Category — My Hope

It’s Friday and it’s time for “Show Us Your Life” over at Kelly’s Korner. Yay! I love these blog parties – I always find a new friend This week’s theme is Favorite Charities. Being a social worker, I could name about 100 “favorites” of mine. But, I will limit them to one’s I actually contribute to in some way.

Compassion International ” exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.” Compassion currently helps more than 1 million children in 25 countries. Compassion operates through child sponsorships – it is a great way to make a difference in the life of a specific child and family. And it’s only $38 a month – that is giving up one restaurant meal a month!

AAA Women’s Services and Choices Women’s Resource Center are located in Chattanooga , TN. They provide SO MANY services and resources for women who are expecting babies. They provide ultrasounds, full information on a woman’s choices including adoption, and classes for expecting mom’s and dad’s. I feel like this description is not doing them justice – they do some amazing things for women AND men! And the really cool part is that their original location set up shop in what was once an abortion clinic – many of their first clients came looking for an abortion and found AAA instead So many lives saved!

If you’re in Chattanooga they accept money donations for the many services they provide and they accept baby items for their “store.” Clients earn “dollars” by completing classes and then get to shop for baby items.

And of course, I have to mention Hope Church. Hope Church is a new church plant in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans. Bill and I are partnering to help start the church and are looking forward to moving soon! (Just have to sell this house.) After Hurricane Katrina the entire area was devastated – as we all remember. But, what a lot of people don’t know is that many, many churches did not reestablish after the storm. New Orleans is a city hungry for God’s salvation.

If you’re interested in learning more or partnering with Hope Church – please contact me. Do you think your church would be interested in partnering through praying, giving and serving? Let me know (amber@dixondialogue.com) and we can send you an informational packet.

And no post is complete without a picture of Will! I don’t have any new ones from this week so I thought I would post a nostalgic picture from March 2009: Meeting his cousin, Greyson, for the first time.

This past weekend Bill and I went to the Passion Conference in Atlanta, GA. This is an event for college students and draws over 20,000 participants. We went with Matt Tipton and met a group of young adults from New Orleans. I was so excited about this event! It had speakers like Beth Moore, Francis Chan and John Piper just to name a few!

We had a great time at the conference and enjoyed every aspect of it. They had an area devoted to several social justice organizations and it was amazing how much money the students (their parents) donated during the course of the weekend. With a matching gift over 1 million dollars were raised to help the poor and oppressed all over the world.

We had the privilege to attend a break out session led by John Piper and the “topic” was reaching unreached people groups. But in general it was about reaching people for Christ who have not heard the truth or are hard to reach. One thing in particular really stuck out in the session to Bill and me.  It was the fact that Paul really longed to be in Rome but he was not able to be there because God had called him to do other work and that work was not yet finished. And that is exactly how we feel some day. We long to be in Chattanooga with our families or we long to be in New York City because we love it so much but we can’t do those things – yet. We must do what God has called us to do which is move to New Orleans. Maybe someday God will allow us to do these things that our hearts desire and long for. Paul did eventually get to go to Rome (of course it was as a prisoner – but still he went!)

One of my prayers recently has been that God would continually reenforce to me His calling for us to move. And the session with John Piper did just that. We also had a great time getting to know the New Orleans folks – it will be nice to know a few people when we get there!

This Christmas we got to spend an entire week in Chattanooga with our families. It was a fun week full of Christmas celebrations and just having fun! The celebrations began on December 19th when we celebrated with Will in Nashville and ended with the big Dixon celebration on December 26th. Below are a few (50!) of our pictures from the week. I hope you enjoy!

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

Please read the post before you condemn me for being sacreligious or blasphemous!

Last weekend we had Disciple Now for the middle school, high school and college students at ClearView. It was a great weekend for everyone involved. Bill worked on the technical side of things and I helped with registration and coordinated the lunch on Saturday. It reminded me of how much I LOVED working at the church. When Matt asked if I would be interested in working again for 15-20 hours a week – I said yes!

