God is Enough!

I had an unusual day yesterday--not in my usual unusual where something crazy happens to me, but a different kind of unusual. Because of the nature of my job, I often hear about difficulties, challenges, and even tragedies that others go through. But yesterday was a flood of difficulties to people who are close to me. With each one I shared that God is Enough! Because He is!
This last Christmas my sweet friend Melissa who designs and makes jewelry gave me a pendant with a freshwater pearl dangling from it that she stamped on that says GOD IS ENOUGH. I wear it EveryDay! I get asked often about it. People say, "Oh what does your pendant say?" So I show them and then say, "Because He is!" Melissa told me that was her theme for this year and I said me too. And I said at the beginning of the year, I do not know what will happen in 2008 or what will not happen but whatever--God is Enough!
Yesterday I got an email from a sweet friend that her husband was laid off from the SemGroup--stink. She wrote and said I am really struggling today.
My good friend Michelle is in California at a funeral of her 40 year old cousin. Almost 2 years ago Michelle's 40 year old brother died. So now these two sisters have both buried their sons in the past two years--tough to handle.
I met new friends in Nucleus Sunday night and have emailed Audrey back and forth about beginning a Spa for the Soul study for military wives because Audrey's husband leads a platoon of 78 men who will deploy for Iraq on Sept 4th. Can't imagine saying goodbye to my husband and sending him off to the front line of battle.
I got an email from a young mom at our church whose daughter has a severe peanut allergy--severe and it is keeping her family from church. It is hard to feel attacked and not be able to do anything for your children.
Got another email from my new friend Holly that her sister in law who was 8 months pregnant went to the doctor and discovered the baby was dead in the womb. Her brother is a missionary with the IMB and could not get to his wife to comfort her and be with her for more than 24 hours. So here this precious lady is in another country without her husband dealing with a tragedy no mother should bear. DIFFICULT!
My sweet parents are caring for my grandparents on a daily basis and taking turns with my dad's sisters in spending the night with them. My grandma weighs very little and continues to battle pancreatic cancer much longer than we expected. It is sad and it is very taxing on my parents and aunts.
Then I talked to Susan. Her mother is my dear friend Marilyn who is battling cancer of the unknown source and is really going down. These precious people are like family to me and it is very difficult to take. I was walking through TJ Maxx--imagine that--talking to Susan and telling her that God is Enough. I told her I am praying that for her, her brothers and her dad who is my mentor in the ministry.
So I know that this is heavier than my normal you won't believe what crazy thing happened to me post, but sometimes life is a little heavier than we want it to be. To each different person who I encountered yesterday I tried to say God is enough! He is. Regardless of how difficult the situation. Life is sometimes heavier than we want it to be and I want you to know that when it is---GOD IS ENOUGH!!

Party Crasher!

I just want to say this up front. This is a first for even me. We finished Clean Slate (which I will blog about in a day or two--unbelievable God weekend!!!!) and Carl took off for OKC to see his brother before he left for Qua tar on Sunday. So I went to pick up Andersen and AJ from a birthday party.

I asked Andersen for the address so that I could GPS it. It didn't come up but the address was simple enough so I thought I could find it. I am on the street looking for the house number and am going in the right direction. The numbers are getting smaller and I am almost there when I see a house with multiple cars parked in the driveway and street, balloons on the mailbox and a sign that says The Party is Here in the front yard. So of course I think oh here it is.

Avery, Austin and I get out of the car, ring the door bell and we are greeted by a teenage girl. She said, "hi there." I say, "Hey!" She says, "come on in, they are in the back." So we go through the house (did I mention this was about a 6, 000 square foot house I am traipsing through?) and get to the back door and open it to a backyard and pool full of about 30-40 adults. I am thinking oh this is a family party as well as a friend party. I immediately see a lady from church that I know and in my mind I am thinking, hmm I didn't know she knew the Mulders--small world, so anyway I say, "Hey!" and she says, "Well, hello what are you doing here?" So I said, "Well I am looking for Andersen and AJ have you seen them?" Because I am thinking the kids are up stairs or something. She said, "No I haven't."

At this point I am thinking, hmmm this is a little odd. So I said, "Is this 6002?" The lady seated next to her said, "No, this is 5980!" I am at the wrong house and I run into someone I know!!!!!!! I said, "Oh my goodness, that is crazy." And then the lady from church says, "Well do you want to hear something crazier than that, this is my ex mother-in-law's house!" Yes at this point I am thinking your craziness just trumped mine! So I excuse my self and get out of the house. We are leaving and Avery said, "Well the girl said, 'Come on in!'" True Avery true!

