How ‘Bout Dem Goals?
At the first of the year I wrote out some Personal and Blog Goals for 2012. I was turbo excited because I knew that by setting them, then posting them for the Transparent World to see – it would motivate me to reach them. Lets take a look at those goals and see where we are 5 months into 2012.
Goals
PERSONAL GOALS
A. Ballance Life & Ministry
Last time we spoke about this, I summed up our Life & Ministry by saying ” We are drowning in a lake of awesomeness” .
HAHA! These days I can happily say that we are swimming around and occasionally playing a little beach volleyball at Lake Awesomeness!
Goal #1: Find an office space in Asheville outside of our home.
Step 1 was purchasing our first home (which you can read about here) and saying “No Boys OFFICE Allowed”
Step 2 was finding an actual office for the church. Our previous landlord allowed the church to stay for a few months which was so wonderful! Thank you Mr. Toms.
Mission Accomplished!
Home is Home and Work is at an office where it belongs!
We not only found an office space that meets all of our needs + SOME but it’s also eerily similar to the Lelia Patterson Center where we hold our worship services. Check it out
Goal #2: Keep one day a week a totally non work day, and making sure to have one date night a week.
More often than not we work every day of the week EXCEPT Mondays!!! Mondays are sacred.
We’ll sit around and watch all sorts of reality TV trash, will take a trip to the grocery store, clean up the house a bit, and sleep A LOT!
We used to have Date Night on Fridays, but it was becoming difficult to exclude Monday and Friday nights from work, so we moved Date Night to Monday nights. Unfortunately, this isn’t working that great. We flat-out miss you Friday Night!!!
B. Establish order in our life.
Remember last time we talked about the importance of boundaries. We used this pictures of a Flood (no boundaries) and this River (lots of boundaries) as an example….Ahhh Yes Now you remember!
Floods are destructive, but rivers have focus and direction.
We wanted to bring order (boundaries) to our life by:
1.) Creating a routine - I’m still working on this one. I am not a morning person but I really want to be! I want to get up, do a devotion, excercise, eat breakfast, and put on make up EVERY DAY. Its hit and miss with me which of these happens on a daily basis.
Still Needs Work!
2.) Planning ahead for the unexpected (which in ministry is all the time) - Believe it or not, going to the grocery store on Monday is KEY! If we go to the store then take about an hour and cut up/dice up/clean up/and organize all the ingredients for that week’s menu it makes a HUGE difference! I highly recommend doing this.
3.) Organizing and creating a designated space for everything in our home- Ummmm I’m most of the way there. Everything in our new home is out of a box, and put away except our home office. I’m very organized most of the time. Most things have a place, it’s just making sure they go back there when we are done with them.
BLOG GOALS
I’ll be honnest….I’ve done a really poopy job keeping up with the blog since January so here’s my Blog Goal Evaluation:
FAIL!
1. Ballance Life & Ministry
We tried to make sure that all of our posts last year had something to do with ministry. Even if we were talking about our personal life, it had something to do with church. We want to keep a good balance between the two, but not have to try so hard to make them both. Unless of course we want to. Lets just say we are opting for more creative freedom. And instead of a “creative flood” of randomness (which tends to come naturally to me)…we are going to create a “creative river” of awesomeness!
Nothing’s changed. I still just write whatever I want whenever I want.
Maybe a more reasonable goal should be…Write one post a week and actually post it on Sunday like you said you would
SIDE NOTE: HAHAHA!!! I just scrolled down and saw that was actually one of my goals. Major Fail!
2. Establish Order
Every Sunday- Post at least once at 6:00pm
1st Sundays Personal Posts
2nd Sundays- Posts from Ben
3rd Sundays- Ministry Related Posts
4th Sundays- Guest Interview Posts
5th Sundays- Book Review Posts
Transparent Reader Question: How are you doing with your 2012 goals?
