Winter In New England

Well, we have just passed our one month anniversary here.  So far, it has snowed three times (light dusting) but everyone tells us that "It is not winter here until January and February!"  So, we are awaiting a true winter in New England!  :-D

In the month we have been here, we have been richly blessed (many times over) by our wonderful new church family who have made us feel, not only welcomed, but very special!
We have jumped in the middle of this very busy congregation and are enjoying so many aspects of ministry with our new brothers and sisters in the Lord.

It is always so incredible the way God unites His children by tying our hearts together with His wonderful Holy Spirit.  No matter where He leads, He provides a ready-made
family for us to love and to serve Him side by side.

As we enter this glorious Christmas season, we have so many blessings for which to be thankful.  Our hearts are thankful for His love for us, our gift of abundant and eternal life, the privilege to worship and glorify Him and to serve Him until He comes again.  We are thankful for our incredible family...love bragging on those grandchildren!  And so thankful for the friends He has brought into our lives over the years.  So many blessings!   Such a thankful heart!


"Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.  Whenever I pray I make my request for all of you with JOY. "  Phil. 1:3-4                  

PRAYING FOR...

"DEVOTE YOURSELVES TO PRAYER WITH AN ALERT MIND AND A THANKFUL HEART."       COL. 4:2     (NLT)


Jackie ~~ Battling & beating Ewing Sarcoma
Mary ~~ Battling  & beating Osteosarcoma
Margaret ~~ Recovering from her stroke
Deric ~~ Adjusting to life without his wife, Kristen
Courtney ~~ Adjusting to life without her husband, Andrew

Church In The Acres

We were warmly welcomed to our new church home and treated like "family".  We are settling in to our new friends, new community and new temps!   :-D   

IN LOVING MEMORY

                                          KRISTEN GRADY MILLIGAN
                                             3/18/73~~~~~~10/26/12

Kristen was (our) Jill's best friend.  She was diagnosed in 2003 with Stage 4 liver cancer (on her 30th birthday).  Her diagnosis resulted in a long hard fight that included six surgeries, twenty-two months of chemotherapy, and two rounds of radiation.  Through it all she grew stronger and more fervent in her walk with God and was a blessing to so many by the constant example of her deep faith and love for Christ.  She wrote two books about her journey and she and her husband, Deric, founded a non-profit organization, named Inheritance Of Hope, www.inheritanceofhope.org, which ministers to the children of terminally ill parents.  Their vision, "Every Family Deserves A Legacy" continues to impact families, even now as she watches from glory!

Pray for Deric, their children, Ashlea, Luke and Rebecca as they carry on Kristen's legacy.  Visit their website and contribute as your heart leads.  Her's was a life well lived and mine is richer for knowing her.

Catching Up...

Life has been too busy to take time to blog about it!  But, I am convinced that it is not going to slow down anytime soon so I need to just make time to catch-up and share some of our blessings.

 In September we flew to Phoenix for ERC training, (Evangelism Response Center) and after three days of training became certified as "trainers" through the North American Mission Board.  Then in October we drove to Asheville, NC toThe Cove, (Billy Graham's Evangelism Training Center) and also received training for his final crusade, "My Hope" next year.  Two great witnessing programs that we are honored to be a part of!  We took many pictures of The Cove, which was absolutely beautiful with the fall foliage, but those pics are still on the camera and have not made it to this computer yet!   :-D

Then we drove to Springfield, Massachusetts to visit The Church In The Acres in lieu of a call to be their Interim Pastor/Wife.  We felt comfortable and confident that God was leading us to accept their offer and said "Yes" when asked if we would come.  So after four days of experiencing the town, the church and our new friends, we headed back to sunny Florida to pack up and move to brisk Massachusetts!!  We realize that this scenario is completely backwards, Florida in the summer and Massachusetts in the winter...but we also know when God calls, He is not concerned about the weather, just the hearts of those He calls.  So, we are learning to "layer-up" and packing away the shorts and flip flops until next April!

Much to come in the months ahead as we get busy about loving our new church family and sharing that love with those in Springfield that don't know HIM!  Stay tuned!

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!

Learning To Be Creative

We do not have a garage on our little RV lot, just a storage shed, so Steven had to be creative in storing the Harley!  It now lives in a bubble!

HE IS FAITHFUL!

It is alway such an incredible revelation to me when God not only takes care of our needs but our wants...as a bonus!  Since we started this new chapter in our lives, of retirement and ministry on the road, we have asked HIM to provide us with opportunities to serve HIM.

In the past two weeks we have been blessed in four directions:

We were contacted by the Campers On Mission (Alabama) asking if we can come next March to help a church in need with a building project by becoming a part of their construction team.  (www.namb.net/campersonmission)

We were asked by a small local church here in Ft McCoy, Forest Baptist, to come during their Wednesday evening program, and share Steven's "iCare" tools for evangelism.     (www.pastorsteveministries.net)

We were invited by David Burton, through the SBC,  North American Mission Board, to participate in their Evangelism Response Center training, next month.  This will equip us to share with churches an effective way of spreading HIS Word.     (www.erconline.net)

We have been invited by The Billy Graham Evangelical Association to participate in their "My Hope" event next November by taking their training in October.  What an honor to be a part of such a great organization and to honor a great man of God.   (www.billygraham.org/myhope_index.asp)  Billy Graham will turn 95 years old next November.

So our great and mighty God is providing for us and it is so important that the glory and praise be to HIM!   My sweet roommate in nursing school use to say that, "When you cast your bread upon the water (Ecclesiastes 11:1) it always comes back buttered."  Oh, how true that is!

Thank You Lord!

HE IS WORTHY!

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"I will praise You LORD with my whole heart;  I will tell of all the marvelous things You have done.  I will be filled with joy because of You.
I will sing praises to Your name, O Most High."
                                              Psalm 9:1,2

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THE REST OF THE STORY...

After a great week of cruising, Steven then had the task of arranging our military "hop" back to the East Coast.  The next plane out would not be for 3 days, which allowed us to catch-up with Brooks McKenzie (Mattison) and his beautiful new bride, Hannah.  They were more than gracious hosts as they have only been married 2 months and only been in their new apartment one week!  Thanks Brooks & Hannah for your sweet hospitality!

The flight out of Ft McChord got cancelled, so we caught a ride to the ferry to head to Whidbey Island, WA and  and were able to catch a straight flight to Jax from there!  The plane was a C-40, which is a passenger jet that has 121 seats and there were only three of us on the flight!  The plane is home based at NAS, Jax and had to fly back there for another mission, so it was going...even if it were empty!   The funny thing is that they joked about us having our own private jet!  It was a very nice jet, (no need for any inflatable air mattresses or floats this time) and the flight crew were fabulous, treated us extra special!

So another great adventure has ended and I am looking forward to staying home for a little while...but then again...I am married to Mr Adventure himself, so who knows???

ALASKA!!!

To celebrate our official retirements, (I retired from nursing in 2006, after 35 years and Steven just retired from a full time pastoring, after 33 years and 28 years as an Air Guard chaplain) we splurged on an Alaskan cruise!

We boarded The Norwegian, Pearl, in Seattle along with 2,392 other guests and a crew of 1,084!  Our 7 day cruise included stops in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, & Glacier Bay AK and Victoria, BC.  The views were spectacular and it is not everyday you can watch whales as you dine on delicious cuisine!  There was so much that we loved about the cruise, that is was hard to pick a favorite.  Here are a few of the moments we captured.