Light and momentary

2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.


After church today, I spent a few minutes chatting with a friend of mine. I really like this guy. He's young, a lot younger than me, but has a maturity about him that makes him seem a whole lot older than he is. He's a diligent, hard working individual whom loves God, and seeks to prove it in every area of his life. I'm impressed with a guy who can be mid-20's and have been a fire fighter for 10 years, and an EMT for 7. His whole life is dedicated to serving others.

Anyway - our conversation today revolved around various things going on in our lives - each of us looking to move away to another area of the country, the trials of work, and also, how GOD has answered very specific prayers regarding our church and even MORE specifically, our team. God has been so faithful, bringing the help that we need to the table. And to know that we are really solid and can perform even under the pressures of a Celebrity athlete (Jim Kelly) without a single hitch was so impressive - and speaks volumes to how God has just SHOWN up in an amazing way. 


I'm sitting here now, in the quiet of my house, reflecting on our conversation, and it occurs to me... Everything that we are going thru, each trial and trouble that has to be addressed, whether financial, spiritual or emotional, is light and momentary.

There will come a time when I will look back at this period of my life and think "really, was it all THAT big of a deal?" Light and momentary. Our lives constantly move forward, and I just feel that once in Heaven, I will look back at my brief moments on life, whether it's 70, 80, or 100 yrs (Like our Pastor's Grandmother) and I will think- whew that was light and momentary. When reflected by the light of eternity - I surely hope that all that I've worked and toiled towards here on earth reflects an eternal Glory that outweighs them all. 

Whatcha been up to?

Well I can tell you what I've been up to! Goodness life is so busy! It's a miracle I get any sleep, ever! :)

So lately, the focus has been on removing the 'extra' or added things in my life as we prepare to move forward with things and the big changes coming up. I know that I really need to get the house on the market, so I've been focusing on de-cluttering, packing and cleaning up. A lot of that had to wait till Nuth went home to Thailand. Which he has now. Actually that was a hard day. I hate "goodbye" day.

This isn't the best pic of us, but it's the last one so I'm posting it. It was soo windy on Good bye day! Anyway it took Nuth 3 1/2 days to get home. I couldn't believe it. He finally arrived in Thailand last Thursday night (Our time) but it's 13hrs ahead in Thailand, so he actually arrived Friday morning. And then his dad promptly took him to school. Crazy! Poor kid! LOL No breaks anywhere BUT America! Welcome to the land of the entitled...lol

Last week I got the priviledge to help Pastor's Joel & Amy put together a ministers luncheon for Dr. & Nancy Dufresne and all the ministers that were here in the NY area for their meetings. That is such a blessing. It was a great day, and Pastor Amy recruited some GREAT help from the Family Churches (Fredonia & Jamestown) to help with serving and caring for our guests. Oh man what a blessing those Ladies were! IF they ever read this blog, then I want to say a big FAT thank you! You were the BEST!

What else has been going on? lets see, this weekend I was at all 3 services, in the sound booth which is always a ton of fun. Don, the new guy who's doing sound is also an electrician and has offered to get my new Chandelier up in the hallway. He's coming over Thursday to do that. Thank you GOD for that blessing! Omygoodness! So many silly projects going on that I'm not capable of doing, it's great to have help :)

And what else? Well, Tye has now picked up Two jobs. He'll be interning at our church this summer for the youth summer camp, and he's at the local pet store. Which is great, cause he's got some student loans to pay back before we move. And, he's super motivated to have his own car. Can't blame him there! Sharing hasn't been too tough of an issue yet, but I can see it becoming more challenging!

and... OH! This weekend we went down to see our family in Binghamton because of my Uncle Bob's 75th birthday! Wow 75! He's so spry and sharp, you'd never know he was that old, well except several of his kids are in their 40's and 50's... which to me, even at 37, still feels so much OLDER than I am. Oy... the joys of being a young mom. I feel like I haven't aged much since I was 20 :) 

Well but I am much more mature....

Ok, so what's next? um... Jim and Jill Kelly are coming to our church to share their testimony and talk about what's in their new book. Interesting huh? I won't be there, cause I'm singing that day at another church, but praise God I hope lots of people come to hear what they have to say.

And I guess the last thing is that on Sunday, my dear friend Julie and her boyfriend Paul threw me the nicest party ever. I was floored by the love and care and the cards, and sweet things everyone said and I was so grateful for their prayers and love and support. God is just so good. I'll be heartbroken to say goodbye to them, but as Paul so aptly put it- they will always be a part of my "God" story.

So that's it for now - I'll update more soon! :)

Be Blessed! Oh and here's a video just for fun!!! one of my fav worship songs!

Such good advice

So thankful for the abundance of good teaching out there on so many different topics. REALLY enjoying being on Twitter, because I've come across a plethora of great sermons as they are re-tweeted, and shared. Here is a great example of some really good teaching! This is so important that each single person understand about themselves, and potential mates before it gets too intense :)

http://saddleback.com/internetcampus/live/ (sorry I couldn't figure out how to embed the video - so a link will have to do!)

Love you all!

one of the best things I've ever experienced

Today, my baby brother "Meech" was baptized at our church. Such an awesome, awesome thing to see him stand up and publicly declare his faith in Jesus Christ. So thankful!


IMG 0890 from Kisha Johnson on Vimeo.

Too late to be watching this but...

I feel like I need to watch this right now. Thank God it's Friday night and I can sleep in as late as I want :)
You might want to take a look at this too! Pastor Mike is really a gifted teacher - and the word he delivers is GOOD :)

http://www.thefamilychurches.org/media/ondemand.html?=Sunday&Morning,!June@3rd@2012&=sun/120603.mp4

Sorry it doesn't embed - you gotta click the link.