Our First LIFE Group
Ben and I started talking about small-group ministry way before we actually launched the church. Apostle Ron told us that how we got together during the week was totally up to us as the Campus Pastors. We all agreed that the two best options would be for Ben to preach a mid-week service or to try our hand at small-groups.
Last Summer (2011) Ben, Jermaine (our intern), Dean and I researched, talked, researched, processed, talked some more, brainstormed some more and eventually came to the conclusion that RWOC Asheville was going to launch a small group ministry called LIFE Groups.
The LIFE Groups mission statement is: Transforming lives through intentional, experiential, and relational small group environments which are rooted in the vision and DNA of Redemption World Outreach Center.
The idea is that by breaking up into smaller groups during the week we can all build stronger relationships with each other and with the Lord by living life together and walking through God’s word together. Each LIFE Group has about 10 people in it. Each group meets at a leader’s home once during the week for about 2 hours. We meet together for about 10-12 weeks, take a break then start over.
We launched LIFE Groups in January and have just recently concluded our first “semester”. If you’ll indulge me I’d love to share my personal experience…
I have to admit that I was really kicking myself for agreeing to lead a LIFE Group with Ben. What made matters worse was that it was my idea. I told Ben I think we should lead one, he agreed, then about two weeks before we were supposed to start I began freaking out!
Here were my thoughts on why we shouldn’t lead:
1. We are the Pastors, people aren’t going to open up to us.
2. We don’t know these people its going to be so awkward!
3. We are moving and I am not having a group of people come over to my box filled mess of a beautiful new home!
4. We have meetings every night, when are we going to be able to enjoy our new home.
5. Insert a million stress induced selfish excesses here….
Our group met for the first time on Wednesday, January 25th – smack dab in the middle of the busiest, most chaotic, exhausting, worst time to launch a LIFE Group, time EVER! I am pretty sure my clothes didn’t match and I’m positive I didn’t have make up on that night.
This is how I felt that day:
We all met at our old house, the church office, since it still had our furniture in it. I may have had some stuff for them to munch on but I doubt it. They were lucky if I remembered their names and kept from drooling as I talked.
All in all the first night wasn’t so bad, I made it through and I do remember thinking, “Man, we sure do have some great people in this church”.
The next week I had a few days off to recuperate and felt more like myself by the time we met again. In fact I am pretty sure I had a little too much energy and may have frighted a few of my new friends. We didn’t have any food or comphy furniture, but I did match and have make up on.:)
This was the week we really started diving into our book, Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick and had some really great discussion! This was the night I fell madly in love with everyone in our group!
It was definitely a challenge trying to stop working, attempt to eat dinner (on the conference room table), and set a worshipful atmosphere at the office. Believe it or not folks, the church office is not a calm, quiet, peaceful place where we all sing praises all day long. But some how we managed! Every once in a while Ben would listen to me gripe and complain about how I just wanted to go home, I was tired and didn’t want to go to LIFE Group but he reminded me of our commitment so I stayed. I can honestly say that I NEVER regretted it! It seemed like the days I didn’t want to go were the days God showed up and ministered to me through these people the most!
That is one of the things I loved the most about our LIFE Group, we ministered to one another. Yes, we had some great discussion and saw God move a great deal in our life from the material we read each week. But the fact that everyone was vulnerable, everyone opened up and everyone truly cared for each other great ministry was able to take place!
As a pastor it is challenging finding a balance between pastoral relationships and friendships. How much of yourself can you share before familiarity sets in? How can you vent about your day at work when you work for the church these people attend? Just being honest, it is very hard to balance a life in ministry. Saying all of that to say that I am especially grateful that God blessed us with a group that allowed us to just be Ben and Jessica Miller. They allowed us to minister to them and man oh man did they minister to us!
On Wednesday nights, 614 Erkwood Drive was a peaceful, fun, safe haven for 12 people to share their struggles, laugh at crazy stories, encourage and help lift heavy burdens, iron to sharpen iron, and for friendships to be formed. This is church folks!
