Major Season Change

December 14, 2018 by Jules 6 Comments

The Dark Ages are named was not because it was necessarily a period of "dark" hardship, season of gloominess, or anything like that. It was named such because it was a time period where not much was recorded in the way of narratives. Records were lost. There's little known about this period of time.

In the same way, I feel like I've been in a time marked by lack of story telling, recording history as seen through my and my families eyes, or even a period of perceived silence. My prayer is that with this new season change, God is moving me on to my own Renaissance. My family and I need a time period of rebirth, re-freshening, and rejuvenation.

With major season change comes a lot of hard things. These hard things in my life did not come as quickly as they may seem if you're hearing about them here for the first time. They're the hard things we've been praying through for months on end. We're trying not to ask belaboring questions about WHY. Does it matter? God is still God and His will is still going to be accomplished.

We are closing The Valley church and seeking full time ministry opportunities for our next season of life.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, I've been angry with God for not moving mountains, making the way easier, or answering prayers how I see fit. Sometimes trying to hide while ugly crying in public spaces. Life has been hard the last few months/year(s). Choosing to squeeze as many learning opportunities out of my Dark Ages has become my coping mechanism in order to be prepared for the next adventure God has for me, ideally in my Renaissance. Taking initiative to pressure cook our healing as a family through family counseling has been a good experience, helping us work through ALL the changing aspects of our lives.

Foster Care:
Children who were in our home for months and month, who had become part of our family, were finally able to return home. Children who were placed with us quickly, were just as quickly moved to another home when it looked like they would be in need of an adoptive family. New laws for our State that will pass in the summer have us questioning our next move with attempting to add children to our family.

Church:
We felt God tell us back in the summer that it was time to close the valley chapter of our lives but weren't given a timeline or a picture of what was to come next. We received mostly positive, reaffirming responses when we told close friends and family about the decisions, but those couple negative responses are the ones that eat away at us and make following Jesus that much harder. Being brave and casting resumes to new territory across the country is what God has us doing; as rejections seem to be what we're catching, it may just be His plan for us to pressing into Him more right now.

Homeschool:
Among all the other variables, I feel run ragged. I don't feel like I'm doing as well as I'd like teaching, training, or raising my children in general. Trying to decipher what's best for them (and me) in this season is tough. I don't have a peace about changing our current plan and putting them into public school but my bones ache with weariness of everyday house management, child rearing, and basic schooling much less the extraordinary learning and training I aspire to pour into them.

I'm hoping to learn how to process the seasons God is bringing me through. It's become increasingly difficult to respect the boundaries and privacy of many who come in and out of our lives but at the same time be able to chronically my own life. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have it any other way --> woven so closely in a community of messiness. But between church work, ministry, homeschooling, active involvement at local schools, foster care, and life, there's a lot of rough edges that catch me off guard. Wounds we earn, uncover, or even inflict. Pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14) can, many/most days be exhausting.

If you would, pray for peace, continual guidance, and strength to stay the course for my family and me. Thanks for stopping by to read my ramblings.

Filed Under: as Jules is living, The DeChurched, The Ones about The Valley Church

Seriving in Your Community {WITH Littles}

January 25, 2018 by Jules 1 Comment

YOU can serve in your community WITH your littles. They're not keeping you from serving and their not just in tow while you do so.

In some countries, having children is seen as "tying your feet". To be honest, I've felt that way on and off again. Structuring my day around their needs and the routines that help my children thrive occasionally feels like tying my own feet. I know God is at work in so much going on around me and I'd love to be apart of it, all of it. I feel like I'm missing out on blessing when I see God asking us to get to work where He's already working and I can't. I've even felt jealous of others and the serves they're able to do as a single or as a mom of older kids or even a mom of fewer kids. But here's the thing:

God HAS and is continuing to bless me right where I am.

In the this current season. With aaaaall these tiny humans I'm allowed to claim, even for a short time. God has blessed me with a husband after God's own heart. God has blessed me with home after home to raise my family and welcome others into. God has blessed me by abundantly meeting my needs. God has blessed me with friend upon friend, even if some are for a short season and others from a distance. Focusing on my blessings and learning to say no to good things in order to be apart of the Best things has taught me--> I can and Should be serving right where I am, with those placed in my life, when I see the opportunity, because God is bigger than self-pity, routine's, and excuses. I've also learned some practical ways to serve with my children and I'd love to share them with you to help untie your feet.

