Heart and Soul

I first started this blog as a new immigrant to the United States of America. I wanted a place to write about and record my journey as a new wife and new immigrant. In the process there are times when my faith has come across loud and clear. I felt that it was time to explain why that faith is so important to me, how it was formed, and what it means to my daily life. It is good to take time to look at where we have come from to know where we are heading.

My earliest memories of church, was being sent with my brother so we would have Sunday School. It was around the time my sister was born, so I would be 6 years old. Growing up in Scotland our local parish church was Presbyterian, Church of Scotland. It didn't take long before my parents were taking all of us to church as a family. And so it was part of our life from that point on. As a child I didn't think too much about it, it was just something we did on a Sunday. I enjoyed the Sunday School lessons, the singing in services, and the Saturday coffee mornings where we got cakes to eat.

It remained that way until I was 13 years old. Something I did, but didn't actually think too much about. Then our minister left. After several months we got a new minister. One of his first few sermons explained that going to church didn't make you a Christian. For the first time since I started going to church at the age of 6 I found out what it really means to be a Christian. It was a real defining moment to realise that at that point I was not a Christian, I was just someone who attended church. Now I already believed God was real. There was never a time I can remember that I didn't believe God was real. I also believed Jesus was real, but now knew that wasn't enough.

It was another 9 months before I was ready to take that final step of faith. As I went to bed one night I just knew heart and soul that it was now or never. I had to choose to accept that I was a sinner, that Jesus took the punishment for my sin by dying on the cross, and asking Him to be in control of my life from that point on. The next morning I woke up feeling so much lighter, like a heavy load had been taken from me. I now knew that if I were to die at that moment I could be confident I had a home in Heaven waiting for me. That was 25 years ago this week.

A lot has happened in those 25 years. My understanding of what it took to pay the penalty for my sin has broadened and deepened. I am more committed to my Lord and Saviour than even before. He was the only one who has even lived on this earth totally free from sin. He willingly stood in my place, taking my sin upon himself, so that I would not spend eternity separated from God. His death and coming back to life 3 days later is the reason why I will always have hope, always have peace and always have a place in the very presence of the thrice holy God. I am still a sinner. I was born a sinner. It is my very nature to sin. I am a wretched being indeed. Yet thanks be to God I am covered by the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on my behalf, and on the behalf of all who are willing to accept it. It is only by grace that I stand as righteous in the throne room of God, and by His mercy I have been saved from the punishment that rightly belongs to me.

As the Easter season approaches, and hearts and minds are drawn to Calvary's cross, I stand ever thankful that I know the power of that amazing love shown by God himself in the form of the Son. As we look at the promises for salvation that were shown in Passover, and the accomplishment of that salvation on Calvary, may it fill our hearts with thanksgiving. For those who do not yet know the reality of that salvation, may this year, this Easter, be the time where it becomes real and personal to you.

A New Church Home

Last October/November we moved into our current home. It is a very well laid out townhouse that will give us plenty of space for our family no matter how large the Lord decides to make it. The size however was not our biggest reason for moving. This house is less than a ten minute drive from Rob's place of work. It frees up an extra hour a day on work days for Rob to spend with the boys. This is proving to be a huge blessing for us.

This move had only one down side. It made attending our Church very difficult. The journey on a Sunday morning was now forty five minutes each way. Rob was still teaching Sunday School, so we would have to leave about 9am and would not get home until nearly 1:30pm. This may not be a big deal for some, but for our boys it was. Seth was only two months old, and still sleeping most of the time. He did not take to having to sleep on the go. (Even now at six months old he likes to be in his own bed to sleep.) Even Aiden was beginning to have a difficult time with going all morning and into the afternoon without a nap. So Rob decided to give up teaching Sunday School and we would try just attending one of the two morning services.

Then we went to the Christmas Eve service with the boys. We thought we might have issues because they are not usually out in the evenings. My boys like to go to bed when it starts to get dark (like their daddy) and the service didn't start until 5pm. We did end up leaving before the service was over. We tried everything we could to keep Seth calm, but even after changing his diaper/nappy and nursing him he was still unhappy and let us know all about it. He was tired and he wanted to go to sleep in his own bed, not in my arms. So we got the boys into the car and drove home. By the time we got home forty five minutes later Seth was so beyond over tired that he would not be consoled and he would not go to sleep. Rob was left to see to Aiden, unpack the car and start getting ready for Christmas morning on his own while I tried everything we could think of to try and calm Seth enough to fall asleep.

I spent over two hours rocking, walking, swaying, singing, swaddling, nursing, and everything else that might even bring just a moment of calm. Finally he passed out from sheer exhaustion. As I joined Rob back downstairs to finish preparing for the morning we talked, and talked, and talked about what had just happened. The only conclusion we came to was that we could never put Seth through that again and changed our plans about attending Christmas morning services. We decided I would stay home with Seth on Sunday mornings until he was old enough to deal with going to Church again.

Over the next couple of weeks Rob struggled through taking Aiden to Church by himself. Aiden missed having his Mama around. He missed his "Bubba" too. So we tried having Rob go to Church on his own. After the first week of that Rob knew it wasn't right for him to go to Church without the rest of his family. We needed a better solution. We talked and prayed and talked and prayed together some more. We asked the Lord to show us where to go if He was moving us to a closer Church. That Saturday we drove by a sign across the street from our neighborhood. It was advertising church services in a school on a small strip mall. There was a website address included. So after we came home we wrote down the website to check out after the boys were asleep.

We continued to pray for another few weeks. This was a big decision and one we were not going to rush. Rob continued to go to Church alone. I continued to stay home with the boys and tried very hard to not feel isolated. Church had always been my one time of the week to speak to other people face to face, so staying home seven days a week was not easy. Rob was the only adult I had proper conversations with.

After a few weeks of listening to sermons on the website and continuing to seek the Lord we decided to email the Pastor and ask to meet with him to find out more about the Church. We met at our local doughnut shop on the Saturday morning, then visited the Church on the Sunday morning. We liked everything we found out and saw at Church. We went back a second time the following week before finally making the decision to transfer our membership to this new Church home that the Lord had led us to.

We are sad to leave behind so many wonderful friends in our old Church home, but we are still close enough to drop by for special events and to keep up the friendships out of Church. At the same time we are excited to be a part of this new family of believers. Our new Church is indeed a new Church. They have been meeting for just over a year, and are still small in number. We meet in the cafeteria of a private school. It is the most integrated Church I've encountered. The children are part of the main service. They worship together with their families. There is a room set aside for very small children to go and play if needed, but it is very much optional. The cultural diversity is about the same as the actual diversity of the surrounding area. I'm not the only one going through the immigrant experience of raising a family far away from my extended family, as there are several other immigrant families in Church too. The Pastor and his wife have been married about the same amount of time as we have, and with a very similar love story to us too. They also have a daughter who is only four days older than Aiden. The two children were actually born on each others due date. They are already firm friends too which is so nice to see.

We are excited to be a part of the work the Lord is doing in our new community. We are excited to see what the Lord can do through our new Church home and the new friendships that are developing there. I'm personally excited to be walking distance from Church, and to have new friends that live within walking distance too.

Have a great weekend, and may the Lord bless you as you meet together with other believers this coming Lord's Day.