Silent Sunday

Searching For The Savior Saturday

I watched this video a while back. It's one of those that just kind of hit me between the eyes. It talks about us being responsible for what we have seen and heard. We all know what has been happening in Haiti and even in other parts of the world. The question was for me, "What I am I doing?" and "What has He asked of me?". Is it to give financially? Is it to pray? or even for some.....Is it to go and help with my hands? I know that Haiti is on the forefront of the news at this time but every lost and dying person is on the forefront of the news in Heaven. Think on this today. What is He asking of you and realize, we are responsible for what we have seen and heard.



Praying and Searching With You,
Pam

Focused Friday

From LOSING IT! With Jillian MichaelsFriday, January 01, 2010
How to Get Back on the Wagon
It happens — you over-indulged over the holidays, missed a few workouts and now you feel like you've fallen off the weight-loss wagon. It's tempting to mentally slap yourself around, right? (Or head for the fridge.) Before you start, I want to remind you of something: Being hard on yourself is so 2009 — that's the Old You.
The New You knows how to deal with setbacks and get back on the wagon. And after all, there are no mistakes, just learning experiences. Weight loss is a process — it takes time. You will encounter small failures — everyone does — but every pound you gain can be lost.
And if you miss a workout, it's not the end of the world! Get to the gym the next day and continue to focus on your short-term goals. Just because you made bad choices today doesn't mean you can't start over tomorrow. New day? New beginning. And don't you forget it!
Read More Daily Tips!How to Get Back on the WagonThe Skinny on Elliptical MachinesRing in a Healthy New YearRead the full archive

I read this somewhere this week and it made me stop and reflect on my "experience of faith". The more I read the more this has become my prayer.

God's plan is for us to have an experience of faith that becomes the air we breathe and the very lifeblood of who we are.

May this be the prayer for all of us.

Have a great day!

We hope, but do we believe?

So many times in my life the Lord has done truly miraculous things, and I am still amazed

Last weekend we attended the wedding of my nephew Kevin, the son of my sister-in-law, Patti. At the rehearsal dinner several of his friends of his took the opportunity to wish him and his fiancée, Olivia the best, and tell a few funny stories about him. However, besides the well wishes and stories each of his friends had something else to say about him, that isn’t said many times about a 26 year old. Each of them told of how he had been an example of a true Christian and how much he had impacted their walk with Christ. What a blessing to know that there are young people today glorifying Christ with their life. Olivia is also a strong Christian, she was raised in a loving Christian home and her Father is a Minister. Their desire now is to seek the Lord’s will in their new life together as a couple. What a blessing! This story could have turned out much differently but by the mercy and Grace of God it didn’t.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. “ John 3:16

God at work……..

When Kevin was growing up his family were members of the Catholic Church, but that was it, they were just names on a membership list. They did not attend church and there was no evidence of God in their lives. Then the Lord began His work! Kevin played on a baseball team and guess what? One of the coaches was a Baptist Minister. “Friend Day” at his church rolled around and of course the Pastor took the opportunity to invite Kevin and his family. They went thinking it was a one time thing, and that it would please the Pastor who they saw every week at baseball games and practices……not so. Hearing the Word of God preached, was something none of them had experienced before and they continued to attend Church. Well, within 6 months Kevin, his sister and his Mother and Father had accepted Christ. You see the people of that Church and their Pastor were earnestly praying for Kevin and his family’s salvation. God had been hard at work. I still remember the joy I felt when I saw Kevin baptized, but also remember my disappointment because of my lack of Faith and Trust in the Lord in this situation. This became a “spiritual marker” in my life that I have looked back on many times to strengthen my Faith and Trust in the Lord.

