Tennessee... a Home like no other!

Sometimes I wonder, "How am I so blessed?"...

Living in Tennessee is a dream! Our family and friends have a thought because it is the "bible belt" and we are conservative and Christian that we moved here... that is a plus for us personally, but we really moved here because our dream is to have land of our very own to raise children on and to one day have a flock of sheep so I can pursue my spinning addiction (no intervention, please! haha) and because we love sheep!

 Here in Tennessee, the people are so sweet and kind and always willing to give a helping hand, that sometimes it's a conviction to me! I always thought I was very personable with people, but not as much as the people here! They will stop whatever it is that they are doing to have a lovely chat with you (however long it may be! No one is in any rush) and swap recipes and ideas on what colors would go well with what kind of yarn or quilting pattern, and give their "secrets" passed down from their mama's and grandmothers on how to raise children the correct way (even though we don't have children just yet!)... There is so much love here, you can't escape it! 

Our friends are blessed to live on this land with their own lake to fish from!

The countryside here is exquisite... Tennessee is blessed with over abundance of fresh water that rains from the heavens and graces the land with life giving water that penetrates this rich fertile soil and out from it grows the most colorful landscape! 

Not too long ago, we drove by this very small family farm that had cattle and horses and some alpaca contently grazing the lush grass, and I didn't envy this farm, I thank God for them. For this family obviously worked hard to get what they have now, and thus inspires others that the dream of owning land and working it to sustain itself is doable! 

An old barn still standing! Gorgeous!

Sometimes I look outside my front window and can't help but shed happy tears... My life has never been perfect, has never been "easy" but by the grace of my Lord, Jesus Christ... I am reaping the blessings... to store for myself? No! To share with others and to sow in their lives... 

 I daily pray that I may be a blessing to others either in deed or word... that all I do bring honor to the Lover of my soul! 

 Look around you, and count your blessings!

Spring has finally arrived!!!!

Forgive the cluttered coffee table,but on the first day of Spring I did some spring cleaning and spring decorating! Can you spot Sadie?

 Winter... Winter made quite a show this year!

You see, I come from sunny California! Our winter is (if lucky), maybe hits the late 40's and some snow way up on the mountains, but usually we get a cool mid 50's and in that it's still very chilly!
In San Diego winter I would wear jeans, flip flops, a zip up thin jacket over a tank top and maybe a beanie. Oh! How naive I was!

 I remember on the drive to Tennessee we drove up toward Flagstaff, AZ and it was 19 degree weather!!! In our SUV it was nice and warm and cozy so of course I was wearing shorts and flip flops (wearing closed toe shoes or even walking shoes felt claustrophobic to me! Yes, I was spoiled!), Ha ha, I remember we spent the night at a rest stop and it was about 1am and I needed to run to the ladies room and I thought, "Oh, it's really not that cold!", so I opened the door with a light jacket, shorts and flip flops and in that exact moment, I knew, this cold was about to be the death of me!

 I closed the door and tried to look for my socks, walking shoes, jeans, sweater... ANYTHING, but I was desperate because...well, I couldn't hold it!

dried lavender on the living room window!

 Unfortunately, I did not even find one sock in my rush so... I decided to brave it. Be proud of me, my fellow read, for I braved the element with extreme bravery. I looked at my husband who gazed at me with half admiration at what I was about to do, and half "you're kidding."... I told him, "I love you, if I don't return in 15 minutes... pull the car around cos i'm not coming back in this cold." Hahaha!

 It all was like slow motion... I opened the door... I stepped my foot out on the road... every fiber of my being was screaming, "IT'S SO COLD!!!!", I tried to walk with the dignity and poise of a Lady with my head held high...when I closed the door a gust of freezing wind overtook me and I RAN like there was no tomorrow!

 As I was running I was puzzled at the sound the wind was making... "I didn't know the wind can scream like that! That scream would send chills up any persons spine", until I realized that scream came from me as I was running as fast as I could to the warmth of the restrooms, yes, it was that COLD!

Mason jars (I painted and distressed) with dried flowers on top of distressed pallet I made back in San Diego!

 Upon returning to the car, I didn't even care if I looked like I fool, I ran back to the SUV, one trucker walking past me bundled up gave me a double take and said, "GIRL! What are you wearing! Get your sweater!", how right he was!!!!

