Kathryn And Brian Are Going Forth To Moldova

My aughter Kat and her husband, Brian are going to Moldova.  It is a reality.  One the first of June they were part of the commissioning service at their church.  I so wanted to go, but could not since I am the pastor of a church.  Kat's father, Ronnie and her brother, Eric and his family did attend the 9:45 service.  That was a big deal since they had three children to get ready and an hour+ drive to make.  They have a blog and if you would love to keep up with them you can by clicking here and adding them to the blogs you follow.  The rest of this post is from Kat, so you could say she is my guest blogger today.  I really felt you needed to hear this in her words.  I don't think I could do this justice.

"Today is one of those days that I truly wish that I could clearly convey the beauty of moments with my words.  I have waited four days to blog about our "going forth service" at church in hopes that my brain would suddenly realize how to tell you all how truly incredible this service(s) was.  But, alas my brain is still incapable of communicating how immense and beautiful and powerful it was...so you just will have to forgive me.  This Sunday[June 1st], our church (Frazer UMC) had a going forth ceremony for us and another missionary family.  (In case you are not up to date-we are moving to Moldova in July to work as missionaries alongside Stella's Voice.)  We spent the morning running back and forth between six services.  At each service, we had the opportunity to share a little bit of our story with our Frazer Family and Friends.  My sweet, shy husband was incredible.  He generally does not enjoy speaking in groups larger than three....and he was holding a microphone and addressing between 100 and 500 at each service.  That is a God thing.  God has done so many cool things in the life of my wonderful husband over the last four years...him speaking to hundreds was just icing on the coolest cake ever:)  As usual, I am getting off topic.  My apologies :)  Anyhow, at each service, after we had finished sharing our hearts with our church, our pastors invited our church family to come up and lay hands on us and pray for us.  We circled up with our new friends the Stevens (who are moving to Haiti-you can read more about them here.)  Then our church family proceeded to leave their seats and come pray for us and with us.  This is the part that I wish I could truly convey.  At each service, when our church family came forward to lay hands on us.  I felt so overwhelmed with peace.  Their warms hands on my back and shoulders radiated God's love, their sweet whispered prayers felt like the most beautiful sound my ears had ever heard.  I truly felt like our church family was one body and that one body was wrapping us up in the most wonderful embrace ever experienced.  It was humbling and overwhelming.  To have my family and Brian's family join us in this embrace made it even more incredible.  At our very last service, our friends rushed to be near us during this time of prayer.  One of my dear friends, Kimmie, ran to join hands with me.  We were truly surrounded by some  dear friends.  One of my amazing prayer warriror friends was holding my hand and another friend had her hands on my shoulders.  During the prayer, I stilled my heart and my spirit and just opened up my heart to the amazing experience God was giving us.  During the prayer, I again heard the whispers of my friends lifting our names up in prayer.  I could feel God embracing me and holding me in the middle of our church.  In the midst of this beautiful moment, I felt a drop on my hand....then another.  The drops were tears from my friend Kimmie's eyes.  God was giving me this incredibly sacred moment with my friend. Her tears felt like rain from Heaven washing over me.  I was surrounded by hundreds of people....and yet I felt like it was just me in a supernatural embrace with the creator of the universe....and He decided to share his beauty with us and His peace and His strength and He flooded us with it.  Then these beautiful tears of my friend reminded me how much God loves me...and I heard these lyrics to one of my favorite songs:

Let it rain, let it rain.
Open the floodgates of Heaven.

We feel the rains of your love
We feel the wind of your spirit
And now the heartbeat of heaven let us hear

I heard the heartbeat of heaven in so many ways this week.  But it was potent and powerful as our church prayed over  us to "Go Forth" and live in His love and His call for our life.  I hope you feel His rain and the wind of His spirit today."  She is her mother's daughter.  I have never been so proud of them in my whole life. God Bless You both and please keep them in your prayers.