Aw, memories...

Next Month we will have been going to Trinity/Kingdom Life Fellowship for 9 years. When we started there we only had Joey who was 1 year old and I was pregnant with Spencer.
Pete Cauthen had invited Randy several times to his life group on Saturday nights. At the time Randy was working at the paint store. We had tried several……, and I mean several churches and had not found the place we were supposed to be at.
Pete said his wife was making tacos so we said yes.
We went there one time and it felt like home. Brandon Honeycutt was there and joked around with us, played the guitar and he never made mention that he was the pastor of the church. The next day we went to the church and Brandon was in a suit and preaching. We knew that day that this was the church for us.
During that time Randy and I have been a part of several different leadership roles. Here’s the fun list:
• We helped with the youth.
• We were Junior High leaders.
• We’ve done fundraising for camp.
• Camp helpers. (During the camp in New Mexico Spencer was going to turn one year old and I couldn’t bare the thought of missing his birthday so I talked Bryan into letting me bring Spencer. This was one of the worst ideas I’ve ever had. We had to haul Spencer all over that camp because he didn’t walk yet. Also, he had to sleep in the girl’s dorm with me which was really hard for him since there were 6 other teenage girls in the room. He was exhausted from all the teenage chatting, the horrible diarrhea and diaper rash. I was totally tired from taking care of him in a strange place, the late night talks and I didn’t know it at the time, but I was pregnant with Jocie. The next week when I found out I thought, “That explains some things!” But, the great thing about that camp was that it was the first time I ever heard Cherith sing. It was worth all the work.)
• Hey, speaking of working with the youth…, when we were doing that we had two kids (and I was pregnant). Bryan did not understand why we couldn’t do every single thing with the youth. He was totally single and worked at the church. Sometimes he would get frustrated with us and I always thought to myself, “One day when you have a wife and kids you’re going to come and apologize to me for not understanding how hard it is to juggle it all.” That day did not come. So, Bryan, if you read this you can let me know you understand now. If it’s not hard at all for you to juggle all of it then you have my permission to call me lazy.
• Back to the list. I’ve taught at Women of Worth a couple of times.
• We’ve both helped in Children’s Church.
• I’ve taught the 3 year olds and that was fun.
• We’ve both been on the BFW leader teams and given talks.
• For a very limited and primitive time I made the welcome letters for when you came into church. I hope no one remembers this or how elementary they were.
• I’ve sang a couple of times on the worship team. You know in school sports there’s an “A” team and a “B” team. I’m more like the “C” team. That’s fine with me.
• Brandon had me arrange a big event one time that put me so far out of my comfort zone! I was in charge of all the “media” for that Wild Bill show that we had one time. I think that’s what it was called. I don’t know, I blocked out a lot of that. I had to talk to people all over our community and I did not like that one bit. I had to take flyers to daycares and other churches. It was an awesome show and the kids loved it, but I felt so unconfident about my skills as a coordinator.
• I’ve changed my share of diapers in the nursery. I was on the schedule a long time until I cried to Kelly one time because it was too hard for me to be in there with Miles and all the other kids his age that were doing a million other things he wasn’t doing. I’ve never been asked to do nursery again. So, if you don’t like helping with the nursery you know what you can do about it now.
• I was on the Prayer Team for awhile.
• We graduated Kingdome Advance and have a Bachelor’s degree in Practical Ministry. Okay, wait a minute. How did Brandon talk us into doing this? We had four kids and I became pregnant during that time with Miles. For a year and a half we spent two nights a week at Fountaingate Fellwoship from 6:30 to 9:30, had life group, Randy ran his own business, had life group at our house, spent several Saturdays there for intensives and we went on a 10 day mission trip to the Czech Republic. I wouldn’t trade one minute of it. The process changed me forever.
• Had a writing gig for the newsletter. My own column mind you.
• Then we’ve been Life Group leaders for 7 years. That totally amazes me! We’ve had it at 4 different venues. We led it at Candy and David’s house, our new &and old house and we rented a place for 2 years. We’ve had tiny groups, enormous groups, teaching nights and goof off nights, taught the kids and let the kids run free, worship all night and no worship at all. Also during that time we’ve had 2 more kids. I can honestly say that life group is one of my most favorite things in the world. I love being with people in my home who share life together and love the Lord. I guess that makes sense since we came to this church because of life group.

Tacos changed our lives.
Just kidding. It was Jesus.