 Going through my first Ice Storm was amazing, everything was so... white. Well, no duh. But I mean i'm not used to white in the winter time! San Diego is always brown (hardly any rain)!

 Now, SPRING HAS COME! And Tennessee is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!

Life is awakening!

"How can this girl write so much on Spring?", Because I have to tell you... i've never seen so much GREEN and wild flowers! It just gives you something to be thankful for, I am thankful to call Tennessee, Home!

 One of our desires is to plant a summer veggie garden (we've been blessed to have a neighbor who is a professional gardner, so she was schooling us in the fun and excitement of growing our own food!) and dual chickens (for meat and eggs)! We  are hoping to get to it soon because self sufficient as much as we possibly can is our dream!

 Summer Gardening begins end of April, so lets pray we can begin by then! Here's to hopin!

Spinning my own Yarn

 

After spinning and plying I got my result! Still have a lot to learn but i'm proud of how this came out!

I am enjoying my new spinning adventure! 5 hours after being gifted my spinning wheel I figured out how to spin and began to ply!

 My sweet husband (with the help of my daddy) made me a blending hackle under $20, that would have cost me $200 if bought commercially! 

 I hope to soon learn to wash and card my own fleece and dye my own colors (natural dyes i'm more interested in) and blend them into lovely batts! 

I love this wheel!

My first time spinning!

The best kind of view! Beautiful Christmas tree, a gorgeous fire and spinning wheel!

I didn't want to purchase a niddy noddy right away so I used my dining room chair instead!

my husband's homemade blending  hackle he made me!

Blending different colors!

The result of blending different color roving!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

We had a joyous Christmas!

Christmas and New Years was an amazing blessing! First, we got to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in our new home state of Tennessee, and we also had the blessing to have my parents drive all the way here for 2 weeks!!!

My parents on the Appalachian Trail on Smoky Mountain at the Tennessee / North Carolina state line!

 We missed them SO MUCH! Though we saw them last a month ago, but being one day away from them has been hard on Dustin and I, and sometimes it was harder on Dustin because he became very close to them since moving to California from Hawaii.

My husband doing what he does best... being goofy! He can always make my mom laugh, she loves him so much! He's an amazing son to her.

 But I think the one person they missed the most was not Dustin or I... but Sadie. My goodness how much they missed her! Right when Sadie heard their voices, i've never seen her go that crazy!!!!  We had to hurry and let her out of her crate or else she would bend it (she's quite strong), she made a beeline for them and was so excited she was running in circles and between their legs and licking their hands and faces, she was practically crying for joy! She's obviously their baby. I've been over ruled now as the baby in their lives. HaHa! 

My parents "grand dogger", Sadie! She has them wrapped around her paw. She was ecstatic to see them, she missed them so much!

My parents are our best friends, we look up to them so much, their wisdom and giving hearts and selflessness is inspiring and I can't help but beam with pride that I was raised by them and I hope I have made them proud of the daughter they raised!

In our living room playing Apples to Apples, watching reruns of the Office and having amazing family time! When us four are together, it's always fun. Haha!

 Dustin and I talked in our first year of marriage about Christmas. We decided that we won't be giving out gifts unless it's from the heart. We don't believe in going into debt over gifts that really doesn't come out of love but obligation. We have not only enjoyed Christmas more this way but have sometimes pitied those who felt obligated to give or else they will offend! So sad!

 But anyways, my parents have known since September how I desire to own a spinning wheel and make my own yarn! I want to process, dye and spin my own art yarn and have a small home business to sell my designs, for months i've researched and did my homework and already knew the wheel I desired! 

 Christmas morning I woke up and did my morning routine, and as I walked out to the living room, I stopped in my tracks and completely flipped for the amazing gift I saw underneath our tree...
 There was my dream wheel... an Ashford Kiwi 2!

 I felt my heart fluttering, and my mouth slowly opened and I didn't know if I would scream, cry, laugh, or speak in tongues! HaHa! I was so excited and in an overwhelming shock, nothing dramatic came out of my mouth but a whisper, "Is this for real?", to my mama smiling ear to ear and saying, "Merry Christmas!"...

