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!  :)