We are going to be playing our 4th open Mic this
week on New Year’s Day at The Havana! God has opened the doors for us to play
in several locations around town, and we have been able to meet lots of great
people simply through playing music. It is such a cool thing that we get to do
something we really love like playing music and singing together and also get
to know people in our area. We have played mostly original songs and are even
learning some fun covers. It’s an awesome way to connect with other musicians
and people in general!
We are looking forward to playing again this next week. If
you are in the Delray area, we will be at SPoT Coffee every Wednesday night
doing their open mic, and will be doing a few longer showcases at some other
locations around town! We will try to let you know the specific times and
locations of the showcases through Facebook. We’d love to have you come and
listen, drink coffee, and hang out with us!
All moved in, mostly unpacked, and HAPPY as can be. :) We
have PRAYED so much for a place for us to live that feels like a real home, and
God has given us more than we had ever hoped. We are living in a three bedroom
villa (it is the end of a four-plex) in a gated community. We have a little
backyard for the kids to play and a screened in patio to sit and read. :) There
is a pool a 2 minute walk away with a weight room and large meeting room
(praying about that…), so Daniel is making good use of those already! We have
already had three community group meetings here at the house,
and it comfortably holds quite a few people! So, that is also a great blessing.
We are within 10 minutes from downtown, Costco, and just about everything else
necessary to life (Steak n Shake!!!), so it feels just right for us.
A number of people have asked us for pictures of our new
place, so here you go!
We wanted to share a song with you for Christmas, and thought it would be fun to have our whole family singing and the kids could dance...it would be so cute! So, we tried that. Never mind. :) This first video is just Daniel and I wishing you a merry Christmas and singing Hillsong's "Born is the King" from our living room. (the kids are not really shoved in a closet like I say in the video--that is a joke :) The second video (probably much more entertaining) is our first attempt with the kids in it too. :) You will see some very passionate dancing and singing followed by some yelling and grabbing...
Love you all and wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas filled with the joy of our Savior! Love, Daniel, Laura, Jeremiah, and May p.s. Maybe our next post will include a video of Jeremiah and May singing "Oh Christmas pee" :)
We have hosted two community group meetings since we moved
in to our new home here on December 1st, and God is blessing us so
much. We meet on Thursday evenings for dinner, worship, prayer, and a teaching
time. Our first Thursday here, we had 6 people, and this past Thursday, we had
9 people here together, and it was a wonderful time of encouragement and
fellowship! I am teaching a short series on Discipleship, and we are praying
that more people continue to come and join us! There are a few people we have
invited that are hoping to come next week!
We are still praying and looking for a place for meet for a
worship service where we can do mass invitations and reach out more to our
community—also for a place that will facilitate children’s classes, since right
now, Laura has the kids in Jeremiah and May’s room. But we are so happy to have
a home where we can invite our neighbors
and people we get to know. You can be praying that people continue to come,
that we have the boldness to invite people, and for a location for a worship
service.
One of the questions looming in our minds when we moved here
(well, “looming” may be a little bit extreme… :) was what Christmas would be
like living in sunny Florida! Our family is fanatical about Christmas, so we
knew that we would make it as Christmasy as possible, but it doesn’t really
seem like a beach town in the upper 70’s would feel very much like Christmas at
all. We were so wrong!!
On December 1st, we brought the kids down to our
very first real Delray event—the lighting of the town Christmas tree. The
downtown area of Delray—which is the heart of the city—is home to the “Old School
Square” where every Christmas, a team of volunteers constructs a 100 foot tall
Christmas tree and builds a vacation home for Santa Claus to spend the holiday
season! It is enormous, and more beautiful than you can imagine! They shut down
the entire downtown, and we walked through the streets eating kettle corn,
playing in the snow falling from a snow machine one restaurant set up in front
of their shop, and listened to a number of live musicians singing Christmas
music on the Avenue. :) I promise, it felt like Christmas. AND, if that wasn’t
enough, Santa Claus was helicoptered in direct from the North Pole to settle
into his vacation home right in the center of the town square. Did I mention
the ice skating rink??? Yes, for real! Well, kind of for real…okay, it’s really
linoleum, but kids rent hockey skates and slide all over it! Awesome!
Then, on the 10th, we took our kids down to the
“Family Day” back at the square…not only did they get their faces painted for
free, but we actually played in real mountains of snow dumped there just for
kids to play in for one day! Families had brought down boots and gloves and snow
pants, and we saw real snow ball fights as Daniel and I took it all in in T
shirts and sunglasses. Pretty fun! . At the end of the day, there was even a
full-on Christmas parade with floats and marching bands and Christmas lights.
:)
We have been so blessed by the little things that we didn’t
expect but get to enjoy about Delray. It is such an awesome place to be at
Christmastime. We also attended our neighborhood Christmas and Hannukah party
where we got to meet a ton of neighbors and even make a few new friends! God is
so good to us!
So, even though we don’t have frost or mittens this year, we
are experiencing Christmas in a wonderful new way this year. :) So happy to
celebrate Jesus’s birth here! Merry Christmas!
Now that we are living here in Delray, it is much easier to
be getting out in the community, and we are actively looking for a place to
start our Bible study. We have had a few connections, but nothing has come up
as the right place just yet. I was able to get a tour of the local high school
(which is about 1 minute from our house), and they are open to having us rent
rooms from them. We are just praying that God will make the right way clear to
us. We would love to have you be praying along with us for a building or
facility that meets the needs of the church.
You can be praying for a location for us to meet that is:
-convenient for people to come
-the right size to start small
-practical for childcare
-affordable (or FREE!)
- one that allows us to be a blessing and witness to our
community
We made the move to Delray Beach on Saturday, and we are SO
thankful for all of you who were praying for us! The move went very smoothly,
and we ended up having about 8 people come to help us. Our home here is
starting to feel more and more like our home—and as a bonus, we are getting our
Christmas tree tomorrow! :) Yes, they do sell real trees down here—you just
have to buy the ones that haven’t been sitting out in the sun—those ones turn
brown…
Our neighborhood is very nice with many Jewish families
living here as it is about one block away from the Jewish Temple. Not too many
Christmas lights up here, but there is a giant inflatable bear with a dreydle
when you pull onto our street! Jeremiah and May love it! Can’t wait to start
meeting our neighbors!
So, thanks everyone for your love and prayers for us.
Pictures to come once the boxes are out of the way!
