Friday Fly-By

Just got back from the Joyce Meyer conference down at the FedEx Forum. It was great! If you have a chance, try to make it to a session. The worship is awesome - led by Darlene Zschech and Hillsong - the message great and the atmosphere just all around fun! Very refreshing time!

Here's what's going on at The Life Church this weekend...

1. The Collierville Campus is officially a part of our Sunday mornings! We're still setting up on Saturdays so if you'd like to come be a part of transforming the YMCA into church, meet there at 6pm. Extra hands are always appreciated!

2. We start a new series in school-age called Starlight Station. We'll be studying the life of Joseph in a fun space resort theme. It'll be cool!

3. Nursery/Preschool continues with the I Can Be a Friend series.

4. Watoto Children's choir will be here all weekend. They will sing at the Joyce Meyer Conference tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon we're treating them to the Children's Museum. If anyone wants to come hang with them give Sonya Y. a call!

5. Don't forgot the Watoto Children's Choir concert on Sunday evening at 6pm!

I've Moved My Blog

Hey - my blog has moved to a new site. Here's the address:
www.kristinevans.wordpress.com

**note it's kristin evans, no middle initial.

Resolutions Part 2

How are you doing on New Years Resolutions? I'm doing ok. Well, let's just say I've not ruled any of my resolutions as a failure yet, but I'm not perfect. Here's the update:

1. Read the Bible through in a year - a little behind
2. Increase exercise - jogging and strength training - haven't made it to the gym yet
3. Keep on top of caring for the garden - Yes! Did what I was supposed to do back in November!
4. Focus more on team building - working on communication
5. Plan more healthy meals to eat at home - doing better
6. Increase planning ahead for everything - work, life - updating calendars and USING them
7. Work on finding a place for everything or giving it away - started a bit last Saturday
8. Pray more! - this one's a easy one because the more you pray the more you want to pray

How are your goals going?

Unrest in Kenya

Many of you know that our church has strong ties to Kenya. Our pastors, John and Leslie Siebeling, pastored there before planting The Life Church of Memphis. I went to Kenya with them to visit the church and their pastors, Don and Amy Matheny, back in 1998. With the recent unrest in Kenya, we have all been praying. You hardly see a blurb about it on the nightly news, but it's a pretty big deal and it seems the country is at a tipping point. They need our prayers so this country can continue to be an example of stability in Africa. Read more by clicking on "Kenya" in the right hand column.

New Years Resolutions

So here we are again at the beginning of a new year. Can you believe how quickly last year went?! I can't!! Pastor John gave us a list of seven things he is thankful for from 2007 - so here is my list plus 8 things I'd like to work on for 2008.

Seven Things I'm Thankful For From 2007 (in no particular order)
1. The addition of Cocoa, our little puppy, to our family
2. Greg joining the staff of The Life Church
3. Our first ever Kids Life Summer Camp
4. Incredible trips this year - Australia; Birmingham, AL; Washington DC; Los Angeles, CA; Uganda, Africa
5. The purchase of the shopping center that our church is in
6. All the healthy babies born to friends this year
7. Another year of life, marriage, family and serving God!

Eight Resolutions for 2008
1. Read the Bible through in a year
2. Increase exercise - jogging and strength training
3. Keep on top of caring for the garden
4. Focus more on team building
5. Plan more healthy meals to eat at home
6. Increase planning ahead for everything - work, life
7. Work on finding a place for everything or giving it away
8. Pray more!

Christmas

Greg and I had a great Christmas! We celebrated early with my family at our house, then went to a cabin in the woods near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We did this last year and enjoyed it so much we did it again. It's nice because we can also go and see Greg's family and friends in Knoxville. This year, we brought Cocoa, our puppy. He had a great time! We splurged a little more on a nice cabin and hung out there a lot. It was a really great time to relax and unwind.

Gulu

Yesterday we flew to Gulu, Uganda - a town in the northern Uganda. This town was in the middle of the civil war for twenty years. The LRA would abduct children - boys to be soldiers and girls to be "wives" so the children in the villages would travel to Gulu at night and sleep anywhere they could - shop verandas, bus stations, anywhere. The idea was that they could be better protected from the rebels if they were in town rather than in their villages with their families. Peace talks are still underway, but the abductions have stopped. For a little over a year they have had relative peace in this area.

The fighting has stopped, but the healing is just beginning. Because of the war, many people are misplaced and live in camps called IDP camps - Internally Displaced People. These camps are basically slums where children are everywhere. The government is encouraging these people to go "home" to their villages, but many don't know where that is because they have been in the bush so long. The female children who were abducted as "wives" now have multiple children whose fathers are members of the rebels. Their villages do not want them back with those children. It's a really rough situation.

The hope is that KPC has begun their church campus here. They started in March and already have 1000 people on Sundays and 17 cells. They need more cells, but need to train up more leaders first. We were greeted by Pastor Joseph and he toured us around Gulu. We enjoyed spending time with him. He has quite a task in front of him, but he is full of faith and knows that through partnership with others God can do anything!

We saw a vocational school where they are teaching these child mothers who have been released from the rebels to sew so they can earn money to support their children. The average age at this school is 15 and some have more than one child. Right now there are so many students they must rotate the classes - and there are more young girls coming out of the bush everyday. What precious people to reach out and help these young girls! Watoto plans to partner with this school to continue helping these young mothers. Some of them may become Watoto mums one day.

The need is great - but God is so much bigger. We had quite a full day, so I'll have to post more later. Also, check back for pictures later. We are about to start our long travel home.