The Newness Spring Brings

I hope you've enjoyed Chris' recent posts about ministry in a small-town church! I'm going to interrupt them in order to share a little bit about what our last couple of months have looked like.

Volga: Through the Seasons

First, can I just say again what an absolutely beautiful area we live in?! I don't know if I'll ever get over the beauty of these hills after living in Northern Indiana's flatlands my whole life up to this point. I'd like to share some scenery pictures from the last several months...just because I can. ;) 

Beginning of October - just before all the leaves changed in an explosion of color

October (taken 3 days after the pic above): The entrance to our town in all its Fall splendor

November 20: First snow in Volga was 11" overnight!

December sunset

Calvary Bible Church (where we serve)
December 17: No snow, beautiful and relatively warm days

Beginning of February: Snow, snow everywhere!

Mid-February: Snow melting on the hills

Not a scenery pic, but... Hey, look! We're official!!

New Ministries, New Experiences
The past couple of months have seemed to fly by. In February we got a last-minute call that a Biblical Counseling Training Conference we had been on the waiting list for had had a couple of spaces open up, so we rushed to pack and plan and traveled to IN for the week-long conference. Thankfully my mom was able to get the week off of work, even with such little notice, in order to watch our kids while we attended the conference. We were blessed to be able to spend the week with our previous mentors, Allen and Diane, in Crawfordsville. The conference days were long (though full of good information and teaching), but the evenings spent with Allen and Diane were full of encouragement and refreshing fellowship.

In the beginning of March, we had been asked to attend the mission conference of a church that supports us - Calvary Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, IA, which is about an hour and a half south of Volga. We very much appreciated the hospitality of Charles and Marilyn Seamans, who are retired Village Missionaries and District Representatives who attend that church; we enjoyed the opportunity to get to know them a little bit better during those couple of days. We were given an opportunity on Sunday evening to share a little bit about ourselves and the ministry here in Volga. We were so blown away by the congregation's love for us, a family they had never met. What a blessing it is to be part of the Lord's family, where complete strangers welcome you with open arms as one of their own!

We were invited to share in a senior luncheon

It was neat to see our "light" and family picture posted alongside so many others!
Bonus points to anyone who can find us :)

Sharing in the Sunday evening service
Side note: Chris introduced us, saying we have three kids - Josiah - 3.5, Charis - almost 2, and  #3 expected in July...  Then he added that we've been married 6 1/2 months! *facepalm* He recovered well, but I was pretty mortified for a few seconds (that felt like an eternity) before he corrected himself. It's 6 1/2 YEARS, people!

In March, too, we had a couple new ministries start up. We held our first local Grief Support Group meeting. Organizing a group like this was on the heart of a woman in our church, who had looked in the area and couldn't really find any options like this within an hour's drive. We'll be holding these meetings on the third Tuesday of every month. Please pray for this new ministry!

Chris also began teaching a Bible study during the Sunday School hour (while there used to be a Sunday School class years ago, I don't think there had been one for awhile until this). We've been working through the book of Ephesians while Chris teaches some specific Bible study methods as we study together.

Working hard!

We also have a Ladies' Bible study that began meeting in March that has been a wonderful encouragement to the women who are coming. :)


Easter Service
For Easter, we invited a small group of believers from our community to join us for the service. We were encouraged by their presence and everyone enjoyed the brunch afterwards that the men of our church had worked hard to prepare and serve. It was a beautiful time of celebration with other believers!

"Easter Egg" baskets for the kids - candy on the bottom, empty egg on top (explanation below)

Talented musicians practicing before service

Some of our Good News Club kids sharing the "Armor of God" song they had been learning

Time for a yummy brunch!

I have more pictures to post, but this is getting long so I'll end it here and save the rest for another day. Remember to tune in Wednesday for more of Chris' thoughts on small-town church ministry :)