Praise Report - To God Be The Glory!

After sharing my post titled 'I just need a good cry!' with some of the struggles I felt that I was drowning in slowly, but not terribly slowly, God has begun to speak to me about 'sink or swim'. He has spoken through many of my wonderful friend such as yourselves, my wonderful mother in law, my oldest sister Mary, my husband, and during quiet time alone with Him in prayer and tears. He has heard my frustration and has helped me find the strength to pull myself out of the pit I had fallen into by getting up and moving. My husband and I had been visiting various churches over the last several weeks, 5 different churches to be exact, and we finally feel we are getting close to settle down with one that meets our entire family needs. The church has been very welcoming from the very beginning to when we first entered their entry doors last week. In fact there was one woman who said to me 'I think I know you, what is your name?', to which I replied 'Yeah, you look familiar to me as well, I am Sarah (last name).' She then introduced herself as she walked our family to the children's church service building. She is one of the other mother's who was volunteering to help when I was the 'room mom' in Jewels Kindergarten class last year and she was very helpful in working with me as it had been my first year to volunteer at the school. She even made the comment to me 'You've lost weight haven't you?' I wanted to jump up and shout 'Okay, we've found our church!!!' lol. But she was right; I had lost quite a bit of weight because I have been working super hard at eating healthier foods, smaller proportions, and getting exercise in more unusual ways like mowing our yard and edging the grass, or similar hot and sweaty jobs that bring much cardiovascular activity. Not fun but kills two birds with one stone; yard work gets finished and I get my heart rate pumping and exhausted; burning fat and building muscle. There are many things my husband and I look for in a church; one being the welcoming we feel upon our visit there, the general 'feel' from the congregation: Do they seem uptight? Do they respond or feel engaged to what the Pastor is preaching with nods of their heads or are some falling asleep? Are our children being taught in their class while we are being taught in service? Are they learning or just playing? Does the church share the same beliefs we do about God, His Son, The Holy Spirit, Water Baptism?; just to name a few. Do they offer other ministry services like Sunday School, Women's or Men's Group ministries of fellowship where we can get to know and bond with others like us? Do they challenge us to grow and equip us to serve within and outside of the church to those who need to hear about God's awesome unconditional love? Well the Church we've attended the last two weeks seems to have all of these blessings and then some. There is also a nice variety of diversity in this church, not limited by color, heritage, age, dress, or anything else. And the church is not too large where we feel overlooked and it's not too small either where we feel it's roots aren't defined and organized yet. Quite the opposite; this church feels to us like a place that we hope to visualize as a place that our family can grow with while learning to be better stewards for Christ. The church is Bayshore Baptist. Jesse and I are very excited about learning and befriending the members of this church more over the next several weeks while we pray asking the Lord if this is the church God would have us be planted in. As some of you know church 'shopping' is a very heavy and mentally exhausting task and one that can take a lot of time, observation, and heavy, heavy prayer asking Christ to lead us to a place we can call 'home' away from home. If any of you have been at this place like we have been than you can understand and appreciate the urgent need we feel to find the right place to immerse our family into on a Spiritual level; a church that desires to grow together in unity but more importantly in serving our Master, Jesus Christ. Dr. Mark Redd, Pastor of Bayshore Baptist Church shared an awesome message today about how we as Christ followers can either be a scardey-cat or persevere as a Lion killer during certain situations we may face. (He was continuing on from his message last week about Benaiah: The Lion Killer.) The message taught today was one that I myself was being ministered through the Holy Spirit already; sitting idle in my troubles or doing something about them by slaying them and continuing to move forward. Isn't it so awesome how God already begins to work on one's heart condition and then brings it full term to a message that you are being ministered through at the church as well?? I just love that!!! Please continue to pray for our family as we also pray and seek His Holiness in planting our family at the church that He has in store for us. Thank you already for everything you have been to us; a family, a friend, a firm believer in Christ striving to do His will.