in my life. Talk about a crazy journey. You can’t make this stuff up. I mean really…think about it. It brings tears to my eyes.
You know, the heroes of the church are often unsung. Its guys like Jake, and David, and Bernie, and Lynn, and John, and Dan, these guys are true heroes of the faith. There are some many things that I am sure they could have been doing on Saturday mornings for the past fourteen years, but instead they felt the most important thing was for them to be there meeting and lifting one another up before the throne of grace.
Welcome to my Journey...