Drop your nets and follow Me.

Welcome to  L.O.V.E. Nation Ministries' 1st blog!
I am so excited to be writing now...... For Such A Time As This!

The prayer of Jabez comes to mind:
"Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." So God granted him what he requested.         1 Chronicles 4:10

10 years ago, we moved our children from a very small farming town to a suburb of L.A. Every person we knew told us we were making a mistake, but we felt God calling us. I had seen God work in my life and knew He was real. I did not, however, know who God was. Who God is. Our oldest son, Daniel, did not want to move with us and we were completely broken-hearted. Daniel was a senior in high school and loved his church and friends. I decided to take him to visit a church in our new city, hoping he would want to move here. I snuck his name & phone # into the offering plate and wrote "I would love to volunteer in the Tech-Dept." They called the next day. It worked. He loved it. What I didn't realize at the time was that God was using Daniel to bring me into a relationship with Him too. It worked. I loved it. All 4 of our kids + another friend that moved with us, Scotty, were all soon hired on staff. 

Our entire family fell in love with our new church home, I finally trusted Jesus and Brian finally learned to apply the Word to his life and marriage! God was working great and mighty things in all of our lives! 

Daniel found a love for audio, got his engineering license, became Tech-Director of this mega-church, left to pursue his dreams of live sound and tour management. He has traveled the world, working with Christian artists.

Noah taught himself graphics and soon became the church's Graphic Designer. He was then hired to work for a company where he learned even more. Not long after he moved to San Francisco to pursue even bigger dreams, he was sought after by a large software company and was hired as their Creative Director. 

Scotty moved from the Central Valley with us and went to Audio Engineering School with Daniel. He too was hired by the church and eventually took Daniel's position as Tech-Director. He married Beka, who is now on staff as a teacher at the church's school.

Allye found a passion for kids working in the Children's Ministry. She took that love to another level as a missionary traveling to Turkey, the Philippines, New Orleans, and several trips to Mexico. She was also on staff in the cafe. 

Logan spent many years working in the Children's Ministry, as well. He was blessed to be mentored in Photography by Pam, the Pastor's wife. His passion for photography continued to grow and today, at only 19 years old, he has his own successful business shooting both Fashion and Weddings. 

Brian and I grew closer to God and to each other. We began counseling crisis and struggling marriages. We became leaders in the Decision Room, worked with young mothers, and mentored individual men and women. Brian became an Elder and a member of the Finance Committee. 

This church was Holy ground, where God performed miracles in our lives! We had all come from poverty stricken backgrounds and lived through stories that ruin most people's lives. The world told us we were worthless and would never make anything of ourselves. They were right. We would never amount to anything on our own... unless we allowed God into our lives and chose to put our trust in Him. God could make us brand new creations and weave beauty into our lives! And He did! We loved our church and all God had done for our family there!

The closer we walked with God, the more He revealed Himself to us. The more He revealed Himself to us, the hungrier we became to follow His Spirit. Over the past 2 years, God has been leading us in a new direction. A couple of months ago, we heard His voice louder than ever. "Get out of your boat. Drop your nets and come with Me." We followed Him out of the mega-church and into the Book of Acts. We heard Him telling us to be faithful with a few things. To be more effective in less areas. We heard Him loud and clear when He told us to: Love Him with all our heart, soul and mind and to Love others. We heard Him loud and clear when He told us to go and make disciples. We heard Him loud and clear when He told us to visit orphans & widows. We heard Him loud and clear when He told us to care for the least of these and we heard Him loud and clear when He told us to remain unstained by the world. These are not hard. These are not burdensome. These are not too much to do. These are His commandments. This is what He has told all of us to do.
"If you love Me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15 
We filed for a Non-Profit and extended our home ministry into a home church focused on local and global missions.

The freedom that comes when you let the Holy Spirit lead you every step of the way is truly indescribable. So, here we are... On the wings of a dove... Writing our first blog. We hope you will join us on our adventures with God.