How to host a dinner Party

I love working for GraceRiver Church (GR) - for those of you who may not know I left my position at GCM 2 months ago and started my own design business, p20design & photography, and went on staff with GR.

GraceRiver is a new church plant in SouthEast Orlando that is 7 months old. God has been doing temendous things though the people involved... I will blog later on some of these cool "God Stories."

Anyway, the name of this weeks experience was "How to host a dinner Party" to listen to the message click here (itpc://www.ridetheriver.org/rss.xml)

12 Hour Blitz

Last Saturday Greg and I had a fun packed crazy day with our teens. We had a 12 hour day of fun (which for us looked more like 14 hours). We started out handing out 400 bottles of water and sunscreen at the local soccer fields and then headed off for a Photo scavenger hunt, bowling, pool party, pizza party, miniature golf, laser tag, ice cream Sunday party. It was a great day of connection with the kids - some huge bonds were made.

God is doing so much in the lives of these kids - this last week at our Wednesday night meeting I was able to share the gospel with my group of about 10 girls - 3 of them made decisions to follow Christ.

How amazing is that!!! There is nothing else I would rather be doing than sharing Christ with the lost. I love where God has me in life, it is busy, but for once in a long time I feel content.

View lots of EPIC Blitz photos at

EPIC BLITZ - Album 1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8104&l=0003d&id=519207398


EPIC BLITZ - Album 2

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8106&l=a050b&id=519207398


EPIC BLITZ - Album 3

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8108&l=b5b02&id=519207398

Baptism

We just had our first baptism at GraceRiver - it was so cool! We had 12 people get baptized, many of them very new in their faith. It is so cool to see people's lives changing. Here are a few photos - one is of me and Gloria, an amazing women in our church that I am enjoying getting to know.
-c-

Frogs & Toads Oh my.......how cute they are

It amazes me the ways that if we are open to it, God will change our heart.....

As many of you may know for most of my life I have not been an animal lover. About 2 years ago God spoke to me in the frozen food isle of SuperTarget and told me I needed to let Greg get a dog. I remember stopping and having this conversation with God saying "where is this coming from & am I hearing you right?" I was pretty afraid of dogs at this point, yet clearly knew this is what God was saying.

I broke the news to Greg and he was ecstatic, but also in shock at what I was saying......... long story short we now have the most adorable lovable puppy whom I completely adore & could not imagine our family without.
However, this was not always the case, especially in the early months of potty and crate training. This was especially difficult as I cared for this puppy, but would not yet say that I loved him. Now it is completely different.
I have learned many lessons about God through my dog, I know it sounds crazy, but I constantly see glimpses of my relationship with God in my relationship with Buckeye.

One of the most bizarre things is that my love for Buckeye has also become a love for most all animals. We have a toad that is always out back every night, the other day I found that he somehow got in the house & died underneath Buckeye's large dog pillow - I was so sad. I still am.

However, recently another small toad has shown up outback. The other night he jumped in the house, I was determined that he would have a different fate than our last friendly toad. As I started to push our furniture all over the room to grab him, yes you heard me right, me grabbing this toad with my bear hands, I realized the lengths that God goes to grab us when we jump into situations that are not the best.

He is consistently pushing furniture away to grab us and bring us back to those safe places, yet like the frog we think we know the best way & keep jumping into the danger that lies ahead.

You may by now think that i am crazy, however I hope that the next time you see a chocolate lab or a jumping frog you will think about the love and protection of God that is all around us that we so often miss.
-c-

Babies

Do get excited........ but they are not the babies you are probably thinking of.... 2 weeks ago we had 16 of our youth kids accept Christ - it is so exciting!! I am going to be starting a Bible Study with 4 of them - please be praying for our times.

Old blog post from 2005

These are a few blog entries from my old blog back from

July 26th 2005
Well, life has been a bit down for me lately - I am really excited & feel so blessed that we have a house, but am also begining to realize that the plan that God has for mine & Greg's life is not exactly what I had imagined. While Florida is becoming more like home - I am having a deep sadness over the changing relationships of those who don't live here. I am missing my family a lot & trying to understand what this new phase of life & friendships will look like from a distance. I know that it will be good, just not the same.

Below is a section that a friend wrote a few months back - I place it here because it really sums up how I am feeling

I have been weary. Struggling to not give in to the pressures of everyday life, struggling to not let burdens weigh me down. I struggle with feeling like the cross I have been given is too much to carry. I’ve felt pressure from many sides. There isn’t enough time in the day to accomplish everything. I feel like I am letting people down, causing hurt and bringing pain. Am I too busy? Do I have too much on my plate? Or is this just a season? I realize much of the pressure I feel is from within…expectations I have for myself. When I don’t meet them I feel like I’ve failed.


