RE-Baptism

 

The girl in the picture below is my oldest granddaughter Bella (back to camera). She is a 2nd year student at GCU this year....Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, AZ .....the largest Christian university in the world (2018 stats).

Bella has always been spiritually grounded....living out her beliefs in front of her peers. She constantly puts others ahead of herself....is a Leader in the homeless ministry in Phoenix.....and hugs my heart tightly, whether near or far, by just saying my name. Lele.

And she made the decision a few weeks ago....to be rebaptized.

I believe she was around 8 years old when she first decided to be baptized. I remember standing in the audience at Cottonwood Creek Church that day feeling enormous emotion and pride as she went under the waters of restoration , but admittedly, I was questioning whether she was too young to fully understand what she was doing.

I was wrong.

She knew EXACTLY what she was doing. She has had a light shining out of her since her head first came out of the waters that day many years ago. But now, at the age of 20, she chose to experience that once again.

And this is what that looked like. Baptized by one of the first friends she met when she arrived in Phoenix two years ago.

I encourage you, if you've read this far, to gather up your friends and head to the theatre and watch Jesus Revolution. Bella and her peers are the new Jesus Revolution we'll be talking about 40 years from now. 

 

This is one very proud Lele!!

 

 

Serving The Less Served

 

Several times a year, I get the PRIVILEGE to serve with a group of people at the Austin Street Homeless Shelter in Downtown Dallas. A lunch. A simple lunch of haystacks....fritos, ground beef, shredded cheese, etc...and a few homemade cookies and lemonaide.

Not a big deal, right? Wrong. 

 The "clients" we serve look like the person buying light bulbs at Home Depot, a lamp at Hobby Lobby or pumping gas at the local Racetrack gas station.

They look like you and me.

And the gratefulness that flows out of their mouths for this simple meal is worth more than a million bucks to us. They smile...they are grateful....they are loved by God no more and no less than you and me.

And yesterday, we had two young kids join us to serve. They interacted more with our "clients" that many of us adults did....going table to table offering them cookies, a smile and a kind word. This is an experience they won't soon forget...and will help mold them into the adults they one day will be.

Friends, the POWER behind stepping outside of ourselves and helping others is beyond any words I can write in this space. And this mother and grandmother who brought their kids to the homeless shelter and showed them how much sweeter life is when giving rather than receiving, will be rewarded greatly one day.

"I have demonstrated to you how necessary it is to work on behalf of the weak and not exploit them. You’ll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our Master said, ‘You’re far happier giving than getting." Acts 20:35 (The Message)

Turn Around.....GO BACK

 

"TURN AROUND....... GO BACK"

LizSekerke

This picture of my almost 95 year old Dad is a picture I took yesterday of a man and his daughter enjoying a burger and a kids meal at Brahms together.

You see, this man and his youngest daughter Softie knows what it means to let the Lord direct their steps, even when those steps don’t seemingly make sense to us.

Almost a year ago, those steps took Dad from his home of almost 60 years to his current home an hour away. I won’t lie; he wasn’t happy about it at the time and felt he was being “incarcerated” (his words) while struggling to find his footing in this new place his kids felt he would be safer and happier in. But that smile on his face today is genuine. He would tell you he can see with clarity God’s reasoning and purpose for “incarcerating” him a year ago as he drove down Hwy 67 to his new home.

And that daughter sitting next to him in that Brahms Ice Cream booth....well, she also was taken down a God road she didn’t fully understand this past year.

After much prayer and research, Wayne and I chose the town of Mansfield a year ago to build our home in. It was Wayne’s home town of 30 years and 60 miles from where I had been living. We watched as the house grew, excited to have a home we owned and built together. We bought light fixtures....decided on flooring....and daydreamed about all the wonderful things we would do with the community that was surrounding us. It placed us closer not just to Wayne’s long time friends, but also to my sister, niece and dad who I was super excited to be living down the road from......and although we adored living in Allen and all the friends and family nearby, I was ready to recalibrate myself to a new surrounding.

But then......God placed a boulder in our path as we neared the finish line of the building of the home we lovingly built in Mansfield and clearly....CLEARLY said to us,

“I Need You To Turn Around and Go Back.”

We still don’t understand why God would have taken us within sight of the Finish Line and then u-turned us. But what we do know is, we heard Him as clearly as if He were screaming it through a bullhorn.....“TURN AROUND...GO BACK.”

So we did.

This past weekend, after 3 weeks of living in a hotel with a cat, dog and a litter box, we moved to our new home in Fairview, Texas....to mature trees, nature trails, lakes and pickle ball. Oh ya....we have pickle ball!

And we’ve discovered in this strange turn of events, the meaning of Proverbs 20:24:

“The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”

It’s not ours to understand......it’s simply ours to obey. With each passing year of my life, I find it’s less and less necessary for me to know His plan in order to know He has a plan. A plan that is far far better than our plan could ever be. And I believe His plan was to take us on this bizarre year-long journey of Excitement, Disappointment and Peace. And some day I hope to know why.

But for today…..We - Are - Home.

#Tuesdayswithpappo