In our recent update, we asked for prayer about the Cor Deo intensive. Well, we are praising God that it went super well! We have heard great feedback from the participants, especially those from our own church who did the course. Personally, I was so impacted by the time in the Word (we spent 2 hours every day in the book of John). What an amazing God we have – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally in a loving relationship which then spills out to us as beloved children in His family. Our God is always others-focused, never selfish or glory-grabbing. The Father is always sharing His glory with His Son and the Son with His Father. And we get to be part of such a beautiful union. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved You.” John 17 has got to be one of the most densely packed chapters in the Bible, in terms of amazing spiritual truths. And the church history sessions were fantastic too. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat for a lot of the time, just drinking in the teaching. I came away with a huge sense of how much more amazing God is than I usually give Him credit for. I also was reminded that relationships are meant to be ENJOYED! Basic, I know, but I often forget this – with God, with my husband, my children and my friends. I feel so blessed to have so many amazing relationships and what joy to be able to delight in each one of them. I could write a LOT more here but if I waited to have the time to write as much as I’d like, this post might not get written til next year. 🙂 Let me just sum it up by saying, if you have a chance to do the Cor Deo intensive, take it! You will be blessed and encouraged. (If you can’t do the intensive, I recommend reading Michael Reeves’ book “The Good God.”) An added bonus for me was getting to see my husband doing what he spends much of his time doing. The week really reinforced the bond between us.
I also wanted to post Kaylah’s 9 months photo. Kaylah continues to be such a joy to our whole family. She is now crawling (at least on her belly) so life has changed quite a bit! (ie hiding lego and playmobil and keeping track of where she is scooting to! Thankfully there are many eyes and hands around here to help!)
Please pray for Peter as he speaks today at a church in Gloucestershire. The four older kids are with him and tomorrow all seven us will spend the day there. Tomorrow is Joel’s birthday and we are looking forward to celebrating as a family on Monday. A very excited boy left this morning saying, “Today is my birthday eve!”