God is at work and miracles are happening all around us everyday, because of His unending Love, Mercy and Grace. I will end this story here, but it really isn’t the end of the story. God continues to work miracles each day in my life and the life of my family. Watch and you too will see the Lord at work.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. 1Timothy 1:17

Naomi Zellers

Tuesday Jan 26 9:15 1st place 4 Health

Wednesday Jan 27 6:15 Not too late to join the Women’s LDI Class, “Becoming a Woman of Freedom”, Modular Bldg C

Friday Morning Jan 29 10:00 “Anointed, Transformed and Redeemed” Bible study (led by Michelle Pizzaro)

Friday Jan 29 12:00 Women's Prayer Time

Saturday Jan 30 5:00 Brunswick Stew


Mark your calendar:
Tuesday Evening Feb. 2nd 7:00 “Anointed, Transformed and Redeemed” Bible study(led by Nancy Byrd)
February 6th- "Preparing your Hearts" Brunch
April 24th Beth Moore Simulcast

Silent Sunday

Earthquake victims search for help, hope1/21/2010
By Alan James
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)--As people in and around Port-au-Prince, Haiti, continue to clamor for food, water and shelter, one International Mission Board missionary tried to offer a little hope by simply providing a pen, paper and a listening ear.
While walking along some of the hardest hit streets in Port-au-Prince, Mark Rutledge and an IMB media team found thousands of people searching for someone to help them. The team stopped to talk with a small group of men about the crisis. Before long, the conversation turned to what Rutledge and the team could provide right then.
“We have no food, we have no water,” pleaded one man. “We need help now!”
Another man showed the team a gash in his head from where he was hit by debris.
With only a couple of bottles of water and a bag or two of trail mix, Rutledge considered the risks of giving someone a handout in a crowded street when he didn’t have enough to go around. The situation could easily become dangerous.
He decided to help another way. He told the men he would give their names and contact information to a Southern Baptist disaster relief team that was assessing needs in the city.
As the men quickly jotted their information on scraps of paper, more people came running to see what was going on. Within 30 minutes, a group of four had turned into more than 50 gathered around Rutledge. Some were on their cell phones spreading the word.
People passed around pens. Some tore off pieces of a nearby flier to write down a name, phone number and street address of where they were staying. An envelope soon surfaced and the notes were stuffed inside.
One man spoke passionately about his needs to Rutledge. As the missionary stood surrounded by a crowd five- to 10-people deep, he calmly wrote down information and offered consolation.
“It’s overwhelming how many need help,” Rutledge said later. “It’s frustrating seeing so many people in the U.S. and other countries wanting to help, but the people here need help now.
“The only thing I can do is encourage them to hold on.
“They don’t see anything happening,” he added. “They want to talk to someone who can make something happen.
“I had no idea it was going to escalate. I knew I had to give people an opportunity to hand me a piece of paper — a sign of hope for them … that something positive would happen in the near future.”
Before Rutledge drove away, he took the envelope filled with the dozens and dozens of scraps of paper — some with long lists of names. One man ran to catch the truck after it left, stopping the team about a mile down the road to hand them his information.
Rutledge delivered the envelope to a Southern Baptist disaster relief assessment team the next day in the Dominican Republic, where he and the IMB media team were staying.
The assessment team, with a caravan of three trucks, then headed toward Port-au-Prince to deliver supplies to an orphanage near the city and to continue to assess needs.
To give to the relief effort, donate online at imb.org/haitifund or gobgr.org. Alan James is a writer for the International Mission Board.

Searching For The Savior Saturday

This is a copy of an e-mail that I received this week from the missions organization, New Directions International. I just wanted to pass it along to you. Please feel free to visit their website for updates as well as The International Mission Board. Their link in on the sidebar.


Greetings from New Directions. Thank you so much for your email. I am sorry that it has taken us so long to respond. We have been working very hard and are overwhelmed with Haiti relief like many other organizations. It would be wonderful if you could link us onto your blog and other posts that you do. We have numerous pictures and stories on our website that you can pull from and link too. We are trying to update these about every 2 days as information continues to come into us from our partners. Our web site is www.newdirections.org and www.feedthehunger.org. Currently we have two staff members who are working their way down to Haiti and we will be taking numerous teams down there in the coming weeks and months. All of this information is on our website.
NDI has been working in Haiti for over 35 years. Currently we are caring for over 2000 at-risk children daily. About every other month we are sending in a container of food that has 270,000 servings of food. Our Haiti warehouse is full of food and we are working desperately to get the food out to the needy people.
Thank you for the wonderful work that you are doing in spreading the message about Haiti. NDI greatly appreciates the work that you are doing and allowing us to link with your ministry.

