Changing Main Pages

Our family used this domain “seeking2serve” during our missions career. I’m now primarily using my own domain “www.michaelrhodge.com”. I encourage you to take a look at that site!

Our Home in Greenville, SC

Engel Drive, a set on Flickr.

Although the vast majority of you that check our blog have been to our home in Greenville, SC…some of you that are still overseas have not, so I thought I’d post a few pics of the house. The trail pictures are of a trail that we have cut through the woods behind our house and built a sitting area with fire pit.

The Measure of Love

The Measure of Love
Second Edition

In anticipation of a series that will begin at the end of April 2011, I have received the proof copy of the revised version of “The Measure of Love”. This revised version contains all of the devotionals written in the first version, but this revision also features a short family time for each of the commandments (“Connecting with the Commandments”).

The books will be available to order in the next week or so. If you would like a copy, please let me know and I will add yours to the order that I am placing for the church. The cost of the books will be $8 total.

It is my prayer that this devotional book will encourage and challenge our people to be in the Word on a consistent basis over the course of 10 weeks!

Chorus Performance

This video is from the Westcliffe Elementary PTA meeting where Lexi’s choir sang a couple of songs. They really did a good job – though the video is not going to show that!! The quality of this video is not that great because I just quickly recorded it using my standard photo camera – but you can get an idea of how they did. The bumping sound is from folks clapping nearby…the mic was picking up all kinds of sounds!!!

Chorus Performance – Westcliffe Elementary

“Journey to the Cross”

Tonight we will start a new Sunday evening series that I’m pretty excited about. It’s called “Journey to the Cross”. As I was considering where we might go after our current series, I came up with the idea of extending our Easter celebration…working up to that date by studying key passages leading up to the cross. Often I feel like we simply go through the motions of the seasons of the church calendar and that certainly shouldn’t be the case with Easter!!  So we’ll study 6 key events in the biblical week leading up to Easter beginning with the Triumphal Entry and ending with the arrest in the garden.

My hope is that as we arrive at Easter weekend, those services will have renewed purpose and meaning, knowing all that took place leading up to this event.

Birthday, Birthday

Two birthdays in a row!! We had a good time this year celebrating our birthdays – March 7th and 8th. On the Sunday prior the church wanted to sing to both of us…only both of us weren’t there. Amanda had helped with the baptism that morning and she wasn’t out there yet…so they just sang to me! That evening we went out with a group of the church folks and they had put balloons up at Arby’s where we usually go and we had cake and a lot of fun. So, one year older and every year better!

 

New Toy in the Family

For several years now the kids have received lots and lots of toys. We had to get rid of a lot of those when we packed everything for heading to CR, but believe me – they’ve made up for lost time.

Well…we figured the kids weren’t the only ones who ought to get some new toys…so Mom and Dad got one too! Okay…so ours is a little bigger than the one in the picture, but you get the idea.

So now when those warm spring days arrive…we’ll be cruising around in our family fun car! Now that makes you have spring fever!

Jerrett and the Three Reindeer

by Amanda

January 26, 2011

“Reindeers! Reindeers! Mommy come look! Quick! Hurry, hurry!! I’m for real…come look at the reindeers!!” This was the chaos Jerrett was creating last night from our living room as I was busy with supper clean up. So, eventually I couldn’t take it any more, dried my soapy hands and huffed my way to to the den to find out what the nonsense was about. I found Lexi and Jerrett perched on the sofa, glued to the picture window. Maybe he was right!! Ashamed of myself and my unbelief, I plopped down on the sofa and looked out. Lo and behold, there were 3 (not so tiny) “reindeer” in the lot across the street!! Finally Michael succumbs to the commotion and heads up the stairs to join us. As the four of us stared out, there were 3 pair of eyes staring back! Needless to say, we were all AMAZED!! “I was right! I was right! Wasn’t I??”

I have the privilege each morning of taking the kids to school. I don’t mean that with sarcasm either! I honestly dread crawling out of the warm bed each morning but the ride to school is normally a very fun time. We have lots of good talks, lots of good stares, I’m sure, as we dance to loud music, and many times lots of good prayers for the day ahead. This morning was one of those times of good conversation and encouragement! As we left the drive this morning, I began talking about the big event last night with the “reindeer”. I had what I would claim to be a moment of God-given brilliance (rare I must say). Now whether the kids see it as that is one thing. Who knows, they may just think I’m “coo-coo”! There are quite a few teachable moments here but I want to share this one with you.

 Jerrett is always asking why he is short and why he has to be the smallest in his class. Just yesterday he was talking about how the kids call him “little boy” and so on. I told him to tell them that he may be the smallest in his class, but he is by far the best looking! (Can I AMEN myself? Is that allowed?) I always tell him that God makes us just the way He wants us to be made. He never makes a mistake! I don’t know if that helps him out any. But, this morning’s talk just may have backed up those seemingly empty words.

Continuing our conversation about last night’s event, I asked Jerrett what he was doing when he was in the living room. He said, “I was just looking for something to do.” Had he said, “Sitting on the sofa,” it would have ruined my teachable moment! We have shades on our large window that we keep pulled about ¾ of the way for privacy. If I want to look out, I have to be near the window. Jerrett however can see out all of the time! I asked Jerrett if it ever occurred to him that only he was able to see those deer from where he was standing. Had he been just a bit taller, he would have missed that amazing moment and in turn we wouldn’t have been able to share it as a family. So, “Jerrett, be thankful that God made you the size you are. You may get to see many things that most of us will just miss!”

Sometimes we don’t know why we have to go through certain things, look or feel the way we do. But, it has been my goal to take whatever “hand I’ve been dealt” and use it to glorify the Father. Hopefully I can encourage my own children to do the same! What have you been missing?

A Continuation of our Vision

One of the prayers that Amanda and I had as we transitioned back to ministry in the States is that God would use the vision He gave us as we began our missions career in some way as we returned. That vision was “Seeking to Serve.” It was a purpose statement that God gave us while we were in Costa Rica that gave us boldness to just do what we were able to do – serve. We were limited in language, limited in strategies for church planting, and still adjusting to culture. And in that setting, God challenged us just to serve people.

Well, we ask for your prayers now as God is beginning to give us a vision for how that will continue here in the States. We serve a wonderful church in Travelers Rest, SC. We believe that God is going to do a wonderful work through this congregation in 2011 and we are so excited about seeing God continue that vision He laid on our hearts over a year and half ago. So look for more info to come on this blog and the church blog as we seek to be faithful to His leading!