Family Time ...

Life has been running at a pretty hectic pace lately.  Church planting is challenging in that way.  So many hats to wear and a limited number of people to wear them.  Needless to say, this creates a whole new challenge of balancing family life with church life.  Sometimes we do that well and sometimes we fail miserably. 

This week has allowed some time for us to refresh, regroup and refocus before the summer starts in full blast.  It was a much needed time.  Doug had worked so hard for so long that he ended up sick with a cold that turned into a sinus infection.  I think that may have been God's little way of saying SLOW DOWN!  So we listened this week ...

This past Wednesday was the kids last day of school.  Doug and I took advantage of the last two full days of school and took those days off.  We did minimal work and just enjoyed doing nothing for a change!  I popped in on Adyson's end of the school year swimming party on Monday.  Yes -- they went swimming in 58 degree weather!  The pool is heated to 80 degrees, but as far as I'm concerned that's still CRAZY!  Then Benjamin's end of the year swimming party was Tuesday.  It was raining and in the low 50's and they STILL swam.  NUTS! 

Friday night we actually had family night!  We haven't had our traditional family night in quite a while.  It was nice to get away to Rapid City.  The kids have outgrown all of their summer stuff so we went on a quick shopping trip to Target to load up on shorts and casual summer dresses!

Saturday we caught up on chores around the house -  yard work for Doug and mounds of laundry for Dana!  The kids did a little sweep through the house helping to pick things up for Sunday!

A new favorite thing that we are doing is having our volunteer team over every Sunday for lunch.  It has been a fun way to regroup as a team and just enjoy each other.  It also allows us to learn about the new people we are meeting each week at Connection Church since each of us are having conversations with different people!  I enjoy cooking for and having a big house full of friends each week!

Today, Memorial Day, we enjoyed a hike through Spearfish Canyon.  Our intension was to hike to Devil's Bath Tub, but due to the heavy rains we've been having in this neck of the woods, the creek was too high to safely cross with two kids in tow and we opted to catch it another time.  It was still a BEAUTIFUL walk.  We packed a picnic lunch and decided to eat our lunch on big boulders along the creek!  It was a fun, much needed family day!  The kids enjoyed the hike very much.  Adyson did amazing.  Hiking is a lot more challenging for her with her vision limitations.  With her lack of depth perception, things that are easy for us are not so easy for her.  Some of the areas along the trail were a bit steep, slippery and hard to find your footing.  However, she happily goes along with us and never backs away from the challenge.  She amazes me and I am very proud of her! 

Here are some pics of the beauty of the Black Hills we experienced today!  It's still hard for me to believe that we live just a short 15 minute drive from all of this! 

A hiking magazine told us that this tree is called the Wedding Tree.  It is a pine tree and a birch tree that has grown together!

This was our dining room! 
The view where we stopped for lunch!

This is Spearfish Falls!  When we found that we could not get all the way to The Devil's Bath Tub, we hiked back to the car and went to Spearfish Falls!  Beautiful!

Life Lately ...

Did you think I disappeared?  Don't worry ... my family has made comments that I'm behind on my blog.  They are scolding me for you.  They love to encourage me like that!  I told them from the get go that I did not have time to blog!  So cope - and I mean that in the most loving way!!  :) 

So much has happened since the last post.  Let me start by telling you about the lady I wrote about in my last post who was so excited about Connection Church.  She has continued to come on a regular basis.  She has been bringing her teenage daughter as well.  Doug and I were able to sit down and chat with her last week and she accepted Christ as her Savior!  So exciting!  She will be among our first baptisms at Connection Church!  Even cooler is the fact that her teenage daughter has indicated that she prayed the prayer asking Jesus into her heart in a recent church service.  We will be meeting with her soon to follow up on that.  These two ladies are among five others who have also indicated they prayed the prayer of Salvation with Doug as he lays out the gospel each service.  We have quite a bit of follow up to do with these folks, but feel like we will have a great time baptizing them all soon!  We are so excited that many are already coming to Christ as a result of visiting Connection Church.  After all, that is why we moved our family here!  God is so faithful ...

