STORIES ALONG THE JOURNEY

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October 15, 2008 – Candice
Thanks to Kim, my daughter, Lauren and I were blessed by Milestone Church about a year ago. I'm the blonde who cries at every song. You guys ROCK! Lauren and her husband just recently gave us the most beautiful grandaughter in the world, Hollie! We plan to have her dedicated on Nov. 2. This special event will bring my husband, who hasn't been to church with me in our 15 year marriage and his sister too! So, everyone has to promise not to be as nice as you usually are!(ha ha) We don't want to frighten my husband away! Dori, that means you too!(Dori used to be our neighbor.) Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, for always making us feel so welcome. We are excited about the journey to the new building and the journey of raising my grandaughter around such special people. In our case, you truly reached people and changed lives!

October 5, 2008 – Eric & Misty
God has always provided for us when we listened and followed him. A great example is something recent (and still continuing). I believe we have grown a lot spiritually since coming to Milestone church, which allowed us to grow our faith in God and in his vision and PROvision. These are all separate but at the same time fall into place together.

1) I felt strongly last fall that God was telling me to stop teaching and stay home with my almost 3 year old, although there was no way that worked out financially on paper. I prayed that God would allow me to work something part time for only 2 days a week while our son went to preschool just to help us out a little financially. It still didn't work on paper, but it was what I felt God revealing to me. I felt so strongly about it that I packed up my classroom before the end of the school year last year with no other options available to me other than teaching. In July, Eddie approached me with a position with C3, which was something I had shown interest in earlier in the year. It would allow me to work from home two days a week!!! PRAISE GOD! I'm now a stay at home mom.

2) We've been trying since Sept 24, 2007 to get pregnant with many many problems with my body not working right. My doctor wanted to put me on medication and said that was really our only option, but we prayed God would allow us to get pregnant without the medication. I got so down that I called the doctor onSept 11 to see what I needed to do to get going with the medication only to find out on Sept 15 that WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!! PRAISE GOD again for us not having to go through taking medicine to get pregnant.

3) How in the world are we going to pay for everything (maternity clothes, baby furniture, etc)? I was stressing a little about those two things especially. I prayed that God would provide me clothes and us nursery furniture. The following day at church out of nowhere, Jaime told me she had some maternity clothes she would give me.

4) The following Sunday at church Garrett Craig stopped me to ask if we'd like a 3-stage solid oak crib with matching changing table that is also a dresser with drawers. Of course I was in tears by this time. God truly does provide for those who follow him and make those sacrifices. Eric and I have been so amazingly blessed by God, especially within the past few months. We are eager to begin the Journey with Milestone. God has been so faithful to take care of us on our personal journeys, so we know he will continue to be faithful in taking care of us through the journey into our new building.

October 4, 2008 – Dori
Being on staff we started talking about the Journey long before it came to light for our members. So I have been praying about what God wanted to do through me for almost a year now. A verse kept coming to mind, Matthew 6:21, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you know anything about me you know that I LOVE jewelry. God revealed to me that if I really wanted to go on this Journey I was going to have to make some changes in my heart and in my spending. He showed me that I was going to have to stop buying (wait this is hard, I have to get a Kleenex, ok I am back) jewelry for the entire three year Journey. At first I was thinking God you have the best sense of humor but than I realized he was not kidding. This is just one of the "sacrifices" God has called me to make. I realized that I want my treasure to be all the salvations, marriages saved, lives spared, teens making good life choices, kids becoming our future leaders. So is it really a "sacrifice"? NO I think not.

October 3, 2008 – Ken
I am working in Wyoming and am home for two weeks, every six weeks. My wife Lisa and I (as well as our six year old, Garrett) have been doing our daily reading over the phone. Sometimes in the evening on our last phone conversation of the day or in the mornings to start our day off in the Word. It is such a blessing to have this daily prayer time with my family even if I am a thousand miles away. When we read in the evenings Garrett will get down on the side of the bed for the prayer. Hearing him do this, but not seeing it warms my heart and lets me know that I hear the Lord telling me this is the right thing I am doing for both my familes (home and church). The daily devotional is bringing our family closer together through prayer. I listen to the weekly podcast, then discuss with Lisa the message. Thank you and the entire staff for bringing us along on this journey, Lisa and I are finding that when we surrender to the Lord all things are possible, and taking the journey is our first step.

October 2, 2008 – Blaine & Melanie
Blaine and I are really excited to see what God is going to do through us during the Journey Campaign. For us it wasn't a matter of whether we believe God could do something HUGE or amazing. It wasn't a problem for us to say YES to God; to listen and follow. Blaine and I have had many opportunities to hear God and follow with a yes even when we didn't have the full picture. Here is what the Lord showed us the first week of the Journey Campaign: Don't become content with just knowing God will and can do something, sit back and watch everyone else go through the beautiful process of the Journey, but actively seek God and go through it as well. We looked at each other and said it would be easy to miss this AMAZING moment more like this MILESTONE in the life of our church. We know what it is to follow God and trust HIM to do something big through us. There are countless faith moves we have had to take. However, what is God doing NOW. How do we really want God to move through us. We realize that it will take sacrifice, but it's in that sacrifice we are seeing God's hand. We know it's not just about the money, if it is at all. But it's about walking alongside our church family in UNITY. I was reading Matthew 18:20, a verse I have read so many times and it occurred to me that Jesus said in verse 19 if we agree, HE will do it. Now that just blew my mind. I looked at Blaine and said, "It is so important that we are unified. Look at all the things we could do in God's will if just two of us agree." So, we have made it a point to be unified daily. So far the Journey has been fruitful. Our small group has been so encouraging. We have all been opening up about what God has done in the past with our lives and moving to what God wants to do now. It's been a joy. Can't wait to hear others talk about what God is doing in them.

