Easter Weekend - He has risen!

“The angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen,” (Matthew 28:5-6)

He is not on the cross, He is not in the grave, He has risen indeed!

Easter weekend was awesome! Saturday evening we had people over to help decorate eggs and share life together…the kids absolutely loved it; however, the adults might have loved it more…the verdict is still out.

Sunrise Service

Sunday morning we were up early to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! This was our 7th annual sunrise service as a church...it was such a joy to worship the Lord together, share His word, and remember what He did and His return by taking communion as a body.

Breakfast & Easter Egg Hunt

After the sunrise service we invited everyone back to our house for breakfast and an Easter egg hunt for adults...and yes for Samuel, Hope, and a few other little ones too. But truth be told, mainly it was for the adults.

It was a great time of fellowship, eating together, and watching some competitive older people try to win the egg hunt, which included prizes. Ah, it was a blast! Holly and I are so thankful to serve God in IV and be a part of the family He has brought together. The weekend was glorious and Jesus was for sure celebrated amongst us!

* the last picture cracks me up - it looks like they are calling upon God to be led by the Spirit to all the hidden eggs...who knows, maybe they were??? ha, ha

New Life

These pictures are of a guy named Matt who got baptized a month or so ago…his story is amazing, from his family history to his own journey outside the home here at UCSB – only the irresistible grace of God could woo someone like Matt into the kingdom of God. Matt said in my shed the other day that this is the happiest he has been since junior high – glory to God! Please be praying for our brother as he learns to walk each day with Jesus.

Isaiah's Baptism

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17 (New International Version)

School of Discipleship Update

The Isla Vista School of Discipleship has been such a blessing this year to many students. These are some pictures of the women's class I took this last quarter - a Beth Moore Study called Breaking Free. It was a wonderful experience for many of us, and I know I grew a ton from it!

Our next set of classes just started and one of them is at our house this time! We are doing a class on the Kingdom of Heaven, where we are going through a book and watching a DVD series together. We have dinner together, watch the DVD, then have a discussion/sharing time. We had our first class this last week and it was wonderful!

There is also a class on Kingdom Community, going through Deitrich Bonhoffer's book "Life Together", and a class on Hearing God, at an older woman's house on Saturday mornings, who is a real mother in the faith and FULL of wisdom and insight on walking with God!

This Funny Generation!

One night Jason was having a meeting with the Del Playa House guys, and while they were waiting for a few more to show up, some of them were sending some text messages. The next thing we knew, they looked up and realized they were all on their phones separately, sending text messages to people!

Big Bear Retreat

The church retreat at the end of March to Big Bear was great! Most of us went up on the Friday and returned back late Sunday. We had a good time hanging out together, eating together, going for a hike on Saturday, playing games, worshipping, and being away in the mountains…God definitely refreshed us, not to mention that we woke up Sunday morning to snow! That was awesome, thank you Jesus…however, the snow did bring a funny panic to the group about how to get down the mountain – I guess this is what happens when for some people it was seeing snow for their first time.

Oh yeah, to give you an idea of our sleeping arrangement – the cabin had a maximum capacity sign out front of it that said, “8 people max”…we had over 20 people so bodies were everywhere . Fortunately, the cabin belongs to the parents of a brother in the fellowship so we had the a-ok.

And the major highlight of the retreat was this 12 year old boy named Isaiah, who has been hanging around the fellowship for the last year or so with his single parent mom, accepted Jesus into his life Saturday night after our time of worship together…it was amazing! We baptized him the following Tuesday and he has been in the Word and growing ever since!

This is becoming an annual retreat for the church, hopefully we can continue it again next year!

* a few of the pictures are of a progressive snow ball fight that happened on our hike, Isaiah is in the blue long sleeve shirt.

Some pictures that describe a few things...

Some pictures that describe a few things (the pictures posted in opposite order of the write-up):

The first two pictures are of these two cars that blew up at about 3am in the morning a several weeks back…someone thought it would be funny to throw an old Christmas tree under a car, which ended up blowing these cars up and almost started a fire on the house they were parked in front of.

The next two pictures are of two different adventures/hikes that people in Isla Vista Church went on – every Saturday beginning at 4pm people within the church go on different adventure/hike/bike ride/walk on the beach together around Santa Barbara. I have been on several and have had a great time of fellowship and exploring! The guy in the first picture is a good buddy of mine that I met 7 years ago at the Rescue Mission in town. We have been friends and brothers in Christ ever since.

The following picture is the house Holly and I lived at with 20 plus people for over two years (05-07)…it recently caught fire, fortunately no one got hurt and the damage was not too severe. This house was in many ways my two years on the job seminary teaching on what it means to be the church, not just go to church.

And the last three describe some IV culture.

New Life in Jesus & Baptizied

Last weekend I had the privilege of baptizing 3 guys...each of them have recently accepted the Lord, like within the last week to a month. Their stories are incredible - everything from drugs and alcohol abuse, to extreme violence, and other stuff I could not mention on a blog.

The picture is of a guy named David getting baptized (he currently lives in my shed/office in the back of our home). The other two guys' names are Mitchell and Michael. Please pray for these men, they are raw and need to be planted greater in the love & truth of Jesus (as we all do).

It is amazing what God has been doing in IV this last month! We have been blown away by His redemptive and restoring ways! :-)

I am not sure if you will be able to see the videos without facebook, but I wanted to post the 3 baptism's of David, Mitchell, and Michael.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503906557#/video/video.php?v=53994198786&ref=nf

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503906557#/video/video.php?v=53994448786&ref=nf

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503906557#/video/video.php?v=53994568786&ref=nf

A blog about IV and the DP house

http://blogwilder.com/2009/02/i-feel-like-i-just-stepped-into-red-moon-rising-2/

This is a post from a random gal who with another guy have been traveling University campuses encouraging prayer. They needed a place to stay for 2 nights so we housed them at the home on Del Playa.

"Be His" Valentine's Day Party

This Valentine's Day I had it on my heart to put on a small party in which the focus would be Jesus being our valentine, the true lover of our soul. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen, but the day before, the Lord worked it out for 7 ladies to be able to come over, 5 of whom are UCSB sophmores (a few of whom I didn't even know!). God helped me to be able to put together a whole slew of things to use at the party to minister the truth that He is our bridegroom and the One who loves us the most! It all came together and was a success! They all seemed so thankful, and several specifically had testimonies of how God used it to minister to them.

I really wanted to make them all feel so loved and special, and told them it was a Valentine's Day party from Jesus for them. They each got a red rose, a gift, a love letter from both the Father and Jesus, and a picture frame with the verse "I am my Beloved's and His desire is for me" (Song of Songs 7:10) in it.

We had cupcakes, appetizers, chocolate covered strawberries, sparkling cider in wine glasses, and tea. I shared a brief testimony from my own life of how God began revealing Himself as my Bridegroom some years ago, and of how even as a married woman with a great husband, I still can only find the true love, satisfaction, and romance my heart longs for in Jesus. I played a few songs for them that spoke of God's love for us, and shared something about some of the gifts God gives us from Isaiah 61. It was a very special time and I think the ladies were blessed and felt very loved by their Savior this Valentine's Day!