Today was a great day!

Today at church we started our service with a baptism! Jorge Andy Rivera made a decision to follow Christ this past Thursday and immediately followed through with baptism. This week has been a week of ups and downs but this really just made it all worth it. These are the days that we live for.
After baptism Jacob preached a powerful message from John 15 & the parable of the lost sheep and how we as the called out ones have to go to the dark places and show them Jesus and that it may cost us something but the time and love and money that you give is worth it!
One thing Jacob said in his sermon is we have to labor in prayer over the lost people. I never thought of it like that. Although the holy spirit and God does the work, we have to give our part also. We have to labor in prayer over them. Labor is an action word-like in school a verb-"it's what you do". People have laboring jobs, women experience labor before their children are born, it is hard earned work . Laboring over people in prayer has results of saved souls!

Let the Angels rejoice! Andy is no longer in the dark place -he has hope. I have had the chance to see the difference in him in just a short time. He is at peace.

I pray that the peace of God is with you today and always as you are living your daily life. I pray that when hard times come that you know that you have a comforter that you can go to.

If you don't, please feel free to message me and we can talk about it.

After the amazing service it was brought forward by the pastor search committee that next week there be a vote for the members to vote on Jacob being their full time pastor.
I pray for God's will! Letting go of control and letting God take the wheel.
We have grown to love these church members for some time now as a fill in pastor.

Stay tuned!

Perfectly Imperfect

Many times in the support role of our spouses, we can get caught up in what we think the congregation expect us to be. Typically, in most cases (not all) when your family lives in the spotlight you all of a sudden have a sometimes never-ending list of rules that may be expected of you as the pastor's wife. Here are a few in no particular order:
#1 be in the choir
#2 run a Bible study on a Sunday morning or a small group
#3 organize fellowship dinners & sign up to bring one of the meats on the list.
#4 be in the nursery
#5 know scripture....by heart and quote where it is in the Bible
#6 The rest isn't really a single thing that can be done but are other things that are expected; certain dress attire, expectations of my children, phone calls to members, visitations, help with bulletins, sign up to volunteer for anything else that I didn't list before, cook in the church kitchen if needed, volunteer for vacation bible school.....and on and on and on.
Sounds tiring doesn't it?
What is all boils down to is an expectation of unrealistic perfectionism.
I am perfectly imperfect.
 Of the above listed here is the actual list of what I am:
#1 I can't sing very well and every time I try, it becomes an idol and I want to sing more then I want God so unless urged by the Holy Spirit I avoid it like the plague.
#2 I am not an adult Bible  study leader and I may not ever be. I do better with kids. They are more forgiving.
#3 I enjoy cooking when I have time but 5 of the 7 days out of the week we are busy so if I sign up for food you'll likely see a Taco Bell 12 pack on the table or some other premade processed deliciousness. Mild sauce anyone?
#4 sure I'll sign up for a Sunday on a rotation since my youngest is in there but please don't expect to see me in there every Sunday. I need spiritual renewal from the sermon just like all of the volunteer staff do.
#5 I can't even remember what I did last week, and while I do my Bible study- Google is my best friend please be patient while I look it up for you.
#6 while I struggle to make sure we all leave at a decent time to pick up the rest of the people that want to go to church and stuff us in like sardines into our Ford Focus- I'm thankful I'm not in my pajamas but even still someone will either think or say what they want about the way I'm dressed. My kids aren't perfect. Our oldest is well behaved and our youngest is just a baby-as they grow please be kind to them because they are watching how others in the church treat them and I don't want them resenting church as they get older. The others in this section don't need much elaboration.
 When I was so stressed and crying over what the expectation would be of me when the role of pastor's wife began my husband assured me the only expectation that I had to be was just me. I am a pastor wife and I am very proud to be. I am also still me. I work full time, I love Christ's church & I'll do anything to help you. My #1 job is to support my husband with love and prayer & my #2 job is to help raise our kids.  Often times with such stigmatism on what to be or not be in this role, no matter what we are criticized. Sometimes we are lonely if the unrealistic expectation list is there because for whatever reason people don't want to befriend us. Befriend your pastor wife. Love and encourage her. Bring her coffee because if she's anything like me, she is often tired. Before you befriend her please remember she is not perfect.

Hello World!

Introduction: today is my first blog post! I intend for this to be a written outlet for myself as well as an insight to the support of the front lines of ministry. I am not an English major so this blog may have a lot of grammatical errors-that may change over time. My husband is a pastor. We have 2 kids, A is 8 & N is 10 months old. My husband and I just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last week. I lost track on when our ministry time frame started but it's been about 4 years now.
I remember thinking to myself "I will never be able to help with ministry" at the time when my husband made his conversion, I didn't want to.
I was being stubborn and instead of thinking I was flawed as you hear people say, "God can never use me" -I just didn't want to have any part of it because I knew it meant that I would have to change. I was set in my ways. I watched things on TV I knew weren't pleasing to God, I had a drinking problem, I had a filthy mouth and I didn't want to change it. I had a sin problem. Prior to the true conversion, sadly I was a nominal Christian. I claimed Christ by name but did not know Christ or what He wanted from me. I sure didn't expect to be used by Him in any good way because I had caused some damage by being nominal for so long. I had my ticket to heaven because I had said a prayer and walked an aisle but I was just as lost as I was on the day I walked the aisle at church.
Being at a crossroads in life is one thing and can be a hard thing to go through but being at a crossroads where Jesus meets you where you are is completely different. You realize you have probably one last time to make a choice. To follow Him or to turn away.
Now I know I said this was an introduction so this post will be wrapped up soon but I remember the evening like it was yesterday. Something came up at home and the exact circumstances I don't remember what they were or why I was upset but I remember telling my husband that I was basically tired of things not going the "right" way- like my little bit of praying was going to make things better ultimately when nothing else was changing in my life (later I learned because I still wasn't doing what I needed to do) and he asked me "how often are you reading your Bible?" - I was mad when he asked me this question but I had a reluctant answer of..."not often" & he then asked "well how often is not often?" ...."well I read it Wednesday in Bible study." ...it was now Saturday evening. He then lovingly said "when are you going to make a change?" The question wasn't answered that evening but it was more of a reflective question. I started in the book of Acts and I prayed for wisdom and it started. The changes came slowly, but they came. I later confessed to my husband and told him thank you. If it not had been for him and his question and ultimately Jesus using him to meet me where I was that night I wouldn't be where I am. I was ready to walk away from it all. Looking back I can't believe I was willing to turn my back on Jesus. I was going to make a choice to leave Him behind to fulfill what I wanted in life. So many people we know do that very thing with their lives & I am sure that you know people also. It is the saddest thing for me to see in ministry(but that is another blog post entirely).
God wants more then your Wednesday, Sunday & your 10%. Take your steps toward doing the right thing.

Thanks for reading! More to come!