The Elephant

Hello All,

Can you believe I actually am posting a day early!?!? I know!

So I don't have any pictures of the new theme for Mo Kids, but they are coming soon, I swear!

But, I do have some funny elephant pictures. Many of you know that I am very creative, but just not good at channeling that creativity into any sort of paper medium... ie: I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler!

But, I recently had to do an activity where we shaped clay to represent a feeling. The feeling that I was instructed to portray was fear. So, I started shaping and low and behold: I created an elephant! I think I may actually be onto something here... maybe even considering a pottery class. So it will be ash trays for all for Christmas! :-)

Now, we can make all the jokes we want... white elephant gifts, etc. But the coolest thing for me was to realize that fear is indeed my elephant. It is always present and yet rarely do I want to acknowledge it. It is indeed my proverbial elephant in the corner of the room that no one wants to talk about. I hate admitting that I am afraid or that I really don't know what the heck I am doing most of the time. Great thing is that is where faith comes in. I don't know and I often times will bungle it up.. but He knows and He knows no fear. I know that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it and I keep thinking of Joshua and Caleb when they were sent into the strange land to scout it out and report back. All the other spies said no way, they are too big, too powerful, etc. Joshua and Caleb said, fear not! We can do this! Unfortunately, the leaders let the "they" drown out the truth.

So, whatever you are facing... fear not! You can do this! I'll encourage you and you can encourage me and together we will take care of our elephant!

On a side note: Yes, I kept the elephant and yes it was the only thing that turned into something cool. My other feeling was sadness. I attempted to shape an armadillo in honor of Texas and my peeps back home. It however looked more like a fat cow than anything.

Church Update:

We had 420 attend this past week! I had 90 kids in the Mo Kids area and I have received 4 new volunteer applications. Thank you Jesus! We are dying back there! We also did our first baby dedication. We had 4 families participate. It was such a neat experience to be a part of.

I also have a couple of neat stories to share about two of the kids. One of the little girls, she is 6, came to church this past week and her mom told me about her act of service. Little girl insisted that she would carry in all the groceries for her mom because Ms. Jessica taught her that Super Servants Super serve! Melts my heart to hear that!

I also had a little girl bring me a picture that she colored at home. She saved her Spiderman sticker that I gave her 5 weeks ago! And, she drew me a picture that says "I Love Mosaic Kids" and Ms. Jessica is the best Bible teacher. Me?!? Me: who is such a mess and has a past that makes a great lifetime movie? Me: whose family isn't perfect and whose faith isn't always that strong? Not because of me, but because of Jesus! We are all broken and it is amazing what the Master Artist can piece together to create something beautiful. We just have to allow the Artist to shape us.

Thank you for your prayer and your support. We love you guys and love that we are on this journey with you!

Love,

Jessica

PS: Yes, I got to go to Target on Saturday and buy new shoes! We even ate real Italian food. What a GREAT day!

Jackson on the Quest

Hello All!

Things are moving so fast this week! I attended a training this past Monday and Tuesday on resiliency in children. The person who hosted the training was from Israel and helped children and families who had been victims of terrorist attacks recover. The training was actually very good. The local media came and interviewed us to see how it has been working with the kids, so I am a local celebrity now... I will be sending autographed posters to my devoted fans soon...... :-)


The new series with the kids went well this past weekend. The kids LOVED seeing Jackson. The set looks amazing. I will be posting pictures soon. But, as you may know the theme is the Quest. The quest for knowledge of who Christ is, how you can have a relationship with him, and how we can learn how he wants us to live. As part of the series, Jason designed pictures of Jackson on his quest. I am Indiana Jones and he is my sidekick, just like in the movie. Check out the photos... my favorite is Jackson as a bull rider. That is what he did back in Texas before moving to Mississippi!
Gotta love photo shop!

Shaun and I are very excited because we are taking the day on Saturday to drive to Mobile. They have a Super Target!!! Who knew that it could bring such joy. We are also going to go eat Italian food and visit the mall. They have an Express and an Ann Taylor. Some things that I took for granted before now are such a privilege.

Shaun has been working this week as a full time Pastor. He has already done his Sunday service and really helped me out by getting all my supplies and calling my contacts. It has been a huge help to have him!

I am still trying to get my lesson done, so that is all for now... I have to have it done in order to go to Mobile... Target here I come!!!

Love,
Jessica

Ike... who?

Hello All;

We are very lucky and hurricane Ike is not coming here, although we are still very worried about our friends in Texas and Louisiana. Things have gotten back to normal, although we are having really high tides due to the storm's outer bands. Once again, this Texas girl will take a tornado any day!

Updates on work are due:

Shaun officially has come on full time at Mosaic. He worked his last day on Saturday. It has already made a huge difference having him on full time. He and Jeremy, our Outreach Pastor installed air conditioning today in the Mo Kids area. I am SOO excited about that! Until now, we have not had air back there! There is air in the baby rooms, but not in the area we use for Mo Kids. So, we have been sweating it out...literally!

I am still working full time for Biloxi schools as an elementary counselor. I am doing a lot of individual sessions with children and crisis management. The storm last week upset a lot of children who lived through and witnessed Katrina, so it has been a busy week!

