Prom of the Stars November 7, 2009

The Knoxville Convention Center was the site of the Prom of the Stars tonight.  What a delightful experience that volunteers from Roane Church were able to participate in!  The owner/operator of Unique Connections Salon, Mary Humphries, which happens to be my dear friend and hair stylist and also attends Roane Church, opened up her salon and cleared her stylist’s schedules from 12-3 to do the hair, make-up, and nails of those ladies desiring to have makeovers.  Roane Church volunteers assisted in this as well.  It was so neat to see these precious ladies light up at the sight of themselves after being made over. 

Knoxville Christian Church was the host of the Prom of Stars, and might I say, they did a fabulous job.  They thought of every detail and everything ran smoother than I ever expected considering there were around 1200 attendees and there was a UT game going on at the same time.  The church had one table host for each table, but the Michael Dunn Center is such a huge facility, providing services to over 300 clients.  They desired for Roane Church to assist in crowd control for their clients because of the huge number of them.  The MDC service recipients love to dance, so when the music started, they were the first of all those people to descend on the dance floor.  The workers of the MDC were more than nervous about loosing someone in the MASS amount of special needs people.

Roane Church volunteers danced the night away and were able to be a part of one of the most special nights of the MDC’s entire year.  It was magical.  I cannot resist posting some of my most favorite pictures from the day and night.  These people are so very special to our family.  I believe that those Roane Church volunteers that were able to attend the magical night have caught the spirit of the MDC just like us.   

This is Mary, owner of Unique Connections. She is an absolute jewel!

RCer's @ work!

We love this house of ladies.

Hayley doing Missy's make-up.

This is one of our favorites. You will NEVER see her without this beautiful smile and a joyful laugh. She is inspiring!

Ivy and Justin

THE "Michael Dunn" and his bride Karen

The man, Carl

Reggie, stylin'

I LOVE this picture!

Roane Church volunteers

Teaching Through Books of the Bible November 3, 2009

We have never had the opportunity to be a part of a church where the pastor taught through books of the Bible until moving to plant Roane Church.  Have we ever missed out.  Upon Melvin’s joining the teaching staff at Providence Church in 2007 as the church planter, he got the opportunity to join Chad Sparks, the teaching pastor, whom we respect very much as a teacher of God’s Word, in teaching through the book of 2 Corinthians.  God had already been teaching us a new and fresh way to approach the study of His Word before arriving at our new assignment, but Chad is the very first teaching pastor that we have ever served alongside that teaches through books of the Bible, which by the way, in my humble opinion, is the best way to rightly divide the Word of Truth. 

I am not sure that I have written about it, but it has been so revolutionary in our study of the Word, that I feel the need to share again.  Somehow, Melvin came upon a book entitled “What the Bible Is All About” by  Henrietta Mears, who was one of Billy Graham’s mentors several years back.  In her book, she describes the significance of the Christology of each of the 66 books in the Word.  She simply outlines each book of the Bible with its key verse and how that book points to Jesus.  It only makes sense that every book in the Bible points directly to Jesus and each of those books have a key verse in which the book hinges on to point us to Jesus.  I highly suggest that you add this book to your library if you do not have it.  It is very affordable on Amazon.

Melvin has already taught through several small books since beginning Roane Church.  He started teaching through John about 7 weeks ago.  The Gospel of John is all about Jesus, the Son of God.  The key verse is John 20:31:  “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  So everything in the Gospel of John goes to support and back up this verse.  If you push all of the narratives through the grid of this verse and the Christology of the book, then you can get an adequate historical and cultural look at the book, and then be able to adequately make application of it for our own lives.    It is so rich in many ways because it allows you to teach the truths contained in God’s Word as you come to them, in context.  I thought that I would write about the approach of Melvin’s teaching before I write about some of the things that God has been speaking to us a body of believers and to me personally.

Halloween October 31, 2009

God has called us to reach our neighborhood for Christ.  How do we do that?  Anyway that God opens the door for us.  Halloween has been such a hard one for us.  We know the origin of Halloween and have struggled so much with what to do with this celebration.  In the past, it has been a no brainer.  We have just gone to the Fall Festivals at the churches where Melvin was serving.  But God has called us out of our box and comfort zone since moving to plant Roane Church.  He has opened so many doors for us to connect with our neighbors.  Tonight was just such an opportunity that we could not pass up.  Several people in our small group came to join us, but for the most part, Melvin, the kids, and I were interacting with those that God has put in our realm of influence, and we had so much fun, even in the rain! 

WonderWoman!

MDC Halloween Party October 30, 2009

Melvin now has the privilege of serving on the board of directors at the Michael Dunn Center.  Because he serves on the board, those special events that Roane Church is not invited to participate in, the Swafford family is still invited!  It is good for us because we love those people.  So, when we received the invitation to attend the Halloween party, we were all about it.  It was a costume party.  Thought I would share a few shots.  Just precious.  The most innocent fun you have ever experienced.

Trudy, in the wheelchair, is the most joyful, happy person I have ever known.

I look rather ridiculous in the photo, but I had to post this one of Harold in his Michael Jackson costume. He was hilarious.

Jim loves Josiah so much. They had a good time playing, cowboy against Darth.

This is one of Callie Grace's favorite people in the world. Mary dotes over the kids with such sweetness.

God has given us such an unbelievable opportunity to have church at the Michael Dunn Center.  We are so very grateful.

Mom’s Birthday October 29, 2009

We got the great opportunity to celebrate with my mom on her birthday today.  She took the day off of work, and she and my sister came to spend the afternoon with us.  Our neighborhood is absolutely beautiful right now with the changing of the seasons and mom enjoyed seeing all of the leaves.  Mom is a low maintenance kind of woman, so she just wanted to eat lunch together and hang out with us.  That is exactly what we did.

