Can you pray with me??...

Hey world (or whoever reads this)-
Wanted to ask and invite you to pray with me and the staff here at FRC at 1:00 pm for Pastor Troy's mom Linda. She will be having brain surgery at 1:00 pm today for an aneurysm she got last week. If you guys can just pray for her and Pastor Troy and the family during this time, I know they will greatly appreciate it and be strengthen by the power of prayer. Also, pray for his dad who suffered a stroke a week ago as well. Thank you guys and have a great week. For updates please visit Pastor Troy and Steph's blog and leave them an encouraging word if you'd like.

One step closer...

As some of you may know I have been in school for a while now due to the fact to the General Knowledge Exam. Without passing this exam I couldn't be accepted into the school of education. I passed the english, essay, and reading almost a year ago but could not pass the mathematics. In April I retook it for the third time and today I checked my pass/fail score and well, take a look for yourself. :)




Two classes (fall) to go, two exams left, an internship (spring) and graduation (spring). Hooray! Thank you Jesus, thank you so much!

The Office - Japanese Version

This will make any bad day a great day !! Hilarious!!!

A Birthday Wish...

Here is to Baylee Gramling who turned 8 years old yesterday. Hope you had a nice birthday with your family and your birthday party looked awesome. You can check out Steph's post here. Thanks for all the fun Hang Man games!



And guys if you haven't checked out Heredes' blog, please do so you don't want to miss it! Good job Sara.

Wow, wow, wow...

I am a horrible blogger.  With work, school, and a home to take care of, I honestly have had no time to update my blog or even visit blogs.  Something that HAS been on my heart to share is this new series It Matters that we have started at FRC.  

Pastor Troy is teaching on several things that Matter in our walk as believers.  For example, Giving- It Matters.  The Church/Repentance- It Matters.  You- Matter.  Gratitude- It Matters. Sharing the Faith- It Matters.  That is the series in a nutshell.  

Before the series started, Heredes and I were invited to a very special banquet that just totally blew my mind.  All those invited were placed on the stage.  Heredes and I met a wonderful couple- she was just like Heredes, the husband was just like me.  We had a nice dinner, dessert, and coffee.  As we all faced the empty seats in the auditorium, we watched a slide show of the history of FRC.  We heard Pastor Troy speak from his heart, and we saw a few members share their stories.  Of course I teared up.  There is nothing more powerful than hearing the stories of people's lives being changed by an awesome, awesome God and to know that He would choose to use the church to be a part of those moments is an honor.  I am so thankful to be part of FRC.  

We also had our Quarterly Staff Meeting on May 6 2008.  We went through some assignments each ministry was given by Pastor Troy.  For example, children's ministry had C.B. Smith Park and we had to observe things our ministry is doing or is not doing in relation to what we learn from the park and two leadership principles.  It is so hard for me to explain in detail what Pr. Troy spoke about because- well you just had to be there.  But in a nutshell- God wants us to live up to our God given potential.  We live out our Ethos (thinking, collaboration, diversity, movement, potential) to get to our goal: 50 campuses, 100,000 people and $150,000,000 giving which is the motivation to reach our Mission: partnering with people to Reach their God potential.  

I loved hearing: we are not here to tolerate people but to EMBRACE all types of people so in part we can partner with them and show them God's amazing love and they in part can reach their God potential.  Embrace- for me so hard but how beautifully stated and how true.  To Embrace.  

In the battle of this mission we are to put the whole armor of God.  Three things we may feel while running this race:  You will feel attacked, overwhelmed and insecure.  But what will I (Marcy) do to overcome those feelings and rise above them to continue in reaching the mission and goal???  Well, I have to be in the word, in prayer, and preparing my mind to not hear the lies satan throws at me.  

Thank you Pastor Troy for what you taught us that night and how you are humbled and surrendered for God to work through you.  My thoughts eat me away sometimes and it was just great to be challenged to not give up, not give in, but be strengthen and fight back.  

I don't know where you are at this point in your life, but know God loves you, He made you just the way He wanted you to be, and He truly has provided a way out for all of us when we face great temptations.  Share your thoughts- leave a comment.

Back to School...

Today I started my Summer A class at FIU- Figure Drawing II. I left class very excited and glad I am back. I am almost done with my degree, which is Art Education. Unfortunately, graduation will only happen if I pass my GK math test. I hate that test. I passed everything else last year and I am on my third try- maybe my fourth if I don't pass it again. This is really hard for me to share because to a point it's a bit embarrassing, but to another extent I am just being honest and showing you a bit of my skin.
My prayer is that I would stay excited as I continue to learn to draw the HUMAN FIGURE. My teacher is great. She's a little bit all over the place but she is super nice and she remembers me. She remembers me dropping this class two semesters ago due to scheduling, she remembers me from 2 years or more ago when I took her for drawing 1 and 2. That just speaks a lot to me and it was really encouraging. She was bumbed that I told her I had switched to education, because she said she had a lot of stuff she wanted to show me and she wanted to work with me.
Instead of thinking to myself that I have wasted all these years and feel sorry for myself, I am praying that I can make the most of it and remember that graduation day will come and that learning never ends.