Our next semester of LIFE Groups will start soon and I highly encourage everyone to participate. Make room in your schedule and make it a commitment to build community with the wonderful amazing folks you go to church with!
If you want to share your LIFE Group experience please leave a comment!
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Here are our Summer Semester LIFE Groups
How to Study the Bible
Have you had difficulty understanding the Word of God? What translation of the Bible should I use? What makes a good study Bible? This LIFE Group teaches the skills you need to be able to tap into the rich treasures promised in the most important Book ever written, the Bible.
Developing the Leader Within You
Everyone leads someone. In this LIFE Group you will discover the true definition of leadership, its traits and the difference between management and leadership. You will be empowered to inspire others through learning the skills of committed, visionary leadership.
Discovering and Developing Your Life’s Purpose
There are two great events in a person’s life: 1) When they are born and 2) When they find out why. This LIFE Group will help you achieve your goals and maximize your potential.
House or Home; God’s Blueprint for a Great Marriage
Experience the joy God intended for marriage! This LIFE Group discusses Biblical principles and practical insights to creating and maintaining a Godly marriage.
Sun Stand Still
What happens when you dare to ask God for the impossible? This LIFE Group favorite will help you pray the “impossible” with the bold audacious faith that you will discover as you encounter God.
Wild at Heart
This study helps men discover why they are wired for adventure, discovery, and conquest and how to handle it. This quest will help you find and embrace the man God created you to be.
For more information or to sign up
visit the LIFE Group booth or email us at Asheville@rwoc.org
The Other Sanctuary
***Sigh***
I have missed writing this blog more than you could possibly imagine!
The last 3 months 15 months have simply been amazing and overwhelming.
As much as I wanted to continue writing I just couldn’t seem to find the time or energy.
The good news is that things have slowed down and Ben and I are learning how to manage and lead more efficiently. So although there is still a lot going on we are not as overwhelmed. PRAISE THE LORD!!!
I have so many things to tell you, many that are long overdue, but we’ll get to them one by one. Here we go!
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Sanctuary: A place of refuge or safety
Depending on what goes on in your house, your “home” may or may not feel like a sanctuary right now.
Ours definitely did not! I can honestly say that since we’ve been married our “homes” have been more like temporary dwelling places than a sanctuary.
We moved into a townhouse in Mauldin, SC when we got married until we could establish ourselves and buy a home. In fact we were in the process of looking for a house, and had JUST gotten word that the offer we put on it fell through, the week Apostles Ron and Hope asked us to move to NC to plant RWOC Asheville. Wow what a blessing that turned out to be!
Just so you can have an idea of how long we “dwelled” in a state of transition here is a little time line
May 2007- Married & Moved into the Town House (Mauldin, SC)
March 2008- We were asked to move to NC to plant RWOC Asheville around September of 2008
March ’08 – September ’08 : started to pack & look for places to live and hold worship services in Asheville
September ’08- January ’10….. Still no luck with finding a location for RWOC Asheville…which meant short-term leases and a dreadful state of “dwelling” at the Town House
January 2010 - We moved to a very SMALL apartment while we waited for the BIG move. As much as I loved this tiny apartment it was the epitome of transitional housing. We left 60-70% of our things packed and in storage because we knew we would not be making a home there. We were just dwelling until we moved to Asheville
August 2010 – When Ben and I finally made the treck to North Carolina, we moved into a beautiful rental house we shared with the church office. This was tough. Living here was a challenge. It was the first time we lived in a house, but it wasn’t OUR house so there was little I could do to make it feel like our “home”. It didn’t help that 2/3 of the “house” was really “office”…
For those of you who work from home you understand how difficult it can be to keep a balanced life. At times living here felt more like we were living at work than working at home.
After 4 years of marriage and 3 homes dwelling places, we were ready to put down roots and start our “HOME” search!
On our way back from our 4 year Anniversary Trip we officially started the search. We looked at hundreds of homes. Seriously, I would drive around after church to visit different parts of town and the two of us would visit houses on Mondays.
