A Much Needed Rest

This weekend was really great. First of all, I didn't have to work and I was not on-call :) That means that on Friday, it was truly the weekend! But, to explain how great my weekend was, I really need to start on Thursday night.

Sam and I had the blessing to go to a family's house that are members at our church to eat dinner, play with the kids and watch them while the mom was at music practice for Sunday morning (the dad was in India for business). We LOVE this family and try to get out there as much as possible. It truly feels like a home to us and we are incredibly blessed to be included in their family sometimes.

Friday night, we had learned about a band playing at a local brewery that we had been wanting to try, but hadn't been able to yet. Also, the band knew someone from our church. So we had a great time listening to a new, fun, blue grass band with church friends drinking beer and even doing some square dancing (well me, not Sam of course!).

Saturday morning we got up and got to hang out with two of our pastor's kids. He just had his tonsils removed and the recovery is quite tough as an adult. Sam and I offered to take their kids for the morning and we did "normal family things" like go to Target and to the swimming pool. We had a great time! That afternoon, Sam brewed a beer and yet another church friend came over to play games/hangout which turned into dinner together.

Then this morning, we had the opportunity to worship at church and eat lunch in fellowship with some church members (plus a new visitor too!). As you can see, we had a very fun weekend full of different people from our church.

For those that don't know, when Sam and I moved here just over a year ago, one of our biggest concerns was finding a church body to be a part of. Well, God had big plans for us that were far bigger than we could have imagined; why am I always surprised by this? We worship with a new community here in Raleigh at Midtown Community Church. Currently our sermon series covers the values that our church carries and what that looks like. Today, we learned about being a renewed community and that it means we "eagerly look for ways to bring about transformation in our lives through worship, bible study and dialogue with God and others" (check out the website). And that is what we did this weekend. We lived in community with a body of believers that we worship and study the bible with. We enjoyed one another's company and shared our struggles with one another to be uplifted and held accountable to what we believe. How can that not be a great weekend?

God is doing great things in our lives here in Raleigh and the people in which we commune with are authentic, beautiful and uplifting. Now if only tomorrow was not Monday....