there's no place like home

Today, we decided to go visit The Rock, that's our old church, it was great! I had ran into Rusty last week (he's the pastor) when I was droppin' off one of Mike's fliers for Kenny Mangos's and he asked how we were doing, later I started thinking maybe we should go visit. Also a few weeks ago I was at the Community Action Banquet and it just so happened Pastor "dad", Rusty's dad was there to say the prayer and Rusty's secretary, Sonia, was there to sing, and she belted out a mighty song entitled "what we need is a word from the lord", it was so encouraging to see them there, and that too made me feel like visiting, I told them all how much we missed them and they all said they missed us too and that we were always welcome.

So today we went, everyone was hugging us and happy to see us, it amaed me that in a church that big (about2500 people) would be missed. The first person we saw was Angie Gray (our pastor from Planet Rock (college and career)), she was on her way to Panoply with the Master's Commission to do their Stomp routine. I love how everyone is involved in the community.

Then we took the kids to the nursery (yay! for nurseries!!). Everywhere I turned I saw an old friend, it truly is A Family Worship Center. It's not so much about how they do things but who they all are and their hearts' desires to serve God. Freedom Christian Center is a great church full of good people and we don't regret our time there. Today I think I put it best when I said we had finished our "tour of duty" and were back for more training.

It just so happened today was membership Sunday and 130 new members covered the stage. It was so refreshing to be next to my husband during worship and to have the freedom to raise my hands. We visited a little methodist church for a while and though it was contemporary it was still conservative. So today I raised my hands as high as i could, even after they started to ache, I raised them even higher as if to try and touch heaven. I kicked my shoes off and twirled and jumped and danced and oh what a feeling, to be home again, to be free again! The song they sang was even "I am free!"

Rusty of course delivered a great message on "truth or deception" based on the Davinci Code. All morning we were so excited to be visiting and all the way home we just kept saying how great it felt to be back home. I thanked God the whole time I was there, I cried about 3 times because His presence was so strong. I realized I had taken it all for granted. The kids had a blast too and that's the icing on the cake.
Glory be to God! May all come to know Him and His Unconditional Love!