Blessings,
Melinda
Melinda H. Staples
New Directions International
336-792-4835
http://www.newdirections.org/
Reaching the Unreached for Christ

Focused Friday

What Can Explain a Weight-Loss Plateau?

Q: I weigh 180 pounds and I hit a weight-loss plateau about a month ago. I exercise once a week on my mountain bike, weight-train three to four times a week, and take my dog for daily walks. What am I doing wrong?
— Maria, Georgia
A:
Weight-loss plateaus are a very complicated — and common — problem and can be related to any number of factors. The cold, hard reality with plateaus, however, is that they are most often caused by increased caloric intake (eating more).
Typically, when people get a few months into their weight-loss programs, they begin cheating on their diets and often do not even realize it. A simple way to check on this is to keep a food diary for a week or two to see whether your food intake is higher than what you thought it was. I suspect that if you reexamine your dietary habits, you can work through this plateau.
Also, you might consider reducing the three to four days of weight training you're currently doing and increasing the amount of aerobic exercise. I would consider doing only two days of weight training and adding two to three more days of aerobic exercise to your fitness routine. The additional aerobic exercise will help you burn more calories, and two days of weight training should really be all you need for healthy muscles.
Learn more in the Everyday Health Fitness Center.

Last week we were reminded who we are. This week a reminder of Whose you are.

Whose you are
El Roi- the God who sees
El Elyon-the God most high
El Shaddai- the all-sufficient one
Jehovah Jireh- the provider
Jehovah Rapha-the healer
Jehovah Shalom-my peace
Jehovah Raah-my shepherd
Jehovah Nissi-my banner

Take some time to Worship Him today.

Worshipful Wednesday

He will never leave or forsake you!!!!!! Praise the Lord!!!!!!

What an awesome God we serve! You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God! Psalms 68:35 He is so good, and He cares about every detail of our lives. I am personally thankful that He works out our good for His glory. Romans 8:28 I have
been reflecting on my life, and realize through the good times and the bad my Savior has been with me. I am married to a wonderful man, who has an incredible capacity to love me and take care of me. I was blessed to experience that in my dad also. He is and was very patient and loving with us growing up. I went through some tough times as an adult, and even if I wasn’t always walking right with Jesus, my Heavenly Father still was patient with me and loved me anyway.
I experienced a divorce in my first marriage, but God has truly redeemed my past.
I am happily married. Michael and I have a blended family, we have five children. We
have so much to be thankful for. Our children all get along well together - they of course
have their moments, but don’t all siblings. Michael had two boys, I had two girls and then God blessed us with a daughter together. We definitely have had to pray a lot.
Blending families is not easy, and does not come without a lot of hard work and prayer.
Another big key to making it work was communication. We must constantly communicate with each other, especially in the first years of our marriage. However, the most important component for our marriage and for a blended family to be successful is to have Christ at the center of our marriage and our lives individually. We have to hold each other accountable. We must pray for each other, and be our spouses best friend. We also discovered we must spend time together as a couple. With five kids in our house of all different ages, finding time together is hard - we try to schedule a date night occasionally. But one thing we both agreed to do is to go away at our anniversary. We spend a couple days or longer together to re-connect. No matter where we go or how long we are gone, we look forward to the time alone. It has been so important for our marriage, and we would recommend that to any couple.
I am so thankful that God redeems our mistakes. Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love. Psalm 44:26. My prayer now is that people will see
Jesus in me. That I will, with His constant help, be the aroma of Christ to others.

