Our Blessings in 2012

Casey & I started an end-of-the-year tradition in 2009 where we think back on the year and write down all of our blessings from that year. I got the idea from Paul McDill's blog post because his family does something similar. You can read about our previous years' blessings here, here, and here! 

Now for 2012's blessings on The Coats Family :)

Got pregnant with our 2nd baby!

Casey and Lauren both got to attend Catalyst, Lauren for the first time

So many friends and family came to celebrate Sawyer’s 1st birthday!

Vacationed in New Orleans using credit card points/miles

Lauren was able to stay home with Sawyer for a 2nd year

Sawyer's tubes in March improved her health--no ear infections since! 

Lauren completed 13 hours of school, as well as her first of 3 internships

Casey & Lauren both got to go skiing on spring break in Colorado

Our CG (community group) grew and we were blessed with getting to know each other better!

Got a tax refund

No car trouble this year!

c|Life’s dnow had over 350 kids

c|Life’s youth camp had 219 kids

There were over 400 kids at See You At The Pole

We saw many students saved through these youth events

Started a student leadership team called “the 12” which we both enjoyed leading

Lauren made extra money by keeping twin boys Luke & Monte as well as another boy, Braden, that Sawyer loved playing with

Part-time job at Playschool at Mimosa Lane (and in the room with Sawyer)

Made a great, new friend--Charity--at Playschool 

Found loving homes for Lucy & Ella

Casey’s enjoys playing basketball with friends in the mornings

Received lots of free babysitting from grandparents living close by!

Celebrated with Paul and Jill on their adoption of Julia

G-Momma paid for Sawyer to take private swim lessons, and she loved it

Charlie & Ginni had Mathis, who is sure to be Dayton’s good friend!

Rachel and Jordan had Conrad (an answered prayer!)--another friend for Dayton!

Casey celebrated 5 years at c|Life

Financial blessings 

We celebrated our 5^th year of marriage!

Lauren got to participate in a 7 week Beth Moore bible study series with other women from c|Life

Lauren is still enjoying friendships made at pokeno each month

Generous gifts given to us at Dayton's baby shower thrown by awesome friends! 

Healthy baby Dayton was born!

As usual, God has blessed us abundantly and we are thankful!!! 

Our Blessings in 2011

Every year now Casey and I talk about and write down our blessings from that previous year. You can read 2009's HERE here and 2010's HERE & HERE. In years past we did this on our anniversary getaway, but since this year's anniversary was much shorter in length (just one night away instead of 3) we did it at dinner at our kitchen table on December 31st. We came up with so many blessings, easily!

Sawyer Grace Coats was born! :)

Nice people of Baylor hospital and their help in the NICU

Generous gifts given to us at 4 different baby showers for Sawyer

Laura Bond & Ginni Rickerson using their nice cameras and expertise to take free newborn pictures of Sawyer for us

Carroll Twins were born

Continued improvement of Beverly’s health

Getting to stay at home with Sawyer

Lauren had a great experience at Smith for my first 3 years of teaching and was congratulated upon staying at home and has kept up with my friendships made there (Tracey, Christie, & Jim)

Part time job at Mimosa Lane Playschool IN the baby room with Sawyer!

Being able to sub on Fridays (ie. Casey’s day off)

Sawyer’s helmet improving her head shape

Financial blessings

We sold my Mustang for almost as much as our new Escape

No car trouble this year!

Good health for both Casey & Lauren (minus Casey’s Poison Ivey experience:)

Good fellowship & learning with our community group

Answered prayer of Lauren & Ben’s remarriage in Colorado (November)

c|Life’s d|now had over 300 kids with many salvations!

c|Life’s youth camp had 256 kids with many salvations!

c|Life's high school mission trip with children in Robstown accepting Christ!

Casey has enjoyed playing basketball frequently with friends

Casey has enjoyed his new men’s group/book club with some men from church called “5 Guys No Lies”

Money was raised for the youth group through the Annual Micah Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament that Casey hosts each year

Lauren is still enjoying friendships made through pokeno each month

Christie Harty Photography doing Father’s Day pictures of Sawyer and of our family for no charge!

My mom bought us a king size bed in exchange for our queen! Great nights of sleep in 2011!

Taking sewing lessons from Natalie Swartz and my dad buying me a sewing/embroidery machine for Christmas

Answered prayer of Ben & Abby Lowery getting to bring Abe home from Ethiopia

Wow! Every time I read through that list I just feel so blessed! It is exciting to see answered prayer and other blessings that God gives us. Every year we are able to come up with 25+ reasons to be thankful and there are always things I leave off of the blog because it may be private to someone. God is good to us--What a great reminder for the new year.

The Good News

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." 

Luke 2:10b-11

Check out this great video by The Village Church that c|Life showed tonight. I loved it. 

