Hello,
Hope this finds you well. We thought instead of standard "thank you" card we'd send out a little "Life Update" seeing how we have not gotten to chat with each of you, and curious minds like to know!
But First! We felt so blessed by all of your kindness and generosity, it blew our minds. Thank you :)
Dan and I got married August 17rh midst family and friends. (a lot of family and many friends)We had been praying God would show up, and really wanted him to be the center of the "Big Day". In true God form, he showed up and touched hearts left and right. (He's pretty cool)
For our honeymoon we headed north for a breathtaking trip to the San Juan Islands, where we saw whales, kayaked, picked up every hitch hiker we could find, became friends with a seal and discovered our own island.
Back in Portland we settled into our cute 1 bedroom apartment with mountain views. It's a great "God Story" how we ended up with it. We have super landlords who take fantastic care of us. I (Anna) feel safe when Dan is working long nights and Dan doesn't feel "stuck" in the city.
Dan has started his finale year at Western Seminary and will (hopefully) graduate in April '14 (which we are thrilled about). Our dream is that Dan will be able to travel and speak to Christians challenging them to live a life full of God's Holy Spirit. Dan's next step... he wants to intern starting fall '14 to get some more training and experience.
I, Anna am enjoying getting to work at our church Montavilla with the children's ministry. I also nanny a lot (which supplies me with countless stories) and am still a Batista on the sly;) My next step... to continue to grow the childern's ministry to a healthy, thriving, bursting with God culture.
Dan and I are excited to dream big dreams with God. And we're looking forward to what he has up his sleeve (though we aren't sure what it is). We would love to encourage people in their relationship with God, and truly live out who he has designed them to be. Be it someone Dan gets on opportunity to speak with or one of the many kiddos in my life, we hope God uses us somehow to zap that person in a "only God can explain this" kinda way.
We hope this give you a little look into our life. We both love to talk so feel free to continue the conversation.
Thank you again for your generosity and well wishes!
joy & peace,
Annie & Dan Abbott
Saturday, November 09, 2013
"...A promise of the Spirit coming and flooding our lives..."
(This is a part of a larger thought, it may be more clear if you start with "... a girl...")
"...A promise of the Spirit coming and flooding our lives..."
It seems everywhere I turn this is the subject on peoples lips, said maybe slightly differently but still this idea of not lies, doubt, greed or self but the pure Spirit of God overwhelming us. Being what spills out when we open our moths to speak. The view we make decisions from. the drum beat we dance to.
This last weekend I ran into this idea head on... a situation blew way out proportion through some loud opinionated "suggestions" "beliefs". I had unintancialy done something someone considered disrespectful and in return that person "let me know". If this had been me and the queen she would have let me know while sipping tea calmly that what I did was a little off and I would have said sorry for offending and asked her if she wanted sugar in her tea and that would have been the end.
But....
Thats not how it went down, I cried other people got involved, I ran off and she stormed off.
Now what do we do? Both her and I believe in Jesus as our savior and God as our father and now as sisters must come together and reconcile. There has to be an act 2. If I truly believe the Spirit can come and flood our lives I have to believe he can work this out and change our hearts to be more like his. I can't give into lies, or doubt, I can't be righteous I must be gracious... My name means "God is gracious". I have to believe I don't know best (no matter how much my brain tells me I do) and instead ask God what he wants done and how I'm to act as him or... let himself act through me.
"...A promise of the Spirit coming and flooding our lives..."
It seems everywhere I turn this is the subject on peoples lips, said maybe slightly differently but still this idea of not lies, doubt, greed or self but the pure Spirit of God overwhelming us. Being what spills out when we open our moths to speak. The view we make decisions from. the drum beat we dance to.
This last weekend I ran into this idea head on... a situation blew way out proportion through some loud opinionated "suggestions" "beliefs". I had unintancialy done something someone considered disrespectful and in return that person "let me know". If this had been me and the queen she would have let me know while sipping tea calmly that what I did was a little off and I would have said sorry for offending and asked her if she wanted sugar in her tea and that would have been the end.
But....
Thats not how it went down, I cried other people got involved, I ran off and she stormed off.
Now what do we do? Both her and I believe in Jesus as our savior and God as our father and now as sisters must come together and reconcile. There has to be an act 2. If I truly believe the Spirit can come and flood our lives I have to believe he can work this out and change our hearts to be more like his. I can't give into lies, or doubt, I can't be righteous I must be gracious... My name means "God is gracious". I have to believe I don't know best (no matter how much my brain tells me I do) and instead ask God what he wants done and how I'm to act as him or... let himself act through me.
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