 This was absolutely the best Christmas ever! I was spending it in my dream home, with my dream man, with my dream dog, my dream state, my dream city, and my amazing parents to gift me my dream spinning wheel!!! To God be the Glory!!!

My Ashford Kiwi 2 Spinning Wheel!

 My parents didn't have the instructions for the wheel (as the ladies at the place they purchased it from, were in on the surprise and they had to sneak the wheel from its resting place to their vehicle without me knowing, and they didn't have time to get into a box, they had to get it off display quickly before I found out anything... They have a sweet little shop in Gatlinburg, TN. www.smokymountainspinnery.com), but that didn't stop me!

 Months of watching videos on spinning and blogs and articles, I kind of had an idea... after almost 5 hours of investigating the wheel and refreshing my memory with youtube videos, I began to spin my first yarn from a merino top and hand dyed wool. The next day I finished the spinning and began to ply with another yarn that I spun on my drop spindle some weeks ago!





 There is so much more I need to learn and practice hands on, but i'm excited for it!!!

 For New Years us four went to fellowship with other believers and enjoyed fireworks and a bonfire and yummy food, and rang int the new year with the most amazing worship and prophetic prayer! Oh, how grateful I am to know them and call them my friends and family!!!! 

Amazing Worship!

 I am ready... SO READY for 2015! This year has been full of growth and learning new things, I am now ready to apply certain things in this new year and see what other surprises will come our way, no matter what in all things we give thanks to the Almighty for giving us the blessing of living a new year in Him and whatever comes our way and whatever things we will be experiencing... To God be the Glory!!!!!

My Beloved making the fire!

These 3 are the best family in my life!

Mom and Dad always make the best turkey meals!

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I'm Striving for Perfection

"Be perfect even as your Heavenly Father which is in Heaven is Perfect." - Jesus

 It's amazing that this saying by the Lord can make many Christians SO uncomfortable.
If I even say, "I am striving to be perfect", I can guarantee that many who are believers in the Christ would look at me as if I was the black sheep of the flock. Perfect? NOBODY can be perfect! When we get to Heaven is another thing, but here in this world? Nobody is Perfect but God!

 No. Nobody will ever be God or can ever be exalted in the same manner as God, for He shares His Glory with no man... BUT (and I know this will make some shift in their seats uncomfortably and perhaps even offend), Jesus did command that we be LIKE Him... in perfection.

 Gulp!

 Be like Christ? The most perfect and upright being to ever walk this planet, and not only that, He said to be like the Head Boss of the Trinity, The Heavenly Father!!!!

 That was the original plan, did you know that?

 When God made Man what did He say, "Let us make Man in our own Image AND in our own likeness", that is NOT to say we are mini-gods (blasphemy!), it is to say to be LIKE Him in every way He says is possible, and Perfection has always been that possibility!

 I read scriptures such as, "Be ye holy even as I am Holy" (Lev 11:44; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Amo 3:3, 1 Peter 1:16) and read on by because I was taught that was not possible, even though God Himself has COMMANDED it!

 Last night while having an invigorating time with my parents and husband over a hour and a half devotional (it could have taken 15 minutes, but my goodness, the Word of God is so Rich with nuggets of wisdom and mysteries waiting to be revealed, we couldn't leave it! It actually gave us physical goose bumps what we were unearthing from His Holy Words!) this nugget of Truth came to my thought, "There was a Man who was perfect on this Planet... His name is Job."...

 Job was a perfect and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil. - Job 1:1

 From what some scholars have said is that the book of Job was written before Moses' time (even Abraham's), so Job lived before the Book of the Law was ever written, meaning that Job didn't live by any "law" but yet he was a Perfect man!

It dawned on me, Job didn't have Christ as an example of perfection, nor did he have the Law or even the 10 Commandments to refer too in order to be perfect, so how can this mere mortal be what Christ has commanded us to be (and we have HIS Word and commandments in the Bible to follow and go too for guidance!)?

 The mystery of this is all there in Job 1:1!

He feared God.
He held God in the utmost Reverence ( Psalm 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.), and in that reverence he was Upright... He kept straight in the reverence he had for the Lord.

He eschewed evil. I loved the prime root to "eschewed"; To turn off, call back, decline, be past, pluck away, put away - down, remove, rebel, revolt, withdraw, be without.

Job was a rebel, and has a revolution against evil and anything that would contradict holiness and perfection in God!