September 25th, 2008 - Brent & Sharon
I just wanted to share how blessed Sharon and I feel to be part of Milestone church during this Journey season. This topic really resonates with us as we underwent our own personal journey to bring us here, and I am sure now that it was no coincidence we ended up at Milestone.

It was a little over 2 years ago when I first came to Fort Worth for work, and spent a few weeks here. There was a possibility of the project I was brought here for turning into a permanent position. This did not happen, but I was so impressed with the people I met here that when I went home, I talked with Sharon about possibly relocating here.

About 6 months later I brought Sharon down for a couple days to see if she was interested in moving here. Well Sharon loved it as much as I did, so we went back to California and I started looking for the perfect job within Lockheed which would allow me to transfer here. Even though there were a few jobs that were excellent fits, for some reason I was not selected.

Several things were going on in our lives back in California during this time though. Sharon and I were becoming more active at Twin Cities church in Grass Valley. I realized I had never been baptized,and so took the plunge in May of 2007. The pastor who baptized me had also baptized Sharon about 8 years prior. We were hosting a small group in our home, which was very active in our community and of course we became very connected within our group. Sharon served in the church office, I served as a greeter and usher. We were pursuing our growth track at Twin Cities, completing TC101, 201, and working on 301. We were blessed with a "buddy" for Brandon, a 12 year old young man who was looking for a way to serve, and accompanied Brandon to the 5th/6th grade class each Sunday.

We also became financially responsible, having completed the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University which was sponsored at Twin Cities. I had always seem to miss the message on tithing, and have to admit, I thought Pastor David was a bit of a nut when he would describe using his envelope system. What an eye opener this class was. Within 1 year we were almost debt free! We had a real emergency fund, and were giving more than we had ever though possible, and the more we gave, the more blessed we were.

Everything was going so great, we were just about to give up on Texas. Not so fast Brent. We had prayed over the move to Texas for a long time, and although the answer was always Yes, you will go to Texas, we just didnt realize it was not going to happen on our timeline. It seems that we needed to do some "preparing" before making this journey. Although we did not realize it then, everything that had been happening in our lives was actually part of this preparation. And finally, God knew we were ready, and the perfect job was offered to me.

Sharon and I were both reading Exodus at the time as part of our daily reading program, and it was time for us to make our own Exodus. So, we listed our home, said Good bye to all of our family and friends, and drove to Texas the first week in April. So many unknowns, but we knew we were coming here for a purpose. We both knew that God had a purpose for us but we wouldnt know what that was until the time was right.

Milestone was the fourth church I attended in four weeks. I felt the warmth when I walked in. I went home so excited, I couldnt wait to share with Sharon how I felt the electricity at Milestone. She said she could see it on my face when I walked in the door. So here we are, so excited to be here. We still are not exactly sure what the purpose is that God had in mind bringing us here. But we do know that coming to Milestone and connecting with this church family is part of His plan for us.

I know this was a long story, and I hope I didnt take up too much of your time. I just really wanted to share this with the church and thank everyone for welcoming us into your family. We look forward to taking this journey,and learning just what God has in store for us.

September 19th, 2008 -- Jim & Lisa
When Jim’s dad passed away 10 years ago, we inherited his small house in Mineral Wells…. and the mortgage that went with it. We had always been blessed with great renters until this past year. Earlier this year, the roof of the house was damaged by a hail storm. It took several months but we finally received an insurance check for $2,100.00 to get it fixed. The renters asked one day if they could pick up the funds to fix the roof because they were in a hurry to get it finished. We converted the check to a cashier’s check and gave it to them…and that was the last we saw of them. A month later when the rent check hadn’t come in and we discovered their number disconnected, we traveled to Mineral Wells to find the house empty and trashy and, of course, no roof fixed. Not only were we responsible for the rent that month but we were bitterly disappointed that these people had stolen $2,100.00 from us. We stuck a 'for sale' sign in the yard and left.

With Jim’s new job, although a true gift from God, we have had to greatly decrease our budget and knew that paying the mortgage payment on that house was going to be difficult not to mention that we were wondering where in the world we were going to get our “first fruits” offering for the Journey Campaign. We had been praying about this issue for awhile but finally we sat down on Sunday night and fervently prayed that somehow God would help that house sell and asked God to make a way for us to give our “first fruits” to the church. The very next day Jim received a call from a gentleman who wanted to buy the house AS IS with cash. When Jim met with the man he gave Jim a personal check for the amount we asked for! The check is now cleared and we on our way to giving the man the deed to the house and ….. IT IS GONE!! Oh, by the way, the “first fruits” were taken care of, too. We sold the house for more than we owed on it. GOD IS AWESOME!!!

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