Sharon Riccio

Tuesday Jan 19 9:15 1st place 4 Health
Wednesday Jan 20 6:15 New LDI classes start
Friday Jan 22 12:00 Women's Prayer Time
Saturday Jan 23 1:00 C.A.R.E. to Loyalton

Mark your calendar:
February 6th- Preparing your hearts brunch
Look for Cornerstone to get a team for a walk/run 5K this spring
April 24th Beth Moore Simulcast

Silent Sunday

Prayer requests
The PrayerLine: 1-800-395-PRAY
Friday, January 15, 2010“The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth quake. …Exalt the LORD our God; bow in worship at His footstool. He is holy” (Psalm 99:1, 5, HCSB). Dear Intercessors, this is Eleanor Witcher of the Office of Global Prayer Strategy, joining you in heartfelt prayer for the people of Haiti. What is different about us? About Christians? Just like our neighbors this week, we have heard numerous stories about the horrendous events in Haiti. We watch news clips, read twitter and blog reports—we gather information to be aware of what is going on in the world. Just like our neighbors, our hearts have been broken for the people of Haiti. But what is different about us? The difference is that we know the One who is able to help. We all have opportunity to give and many will be able to assist physically by going. But we Christians do not have to wait a single minute to send aid. We don’t have to look in our wallets to see if there is any money to send. We can talk to our Lord immediately, begging for His mercy throughout these days of recovery. Please take every opportunity to lift the Haitian people to our heavenly Father, asking in these earliest days that He will fill the people with a sense of calm and unity of purpose. Gunshots have been heard on the streets, but violence will obviously not improve the situation. Ask the Lord to comfort the frightened. Many are sleeping on the streets even though their homes have not been damaged. They sense no hope for the future. Intercede for the initial responders who have worked diligently through the long hours, praying that they will find rest in Him. Ask God to provide unexpected ways for aid workers to get through the destroyed roads so that they can provide necessary supplies. Lift up Haitian Christians who are striving to serve others while grieving their own losses. Plead for them to have God’s mighty endurance and vision as they love their neighbors through the power of the Holy Spirit. Exalt the Lord our God and pray that His holiness will be demonstrated throughout Haiti.
You can receive the PrayerLine directly through e-mail by signing up for the IMB's free Mailing List service.(I would encourage you to get signed up!!!!!!)
(Content from http://www.imb.org/main//pray)

Praying,
Pam

2 post Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Searching For The Savior Saturday

It is with a very broken heart that I welcome you to Searching For The Savior Saturday. As we all know about what has happened in Haiti this week. I have cried everytime I have seen a picture, listen to a report on the radio and even tried to watch the news but the tears always get in the way. My heart just breaks.
I am in touch with an organization here locally out of Burlington called New Directions International. If you will click here, you can go directly to their website. I am sure that they will have footage and reports as soon as possible. They have several ministries on the ground in Haiti and several of our church members have actually been to Haiti in the past.
This is a recent post on the International Mission Boards webpage that you can visit anytime for even more updates at http://www.imb.org/
Haiti's urgent and long-term needs focus of assessment teams1/14/2010