Job 1:1 defines who Job was, but let's take a deeper look what God said to satan about Job:

Job 1:8

And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

 I realized, how I long for the Lord to tell even Satan these same words about ME! Now realizing what I am missing has me aching to be Holy even as He is Holy! Oh! What a ways I have to GO... but I am going to be there, because how I love Jesus! And Jesus said, "If you love me you would obey what I command.".

 Being Holy as God is Holy brings about first Knowing Him (not just believing in Him, You have to get past the believing and into the knowing!), and knowing comes to Trust.

He Knows them who Trust in Him. - Nahum 1:7

I also began to see that in order to be Holy as He is, is to completely abide in Jesus. For He is the Vine and we are the branches, those who abide in Him and He in them will bring forth much fruit, for without Him we can do nothing.

 Abiding in Jesus means to be so intertwined in Him that you don't even realize who is who! Like a Husband and Wife become One flesh so our abiding in the Lord as His followers, we become so intertwined in Him that we decrease so that He increases within us! 

 There was a time just recently that I looked at reading the Bible as more of a chore, more like I was just reading a book and that was it. Until I humbled myself and said, "Lord... i'm struggling. Help me.", and how he helped me!!! 

 Dustin and I was listening to one of our favorite evangelist, Jesse Duplantis and he said this, "(taking up his bible) This is just a book to many, but the Bible is not a book... This is JESUS!", BOOM! Mind Blown!!!!

 Jesus IS the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, before Moses was "I AM", the Bible is JESUS who is LIFE... I mean, if this doesn't make those who claim to be followers of Jesus excited, then y'all need to get yourselves checked! 

Last night was an intense revelation of being Holy as He is Holy, and being perfect as our heavenly father is perfect and being intertwined in the Vine who is Christ and when I am deep in the Word of God I am deep in Christ Himself!

 C'mon my fellow Believers, STRIVE FOR PERFECTION! BE HOLY AS HE IS HOLY! BE SO LOST IN CHRIST THAT THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF YOU BUT ALL OF HIM IS FOUND IN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

 Last night the Lord gave me a vision. It was a picture of a diagram of the anatomy of our blood vessels. But in this body was not blood vessels but Vines, and a 'leaf ' was actually a follower of Jesus Christ, and the blood flow was the Word of God and the body that had these vines and branches (followers of Christ) was Jesus! 

 Oh! How we mustn't be "content" in our walk with the Lord, but that we abide in Him with vigor and zeal and strive for holiness and perfection because He commanded us and because we Love Him we must obey Him! Don't just go by what you are taught, dig into the Word of God, eat it up, drink up His wisdom... you will NEVER be the same!!!!

How a plumbing problem helped improve my character!

Amazing how something so incredibly inconvenient can teach a lesson in rejoicing in the Lord!

About a week ago the toilet in our rental home wouldn't flush. My husband tried fixing it but nothing was happening. Our landlord called a local plumber and they went to work.

 What we thought was a simple plumbing issue turned into a nightmare...

 Another plumber that came after they remodeled the home, did a cheap and botched up job that nobody would have noticed because no one was living in the home at the time, until we came along. The result of this plumbers job showed 3 weeks into our lease, the drainage wasn't going into the sewage (sometimes I did and sometimes it didn't) but it was spilling into the back of our basement! It wasn't horrible, but it could have been!

 The plumber and his assistant told us "You may not be able to have toilets if we can't fix this. It's really bad.", I almost lost it. Because this was an issue that wasn't resolved for a week, we were supposed to go to our Church's Christmas party we were looking forward too since we began to go about 2 weeks ago, but the plumbers weren't going to be finished on time, plus my parents were on their way and would be arriving in the morning. If we couldn't have the toilets fixed, we may have to go to a hotel and have our landlord setup an emergency portal potty and shower outside of our home, and it's extremely cold out!

I heard this from my husband, and just went into my bedroom and cried. I was stressed how bad it was, and we had to tell our church family that we wouldn't make it (we were supposed to bring a dish) and really, I wanted to accept my parents in our beautiful home with no problems!

So I gave myself a pity party. And how I pitied myself, i'm surprised I didn't play the song, "Nobody knows the troubles I feel! Nobody knows my sorrows..."!