So we get in the car and drive two houses up to the house where my children really are.

Then yesterday at church Sandy told me that after I left her ex-mother-in-law said, "Did anybody lock the front door!"

Carl Lopez, the Love of my Life!

Tomorrow is our 15 year anniversary! I can not believe that I have been married to Carl for 15 years.

I thought I would briefly hmm hmm tell you all our story for those of you who do not know how we met and then married.

I transferred to Southwest Baptist University in the fall of 86, yes I did mean 1986! I had spent two years at a State University, in a sorority (please...) pursuing a major only to be told I had a lisp (by a high school student and I didn't even know I had one!) and who would hire me to be a news reporter/anchor with a lisp, and was thinking surely there is more to life than this. I sat out of school for a year and became the 7th and 8th grade Sunday School teacher at my home church--fell in love with ministry and doing what God had made me to do!



I am standing in line at SBU to get my schedule and in front of me is a really tall dark haired good looking guy--David Starnes. You all thought I was going to say Carl didn't you! My maiden name was Stenner so I found myself in line quite often with Dave.



About 3 days later he shows up at my door, looking for my room mate. They were both MK's (missionary kids) from Korea and had grown up together. So Dave and I became good friends. At some point Dave had met this really cool, really smart, really great guy named Carl Lopez. One day I was at Dave's apartment and Carl came over on his bike wearing a burgundy pullover hoodie (Edmond graduate) and I thought what a sweet guy--he is really cute too! So I fixed him up with my roommate (not the MK from Korea!)



Carl and I became great friends over the course of his freshman year and my junior year...(yes I am older) and then he transferred to OBU (Oklahoma Baptist University) shame on him!



LONG story and I mean 7 years long. Carl and I remained great friends, the best of friends really and kept in touch. Somewhere along the line I knew he was the one--by somewhere I mean about 2 months after I fixed him up with my room mate. I then waited through at least 2 other girlfriends (that I know about!).



I graduated from SBU and went to Arizona as a US-2 missionary through the then Home Mission Board. We of course wrote letters (how retro) and kept in touch. It really helped that my parents had a lakehouse at Beaver Lake in Arkansas which was 25 minutes from Carl's parent's house in Rogers. Carl's parents moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma after he graduated from high school.



Carl had two more years at OBU and then went to graduate school--in Physics (is Carl weird or what?--I mean smart or what). I finished my two years in Arizona and then went to Jackson Tennessee to serve at the incredible Englewood Baptist Church as youth and college minister--oh excuse me, my title was Director of Youth and College Ministries--it was 1990.

So, needless to say I did not date...when I say didn't date I mean didn't date ANYONE for 5 years, despite my teenagers wanting to fix me up with people like Micheal W. Smith and Carmen--true. I told them I didn't think either where good ideas because Micheal was already married with 4 kids at the time and well Carmen...not so much. Literally every conference, camp etc that I took my youth group to, my kids were always trying to find a single youth minister or youth worker to introduce me to. Let's focus on JESUS kids not Denise's date life!



Again, Carl and I remained best friends. I knew he was the one--didn't know when he would be the one but that he was. In the back of my mind, which crept to the front of my single mind quite often, I would think, what if he calls one day and asks me to be the best man (I mean woman) at his wedding..and this was before My Best Friend's Wedding (I was so ahead of my time!) And then I would end up in Africa as a missionary with my hair in a bun wearing ugly skirts--it was the 90's.


There were plenty of times that I wanted to say, "Hey what is the deal with us." But the Lord would not allow me to and had given me a verse in Song of Solomon (easy there trigger!) "Do not stir up love until it is ready." Actually it is in there twice in 2:7 and again in 3:5. The Lord knew I needed to see it more than once, you know to be for sure and all! In the Message that verse is paraphrased, "Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe—and you're ready." I feel extremely blessed and thankful for what ever holy restraint that it took for me NOT to take the initiative to ask Carl but waited and waited and waited...(hee hee) for Carl to pursue me (finally) rather than me pursue him. And until the time was ripe and I was ready!


Well LONG story even longer! Carl and I were very involved in working youth camps, Super Summer etc and were given opportunities to see each other.


