This has to be the first time in my life, that I am SO excited that it is Fall! Summer held so much excitement for our family, but now it is good to rest, and get cozy and be settled in our home. I am even loving the cooler weather. Even the Rain! So far. It is really fun looking at the leaves and the pumpkins with Carter and Kate since everything is so new and amazing to them. They also are enjoying reading together, so that's been really fun to cuddle up with them and their fun picture books. I feel very blessed to be home with them each day and love watching them discover life. Since being in NC, we are enjoying having Ben home most nights for the whole bedtime routine. There's nothing like 1 and 3 year olds, greeting their daddy when he gets home from work. I thoroughly enjoy that time of day, I know Ben does too. Tonight, as I tucked Kate into bed, she said, Mommy, I love you....thank you for being good at the store today. =)

Kate reading to Carter as I get ready for church.

Flying with children.

Ben keeps telling me that it's my turn to post...now that naptime is here, I think that it will be my last chance for awhile because tomorrow....We fly to Washington! Everyone in our house is Very excited...well, maybe not Carter so much...but he would be if he understood. The kids are good travelers. I drove the kids to my parents house a few weeks ago. It was a 9 and a half hour trip and the kids were champs! We didn't even have a dvd player! So, I feel like they will do well on the plane trip too! Ben and I can both give the kids full attention, and I am going to pack some fun little activity bags for each of them. Of course, you know, they will probably end up just playing with napkins or a package of peanuts or something anyway. =) I read the list of annoying flyers from a flight attendant's point of view. (on the yahoo home page yesterday). The only thing I saw that I learned from was "leave the dry cereal at home". Hmm...are goldfish and animal crackers ok? We'll be sure to pick up the ones that don't make it in their mouths. Of course, if they fall on the floor and get stepped on...I guess that would call for a dustbuster....So do any of our readers have tips on flying with children?
Hmm...not so sure why this is all underlined. I thought I would post a few pics of the kids, and finish up my packing!

Bike riding!

"Tinkerbell"

Kate Loves dress up! Here she is leaning in to give her "prince" a kiss.

The Verge

Since we last wrote Cathy and the kids took a trip to PA for about a week to visit family, I flew to CT for a wedding, we joined the minivan club, we helped someone move, we had a community outreach cookout in a neighborhood of Belmont, NC, etc, etc, etc. Probably not much different then many of your lives (at least the busy pace). Things for friends, family and church ... but what about me and God. As Christians we often always think the gospel and its power are for others and focus mainly on how we can (or should) share the gospel with others (which is very important) but do we spend time remembering the power of the gospel in our own lives. Do we spend our time thinking about the transforming power and grace shown to us through the gospel in our own lives (Romans 5:8) or do we spend our time thinking about NBA playoff's, work, school, material possesions?

What or who do you make disciples of? I thought this was an odd question when my pastor asked it, but think about it for awhile. If you like a football team you read about them, talk about them, have friends over and watch them on TV, wear their clothes and try to convince everyone around you that they are the best. You might do the same thing with a different sports team, a TV show or even the Apple vs. PC saga. Whatever thing is your thing you without even knowing it are making disciples of these people or things. Do you do the same for Jesus? (Matthew 6:21)

Our Cookout went well. We had about 5 families from the neighborhood come, we grilled and played games and hopefully started building relationships that God can use to transform lives. Please pray that these relationships will grow and that some of them would feel comfortable joining our community group and/or church.

Our church is on the verge of our official launch with weekly services, 5 active community groups, service activities, a cool logo and a rockin website ( http://www.theexoduschurch.org/beta/ ), etc, etc, etc. all great things. Many people would measure the success of a church ministy by earlthy measures of attendance or giving statements but we must pray that more importantly the gospel is communicated in a way that changes lives. That it is not another part of someone's schedule but that it can point people to Jesus. Please help us through prayer for the following things.

The facility we are hoping to Up-Fit for our church
Our lives to continue being shaped by the gospel
Others who join Exodus to be changed by the gospel
More help with our church (Matthew 9:37-38)
Our Pastor and leadership team

Thank you all for your prayers and interest in this. Please let us know your thoughts or questions and of course please share this with others we know that may not have seen it yet.

Love,

The Hoersch's

Partners through Prayer

It is time for us to start to "Get our hands dirty" so to speak. Being involved with ministering rather than just being ministered to is a blessing (I didn't have any dirty hands pictures so I figured I'd give some brown nose pictures).

So many of you have responded already it is very encouraging. Thank you for your prayers. To answer your questions:

- No, I am not a pastor (I literally LOL'd about this one). Just doing God's work and simply taking a more active part in the ministries of my church then I ever have before

- Not sure if emails can be sent out when the blog is updated (for you seasoned bloggers, perhaps you can help me out on this one)

- We plan to update it about once a week

Community Group went well tonight. We meet each week and our purpose is to care for each other, build each other up and work together on mission (Acts 5:42). We have 5 seperate groups meeting each week and we hope to add a few more by the end of the year. The community group we are in we are planning a community outreach in Belmont for the last weekend in May (please pray for this). I spoke with our Pastor tonight and we have updated our website, same link as before but add a /beta to the end (for now) Here is a new link.

http://www.theexoduschurch.org/beta/

Prayer request:

Our church leadership

Our Pastor who is finishing up some training in Seattle this weekend

May month end outreach.

Thank you all so much for your partnership through prayer,

The Hoersch's

Beginnings

So ... God tells us He has a plan for us (Jer. 29:11) which we all would agree to but we often find ourselves thinking it is for something in the future. Something big and important, a milestone moment that will define who we are and how we are remembered. However, I say His plan is for right now, for this day. Not the big monumental things, but what we think to be the little things, the mundane, or the unseen things.

As many of you know Cathy and I have recently made a move to North Carolina. We wanted to be here for many reasons but not the reason that God wanted us for. We thought more stable and upward career opportunities for me, a more affordable location for our family, more options for me to finish school, and of course the nice warm weather. All of these things are important and great however God is revealing His desire for us to be on mission in the most unlikely of places.

We have lived in 3 states since we were married 4 years ago and never knew where God wanted us to be on mission. Cathy and I have always felt a tug on our hearts for missions work. Whether it be support of others on the mission field through finances and prayer or us making the leap we were never sure. We met while traveling abroad and each have always had the spark in us for adventure. We have dreamt of a far off tropical place that is probably what comes to mind for all of you when you think missions. We will be doing God's work not in a jungle, or some foreign nation, but rather in our own zip code.

We are so excited that God has brought us here. And we need your help. Not financially but rather prayerfully. We have joined a church here that was recently planted in a small city just outside of Charlotte. It is called The Exodus Church and we feel called to be on mission here. I have never really done this sort of thing but I know that Jesus chooses the most unlikely of people to do His work and He supplies what we need (James 1:5). Not quiting the day job so no worries there. But as all of your 401K's likely have shrunk and people around you, or possibly even you have lost a job we are reminded that our hope is not in our treasures here and our selfish ambitions, but on eternal things.

We ask that you would seriously consider a commitment to praying for our family each day. If you will commit to pray for us please let us know. A minute, 5 minutes, whatever you can afford. We know we will need it. Specific prayer for now would be for:

- Exodus Church ... http://www.theexoduschurch.org/

- The city of Belmont, West Charlotte and East Gastonia.

- Our family

- Our minds (1 Peter 3:15)

- Our purpose (Matthew 28:19-20)

Thanks,

The Hoersch's