A Southern Baptist assessment team is working out logistics for a trip into Haiti early the week of Jan. 18 to connect with Haitian Baptist leaders and craft plans for disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of the 7.0 earthquake that struck the island Jan. 12. The international community is rallying to meet urgent needs — from food, water and medical services to transportation and security, according to news reports. Search and rescue teams began combing the massive amount of rubble in the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. Military teams from other countries began establishing communications, transport and security services — critical needs in a country where government offices and basic infrastructure were destroyed by the largest earthquake in 200 years. The death toll among the city’s 3 million inhabitants could top 100,000, Haiti’s prime minister told reporters Jan. 13. Serious security concerns could emerge as people become more desperate for food and water in areas where police and military control has not been established, said Jim Brown, U.S. director for Baptist Global Response, a Southern Baptist relief and development organization. The capital’s main prison also collapsed in the earthquake, raising the prospect of criminals escaping into the city. As a result, near-term attempts to travel to the country would be ill-advised. The five-member assessment team will evaluate ministry needs such as rescue operations, medical services and shelter, as well as logistical concerns including transportation and security, Brown said. A separate Florida Baptist disaster relief team is planning its own assessment trip for the weekend. The two teams will collaborate in their reporting to the national Southern Baptist disaster relief network. The teams also will report back on long-term strategies to help Haitians rebuild their lives. These assessments will form the basis for disaster relief deployment plans. “There are two Baptist conventions in Haiti, and the Florida Baptist Convention has historically partnered with one convention while the International Mission Board has partnered with the other,” Brown said. “We will combine our findings to draft the overall strategy.” The Southern Baptist assessment team will be composed of representatives from BGR, the North American Mission Board and disaster relief specialists from Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina Baptist state conventions, Brown said. Initial funding for the relief effort is coming from the IMB’s disaster relief fund. New contributions toward the relief effort can be made online at the Haiti Response Fund. Apart from donating to the disaster relief fund, concerned individuals can help greatly by joining in focused prayer for Haiti’s 9 million people, more than 80 percent of whom live below the poverty line, said David Brown, who with his wife, Jo, directs BGR work in the Americas. “We want to encourage Christians to focus their prayers on several points,” David Brown said. “Please pray for those who have been affected by the quake — people who are trapped in rubble or homeless, those who are hungry or injured or traumatized. Pray for all those who are involved in the relief effort, that the Lord would give them strength to deal with the awful conditions they are facing. And pray for those who are trying to organize people and resources to assist with the relief efforts. Pray that God would stir up His people to respond with the love of Christ to help people in desperate need.” The IMB office of global prayer strategy also is posting prayer needs for Haiti at imb.org/pray, such as lifting up in prayer IMB personnel in the Dominican Republic who will be training national believers in post-trauma counseling for Haiti earthquake victims.
Praying With You,
Pam

Focused Friday

Toning Up Without the Bulk

Q: My goal is to lose weight and tone, but I'm afraid I'm going to bulk up if I lift weights. How can I exercise without looking like a bodybuilder?
A:
People often get concerned about "bulking up" when weight training is involved in their exercise program, but there's no need to be worried. Building muscle and losing weight go hand in hand, and here's why: While you burn calories when you exercise and when you do daily activities like walking or climbing stairs, you burn the bulk of your calories just by sitting still. This is called your resting metabolic rate. For each pound of lean muscle you have on your body, you burn calories by doing absolutely nothing! What's important for you to know is that the more muscle you build, the higher your resting metabolic rate, and the more calories your burn per day. That's why building muscle is such an important part of weight loss, and why it's so good for your health -- all that muscle makes it even easier to keep the fat off.
The other benefit of weight training is that muscle tissue will keep you looking lean and taut. You may lose fat by dieting and by doing cardio exercises, but to look trim you need to build muscle in place of the fat. Muscle is also higher in volume than fat, so every pound of muscle takes up less room on your body, making you smaller and giving you that great shape you're looking for.
Completing a high number of repetitions at a lower weight is ideal for sculpting your body and speeding your metabolism to help keep the weight off.
Learn more in the Everyday Health Fitness Center.
I hope you enjoyed this. I thought it was great!!!!!!
Happy Health,
Pam

Who are you?
You are a child of God
You have been created by him and for him.
He has equipped you for every good work.
Every gift has come from the Father.
He knows everything about you.
He says his work is good(that's you).
He loves you enough to lay down his own life for your freedom.
He declares you as valuable.
He is committed to providing all your needs.
He has a design-plan, intent and purpose- for your life.

Just in case you had forgotten. I hope you spend the day basking in who you are.
Happy Thursday.

My favorite bible story of all comes from 2 Kings 18:20-40. We would all know this story to be the one of the prophet Elijah calling down fire from Heaven as a testimony that there is one true God. I love this story because it reminds me of an essential truth, which is unique to our faith. It is this: our God is a God we can have confidence in. As Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal he did so with complete confidence that God would show up on time, and boy did He. As the fire came down it “consumed the rocks, dust, altar, and licked up the water in the trench”. You see our God is a faithful God.

Two and half years ago I went into the delivery room to be induced. I was having complications and it was time for both the baby’s sake and mine for her to come out. As I went into the operating room for my cesarean, I sang in my heart “Just a closer walk with thee”. I knew as scared as I was for my baby and myself that I could have confidence in my God. A week later and a healthy baby on the rise I was not doing well. At 3:00 in the morning I collapsed in the bathroom with my husband dialing 911. I spent another week in the hospital due to infection running rampant in my blood. The procedure had obviously not gone well.

