Welcome to kindreds!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:4-6

For me, 2023 has been one of the most foundational years of my life and yet simultaneously one of the hardest. I found myself worshipping with my heart and spirit on its knee’s, but desperate for change. In the midst of it all, God taught me something very vital for my faith, and how He forms our hearts into His likeness.

I started my journey to becoming a Pastor a little over a year ago, and I never expected the amount of change that would happen in just 365 days. For the first time I had endurance, confidence, and hope. I wanted desperately to tell others of Jesus and how He had impacted my life, and how He hasn’t been quiet! I was learning so much, but everyone knows where there is light, there is also darkness.

The Lord has been showing me this visual daily over the last couple of months, in the form of an object lesson in our garden.  We’ve been fighting spider mites in our dahlia bed and in our tomato bed.  The spider mites are so tiny that most of them are unable to be seen with the human eye!  However, they suck moisture out of the bottom side of the leaves, causing a yellow mottled appearance at first.  But as the leaves begin to be damaged, they eventually turn brown and shrivel up.  You could leave them there, but they’ll just continue to be a drain on the plant’s energy, while giving no benefit to the plant itself.  They just become something that’s sucking more life out of the plant, on top of all the damage that the spider mites are doing!  You can help the plant by removing all the rotting, decaying leaves, so they don’t continue to drain energy from the plant, and by removing them, you can also help prevent the spider mites from continuing to spread.