So I texted my mom and told her all that was happening (they were on their way from California to Tennessee), and then I got a call from her phone, but it was my dad's voice I heard instead of my mom. Hearing my daddies voice made me lose it. He said, "So mija, what is going on?" I began to cry and whimper, "Daddy, i'm so stressed!"

 He compassionately said these words of wisdom that stopped my tears and said,

"Mija, I know you are stressed, and you have a right to be stressed and sad and angry and frustrated, but just because you have a "right" to react in a way that is called for, doesn't mean you should do it... You are a daughter of the King, and your reaction to things that are happening that may be inconvenient or hurtful must rise higher than the situation!
 Remember, Rejoice always and again I say rejoice, let your gentleness be known to all men (to your husband and these plumbers) that the Lord is at hand, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

 Then he lead us four in prayer and I felt a peace and sweet conviction that, my attitude needs to reflect my Spirit and character not my emotions or feelings.

 I came out of my self pity and said, "Thank you Lord! That this situation will not steal my Joy! But father, thank you for these 2 men who are working so hard to fix the situation, and bless our landlord with the finances to fix the job that was cruelly botched in the first place. Father, that my rejoicing in you will be evident to these two men and that I be gentle to all who enter my home that in every situation, You are in control!", I walked out of my bedroom with a sincere smile on my face and a peace just enveloped me.

 The assistant (who is a sweet young man in his early 20's) came into the house with a frustrated and soured face, apparently irritated at the fact that nothing was working, so I smiled at him coming in the house and said, "Young man, I want you to know how grateful at your hard work and working in such filth and yet doing your work with excellency... where would we be without you two men working so hard?", he literally stopped in his tracks and gave me an astonished look and stammered, "T-thank you, ma'am." and I said (because I remembered he loves peppermint candy canes I had hanging on our Christmas Tree and he sweetly asked the last time he came if he may have one!), "I remember how much you love candy canes, before you leave I want you to have as many candy canes as you can pick from our Tree, ok?",

 His eyes darted to the tree and back to me, and the most charming boyish grin unraveled on his lips and his eyes twinkled and he said with excitement, "Oh! Thank you, Ma'am!!!", after that I noticed his step was more chipper and there was a smile across his lips each time he came in the home, and he had an energy that kept him going strong!

 His boss came in with that same kind of frustration and said, "sigh, this is all a mess.", I then said, "Sir, Thank you for all you are doing, I sincerely admire you.", He looked at me completely astonished and said, "Why, thank you, ma'am!".

Each time these gentlemen came into the house, there was a new energy and smile on their faces, then the boss came into the home and exclaimed, "We Fixed It!"!!!!!

 Praise the Lord!!!!! They said they tried something they didn't think of and it worked and we have both bathrooms working beautifully!!!

 After they fixed it, the young man eyed the tree as if it was Christmas morning!!! He shyly went to the tree and said, "May I have 2?" I said, "Honey! You can have them ALL! Don't be polite, and grab all you want.", he sweetly said, "I'll just take 4 then, Ma'am... Thank you!".

 Daily I am striving to renew my carnal mind into the Mind of Christ, and when you think thoughts that are pure, good, holy, virtuous, etc... Your perspective changes.

 I had a "First World Problem" moment, there are people in third world countries that don't have adequate toilets and still dig drenches to use in the ground. These 2 men had to work in the filth that was exposed because of another lousy plumber's job, in the cold and at night, our landlord have to pay from out of his own pocket all that had to be done and the cleanup that has to happen as well... and Dustin and I got to sit here in the warmth and God forbid, wait to use a toilet! What a shame that came in my mind!

 I then realized, if I would have allowed self pity and stress take over, that would have penetrated the atmosphere of my home and my husband would have fed off of it and so would these plumbers and perhaps they wouldn't have a renewed energy to try that one thing they didn't think of to fix this problem!

 I realized as an Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven, I am to be an example of Christ at ALL times, there is no time off! I am to be ready in season (good times) and out of season (bad/inconvenient times)... That when I rejoice in the Lord at all times, that Joy will be evidence of Christ in this Home and that my gentle spirit will reveal that the Lord is at hand!

 That they will leave and say, "That Home, such a peace that reigned there! The gentleness of the Lady of the Home was evident, and there was such a Joy penetrating the atmosphere... Yes, Christ reigns there!".

