DAY 3: LET IT RAIN by Bobby Carnathan

DAY THREE: LET IT RAIN by Bobby Carnathan

It was a rainy wintry morn on Sunday when we had decided that we should attend The Church at Trace Crossing. We had been invited by our friends Michael and Shelby Ritter on numerous occasions to attend. But we never had the opportunity until then.

We arrived at the church located on the Ole Miss Campus in Tupelo, the bottom had just fallen out of the skies, and the parking lot was completely full. I had thoughts of turning around and going back home due to the poor weather conditions. But Carmen had spotted an empty spot close to the entry of the building. I parked, began looking for an umbrella, and as Murphy law would suggest no such luck finding one. Then from out of no where a man (Ed Bartee) appeared carrying a large family size umbrella. He escorted us to the entry of the church.

Upon entry of the church, we were met with love and compassion by all we came into contact with. We were, as you would say, taken by the hand and led by others throughout the church. It felt like a family reunion. Michael took me over to the table where coffee and donuts were placed (my favorite by the way). And Carmen was led away by Shelby.

Dawson was taken to the nursery, while Janna Grace clung to our every move. We then came into a room filled with conversation and excitement. We found our seats in the back as most Baptist do, and waited for the service to begin. Janna Grace, our oldest, has always been somewhat of a shy individual in new environments. She does not stray to far from the comfort of Mom and Dad. Suddenly she gets up and sits next to a woman (Emma Kate) on the row in front of us. Stunned by what we were seeing because Carmen and I had not formally met this person before and to our knowledge Janna Grace had not either. But on this day Janna Grace found a friend introduced by faith and received by love.

Carmen and I sat and listened to the preacher, a young, passionate, faith driven man, deliver a sermon with such heart felt emotion. I felt like a part of me had been missing something prior to this day when it came to church. But here I felt that I belonged in this body. I even told Carmen on our short drive home that I want to be a part of The Church at Trace Crossing.

Carmen, the kids, and I never did become a part of The Church at Trace Crossing instead The Church at Trace Crossing became a part of us. We love our faith family that has adopted us as their own and enjoy the many blessing that we have received by our attendance at the church. God is truly within.

It is our hope that we continue to extend the same love and compassion to others so their experience at The Church at Trace Crossing will be as special to them as ours is to us.

Lord, our most gracious heavenly father, I pray that you will give us the strength to drive in the rain, the courage to walk through the door, and the ability to experience the love you have for us. Be with this Church Family in all they do. Amen

Day 2: Fear and Trembling? by Jennifer Love

DAY TWO: FEAR AND TREMBLING? by Jennifer Love

“…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:12-13

Thomas Merton says, “To work out our own identity in God….is a labor that requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears. It demands close attention to reality at every moment, and great fidelity to God as God is revealed, obscurely, in the mystery of each new situation.”

Well, alright then. I didn’t sign up for this at 7 years old! Fear and trembling? Sacrifice and anguish? What if we went out into the Tupelo community with this message? “Hey, how’d you like to experience anguish with lots of tears?” This wouldn’t be the right approach, would it? However, as I look on my journey as a disciple of Christ, I wonder if I’d approached my discipleship with more of this attitude, how many mistakes I could have avoided? How much more of my “SELF” could I have given God? Could I have experienced even more of God’s holiness?

In the past 10 years, I’ve been on a long journey to experiencing and accepting grace. I am saved through GRACE and grace alone. I am redeemed! However, I’m also learning how to work through my salvation…not for acceptance with God, because I’ve already got that, but to work because I just can’t help but respond to what He’s done for me! It’s because I love Him and I want to know Him more intimately. It’s because I want to be obedient to what He has called me to do. He sacrificed it all for me, how can I not do that daily for Him?

Oh, God, I pray that your Spirit would work deeply and gently within us as a church, that as we teach, and show your Grace, that we would also teach others how to serve you passionately and deeply.

DAY 1: NO IDEA by Sophie from Birmingham

DAY ONE: NO IDEA by SOPHIE aka "BOOMAMA" (visit Sophie's personal blog at http://www.boomama.net/)
One Saturday about a three and a half years ago (February of 2005, I think), when our little boy was almost two and had been SUCH A PILL on the way home from the grocery store that I decided that he needed to run in some wide open spaces, I looked to my right, saw the sign for the park near our house, and slammed on my brakes at the last minute so that I could make the turn. I wheeled into the parking lot, unbuckled Alex from his carseat and let him run around the playground.

I thought for just a second that the little man and I had the whole place to ourselves until I saw a familiar-looking guy pushing a stroller in our direction. And after a few minutes I realized that Stroller Guy in the park was actually one of the Preacher Guys from our church. Specifically, it was Kevin Wood, who I'd never met before, and since neither of us is what you would call "shy," we introduced ourselves and chatted for about an hour while our boys played on the playground. Our conversation set some ministry wheels in motion, and I'm forever grateful for that - but that "chance" meeting was really about so much more than we could've ever imagined at the time.

For the next year or so my husband David and I listened to our friends Emma Kate and Brad as they began to talk and pray about the possibility of God starting a new work in Tupelo. Emma Kate and I had been best friends since college, and she would often ask me questions about my “preacher friend Kevin and his sweet family” (Emma Kate tends to err on the side of curious, you know). Meanwhile, back here in Alabama, our “preacher friend Kevin,” Traci and their kids became increasingly special to our family. We fell into the habit of going out to eat before church on Wednesday nights, even though we occasionally had to eat some inferior pizza because Hey, here’s a newsflash, Kevin can be a little, um, CHEAP.

Oh, I kid because I love.

And also: BECAUSE IT’S TRUE.

So one day - I don't know why - I burned one of Kevin's sermons to a CD, put it in an envelope, and sent it to EK and Brad. It's funny to me that, unbeknownst to him, Kevin made his first trip to Tupelo embedded in a little four inch CD, and that virtual visit made a pretty big impression on some people he'd never met.

By May of 2006, there was a small group of people in Tupelo that was meeting regularly to pray about God's direction for a new church. They mentioned that they'd love to hear the story about how our church in Birmingham got started, so my friend Sandra graciously invited "the Tupelo crew" to her house for lunch one Sunday so that they could hear the history of our church from some of the founding members. Since I had to leave church early that Sunday to help get lunch ready, I missed the end of the service. But when Emma Kate walked in Sandra's door about an hour later, she looked me square in the eye and said, "Hey. Kevin prayed."

I said something to the effect that yeah, he's a preacher and preachers are apt to do that thing you call praying - and EK grabbed my arms and said, "No, Sophie. You don't understand. Kevin prayed."

When I saw the tears in her eyes, I knew, just as sure as we were standing there, that Kevin was, in her heart, God’s man for their church in Tupelo. The rest of the group that had been meeting and praying together felt the same way.

The only problem was that Kevin and Traci had no idea.

There are people at Trace Crossing who can tell the rest of this story better than I can (I’ll let Kevin tell you about the time I bamboozled him into coming to our house for dinner with Emma Kate and Brad), but even now, when I look back on all those seemingly separate events and see the way God connects threads of our lives that we think are unrelated - and how He uses those threads to create a beautiful, unexpected tapestry, something far more than we could've imagined - well, it blows me away.

"Many, O LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare."
Psalm 40:5

Thank you, Lord, for the people at The Church at Trace Crossing. Thank you for your faithfulness, your guidance and your provision as you’ve established this faith family. I pray that Trace will continue to be a place where your Word is central, where people love, live, and lead for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”