10 Practical Ways to Serve in Your Community with Your Children

Invite neighborhood children over to play consistently
I've totally laid younger children down for a nap while my older children and the neighbor friends played. My children are also getting to participate service to our King through hospitality.
Host a block party in your neighborhood
I've also put a child down for the night while carrying a baby monitor into my front yard to mingle for the rest of the block party. Depending on your neighborhood, over a holiday weekend, consistently on a specific weekend, or celebrate something fun one time a year might work for you.
Serve within your local Church
Most churches work hard to put on service events during a time that is family friendly. I've also learned that messing up my kids routine momentarily is well worth the rewards of living and serving in genuine community.
Make and deliver seasonal gifts to neighbor friends, delivery people, grocery store employees, civil servants
Letting kids come up with fun gifts and who they're give them to helps them be more aware of each person they naturally come in contact with on a daily basis and just how easy being missional in our living can be.
Donate food, clothes, and toys to a local drop off center
Having children help in decluttering, purging, whatever you want to call it can help them make it natural in their own lives. Being grateful for and generous with our belongings is good stewardship.
Host homeschool meet-ups, field trips, or parties
When we moved to this town we were told there were lots of other homeschoolers but we've had a hard time finding them. I guess they're all in their homes. lol SO, we created our own coop and simply started advertising it on Facebook. We meet up once a month for a simple party, field trip, or class of some kind.
Go to a rehab or retirement center and sing or dance, then stick around to chat with residence
The dance class my girls are in actually planned this and take the opportunity to have a mid-year presentation for the grandma's and grandpa's at the local rehabilitation center.
Create and host original events in your city park [or other neutral space in your community]
Our community is large in residence but small in things for those residents to do so we've had to get creative from Movie Night in the park to Water Day that included a giant slip-n-slide and huge water gun fight.
Clean up trash on the side of the [back, low-traffic] roads
This was actually an idea my kids' had while driving down the road after a storm so we grabbed random plastic bags out of the car and hopped to it.
Participate in and serve at as many community events as possible
This takes most of the prep work out of serving. Stay involved in community and or school events. Find places they need volunteer or just participants and have fun being a part.

Those are just 10 of the simple ways we've found that are fun to serve as a family in our community. Living Missionally [or being intentional to spread the love of Jesus as You are going] is simple but not always easy, if you don't know where to start.

PLEASE, by all means, share what you've learned works!

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Cool Ministries, Missional Living, Parenting, The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

How to Organize An Operation Christmas Child Packing Party

November 10, 2017 by Jules Leave a Comment

This is the fifth year we’ve hosted an Operation Christmas Child Packing Party at The Valley church so we’ve learned a few things each year. I've also done some research via Pinterest and Facebook OCC groups to try to improve our parties each year. From the first year of packing with my kids in my living room to becoming more and more organized, we have grown our passion for this ministry.

I would love to share with you some of thing logistics we've learned.

Collection

We choose to only “officially” collect items the month [5 weeks] before our packing party. Some like to collect all year-long and we are looking into creating a housing space at our building for this but we have several other out reaches we focus on throughout the year.

The week before collection starts, we announce what Operation Christmas Child is, what we will be collecting each week, and when our packing party will be held. We do four main focuses: Hygiene, School Supplies, Accessories, and Toys. The fifth week is a catch-all and that evening is our party.

We also have an OCC info table set up that hopefully answers any questions someone might have as well as provides resources to help get people excited. Of Course, people can bring any items during these weeks, we just try to help narrow the focus. Next to this table we have a collection space designated- the past two years it has been this big blue shipping trunk. Each week we empty it, sorting items into bens.

On the last Sunday of collection, we take inventory and try to spot areas we might be short, comparatively and announce those needs via social media so people can bring them on our catch-all week/Sunday morning of the party.

Prep

Several of us {sometimes me and my children} go through all the bins and take everything we can, out of it’s packaging. If we need to, we open packs of crayons, markers, and colored pencils and divide them up into bags. This not only helps items go further but it also makes sure crayons aren’t melting onto other items in the boxes.

While doing this, we sort even further into gender and age groupings [2-4, 5-9, 10-14] if possible. Bagging things ahead of time helps your party flow better and sets you up for quality assurance.

