Oh Happy Day

“Oh Happy Day, Happy Day, you washed my sins away!”

(bear with me today, as i have lots to say, but after my lengthy treatise, there are lots more pictures!! so keep on reading and more fun will come!)

hope all of my beloved readers’ Easter Weekends were as celebratory as our’s was!!

we began our Easter Sunday morning in the most magnificent way…our favorite way to begin…with the sunrise on the beach:

for a beach sunrise service!

this one was particularly special for us, as it was the first official service for our new church!

i know i haven’t even given any details of that yet, and there will for sure be more coming in the next few months as things begin to officially unfold. i’ve hesitated for a number of reasons to blog about it, one being that i’m not sure that i can put into eloquent words how exciting this is for our family. two, there is so much unknown, that its hard to fully explain how this is going to look, simply because we just don’t know. and three, its humbling to even get to tell other people that we are involved in a church plant, cause we certainly aren’t equipped in and of ourselves!

but here’s a quick little scoop about what’s been going on and why we are doing this:

Two years ago, we left the High School Ministry we were involved in, and the church where we had been working, in order to pursue what God wanted to do through us. all we knew was that there was MORE that He was calling us to, even though we had no clue what that was going to be. Jake began working for an amazing ministry that ministers to coaches and men within the public and private school systems in our area, with the desire to learn from the leadership of that ministry and to have more opportunities to minister to the men of our community.

we began attending a rockin church here in our town, and we very quickly witnessed that this place was serious about a being a refuge to hurting people, believers and non-believers alike…something that was really important to us. we felt like this place was exactly what we had been longing for, but just didn’t know. we felt ALIVE!

not long after we began attending that church, we met/reconnected with a couple who were on staff at the church, but who were being sent out to the beach to plant a church similar to the one where we were going. we prayed together, talked a ton, shared our stories, and without much hesitation, Jake and I jumped on board with their vision and purpose.

the very basic vision of the church plant is to reach the unchurched and the dechurched, and to link the Haves with the Have-nots, who live in close proximity to each other out here in our beach community.

so that’s why we moved out to the beach in January…so that we could be serious about our role in planting this church, and live within close proximity to the people in our core team, as well as those we hope to have community with at some point.

even today, i have no idea what God has in store for us. i have no idea what exactly our roles will be as this church gets going. but that’s all okay. we are happy, we feel alive, and we feel like God is giving us opportunities to learn, grow, and use our gifts to be apart of this growing movement.

we’ve been meeting with a launch team of peeps for about a year now. we’ve expanded since the summer into a larger core group that meets on Sunday nights in a home for a time of worship, teaching, prayer ministry, community, and small group type discussion at times. we have been waiting for God to provide and working towards finding the perfect space/building where He wants us to meet regularly. we are hoping that this is coming very very soon.

the sunrise service on Easter was so encouraging, and i personally feel like this church has the potential to explode within this community quickly. its all very exciting.

one of jake’s favorite things to do is teach God’s people. he has been given lots of opportunities to use his gift within this church plant:

i love watching my kids listen to their dad teach:

bella told us yesterday that her favorite part of Easter was getting to worship (i didn’t even know that she knew that word!) jake asked her why, and she said that she got to sing and dance for Jesus. she rocked it out, let me tell you! i hope that she worships that unashamedly for a long long time!!!

if i thought that there was a way to photoshop my sunglasses out of this pic, i would attempt it! they make me look like a fly.

after church, we came home to do a little scavenger hunt to find our Easter Baskets that the Easter Bunny had hidden and left clues for:

we spent the morning with Mimi and Pappy:

resting a little:

and reading a favorite book:

if you don’t own this book, its worth going out and purchasing. it is a beautiful parallel for the way God pursues His beloved children:

this year we decided to try our hand at Tie Dying our eggs:

i’d say it was a success!

we capped the morning off with an egg hunt on the beach:

this is what you have to expect when hiding eggs on the beach!

we finished off the day with a brunch at my grandparents house and then a dinner with Jake’s family. it was a full day, and we are still recovering, but we wouldn’t have changed a thing!

we have a very special day tomorrow, another day of celebration. i’ll let you know all about it later!

ps: if you live in my area and want to know more about the church, email me at ufkimball@aol.com and i’ll tell you all about it!