The Village Blog - Advent: God With Us

We wish you a wonderful Christmas and hope that you are remembering God's precious gift to us on this special day.

Casey, Lauren, & Sawyer

Come Find Me in Heaven!

Our last night at the kid's club was awesome. There was a very somber feeling in the air. Our students knew they were about to get into some important stuff with the kids. Because they allowed God to use them, over 20 children came to know Christ on our last night!!! It was such a fun and celebratory night!!

playing red light, green light!

sharing the Gospel

making "Jesus bracelets"

saying goodbye to our friends - the ones we met in 2003.

The saddest part about mission trip is saying goodbye to the little friends we meet and build relationships with, but it is so neat to be able to tell some of them that we will see them again in Heaven and that they need to come find us when they get there!

Tie-dye Fun!!!

On Wednesday we told the kids the story of Noah's Ark, painted rainbows, and then tie-dyed shirts to remind them of God's promise to never flood the Earth again! The shirts were a hit, and we will be passing them back to the kids tonight (they have been hanging out to dry)! Because Casey & I were at the tie dye station all night, there are not many pictures of day 3, but here are few shots from the end of the night when we got together and sang songs with the kids (always a fun time:)!

Tonight is our last night to minister to these sweet kiddos and I am sure tears will be shed when we say goodbye to them! Please pray hard for our students tonight as they share the story of Jesus and His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. We will follow up by making bracelets with 5 colored beads representing the plan of salvation - black representing the sins that we carry, red representing Jesus' blood sacrifice for our sake, white representing our sins being washed white as snow, green for our growth as Christians, and finally yellow, which represents the gold streets of Heaven where we will meet Jesus and see each other again!

Even More Kiddos Than Before!

On Tuesday morning some of our kids went to a women's shelter to help clean up their donation pantry and clear brush while another group went to a church to begin painting. They did an awesome job and worked without complaining. They have really been serving others and each other all week and it is a very neat thing to watch.

Our 2nd day of kid's clubs was awesome!! We had over 70 kinder-6th grade kids show up as well as the same 15-20 teenagers! Our students did a great job telling them the story of Daniel and the lion's den, playing with them, and showing them Christ's love! Check out some of our pictures from Day 2!

Please continue to pray for our students and the little children that they are reaching out to.

Zephyr & Kid's Clubs!

Monday morning we headed out to Zephyr Baptist Encampment to cut down trees, wash windows and cabanas, rake up leaves, and pull weeds! The students had great attitudes and worked hard for several hours before heading back for lunch!

A couple of boys kept us very entertained with their pretty singing while they worked. ;)

Ready to wash some windows!!

Around 5:30 we headed towards Diaz Park to start our Backyard Bible Clubs! We were so excited to meet some kiddos! When we arrived there were a lot of teenage boys there playing basketball and skateboarding. It was a great opportunity for the students to minister to some people their own age. I don't think they expected this, and they did a GREAT job making new friends and building relationships! Not counting the older kids, there were about 25 kinder-6th grade children on Monday night. There were probably 20 teenagers that stayed and hung out with us as well. Several moms also stayed and we were able to get to know them as well. It was a great first night!!

Teaching the story of Jonah in the whale using a water bottle, blue food coloring, baby oil, and a whale cracker :)

And like I said before, our kids did a great job getting to know the guys their age - which is often the most intimidating!

They students did such a great job at making connections, and in the group last night many of them talked about the impact that these little kids and teenagers are already making on their lives. We hope to be able to form relationships this week that will enable us to share our faith with them before we leave and hopefully see some make decisions that will change where they spend eternity. Be praying for this!

Mission Trip 2010

Check out updates of our high school mission trip to Robstown, TX at http://clifeyouth.blogspot.com

I made this blog for parents and members of our church to see updates, but thought y'all might be interested, too! :)

We Made It!!!

We left early Sunday morning with 3 packed vans and a u-haul full of luggage and fun stuff for the kiddos we were to meet in Robstown, Texas! We picked one up on the way and another the next day for a group of 41 high school students and 7 adults!

We were blessed with safe travels and arrived at River Hills Baptist Church in the late afternoon and began unpacking our stuff before heading to Diaz Park to pass out flyers. Once at the park, we got a game plan and then split up into our 3 groups to pass out flyers and meet people in the community. We gave out 400 flyers and met lots of kiddos interested in coming to hang out with us at the park this week!

Casey and Lauren were blessed on the first day when they found Isabel and Gabriel - friends they had made on a mission trip to Robstown back in 2003 when they were just 5 and 6 years old. We saw them again in 2005 when they were 7 and 8, and now they are in middle school and are 12 and 13 years old! They didn't live in the same house anymore, but we tracked them down a couple of miles away. They remembered us well and Isabel even called us by the nicknames she had given us, "Hot Sauce" and "Spicy Mustard!" Haha! God is sweet, and He blessed us with an awesome reunion!