As for our family ... Adyson has turned 8 year old!  I can hardly believe that the little squirt (okay, I guess not really "little" at 9lbs. 10oz.) is 8 years old already.  She has grown into such a beautiful, loving, compassionate, generous little lady.  She is my shy girl who takes quite a while to warm up to you, but if you ever win her over, she's your friend for life.  She is very aware of the needs of her friends and has often wept over the broken homes that many of her friends come from.  She often asks if her friends parents love Jesus and is heartbroken if we have to answer "no" or "we're not sure".  She also recognizes needs when she sees them and is generous with her own money.  She's empty her wallet and piggy bank on several occasions for missions offerings or just to give a gift to her brother.  I really feel like her spiritual gifts may be mercy and giving.  I'm anxious to see how that develops as she grows older.  I could not be more proud to be her Mom and could not imagine our life without her! PS:  Yes that is a "birthday pie" you see!  She wanted a Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie instead of cake for her party!

Benjamin has been busy with big school projects.  Let's just say that after many bumps along the way he's lucky to be around to live to see his next birthday.  Communication is not top on his 5th grade priority list which makes for very frustrated parents!  (Dear Lord, help me in Middle School next year...)  We did, however, get the project done, so I guess that counts as success.  The 5th graders in Spearfish have a business fair each year.  Since this was our first experience with this, we were on a huge learning curve.  Here's how it works ...  The kids make a business plan and decide what it is they will make and market, they meet with a real Wells Fargo loan officer and secure a loan for the project - yes REAL money (not exactly Dave Ramsey friendly), they shop for their supplies, pay employees, create their item to sell, rent booth space and market and sell their product.  The kids then take home REAL profit after paying off their loan and meeting all other financial obligations.  Benjamin decided to make squirrel feeders.  He did a great job sanding and staining his feeders and they looked great.  He had to pay his Dad to use the chop saw to cut the boards and screw all the parts together.  He paid me to help him sand the boards.  Unfortunately, he didn't sell too many which means he walks away still owing money.  This means that he now has to "work" for the school doing odd jobs to pay off his loan!  Although it would have been nice to see him walk away with profit, it allows him to see what being in debt is like and how hard you have to work to pay it off.  I hope that he will gain some positive insight on the benefits to saving and paying cash for things.  I must admit -- this was a most frustrating project and I'm glad it's over!  My parents never told me that when kids have homework -- so do parents!  Uggghhh ... I hate homework!

So ... that's a little bit of what's been going on with us.  Now we are gearing up to welcome mission teams all summer long!  It's going to be a crazy summer schedule, but we believe that God is going to bless our efforts to reach our city for Christ!

Abundantly More ...

God is so cool.  I love how He is continuing to bring together the plans He has in store for Connection Church. Here are some things that have been going on lately.

As many of you know, we've been in the process of renovating an old workout gym into a church. 

There have been hours and hours of sweat equity put into this place.  We've ripped up carpet (not as easy as it sounds), took out a sauna, painted the whole place, enlarged a bathroom, built a classroom for nursery space, built a stage, retextured walls, run wiring for sound equipment, dug up rocks in the flower beds (I'm proud to say that my two kiddos did that all by themselves!), assembled 135 chairs, etc., etc., etc.  The list could go on and on.  We've had lots of help from volunteers.  God bless them -- especially the carpet pullers! 

 It has been much more work than we first anticipated (aren't renovation projects always like that), but we are mostly done. 

Done enough that we could use our building for the first time on Sunday!  It was exciting! 

Here's another cool thing about our new space.  We have been told that this summer, Spearfish's Main Street is going to become a construction zone.  Traffic will be diverted to 5th Street.  What is Connection Church's address you ask?  738 5th Street!  Boo for construction zone on the main thoroughfare.  Yippee for all of Spearfish being diverted right past our new space!  Coincidence you say?  I think not.  My vote is that 738 5th Street was God's plan for where we should meet!  Amazing! 

Another cool thing that has happened is that our dear friends (adopted family), Mike and Mary Gandy from Pampa, Texas have moved here for the summer.  I am still stunned and in amazement that the Gandy's would uproot their world to join us in planting Connection Church this summer.  God is so faithful to send us two more sets of hands to help with the work and two more people to spread the word of Connection Church and what God is doing in Spearfish. We are so, so, so very grateful for the Gandy's and their willingness to come and help us.  We're also thankful for cotton candy machines which serve as an extra incentive in getting Mary here!  (Giggle)  They moved into their "summer home" April 1st and will be with us through early September.  AMAZING!  I hope that the Gandy's receive huge blessings for the sacrifice of the time they are giving to help us this summer!  I know that we are already blessed to know them and expect great thing to happen this summer as a result of them joining us here!

