Precious Moments

Hello, friends. I don't even have the right words to describe how special this Wednesday was for me.... 

Before I go into why, I feel there are some things I need to catch my readers up on (I am attempting to improve on my blogging frequency)! I can't believe I have not given an update since our move to Illinois!  Part of the reason for the lack of writing has been that God has been doing SO MUCH in my life personally, that sometimes I have a hard time getting it all on "paper".  So much of what He does is hard for me to put into words.  That being said, here goes my attempt at a quick, super-condensed Kimbrell family update:

2009: We moved from Ferguson to Troy, MO. (my hometown) with no plans, other than to own a home in a town that felt more “country”. Within 2 weeks of moving, we found a church home! 

2011: Kory became the Youth Pastor/Associate Pastor at that church. We poured our hearts into everything we did for and with the teens. We couldn’t imagine doing anything else!

2014: While still serving at the church in Troy, MO., God clearly spoke to Kory that we were to move to Collinsville, IL (his hometown) to start a "Missional Community" church.

March 15, 2015: We obeyed God and left our church in Troy, MO (our house had not yet sold and Kory was to soon be unemployed, but we trusted God’s leading) By the way, there is so much MORE to this story, but I’ll have to leave that to another time….

April 23, 2015: We simultaneously closed on our house in Troy and our new house in Collinsville, IL! (most stressful day of my life to date, I might add!)

May 31, 2015: Kory got a call to preach as an interim pastor at a church in State Park, IL (5 min from our new house).    

June 15-19: We volunteered to help with the church's VBS.  We had a BLAST with the kids and God quickly put  an overwhelming passion in our hearts for the people of State Park, IL. (details on that passion to come at a later date)

July 19, 2015: After 8 weeks of preaching/serving at the church in State Park, God ended our time there, so that we could carry on with what He sent us to Collinsville to do - plant a new church.  

Sept 2, 2015: We had our very first "Family Gathering" for Remedy Church (the name God gave us before coming to Illinois) in our home, and we've been meeting every Wednesday since! 

Sept 9, 2015: After we had our very first "gathering" in our home with everyone, I quickly realized the children needed to have something to call their own as well!  The very next week I began teaching the kids in our basement. Here is a picture of our first “Remedy Kids” group!

Each Wednesday, I get to spend my evening with some awesome kiddos!! We worship God with singing and dancing, we make a craft, have a snack, and play games.  But after taking a vote from the kids, their favorite part of the night each week is the Bible Story!  They love it because everyone gets to play a role in the story! I never expected to have so many fun actors/actresses! :-)  We make each story “come to life” so that they leave having a practically understanding of how God worked in people’s lives long ago, and how He can work in their lives today as well. We have a BLAST!  

For the first 5 weeks, our theme was "changed from the inside out". We talked about Paul and how God took him from being a persecutor of Christians, to someone who followed and obeyed God no matter how hard it was. 

Now we are learning about Daniel, and how his everyday choices mattered, and so do ours!
Here are a few more pictures of our past weeks together.

And then there was this week (11/18/15).  There were several kids missing from our group for various reasons, but I believe having this small group allowed us to talk and share together on a more personal level. Like every week we did our story/skit together, but this week, something interesting happened.  After the story, the kids started sharing about all types of things they are dealing with at school, at home, etc.  Then the topic of prayer came up. I always encourage the kids to be honest in their responses, and to not just give me the "right" answer, or the answer they think I want to hear. Last night every one of them opened up about how they truly feel about prayer. They shared their questions, their fears, their thoughts about God, etc. What these kids shared in front of each other, was mind blowing to me. They had some really heavy stories and questions. After we talked, I asked them all to come sit with me on the floor. I planned on praying for them as a group, but they quickly spoke up and said they wanted to go around the circle and pray individually! I was taken back, not only by their desire to pray, but by the sincerity of their prayers. They weren't rehearsed, they weren't memorized, they were on-the-spot, true & honest prayers. Several of the kids who come on Wed nights, do not have spiritual guidance at home, so to see what I saw this week, was very encouraging to me. They care so deeply for their parents and their friends and family, and want so badly for THEM to know God - and they prayed for that! After being in youth ministry (with teenagers) for several years, and then moving to Collinsville to plant a church, and meeting so many adults, it never even crossed my mind that I would be spending such valuable time with these young kids each week. God knew though. I believe He ordained each of these moments and oh how precious they are....

