Traffic, Shmaffick

Dothan is not really that big. Spread out, but not a metropolis by any stretch of the imagination. However, it amazes me how the Christmas shopping traffic has really picked up. Sometimes I get disgruntled with it, and then I remember what it was like to live in Dallas and contend with everyday traffic (much worse) for 5 years. Then I become grateful again!

Everyone knows who Steven Curtis Chapman is, and we are all aware of the terrible tragedy their family has suffered this year. I check on their 'blogging' from time to time and came across a Christmas letter from MaryBeth Chapman today. Needless to say, it's a must-read for every mother. Actually, a must-read for everyone. A beautiful reflection on Christ's birth, and a firm reminder to "love more & love well". Grab some kleenex and go read it at www.chapmanchannel.typepad.com/marybeth

So thank You Lord, for my 3 undeserved blessings - Allison Joy, Nicholas David & Grant Christian. I don't want to take one day for granted! Oh how I cherish their precious little faces and giggling and hugs and bedtime prayers.

We're Back!

Okay ... so ... it's December and we haven't been on this thing since March!!! Sorry for the delay, but we've been a little busy & because we changed email accounts (and I forgot our password!) it basically became impossible to log on and update this blog.

My how time flies - and 2008 has been no exception. I think it has definitely been the shortest year yet! There are so many stories I could tell to catch you up from March, but to spare you all the details, I will give the highlights of our spring, summer & fall!

April - we celebrated our 12th anniversary of marital bliss ... and got to go to Hawaii for a week! Long story short, Chris emailed a pastor there about how one of his teachings blessed us & in return he gave us a scholarship to attend their Leadership Practicum held in Honolulu!! Needless to say, we missed the kids like CRAZY but it was a much needed time together - we had the best time over there! Check out their amazing ministry at www.enewhope.org

June - Legacy Team Members began moving their families to Dothan. By the end of the month, we had all helped each other move in and out of storage and into new homes. Not one of us wants to move again for a while!

July - Allison Joy turned 8 years old! / God miraculously provided a rental home for us to live in. It is so much more than we could have imagined, but we are amazed with God's blessing on our lives.

Aug - Grant Christian turned 2 years old! / Allison & Nicholas began their school year at Crossroads Baptist Academy ... another miraculous provision by God for our family. Allison is in 2nd grade - Nicholas started Kindergarten!! (sniff, sniff)

Sept - Chris was the guest speaker to the student body at Christ for the Nations Institute for their 1st week of classes. / Mimi (Lisa's Mom) came to visit from Iowa for a week. It was so much fun!

Nov - Christopher Nelson turned a whopping 37! He went to an Atlanta Falcon game on his birthday! / Chris finished his 'tour of duty' at the Museum of Art as their Facility Manager.

Dec - Legacy Church began meeting every Saturday night for service at Northside Methodist Academy in their Fine Arts Building. We are gearing up for our public launch on January 10th! Check us out at www.legacydothan.com

And now we are all decorated for Christmas and counting down the days. We are super excited to have my Mom & StepDad and my sister Andrea, Matthew & Rachel traveling to Dothan for Christmas! What a reunion that will be!!

Well, now that we are back on the blog, we will be more diligent to update regularly & get some recent pictures of our growing children!

R & R

We are blessed. It was standing on our beach-view balcony in Clearwater Beach, Florida that I truly absorbed the fact that we have been tremendously blessed by so many friends and loved ones in this season. Some dear friends of ours sent us to their adorable beach condo that sits right on the sand. I never realized how soothing the sound of crashing waves over and over and over can be. By the 2nd night of our stay, I was sleeping with the balcony door open just so I could fall asleep to the sounds of the sea.

Allison and Nicholas have both been to the beach before, however at ages 3 years and 3.5 months old, neither of them remember a lick of it. So this relaxing trip was sort of a "first" for them, and most definitely for Grant. Allison became a professional beach comber and made it home with a really nice array of seashells. Grant squealed everytime the waves crashed over his feet and would cry out "whoa"! But it was Nicholas who really took the cake. He was totally overwhelmed by his surroundings. The vastness of the ocean before him ... the way the waves just kept coming ... the feeling of the sand on his feet (and everywhere else!). Packing up to leave he finally declared, "I don't want to go. Can't we just live at the beach and stay here forever?". Needless to say, it was a great time away for our family.