Some Verses God is speaking to me through

Jeremiah 17:7-8
James
Exodus 18:18





Well, over the past few months there has been a lot of stress at at times it has been very easy to lose site of why I am in the job I am in. Today I was reminded in a huge way..........http://givenew.blogspot.com/2005/07/seeing.html ........ this blog is from one of our missionaries in Amsterdam. When sometimes I get caught up in paperwork and administrative things that seem to have no impact on the kingdom, I need to realize that we here at the HQ are a support to the many oversees and on campuses. Our work is not useless but helps in equipping others to go out.

Look what I have been up to

Check out this link to see some of the latest design & photography work I have been doing.

http://p20design.carbonmade.com/

Spring has come to the earth, and my heart

Living in Orlando, we don't have drastic seasons like I was familar with growing up in Northwest Ohio. After living in Orlando for almost 3 years now, I can recognize the Florida 'seasons' - it goes from warm to hot to dripping with sweat.

I have been traveling a lot over the past month ad I have experienced spring in 3 places - Europe, Tennessee and now Colorado. It is like a breath of fresh air that I had forgotton all about. The newness all around the fraility of buds begining to burst forth with new life and joy.

As I look around at the spring I sense in my heart that it is also spring time. That God is breathing life into parts of me that have been dormant for sometime - that He is awakening things in me that are getting ready to burst forth.

God is asking me to allow him to gently unfold the buds in my heart and make them into beautiful flowers. While this process seems so hard and requires so much trust, I can't imagine what it will look like in the end.

The photo above is one I took in Slovina - I love that it has flowers that have bloomed and full buds ready to burst forth - imagine if it was only buds and never blooms - what beauty we would miss out on.

I am trusting God for the areas in my heart He wants to make into flowers, one unfolding petal at a time.

Isaiah 43:19

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Design Work

Check out the latest 2 websites I have designed...
One for our church GraceRiver, and one for our Youth Group EPIC - both in South East Orlando, FL.
Enjoy!

www.ridetheriver.org

www.epicorlando.com

Traveling, Traveling, Traveling

Well, I am currently in Colorado Springs attending a EPA Conference - it is going well, but I am ready to be back in Orlando for a while with my hubby and puppy - traveling is rough!

God has been teaching me so much lately, it is hard to take it all in. I have been spending a lot of time in Isaiah chapters 41-43 - some deep stuff.... God is doing much in my life and providing promises of 'New" things He has planned... more to come soon on what I have been learning.

To Europe and Back

Well, I have just returned from Slovenia - I was there serving at our Europe Missionary Retreat. I took professional photos and helped watch the missionary kids.
It was great, but also exhausting - I got sick while I was there, and am still trying to recover.

This Saturday I head off for Tennessee to spend a week in the wilderness and in solutide with God - I am really looking forward to it.
Here are some photos from Europe - enjoy!

Ride the River

I thought ya'll might enjoy seeing some of the design stuff I am doing for our new church - the website is still rough, but in weeks to come I may be doing some work on that - I am currently working on putting together a website for our youth group - it is going to be 'hot & really edgy' I am enjoying using my gifts in these creative ways - Hopefully you guys will get a chance in the future to see this new aspect of our life.
A large role thatt Greg and I will play is with the youth- tonight is our first 'house party' for our core team of youth - getting to know each other and casting vision - prayers would be appreciated. Our first big kick off is Feb 14th.
More soon.
Caroline

Moving On

Well, it is with much sadness that I write this... Greg and I have felt lead to move on from H20 church. This has been a very difficult decision for us, but also something that we feel has clearly been from God.

We will miss the community of friends that has been our first 'home' since our move to Orlando, but trust God to still deepen may of those friendships.

So what next you may ask..... we were not sure ourselves, until God 'mailed' us a answer. A postcard that had a photo of our old pastor from Ada on it that has moved down here to start a new church that is family oriented, a place in our life that we are hoping God will bless us in during the next 6 months.

We have connected with Pastor Ken and his wife and are now helping to plant another church.
How crazy is that - there are many other details to share in regard to the heartach and joy we are feeling during this process - hopefully in months to come I will express that more on this blog.

So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
- Ezra 8:23 (NIV)-