I look forward to each week, knowing that I get to share Jesus with these amazing kids!  God is moving and working in the adults each week as well!
Friends, trust me when I say….if God is leading you to do something, DO IT!  It is worth every struggle, every trial, every doubt….

It is in these PRECIOUS MOMENTS, that I see God’s faithfulness, and know that HE IS GOOD!

Bold Voices

I believe that God has given all of us a voice.  Sometimes though, our voices get silenced - sometimes by outside influences beyond our control, or sometimes by our own doing.  In the past, I allowed MY voice to be stifled by others, dictating what was and was not "acceptable" for me to say or do.  My once confident, bold voice, slowly transformed into nothing more than a whisper. 

I have since been reminded that God did not create me to be a silent bystander.  He created me with the boldness and courage needed to defend the weak, to speak out against injustices, and to even ruffle some feathers if needed, by courageously confronting issues no one else will address.  I wasn't created with a voice just to sit idly by and neither were YOU!  We were created to speak out! To stand up! To be a voice of reason! To speak the truth to a world in need of it! I know I am here to make a difference during my time here on earth, but using the voice God gave me.  This verse gave me a extra "push" today to take back my confidence and find my voice again:

"The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions." - Proverbs 28:1

Be bold, friends! It's time to pull the tape off of our mouths. If you don't use your voice, someone else will use theirs, and it may not be to speak what the hurting world needs to hear....

To all the stay-at-home moms just trying to survive another day

I overhead a conversation between two moms today when I was picking up my kids from vbs.

Mom #1: "What was I thinking, quitting my full-time job to do 'this'? Work is so much easier!"
Mom#2: "I know! I shouldn't have quit my job to stay home with him all day.  I get nothing done around the house! I think I'm going to go back to work before I go insane!"

It made me sad to hear them talking like that. 

You see, I quit a well-paying, full time job that I loved, 10 years ago when my first child was born, and I haven't had a "job" since.  Let me tell you - it hasn't been easy!

When my children were babies, there were countless days that my health issues left me so sick that I would lay on the floor with them playing around me, praying someone would come relieve me so I could "leave work" and go to bed.  But the needs of my babies wouldn't allow for that, afterall, stay-at-home moms don't get sick days.  So, I had to press through!

Of course there have been days that I have longed for a change of pace, or the "freedom" to go somewhere alone without having to load my kids up and take them with me.  Some days I've had the desire to just interact with other moms. In the season we are in now (with a 10 and 8 year old) the trials are different, but the trials still exist nonetheless. However, I can honestly say that I have never once regretted my decision to stay home and raise my children.


I just felt like writing this today, to offer any stay-at-home mom (including myself) who is reading this some encouragement.  Encouragement that moms like us rarely get.
<** I am not writing this blog to "diss" working moms.  So many of you have been put in a situation that you have no choice but to work. I pray you find encouragement today as well.>


Dear overwhelmed & under-appreciated mom,
Don't give up!!  Your hard work (while sometimes unnoticed) WILL pay off! Your efforts are going to have lasting effects for years to come.  Be thankful for the time you have with your kids - they won't be this age for long, and when they are gone, you will have more "me time" than you know what to do with! You may not see the rewards now, especially if you are a young mother, but trust me, you WILL.  YOU are teaching them right from wrong, YOU are kissing their boo-boos as soon as they scrape their knee.  It is YOU they come running to when they are scared or hurt.  And it will be YOU that they remember when they look back on their lives as adults, and realize that their mother made sacrifices....sacrifices that she didn't have to make - all to do something she felt called to do - stay at home with them. Don't regret your decision.  Don't complain.  There are many mothers who don't have the privilege to stay home like you do.  Embrace the hardships of motherhood one day at a time.  One day, your kids will thank you for it.  *hugs*