We have always gone with an assembly line format- folding tables in a long line, filled with sorted items. This year, we added very visible signage using small orange cones wrapped in green garland with wording printed on cardstock and taped to paint stir sticks sticking out of them. These were placed at the beginning of each category to help make sure those packing packed items from each section.

I spoke with several others to make sure I was thinking through everything and we decided on a flow and through items we would need to help that layout work.

Layout

We chose to set up in our main room so we thought through making the experience flow in a giant circle. We had stations that everyone worked through to make sure we covered everything.

FOOD

You can’t have a party without food, right!? We set up a small pot-luck along one wall with eating tables right next to them. This is a separate space from packing, even if in the same room, because we don’t want to send crumbs with our boxes of awesomeness.

PHOTO BOOTH

We LOVE sending pictures with our boxes so we hired a friend to run a photo booth for us. This is at the beginning of the layout because we ask that everyone take a picture Before they start packing to give the printers time to print them while they load items.

PACKING

Our long line of tables full of goodies was broken into the same categories as the collections weeks but with a couple added sections with the essentials at the start: boxes, labels [tape and markers for selection and attaching], hygiene, school supplies, accessories, WOW items, and filler toys.

NOTE/PRAYER

We set up separate tables on the opposite wall from the food full of writing utensils, specialized postcards, blank printed info pages, blank Christmas cards, and stickers.

DROP OFF

We designated the wall near these tables for drop-off and had signs hung to help sort boxes by age and gender so we could see which needed more as we went.

Start again

PARTY

FOOD

You can’t have a party without food, right!? We set up a small pot-luck along one wall with eating tables right next to them. We had a group from our local drop-off location come to share with us about the process after we pack boxes. Everyone finished up eating while they shared.

PHOTO BOOTH

PACKING

NOTE/PRAYER

We set up separate tables on the opposite wall from the food full of writing utensils, specialized postcards, blank printed info pages, blank Christmas cards, and stickers.

Follow Up

We have invited any family that would like to join us, to deliver the boxes to our local drop off location and we've also complete 2 different tracking labels so we can learn where our boxes went, pray for them. Most boxes have addresses in them in hopes of building relationships with ministries dispensing and or individuals receiving boxes.

I hope this was helpful. I'd love to hear about your passion of OCC, how you pack, and maybe even how you follow-up to enjoy this passion all year-long.

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Cool Ministries, Missional Living, Operation Christmas Child, The ones about the Rothacher Home, The Ones about The Valley Church

When an Open Door ISN’T from God

April 20, 2017 by Jules Leave a Comment

We've all heard about how we shouldn't freak out when God closes one door, right? "He'll always open another. Or a window. Just praise Him in the hallway." they'll say. But no one tells you how to determine if that tempting open door is from God...

Most would assume if there's nothing inherently wrong with said open door, then it must be opened by God. But I'm here to say I've seen Wide Open Doors that were very tempting, with their promises of better pay, nicer neighborhoods, closer to family, less stress, ease of transition, and on and on. I've yet to find scriptural evidence that American Dream promises are part of God's will for our lives. Many will listen to your predicaments and try to offer wise counsel but most will still just look for the easy path thinking that must be God's will because things are falling into place.

Don't get me wrong, if we look for it, God's hand will be on and in what He has called us to do. When we seek where He is already at work, we'll easily find a rough path He's already blazed. BUT that path may look like a jungle to those on the outside and not everyone's path will be cut the same.

After chasing Jesus to a new town to plant a church, having our space wiped out by a tornado, and then being portable for three years, to say finding God's will is a little complicated would be an understatement. Although our church plant is now four years old, we are still in infancy stage yet few of the resources of a genuinely new church plant are still available to us. With that being said, my hubs and I still feel God is not done in this city. In the midst of what God is doing in this city, we see our part of it still playing out. We decided to give up our salary in order to afford our new space and to do ministry through the valley.

In our efforts to still give most of our time to ministry, we have been seeking job opportunities that will allow us that flexibility and still bring in enough income to provide for our family. Enter two weeks ago, where I received a message about the opportunity to sell a product I'd been ingredient by for quite a while. I read the message, thought for a while, and talked with my hubs about it. I stared through the open door and saw all the pieces falling into place. I spoke with my friend on the phone and her enthusiasm was contagious. I saw the potential for this business to not only provide for my family but to accomplish the dreams I had for us in the future.

