The tickets are purchased...time is drawing closer. After three years of praying, planning, and believing-Team Jones is finally heading to Moldova. Please pray for us over the next few weeks as our time is short and our to-do list is LONG. Our blog will be changing soon to include more information on our story, how to support us, and how to pray for us. Keep watching and consider "following" our blog. You can click on " follow" over on the right hand side of this page------>
Add a comment »Archive for June 2014
Secret Agents and Vacation Bible School
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Greetings Agents- Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read this blog about the COOL things that happened to us this week:)
Monday-1800 hours.
Destination-Heritage Baptist Church Prattville, Alabama
Code Name- Penny Wars
I was invited by my awesome friend(and coworker from Prattville Kindergarten), Tammy Horton, to share with her church's VBS crew. She has rallied behind us and has encouraged her church to support us prayerfully and financially. As part of their VBS time, the children took up an offering called "penny wars". It was a competition between the boys and girls to see which team could accumulate the most weight in currency (coins weigh more). On night two when I spoke they already had a total of almost twenty pounds in currency. AMAZING. I got to worship and share with the AWESOME and ON FIRE kids who were learning about how to be an agent of the One True God!! Their worship service was amazing and their skit was priceless...seriously-Lifeway should hire the two guys that did it to write their stuff...it was hilarious-but I digress. I got to share a little bit about our mission with the kids...and teach them a little Romanian (the national language of Moldova). I reminded them that as Agents of God...they needed to be able to share HIS love and remind others that God loves them NO MATTER WHAT. To hear 75 kids shout DUMNEZEU TE IUBESTE (God Loves You) was awesome!!! I felt so welcomed and loved by this sweet church. Thursday night, my friend Tammy called and shared the total with me...it was amazing that they raised such a HUGE amount in coins! The special agents at the church shared so generously and helped pave the way for us to make it to Moldova. Thanks Heritage Baptist Church!!!
Here are some pics from their "penny wars".
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| Boys bringing change and filling up the bucket for Team Jones in Moldova!! |
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| The Girls are winning!!!! |
Friday-10hundred hours
Destination: Santuck Baptist Church, Santuck, Alabama
Code Name: Pie Face
This Friday, Brian's parents' church invited us to share at their VBS end of the week ceremony. Their mission spotlight for their VBS offering was none other than TEAM JONES IN MOLDOVA:) Apparently, all week long during their worship gatherings they shared our names, our mission, and pictures of us with the kids attending their spy themed VBS. I got to worship with them to the awesome spy themed music. It was such an energizing time of worship and praise with the kids. Halfway through the service, the children's director, Mrs. Amy invited me on stage. But before she did, she asked all two hundred children what their mission for the week was....Oh my goodness....it was soo cool to hear them shout MOLDOVA ( a country that I personally did not know existed until six years ago)! Then she asked, who are we praying for and raising money for? They all shouted BRIAN AND KATHRYN JONES!!! It was so neat. Not one of those kids had ever met me, but they knew my name and they were praying for us. That is so incredibly humbling. I got up and shared a little bit about our calling and taught them a little Romanian as well and thanked them for their generosity and for praying for us. Then Mrs. Amy shared their grand total of the week. It was dumbfounding how much this VBS crew gave to help us get on our way to serving and loving in Moldova.
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| Side Note-Because they reached their monetary goal for the week all of the ministers got pies in their faces!! |
SUNDAY- 1900 hours
Destination: Home
Code Name: Grateful
We are sitting here tonight....with hearts so full of gratitude for these two churches....and for the friends and family we have who are stepping up and saying....Hey, God...I want to help these two follow the dream that you placed on their hearts....That's humbling people. Its no secret- We love Jesus...and we love the people He has placed in our lives.
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Going Forth
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Today is one of those days that I truly wish that I could clearly convey the beauty of moments with my words. I have waited four days to blog about our "going forth service" at church in hopes that my brain would suddenly realize how to tell you all how truly incredible this service(s) was. But, alas my brain is still incapable of communicating how immense and beautiful and powerful it was...so you just will have to forgive me.
This Sunday, our church (Frazer UMC) had a going forth ceremony for us and another missionary family. (In case you are not up to date-we are moving to Moldova in July to work as missionaries alongside Stella's Voice.) We spent the morning running back and forth between six services. At each service, we had the opportunity to share a little bit of our story with our Frazer Family and Friends. My sweet, shy husband was incredible. He generally does not enjoy speaking in groups larger than three....and he was holding a microphone and addressing between 100 and 500 at each service. That is a God thing. God has done so many cool things in the life of my wonderful husband over the last four years...him speaking to hundreds was just icing on the coolest cake ever:) As usual, I am getting off topic. My apologies :) Anyhow, at each service, after we had finished sharing our hearts with our church, our pastors invited our church family to come up and lay hands on us and pray for us. We circled up with our new friends the Stevens (who are moving to Haiti-you can read more about them here.) Then our church family proceeded to leave their seats and come pray for us and with us.
This is the part that I wish I could truly convey. At each service, when our church family came forward to lay hands on us. I felt so overwhelmed with peace. Their warms hands on my back and shoulders radiated God's love, their sweet whispered prayers felt like the most beautiful sound my ears had ever heard. I truly felt like our church family was one body and that one body was wrapping us up in the most wonderful embrace ever experienced. It was humbling and overwhelming. To have my family and Brian's family join us in this embrace made it even more incredible.
At our very last service, our friends rushed to be near us during this time of prayer. One of my dear friends, Kimmie, ran to join hands with me. We were truly surrounded by some dear friends. One of my amazing prayer warriror friends was holding my hand and another friend had her hands on my shoulders. During the prayer, I stilled my heart and my spirit and just opened up my heart to the amazing experience God was giving us. During the prayer, I again heard the whispers of my friends lifting our names up in prayer. I could feel God embracing me and holding me in the middle of our church. In the midst of this beautiful moment, I felt a drop on my hand....then another. The drops were tears from my friend Kimmie's eyes. God was giving me this incredibly sacred moment with my friend. Her tears felt like rain from Heaven washing over me. I was surrounded by hundreds of people....and yet I felt like it was just me in a supernatural embrace with the creator of the universe....and He decided to share his beauty with us and His peace and His strength and He flooded us with it. Then these beautiful tears of my friend reminded me how much God loves me...and I heard these lyrics to one of my favorite songs:
Let it rain, let it rain.
Open the floodgates of Heaven.
We feel the rains of your love
We feel the wind of your spirit
And now the heartbeat of heaven let us hear
Open the floodgates of Heaven.
We feel the rains of your love
We feel the wind of your spirit
And now the heartbeat of heaven let us hear
I heard the heartbeat of heaven in so many ways this week. But it was potent and powerful as our church prayed over us to "Go Forth" and live in His love and His call for our life. I hope you feel His rain and the wind of His spirit today.
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