 For what kind of Christian would I be if I only had a godly attitude in the good times, but when things didn't go as planned I threw a fit? No! I had to rise above the situation!

 HaHa! I also realized, how absolutely ridiculous and a horrible example of God's evidence in my life that I stress out and allow that to rule my attitude, and when they are in the yard to see a sign I made that says, "Here Dwells (with an arrow pointing toward our home) Gentleness, Self Control, Faithfulness, Love, Compassion, Faith." and when they come in another small sign  on the wall next to the front door reads, "Above All, In this place reigns Jesus", and then ANOTHER sign that reads, "Bless this Home and all who enter."... .Hmmmmm... Imagine readings these "Christian" signs and coming to see the Lady of the Home in tears and stressed and boohooing because things aren't going as planned and having a sour attitude to beat it all!

 Oh Lord, Thank you for the wisdom of my daddy to graciously remind me who I am in Christ and to have a Queenly attitude and Christ like attitude at all times and that I planted a seed in the hearts of these men that in this Home truly reigns the King of Kings!!!!!

Our new Family!

Arriving to Tennessee we have been wondering what Church we were going to be attending.
We came from a powerful anointed Church in San Diego (Word of Life Worship Center with Pastor Tommy Miller, www.wordoflifewc.com) and we have grown and learned a lot on the service times we were able to make and also listening online.

 I remember a day we were driving up to Bass Pro Shops in California that Dustin asked, "What kind of Church should we be looking for when we get to Tennessee? A church we are used to attending or a house kind of church you grew up in?".

 There is a difference the way Dustin and I experienced Christianity growing up. He grew up Catholic (I'll leave his testimony for a later time, which is so powerful!), until he joined the Navy at 18 and was stationed in Hawaii he came to know Jesus as his personal Savior and King!

There he was taken under the wings of Potters House/Cornerstone church in Hawaii, and there he remained serving the church for 13 years. He has said that he knew he was meant to remain there for just a short season, but that the Lord was touching him to move on away from Hawaii for a time, but he never acted upon it. Thus he said that he was so focused on ministry and the serving that the Minister (Jesus) and the One who he serves was somewhere on the back burner. Church then became a routine and cycle to him. Praise God for Cornerstone because it was there Dustin encountered the King of Glory! But, he wasn't obedient to the Lord and more worried by what his fellow man thought about his moving more than just what the Lord wanted him to do. So he felt "stuck" spiritually.

 I grew up with Jesus as the focal point of our home! Oh, the sweet and powerful memories of my childhood!

 Every morning i'd wake up as a little girl and come down the stairs and see my mama on her couch with her "kitty" blanket wrapped around her legs comfortably, her feet resting on a stool (cos she's a petite woman that satan himself is terrified of, because of the Christ that is the giant within her!), and her little bible that is so worn out because it was constantly being opened and used with power!

 I'd peek at her curiously as i'd see her intently reading her word, mouthing each word as if she was proclaiming something so mysterious and so vivid I could almost see what she was reading!!!

Throughout the day my mami would be singing praises and worship and making up her own praise and worship (Singing new psalms! Amen!) and telling me, "Oh Elisa! Isn't Jesus beautiful????"!

 I'd watch her with intent curiosity and remembered asking her, "But mami... who is Jesus?", her eyes brightened and a beautiful smile came across her lips and she would sit me down next to her and say, "Let me tell you who Jesus is..." She told me about Jesus as if He was a best friend visiting the house and she was introducing me to Him and that I could literally reach out and physically touch him!

 I was in such awe I couldn't say anything! She told me, "You have to choose to accept Him into your heart, mija... to have a relationship with Jesus you need to allow Him to be your King!".

 One day we drove as a family to Ft. Worth, TX to the Believers Convention with Kenneth and Gloria Copeland (Mighty couple of God!), and I was in the Children's center and there I received Christ! I was so excited! I go running to my mami and said, "MAMA! TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY! TODAY  I ASKED JESUS TO BE MY LORD AND I'M A NEW PERSON!" I understood everything!

 I was never raised in a "Church" (meaning a building or affiliation or denomination), because those who follow Christ know that the Church is the Body of Christ, fellow believers!