After walking around the neighborhood trying to let the kids know we were there, we headed to Cici's for a pizza buffet! After dinner we spent some time sharing how we already felt God moving in this city and in our lives. The students got in their groups and prayed for the kiddos they would have this week. They took communion together and thanking Jesus for his sacrifice.

The students are having a blast getting to know new friends and playing in our free time! We've had a lot of fun playing a game called MAXIMUM ATTENTION with the whole group! Good times!

Keep us in your prayers as well as the kids we hope to meet here in Robstown. God is already allowing us to have great conversations with the people we've met. 

Check back often for updates - we hope to be able to post some pictures at least once each day and fill you in on our MISSION TRIP 2010!!!

The Power of Prayer

Good grief today was good.

Let me start by saying that at our wedding, Casey's best man, Scott, told me in his speech that he thought that I should utilize the power that prayer has and really work in our marriage through prayer. I have thought about his words several times since our wedding, and I have listened to them again on our wedding video.

Anyway, lately the power of prayer has really been evident in my life. There have been several things that I have really poured out in prayer lately and so many of them have been answered.

There is one story in particular that really touched me today.

Let me back up by saying that there are a couple of girls from my class at school last year (6th grade) that our now in our youth group (as of a couple of weeks ago when they promoted into 7th grade). They started coming to our church about a month before school let out in May and Blake, the Jr. High guy was their Sunday School teacher while they were still in 6th. (It has been really cool to have them at church, by the way). They were twins that I was really close to last year. This morning I saw them and their mom and her fiance at church.

Today at church, David Griffin preached about salvation. He said very early on in the sermon that we should pray for other people's salvation. I usually don't take notes, but I have for the past couple of weeks on our church bulletin (we call it a cLink). Anyway, when he said that I wrote out "Pray for other's salvation" and then I wrote my twin girls' last name next to it. I felt it lay very heavy on me during the entire sermon and kept praying and thinking of them and their family. I didn't know if they were Christians or not, but didn't really think that they were, but wasn't sure either way.

The service was great, and we actually had an alter call, which we basically NEVER do. I was a littl shocked that we did, actually. :) Anyway, I looked over at the girls and their parents several times and they never moved. I actually felt dissapointment...even though I didn't know if they were Christians or not.

I left the service and went to the youth worker meeting to get food ready and set up chairs. While I was in that room, Blake, our junior high minister told me to come with him. He said he had a surprise for me. Blake likes to play jokes, so my first thought is that I was about to walk into some prank. Instead, I went with him to a room where he got his Bible off of a cabinet and pulled out two cards. He said, "What does this mean to you?" He showed me that both of my girls from class had filled out cards and accepted Christ this morning. I immediately started crying, took the cards, went to show Casey, and get the bulletin out of my purse. Blake followed me, and I am sure he thought I was crying more than was necessary, but I showed him the place where I had written their name on my cLink. That was the part that got me so much. I felt like God had taken my prayer and showed me how powerful He was -- in less than an hour. Wow.

I could go on and on about this because I still feel so dumbfounded, but I am sure you get the point by now.

Summary: Prayer is powerful and God is VERY good :)

What more could you ask for?

As most of you know, Casey is the youth minister at our church in Forney, Community Life Church, better known as cLife. Our Wednesday night youth service is called Momentum. Tomorrow night will be there first night that the new 7th graders (last year's 6th graders) are invited to Momentum! It starts at 7pm.

Anyway, two weeks ago, the teenagers did an awesome skit, and I was so moved I had to take a picture to remember it! Casey said that he felt like it was one of the best youth services yet, and I agree! Not because of himself (although he is awesome:), but because of the kids. They are greatness.

First let me back up just a bit...at the service the week before, Casey asked the students to write things in their life that they wanted to be rid of on cards. Fast forward....this week he during his talk he nailed the rest of the cards on a cross.

Moving.

Then, after he was done talking, the band played a really good song (it was new, and I don't remember the name of it), and several kids dressed in black got up and started painting on 5, big, white canvases. At first you couldn't tell what they were painting, but then towards the end you could kind of see. At the very end a girl came by and splattered the red on all of the paintings and made it obvious. After that, all of the kids held them all up like you see in the picture.

I almost cried. When you really think of what Jesus did on that cross and all that he went through, it is incrediblly moving.

While the kids were holding up the paintings, Casey came and put the cross with all of the kids cards on it in front.

Moving again. When I think of why Jesus did that it blows my mind. He did it for us. He did it for me. He did it for my sin that is nailed to that cross.

I was also proud of the kids. It is very neat as an adult to go and be so moved at a youth service. They truly know how to worship. And they are awesome in dramas and the artsy stuff (some would say more than adults!).

Here are a couple of pictures.

I took this one after the service so you could see it better.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.