We are expecting two more volunteers to head this way the 1st of May and the end of May.  A new friend, Wynona Bradley will be coming to volunteer her time this summer as well.  I look forward to meeting her and am so grateful for her willingness to come serve in Spearfish and for her help in keeping up with our database of contact information from our block parties.  She has NO idea the load that takes off of me and I am very thankful for her.  I just hope she is able to handle the craziness of knowing the Hixson's!  Also, a young lady from our last church, Brienne Moyer, will be joining us for the summer as well.  Brienne is a very hard working young lady and we look forward to seeing her again and watching her grow as a leader as she takes on leadership roles for us this summer.  She is a sweet young lady and we're thankful for her willingness to serve Jesus this summer.  Not many teenagers are willing to give up their summers. 

So, we stand back in awe of all that God is doing.  We feel like He has big things in store for Connection Church.  We are along for the ride and expect it to be the ride of our lives!  Sunday was confirmation that we are on the right track.  I was having a conversation with a lady who visited us for the first time.  Let me set the scene for you here.  We are doing Bible study only right now - no music, no frills, no nothing, but the Bible and Doug teaching what God has laid on his heart.  This lady said to me, "This is amazing.  Just what I've been looking for.  I'm so excited to have been invited to come to church with my friend." I said to her, "Good.  We hope you felt welcome and will come back again."  She said, "Oh, I'll be back!"  She then took a good sized stack of our invite cards and said, "I can't wait to pass these out and invite my friends!"  Amazing! 

We are just weeks away from our first preview service where we'll add music to our Bible Study and begin to look like "real church"!   So, we continue to work, continue to meet new people, continue to build relationships, continue to tell people the story of why we're here, continue to share our faith, continue to provide a place of grace for messed up people.  After all, we're all messed up.  I know Jesus gives out grace to this messed up girl daily!  God is so faithful!  We look forward to all He has planned for Connection Church and for Spearfish.  Our prayer is that we make a difference for the kingdom in this city.  This scripture regularly comes to mind, Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations (in Spearfish, SD), forever and ever."  Let it be Jesus! 

The Great Escape!

Have you ever needed a break from the routine of life?  That's where I was last week.  This church planting thing is very stressful and taxing on our family.  Don't get me wrong ...  I wouldn't want to be doing anything else, but it's hard.  That's just being honest.  Doug and I have to be intentional in our family time and couple time. So, we took some intentional time last week.  It was good and a much needed refreshment.

Doug and I were able to take a short trip to Austin, Texas compliments of the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC).  Each year, the SBTC invites church planters and their wives to come for a retreat.  It was our first time to be a part of this retreat.  I was so thankful for the relaxed attitude of the SBTC and the gift of getting away together.  The SBTC had classes planned, but their approach was -- attend the classes you want to and if you just need to reconnect as husband and wife, do that.  I was so thankful for that.  Doug and I went to two sessions and then just spent time by ourselves shopping and sight seeing.  It was just what we needed! 

Although we've spent more time together these past nine or so months than we probably ever have in our married life since Doug is officing out of our house, our time has spent working on Connection Church and all that we have to accomplish in order to (with the help of God) make this thing fly!  It was nice to have a couple of days just reconnecting as a couple.  Us.  Remembering how much we enjoy being together.  Man I like that guy!!  Love him.  We still talked about Connection Church some, but it was on a dreaming level of what God might have in store for this new adventure.  Not the endless "to do" list that comes on a daily basis.  I like to dream and I like those kinds of talks!

Austin was fun.  I don't remember spending much time there before, although I grew up just a few hours south.  The theme of Austin is "Keep Austin Weird" and weird it is.  You can see all kinds in downtown Austin!  Austin is the live music capital of the world and so there were lots of music stores.  Benjamin is learning to play the guitar and Adyson loves music too (she's very into drawing music notes these days) so we were able to pick up a music souvenir for them.  Adyson got a pair of musical note earrings and Benjamin, my book worm, got an assortment of guitar bookmarks. 

Saturday we went to Ikea.  My favorite store ever!  In our move, we either left behind a drawer of kitchen gadgets, spoons, etc.  or the box was mistakenly put into our shed and has yet to be discovered since all the outdoor gear still isn't very organized.  (I know we've lived here nearly a year.  See above paragraphs that refer to our busy life!)  Anyway, I was able to shop and pick up most of what I left behind.  Yay!  We also picked up curtains for the rest of the house and some lighting for the church.  I count that a pretty successful trip!