We did this for months! Then last November right before Thanksgiving, it happened!
During our 109,809,382th house tour, Ben and I stepped foot into our first HOME for the first time! We had it narrowed down to the two houses that would work, but this one felt perfect! It met all of our requirements, a few of our “dream” items, and even had a few bonuses we were not expecting…but most importantly it just had that peaceful “Yes! This is it!” feeling when we walked through it.
We closed on January 23rd, 2012 and for the first time we went home!
We unlocked the door and walked around for a minute, then I just sat down in the middle of my empty living room and started to cry. The idea that I could finally unpack everything and “nest”, the thought that Ben and I would start a family and have little babies running around, and that God had provided us with such a beautiful perfect house to call a home, just became very overwhelming!
Then my sweat and precious husband grabbed my hands and started to pray and bless our home. One of the things he prayed was that this house would be our sanctuary. It would be a place of refuge that we can come to and be rejuvenated. A place where God’s peace and power reigned and had authority.
We’ve lived here a few months now and I can honestly say that it is just that, our SANCTUARY. We can feel the weight drop off our shoulders when we walk in the door. The drive from work to the house is AMAZING! You don’t realize how important that commute is until its gone. Seriously, your ride home from the office should be a time where you mentally detach from one part of your life and ready yourself for the other. Its just great!
AHHHH! I just L-O-V-E our HOME!!!!!
I am having so much fun decorating! I’ve painted almost every room, and will be repainting our bedroom. I picked a color before I picked out our bedding. Oops.
We’ve replaced toilet guts, light fixtures, purchased a few pieces of furniture…Boozer is obsessed with his fenced in back yard. I’m pretty sure he has buried every single one of his bones.
We have very friendly neighbors who have already come in handy. A few weeks ago, Ben and I were working in the yard and our neighbor kindly pointed out that in a few weeks those “weeds” I was spraying with RoundUp would actually blossom into beautiful flowers. OOPS!
*They have survived thankfully!
On a very personal note, I want to thank everyone who helped us move what seemed like every 6 months. Thank you to our Friends, Family and Redemption family for keeping us in your prayers during the YEARS of our transition to Asheville. You were and continue to be such a huge encouragement to us!
I think I can say that the “Miller Family Transition to Asheville” is over!
RWOC Asheville you have been so generous and thoughtful and amazing! January was an incredibly busy and overwhelming month for us as your pastors and for us personally, but you all held us up and showed so much grace towards us. I love that you celebrate in our victories and show us grace when we fall on our face! You’ve been such a blessing to us and we love you so much!!!!
*SIDE NOTE* Be patient! I still have a lot of work to do before I start my before and after decorating posts. They will come in time 
In the meantime I will continue my addiction to Pinterest , TJMaxx, Ross, Marshalls, and Pier One! YAY! Fun Times!!!!
RWOC AVL Update – January
Hey friends!
Well, its the 3rd Sunday and as I shared last week (here) we want to give you an update on what happening at the Asheville Campus.
As if buying a house wasn’t hectic enough…
***Oh WAIT, you don’t know that yet…! YES! Ben and I are purchasing our first home! I’ll tell you all about that next week.
… RWOC seems to be launching a million different things, and they are all happening this month, making our hectic home buying selves even more loopy.
Y’all we are so excited though! We may not be getting a lot of sleep these days, but it is totally worth it.
So let me quit gabbing and give you a run down of whats going on at the chiz-urch.
CLT Campus Launches TODAY!
1. After months and months of preparation, our Charlotte Campus is launching TODAY!
Not only have Pastors Brandon & Nichole worked tirelessly over the last several months preparing to launch this campus, but in the last 30 days they have:
-Celebrated Pastor Brandon’s 30th b-day
-Celebrated Christmas
-Celebrated the birth of their 3rd daughter Carolina
-and today in addition to launching the campus, Pastor Nichole is celebrating her BIRTHDAY today!!!
