Seeds of Greatness Preach

We have some really special, really fantastic Brides of Christ who partner with us to live and minister in Haiti...we are so thankful. 

One of them is Seeds of Greatness, and we ALWAYS have a blast sharing with our family there.

1) The service and worship is ROCKIN'.  We wish we could go here every Sunday...Seeds of Greatness is excited to be gathered together before His throne, and we love that!

2) The people are just fantastic.  They are quick to pray, quick to encourage, quick to recall His faithfulness in the past and BOLD to step out on faith for the future.

3) They let us preach as LONG as we want.  

For two kids coming from Haiti where church is the DAY, not an event, we love be unhindered by the clock and able to share and finish by the Spirit!

That being said, you may no longer be interested in watching the sermon :)  

But if you have a bit of time and are interested in seeing Matt preach the way he gets to preach at home...but in English, I promise it will be worth your time.  You'll also get to see Pastor Jerome and his wife, Lisa...the man who baptized Matt as a child and the couple who has come to mean so much to us as we all minister in One Kingdom, His, together.

something we needed.

I am rarely speechless.  

Met me?  Yeah, you know.

I am even more rarely type-less.  

Check our blog often?  You know.

But I just don’t know how to describe today. 

Our time with our Seeds of Greatness family was really, truly, deeply special. 

It’s always fun to worship and preach and share and visit here.  It’s always encouraging.  It’s always a gift.

But man, today it just humbled and refreshed our socks off.

I know I just wrote about peace being a person...and about needing more of that Person of Peace.

And man, did I find Him today.  

First, Matt preached just such a powerful message on the Gospel being Jesus and what that looks like, and I hope to share it with you here as soon as we get it.

We also were so blessed by so many friends from various churches coming out to worship at SoG with us.   (THANK YOU so much, so many of our Sharptown family and family friends, for joining our SoG family!)

And it is ALWAYS a blessing to meet and talk and pray with so many people, to worship together.

Praying with and catching up with Pastor Jerome and Lisa is always such a blessing, and this year, particularly insightful and encouraging as we shared our past year together.

But the best part of today was the hardest.

I love loving people.  I love helping people.  I love giving and giving and giving.

Receiving?  Not so much my forte. 

But for all we give, and for all we gave at Seeds of Greatness today, we always always receive so much more.

Having to ask people to help us live and minister in Haiti isn't easy.  Getting to thank people like SoG for making it possible for our family to live and minister in Haiti is a little bit easier.  But the act of having people directly, face-to-face, help us and lift us up?

Having each person in this family, one by one by one (we're talking hundreds of people, people) come up to us, hold our hands, give us their prayers and blessings and encouragement and press dollar bills into our hands....on and on and on and on...

I've never received such an overwhelming, uncomfortable, intimate, timely, answer-to-prayer blessing in my life.

After the twentieth person or so, it all melted down to just Jesus.  

Just Jesus hugging and loving and encouraging and providing for us. 

Restoring so much that has been worn down, 

blessing so many dry places,

and peacening us with HIS peace.

We are still glowing tonight, because in a matter of 30 minutes He met us so fully through SO MANY of our brothers and sisters, just generously and lovingly giving US Him...all we ever really need!

Treating US like the missionfield.

Letting HIM do His restorative and gracious and redemptive work in our lives.

Which was something we needed.

Praising the Lord greatly!

greatness.

My heart still feels so full from this morning I'm not totally sure how to write about it.  Our morning at Seeds of Greatness Bible Church was filled.  

Filled with some fantastic people, from Pastor Jerome and Lisa, the couple who baptized Matt as a child, to the friends we've made the last seven years, all the way down to other parents I met in the nursery.  

Filled with some fantastic Spirit-filled moments, from Matt's preaching all the way down to (I am not exaggerating) the announcements.  

Filled with a lot of different emotions, from awe at the reminder of who He is to heartbreak over the extreme pain in this world back to awe at the Creator who promises to make all things new.

Filled with a lot of gratefulness, from Seeds of Greatness and their huge role in faithfully supporting us in Haiti to Uncle Don and Aunt Brenda, sitting through at least Don's hundredth Ayars presentation, letting Sofie sticker them to death.  

One of the simple truths the Lord reminded me of this morning was that we've gotta be active in the Holy Spirit's work.  As Jerome put it, "You can't sit on the couch and ask the Holy Spirit to help you rake.  You gotta be raking for him to come alongside you and help you rake.  If you want the Holy Spirit to move, you gotta be moving." 

I've been praying and praying that the Lord will work in my heart and life on a certain issue, but for all the times I've asked Him to change my heart and been waiting for Him to do so, I sure haven't gotten started on it.  What a heart-changing truth for me today...

And that was in Jerome's office before the service started.  

Add in an incredible testimony of Mercy Ministries that had us all in tears (twice), the powerful photos and story of Jerome and Lisa's son's should-have-been death experience in May, an announcement-turned-devotional about SoG's ministry to teens with parents going through divorce, a powerful display of a church's commitment to every.single.person participating in the worship of tithing, some great musical worship, a totally-unexpected powerful dance/drama, some sincere and in-His-presence prayer times, a staggering altar call for active participation in missions and this handsome young man preaching (see it here), plus being surrounded by so many faithful friends?  Plus a time of being surrounded by all these people below to pray for rest, wisdom and renewed energy and protection for our family?

Yikes.  We were all so blessed and challenged we could hardly talk about anything else over lunch.

This is also why I got almost NO pictures.  Sorry.  

It was a Sunday we won't soon forget...one of those "make a milestone" moments you want to remember when the nights are inky black and sweaty hot and your heart is burdened and you can hear the voodoo drums pounding and I pray to the Lord, "Meet me, Lord, Come.  I am alone." 

He did, today, and I am NOT.

we like to move it, move it

This week has been PACKED.

Visits to see family...in which we discovered everyone's love of the motorized wheelchair.

Time with Grandmom Kay...such a good visit.

our annual date night with two of our favorites, Doug and Julie

The always take us somewhere we've never been in downtown Philly, and this year's "Tinto" was as good as the fellowship.

A trip to Old Navy, in which Sofie spent the whole time with the dog

ice cream sundaes and great music and fellowship at Jay and Denise's

 going to one of Grammy and Pop-Pop's gigs

 a surprise double b-day party today

and tonight, Matt, Lily, Sofie and Barb ate their weights in crab and mussels.  yikes.

All of this, since Thursday!  If we don't go back to Haiti soon, we're going to be more exhausted going back than we were coming here :)  

Tomorrow, Matt's preaching and testimony-ing at Seeds of Greatness Bible Church at 8 and 10:30.  We love worshiping at SoG and hope to see some of you there!