Day 20 and 21

I am thankful for good health, easy access to food and water, a healthy baby, and a very loving husband who reminds me of these things when I'm having a sad day.

Day 19

I am thankful to God for showing me a good and beautiful life.

Last night I went with Nathan's family to see the Rockettes preform.  It was a great show but the show afterwards was even better.  Nathan's cousin is coming home today from Africa.  He is on leave for the Thanksgiving holidays.  His mom and girlfriend were with me last night and both were glowing.  It was so great to see how excited they were in their own ways.  Patty(the mom) was so excited to have her son home, and soon all of her kids.  Caitlin(the girlfriend) was beaming with excitement to have her love home soon.  I think we could have spent our whole time in an empty stadium and they would have been so happy.

Patty is very outgoing and talks to everyone.  I love it because it reminds me of my family.  Not many people in my family have ever met a stranger.  Patty is the same way and last night was talking to everyone.  As we left the show, Caitlin and I noticed that Patty wasn't with us.  So we waited knowing that she was most likely talking to someone.  When she got down to the exit she turned and started talking to the usher.  I stayed and waited for her.  I'm not really familiar with the venue and didn't want to get lost myself, so I just stood by the wall half listening to her conversation and half wanting to get going.  As she left usher I heard the usher say,"Have a great time with your son and enjoy your holidays."  I thought oh my she is telling every person who will listen about Jacob coming home tomorrow.  I think that is so awesome.  What a love she has for her son.

 I thought about Jesus and wondered if this is how he would spread the Gospel if He had been at the Rockettes show.  I think Jesus totally would have.  He would go around and tell everyone about the love he has to offer and about the amazing things that his followers are doing and how he can't wait to greet them.

I also thought about how we can often get caught up in our life and want to get going instead of stopping and listening to good news.

I'm excited for Jacob and his family today.  I am really excited for the people who will be at the airport today from 3:00 to 4:00 because I'm sure Aunt Patty will be sharing her good news with all of them.  I'm thankful that God reminded me that if I would stop and listen I can witness a good and beautiful life.

Day 18

Today I am thankful for Jaime Fisher and Jes Partian.  I'm glad that I can always call them and ask questions or share laughs on the joy of pregnancy.  I am so glad that these amazing girls are part of my life.

I am also thankful that Nathan took the entire day off tomorrow.  I can't wait to spend a weekday with him!

Days 15, 16, and 17

I'm thankful for Morgandy Skye Moran.  I'm so glad that even though I can count the times I've seen her on two hands, she still knows who I am.  I hope Bretton knows me too someday.

Day 13 and 14

I am thankful that I got to come "home" to my parents house.  I love getting to be here and hanging out with them.  It's funny how when you feel so bad it just takes coming home for even a day or so to feel better.  I think I can make it to Christmas now.  I'm also thankful that my husband supports me when I need a break.

On the 12th day of Thankfulness...

Today I am thankful for the rain and the cool weather.  I have complained(probably too much) lately about the hot days we've been having here. I really love the cold and am one of the few here who likes it.  Yesterday it got cold and rainy.  I am very thankful for the change we have had.

Day 11

Today I am thankful for the all the luxuries I have.  I am thankful that I am able to have food, water, shelter, and a loving family.  I think I take a lot for granted and really notice that I do around this time of the year.  I pray that I can remember to be more thankful for the things I do have.

Day 10

Today I am thankful for really great nieces and nephews.  I was more than excited when Morgandy was born because I became and aunt for the first time.  And then I got married and got 2 more nieces and 2 more nephews.  And now I have one more nephew so....three of each!  I love that they are all at different stages of life right now.  From just almost walking to starting to drive.  They are all very sweet and so much fun.  I'm thankful that God blessed me with such great kids in my life and I pray that I can be Jesus to them.

Day 9

Today I am thankful for getting to live in Missoula, Montana.  I'm not sure if you can be thankful for something in the past but I am.  I'm thankful for the awesome family that I have there.  I'm thankful for meeting my husband there.  I'm thankful for the friendships I have there.  I'm really thankful for the amazing adventures that I got to go on.

I'm also thankful for places like these....

Day 8

Today I am very thankful for my Grando.  I've been thinking about her with all sorts of baby gifts that we have been receiving.  I can hear her in the back of my head asking if I wrote a thank you note yet.  I'm thankful that she taught me to always tell other's how much you appreciate their kindness.  She is so good at that.  

I'm also thankful for her sense of humor.  I love laughing with her.  

I'm also thankful for her outgoingness.  I like how she has never met a stranger.  I'm glad that I have some of Gdo in me and hope I can continuously live life like her.