 My mama (and daddy who is also saved and who was lead to salvation by my mama's example. Pretty much my whole family and grandmother and uncle from my dad's side were all lead to Jesus by my mom!) has always desired to gather with fellow believers in a home and have house church. We never could find that, so guess what? We had our own Home Church!

 We would gather as a family and pray, worship, listen to scripture, talk about it and that was it! Yes, we didn't have nusery, or childrens school, ushers ministry, audio/video ministry, etc... Praise God for all of those! But, how we did it was so simple and yet so powerful!

 So now back to our drive to Bass Pro Shops and our conversation...

 I told him, " My Love, seek the Lord and where He wants us to fellowship." 

After coming to Tennessee less than a week, we were in a Starbucks (because we didn't have WIFI yet) and looking for churches. Dustin's heart was still in finding a church that had the family worshiping together (and not separating the family by age to different rooms.), he then found something only 10 minutes from us off the freeway but they gather on Saturday evenings.

We attended and it was not like anything we have experienced (and that I haven't experienced since my childhood!), there was a family dinner, where those who attended ate and fellowshipped and the Pastor came and introduced himself and told us the kind of group they were...

"If you are wanting something more structured with announcements, and 30 min. Worship and a sermon wrapped in a time limit then this is not the place for you. We don't have any ushers,or other ministry. We come for dinner and fellowship, Then at 7 we just allow the Holy Spirit to plan what we do next. There are times we will just worship and sing praises (his daughter is anointed to lead worship at the keyboard), and sometimes we will just share and preach/teach, and sometimes we will start with worship... do a teaching, then pray out and go home! Sometimes we will be lead to be in prayer all night, and we will stay till the early morning hours soaking in the presence of the Lord!"

Right there and then I knew... the Lord lead us here!

We had a precious time of Worship, so simple and yet so incredibly beautiful (there were only about 15 people there)! Then a young man shared his testimony and taught what the Lord gave him to teach.

Afterwards they prayed out and the Pastor asked if they could pray for us. Of course we said yes, and they sat us down and all surrounded us...

 I can't help but shake my head and giggle at our "natural" response to being prayed for. I was used to raising my hands and close my eyes and hear a chorus of loud prayer right off the bat! Which is wonderful, but that night I learned... I learned how to pray by FIRST waiting on the Lord to speak.

We both were used to doing it this way, so we had our hands up and eyes closed and nothing happened! Complete silence. I opened my eyes and they were all gazing upon us and right there and then I realized, no one was uttering a word until the Lord said something!

 I was in awe by that revelation and right when I lowered my hands down on my lap, one of the brothers standing behind Dustin spoke and said to him, "Brother, may I have your permission to speak something over you?". Dustin then said, "Sure!".

 We were used to what was spoken over us was always encouragement and blessings. But his was different...

 He then went onto say, "Brother, when I saw you come into this building all I saw was worry in you... You are worrying about something not happening aren't you?" When he said that, my mouth dropped open because it was I who was worried about something that was NOT happening and wondering, "Why me?".

 He then said, "The Lord has a Word over you and your wife. Stop worrying. Because it is coming."

 Tears came down as I realized this was really meant for me! But because my husband and I are one flesh, Dustin got to hear it as well!

 Then the Pastor (watching us both intently) focused his gaze on me, and I knew he was hearing the Lord speaking, he then said, "Sister, it is coming. In the timing of God which is perfect... it is coming. That desire you have been waiting on  and have even questioned God at times, is coming.". I completely lost it!!!

 Then the person on keyboard sang a prophetic song over me, "His Banner of Love is over you.".

 Then Pastor looked at Dustin and said, "Brother, may I be specific with you now? That farm that you've been desiring...it's coming. It's yours." Whoooooooaaaaaa! Glory!!!!

 We fellowshipped a bit more and went home. We were driving quietly and deep in thought and prayer. The next day we visited another church (in the same building) but deep down we knew where God wanted to place us. When we arrived I asked, "Are we still searching? Or have you come to a decision." Dustin then said, "Oh yes, I have decided that the Vineyard on Saturdays will be our family group.".

We finally found a group of believers who were like minded when it came to self sufficiency and many of them are crafters and desire to farm just like we do! 

When you allow the Lord to guide your every step... He only leads you to Hope!!!