Road Trip 2011!

Over the past couple of weeks, Jonerik and I were on the road traveling to a conference in Dallas, TX with a few stops along the way to visit people that we love and don't see often.  This included both of my brothers and their wives.  We loved every minute (except for a few car problems along the way) and although there was a simple car repair needed in Houston, we were glad we drove.

Here are a few pictures of the people and things we saw.  We didn't get a picture with Frankie (hindsight...) but we enjoyed time with him as well and got to meet his church family out in Kansas.

Road Trip 2011

The conference that we attended is called Catalyst.  They do an East Coast and a West Coast conference every year but this year they began one in Dallas.  Jonerik and I volunteered for two days leading up to the conference and were then able to attend for free!  (and we got a free T-shirt!)  It was a blast, we met a lot of great people and heard lots of challenging speakers who motivated us to "Take Courage".





This trip came a good time for us and it was refreshing to take a step back from our daily routines to have some adventure and find new ways to stimulate growth in our personal and spiritual lives.  We are grateful for people who helped make this possible and to the many friends and family members who hosted us.

Resurrection Day

Here are a few highlights of our weekend:

On Thursday, Jonerik and I ran our monthly food cupboard in the morning - giving food to about 50 families!  It was a beautiful day and we had more people that we had food!  We have people sign up ahead of time so we make the right number of bags, but we tell people who haven't signed up to come back at the end of our day and if we have left over food we will gladly give it to them (we also sign them up for the next month).  We had no extra food this month - all of it was given out.

After the food cupboard, we watched three of "our kids" for a while and they hung out at church until we practiced our music for the Good Friday service.  They love singing so we set them up with some mics for a while.  They sang all the songs they could think of: Mighty to Save, Deep Deep Deep Down Down, You're Powerful...among others.  No, Justin Beiber songs were not allowed!  =)

On Friday, Jonerik and I went on a cheap date in the afternoon.  Because it was Earth Day, Starbucks was giving out free coffee to anyone who brought a re-usable mug!  Free Starbucks date!!  We took the El down to center city and rode the bus back (I'm still getting used to public transportation and so this is like practice for me - country girl!)  There are also lots of ridiculous photo ops down town -

Last year was our first Good Friday Service and Jonerik initiated and implemented the service again this year.  We watched a video clip from the Mars Hill church in Seattle, Jonerik shared a brief message on the death of Christ and what that means for our lives today, and then we had a time of worship and response.  Communion was offered in the back of the sanctuary and there were people there to pray with others.  Worship was powerful and we sang of God's great love for us, for the sacrificial love that has transformed history and transformed our hearts.

I (Emily) am learning how to play the keyboard with worship music and this was an opportunity for me to add that to the mix.  I played piano for about 10 years growing up but to improvise and simply play off of chords is a new challenge and I'm really enjoying it.  I hope to grow in this area and to have the ability to enhance our times of worship.  It is difficult with our current sound system.  We will need to pray for an upgrade soon, but for now we make due with what we have.

Maybe about 6 months ago - Jonerik and I were at a music store looking at keyboards/electric pianos and we saw a few just like this that I thought would be amazing to have.  I still love real pianos best, but this is very close.  They were VERY expensive (to us anyway) and so it was a "Wow, that would be nice someday" kind of thing.  The same afternoon we went back to the church and when we opened the door, guess what was sitting inside!!!  Yes this beauty.  No one else at the church seems to be looking to play it in church so Jonerik checked and we were given permission to bring it home so I could build my skills.  What an amazing blessing.  Jesus is so good to us.

Easter Sunday was busy as usual.  We have two services at our church to hold all that come and so this means two worship sets.  Things went well though and God was given praise.  We celebrated that our God is alive and that Jesus Christ was not conquered in death but that he trampled death by death!

After church we had three guys over to our apartment for lunch.  We made a ham and other food that is traditional in my family (no one argued against it).  Jonerik is mentoring two of these young guys and the other wasn't going to have anything special so it was great to celebrate and eat with them.  They played games and hung out for the afternoon as I enjoyed working in the kitchen and preparing fun things.

What's behind the door?

"...sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."

Genesis 4:7

Recently Jonerik and I went on a date to the Adventure Aquarium.  We had a coupon and decided to go without kids!  It was amazing and I loved see lots of sharks, two hippos, and lots of other sea creatures.  

This little penguin was hiding behind the door from the rest of the penguins and from the workers.  It brought this verse to mind which was a good reminder that we are not living in the world with no enemy.  We ask the Holy Spirit to help us in our battle against the Enemy and against our sinful selves.  That help can only come through the blood of Christ.  

We live in an neighborhood where sin is obvious and out in the open.  But there is also a level of secret sin that is destroying homes from the inside out.  My heart breaks at the level of sexual awareness our neighborhood children have at such young ages.  There are times when all I can do is desperately cry to the Lord and surrender my angst to Him knowing that He is present and working in the midst of broken family cycles and individual hearts.