I will leave you with this writing from C.S. Lewis:

“I think I can understand that feeling about a housewife’s work being like that of Sisyphus (who was the stone rolling gentleman). But it is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, miners, cars, government etc exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? As Dr. Johnson said, “To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavor”. (1st to be happy to prepare for being happy in our own real home hereafter: 2nd in the meantime to be happy in our houses.) We wage war in order to have peace, we work in order to have leisure, we produce food in order to eat it. So your job is the one for which all others exist…” (pg 447-Letter of CS Lewis 1988 ed.)

Putting my dreams to sleep

It's been 6 months since my last blog. I even gave it a new look since it's been so long! So many things happened during that time... 
 
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Our 12^th wedding anniversary, 2 family deaths, birthdays, & weddings have all come and gone in that time. November through January was a very trying time for our family as our daughter's body was caught off guard by a very intrusive, painful illness.  By God's grace though, she has recovered. She is still working on her foot being "normal" again, but we praise God that she is no longer ill!

Last Sunday (March 15) we said goodbye to a great group of friends (family, really) and our church home for the last 5 ½ years, to move to another town we feel called to - Kory's home town of Collinsville, Illinois. 

There is always a back-story to big changes like these...so, stay with me if you will:
When I married my husband Kory, he was a drywall delivery guy during the week, and a professional wrestler on the weekends.   I was working as a temp at a local TV station, and we were struggling to make our new relationship work.  We had very conflicting ideas of what life should be like.

He always dreamed of "making it big" in the wrestling business, which would provide a great income for our family, but would require him to be away from home a lot. 

My dream was to live in the country, on a large piece wooded land, where my husband would come home from work to dinner cooked by his stay-at-home wife, and in the evenings we would sit outside on our big front porch drinking sweet tea, watching 2 little kids run around and play on our beautiful, safe property.  I am in introvert, so that sounded like the “dream life” to me.  Since I was a child, all I really knew about myself was that I was supposed to be a wife and a stay-at-home mom; however, when I met Kory, I knew right away that he had been born for something BIG.  I didn't know what that was exactly since at the time since he was a professional wrestler, but I hoped whatever it was, it would fit into MY dream, and not his. 

Then life happened.  Due to a nerve injury, Kory was forced to take a break from wrestling.  During that time, he discovered some things that he has been missing out on at home - his wife and kids.  And so....he quit.  Just walked away.  And the crazy thing about it, is that he has just been offered a huge wrestling opportunity that could have landed us in Florida, making good money - living his DREAM!  But...he felt like he was supposed to walk away from it all with no real explanation as to why at the time. 

Fast forward some years and we found ourselves moving from Ferguson to Troy, MO.  We didn't really know why we were moving to Troy at the time.  We didn't have family or friends there, but every time we would drive out that direction to look at houses, we just kept feeling a pull to that city.  So, we bought a house - in a subdivision on about 1/4 acre with no trees (go figure). Our kids were 2 and 4 years old at the time (we got the kid part of my dream right!  HA!)
Within a couple of weeks, we found a church - Journey Church - the place that we would make our church home...for the next 5 1/2 years.  During that time, we served...A LOT.  We involved ourselves in everything that was offered.  But our main passion while at Journey was teens. Kory became the "official" youth pastor in 2011.  (If you are wondering how in the world he went from being a wrestler, to a youth pastor at a church, I would LOVE to fill in those gaps for you, but those details are way too long for this specific blog). We spent countless hours with high school students, and we loved every minute of it.  When we became youth pastors, there was a group of teens who were just becoming freshmen, and now, as we are leaving, they are seniors getting ready to graduate! Needless to say, many strong bonds have been formed between our family and many others at the church.  When you spend hours and hours with the same people, they become like family.  Even our children have grown to love it here - this is the only home they have ever known. We absolutely love the people we have been blessed to share life with here in Troy.  That is why leaving this town and a paid church position, to go to another town where we don’t even know where our income is going to come from, to start a ministry within the community – all by ourselves, is completely irrational to most people we talk to. 

