Joyce's Blog

Celebrate Life!

ADMIN — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:44:20 +0000

Super Bowl Sunday has always been a big day in our family. Maybe because our family enjoys football so much! Even though our team, the Chargers, is not playing this Sunday, we will still have a football party with good food, good snacks and with lots of cheering & loud boisterous noise! It will be fun!

Reflection and Expectation

ADMIN — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:13:28 +0000

New Year’s is a great time for naturally reflecting on the year we have just come through and focusing on the New Year we are entering. Looking back, I see a year that has been filled with God’s faithful guidance, amazing grace and everlasting love.

It has been a great year for our family. We celebrated as our son, Brenden, married Serena! It was a beautiful wedding on the beach! We celebrated the birth of our new granddaughter, Sophia, born to Clair and Sonny. Now, we are blessed with three beautiful granddaughters – Emma, Layla and Sophia! Our oldest son, Drew, has continued his education at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He studies online and it is very extensive and time consuming. Our youngest son, Cameron, attends Azusa Pacific University and is busy with his studies and football. We are blessed with a wonderful family! I am so thankful for all my children, my son in law, my daughter in law, my grandchildren, and of course, my wonderful husband!

It has been a great year for our church. We have seen many lives encouraged, helped and strengthened. We have seen many people come to know Jesus as their Savior and receive his love. Tom and I have enjoyed teaching LIFE 101, the foundation class for new believers. We began our “Committed to the Cause” campaign drive for raising finances for the new campus. We have been moving forward with the building plans for the new campus. The completed plans are beautiful!

I am forever grateful for the people God has entrusted me to do life with! We have a fantastic team of leaders that I am privileged to work side by side with. My life is continually enriched by the lives of amazing people in our church, friends and family.

I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness in 2011 and I look forward to 2012 with great faith and expectation. I believe it will be a great year! A year of seeing God’s people flourish! We will flourish in spiritual growth, flourish in families, flourish in careers, flourish in relationships, flourish in reaching the world with God’s love, flourish in walking out the Vision God has placed in our hearts!

Flourishing in God's love

ADMIN — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:15:04 +0000

We have been learning about flourishing in God’s love at Women byDesign. Just to be sensitive to the many ways God will speak to our hearts during the day, reminding us how much he loves us, speaking tenderly & gently to us, bringing correction when needed, giving encouragement & hope, truly brings an awareness of His presence in our lives. Sunday, we sang a song and one of the lines went, “I was worth every nail”. At first my head said...

Another Palm Tree?

ADMIN — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:35:12 +0000

As summer is drawing to a close, I am full of expectation for the new season! This summer has been a wonderful time filled with family and friends, the beach, swimming, grilling, hanging out, and enjoying life. Some may remember Tom saying that we have enough palm trees in our yard as a response to me wanting to buy another Phoenix palm for our yard. So, Emma, my granddaughter, and I counted the palm trees in our side yard and back yard. There were 21 palm trees! That does not include our front yard – which has quite a few. So, I guess we do have enough – although I still think another Phoenix palm would look great right next to our house!

Heartbeat after God

ADMIN — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:49:07 +0000

David is described as a man after God’s own heart. In Acts 13:22 God said, "I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do." What is it to have a heart after God’s own heart? From this passage in Acts we can see that it is having a heart that is submitted to doing God’s will in our lives. It is having a heart that is fully, wholeheartedly committed to God...

An Exciting Year Already!

ADMIN — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:57:12 +0000

It has been a busy yet exciting year already! January was filled with planning and vision for the year which is always invigorating. We are so excited about the plans and purposes of God! Then February was busy with wedding details for Brenden, our middle son's wedding. He and Serena had a small beautiful wedding right on the beach in Del Mar. It was a picture perfect day! Then we had a church reception and so appreciated all of the church family who were able to attend and celebrate with us. We are so happy to welcome our beautiful new daughter into our family. She is a blessing not only to Brenden, but to us as well! We know that God has wonderful things in store for them...

Spilled Water

ADMIN — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 07:27:14 +0000

Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. (Unless you have a Sham Wow) But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him. 2 Samuel 14:14...

2010

ADMIN — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:51:48 +0000

God has been so good to us in 2010. It is such an honor to serve in the House of the Lord! I love the way the Message translation puts it, “One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches...

Merry Christmas!

ADMIN — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:51:17 +0000

"Giving the Gift of Jesus" has been a great series of messages this month. I have had to remind myself while shopping for the "perfect" gift that although we love to give great gifts, the greatest gift we can give is JESUS...

Traditions

Oak Valley Church — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:36:35 +0000

I love Christmas time! Not only because we are celebrating the greatest gift ever given, the gift of eternal life and unconditional love from God the Father to all humanity through His son, Jesus; but also because it is a special time of year for family and friends to get together...