"Encouraged Together With You"

So tonight I sit up blogging. Because I write when my heart is full. It makes room for the new. Tonight my heart is full.

I have other posts half written, but tonight this one bumps to the front of the line.

It has been an incredible week. A week that was written by God.
You see we've been working at getting a new ministry off the ground. A ministry focused on outreach.

Why is it that the lost are all around us and we just live our lives like they are not there? Like it's not our problem? Not our responsibility?

This week, a team of 25 teens and adults from Waco Baptist Church in Waco, Georgia used their summer mission trip to come and help us do outreach in our community and work in our new ministry.


It was incredible time and I'm so thankful for this week. We spent every day this week out walking the streets of our community just inviting people out to church and talking to them about the Lord, and it was such a tremendous blessing.

Mitchell, Matthew, and Christian are on the left side of this photo. Gracie is in the front/middle.

We had some amazing encounters with people and got to share the gospel with some of them...got to pray with hurting people...and it was just such a blessing to be a part of. I'm so thankful. My kids worked all week and showed such servant's hearts and I'm so proud of them.



Every night after the day's work, we would come together for this incredible worship time that you just didn't want to end.



The thing we didn't anticipate, was how much we would grow to love these folks in just a week's time. From the moment we hopped in the van together the very first morning heading out on outreach, these ladies with their southern belle accents had my heart.

(Stephanie, Suzann, me, Marti, Robin)
So we laughed, and worked, and ate, and sang, and cried together all week. They taught Gracie and me how to "speak southern" :) And we drank gallons and gallons of sweet tea...and then we laughed and cried some more.

And these beautiful teens....




...worked and served and we got attached to them...


















































































































And there was Pastor Ricky, a spit-fire of a Southern Baptist preacher whose passion for Christ is contagious. I feel so blessed to have been in Pastor Ricky's "prayer circle". No one could spend a week with him and come away unchanged. His desire to share the gospel is as contagious as his passion. Pastor Ricky, if you are reading this...thank you. You can never know all that you have done. We came away from you different. I am tired of living among the lost and letting them stay lost. Thank you.





Pastor Ricky and his sweet daughter Kelli with Gracie and Faith


The book of Romans opens with Paul expressing his care for those in Rome and expressing his great desire to see them. He tells of how he makes mention of them constantly in his prayers and prays that God would provide a way for him to pay a visit to those who are "beloved of God, and called to be saints" in Rome.

"I long to see you...that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me."

He knew that spending time with these believers would encourage and refresh him, stirring a great desire in his heart to see them. He prayed that the Lord would bring him to his beloved friends.

Paul closes his letter in much the same way as he began, expressing his great desire to see the saints in Rome and enjoy their company for a while. "That I may come to you with joy by the will of God and be REFRESHED TOGETHER WITH YOU.


That's what we were "encouraged together by our mutual faith" and "refreshed together". It was sweet, and it was beautiful.

Praise be to God.