Here's what I know.  Sometimes this life just doesn't make sense.  That's just the truth of it.   Sometimes GOD doesn't make sense.  After all, why would He want to take us from a great little town like Troy (and yes I DO think it is a great little town) and all the people we've come to know and love, to move us to a place like Collinsville, IL.  It has never been my "dream" (OR my husband's for that matter) to move there.  In fact, Kory is FROM Collinsville, so how is it that he is about to find himself right back in his home town? Collinsville doesn't have farm land where I could find my dream home.  In fact, the house we are buying is the exact opposite of that.  But the crazy thing is...it's where we are supposed to be.  I believe that with 100% certainty and I'm at peace with what we are going to go do.

WHY??  Because this is not our home anyway!  This is just a stopping place before we get to our "real" home in Heaven.  Of course I'm going to dream of a more beautiful place, where safety and comfort abounds....because I wasn’t made for this world!

Could we move somewhere else instead of IL?  Of course we could!  We have a blank canvas! We could have that 'perfect' house, in the 'perfect' place and somehow justify that decision and claim we are serving God wherever that might be.  But the fact of the matter is, we would be living in disobedience and I can not imagine how unsettling and agonizing it would be to know that we chose OUR dream over God's will for our lives.

1 John 2:16-17 says: For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Our family has learned so much in the past 5 1/2 years.  Lessons that I now understand were to prepare us for what we are going to go do now. The biggest lesson of all that I have learned since moving to Troy (and I do mean THE biggest) is – SURRENDER.  It’s just one word, but it has been THE hardest lesson I’ve had to walk through.

No matter how hard I try to control my life, no matter how much I scream and cry when God shows me something new to do that doesn’t fit into my idea of comfort, I am brought to the realization every single time that my life does not belong to me like I thought it did. 

And honestly, if you call yourself a Christian (a Christ-follower) then it's the same for you too. We've all heard someone say "It's YOUR life, do what makes YOU happy", right? Well, I can tell you that not everything God asks me to do makes me "happy".  There have been many times that I have cried and pleaded with God over something He's told my family to do, and I don't remember happiness being one of the emotions I was feeling at the time.

The thing is, God wants all of His creation (us) to be with Him, (2 Peter 3:9 says…He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.) and the only way that is going to happen is if we as Christ followers, tell people about His love for them.  While my family could stay where we are, and continue to do what we feel comfortable doing (being youth pastors), God has spoken very clearly to my husband and I that our time here in Troy is over.  We were here for a season...to learn and grow into the people God needs us to be for this next step in our lives and the lives of the people we are going to meet in IL.  We have been called to share God's love with people in a city that I am completely unfamiliar with, but I know that I will soon feel is home just like we felt here in Troy. 

Kory's "dream" hasn’t happen the way he envisioned it.  Neither has mine.  We won't be moving into my "dream home".  My husband will be starting all over in the work force at who knows where, when we get to IL.  Our kids will  be exposed to things that I am “uncomfortable with” in order for us to love the broken and hurting people around us.  But God is reshaping my dreams…into what HE wants them to be - so if that means putting my dreams to sleep for now, then I surrender myself to that.  

One day, when I get to Heaven, I know we will have a beautiful house with all of the things I thought I needed here on earth.  But for now, my dream is to see hurting people experience God’s love in a way they've never experienced before; and I am so very humbled by the fact that He chooses to use an imperfect family like my own, to do just that.