Some Final Photos

Here are some photos of the party the church gave us after church:

The cake has us on it!! How neat!
Some of our people. Yes, that's my back to you there. I'm stuffing my face. It was hard not to! We had BBQ Brisket (Bristow-style) mashed potatoes, Watergate Salad by Lynn, and the list goes on!! It was so very good!
The church presented Terry a granite plague with a heartfelt message on it. Very touching. :[ We will miss them!
Here's Terry with the plaque. Sorry about the glare.
Thought I'd throw this one in too. It was such a beautiful sunset.

Now that you've waded through all those other photos, here's what we did for the Mom's today. Every lady got her picture taken this way. It was a hoot.

Ahhh. This is the life.

See ya soon...

Lauren's Prayers Are Answered!

I've been eagerly awaiting the day when I could make this important announcement. Terry has resigned as Pastor here at Northside Baptist Church and has accepted the pastorate of Grace Baptist Church in Hope, Arkansas. We are taking a church that not only has children, but teenagers as well! Lauren's prayers have been answered! That's right, God heard, and indeed answered, an eight year old girl's prayers! What a mighty God we serve, and how wonderful He is to us!
We usually take our annual trip to Arkansas around the first part of May, but when Terry was asked to preach in view of a call in Hope on April 20th, we moved our vacation up a wee bit.We were not looking for a place to go. In fact, the Lord has really been blessing our work here - oh, not by giving us huge numbers or large offerings, but in baby steps. Here a little, there a little. We have been anticipating great things in 2008 - and trust me, a move was not one of them. Here are a few interesting things about all of this that really meant nothing until we received the call to Grace Baptist Church:
1. As stated before, we were not looking to leave. This was all done in God's timing. An evangelist friend felt he should put our name in at this church, and it was of the Lord. They phoned Terry on April 2nd, and he drove to Hope to meet them on April 4th. They asked him to preach on April 20th. He preached there and we were called, unanimously, on April 27, 2008. That can only be the Lord!
2. We have had a real peace that God would bless our efforts to serve Him here, even when the battles were great. I've been using Hebrews 11:6 as my strength. It says: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Again, I was expecting the rewards to be given here in Burnet, but God had other plans.
3. We did not notice until after we were asked to go in view of a call that the stationary Terry had printed (at a costly amount) back in February did not have his name as Pastor on it! He did not do this intentionally, but I do not believe it was a coincidence. The church can continue to use this stationary after we are gone.
4. We are almost through with school for the year. This is a blessing! The children will not be uprooted from a school and friends because we home school...another benefit.
5. Terry had just discontinued our website (biblewaytexas.com) in mid March! (Although, as of now, it may still be going.) He simply felt he should end it. Again, it was of the Lord.
6. I have been unable to decide what theme to go with for a Mother/Daughter banquet. The Lord seemed silent on this subject, so I had decided to not have one this year.
7. I had just discontinued my monthly ladies newsletter due to financial and time constraints.
None of the above seemed very extraordinary at the time, but now, it seems clear it was God guiding us all along the way.

We make our move on May 15th! Grace Baptist Church is full of loving people. We had a feeling of being at home from the moment we walked through the door. The thought of packing and moving doesn't exactly thrill me, but at least I've got experience. :o) This will be my 8th move in 10 years of marriage. Yes, please pray for me.The church has a parsonage. I am unsure of the address as of this time, but I'll be posting my new information soon.
I praise the Lord for the success He's granted us here at Northside. We have not accrued any debt in the church's name. We have not seen the church split over something minute. We have seen souls saved on soul winning, and one saved in church. We have conducted a successful VBS (with only a few workers) and saw 7 girls saved. We've held Bible Institute classes, and a Ladies Bible Study. We have started Super Church. We have taken on five new missionaries for a total of 14. We have done a lot of work on the church building and parsonage. We are thankful to be able to say that we are leaving it better than we found it.
It will not be easy to say goodbye. We are dreading it. Please pray for us, the people here, and for the church to find a pastor quickly.I suppose my "Life in the Hill Country" is about to come to a close. I'm thankful that my life hasn't yet! :o) I am not sure if we will have Internet access in Hope. If so, I'll be starting a new blog. If not, well, I guess this will be it for a while.
Thanks for staying with me, guys. I hope we can keep in touch. Until then, I'll be keeping you posted on the joys of packing, moving and starting over...again!

The Big Day was a Big Success!

Praise the Lord, our prayers were answered! We had about 65 people at our Anniversary service. Many of them were at one point members of our church. I had heard so many good things about them, but had never met them! It was nice to finally put a face with the name.
The Lord's hand was upon Terry during his preaching. The Holy Spirit was working!
I am most excited about that! Terry preached from 2 Tim. 2:1-10. I'm sure his sermon will be on the website soon, so please go have a listen. I believe it will bless and encourage you.
I sang two songs, and was a nervous wreck, but I felt the arms of the Holy Spirit enveloping me, as I knew He could do. I was leaning so heavily upon Him, that He had to hold me up! He was all I had! I'm so thankful that God made me nervous and high strung! I would not feel as great a need for Him if I were laid back and calm naturally. He's so good to me.
I will try to post some photos of our big day for you at a later time. I just wanted to quickly give you an update, and let you know that our prayers were heard by our Almighty God, and He graciously answered! Once again, I praise the Lord!
To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

The Big Day

Today is our church's 60th anniversary! We have been preparing for it for several months. We have invited 80 people that at one time were members of our church. We're hoping to see a good many of them today, and meet some for the first time, but it is in the Lord's hands. Most of all, we would love to see some folks saved today! Could you please pray for our church, my husband as he preaches and for the services of Northside Baptist Church today? We would be most grateful. I will let you know how God answers our prayers!
I pray that we all are worshiping the Lord today in Spirit and in truth. Have a happy Sunday!

~Valerie

He was with Us

The banner in the front of our church announcing our NEW Bible Study!!

We began our Ladies Bible Study at Northside Baptist Church yesterday. I was sooo nervous! I awoke at 4:55AM due to nerves! I headed to my devotional spot and could seem to only pray "Lord, I'm really nervous. What was I thinking. I'm so nervous. Please help me do this today." I said this over and over.
Finally, I decided to read my Bible as my prayer time didn't seem to be getting me anywhere, or was it? As I began my reading, the Lord really gave me comfort and encouragement. He showed me this verse:
Mark 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
What a blessing it was to hear from the Lord at the very moment that I needed Him.
He was clearly saying "You know what, you're right to come to Me for help because you can't do it. But I can." My prayer time was working after all!
And He surely did come and meet with us. The ladies had a wonderful, cheerful Spirit - despite the early hour! Isn't that how we should feel when we get together with God's people? I think so!
We basically just had an introduction to the study yesterday. I explained that the point of this study is to help develop devotional habits. I don't want to meet and fill in all the answers in our books and go home and not crack open our Bibles for a whole week. I want everyone to be reading God's Word daily. It will change your life. We had ten ladies there!! Praise the Lord! That is nearly 100% of our ladies in the church. We had one lady who is not in our church come, so that was an added blessing from the Lord.
If you think of it, please be in prayer for the eleven remaining weeks of our Bible study. I would love to see some lost ladies find us, and find Jesus at the same time!
I will keep you posted.
Do you get in God's Word everyday? If not, maybe you'd like to do this study with us, long distance. Here's the information to order the book we're working on. Even if you are in your Bible daily, this will be a great addition to your walk with the Lord.