Day 7

I totally failed yesterday.  I think I ended the day with about 4 meltdowns.  It was not a good day for me at all.
So today I'm thankful for new days.  I thankful that I have a husband who forgives me and still loves me even when I'm an idiot. And I'm very thankful for a God that allows me to have a do-over.
I did go to the zoo (by myself) and had an ok time.  I needed the walk and to be outside.  I probably didn't need to be alone but it worked out.  Here are a few shots...

Day 6

The day has just started and honestly I'm having a hard time finding something to be thankful for already.  I am consumed with a feeling of loneliness yet again for the 1000000000th day in a row.  The bad thing is that it's only going to get worse in the next few months.  Nathan is starting basketball season and today spending the day driving to Springfield to be with his nephew for about 2 hours for his birthday.  I'm not going because riding in a car is very uncomfortable these days and I don't want to spend my Saturday in the car.  I'm glad he is going and I realize that I could go and not be alone instead of complaining right now but I just don't want to.
When it comes to my life here in Missouri I have a very hard time being thankful.  Mainly because I feel lonely here a lot.  I could write a lot about why I feel so alone but this is suppose to be about Thankfulness.
Last night we went to the Community Cafe.  I love going there and talking to the people.  The Cafe is a place here where poor/homeless people can go for a hot meal 5 days a week.  A lot of them are older and just want to talk to you.  Most of the time they don't make sense but it's still good to talk to them and listen to their stories.
One person there is Mrs. Taylor.  She is a retired teacher who is now a substitute teacher.  But she doesn't sub a lot because she is constantly going on mission trips.  She just returned from Mexico and is going to Haiti for the 4th time this year in about a week.  She welcomes people to the Cafe and kinda takes attendance.  Mrs. Taylor lives just down the street from the Cafe in a pretty bad part of town.  I love how she is intentional and incarnational in everything she does.  She lives alone but I don't think she is lonely at all.  She has filled her life with the Mission of God.  I'm thankful for Mrs. Taylor.  I'm thankful that she is here to remind me that life isn't always about having lots of friends or feeling apart of a church or a family.  Those things are all very sad and I wish life was better but I'm thankful for God showing me people like Mrs. Taylor.  I can't go on mission trips right now, but I can ask God to show me things here that need to be done for Him.  My prayer today will not be on taking the loneliness away but to open my eyes to see God working in my life.  I'm thankful for a Savor who is willing to let me be apart of his Kingdom.

Day 5

Today I am thankful that we got to spend time at the community cafe.  I really feel like this can be a place where I can be incarnational.  I enjoy the regulars there and love that they make me feel like family.

Day 4

Today I'm thankful for friends afar.  I would have a hard time if I didn't have all of my far away friends.  I wish that I could see everyone more.  God has blessed me with great friends from afar.

Day 3

Today I am thankful for our future child.  I can't thank God enough for this amazing gift.  I love everyday of this pregnancy and can't wait to meet him/her.

The Mission of God and Politics...

I often joke with Nathan about the things I will do when I am "Queen of the World."  My campaign is filled with silliness, but what I consider very good ideas to help out the world.  For example, everyone will be required to dance around 3pm everyday....it's just good for your soul.  Everyone will also have to do at least one nice thing for other's before the day is done...imagine a world like that.  I know that I'm just being silly but I'm very serious about things we can do to make this world a little bit better.

After the recent elections, I've been thinking a lot about making this world(and our country) better.  This morning I've been thinking about things we talked about at our last lab with Mission Alive.  We spent time discussing Mission of God, Kingdom of God, and Incarnation.

This morning I woke up noticing that not one person I voted for won.  When I told Nathan he asked me how that made me feel.  The only feeling I had was the feeling of hunger. I was ready to eat breakfast.  I really didn't care much about it.  I have this overwhelming thought that God is ultimately the one in control here.  So I wondered how can we help our leaders whether or not we like them.  I also asked Nathan how many of the candidates based their campaigns on the Mission of God...not many.

But what if that actually happened?  Or instead of what ifs...what can we as Christians do now to help the Mission of God shine through these leaders.  Instead of complaining all the time about our elected leaders can we pray for them to make the right choices in all aspects of their lives?  How awesome would it be if we all prayed for our leaders on a regular basis.  And when I say pray, I'm talking about praying for God's Mission to be very apparent in everything they do.

I live in a place where people talk about politics a lot...or maybe it's that I'm older and have to always sit at the "adult table" now and people have always talked about it.  Anyways, I hardly ever hear about the Mission of God when politics is the subject.  1 Timothy 2:1-2 says, ^-"The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live."from the Message  I don't like talking about politics at all, because it causes a lot of doubts in people's faith, arguments, and strife.  But I could totally talk about it if we changed our conversations to how we can pray for our leaders.