My heart and prayers go out to them because I know first hand what it takes to launch a satellite campus of RWOC and its tough. But they have had one thing after another on top of it all. Yes! All of these things have been really great but you know great stuff can still be very stressful! Lord, Thank you for your grace that covers us when we are too tired to think, peace that surpasses all understanding, and a super-natural rest in the midst of midnight feedings! AMEN!
Coming to a bookstore near you 1/17/12
- Apostle Hope turns 25!
Nobody knows how to party like this lady!
We launched our campus on December 5, 2010 and realized about 4 weeks later that we had to do something about discipleship!
Sunday’s preaching is awesome, in my eyes, the best!
But we not only needed a great Word on Sunday, we needed to develop a community. We needed to be able to do LIFE with one another…which lead us to study Small Groups.
For the last several months Ben and Dean Hanson have been studying different small groups and then putting some Redemption Flair on them…and on Tuesday, January 24th, our first LIFE Team will meet.
We’re launching with 6 groups of about 10-12 people in each. They’ll meet once a week for 10 weeks in the group leader’s home. Each group will read Sun Stand Still, and work together to serve Asheville in a community service project.
Really awesome stuff! I’m excited to see how this church changes when over half of its members start declaring things with bold, audacious faith! OOOHHHH WEEE I’m excited.
6. I’ve told you before, that in addition to being the Campus Pastors, we are also the Youth Pastors here in Asheville! We’ve had a blast getting to know these students this year through various activities like tubing ,a carowinds trip, and monthly UNITE trips. But we’ve been itching to spend some more quality time with them. So our Movement Team decided to host a Movement Lock-In.
Next Friday, January 20th, we are pledging to stay up all night and give these students a night they won’t forget. We’ve got 12 hours full of activities and food! Any suggestions (besides Red Bull) on staying up for 12 hours WITHOUT being totally drained? Nap on Friday afternoone- YES! good idea
7. UNITE started as an idea to “unite” the different RWOC youth ministries together once a month. Then God expanded Pastor Tavner’s vision to include ALL youth ministries in the Upstate. Once a month RWOC Asheville rents a van (or two) and we take our students to the Greenville Campus for a night of amazing praise and worship and a great word! It’s amazing to see how the Lord has
*Side Note: Boozer (our dog) is licking both my hands as I write this…it is making it slightly difficult to focus and type…HAHA. Does your dog/animal have a quirky habit? Boozer’s is licking INCESSANTLY!!!
Lick-Master 5000
… Its amazing to see how the Lord has taken UNITE outside the walls of the church. I’ve heard that major corporations like Chick-fil-A and Jack-In-The-Box, the mayor of Greenville and an assortment of other people/places, have contacted Pastor Tavner because THEY want to UNITE with us…awesome, Kingdom stuff.
So as you can see….we’ve got a lot of great things going on. I need a nap just reading this. Zzzzzzz
Transparent Reader Question:
What do you have going on this week? Anyone participating in any of these events? I sure hope so.
2012 Personal & Blog Goals
Welcome back! And Happy New Year!!!
I’m not one for setting New Years Resolutions. New Years Resolutions are synonymous with failure. Think about it…when you asked someone if they set any resolutions, how many of you immediately thought…HAHA yeah right! Or better yet, how did you ask it? Did you have a little giggle in your voice? No? Just me-ok.
Exactly
I think that people who make New Years Resolutions have great intentions. I mean, everyone wants to make this next year better by doing X, Y, Z; and I’m right there with you folks! However, I think keeping a “New Years Resolution” is about as likely as it is for my dog Boozer to quit licking his butt! Just not going to happen!
I think its this idea that because the clock has turned over another year, we are magically going to be able to stop doing all the bad things we’ve been indulging in for the last 62 days, that gets me.
