Save the date: Sunday October 2, 2011 (date has changed!)

Blue Orleans 2 October 2011, 5.30pm-7.30pm
Please note the date change, if you have already reserved a spot, please let us know if you are still able to make the new date)

We will be hosting an exclusive and fabulous dinner at Blue Orleans Restaurant, in downtown Chattanooga at Market and Main Street, to help raise support for our upcoming missions trip to Zimbabwe and South Africa in December 2011.

Reserve your seats now, tickets are limited and will be a minimum dontation of $20 per person (adults and children) in the restaurant and $5 per child in the childcare area (12 and under maximum charge of $10 for families of 3 or more children needing childcare).

We will be having a fun night of Great Food, Fellowship, Silent and Live Auctions and Sharing our heart on what we feel the Lord is leading us to over there in the short term for our December-February trip and long term over the next few years. 

Please email d_jgray@bellsouth.net or call Jackie 423-304 1508 to reserve your spots now.  Childcare will be limited to the first 50 children and the restaurant to the first 130 to make reservations.  If you would like to purchase extra tickets please also let us know.  Payment will only be due in September, but we need to know how many to cater for in advance, so reserve now!

AUCTION:  If you would like to donate any items to our silent auction please let me know, Professional Services, handmade goodies, perishable and non, gift cards, paintings any items really!  All proceeds will go towards our airfare and towards projects we would like to be do with the ministries we will be working with.  We are also looking for 2-3 larger items for our Live Auction.

*If you would like to help serve or have teenagers that would like to help serve in the restaurant and with the childcare, please also let us know.

If you are not able to come that night, but would still like to be involved, we are still trying to raise monthly support for our expenses in Africa, for the months we will be gone, all online donations are tax deductible and can be made either monthly or as a one time gift at:
 www.shepsstaff.org/gray.aspx    Acct no: 6003 (David and Jackie Gray)

Much love in the Lord
David and Jackie

Overcoming Goliath...

Dear Lord,

We're here to love You, to obey you, to glorify You. O my Beloved may I be a joy to You!

Today thankfulness comes from having the privilege of being able to pour into my sweet family, as much as laundry, and dishes and cleaning and schooling can get tiresome, I am amazed at how each morning the Lord renews us and gives us grace for another day - how privileged we are to be entrusted with the life of another - at times I am overwhelmed with the joy that my children bring me, but other times I am overwhelmed with how much heartache we can cause each other as human beings.  On my first trip to  Zimbabwe I was in awe when we got to see giraffes - I had never before seen a real live one that close, they are so beautiful and statuesque, I almost expected Noah to be standing around the corner next to the ark! But how much more beautiful and worthy of our admiration is the One who created our children and all living things. Gods promises are always true, He never has and never will fail us or cause us heartache or dissapointment, when man seems to fail you, look to the One who will never fail you, who will never dissapoint you or let you down!

Aren't you grateful for the delight and privilege of praising our wonderful God, the most beautiful and generous and trustworthy of all beings!

Today I choose to trust the Lord, to remember His promises and to listen and be reminded of the Goliath's He has overcome in mine and my families life, today I lift up friends who also face their own Goliath's who maybe need to be reminded that the Lord is faithful and trustworthy and His promises are always true.

 

As we continue on our journey to sell our home and trust the Lord to provide financially for a big journey with our young children, in just over 4 months, may I ask you to partner with us in prayer and petition the Lord with us to give us the patience needed in the process, to trust His timing and provision and to be sensitive to what He (not what we feel) He is calling us to. 

 

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

For Sale

Acts 17:26...and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation

As our boundaries begin to shift and we feel the Lord tugging on our heart to continue forward with our journey to Africa, we find it is time to set up for ourselves guideposts, so we may return to the cities we feel the Lord leading us back to:  our FOR SALE sign in our yard being the first one!

Please would you prayerfully partner with us as we seek a buyer or possibly renter for our home, which will allow us to downsize considerably to enable us to go to Africa for 3 months this coming December, not only will it help us financially but we also feel long term it is part of the Lords plan for us to be over there longer term.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.236260226394830.58272.236255709728615#!/pages/Grays-Home-for-Sale/236255709728615?sk=info to see all the info, please feel free to share this with anybody whom you think may be interested.  The Lord has very graciously allowed us to sell two homes on our own in Florida, so in light of wanting to be good stewards with what He has gifted to us, with our real estate over the years, we are pursuing this route for now.

If you would like further information on our trip, our would like to contribute financially please click on the link on the RHS of this blog which will link you directly to our Shepherds Staff account.

Please also follow our blog so you can stay updated on our upcoming fundraising yard sale and dinner....