I signed up and started full force. I'm talking, worked my way through the daily start up suggestions, checking off boxes, listening to training's...lots of training's, and feeling good. After the boxes were nearing an end, only a few remained: Share your story. Sell to your friends. Build your team.

The one thing I lacked was -passion- for what was being sold. Don't hear me wrong, the business I signed up with is selling quality products that work, they have a great business model, and it pays well! I respect each women I know who works for them; which is one of the main reasons I chose to work with this business. I just couldn't get past my gut. As I began messaging friend and family, creating posts to publish, and talking about it with my missional community---it all flopped. It flopped not for lack of effort but because of my lack of passion. None of it set right. I started going through how I got started and where I went wrong in order to make me feel this way.

Confession: I didn't pray about it.

What the smack! The door was wide open. I stared straight into it. All the pieces fell into place. It was smooth. It was a wise financial move. It all made sense. And while tempting. It wasn't God's will. It answered so many of my prayers in a nice neat little package. I could even validate it with the potential to attain my honorable dreams for my family. But it still was not God's open door. for me. at this time.

I swallowed my nasty tasting mouthful of pride and quit. Yep. Lets just call it like it is and I Q.U.I.T. Oh, how I love being a flake, not following through with things, disappointing people, and quitting one more stankin' thing. {end sarcasm}

Today, this is me, waving at you from inside a different, slightly cracked, open door my hubs and I chose to walk through together. Sometimes walking in the light isn't as clear as we'd like. Sometimes God's will and provision isn't all warm and fuzzy. Sometimes His open door leads into the middle of town, in a box on wheels, where God can show intentional love in a bizarre way while ideally providing a little income for your family.

Say hello to...The Frozen Eagle shaved ice truck. What What! This new adventure is already proving to be a fun family endeavor that seems to have been opened by God!

Filed Under: as Jules is living, Missional Living, The Ones about The Valley Church

Adventure Awaits {in a shoebox}

October 9, 2016 by Jules Leave a Comment

In March of 2013, God launched the valley church here in Vilonia AR. He set us out with a mission to make disciples. We plan live in authentic community, learn biblical teaching, serve here in our area, as well as through go there, where ever that may be across the world to do just that.
Clipping along through the story of the valley and what God's doing, we come to April of 2014 when a crazy tornado swept through our town, destroying many things including the building we were leasing. That allowed us to get creative in how to serve our community during that really hard time.

I share that all so you'll understand the awesomeness of the upcoming date!

Since the conception of the valley, part of our attempt to make disciples across the world was to partner with Samaritan's Purse to pack Operation Christmas Child boxes that serve as an amazing, door-opening, tool to share the gospel with children and their families. In the years we've been portable, we still chose to make it a priority to commit to this campaign.

We have had to let go of a lot of things because it's just too hard to set up and tear down big stuff for just an hour and 1/2 service once a week. This year, I decided to make a BIG display to show the importance of this campaign to our church even if that means a lot of extra work. As a bonus, I think it's helping put a little cheer in our people's already generous hearts.

This week and last week, we collected TOYS! We collect the 5-7 weeks {depending on the year} in preparation for our Operation Christmas Child 2016 shoebox Packing Party. This year it will be November 13th. Our goal is 60 boxes but I think we May just surpass that quickly...😳 Eeek!

::Collection Schedule::
10-2&9: toys
10-16: hygiene items
10-23: school supplies
10-30: accessories & boxes
11-06: catch up, bring anything you missed
11-13: PACKING PARTY!!!

The biggest news!? We are shooting for hosting the packing party In. Our. NEW. Building.

This space to worship in and serve from is just one small way God has continually reminded us that He is not done in this city, through us. He has provided *opportunities to build new relation ships,*unique ways to keep serving, *new families to join in our mission, and *faithful ways for us keep making disciples locally and across the globe.

The adventure awaits! You just have to be willing to take part. God's story is so vast and He invites us into it; isn't that inconceivable?! For many children in poverty-stricken parts of the world, their hope of being apart of God's adventure awaits in a simple [Operation Christmas Child] shoebox gift that might just come from us...or you.