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)-

Jose Daniel

A little Orphan from Honduras that has captured mine & Greg's heart.

My Family

Meet my class

14But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Romans 10:14-15

God has blessed me with the privilege of teaching Sunday School at our church. This month we are focusing on learning about missionaries. Above is our memory verse for the week. We recently learned about GCM missionaries in The Netherlands, Ukraine & Poland. We tried perogies, and hot cocoa (made with real cocoa and whipped our own whip cream). Here is a photo of one of our classes.
Enjoy!

Back to School

Well, I am back in school - learning Spanish with 5 of my favorite friends........ the 5 middle Groff kids. It is a blast, I go over during my lunch for our 1/2 hour lesson daily taught by Cecilia - a native Honduran. I don't know that I will know much by the time I go to Honduras, but perhaps if God leads me to go back in 2007 I will be more knowledgeable of the language.

Graduation Day

This past weekend Buckeye graduated from his intermediate training class - we are so proud of our now 1 year old puppy! We hope to in January sign him up for the advanced class with the goal of him reciving his Canine Good Citizen® (CGC) title. To lean all that Buckeye will need to continure to work on for this check out http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cgc.html.

Hope you enjoy these fun photos!

Is it ok to be sad?

There is so much to share, so many amazing things God has been doing in my life. So many "Divine" appointments I have had and a lot of God helping me continue to overcome my fears......even small one's that I had come to see as part of my life & who I am, not fears.

For example, I have been killing spiders, and the size of spiders I have been killing is getting bigger & bigger. The other day I was in my car and a nasty spider was crawling on the inside of my car & I just took a napkin & squished it - yes especially for my sisters & parents I hope you are proud, as you were there in my younger years as I really struggled with spiders. Some may not see this as anything big, however I see it as God fulfilling His promises to me, not only in the large fears I face, but also the seemingly small ones.

Another cool fear he has broken for me, and I laugh as I right this, but......not plugging my nose when I swim under water (fearing I would drown if not). I have all my life wanted to be able to swim under water with out plugging my nose & tried & tried, but never could. Well, the crazy thing is the other week at the pool I tried it a few times & I can do it.

Now some of you may be thinking I have gone crazy, however I believe that God is providing me freedom in these small areas of fear as well as the large ones. How cool is God that he loves us in all these ways!

So, what is going on with me today?? Well, God is trying to teach me that it is ok to be sad. I am now understanding why this is something I struggle with so much, but yet still have a hard time thinking that being sad is a bad thing.

Why you may ask am I sad? Well, I feel like my last 2 years have constantly been a time of say good-bye to people & here I am again. My former boss is leaving GCM to go back and practice law. He and his family are moving to Indianapolis. Over the last 2 years going through a lot of hardships at our office, working closely with him, and getting to know his family, it is affecting me more than I thought it would.

I am sad, but is it ok? My role in life has always been to make people happy, encourage & get a smile out of them. So, yes, I know it is ok, but are other people ok with me being sad?

Which brings me back to the thing God has been trying to get me to believe for the last year.....................that I am enough.......not what I do, who I encourage, how my attitude is, just me....where I am at....how I honestly feel....that is enough........... but why can't I believe that? -

-c-
p.s. the photo is of Aaron & Abi - 2 of my bosses kids - this is from a recent even we had at H20.

The Handsomest Hubby in the World!!

If you lived in Europe where would it be?

Well, I am going to Amsterdam in the fall and recently saw this on my friend Jenni's blog, it is cute and interesting & I am sure that Grandma Meyer would be happy to see that according to my personality, if I lived in Europe, Dublin would be the place for me:)

Feel free to click the link below and see where you would most likely enjoy.

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

In my time with God this morning I created this to express some things I am feeling and the promises He is giving me .

Isaiah 58: 10-12 (The Message)
10 If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down--and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

will always show you where to go.
I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places--
firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.

Well as many of you know things at the office where I work are a bit crazy. We currently have 4 people leaving and I just found out of one more that has yet to be announced.

Yesterday was Priscilla's last day, Priscilla has become not just a friend to me, but a fellow soldier in this spiritual war. Through out the last year and a half when either of us struggles or fights off the enemy's attacks, we have been committed to daily fighting along side each other through prayer. This is a very unique relationship, Priscilla is 34 years older than me, it is uncommon that our paths would cross and a life lasting friendship would form.

Priscilla is getting married this up coming week - I have had the honor to help with many of the details and am going to miss the daily updates of what married life will look like for her and Jack.

However, I am also very excited about the obedience Priscilla is showing to God. She has taken huge steps in breaking down stronghold in her life and preparing her self whole heartedly for marriage.

You may wonder how this all relates to my experience at the office......well, I feel right now God is asking people to be obedient to him, work through any strongholds in their life, and allow Him to prepare them for the next step, regardless of if it is at GCM or not.

Last night one of my favorite people in Orlando, Peggy Dunn, shared the verses above with me.
I am praying for God to
-Show me my place in all the transitions
-allow me a fullness even on my sad days of feeling loss
-allow me to be a well-watered garden
-and amaze me how he rebuilds things from the rubble.

I know the months to come will be a challenge, however I am also trusting God to care for me completely.