I know I haven't written in over a week, but sometimes it is difficult to write when you feel like you will be repeating yourself. I don't have any long pontifications or even witty insights for you this week. All I have is an expression of love. I woke up this morning, like most other mornings, wanting to stay in bed. Getting up at 6:30-7:00 is not fun. I made sure Andrew was in the shower and then I rambled around the house trying to wake up. It was during this time that, for whatever reason I was filled with a great sense of love for my new church family. I don't know what triggered it, but I came to a realization that for the first time in a loooong time I actually feel strongly connected to the people in my faith community. Granted, there are only about 25 of us, but we seem to have made a great connection in such a short time. You see, my family was the only one that came up on it's own. The only people we knew were Jesse and Anitra, and honestly, we didn't know them all that well. Now, BJ has actual friends that she feels she can relate to as well as confide in (local ones, that is. She has some great friends out-of-state). That is something I have prayed about for her. I have men I can hang out with and just be a guy (men who understand me and my situation). Andrew has friends that are both older and younger than he, which he loves because it fills the space left by his best friend John, and it offers him the opportunity to be the older one for once. Abi finally has a friend her age that is into EVERYTHING she is (which is a rare find). She lights up like Christmas at the mere sound of Lauren's name. And Coco has a whole new set of toes to sniff and people to rub her fat belly.
About two months ago or more, as part of our staff meeting, Jesse had each of us go off and spend time with God to seek what He wants for our group and our church. The word "Unity" came up on more than one occasion. We talked about this for a while along with a few other things. We all realized that we needed to make sure we maintained a sense of unity, especially since we were combining groups of people into one. To be honest, I don't think we've really done anything as a group about this since that day. Somehow, though God has really allowed my family (at least) to connect with our new friends in a meaningful way. I like to call that "grace." I hope and pray that these relationships would continue to grow and deepen as we entrench ourselves in the mission of reaching Central Florida.
So I just want to thank everybody in The Roots Community for showing us the amount of love, acceptance, and grace that we so desperately needed. It means the world to us. Yes, we still have other needs. We need to be able to pay rent, keep our utilities on, buy food, put gas in our cars, and more. But the love that we have been shown helps us face these things with the knowledge that even in our darkest hour, God loves us and has supplied us with the love and support of good friends and a supportive church family; and even if that is all we can cling to, it is at least a really big knot at the end of the rope. We love you guys so much, please know that; and we love everyone who has helped us walk through this journey so far.
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