I might have asked, “Where are you God”, “How could you let this happen?” or I could have accepted that who He says He is I can count on. Just like Elijah, when we feel forlorn and lost we can remember that our God is one we can have confidence in. What He brings us through will only testify to the truth that he is trustworthy and faithful.

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

We named our daughter Gracie, it means faithful. Her life verse is Job 36:11.

Jamie Simmons

Good morning. Meet you there Monday is going to look a little different this week. I thought we would start the day with a funny. I hope you are smiling today but if not I hope this helps. Announcements at the bottom. Happy Monday.

One day a Pastor and a Brother took a Visitor fishing on a boat.

Once in the Middle of the lake, the Pastor said" I seem to have forgotten my fishing pole, be right back" and to the visitors amazement stepped out of the boat and walked on top of the water towards the shore.

When he had returned, the Brother said
"I need to use the restroom, be right back"

Again the visitor watched in amazement. Once the Brother returned, not wanting to be outdone, the visitor said " I need to use the restroom too"

As soon as he stepped out of the boat, he sank.

The Pastor nudged the Brother and said "We should have told him where the rocks were"


And here is what's going on this week

Tuesday Jan 12 9:15 1st place 4 Health
Wednesday Jan 13 6:15 New LDI classes start
Friday Jan 15 12:00 Women's Prayer Time

Mark your calendar:
February 6th- Preparing your hearts brunch
Look for Cornerstone to get a team for a walk/run 5K this spring
April 24th Beth Moore Simulcast

Searching For The Savior Saturday

It's a new year and time is so valuable and so short. I have noticed that already this year, the days and hours and even sometimes, the minutes are just flying by.
We talked about what was is in store for the Saturday's coming up. I'm excited about what has been chosen. Cornerstone is a church on mission. We have sent groups from our church to numerous different countries and it's exciting to see what happens when we obey what the Lord asks us to do and we do it. Today I am going to just kind of tell you about the coming months and so hope that you will join us on this adventure.
January- India
February-Honduras
March- Nepal
April- Home Missions and focus on what we are doing here in the US.
May- Ecuador
June-Spain
July-Witnessing to your Neighbor, Family and Friends
August-Praying for a Lost World
September-What is Missions?
October-He loves me how much?
November-What can I offer?
December- Visiting with Lottie Moon
There is so much that we could cover and so much that we could discuss and talk about in regard to reaching a lost and dying world. These are just some ideas and I believe with all of my heart that it is time for us to stop sitting and waiting for someone else to go, to give, to do and we need to find out what He wants of US!!!!!! I hope that you will join me on this adventure this year. It's already off to an awesome start!!!!!!!!!

Searching and Praying,
Pam

Focused Friday

Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I know that we all had a great time with all of the parties and seeing family and friends and the FOOD was AWESOME as always!!!!!! If you are like me, you my have enjoyed the food just a little to much and NOW WHAT?????
So, we chose to look at a lot of questions that people, especially women, may have about starting off a new year healthy and happy and that may require some changes. Exercise, diet, less sitting and more movement and activity. I get a lot of e-mails about diet, nutrition and exercise. It is exciting and overwhelming at times but none the less, it really helps.
Over the next Focused Friday's I will be sharing some of the e-mails, share the links and then you can do with it as you please. I hope that you will find it beneficial. I'm excited about this new year and I hope you are to. I can take NO credit for the information. I am simply passing it a long. If you want more, please let me know and I can forward you more. So, let's get started.......First one.....

Healthy Eating: Back to the Basics
A healthy diet isn't as confusing or restrictive as you might think. It's about choosing foods that provide your body with the calories and nutrients it needs to perform — not more or less. The best way to start is to learn the recommended daily calorie intake for your age, weight, height, activity level, and gender, and then to include foods from the essential food groups. In other words, skip the fads and focus on proper nutrition.Learn more about the basics of healthy eating.