Family Discipleship Retreat October 28, 2009

Melvin and I are speaking at a Family Discipleship Retreat next weekend.  I must say that I without a moments hesitation feel totally unqualified to be doing this and have adequately expressed this to the pastor that ask us to speak.  Our children are only 7 and 5 years old.  We are still fairly new at this parenting thing and were both raised in dysfunctional families.  So we really have no guarantee that what we are currently doing down in the trenches is going to be effective in raising up disciples of Jesus.  God has definitely put some ideas and passions within our hearts, but to be speaking to parents with teenagers is quite another subject.  I beg you to pray for us! 

As we have been praying, studying, and searching in preparation, Melvin came across some clips by Voddie Baucham that are in coordination with his book “Family Driven Faith” that are incredible.  To me, he says everything that is in my heart from the past 15 years of walking with families.  This is one of the MANY reasons why God has called us to homeschool.  Warning:  Some people will probably be mad at me for this one.

Frozen Head State Park October 27, 2009

We could not resist taking our kids (and the dog) and going back to Frozen Head.  The homeschool science opportunity was just too big for me to pass it up.  We also took two other families from the church with us on our adventure to gather leaves for a leaf collection. 

Something hilarious happened when we were just about to the park.  Samson, our chocolate lab, has not been able to join us on many adventures.  He still has so much puppy in him and is still in big time training.  It took him a while to get settled down in the van.  Finally, he settled when we were almost to the park, partly in my lap, partly in Josiah’s lap.  The head portion of his body was in Josiah’s lap.  When we turned on the road that leads to the trails where we were going, Samson vomited BIG TIME all over Josiah.  Josiah burst into a panic, crying, screaming, gaging, and wretching.  Then Callie Grace joined in the madness. 

It is quite comical as I reflect back on it, but it was not at the time.  Thankfully, Kyle, Michelle, and Grace rode with us, not good for them but good for me, because she was equipped with a pack of baby wipes that I was able to scoop up the vomit with a put in a Ziplock bag that I found in the back seat pocket.  On the way into the entrance that we take to get to several of the trails in Frozen Head, there is a state prison.  I was able to deter Josiah’s attention to the prison and prisoners that were outside running and exercising or things could have gotten really bad.  I think that my van could have been filled with vomit. 

Proverbs 26:11

 As a dog returns to its vomit,  so a fool repeats his folly.

 

I thought this picture was so great. Daddy Kyle served as the Koala changing station on our hike!

A Free Circus October 26, 2009

A wonderful opportunity arose for us this weekend.  The Swafford Connection Group took a trip to the 33rd Annual Shriner’s Circus with 25 free tickets that were handed to me on Friday.  What a blessing!  It was a free circus, so it wasn’t Ringling Brothers or anything, but it was a great time all the same for us to hang out together and build relationships with one another.  Have I ever mentioned before that I LOVE in home small groups? 

This is our worship leader, his wife, and their baby. Gorgeous, precious family. Wish Grace would have looked at the camera.

These are Josiah's two favorite people in the world right now, Tristin and Dillion.

Callie Grace and her friend Jillyan

A Beautiful Discovery October 25, 2009

This weekend, we had the opportunity to host Kristin Conniff in our home.  I have mentioned her before in a prior post.  She was a senior in our student ministry when we arrived in Nashville, our first church after seminary.  She, and her family for that matter, was an exception to the rule.  Most of the time, when a youth pastor arrives at a church, they never have the opportunity to pour into the lives of the juniors and seniors.  Not because they do not want to, but because the student is holding on so tight to the prior youth pastor.  Unfortunately, we took in personally at our first church, but by the time we arrived in Cleveland, we understood to not take it too personal.  We learned to embrace what God had done in their lives during the ministry of prior pastors.  There were still many that wanted nothing to do with us.  The only thing that we could ever figure out was that if they embraced us and what God wanted to do in their lives while we were there, then they were rejecting and being unfaithful to the prior youth pastor?  All that to say, Kristin was not this way.  She wanted all that God had to offer her, not matter who the person was teaching and leading her in His direction.  What a blessing she was and is to us!

On to the discovery……Dad had wanted us to go camping this weekend.    I should say, Dad wanted to go camping with the kids this weekend, and we would have just tagged along!  Since the weather did not cooperate with us, he wanted them to come and spend the weekend.  They were very excited about the opportunity.  Kristin didn’t arrive until late Friday.  On Saturday, there was a really important game on(!), and the weather turned out to be pretty good, so we wanted to try to steal away for a few hours and do something outdoors because the leaves are so beautiful here right now. 

Frozen Head State Park is about 30 minutes from us.  We have been wanting to check out the hiking trails, but with the kids, it is so hard to know whether a hiking trail is kid friendly or not without doing the trail first.  Saturday provided the perfect opportunity for us to check out the trails, especially the Emory Gap Falls trail.  Melvin, Kristin, and I  hiked two trails that lead to two different beautiful falls.  It was so good.

Living By Example October 24, 2009

The impact of parenting hits me between the eyes so often.  I came upon a poem by an unknown author today that reminded me of the importance of daily walking out the faith so that our children can physically see what it means to be a Christ follower, warts and all.

A careful woman I ought to be;

a little girl follows me.

I do not dare to go astray,

for fear she’ll go the selfsame way.

Not once can I escape her eyes;

whate’er she sees me do, she tries.

Like me, she says she’s going to be

that little girl who follows me.

I must remember as I go

through summer sun and winter snow,

I’m molding for the years to be

that little girl who follows me.

Author Unknown

My little girl (and boy too of course)  is not so little anymore.  She is growing up way too quick.  With every passing day, I realize that I have less and less time with her, teaching her to be a disciple of Christ.  Every day is of utmost importance.  Dare I not waste a single moment.