It's Official!

We are so excited. Caleb received his official Air Force Academy "Appointment".Only about 75% of those that graduate from the prep school get to go on to the Academy next year. We are so proud of him! We leave tomorrow morning at 5 to make a long trip to Colorado Springs. I can't think of anything better for Mother's day than for everyone to be there with Caleb.

Prayer Need

As most of you know the Lord has brought us here to Louisville for Robert to finish his degree so that in the future he can pastor again with a teaching credential that will allow him to teach part time at the collegiate level. He has about 1 year left if he can take a full load.This is a very difficult Seminary that requires alot of time for each class due to a very heavy reading load that each class requires. He is taking his last final today in Hebrew at 2:00 and then we leave Sunday to go to Colorado to see Caleb Graduate from the prep school. When we get back next Wednesday Robert will begin to actively look for work.He would like to find a regular good paying part time job and then fill in with other small jobs to supplement and still be able to take a full load at school.Please pray that he will find something quickly and be able to start taking his summer classes.Please pray for his stamina.He is doing really well.Full time at this Seminary is 9 hours a semester and he has just finished over 30 hours in 2 semesters so he has been reading until his eyes are about to fall out.I pray that the Macular Degeneration issues he had a few years ago continue to stay away.Pray for peace and faith as we again anticipate how the Lord is going to provide for us. The Lord has been so good to us and I "should have" no worries as I contemplate all that has transpired in the last year.Pray for us as we take 6 people in the car Sunday for 19 straight hours from Louisville to Colorado Springs and then come home again on Wednesday.Pray for Caleb as he starts his new job in Jacksonville.He will be coming here first to get Robert's truck to drive to Jacksonville to have all summer to use to get back and forth to work.Pray for his safety on that long trip south.Thank you for your prayer.I love to pray for you and I hope you will remember us as well.
Becky

Please Pray

My sister - in-law Cydee Lapp...Her mother Ann Johnson just passed away about an hour ago rather unepectedly after a brief illness.Please pray for Cyndee, AShley, Amy,Carl and Jeff and all the rest of her family at this time.We praise the Lord that she was a believer.
Becky

NOT A LITTLE BOY ANYMORE

Can you make a guess which one is Caleb...in the 1st picture below? Let me know what you think

God is so kind

It is hard to describe the events of today that will adequately convey the meaning that is branded in my heart. Of course it is a day full of mixed emotions.Sorrow and loneliness as I reflect back on one year ago and where we were and what we were feeling and how I am feeling now,Sadness at the loss of face to face fellowship with those that are so dear and at the same time joy at how God has so clearly guided us this past year.I did well until getting in the car and when you have been married as long as we have you don't have to use words to convey thoughts and feelings to each other .It is a glance, a hand that is squeezed tightly, a wink of the eye that says it all.While on the way to church I started to feel overcome when on the radio we heard a song we had never heard before and Robert just had to say "see?". The song was by the David crowder band called "Never Let Go" it has only a few lyrics and we usually don't care for the songs with just a few lyrics but they were the exact thing I needed to hear on the way this morning and I will never forget that moment as God's Spirit ministered strength to my breaking heart.
If that was all that happened this morning it would have been a special day but then when we sat down for the morning worship service God did another amazing thing. I could not hold back the tears from flowing down my cheeks again a mixture of feelings and then it was because God was so kind to us this morning. Our Pastor Tom Shreiner got up to preach and I was overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for bringing us to this church and having the opportunity to hear from God's word each week from someone that we have gotten to know a little bit and see such Pastoral love and care as He shepherds us. Anyway, Pastor Tom preached from the last couple of chapters of 1Samuel and it could not have been anymore timely. He talked about Davids frustration with not being able to fulfill his plans and not understanding why even though he was trying to do a good thing it was not the way God was going to work out His will. He related it to our lives when we try so hard to see things through and work so hard and then God does not allow us to see it through to the end of our plans but He will see it through to his will.I can not do this message justice and if I can get a copy of it I will post it here. The tears continued to flow down my cheeks during the entire message because God was so kind to let us hear such a perfect message for our needs this day. I don't intend to give the impression that I believe that it was just for us for I am sure many can relate to such situations but for us today we felt overwhelmed by God's goodness and rejoiced in hearing from His word.We ended the service by singing a very familiar songs to all of from Christ Fellowship called "Jesus Thank You" Robert didn't open his eyes during the entire song for I know he was listening for your voices and thanking God for His goodness to all of us.I would love to hear from you all about how God ministered to you this day.