Healthy Living,
Pam

If our love relationship with God is going to grow, we must be ruthlessly honest with Him and let Him be ruthlessly honest with us. We must above all give Him time-time in which we can expose the real core of our being. We must dare to be real and open and vulnerable with Him. Tim Hansel


I want to challenge you as me move into the first week of 2010 to dig deeper with God this year and give your relationship the time it needs to be authentic.

Happy Thursday

God's Peace and Provision

The end of 2007 was a pivotal turning point in my relationship with the Lord. My husband Forrest and I had only been married about a year and a half and were living in Starkville, MS. I was working at Mississippi State University with an education grant and Forrest was doing odd jobs, working with the our Church, and taking classes on Mondays at New Orleans Theological Seminary through a satellite campus in Jackson, MS (Jackson is about 2 hours from Starkville). Up until this point, I was not very convinced that him continuing Seminary was the best thing for us as a family. We were struggling financially and it was costing us alot of money each month not just in tuition, but in gas back and forth and food for him to eat. My salary plus what he was making doing these odd jobs left barely enough for groceries much less school. I knew that he enjoyed going to seminary, but I felt that it was not a necessity for training him for the ministry. But he believed that the Lord led him to go and that not finishing wasn't an option. I on the other hand did not have a peace about it and was frankly was too stubborn and focused on the finances that I was missing what God was trying to teach us about trusting Him.

In December 2007, Forrest came to me to discuss his next step with Seminary. He at this point had already taken all the classes he could at the satellite branch which meant he was going to have to drive to New Orleans each week for the next year and a half in order to finish school. I was not happy at all about this! I was thinking "He is being so selfish with school! Isn't our family more important! Now he will have to be in New Orleans at least 3 days a week, not be able to work at all, and when he is home he will have to study and work with the Church!!" Not to mention that once all was factured, it was going to cost about $1,200.00 a month for tuition, dorm fees, books, and meal plans. WE DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY.

I went to the Lord and began to pray about all of this, but honestly my mind was made up regardless of what God had to say. We couldn't afford it, I didn't want him away from home and that was that. Well over the next week or so as I was praying and thinking over all the options, God spoke to me very clearly. I was being selfish, and I was more concerned about how this was going to affect me rather than doing what God desired for our family. His spoke to my heart, reassured me that everything was going to be okay, and told me to just trust Him. Although I did not understand how all this was going to work, His peace that surpasses all understanding came. I knew Forrest was going to have to make a decision quickly about the next semester, so later that night I told Him that I had a peace now about his finishing school, even if it meant that he would have to live in New Orleans half the week. From that moment on, I would have never guessed what God would do next.

Within weeks of making the decision, Forrest received word that he was awarded a scholarship through a foundation that would cover all his costs for tuition, dorm, and meals. He also was told by a very close friend that he wanted to also support Forrest's ministry by financially giving to help with any costs associated with seminary training. Furthermore, within six months I was given a promotion at work and my pay increased by $12,000 a year! God had been faithful and provided for us! This was truly a turning point for me. I prayed, received His peace, and walked in faith knowing God would make a way if this was what He wanted for us and He did!! I also have to say that I was wrong, very wrong about the necessity of Forrest going to Seminary. God truly had a plan and I was so blind to see it in the beginning. Forrest was taught so many life lessons, spiritual disciplines, and grew so much through Seminary and I truly cannot thank God enough for what he taught us through this experience. Praise be to our PERFECT father who truly takes care of all our needs and is daily conforming us to be like Him!

Kristin Moss

Happy New Year! This is a little late but I am having a hard time getting off vacation mode. There are lots of exciting things in the works for the our women's ministry. A few things to keep a look out for.

February 6th- Preparing your hearts brunch
Look for Cornerstone to get a team for a walk/run 5K this spring
April 24th Beth Moore Simulcast

And here is what's going on this week

Tuesday Jan 5 9:15 1st place 4 Health
Wednesday Jan 6 6:15 New LDI classes start
Friday Jan 8 12:00 Women's Prayer Time

Hope to see you this week.