*SIDE NOTE* As soon as they start playing Christmas music my self-control button switches to off for about two months. “Why yes, I DO need to eat 45lbs of fudge this weekend”, and “OK! Just one more gigantic helping of that please”. (x3)
Its not just with food either…our budget seems to go bazurk0 as we remember 53 other people we needed to buy gifts for and eat out every other meal. Our house …OH BOY! We forget to do laundry because we have 12 Christmas Parties to go to and they all fall on laundry day. Yeah who am I kidding…my laundry problems are epic all year long. But this year will be different. In 2012 I resolve to do laundry as soon as the basket is full. (Crap! I failed already. I have at least 3 baskets full of laundry that won’t get done for at least a week. HAHA!)
(Yearly dose of pessimism – check)
Major changes take time, determination and diligence.
diligence is doing something small a long time until something big happens!
New Years Resolutions = Good idea + Big changes all at once –>Fail!
Goals = Having a plan + Small changes over time –> Win!
Goals
PERSONAL GOALS
1. Ballance Life & Ministry
We LOVE pastoring RWOC Asheville. It has been the hardest and best thing we’ve ever done. After about a year and half of getting our feet wet, we’ve dove head first into full time ministry. For those of you in ministry or who grew up with a family member in full time ministry you totally understand why at times it feels like we’re drowning in a lake of awesomeness.
We are fortunate in that we are both employed full-time by the church.
But for the last year 1/2 we’ve worked from home. This means that the lines between church and home have been very blurred at times. But we are making a concerted effort to change that.
- We are looking for a separate office space in Asheville
- At 6:00pm when we finish, we close up our computers, shut the door to our offices, and get in our car to “drive home”. All we do is drive around the block, but it has been helping. But it gives us a chance to turn off the “work” house and turn on the “home” house.
- We are continuing to keep one day a week a totally non work day, and making sure to have one date night a week.
I’ll keep you updated with this later in the year
2. Establish order in our life.
Most of us can agree that a life completely regulated by stringent routines can be boring and depending on the severity, it can be debilitating. But for the first time in my life I’m seeing that the opposite is just as bad. When you lack order there is chaos. Tim Elmore’s book series Habitudes, gives a great illustration of this called “River and Floods”.
Floods are destructive, but rivers have focus and direction.
The only thing that differentiates the two are banks or “boundaries”.
Lately our life has seemed more like a flood, hence the drowning feeling.
We want to bring order to our life by:
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Creating a routine
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Planning ahead for the unexpected (which in ministry is all the time)
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Organizing and creating a designated space for everything in our home
BLOG GOALS
Our goals for the blog, coincidentally coincide with our personal goals. Go figure! I mean this is a blog about our life right?!?!
*Side Note* I LOVE writing for this blog! I know its primarily for work, as a way of staying connected…but it is so much fun I just love it!
1. Ballance Life & Ministry
We tried to make sure that all of our posts last year had something to do with ministry. Even if we were talking about our personal life, it had something to do with church. We want to keep a good balance between the two, but not have to try so hard to make them both. Unless of course we want to. Lets just say we are opting for more creative freedom. And instead of a “creative flood” of randomness (which tends to come naturally to me)…we are going to create a “creative river” of awesomeness!
2. Establish Order
Every Sunday- Post at least once at 6:00pm
*If we post more great, but at least you know every Sunday at 6:00pm you can mosey over to our blog and chit-chat. If you are like us and trying to create a routine, you could add this to it. Subscribe below, and you’ll get an email every time we post.
1st Sundays personal Posts
* These posts may include things like Miller Family Updates, Vacations, Stories of us, Updates we make to our new house, Challenges we are facing, Exciting news or breakthroughs we want to share….just a bunch of personal goodness. Knowing me, I’ll probably post these more than once a month. 
2nd Sundays- Posts from Ben
* The co-author of Transparent Sundays did not contribute as much as we I would have liked in 2011…but we’re not pointing any fingers, we’re just making some changes
This year, Ben will post at least once a month. It’s going to be totally up to him what he shares. It may be personal or leadership based who knows? But I’m so excited. He is a phenomenal writer just like his momma.
