To the Bride of Christ at TCC

Today was the last Sunday at our church. It is so bitter sweet to leave as this church has been such a huge part of our lives over the past almost 6 years. They have been our family, our friends, our challengers, and our encouragers. I learned how to fight against my sin here. I learned how to, and the importance of, asking good questions to get to the deep heart issues. I learned that ministry and life in the body can be really messy and hard, but oh so worth the fight! I learned how to be a mommy, and asked tons of questions to those who have gone before me in the motherhood journey! I learned by example (from many godly women) the beauty of being submissive to my husband and seeking to honor him in word and deed. I learned the importance of church discipline. I learned how to weep with those who weep as we walked through inexpressible grief, and also wept with joy at the beauty of the body in its service to those hurting. I learned that God walks with us and helps us in our times of need. I learned that serving is sometimes hard, but God is faithful to give us all we need. I learned that God is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or think! I learned more about the beauty of the Gospel, and that I need the gospel just as much now as I did when I first believed. I have learned so much here, and I am incredibly thankful for it!

The hard lessons, the good lessons, and every one in between have all led me deeper to this truth....I need Jesus, every single day. I need the Gospel, every single moment! I am incapable of doing this life on my own, and what a beautiful gift He gives us wrapped up in an imperfect package to help us along, the church! I am SO thankful for Treasuring Christ Church. Your faithfulness to help me see and fight my sin and point me to the Gospel has had such an impact on my life! I will forever be grateful for our time here and the ways that you have faithfully loved us and served us.

Thank you for your part in helping me love and treasure Jesus more.

 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35 

Believing that it is all from His hand,

~Heather

Packing Can Be Fun!

Well, at least the boxes that we need to pack all our stuff in can be fun!

Where we've been, where we are, and where we are going (part 3)

Where we are going...

In just a little over 2 weeks my sweet family will be pulling out of Wake Forest and heading south on I-85 to begin the next chapter of our little life. We are moving to...

Greenville, SC! Well, Greer, SC to be exact. It is not a huge change, which, at this point in life I am very thankful for. (Hey, I finally feel like I am thriving with this whole 3 kid thing. Moving across the country might throw me for a huge loop, and the Lord knows with my 3 I don't need any loops!)

So why Greenville? Why to this area where there are plenty of churches? Why to an area where I recently overheard it be referred to as the "belt buckle" of the Bible belt? Ultimately, because that's where we see the Lord leading us. At first glance it may not make sense, since yes, there are a lot of churches in the area. However, we have prayed and have seen over and over again the Lord opening doors and leading us there.

When we first started this journey we were talking about moving to Montana, Colorado, and discussed how my husband would LOVE to move to Germany or Switzerland. The thought of moving to these places (any place out of my little comfort zone really) was just down right hard. I battled with the Lord about this, but was challenged by a thought from what an old friend had once said....We don't sign up to serve the Lord in a specific area, we sign up to serve the Lord. Period. We follow Him. He leads the way. We can make plans, but the Lord determines the steps. After some conviction from the Word, and lots of time in prayer, I had a great peace about following the Lord wherever He would send us. Not saying that it wouldn't be hard, or that even in myself I would be "happy" about it, but I had peace that wherever the Lord would have us that would be the best place for us. It would be best because it would be His plan and provision for us.

Then came the waiting and praying for more direction and guidance for the men in this group. Then low and behold, Greenville, SC became an option! Really God?!? It is closer to my family. It is still in the southeast. It is familiar! Could you really want us to go there? All signs pointed to yes. So, the first family got their house ready to go, and it was under contract within a month! We were next to put our house on the market, and again, within a month it was under contract! One family decided to rent their home, and the Lord quickly provided a renter! They will be moving down the same weekend with us! There are a couple more families in the process of getting their homes ready to sell, and we are praying for a quick process for them as well! (You can pray to that end for them too!) We have been so encouraged with how things have happened thus far and feel confident we are heading in the correct direction.

