Update after Easter

First, Check out the above picts of Jackson in our new Mo Kids series: Trailblazers: Convicted to stand for what is right EVEN when others don't.

Now.... that you have had a good laugh.....

Hello there Friends and Family!

I know I say this a lot lately...but things have truly been busy. Easter was AWESOME!!!!! Mo Kids had more than enough help and everything went so smoothly. We had over 800 in attendance church wide and at least 10 salvation'. I am still processing the fact that God allowed me to be a part of this. For Easter, we added a 7:00AM service where no child care was provided. Since we set up the children's program the evening before, I was able to attend the 7:00 service. This literally was the first service that I have attended at Mosaic Church! And I got to sit with Shaun, so we attended together. It was such a blessing to be a part of.

This week, we have been busy doing follow up and preparing for this weekend. We had over 600 attend this week. Not to shabby! The kids area was packed house at 11 and the 9:00 had just a little room. We had 150 kids this weekend. Wow! I serve with the most amazing and loving group of volunteers. No matter how hectic, hot, or crazy, they love and serve and children's (and their family's) lives are being changed for it.

I had a really neat opportunity this past week to speak with two children who became Christ followers a few weeks ago while in Mo Kids. We are doing our fist big baptism at the beach on May 3rd and the family wanted to be baptized together and asked me to talk with the girls to clarify what baptism and salvation mean. So, Shaun and I sat down with the first girl, she's a 3rd grader and asked her if she could tell me what big decision she made a few weeks ago. She told me all about how she prayed to Jesus to forgive her of her sins and to come into her heart. She understood so clearly! I then explained to her that baptism was an outward sign to the inward change that she had already made. Her sister, who is almost 5, then came to talk with us. I asked her the same questions, just more in her terms, and she did the cutest thing. She scrunched down and looked up at me and whispered,"Jesus died on a Crwass for me and he wrrosse againn from the grwave for me. I asked him to come into my hweart." Talk about melt your heart! We then explained baptism and she was excited because she was going to get to bring her beach toys to the baptism!

Something that I am learning everyday in teaching kids about just how much God values child like faith. I mean, I knew it, but now to see it and be a part of it is truly amazing! Kids are just so willing to take that step and trust God knowing that He truly has their best interest in heart. In fact, they have been like, why wouldn't I trust Him? Why wouldn't I believe and follow Him? I mean it when I say that they are teaching me.

I got to sit with a child and discuss how to handle anger and we looked it up in the Bible together. It was so neat to get to use all my training as well as the placing Christ at the center of it all. She took away skills in how to handle her anger in good ways, but also learned what God has to say about anger but in a loving way. Not in that I am going to beat you over the head with scripture and quote Christian cliches kind of way, because we all know how effective that is in reaching people, especially children who are hurting. But in a way that showed her how much Jesus cares for her and how she can trust Him no matter what. How profound is that? Good stuff!

On another note, I wrapped up a class at Liberty this week, whoo hoo. I got a B, but I am okay with that considering all the craziness. I am taking one more class right now and then taking the summer off to focus on Extreme Week and the Cares Ministry. I also plan on helping Shaun as he plans his mission trip to Fort Worth.

The Cares ministry officially launches on Thursday, April 30th and lasts 25 weeks. It encompasses Celebrate Recovery, Life Hurts, God Heals, Divorce Care, Divorce Care for Kids, and counseling. God has brought together a great leadership team and once again, I am so blessed to serve with them. A little overwhelmed by the huge need for the program and the amount of hurting people, but deep down I know that this is what the people here so need.

Shaun continues to do good stuff with the youth of Cross Culture. We average around 40, and that is pretty good size for around here. He is also working on the Community aspect of his job, getting new home groups started and running ministry fairs. I am so proud of him and how he manages all of it. Even though working together as leaders has brought its challenges, it is still such an amazing thing to be a part of this together. It is hard to believe that we have almost been here a year. It was this time last year that we were giving our notices and telling the family about our decision.

I thought I'd share a few photos. Some are from Easter and some are from the Ministry Fair we had this weekend that Shaun led and organized. The goal of the fair was to get new people connected to a home group or other area of ministry. He did a great job and our church did a great job in participating! This is what it looks like between services.

Above: Shaun and Rick, who runs our parking lot ministry: the Cone heads. What a great name!Below: This is our Outreach Pastor, Jeremy Allen, our Children's Ministry Assistant, Ashley Coleman, and one of our great greeter's Kyle Gilmore.

Above: This is one of our elders, Doug Molyneaux and Pastor Dustin at Easter. That's all the pciture of adults that I got. I was back in the back with kids after that. :-)

Please continue to pray for protection and wisdom for Shaun and I and the rest of the staff. We love you guys and look forward to some good Tex Mex soon!

Love,

Jessica