Speaking of School..... my school has a huge snake problem. We have had several moccasins get into classrooms, including the class next to me. Thanks to Memaw and Glenn, I no longer have to worry! They sent me a fire extinguisher to fight the snakes! Thank you guys!! I took a picture of it to share...

Update on Church:

We had nearly 400 people come this weekend!!!! IN Mosaic Kids, there was almost 100!! Compare that to June 1 where we had 60 people and 20 kids!!! Shaun is doing a great job at welcoming people and his youth group continues to grow. We had 40 at Cross Culture this past Sunday. It is so exciting to see these teens building relationships with their youth leaders and Shaun has a great group of leaders! Shaun also got to attend his first football game this week as Pastor, you know that isn't too tough for him..... He is planning to attend as many of those types of things as he can. Watch football as part of your job?! He is soo enjoying that! He will be preaching in the Main service sometime soon too.

In Mosaic Kids we are starting off a brand new series called the Quest this Sunday. Check out the logo that Jason designed for me. He and his wife are amazing to help and we are glad to have them for friends here! They also serve as youth group leaders. Jason helps me with set up, take down and leads Mo Kids. He is doing an awesome job!

The Quest is based on the quest of knowledge of who Christ is and who we are in Him. So, it is Indiana Jones themed. We are building an elaborate set tomorrow, so I will have more pictures. But, since Jason and I are Indie... we needed someone to play the part of the smart, professor dad. So, guess who it is going to be?? Jackson!!! He will actually be there this Sunday and then for the following weeks, he will be on a quest. Check out his trench coat for the new series...

He hates it!!!



I felt bad that Preston didn't have an outfit, so I ordered him something too. It is his first tank top. It very appropriately has a skull and cross bones because he is bad to the bone! He seems to really like it although Shaun doesn't! We will be purchasing their Halloween costumes soon!




I think that is all for now. Thank you for your continued support and prayer. We need lots of prayer!!!


Good news from Mo Kids, we did our first prayer and time of commitment this past Sunday. 2 Children put their faith in Christ for the first time. In Main service, 2 adults did the same! We are so blessed to be a part of that and you are a part of this too!


Oh, the local paper also did a front page story on the church and included the children's worship. Check out the pictures at this site: http://www.sunherald.com/living/story/794019.html



More to come soon!

Our First Hurricane!

Hello All,

Thank you for your emails, texts, and calls. We are official: We rocked Gustav like a hurricane... sorry I couldn't resist the reference to the Scorpions Song!I always thought that it was White Snake until after Gustav!

So here is what happened...

The Base gave evacuation orders for Sunday at 6 AM. All of our military families evacuated the area. We held church Sunday morning. It was was low key. In fact, we didn't do any children's programming, so I actually got to sit in the service and worship and listen to the sermon, with Shaun!!! I haven't been able to do this since May, so it was very awesome and a much needed day of rest!

As a group, the staff of Mosaic decided what we wanted to do after church: leave or stay. Since the roads were literally parking lots and there was no way to get out, we opted to stay. But, we would all stay together. So, we decided that we would stay at the place where we actually hold church. Many of you know that this place is a skating rink/ day care. Good news about this place is that it is all concrete, survived Katrina and is close to the Hospital, so very rarely does it lose power.

So Sunday night, we gathered all of our important documents, a few clothes, cans of tuna (I literally only had 2 cans of tuna and nothing else canned in the pantry), an air mattress, and the pups.We headed up to the Skate Rink/ Mosaic Church/ Day Care around 9:30 pm. It had just started to rain and get windy by that time.

Each of us set up a room in one of the birthday party rooms. There was Dustin and Natalie and their dog Maggie, Shaun and I, and Nat's parents and their dog Zoey and grandma: Chip, Carmen, and Ma Ma. The Worship Pastor and his wife decided that they would brave the storm out alone that night and come to join us in the morning.

We actually had a good time waiting for the storm. Shaun became DJ DeShauns and dj'd music so that we could all skate. I have attached a few pictures!




For those of you who are thinking, wow, Jessica doesn't look so good... there is no make-up and I just got my hair cut and colored on Saturday. First time it has been colored in 3 years! Sorry, Ashley!! I felt like I was cheating on you, but I couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't the same either!

So, it was an interesting night. When we woke up, it was apparent that the bulk of Gustav was hitting Louisiana, so we decided that it was safe to head home. Shaun and I went home and slept! The hurricane continued. There was a TON of rain and wind. We lost several tree limbs, but luckily that was all. Several homes and places, including the Hard Rock Casino, flooded, but Ocean Springs was okay.

After going through this, I have decided that I will take Texas and tornadoes any day! Hurricanes suck! The worst part is the waiting and the anxiety. You know it is coming, you just don't know when or where and then you feel trapped because your work won't let you leave. And when you finally can leave, you can't get out due to the mass hysteria that everyone is exhibiting as evidenced in the roads!

But, we are okay and are glad to be back to work. Please continue to pray, as there is another hurricane coming our way: Ike. Can you believe they named it that? Crazy! I hope that the next hurricane is named Jessica, that is a MUCH better name for a hurricane.

Much love,
Jessica