I'm thankful that I don't have to be Queen of the World.  Although I think I'm going to start praying more for the Mission of God to be in our leaders.  Prayer is a powerful thing, more powerful than you can even imagine.  I'm thankful that we have the Bible to read and see people like Paul who believed in the power of prayer.  I'm even more thankful that we have a God who is more powerful than any leader of any elected position.  I hope we can start praying to speak in love and of God's mission when we talk about politics.  My prayer is that we can have leader's who are filled with the Mission of God and who long for the Kingdom of God and who will be Incarnational in our world.

Day 2

taken at our ugly christmas sweater party 2009

Today I'm thankful for my husband.  I'm very blessed to have such an amazing friend who takes care of me and loves me so much.  I can't wait to see him be a dad and continue our journey together.

30 days of Thankfulness

A sweet person I know did this last year and I just noticed she started again today.  I'm gonna be a copy cat and do 30 days of Thankfulness this month.

Day 1

Today I am thankful for getting to have lunch with Cailyn and getting to see Jenna.  God totally answered a prayer today with these girls.  I've been feeling so lonely lately and was needing some good conversations with some great ladies.  Thank you God for letting me feel like I'm a part of your kingdom today.

17 weeks

We are almost half way there!

I feel like sometimes this is going by so slow and other times I can't believe how far along we are.  I'm filled to the brim with thanks to God these days.  The baby seems to be doing well.  I can feel it sometimes but I'm still waiting for that big kick to the belly.  All of our appointments are going well.  I'm anticipating the next ultrasound.  I know that it's not good to have an ultrasound done for no reason but I'm ready to see this baby again.  

In 17 weeks I have gained 11 pounds. I always am so excited to step on the scale and see it go up.  I think I'm one of few pregnant women who loves getting bigger.

I can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers and excitement that you have shared with me. We can't wait to meet this baby.  

What's Next

Dear Friends and Family:

We cannot thank God nor all of you enough for the many blessings in our lives.  Obviously we are looking forward to the amazing gift of a child.  Along with that life change, we are also discussing a major change of vocation.  As many of you know, we have not exactly been happy in our current situation.  We both have worked in jobs where we encounter children/young adults in horrible conditions and lacking in every kind of love.  It is very difficult to work in this situation when we are not always able to share what would be most powerful for these children/young adults--food, a hug, prayer, spiritual love, and spiritual guidance.  So last year,  we started asking if God would open a way for us to find a new place in His mission.  Almost a week later--no joke--our friends Josh and Jaime Fisher called to tell us about Mission Alive.  

Mission Alive is a missional church planting organization in Dallas, TX.  In late July, we attended Mission Alive’s Discovery Lab.  The Lab is very intense; it is a three day spiritual assessment and discussion of faith. We learned a lot about ourselves and our marriage.  At the end of the Lab, Mission Alive asked Lana and I to be Associate Church Planters.  Preparing for church planting with Mission Alive is similar in many ways to preparing for foreign mission work.  After a lot of prayer and discernment, Lana and I have decided to continue to pursue this opportunity.  In mid-October, we will be attending the Theology Lab and hopefully in June the Strategy Lab.  During the Strategy Lab, we will establish more of the concrete details which we naturally wonder--where, when, how, etc.

We ask now that you would keep us in your prayers.  We also would appreciate a lot of questions so that you might be a part of our discernment process.  We ask that you would specifically pray for Lana and her pregnancy.  Please pray that we are patient--that we listen to God and sound counsel and not pursue our own selfish ideas.  Please pray that even while making future plans we do not fail to use this time to serve others.  And pray that we are open and listening to what God has to show us while at the Theology Lab--October 13-16.

Also, Lana says that asking for funds provides a wonderful way for people to feel apart of our lives and provides a reason to discuss God’s active presence in our lives.  She is correct.  It is also a testament to how God provides through His family.  In July, we needed $950 to make the trip; we received $951.  Through this June, we are asked to raise $1100.  If any of you feel called to participate in our discernment financially, we would greatly appreciate it.

Up until now, we have been trying to discern if church planting is a vocation we should pursue.  We believe it is.  This will hopefully become a greater and greater part of our lives, and we hope that you will continue to be a part of our lives as well.  Below we have listed contact information, information about Mission Alive, and some reading we have been doing about church planting.

Thank you. We love you,
Lana and Nathan Miller


Lana 660 233 2033       lanamcbanana@gmail.com
Nathan 660 909 8501   nfamiller@gmail.com   


Lana and Nathan Miller 
(Address not provided on public blog, please contact author for details)
Sedalia, MO 65301

Mission Alive  missionalive.org

Readings:
The Tangible Kingdom
And: The Gathered and Scattered Church
Organic Church
Transforming Discipleship
Simply Christian
Reasons for God