Bee Blessings and Pool Perspective

A lovely picture of our ranch at sunset taken by one of our staff on Sunday night.

 

 



Several years ago I began thinking that I really wanted to learn to do bee keeping but this was a far off and lofty dream as there is much to it including financial obligation and so much to learn. But I have wanted to study this art none the less and so I was blessed this last week to hear not only that BGC is about to get a couple of hives for the ranch, but also that I can be a part of this new journey! I was so excited to attend the bee keepers presentation with the Jr. Master Gardeners group and I just thanked God as this was yet again another confirmation that we are planted exactly where He wants us to be and where the desire's of hearts can blossom!

Neano and Daddy-O made a quick visit on their trip to their new home in

ORANGE, TX!

WE COULDN'T BE MORE THRILLED TO HAVE THEM SO CLOSE!!

I love this pic of Daddy-O and Bug. Reminds me so much of many days at the pool

with his daddy, my Dandy.

 

 

Bug cheesing after the pool!

 

 

 

Mom and Dad at their new home Orange, Texas. Where they will serve at McDonald Memorial Baptist Church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It warms my heart to no end to see Cliff in the kitchen with the kiddos teaching them a thing or two!

Our girls from C2 helped him make home made chicken nuggets and onion rings with honey mustard dipping

sauce the other night and it was so yummy!!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/419538521514028427/

 

 

We got to go to church with our new girls from Cottage 3 on Sunday. Its a church that reminds me a lot of the Journey in Jackson where we used to attend. They meet at a really neat conference center that has all these western statues.

 

 

 

 

Sweet boy fell asleep on the way home from church and slept the whole time during lunch in the booth beside me.

 

 

Seeing these pics of Bug on the Ranch puts it all into perspective. Satan may try and dissuade us, but this truly is

exactly where we are supposed to be.

 

 

This week as we learned more about the new cottage where we will be serving as full time teaching parents at the end of this month, doubt began to creep in a bit.

 

Are we really ready for this?

 

Can we do this?

 

Is it fair to Campbell?

 

Can we manage to keep him safe?

 

But slowly over the course of our last four days off the Lord has calmed all of those fears and put in its place a peace that He is with us.

 

As I sat in that church yesterday, I had what I can only describe, at the risk of sounding crazy, as a vision. We were singing some of the old hymns that my heart and vocal cords have sung for all my life and I saw in my mind's eye my precious daddy taking the pulpit to preach in view of a call to a congregation in Orange where he and Momma will serve anew, proving God's endless call upon our lives and the mercies that comes with an answer that is always, yes.

 

 

 I saw a very dear friend who I have recently been reacquainted with sitting in a small room on an oil rig out in the gulf worshipping the Father in his heart through a longing to bring to fruition a calling upon his life to surrender finally to full time Christian service and ministry.

 

 I saw my dear brother and his wife worshipping God through songs sung on his  acoustic guitar pouring out their talents and gifts to the Creator through the use of artistic expressions he has blessed them with.

 

 I saw my sweet sister and her husband attending their church in Hattiesburg where they have committed to serve, studying the scriptures and taking in all that they can of His Word so that they might better serve the world around them. 

 

I saw my Mimi sitting in her room unable to go to church or really even to follow the message of a sermon anymore but watching a church service on television, faithful, none the less, though this could be her last few days here with us before she goes home to witness true worship.

 

And, ya'll I know I sound like a loon, but I swear I saw children in Africa dancing in the isles of dirt floored churches, and I saw children in China huddled in secret to pray...

 

And then I looked to my right to see Bug sitting so patiently beside me taking it all in as he so loves to do,

 

 And I looked to my left and I saw her there, the girl who's story, so tragic through no fault of her own, has rocked me to the core of my very being and brought me to my knees this week, making me question if I can do this. 

 

 And just as this sight of her sitting there singing beside me awoke me from where I  had been, the worship leader said,

 

"Take the person's hand to your left and pray for them. Pray that God will do a miracle in their life so awesome that you can't even imagine it."

 

What you don't know as a reader is that for three days I had tried to find the courage to pray that over this child.

To even dare to pray it would have meant that it was possible and even scarier still that I might be asked to be a part of it.  

 

But I prayed it and I squeezed her little hand in mine, and she laid her head over onto my shoulder.

And I wept.

 

I actually wept a lot this week. Haha.

 

Sometimes its hard to finally get everything you have been asking the Lord for, for so long.

 

But I wept over bees, and I wept over girls and I wept over apartments, and I wept over coincidences that my friend and I have deemed God-Incidences because we see him so clearly in them, and I wept over new beginnings I could have never imagined in my wildest of dreams. And in those tears I found His peace and His plans through prayer.

 

And so, this week our prayer requests are many as we venture out in less than ten days into a new journey with a cottage of our own, where we have finally realized that they Lord has most assuredly called us.

 

 

Pray for all of the girls. Our six new daughters. Their stories are each different and yet at the heart the same. They all desire so deeply to be loved and to be accepted as family. Pray that we can do this without compromising our own.

 

Pray for my parents as they too begin a new journey in a new place of the Lord's calling.

 

Pray for my Mimi (my dad's mother) as she is no doubt in her last weeks and days. Pray for my dear aunt  and her family who care for her. Pray for my sweet daddy. And selfishly I pray that when she does go that the timing of it all will be when I can leave the new cottage and go back to MS without taking off  any extra days.

 

Pray for our endurance this week as we begin today an eight day shift that will be followed by only one day off before we begin again another eight days in our new cottage.

 

Pray for the hearts of  the kids we will no longer be serving as we move on from being singles to full time teaching parents and that the relationships with them we have created will continue in the ways that they should.

 

Pray for my friend out there on the oil rig who will be interviewing at BGC next week. Pray that if this is in fact the right place for him, they will see it and he can begin to serve God in this beautiful place that he has come to love through the words and pictures on this blog.

 

Pray specifically for the girl who sat on my left at church. I can not write out here the countless tragedies she has faced, nor the things about her past that scare me, but I do ask that you pray for her because God knows all of that and He also knows what He wants to do in her life through our family in her future. I do not know what life holds for her here at BGC, but I do know that I was a safe place for her to rest her head on Sunday and I ask that you continue to pray with me that I will know how I can continue to be what she needs while she is here.