<3 Kisha

First Worship Experience

See this face? This is the face of a chick who just sang with her first worship band. Ever. And I think it went ok! Well I hope so cause I sure did enjoy it! I've never ever enjoyed being on stage and in front of people like I did today. I can't wait to do it again!

That's God for you. When He puts a desire inside of you, he'll make it happen and He'll give you the strength, grit, determination and overwhelming desire to step out in faith and try ANYTHING.
I gotta tell you though, it was amazing. While my harmonies aren't that great, because I often sing melody, several people after the service came up and complimented how much 'fun' it was to watch me sing, because they could see that I really enjoyed worshiping God, and it made them want to sing and lift their hands and praise God also! (WoW!) Well, the word says that God inhabits the praises of his people soooo if you wanna see God's presence manifested in your life - get to praising! <3

:) Happy

ok So those who follow my blog, know that for 10 years I was in one particular church, and that I absolutely loved my pastors, Joel & Amy Siegel. Well a few months back, they really felt that God had called them out of the WNY area, and on towards Tulsa, OK. They made the leap of faith, and have been in Tulsa ever since. In a similar fashion, I've very much felt that same call on my life, and know it's time to GO. My heart is ripe for a move of God and to follow him expectantly and obediently is my hearts desire.

Well... Pastor Joel is in town for the week tying up some loose ends with the house, and packing and taking everything (including sweet bella) back to Tulsa after the weekend. I've spent the last couple of days helping him wherever I can and it's been great to visit and chat with him, get my head clear on many things, and really just sit under my 'pastor'... even if he's a pastor no longer. Can I call him my dad? LOL He's only like 6 or 7 yrs older than me... hahaha

Anyway - today Ms Leslie and I spent the day helping to sort, pack and get the stuff ready for the move. Can I say I'm really grateful I'm unemployed right now? I'm so thankful to be able to help and serve... to be available as needed. Best day of my life today :)

<3
Kisha

new beginnings

such a simple statement... such big implications. Today, we had two new beginnings. Both are pretty significant, and both are things we will look back on and say... so thats when this started.

First, Tye started college today. And true to form, it was not an easy start for him. He was up early, 5am... and off to a 6:12bus, which got him to campus at 7am. Immediately he got his student ID, and went off to his first class. Which was wrong. Off to the department chair. Fixed the english class. Off to math class. Which was wrong. Off to the department chair. Fixed the math class... oh by the way - you can't take that Bio class, OR that lab yet. Fixed the Bio class. Kept the Psychology class. Financial aid? A (2) hr wait. Hand in a paper and wait for a letter because there is too much backlog. We don't have answers for you yet. Off to get the bus pass... 5-7 day wait. Use your student Id for now.

LOL My son had quite an awakening. Not only into College Life, but on how well equipped he is to handle it. He's stronger than he thinks... and he'll make it. I know he can do it.

Second, we went to the volunteer orientation at our new church. A lot of new people were there looking to get involved. That was cool. Tye signed up to work in the Cafe. I signed up to work in the tech/lighting/sound department and/or sing in the worship band. Wow. That's scary and exciting all at the same time. I know I can sing. Do I have the confidence to do it in front of a couple hundred people? I don't know. I do know that I received a prophetic word several months ago that said God would be opening doors for me to use my voice more in worship and worship settings. Is this that opportunity? I don't know... but we'll see!

Anyway - what a day... right?

transition, moving on... moving forward

So hard to blog about so many things, and I feel like I should catch up on everything I haven't recently shared... but I just don't have the mental energy to go thru it all. Much better to start where I am, and fill in the holes as needed.

So for a long time I've known that change is coming. I don't know all the pieces, and I don't have all the answers, but I will. Right now I just know that God is moving me and it's probably out of the area. It's exciting and scary all at the same time. And of course my mind is going "tilt" with all of the questions of "how will this come to pass"? And I'm shutting my mind up by writing, reading, and meditating on the word of God. It doesn't really matter how does it?

I can say this - I called up biblegateway.com and the daily verse was awesome - Philippians 1:5-7 - which just basically says God will complete the good work he began in me. Well there's my answer isn't it? If God started it, he'll be sure to complete it. Now I've got my good meditation... and I should get to bed soon.

Life is changing. Jobs, churches, family, it's all changing. Doesn't matter how - just matters who...

So proud of my BLITZ kids :)

well it's been a long day and I'm hardly ready for work tomorrow but it was totally worth it.

The kids from church got together this afternoon to shop, and pack for our Operation Christmas Child mission. Together we purchased, and packed 11 shoe boxes. What was totally cool was that we really only had about 4 good shoe boxes when we started, so the kids had to walk around the neighborhood and convince unfriendly strangers to give them their shoe boxes. What a testimony of perseverance when we live in a society of people who are so untrusting of strangers. Some people didn't open the door for the kids, but most did. We got a few boxes we couldn't use, and a ton of boxes we could :) Hence the 11 shoe boxes packed... but the good thing is we did it - and it's going to be a blessing for kids all over the world. That's twice as many as we did last year! I'm so proud of my kids.

I should be getting ready for work but...

my 16 yr old son was baptised yesterday. We did a lot yesterday but THIS was the most important. My pastor is on the left, his assistant is on the right, and Ty is in the middle. I am so proud of him. He did this all on his own. He signed up, he made sure he was prepared, and he did it. His girlfriend is in the background with the sweater on. I had to share. Later I'll update with the rest of the weekend and what we did.