Now back to Dothan, and back to reality! Church work is progressing ... Chris and I got some pretty cool brainstorming done during our time @ the beach, and some more definites on direction and details. Our next Legacy prayer meeting is Saturday the 15th & we're really looking forward to it. We are still believing God for the means to move our family into a rental property, but until then we wait!

God is faithful and we are excited. He continues to impart His grace to us daily and His encouragement for the path that has been set before us.

The Flu & God's Love

Well, it all started just after Valentine's Day on Friday night. Grant came down with it first. I should have known something was up by the size of his belly & the way he kept wandering around the house, rubbing it as if a genie was going to pop out! Although the genie stayed in the bottle, everything else came out soon enough. Within 24 hours, Allison went down with it, followed by BOTH of her parents, and Nicko was not far behind. Have I ever mentioned how difficult it can be to care for vomiting children when you are sick yourself?? Not fun. And even though it's been over a week, we're still wearing out the 1-2 punch of it all. Our bout was followed up with the fever, chills, congestion & killer headaches. We are just now seeing the light at the end of this tunnel!! Needless to say, the flu was terrible. But from what I keep gathering from the media, it's terrible everywhere this year. Lord help us all!

We had our 1st 'organized' Legacy prayer meeting on Saturday night. 12 adults, a guitar and some dessert ushered us right into the Throne Room! We had a delightful time in God's presence, and we are confident that He was pleased with our seeking Him for our nation, our city, and for Legacy Church. We are already looking forward to next month's time of prayer & fellowship.

One thing the Lord highlighted through our time of worship & prayer was His love. His love for us as individuals, His love for His Bride, and His love for lost & hurting people. A 'picture' was revealed of God taking a firebrand and branding Legacy with His love. It would be our identity ~ who we are as a Body within the greater Body of Christ, and within the local community. The Lord truly challenged us to allow His love to 'run through us like water', and that we would never hold blessings to ourselves, but keep them moving outward.

The excitement continues to mount as God continues to set things in place, all the while drawing us to Himself in absolute need of Him. But we don't just want to need Him, we want to want Him! Just because.

Creating Legacy

Well, here we are already in the month of February 08. Time is flying by so fast. I (Chris) am on call as a substitute teacher for a couple of Christian schools here in town, but I'm also working as a receptionist at the Wiregrass Museum of Art on the wkends. Both jobs are perfect for me since I want to be involved within the community & still be afforded the time to invest in preparing for our next adventure!

Speaking of such ... God kept bringing the word "legacy" to our hearts thru the month of January and after studying its definitions and connotations, we realized the idea really sums up all that we feel & want to see accomplished through ministry.

Therefore, we have named this new work "Legacy Church". We are so excited about what God is already doing ... even though we haven't started meeting yet! We have been blessed to fellowship with several local people & share our hearts about what we believe God wants to do here in the Wiregrass area & how we see Legacy fitting into that. We are also meeting with regional Sr. Pastors to share with them our hearts and intentions. It has been vitally important to us to clearly communicate that we are not here to compete with them, but to do kingdom together. So far, so good.

There are several families who are preparing to re-locate to Dothan by June 1st. Not only are we thankful for their zeal in running with us to see this vision come to pass, we are even more thankful to God that He called them to the work of Legacy! We can hardly wait for them join us on this exciting & stretching journey. After their arrival, we will start meeting as a Church privately throughout the summer & early fall. As of today, we believe the public launch to the Dothan / Wiregrass area will be in early October, although we are still praying about the specific timetable.

We'd love to invite you to check out http://www.legacydothan.com/ so that you can see what we've been up to ... finalizing vision statements, core values, etc. Presently, we're in the midst of filing all the necessary paperwork to secure a non-profit status as a church.

We sincerely covet your prayers as this has been the biggest faith-leap we have ever taken in our lives! Although we are terrified & excited at the same time, we are confident because we know we are in His perfect will.

We love you all very much!

Blessings,

Chris & Lisa

P.S. Keep checking back for more exciting adventures in the continuing saga of the Frith family!

Adventures in Alabama

Well, here we go ... we successfully arrived in Dothan on Friday nite, the 4th of January. God truly had His hand of grace upon the family because the 2-day drive passed so quickly! Things are settling in here a bit, and as I write the kids are enjoying their Nana & Papa! More detailed blogging to come. We are looking forward to filling you in on what's really taking place over here!!