Around April, 1992 I went to a Conference at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary with my friends Jeff and Malea who were students there at the time. Carl came down from OSU (he is now in graduate school in Electrical Engineering--is he ever going to get out of school?) I could tell that he was acting a little different than our normal friendship. We went to church to hear our friend Randy Miller preach at this little store front church--we were going through the drive through at Grandy's and "I Will Be Here" by Stephen Curtis Chapman came on and there was a silence in our car (except for the song...come on follow me here) and I knew (okay I thought really really strongly) that we would be WE for the rest of our lives. So if we have a song I guess that would be it...or All For Love by Color Me Bad--not sure which.

ANYWAY, Carl and I went with Englewood to Brazil to build a church in May. On the plane ride home we had THE talk--yes Carl brought it up not me. Our first kiss was on an airplane 30,000 feet in the air somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. So basically we decided to get married before we ever had our first date. Our first date was at the Spaghetti Factory in BrickTown in OKC.


So there you have it folks. Oh yea the proposal...well LONG story short. Sometime around October Carl and I drove up to Pigeon Forge and back to Jackson in one day! It was sometime after we had bungee jumped! I said, "When are we going to set a date? I feel like I need to let Dr. Jett (my pastor) know when I am leaving so that the church can make plans to find a replacement for me). Taking into account that most churches get a two week notice before most youth ministers...I mean Director of Youth Ministries leave. But it sure sounded like a good way to get Carl to nail down a date. Carl said, "I don't want to set a date until we are engaged." SO I said, "Well when are we going to get engaged." He said, "When I can afford to buy you a ring." So I vowed to myself to never bring up the subject again!

Over Christmas break Carl went with me to take my youth group skiing in Boone, North Carolina (yes there are mountains er a mountain there). We had to come home a day early because it was unusually warm and the snow was melted. We came home on New Year's Day. Unbeknown st to me, it was Carl's plan to propose on January 1st, you know start the year off right and all. So we got back to church and like any good youth minister...er I mean Director of..you get it...I waited for all the parents to show up. My Carl went to take our friend Karl to get a car off their lot--Golden Circle Ford. My Carl went on to Kroger's to put his plan into place. He went to purchase flowers and a plastic thingy out of a candy machine that you put a toy ring in. His plan WAS to give me the "toy ring" say, I don't have the money to purchase the ring I want yet but I know you want to set a date so here...until I can. And then wala it would be my ring.

Blame it on nerves, but Carl locked the keys in the car with the ring in his bag. Uh-oh. Back at Englewood, all the parents are gone and now Karl, Denise, (yes that is her name) and I are waiting for Carl. No Carl...a red sporty car comes pulling up with a lady in it and Carl in the passenger seat...what!

LONG story...after attempting to get a key, Carl's bronco not starting because although there is no snow in North Carolina, it is a cold spell in Jackson and it is like 2 below out, and Carl's bronco got left in neutral (call it nerves I don't know) while he was trying to start it and it rolled into the middle of the parking lot in my apartment complex, and attempting to use the jimmy kit from Golden Circle Ford and breaking my driver side door, we finally called Al's Big Tow--that is what it was called--hilarious!

Anyway, on January 2nd at about 1 am Carl Lopez asked me to marry him and guess what...I said YES! There you have it!

Clean Slate Land

As you may know, our Women's Ministry at The Church at BattleCreek is involved in a missions..I am searching for the right word here. A missions...project..no..event..sort of...opportunity..yea kind of...life-changing unbelievable transformation of homes and lives...YES! I guess that is what you would call it. You can read about our first home here. When we did Dee's Clean Slate, her girls were in Kentucky with their dad. Well Sunday they came home!!

They came home to a new house, a new room, and a new mom. Well really same mom but a mom with a Clean Slate! WOW! Dee kept it a secret all summer from the girls. They had no idea what was in store for them when they walked in the front door. It was really a priceless moment.

So once again my sweet talented unbelievably tireless friend Ashley took pictures of the girls. Take a look here for yourself. Thanks Ashley, you never cease to amaze me. Also thanks Cindy and Carol for helping to welcome these adorable girls home!

I am loving Clean Slate. God has given us Ruby for our next Clean Slate which is this weekend. Ruby is amazing and so is her entire family! I feel so honored that God has allowed me to meet this family. This is what has blown my mind for the past two or three days. I sense and can see at times that God is doing far more than we know. He has set the stage for this incredible moment for this family when I believe pieces to their puzzle are all coming together and it is going to be some picture when it is done!! You are never going to believe all that God is doing. Nearly EveryDay I cry about what God is giving us and doing for us. Needless to say I have been living in Clean Slate Land according to my incredibly handsome, sweet, and patient husband!