Family 2024

Originally, I had thought I would host a family gathering in the summer, but with all the things that went on in our immediate family starting in April , that thought never materialized.

We decided instead, to host a family Christmas cookie party here at the Vicarage.

It was a fun day.

THE CHRISTMAS JOURNEY

Nine bells just rang at the Old Murdock Senior Center, and I am just finishing my day. Snish is falling outside. Walking the dogs and putting the chickens to bed was a cold wet business tonight, but at last it is all done. I am dressed in the Christmas PJ’s the kids’ mom sent up just before Thanksgiving for all of us.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: JAMES FRANKLIN, ABIGAIL FRANKLIN, MELANIE FRANKLIN, DANIELLA FRANKLIN, PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE, SEVII LILLIE(JOSEPH E LILLIE VII), KRISTINE BARRAMEDA LILLIE (IN FRONT KNEELING), PASTOR J LILLIE(JOSEPH E LILLIE V), JOSEPH E LILIE VI

This was the beginning of our Christmas journey as a family. A lot of familial water has flowed under the bridge of life since this picture was taken.

There were all my birthday celebrations and Thanksgiving with the kids, grandkids and nephews. What a blessed day that was.

ABIGAIL FRANKLIN (FOREGROUND CENTER), TYLER NEWTON (FAR LEFT FRONT CHAIR), SEVII LILLIE (HOLDING BALL), RYAN NEWTON (RECLINER), JOSEPH LILLIE, KRISTINE BARRAMEDA LILLIE, DANIELLA FRANKLIN, PASTOR AMANDA LILLIE, MELANIE FRANKLIN… THANKSGIVING 2024

There was the decorating of The Vicarage.

PASTOR J AND THE GRANDKIDS

And the decorating of the church.

JOHN RUSSELL, BUILDING AND GROUNDS, PUTTING UP THE BIG TREE AT CORNERSTONE.

Then the celebration began in earnest.

SEVII AND SANTA

There was breakfast with Santa and the Cookie Crawl.

FRANCINE (AKA PASTOR AMANDA) AND ABIGAIL START THE COOKIE CRAWL

And the town tree lighting.

MRS. CLAUS, SANTA CLAUS, MEALNIE FRANKLIN AND THE GIRLS

This week has been a whirlwind of parties. It started Saturday with our Deacon, Staff and DLT leader Christmas party.

DEBBIE PARKER AND PASTOR AMANDA
JOE AND JODY CLAPP
THE FEASTING TABLE

Yesterday was a full day of connection and celebrating. It started at 9 AM with a meeting of the town, pastors at Sippin Serendippity.

Then it was on to Cornerstone’s weekly staff meeting. With the upcoming holidays, this will be our last staff meeting for 2024.

After that, I went to one of our DLT groups to join their Christmas party, and to discover the prophetic words from God they received during our sabbatical.

The SOUL SISTERS AND PASTOR J

Then, after a brief rest, I was off to the cornerstone youth Christmas party.

FUN AND GAMES

Today, I spent the day finishing up the decorations at the Vicarage and cooking for a dinner party we hosted this evening with some missionary friends.

This weekend, the Vicarage is hosting a cookie swap for the Tenney side of our family. I have to say I am really enjoying this Christmas journey.

What does your Christmas journey look like?

STILL PREPARING

When I went on sabbatical our congregation began to pray for prophetic words from God about our future work.

Over the last several weeks, since sabbatical ended, I have been gathering those “words of the Lord” from our congregation so that I might have a clearer perception of where God wants our church to go in the days ahead.

Over the last two years we have been functioning off of the word from our last sabbatical which was PREPARE.

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We have been in a construction phase. It is not finished yet, but it is close.

The words I have gathered so far about our future fall into four categories: DELIVERANCE

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LIGHT

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PRAYER

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AND CARE

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I don’t yet know how these all fit together and I am not finished gathering all the words the congregation heard. I have a few more groups to meet with this week, but prophetically we are moving towards deliverance, light, prayer and care….somehow this is God’s next step.