2007 Year in Review

Fellow bloggers, I'm leaving for South Arkansas in 1 day, so this will more than likely be my last post for a couple of weeks. A week, at least. We are coming home on January 2. So, I thought I'd post a review of this year's happenings with my family and our church work.

Cayson
Boy, what a year this has been! Cayson will turn 16 months in just a few days. He's had so many milestones this past year! It was around this time last year that he first started eating a little rice cereal and now he's eating everything we do. Well, almost anything. Just not most veggies! Especially if they're green! He's got his daddy in him there! Also, he's learned to crawl, pull up, cruise, and walk. He has 8 teeth, with 1 breaking through now. He's had 2 haircuts, the first one on his birthday and the 2nd one just on Wednesday. He's growing out of a size 4 shoe and in between 12 and 18 months size clothes. He weighs about 23 pounds. This year he's been on several trips with us: to Minneapolis to the Mall of America, to Fort Worth for a youth ministry conference, and to Stuart, OK for youth camp at Camp WOW. He's got several people in our church wrapped around his little finger! If he decides he doesn't want to be in the nursery and starts crying, usually someone will come and get him out and walk around with him! We never have to want for babysitters, either! He has been such a good baby and toddler. He hasn't been very sick at all, with the exception of a couple of viruses. He's a joy to be around and I'm very thankful that God gave him to us!

Shaun
This past year Shaun has had a few milestones, himself. He turned 29 in April and celebrated his first Father's Day in June. He will celebrate his 2 year anniversary at First Southern in just a couple months. Also, this was the year of weddings for him. He sang at 3 weddings, served as best man for his brother's, and actually got to marry his first and second couple this year. I'm so proud of him and his willingness to be used by God!

Me
Well, I turned 24 in June, which means I've been out of high school for 6 years and out of college for 3. Crazy how time flies! I've experienced another move, just to a different house this time. I took on teaching the 1st and 2nd grade Sunday school class in June and I love it! Also, I taught a junior high girls Bible study this summer. I played Mary Magdalene in our Easter cantata and Lisa/Elizabeth in our Christmas musical. I found out in November, just before Thanksgiving that we're going to have another baby! Also, Shaun and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary this month and 6 years together in all in October.

First Southern
This has been an amazing year at First Southern. Our theme for this year was "Go". In the student ministry, we've grown a little bit, even seeing 3 of our kids come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. We took the students to Minneapolis for spring break and Camp WOW for summer camp. We finished up our student worship area early this year and it looks awesome. We saw 2 of our students graduate from high school in May.

In the worship ministry area, we have grown so much! We presented "The Borrowed Tomb" on Palm Sunday. It was a huge success. We began preparing a worship cantata, "God for Us", soon after Easter. We presented it in August. It was such an awesome time of worship and reflection on what God has done for us. We had Christmas in August to reveal to the choir what musical we would be doing for Christmas. We had so much fun with that! We added several members to the choir, including a couple of teenage girls. Also, we saw one of our longtime accompanists "retire" from playing so she could sing in the choir and be free to travel. It's taking 3 ladies, including me, to fill her shoes! And we could never completely do that! She's a tiny woman, but those are some big shoes to fill, so to speak. But Shaun put us on a rotation basis so we could all still sing in the choir, too. We also add a guitarist to our worship time, which brings our instruments to piano, keyboard, and guitar. We are adding congas tomorrow!!!! We just presented our Christmas musical, "Be Not Afraid", this past Sunday and Wednesday night. This was the first time we attempted to present a musical twice and it was a success. We had over 100 people there on Wednesday night and almost half of those were guests! Tomorrow, we are having a "Homecoming Christmas". We are using 2 guitars, congas, and a praise team to lead in worship. We are also taking the Lord's Supper and singing by candlelight. I'm very excited.

We added a women's ministry this year. Our Women's Ministry Coordinator is doing a fantastic job. Last February she organized a Beth Moore simulcast conference for all the women in the River Valley. It was a huge success with many decisions made. We had a women's Bible study this fall with over 30 women taking part.

We've had 11 additions this year, some by baptism, some by letter. In our GROW ministry, we seen at least 2 salvations. For Thanksgiving, we provided Blessing Baskets for people who needed food for Thanksgiving. There was at least one salvation as a result.
Our church really stepped it up ministry-wise this year. I am so excited to see what God is going to do in 2008!

Well, that was pretty long. I think this was just as much, if not more for me as it was for you. It is so good for me to go back and remember what God has done in the life of our family and church. God is so good! I pray that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!