Becky

"NEVER LET GO"

A WORD FROM ROBERT

“…as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.” 2 Corinthians 6:10

To those whom I long to see,

It is hard to believe that a year has come and gone since I stood before you on that fateful day and proclaimed to you the hope that we have in God. I doubt seriously whether that day will ever perish from my memory. I was so afraid and yet so hopeful. I was afraid because of the unknown, yet hopeful because of our God. I well remember Mike bringing in that wonderful, huge, vase full of flowers. It was so full of life though I felt so dead. It was a moment in which I was dying and at the same time hoping to live. It was a sermon that I so wanted to preach with all of my being and yet at the same time one that I wish I would never have ever prepared. I will always remember our gathering on the beach. I remember that none of us wanted to leave, but the sun was setting and night was approaching. It was time to go. How could a heart be so full and so empty at the same time?
A year has come and gone. So much has happened, not just in our lives but in yours as well. I am so very proud of you all. Christ has enabled you to walk through the difficulties of this past year as well as to see great accomplishments. You have all found new churches where you are not just attending but ministering as well. That is a great joy in our hearts. You show the work of Christ wrought in your hearts and exhibited through your lives. Your continued fellowship with one another is an expression of the genuine love of God produced by the Spirit’s presence.
I will always carry you in my heart. The memories of the last few years together sustain my soul. Yes, those were years of struggle and uncertainty, but that is not what I remember. I remember a congregation growing up into a mature body that loved to see Sunday come. My memories are of worshipping our God together as one being. If I close my eyes and block out the surrounding noise I can still hear you singing. I can hear you reading the scripture, I can hear your prayers, I can hear your praises to our great God. When I still myself I can sense your joy when we found a new song that expressed our hearts to God or we sang an old hymn that brought comfort and courage to our weary souls. When I think back on those days it seems as if just when it all came together, and we learned to worship God in Spirit and Truth, the wind blew and like a zephyr of smoke it was gone. Some things are just inexplicable, but we trust in the wisdom of God and not the desires of our hearts.
It is a strange existence that we have. We are at the same time thankful for what God has done and yet disheartened that He did not keep us together. We are fearful of what the future holds because of uncertainty and yet greatly anticipating what God is preparing for us to do. It has been a year and yet it seems like it was only yesterday.
I cannot express to you how I long for one more worship service together. To experience one more song, one more prayer, one more passage of scripture read. I long to stand before you and declare the Word of God just one more time. To unpack the children’s material, to set up the sound system, to unfold the pulpit, just one more time. These are indeed difficult thoughts, but not ones that should lead us to despair.
I am reminded of something that I once read by C.S. Lewis that I believe will help us through such thoughts. It is from his space trilogy. Specifically it comes from a conversation that takes place between a fictional creature from Lewis’s vivid imagination and a human. The specific thought is that the memory of an event is part of the event. It is the completion of the event, its culmination. I remember initially reading it and not quite understanding its significance. But I now believe I understand some of what he wrote.
Memories are not designed to take us from the present to the past but rather to bring the past into the present. Memory serves to transport the reality of the past into the present so that what once was can now be experienced and enjoyed again in the present. My point is that I can have one more song, one more prayer, one more sermon, if I will just remember what God has done. To long for another moment is in some measure to deny the sufficiency of the past. Certainly memories can grow into legends and some even pass from legends into myths. But one thing is certain in my mind and that is that God was with us and I will forever call upon that memory to carry me through the present lonely paths that lead to that place where we will all gather again. Where we will forever sing, and praise and enjoy one another forever in the presence of our Lord who unites us forever by His Spirit.
As the sun rose a year ago, so shall it rise again in a few days. The rising of that anniversary sun will be announced by a building chorus of praise to our God that will begin in the east and move across the sky until it rests above us at the appointed time. When that time arrives I will ask you to join me in singing another song, offering another praise, hearing another sermon about and to our great God. If you will listen you will hear my voice join in with yours and I assure you that I will be listening for yours. In that moment let our hearts grow in thankfulness for what God has done for us. Let faith swell up in your soul, full of anticipation at seeing the glory of God that he intends to demonstrate through the work that he began in us and will complete. Even if we cannot see it in full measure until we all join together and look back at the wonder of His wisdom.

With deepest love and warm affection and longing of heart.

Robert




I just wanted to add that I just love ya'll so very much! My heart has been heavy with love and bursting with memories especially in these last couple of weeks.I too shall never forget the beautiful day last April 29th as we gathered on the beach after morning worship to have one last meal together and the love I had that each of you gathered to share in Joshua's baptism. I am so glad that he got to experience that with you all since you knew him since birth and played a part in loving him and seeing him come to Christ.I am so moved by the music of Christ Fellowship Church and how when I hear those songs in our current church it brings me back to those times spent together singing whether in a hotel ,school,home,college auditorium or gathered together in knee deep water at one of our baptisms.The song link I included here is the last song we sang together and the line about "He gives and Takes Away" has actually brought me great comfort as I reflect on the circumstances of our ending and how we all saw through the tears that it was God that was taking away and we could rest in that knowledge and continue to say..."Blessed be the Name of the Lord"...
I am including a link to Robert's last message to us as a congregation as that has been something that I have returned to several times this year to hear from Gods word about the greatness of his Sovereignty even in the most painful times in our lives.It has been such a source of strength for me and I hope you will find it encouraging again as well.
Becky

OUR LAST MESSAGE TOGETHER




OUR LAST SONG

I needed a good laugh!

You know this has to be posted by Becky since Robert does not have time these busy studying days for such trivial postings LOL I dare you to watch these and not laugh untill you cry