3rd Sundays- Ministry Related Posts
*These posts will be ministry specific. It could be a post about whats going on with Redemption or the Asheville Campus, it may be about an event we’ve done at church or something God is showing to us that we think you’d like to hear.
4th Sundays- Guest Interview Posts
* I am most excited about this idea! Ben and I have asked several special people in our lives to complete a fun survey – an interview of sorts. These people include Pastors, Personal friends, folks from the Asheville Campus and those on staff at Redemption. I can’t wait for you to meet them!
5th Sundays- Book Review Posts
* There are about 4 “5th” Sundays in the year. I know because we’ve planned our Baby Dedications on these days. In addition to cute babies on 5th Sundays, you’ll have a chance to hear about some of the books we are reading. Ben has agreed to write these posts. I read too, but I didn’t do so hot with book reviews in school. My reviews were like, “Oh my Gah, this book was so awesome, it had people in it and they did stuff and man I just loved it” or “WOW! There was so much good stuff in this book, I don’t even know where to start” – 45 pages later I have just told you every detail and you are so bored that drool is hanging from your lip. Ben has a way of saying things that would make an illiterate kindergartener buy 2 copies. Oh yeah, he’s that good (Am I biased ? Maybe!)
Transparent Reader Question:
What are some of your 2012 New Years Resolutions Goals?
What are some goals you set in the past and have accomplished?
Thanksgiving Wedding
Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!
I didn’t post last week because I was in Albany, NY helping one of my dearest friends, Brooke get ready for her wedding!
I flew into Albany last Tuesday which gave me nearly an ENTIRE WEEK to catch up with an old friend and participate in one of my favorite things..weddings!
Lets start with Brooke.
Brooke was my roommate at the Focus on the Family Institute and has since become one of my greatest friends. While we were at Focus we were separated MAYBE two hours a day due to our internships. We were together ALL the time!
Brooke & Jess (Colorado 2006)
We graduated in Spring 2006, and get to see each other about once a year when Brooke travels to South Carolina to visit family.
*SideNote: After this weekend, I’ve adopted myself into her family, so we’ll need to make sure they have room for me when she visits!
My trip to see to New York was extra special because
1. My girl was getting married
2. I got to see her at home for the first time EVER
3. I FINALLY got to meet her friends and family. I <3 them so much!
Here are a few random fun facts about me and Brooke:
*Brooke is adopted from South Korea. So when we would go out we would pretend that she couldn’t speak English and I would interpret for her. SOOOOO mean FUNNY!
*We have about 14,235 different inside jokes, none of which make much sense. Aren’t those the best!
Our favorite ones come from this Will Ferrell clip from SNL (“Nature….”!!!)
Warning: There is a wordy derd...
*Our pet fish, Dilbert Boksoon, died tragically. Lets just say euthanasia was involved and the lady at WalMart DID NOT respect the dead.
*We both have a love affair with polka dots and lists!
She let me cross things off her Wedding To-Do List this weekend… y’all thats the best part!
She loves me!
*Brooke helped coordinate with Ben his surprise visit to Colorado. Which ended with an awesome proposal! Brooke new for weeks and didn’t say a word! I found out this weekend that she talked to her mom every day so that the excitement wouldn’t spill out. AWWW!
Brooke just HAPPEND to have a camera at this exact moment!
Now, lets talk about the WEDDING!
Bride - Beautiful
Food- Delicious
Dancing – Of Course. The DJ gave us super awesome sunglasses
Karaoke I did RAP a Salt N’ Peppa song to Brooke during her Bachelorette Party
There is a reason you should plan your own wedding ONCE…it can be the pits (at times)!
When you are the bride, you are told that its your day to do what you want, but in reality there are a lot of other (family/friend) dynamics that a bride DOES have to consider.
But as the FRIEND of the Bride you really do get to focus TOTALLY on whatever she wants!
The advice I give to all brides and that I gave to Brooke was:
- Take at least 5 minutes on the day of the wedding, to get by yourself and soak it all in. It goes by so fast.
- Let go of control after the rehearsal. Details will work themselves out without you having to stress about them on YOUR day!