Sin is crouching at our door...

"But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.  Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren."

James 1:14-16

We could have been left in that, but God had a bigger plan and His love transformed the ending of that story - 

"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Colossians 1:13-14

Thank you, Jesus, for rescuing us from the domain of darkness!  That sin does not have the right to overtake us.

The lyrics of Lecrae's song, "Just Like You" sang to my heart this morning as we drove through Kensington -

More than a teacher, 

but somebody to buy us back from the darkness, 

you can say He redeemed us. 

Taught us that real leaders follow God, 

finish the work cause we on our job. 

Taught us not to rob, but give life. 

Love a wife like He loved the Church, 

without seein' how many hearts we can break first.

Dear Lord, I Pray...

I (Emily) have the privilege to work with the 7-10 year old group of kids at Kid's Club.  Two of my nephews are currently in this group and we have fun with it because they aren't in the stage of life where they are too cool for me just yet.

Last night at Kid's Club, we broke the kids up into small groups of about 5 kids each and we had them write out a prayer to Jesus.  Trish has been teaching on the miracles of Jesus and she told the kids that when they need a miracle in life there is only one place to go - to Jesus.  

Dante (age 10), one of our nephews, wrote this prayer:

Dear Lord, I pray...

for my mom because she has cancer.  I'm just asking for you to heal her and let her hair grow.  

and for you to help my friend.  I want you to help him stop bullying people and help him to come to church and to let him love you more.

  

and my dad's girlfriend, she's having a baby boy or girl.  I want you to tell her that everything's going to be alright.

  

and what happened in Japan, I want you to heal them and help them pay for their stuff.  

Amen.  And God bless the people.

I realize this is a personal thing to be putting on our blog, but I was deeply moved by his genuine heart for other people.  He wasn't prompted to write these things, they were weighing heavy on his heart.  His behavior has been up and down in school, but over all he really tries and is proud when gets high marks.  He is very smart and I am humbled to see how God is moving in his little heart.

To all of you who pray for us and support/encourage us in one way or another, you have impacted Dante's life indirectly.  You make it possible for us to push through the hard times and invest in these children because we believe in a big God who can break cycles and bring radical transformation.

I don't know where Dante is headed in life, but I do know a small piece of what he will be up against in fighting what the culture is telling him, what his father is telling him, and what the Enemy is whispering to him.  I am humbled that God has placed us where we are to help show him that there is a different way to live, and that Jesus really can transform people.  We are not going to change Dante's life or path, but Jesus Christ can and he has a plan for him.  A plan that is good.  

There is nothing as humbling as the faith of a child...

Football!

 Last week some football players from Greenville College in Illinois came during their Spring Break to serve the kids in our community and our church.  The coaches and team members (22 to be exact) arrived Saturday night and worked hard all week long.  Monday through Thursday they ran a football camp for the kids in our church and the neighborhood.  They held the camp at a local park (one of the few) after taking time to clean up all the trash and syringes that were lying around.  Unfortunately this park is known as "Needle Park" which happens to hold our public library.  For four days, this park was transformed into a place where kids were learning about discipline, teamwork, Jesus, and skills needed to play football!

So how did this impact our schedules, other than running our nieces and nephews to and from football camp?

Groups that come usually bring their own cook or take turns making meals, but this team decided to hire Emily to cook for them!  This was an exciting and new challenge.  Thanks to some helpful advice from people more experienced, helping hands in the kitchen, and the grace of God - the football players were fed and she had a blast "throwin' it down" in the kitchen.  Emily's parents were in Philly for a few days and her mom helped with some cooking during the week!

Jonerik led worship for the team as they debriefed at the end of their long days.  He offered an open discussion about what God was teaching them and what they were experiencing.  It was powerful to hear how God was using and blessing them as they used their Spring Break to serve others.

If you look closely in this picture you will see little 4 year old, Gigi hanging out with the team.  She LOVED the attention and made friends left and right.  She loved football camp too.  Yelling and tackling things are a perfect outlet for all of her energy!







The team also did some work projects around the church and accomplished some things that were great for a big group of football players to do.  We were really grateful for all their hard work and dedication.

They were a great testimony just by being a group of men who respected authority and loved Jesus.  They shared some of their lives with the kids through talking about who Jesus is and what He has done for them.  We were blessed to have the group come.

For more pictures and information on their week check out their website:  www.emapnation.com
They have several "Philly Updates".

In the meantime...

I apologize to my internet followers for our delay in making our site a little more presentable.  I don't want this to delay all of the updates, however, so you can enjoy some rough drafts in our design until the final product is in place.

Under Construction

Thanks for checking our blog!  We are working to give your website a new and fresh look that will hopefully help you learn more about us and our ministry.  Please excuse the mess as we work to pull the details together.  Thank you for your patience.