Thanksgiving '08

A Sweet Fragrance ~

"Majesty, Majesty, Your grace has covered all of my sin..."

The sweet fragrance rose up and floated into the Holy of Holies. We started our journey in the Outer Courts as we worshiped this past Sunday during a worship service and moved from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies. Worthy of all our praise, the shed blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ, now amazingly allows us to dwell in the most holy place. No longer are we only allowed to visit like the priests in the Old Testament, we may now dwell in His temple.

~Most often we visit the places we were meant to dwell and dwell in the places we were meant to visit.~

This past month we have taken a journey through the tabernacle, of the Isrealites, during our Sunday services. It has been a beautiful experience; I don't recall walking away from church filled to the point of overflowing so often. I'm quite aware that the point of church is not to be filled up, but when you are communing with the Lord you cannot help but be poured into.

This Sunday was one of pure worship. What was most impacting was the fact that we were communing with the Lord in the most intimate way, in His temple, worshiping the Majesty, and He was fully present and pleased. We were worshiping in a bar, and I knew the Lord was there and honored that His children were seeking Him. It was a beautiful oxymoron; but then that is the Son of God, Himself.

Sweets for the Spunky

As always, this is a little late in coming. My immediate supervisor's mother has made it to The Cove for a few week long visits. I'll tell ya, I never knew a spunkier 90 year old lady. Bea has been a joy to work with. She comes in for six to eight hour days and is on her feet all day long. The other employees and myself get tired from watching all her movement!


I believe the first week I met Bea was in Candy's attempts to keep Bea's surprise party a secret. Our task was to pile on the projects so Bea had no time to get suspicious. We did our job; Bea has now been back the last two week for another number of days to volunteer.

While we did not attend the big shabang, Bea's actual 90th birthday was two Wednesday's ago. I baked a cake and the staff at The Cove's admininistration building celebrated Bea's birthday with her.


Happy Birthday Bea!

Time to Kick Off Those Shoes...

After this seminar season in another week, that is exactly what I (Kelly) intend to do. First, B was busy with soccer season and now I rarely get home before 6:30pm with the seminars. Plenty of ten to twelve hour days with a half hour break. Oh, where does the time go?! Please do tell if you have the answer.

The bits and pieces I've been able to glean from the gifted Cove speakers has been a blessing, but a break will be nice. On the late nights when I'm monitoring break out groups, I take a short while to slip into the back of the auditorium to hear Skip Heitzig, Steve Brown (wrote The Scandalous Gospel) or listen to Anne Graham Lotz (Anne was from the monitor, too tired to stay). Then I'll get up early, for me, to start another long day which usual begins in a cubical proofing or pulling materials out of archives for a notebook.

I have definitely learned a good deal and know that I may never have another opportunity to be around such influencial people. It is a gift in many regards.

Though in my stressed moments, I found I needed an outlet. That usually is outpoured into the blog, but last weekend it was beginning to slowly decorate for Christmas. I figured if my sister-in-law, Claudia, already had her tree up, I could put a few things out! Love you Claud.

Fall Festivities

Brenton and I came home from work a few weeks back to find our over grown field had been mowed. We had the best weekend running with Lexi and throwing the football around (I tried at least). A day after the field had been mowed, we came home to hay bails. It was the perfect Fall greeting. What was even more perfect, was that we'd agreed to go to a costume party with some friends. So I caught B and the pup out for the perfect photo shoot.

The pumpkins were from the costume party; I won't tell you which was our since I'm disappointed in it!

What Lies Ahead

(After pulling this article for two notebooks at The Cove, I decided it was time to post it on the blog...)

One day many years ago, as I was driving home from town with one of our sons, he kept urging me to hurry. "Go faster, Mother!" he insisted. But he was too young to read the road sign that said 45 mph.

by Ruth Bell Graham

And again, "Pass him, Mother." But he was too small to see that there was a double yellow line.

Then I began applying the brake. "Why are you stopping?" he demanded.

"There's a school bus ahead that has stopped," I replied.

I thought to myself, "When God is at the wheel, we may request—but never insist. We are too young to read certain signs, too small to see what lies ahead."

George Macdonald writes, "There is a communion with God that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything. ... He who seeks the Father more than anything he can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss."

There may be a long interval between these two clauses from John 16:24: "ask, and ye shall receive" and "that your joy may be full" (KJV). But the end of true prayer is always joy.

provided by: billygraham.org

A Tribute to a Mother

After two and a half hours of a pounding heart and the score 0-0, penalty kicks were inevitable. This Saturday was the first round of Conference Tournament and the game ended with no score. The competition continued on into two over-times ending the same.

There was a low turn out of spectators; so, on the bleachers to my right were the Montreat fans and to my left were the opposing fans. The pressure was high and emotions were running ragged as we all cheered for the team we thought should win. After the first fourth of the game, I started talking to one of the mothers from the opposing team. Like every mother, she wanted the win for her son and like every coach's wife, I wanted the win for my husband. It was also inevitable that one of us would walk away disappointed.

The intensity increased as we moved into each over-time, penalty kicks (pk), and then to individual penalty kicks. As the pk score came to 3-1 (Montreat with the advantage), the mother by me mentioned her son was up for the final kick. She then said that once before he had been in the same position, where he missed the kick.

While feeling torn for this mother, I prayed for Howard, our goalie. I asked the Lord, "Guide his hands and may Your angels guard the goal." I had prayed this with every shot, but this one was different. One college would continue in season and the other would have to be content with the loss.

My eyes teared up, emotional that we were about to win but anxious that we could be the ones done. The Lord has been reminding me that we need to be content with all circumstances (with the tournament and elections near...). This brought on new meaning today.

With the final two shots, the lady's son missed and our fourth player stepped out on the field scoring the fourth pk. Montreat had won.

After a few minutes, the mother and I exchanged names. She finally asked who I was. A little hesitant, I mentioned, "I'm the Montreat coach's wife."

She simply told me to tell my husband, "You coached a good game." The lady walked away saying she'd look for me at the next game. Her son had lost the last shot and she had sent a message of encouragement to the other coach. Goodness knows that she was full of disappointment. Just a continued reminder to myself and others, make the most of the moment but regardless of the circumstances, never give up on the One who knows all.

Seasons in the South