- Designate someone you trust and can be direct with who can be available for WHATEVER is needed.
My mom happily refers to this as being a “wedding slave”, I prefer ”bridal attendant” or “wedding runner”…but whatever floats your boat.
Brooke’s cousin and I got to be Brooke’s wedding runners and it was fantastic! We got to focus TOTALLY on her and try to make sure she didn’t worry about a thing!
The wedding and reception were absolutely wonderful!
The best part was at the end of the night Brooke’s only concern was that she may have had more fun than anyone else. HAHA! AWESOME!
I hated missing such an awesome service at RWOC Asheville, but getting to spend the week with Brooke was totally worth it! Here are some pictures from my trip.
You can see the rest on my facebook page /Jessica Foldes Miller
At home before going out
Danny's favorite color is Orange...shoes!!!
BJ, Jess & Brooke
My Sweet Spot
Top of the morning to you!
Lets go ahead and kick this thing into high gear!
This has been one of the best weeks for me personally since we launched this church.
It all started Tuesday when we were in Greenville for our weekly planning meeting. Typically we SKYPE into this meeting, but we were already in town visiting Ben’s sister and nephew, who flew in from Miami, FL.
Say what you will but we don’t think anything happens by coincidence. We were in town on the right day!
Our planning meeting ended up turning into a COLOSSAL brainstorming/vision casting meeting. I mean we are talking HUGE shift in the way we currently structure our church folks.
After that meeting, Apostle Ron was so jacked about the ideas we all discussed, that he called a second meeting to discuss it some more!
I’m not going to spill the beans on what it was that we all talked about in these meetings, which trust me is very hard! I’m so excited I could scream! BUT I shall contain myself and press forward!
“YAY….meetings that last all day long. Woohooo -
WHAT!?!
Why on earth does that have anything to do with this being the best week ever?!”
Calm down voices… let me explain!
If you ENGAGE in Asheville then you are no stranger to the term “SWEET SPOT”. We tell all of our volunteers that it is our personal desire to see everyone serve in their “Sweet Spot”.
What we are saying is, we want you to find a place where your talents, passions, and value or purpose collide!
What is it that makes you cry? Not commercials for movies like Dolphin Tale…man those get me EVERY time! Seriously? A prosthetic tale for the dolphin. Heart Strings…PULLED!
Whats the first thing you notice when you go somewhere?
What is it at work that you are good at and enjoy doing?
These are all signs pointing you in the direction of your Sweet Spot. At the Asheville Campus we want people to serve the vision of Redemption in a position that fits in their “Sweet Spot”.
Disclaimer: I stole this image off of Google and added "Sweet Spot"
Well, Tuesday was the right time and God blessed it!
We had a team of people who all came together and created a GIANT sized idea that could possibly effect RWOC for the next 20 years. I know its killing you not knowing what it is I’m talking about…teehee – snicker – snicker
This week was a good day for some orderly ducks!
...Perfection
Work smarter not harder and Simply Simplify!
If you were to ask me what my “purpose” is…I would tell you that right now its devoting my life to serving the Kingdom of God through the works of church ministry.
Do I think that is IT in its entirety? NO. But for right now I KNOW that I KNOW that I am in exactly the right place at the right time, doing exactly what God wants me to do.
Serve Redemption World Outreach Center as a Campus Pastor.
Serving Redemption World Outreach Center is my purpose
Being able to step back from my typical day-to-day duties and focus on organizing a new strategy for creating efficient ministry to take place at RWOC felt like this in my spirit.
I didn't know the significance of this day until I watched "Fever Pitch"
I have no idea where we are going from here, but I’m excited. My prayer for you as I write this is that:
1. God would reveal to you, your Sweet Spot
2. You and your leaders would be wise enough to position you in your Sweet Spot
3. There would come a day where your Sweet Spot would make you some money honey!
Pastor Jessica
Pastor Ben
thewellpsl (Kevin Bordeaux)