Another huge reason for staying in the Southeast is because of the "Jesus Culture." Lots of people in this area go to church on Sunday, say all the right things, but their hearts are far from being submitted to Jesus as Lord. This was me. I wanted Jesus to save me from Hell, but I didn't want Him to be Lord over my life. (Read my story here to see how the Lord changed me!) Everyone wants "fire insurance," so they pray a prayer and think that is all that is needed. But, the Bible speaks to it being so much more than that. The verse that always strikes me when I think of the Bible belt is Matthew 7:21-23,

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

We hope to shine as ones who have been radically changed by God, seeking to glorify Him in all we do, and showing through our weakness and still sinful selves that we have a GREAT Savior. We just want the Gospel of Jesus to be shown. The Gospel says it's not about what you do or what you bring to the table, it's ALL about what Jesus has done. And from that flows good works to glorify Him. We can never ever earn it on our good behavior or deeds. If you have some time, I would HIGHLY suggest you read my friend's post about her heart (which echos my heart) for this area of the country that we are moving to. Check it out here. 

This is just the first step in our journey. We desire to come along side a church for a while and get to know the needs of the community. We will seek the Lord's wisdom in either doing church planting or church revitalization. Either way, it will certainly have challenges. We would so appreciate your prayers in this time of transition as we seek to follow the Lord to South Carolina!


Believing it's all from His hand,

~Heather 

Where we've been, where we are, and where we are going (part 2)

Where we are...

We are currently living life under a bunch of boxes with a very independent, spunky, smart 4 year old who likes to use phrases like "how in the world," "that's weird," and, "I love you mom." We have our hilarious, cuddly, curious little 2 1/2 year old. He is in the stage where he likes to tell the same joke or funny thing over and over trying to elicit laughs from us. One of his favorite things now is to sing row, row, row your boat but to insert this line, "merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life's a spider dream!" Cracks him up every time, silly boy! And then an AMAZINGLY joy filled little 7 month old who seriously smiles all the time! Even if he is crying, he still sort of looks like he's trying to smile. As one friend put it, it's his default emotion, and I love it!

I mentioned boxes. Yep, boxes. Lots and lots of awesome U-haul boxes are patiently waiting to be filled with all our belongings. We are getting ready to close yet another chapter of lives. Wake Forest has been such a wonderful part of our story. It's so hard for me to believe that I didn't love it here at first! The seminary brought us to Wake Forest, (well, the Lord in His kindness and sovereignty to be exact) we added 3 to our family here, have been apart of an amazing church family, and have been blessed by the Lord with friendships that I am so undeserving of and am the better for having. It is such a bittersweet time. I am thankful for the relationships that have encouraged me to be a better wife, mother, and follower of Jesus. I will be forever grateful for this time, for those who have crossed our path, and for all that the Lord has done in us these 6 years.

We had been praying for a long time about the direction in which the Lord would take us post seminary, and the clearest thing for a while was the group of people that we would be doing ministry with. God has knit several families together over the past few years and gave us a burden to pursue church planting/church revitalization together. Once the ball started clearly rolling and a direction was in view, we got our house ready to put on the market. Less than one month later we were under contract! Who does that in this economy other than our Lord! We feel that God has confirmed our plans and is directing our steps to pack up and leave Wake Forest the last weekend of July. I am looking forward to what is ahead, but I am sad for what I am leaving behind....

Super Target...I may seriously cry when we leave my wonderful home away from home and all my friends there!!
Harris Teeter...Super doubles, free cookies, and balloons! (the last 2 my kids will miss most, ok, just the last one. Who doesn't love a free cookie!)
Joyner Park...fun fellowships, great walking trails, and actual old barns for the kids to run and play in. So fun!
Bella Italia...The greatest pizza lunch special on the planet!
The Mall...story time, chick-fil-a, the water fountain, the play ground! Much fun was had on a weekly basis here!

I am so blessed for all the good things that God has given me in my time here. Great experiences and tons of memories that I will cherish forever! I trust the Lord though, and where He leads I will gladly follow.

(see the final post in this series for the where!)



Believing it's all from His hand,

~Heather 

Where we've been, where we are, and where we are going (part 1)

Where we have been....

So, it's been a while. I'm not going to go into all the excuses for not blogging, but I am going to give a little snippet to what's been going on the past year and half (since I last blogged!).

1.  January 2011...Owen tuned one! Blake and I went on a cruise (which was one of the highlights of my life! So fun!).

2. April 2011...Found out baby #3 was on the way. Ran a half marathon (about a week or 2 after I found out I was pregnant. Yeah, I know, I'm hard core!).

