My "Roots"

I've always had this desire to trace my ancestry on my dad's side. I knew that my great-grandparents were born on a Indian reservation in Oklahoma and were mostly Indian, and that there was more Indian blood in our family than just that, but I've never been able to find out more.

While we were visiting family in Illinois, my sister and I received a phone call and information from our paternal grandmother about our "roots" so to speak. It caught sis and I quite by surprise to be hearing this information we've always wanted to know and then to find out so much!

We, are in fact, quite a bit more "Indian" than we would have guessed. And we now know more about the nation we are from. Our grandmother even sent us the packet of info and all kinds of stuff we need to be recognized as part of the Western Cherokee Nation. We have finally gotten a piece of the puzzle and lots of the info we need to start putting it all together.

I know that the heritage that really matters is the one that has Christ's name written on my heart, and I know that the home I really long for is not here on this planet but in Heaven. But for now, this does answer a lot of questions I have always had, and it means a lot to me to have a bit of my heritage, my "roots" made known to me.

A New Church Home

I HATE finding a new church!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate feeling out of place, not knowing a single person, being unsure where to go, having to make myself be more outgoing and introduce myself and my family, and chat with complete strangers, and try to remember names and names with faces.... Did I say that I really don't like going to a new church?

Well, for reasons that I won't bore myself with here, Rob and the kids and I started looking for a new church home in April after being at our church since we moved here in August 2005. It was a very hard decision because I didn't want to hurt my children, and I didn't want to hurt anyone at the "old" church, and because we all hate visiting churches. But we did visit some. Not as much as we probably should have, and not all the places we thought we would. But, we found this church we kind of liked, and we have gone back off and on over the past few weeks. Sunday, we just knew it was where God wanted us to go. Almost from the moment we walked in, Rob & I (without talking to each other until the end of the service) were feeling the same thing and thinking the same thing. We verified with Barbara & Matthew, again, that they were happy there, and made the decision to make it our church.

Here were some of our reasons:

1. The kids like it. - It has an active youth group that is meeting each week with a young adult leaders. The kids seem to like the youth services, and have talked about what they studied. It has all been very sound teaching so far. And, it has cute, Christian boys- so that can't be beat! :) Barbara would kill me if she read this. Ha! Ha!
2. I love the worship! It is contemporary worship & praise (which I really love) and the kids and Rob like the music too. They turn the lights way down low and the only lights that are really on are on the platform, so no one can really be focused on their neighbor... They have a worship band with LOTS of guitars, a keyboard, and drum, so that, again, is right up our family's alley.
3. I know that serving God is more than just your feelings, but I can feel God when I'm there. I hear Him speaking to me in worship, and it's always been His love that I feel, not condemnation from anyone else or myself (which is the biggest source of that). I hear God in the messages, and have been encouraged by each one.
4. The pastor is a "person." Let me explain. We've never really "met" the pastor as we have usually just gotten out of there when church is over, but this week when we came in the pastor came up to us, and held out his hand, and said, "Hi, I'm George." Not "I'm Pastor so & so,: or "George Whatever-my-last-name-is, the pastor here," or "I'm Reverend...." just plain old, normal guy "George." Not that I'm saying that any of those other things would be wrong or bad for a pastor to say. I'm just saying that it really struck me as different from any of the pastors we've had in a very, very long time. And I don't mean to say that all of the pastors I've known are horrible; they weren't/aren't and they each had many good qualities. But, many of them came across as superior or a bit higher than the rest of us. I've often felt that some of them truly felt like they were just a class higher with God or in society or in intellectual ability than those of us in the pews. It came across in sermons, prayers, responses to questions, and in conversations. But, on Sunday, it really got me that this pastor was just introducing himself to Rob like "Hey, I'm like you, a normal guy with normal concerns and worries, and needs..." Maybe I'm reading more into it than I should, but that's just how I felt. This has also been the feeling I've gotten from listening to his sermons too. He sits down on a stool and preaches from there- no podium, no Bible-thumping, no stomping-on-your-toes, no "holier than thou," just reading the scripture and sharing some thoughts to help you grow. It's so down-to-earth and humble and nice. It also comes through in his weekly newsletter and on his My space page (yes, I'm still wrapping my brain around that one).
5. It's not a dinky church where the kids won't really have anything to be involved in or a youth group to be part of. But, it's not a giant church where we can't get to know anyone or will be just another person/body/#/tithe check.

I'm hoping it will continue to be "just what God ordered," and that we will all find our niche there. And for now, we are the "newbies," so I guess we'll all have to try to "come out of our shells" and get to feel part of this new church home.