After shopping, we decided to take advantage of being south during crawfish season!  We hunted down a place that served crawfish and shrimp!  It was so yummy!  I love the spicy, buttery, messy goodness of a good crawfish boil!  I love eating with my hands.  It makes me feel like I'm playing with my food and my Mom's not around to scold me for it!  (Yeah ... it's the simple things in life that make me smile!)  On a side note, super spicy shrimp juice hurts really badly if it squirts in your eye.  Not that I have any experience with such things.  :)

That's about all that's been going on in the last week.  So ... now you're filled in on the ho-hum life of the Hixson's!  Do you feel better?  I'll try to make my next post a little more entertaining! :) 

PS:  I know I don't have many pictures on my blog yet.  Be patient (Heather)!  I'm not good at thinking about taking pictures.  I'm working on it!  :)

Busy, Busy Week!

This week has been a busy week.  Monday and Tuesday were filled with catch up work for Doug since he's been traveling the past two weeks.  The poor guy has a list a mile long of things to do before our April launch service and the busy summer we have ahead. 

In an attempt to try to lighten Doug's load some, I've been acting as his secretary for a few weeks now.  My assignments lately have been to finish outfitting the block party trailer for this summer's outreach events and to secure two apartments for our summer missionary help that is coming in beginning in April.  The block party trailer stuff has been ordered (the UPS man is going to either love us or hate us) and I was able to secure a perfect location for our summer help coming in.  We were able to find two apartments in a fourplex that are right across the hallway from each other!  PERFECT!!  The landlord has been wonderful to work with.  Not many people want to do a 6 month lease.  He is even allowing us to move in our furniture as we need to even though our lease doesn't technically begin until April 1st.  Nice guy!  Now we are on to trying to find some basic furniture to meet their needs for the summer.  Craigslist here we come ...

Wednesday we spent ALL day working on our new church building.  The carpet is being installed this weekend and we wanted to get the painting done before we put down the new carpet.  We started around 8:30 or 9:00 on Wednesday morning and worked until around 11:00 pm.  We were so tired, but got all but the hallway and a bathroom done.  We just ran out of steam and decided we'd just lay drop cloth to finish up those areas.  Adyson was with us all day and worked like a champ.  She painted, picked up screws that were all over the building from construction, scraped up globs of sheet rock mud that was on the foundation to help prep for carpet, swept the floors, and helped move the 130 chairs to the stage to get them off the floor for the carpet guy!  I was proud of her working with such a helpful attitude.  What a trooper!  Benjamin came to help around mid-afternoon as he was still not feeling the best.  He helped out some too. 

Poor Benjamin was sick on Monday and Tuesday running a pretty good temperature (102 to 103), but not having any other symptoms other than a headache.  I hate it when my kids mysteriously run fever.  Then Wednesday he had an asthma attack while he was sweeping up sheet rock dust.  He's never had a moment like that before and it scared him (and me) when he felt like he might pass out.  Poor guy. 

This week, beginning Wednesday, has been Spring Break for our kids.  They don't get a full week like Texas schools do.  However, we have an Easter Break in April.  Our Spring Break has been different this year.  Usually, we go skiing in Colorado at Wolf Creek.   This year, the short break wouldn't allow for that.  Yesterday, we spent the day going to the dentist for teeth cleaning and for a follow up visit for Adyson's eyes.  We got a good report on her eyes.  It seems that doing the dilation drops on her left eye is allowing her right eye to strengthen some.  She had gained some acuity when her vision was tested again yesterday!  Praise God!  So ... it's eight more weeks of dilating her eye daily and then eight weeks of dilating every other day. 

We've also gained two kids this weekend as our friends the Hartung's will be welcoming their new baby girl into the world today.  Their two older children joined us last night and we had a fun night playing games at Peppy's Pizza (kind of like Chuck E. Cheese).  We brought home four tired, but excited kids.  Today they are busy seeing what they can get into and having a ball!  It's been a long time since I had four year olds in my house!  I forget how funny they can be!  They are very much looking forward to meeting their sister later today (hopefully -- come quick little lady)!

Read Between the Lines!