Over the past couple of days I have been trying to figure out what to do with Will while I was at work. There were several options to consider. Contemplating the decision and trying to figure out what was best for Will took its toll on me. I did not sleep at all on Monday night. I was literally up all night with a restless spirit. On Tuesday, everytime I started to make a phone call or write an email to a “babysitter” I couldn’t do it. I started 3 emails, picked up the phone 10 times. I cried all day trying to decide what to do.I cried thinking about leaving Will with someone who wouldn’t love him as much as I do.

Then in a soft still voice the Holy Spirit said to me – “This is not what I have called you to do at this time.” He kept saying to me over and over- I have called you to be at home and be the best mom that you can be. If I started thinking about the options agian He would say to me – Stop trying to do what you want to do, do what I am calling you to do!”

It is an amazing experience to hear that directly from the Lord. I would say that more times than not I am not open to hearing from the Holy Spirit so I miss what is best for me and what the Lord is calling me to do. I pray that I always have a “soft heart” and a longing to do what the Lord wants me to do instead of what I want to do.

Incidentally, this week in the Esther Bible study we studied about our destiny.What God is calling each of us to do. At this season of my life I strive to be happy, content and awesome at what God is calling me to do. “Who knows?” God knows!

Esther 4:14b “Who knows, perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this.”

Esther 4:14b

During this “month of love” it is easy to become consumed with planning that perfect, special date or lavishing gifts on family but this “story” showed me what true love is. How Jesus loved. Jesus did not just love his family and friends. He did not just give to people he liked and were similar to him. Jesus touched the lepers, ate with tax collectors and befriended Gentiles.

Our friends Kristian and Katy are perhaps the most “Jesus like” people I know. They live in New York City and work for non-profits yet they give more away in terms of possessions and time than anybody I know. They constantly had people living with them in their apartment – for various reasons like they were looking for an apartment. They lead small groups, serve at Apostles and many other places. They are humble, sweet and purp0seful in their lives.

Read their story here: http://kristiankatyrose.blogspot.com/2009/02/at-77th-st-subway-station.html

It made me cry. It challenged me to do more – right here, everyday, in the burbs.

Well, I don’t really have much to update on these days. I’m not doing too great on my scripture memory. I definately don’t have the entire first chapter of James memorized but I’m working on it. Anything I memorize will be more than I did have! This week in the high school curriculum they are talking about “the fall” and man sinning. One of the points they made was that when Eve was tempted she did not know God’s word accurately (Did God say you couldn’t eat from any tree?) and Satan used that to deceive her. But that when Jesus was tempted in the desert he knew God’s word accurately and used it correctly and was able to resist temptation. That was really challenging to me. How can I know what God wants me to do and resist temptation if I don’t know His word? Maybe that will be a challenge to you too.

This weekend my Mom came up to visit. We had a good time eating out and just hanging out at the house. She couldn’t believe how clean our house was – but the secret is that it is so uncomfortable for me to bend over and pick stuff up off the floor that I’ve been really good about cleaning up after myself (like hanging up clothes or putting them in the basket). On Sunday we went to church but as soon as the service was about to start the power went out! It was a little chaotic. We were suppose to have a leaders lunch meeting after church so it got moved up earlier and we had to meet at Bar-B-Cutie instead of the church. Bill and my mom went to Cracker Barrel.

Well, I guess I had more to talk about than I thought!

When is the last time you have challenged your memory? Well, here is a perfect opportunity for you!

This semester Matt, our high school minister is teaching through the Book of James on Wednesday nights. The challenge to students and everyone else is to memorize the book of James. Yes, I typed that right – memorize the book of James!

So, if you need an exercise to keep your brain in top-notch shape try to memorize the book of James with us. This is an activity that exercised your brain and it’s good for your soul! If you want to listen to the “sermons” each week, access the memorization schedule or make memory cards you can get it all off the CLearView website – RESOURCES FOR THE BOOK OF JAMES.

I should have posted this earlies because by tomorrow you’re suppose to have James 1:1-8 memorized. But you can catch up – the first 8 are pretty familiar and easy to remember!