Well, I'm a couple weeks late on this, but Entermissions (our church's annual missions conference) is too AWESOME to not write about, late or not!! I wish I had the words to describe how it stirs my heart to see the love of Christ being poured forth across the world in so many ways...through the almost 30 families North Wake Church has sent to the field, through the radically generous giving of the church body here to support them, through the many who gave of their time and talents to make this conference a reality...
The weekend began Friday night with a special time of worship music and a sweet time of prayer for the nations. Josh and I kept the 2 and 3 year olds and got to do Bible story-telling with them. Our pastor just recently spent a whole year preaching through the entire Bible and had divided the grand narrative into six Acts. We were using a simplified version with the kids during the conference and got to cover Act I (Creation), Act II (The Fall) and Act III (Israel). The children's department had provided these cool felt boards to help with the stories. The kids LOVED it!
Saturday morning was a brunch and a panel with some of our "far-flung families". North Wake has about 30 families serving all around the world. Some that couldn't be here for the conference skyped in from halfway around the world for the panel discussion, which was really cool!
Saturday night was the international dinner and auction. There were stations set up all around the sanctuary with foods from all over the world...which were all excellent! It amazes me to think how much good food I must have missed out on being such a picky eater for all those years!!
Hudson wanted in on the festive attire they were handing out on the way in.
Team Reed
Carter showing off his face "painting". The wait was so long to get it done that Stephanie just grabbed a marker and did Carter and Abby's so they wouldn't have to stand in line forever :)
Good thing she did, because they had playing to do! Cool side note: I totally used to play with those exact same things when I lived in Japan growing up! Fun to see my own child playing with one some 25+ years later...
Every missionary family sent out through N. Wake has "gatekeepers" which just means that they are the liaison to keep the family connected to the church body. Our friends Paul and Miranda Martin and their kids are getting ready to go serve as career missionaries in Asia, and they have asked Josh and I to be their gatekeepers! We are humbled and excited to be able to do this for them. Another cool thing to see at Entermissions is all the different booths set up by the gatekeepers with a board to showcase the family and their ministry as well as prayer requests, plus some artifacts from their region. Here was our booth we did for the Martins.
Here's Josh and Hudson placing our final bid for the silent auction. We won an authentic, home-cooked Indian meal by Andy and Susan Lepper! Andy was on the team that we went to India with last summer, and his wife is originally from Kerala, India, so needless to say, we are really excited about winning this! Random side note: They had one of those timers on the big screen that counts down by the tenth of a second...yikes! It was stressing me to watch...I'd never make it on a gameshow.
Rachel, Brandi and me. These are some of the sweetest friends a girl could have, and our kids' two favorite babysitters :)
As soon as the silent auction finished, they began the live auction, which is my FAVORITE! The excitement in the room was palpable, and with three professional auctioneers, it got loud in a hurry!! Kate and Anna Kate were not too keen on the noise, as you can see...
But, they quickly got over it and went back to playing :) Two sweet little blonde heads.
Kate and Carter showing off their Moon-pies, which were being served in honor of Lottie Moon. Mostly all of the money raised over the weekend goes directly to the field via the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (they let us turn it in a little late, more like a Valentine's Offering!) which provides funding for IMB missionaries all over the world. The rest of the money raised went to the two N. Wake Church plants in DC and Tampa, as well as toward some special projects that some of our N. Wake missionaries had sent in.
Kate getting in on the auction action!! She was bidding to put money towards purchasing Bibles for church-planters in India to give to new believers they are discipling. Kate, Carter and Hudson all pitched in some of the money they had saved from Christmas to put towards this project. The best part was we didn't press them to do this, they wanted to do it all on their own! It's awesome to see how God is growing a love for the nations and His work in their hearts at even such a young age. I LOVE Kate's expression here. God loves a cheerful giver!! (2 Cor 9:7b)
The real excitement was yet to come...we teamed up with the Lyon family to bid on a roller-skating party! The bidding was intense, and slightly overwhelming for the little ones. Check out Abby reaching desparately for her mommy!! Little did we know that we were bidding against...
...our dear friends the Robinsons!!! Yikes!! I didn't find that out until the very end of it all!
Getting on up there in the bidding...Larry and Josh were so fun to watch!
And we WON!!! Roller skatin' baby!!! (Of course, I can't in my present condition, but we'll figure out something) :) And knowing that our money was going to be used solely for God's good purposes all over the globe made it really easy to give it away!! We've literally been looking forward to this since the 2009 conference ended! And by the way, check out Hudson...he had HAD it by the end, and was literally DIVING out of his stroller for Josh...
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Entermissions, and so utterly thankful to be part of a church body that is so passionate about reaching the nations for Christ! Can't wait to do it all again next year!