3. May 2011...Blake graduated with his Masters in Divinity from SEBTS (he is a well theologically trained assistant manager at Walgreens now!).

4. July 2011...Karis turned 3! Man, time is flying by with that little girl!

5. August 2011...found out baby #3 was going to be a boy!

6. October 2011...I entered into my last year in my 20s...sighhh....

7. December 2011...Nathan William Hollander was born on Dec. 6th via c-section (another one harvested as my husband would say. He's silly!) Entered into the dark time of having 3 kids and felt like I was never ever going to be able to make it as a mom of 3.

8. January 2012...Owen tuned 2!

9. February 2012...Finally felt like I would one day be able to handle being a mom of 3.

10. March 2012...Finally handling being a mom of 3!

11. May 2012...Put our house up for sale.

12. June 2012...Our house went under contract! (Crazy fast, praise the Lord!)

13. July 2012...Karis turned 4! (Did I mention how time is flying with this little girl!)

 So, that's where we have been. Catch me next time for where we are now.



Believing it's all from His hand....


~Heather

A Great Christmas Idea

Blake and I are going to be at our house this year on Christmas day with our kids (something that has never happened before!). We are sad to not be with family in Oklahoma and to not be down with my family sooner, but we are really excited to start some traditions of our own and be able to celebrate this day with our little family! I have been thinking a lot about traditions and what kind of things we want to incorporate into our family during the Christmas season. We have been reading Advent passages (not 100% faithfully mind you!) to prepare our hearts for the true meaning of this season, when Jesus "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7).

I have loved reading what other people do during the Christmas season with their families and have tried to find ideas that will point us back to Jesus. I want to share a very simple, but I think very effective idea to get our hearts and minds in the right place.

"I thought of you..."

On Christmas mornings ever since my now six foot tall sons (3) were little, we GIVE our gifts. The pile by each person has the gifts they are giving, not getting, and "I thought you could use this Dad" or "I thought of you the minute I saw it" can be heard instead of "it's MY turn".

This was on one of the GirlTalk blog posts (one of my favorite websites) about Christmas traditions. Check out the full post here.

What a great way to turn the attention from what I am getting to what I am giving! I am looking forward to starting this with our family this year, and praying that this little practice will assist my little ones to be more mindful of giving than receiving.

The Past Three Months....

Well, three months have passed since my last post. I thought I would get back into this with some highlights and pictures of what has been going on with our little family in the past few months!

I had the wonderful opportunity to get away with some college girlfriends one weekend in October. This was the first time in 2 years that I went away without my kids! It was a big deal! I was a big mess of emotions: excited, nervous, guilty, sad, happy! It was crazy! On the way down the a song played and contained this line, "I miss everything about you." I had to change the channel! I was getting a little emotional thinking about my kids! Such a mom! : ) Blake had a wonderful weekend with the kids (his very first time with them by himself for an extended amount of time!). He informed me that he made it church on time with the kids (a feat we rarely accomplish with two parents home, hmm....maybe that says something about me...!) and he even put a bow in Karis' hair! Wow! I was totally impressed, and informed him I would plan another weekend getaway since he is daddy extraordinaire! While I was away he even got out and about and took the kids to a pumpkin patch! As much fun as I had with my girlfriends, I was a little jealous that I missed this moment with my family. Here is a picture of the fun they had...


Next we come to Halloween. We had a fun get together with our small group from church, where we encouraged everyone to dress up! Karis and Owen were adorable as a bunny rabbit and a monkey! (Yay for hand-me-down costumes!)



We spent Thanksgiving down at my mom's house, and had a mini family photo shoot. Here are some shots from that day...






And now for the current update. Blake finished up his semester at school almost a week ago. It has been so nice to not have the stress of tests and assignments on his mind. He has one class this spring (a pass/fail course, so shouldn't be to difficult at all!), and then, HE WILL GRADUATE!!!! I can't believe are coming into the last semester of his seminary career! It's exciting! But, we don't know what we will do post graduation yet. Lots of prayer is going on for sure!

One last picture from our small group Christmas party last week. Get excited for Christmas friends! Jesus came! His birth, death, and resurrection gives us hope! Praise the Lord!

Merry Christmas!
(almost!)