• I'm so ready for Doug to be home.
• Last night at 11:30, I was chasing sleds down the street due to the ridiculously strong winds we had.  They blew out from under the deck where they are stored.
• I'm sure my neighbors appreciated the woman in her pajama pants and son's snow boots running frantically trying to catch sleds.  I know it was an exceptionally graceful show!
• My 11 year old sons boots are too big for me.
• I can't wait for Doug to come home.
• I bribed my kids today with a movie and sleeping in Mom's bed in order to get extra chores done today without complaints.
• I'm not ashamed ... you know you bribe your kids too.  Don't judge!
• Adyson announced that her favorite chore is dusting. 
• I would never want to be accused of not allowing my child to do their favorite chore.  Adyson is now crowned "Queen of the Dust"!  :)
• I can't wait for Doug to come home.
• Adyson:  "Mom, my manners are stuck in my head so good."  Me (out loud):  "Good for you.  I noticed that."  Me (thinking to myself):  "It's about time.  It only took 7 1/2 years."
• Today Benjamin went from loving me and saying I was the best mom in the world, to telling me I was mean and not fair, to loving me all in a time frame of about 15 minutes.
• Joy ... teen years are just around the corner.  Uggghhh ...
• I'm not sure of my current parenting status with Benjamin.  Am I still cool and the best or have I fallen out of good graces again??  I'm so confused.
• I can't wait for Doug to come home.
• Benjamin got a new game at AWANA on Wednesday.  Apparently, I'm not smart enough to figure out how to play it.  Has anyone ever played Othello?  I don't understand the strategy.
• I made my favorite smoked chicken alfredo pizza today with a homemade honey wheat crust.  YUMMMMY!  It's Friday night food.
• I'm so ready for Doug to be home. 
• Benjamin just informed me it is no longer a cool treat to sleep in Mom's bed.  He's moving to his own bed after the movie.  (sigh ... there's that growing up thing again ...)   
• Adyson, on the other hand, is pumped to get to sleep with Mom! 
• Something tells me I should have borrowed someones football pads to sleep with Adyson.  She's dangerous!  :)
• Have I mentioned that I'm so ready for Doug to be home?

Quiet on the Home Front

Things are quiet on the Hixson home front today.  Too quiet.  I don't like that.

Doug is in Daytona, FL at the Daytona Bike Rally.  Florida is modeling the Bike Giveaway like the Dakota Baptist Convention does in Sturgis.  He's telling his story along with many other volunteers and people at the Rally are hearing about Jesus.  Many are giving their hearts to Christ.  Even though I hate when Doug is gone, I'm glad that through his story, someone will come to know Christ.  You can watch the live web cam at daytonabikegiveaway.com.  I had fun watching Doug, our SD friends, as well as some friends from Texas on the web cam today.  It was even more fun to pick on some of the guys via text and then laugh at their reactions as they were on camera reading the texts!  Lame, I know, but it's my only form of entertainment that doesn't wear kid's sized clothing!  :) 

I took Benjamin and Adyson to McDonald's tonight to use their Valentine's Day gift cards from their Grandma and Grandpa.  We don't go to McDonald's much, so they thought it was really cool to go and eat there.  Even cooler was the fact that they got to order individually and swipe their own gift card.  It took Adyson three tries to talk loud enough to order and another two tries to swipe the card fast enough for it to work!  Silly shy girl!  :) 

Benjamin and Adyson are at AWANA tonight.  I'm so glad that they have a mid-week program to go to each Wednesday.  They have made some new friends by going to AWANA.  They look forward to going each week and have learned countless Scriptures as a result.  Benjamin was super excited today when he realized that he will complete his book tonight!  Adyson was learning the books of the Old Testament.  I love that they are learning at a young age to hide God's Word in their hearts.  My prayer is that the verses that they are learning now will be with them for life and that they will be able to recall those Scriptures at times in their lives when they need to lean on the promises of God.  I pray that they will learn to love God's Word and that they will seek to always know Him more. 

I've stayed busy today working on some administrative stuff for Connection Church.  We are gearing up for mission teams who will come to work for us this summer.  It's going to be a crazy busy summer, but I can't wait to see what God is going to do! 

I had planned to work on my sewing project a little more, but at around midnight last night I killed my sewing machine!  I was bee-bopping along sewing like Martha Stewart (don't laugh -- I was), almost finished with the second crib sheet, when my machine needle hit a pin that was holding my seam together.  Normally, it would just bend the pin or break the needle.  This time, the WHOLE needle apparatus thing-a-ma-jig (that's what it's called, ask Martha) came flying off.  Nice ... I think it's repairable, but I can't figure out how it goes back together!  Where's Doug when you need a fix-it-man?  Grrrrrr ...  So, after trying to put my machine back together, I gave up, took some lovely benadryl (it's how I sleep when Doug is gone) and hit the sack! 

Once again you've wasted your time reading my new blog, but it allowed me to feel like I was talking to a grown up!  So thanks!