Libby’s Lines

February 6, 2006

A church home

Filed under: Fun, Church - libbyo @ 4:50 am

Well, we’ve made a decision. We have decided that the Nazarene church mentioned in my previous note will be our church home while living in Illinois. We haven’t felt the strong 110% positive answer from God about this one like the last two, but we certainly feel that warm welcome and a comfortable fit when there. The people are genuinely friendly, they are a caring church concerned about being a true light in the world for Christ and the pastor seems like a stong Christ-centered leader.

It’s nice to know that we will now be able to get to know people here, make friends and begin to get involved again. As much as we miss our friends in Indiana, we need to develop relationships here. I look forward to in-home fellowships, going out to dinner with other families, etc. again.

We had dinner today with a family there. The parents teach the Sunday School class that Tim and I attend. It’s funny isn’t how wherever you go, people remind you of someone you know from places you’ve come from? The husband reminds us of the husband/father of a family we have become very close with from Indiana. It’s a nice familiarity with some differences thrown in. The wife reminds us of the wife/mother of a different family we were friends with Indiana. We haven’t seen them too often for the past 2-3 years, after they decided to attend another church in Indiana. Turns out that they are from the north side of Indy with strong ties to people we know there. Small world, huh? Anyway, dinner was nice, they have 3 children with the 2 boys being close in ages to our 2 boys.

We then attended a superbowl party at the church this evening. Tim and I don’t even watch sports (as man of you know), however the opportunity for fellowship was something we didn’t want to pass up. I’m so glad we didn’t. There weren’t many there, but that may have been perfect because we were able to spend time with a few and really get to know them a bit better. I spent 1/2 hour or so with one wonderfully nice lady and we talked about anything and everything that one or the other of us thought of. It was almost as if we had already been at least acquaintances for a while, if not already friends.

A number of people that attend this church are from, have lived or have friends/family in the area of Indy. It’s at least a place for conversations to start. The boys have already fit in with their age groups, which is so good for us to see. We didn’t want this move to be any more difficult for them than necessary, so settling into a church where they could make friends has been a top priority.

Well, all of that said to say this. Thank you Lord for providing places of worship and fellowship with like-minded people striving to follow You. We are so blessed!

Blessings on all of you.

February 2, 2006

Hello again…

Filed under: Fun - libbyo @ 2:00 pm

Let me catch you up on everything since moving:

November:
Moved
Birthday for Libby
Finished a musical in Indy
2 new schools for the boys
2 new jobs for the parents
Thanksgiving with 2 sets of friends
No paycheck yet

December:
More friends visiting 1 st 2 weekends
Mid-month payday - Yippee!!!
Anniversary
Some Christmas shopping
Christmas with both sides of family
Paying up on bills - hadn’t been able to do that for a while
Quiet Christmas at home - just us - it was really nice
Nice end to a pretty crummy year.

January:
Quiet new year at home - just us
Still no church home up here
Celebrated John’s birthday back in Indy
Feeling isolated with no friends up here
Financially, things are improving

Now I’ll expound a little bit:

We are still looking for a church home. I don’t think our expectations are too high, but I do think that we will not attend some due to reminders of past hurts and experiences. We have visited 3 churches so far, 1 non-denominational, 1 another denomination and 1 Nazarene. The Nazarene is the best of the 3, making us feel the most welcome and comfortable. The non-denominational was nice too, but new and not offering much in the way of fellowship and no Sunday School: no times to get to know people and make friends, which is what we need right now. The other denomination is just not where we feel would be a good fit for us because of reminders of past negative experiences.

At this point we are looking at the Nazarene church being our church home here, but we are going to try one other before we make that decision. We just aren’t 100% sure this is the one God is placing us in. We haven’t felt that immediate connection like we have at the last 2 churches we’ve attended. Not to say that we have to feel that, but we don’t want to stop short of something else that God may have in store.

Well, gotta get to work. More later. My schedule is settling in, so I will be able to write more.

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