Neela is going to love football!

Neela's 1st Pumpkin Patch Experience!

Well, we had our first family experience at the Pumpkin Patch. It was so fun! Neela loved the pumpkins and was so excited to be there.

Random run in: The family in charge of the pumpkin patch was a family we met at our Dog Fair back in March. They were so sweet and remembered us. They helped us take our family picture. We love living in Austin!! :)


Neela was so intrigued by the pumpkins.



The Birdwell Family!



Neela and her Momma. I love this girl!!



Neela and her Daddy.




Neela loved her 1st Pumpkin Patch experience.

Fabulous Dog Service Company

Looking for dog services in the Austin area? Below is a great company I totally recommend.

Check out the website!

AustinDogWalking.com

Neela laughing with Nayan and Sanjay

This video was made just when Neela turned 4 months. It's so cute to see Neela playing with her cousins. I know she is excited for the day when she can crawl/walk/run around with them.

So cute!

Neela's Toes

So Neela is officially 5 months as of yesterday! Yay!! I can't believe how quickly the time has pasted by.

During her 4 months of life she picked up a really funny habit... chewing on her toes. :)

She started to discover her feet in the mornings when she woke up. She would entertain herself for a while just playing with her feet and then discovered her toes felt really good on her sore gums (that have teeth sprouting through) so she thought "Why not?". It's the cutest thing ever!

So one day I caught her in the action!

Missional Theology: Justification

I keep up with this fabulous website, www.missionalpeople.com

It's a great tool and resource to know what scripture teaches us about knowing Him and sharing His truth with others around us on a daily basis in our natural surroundings. Below is a great article about how important it is to know that we are Justified by Jesus Christ and we need to share this truth with others.

Below is an article from this website.

Knowing what is involved in justification and why it is necessary is extremely important, but it means nothing if it does not move us to mission. Realizing that we are justified by and before a holy God through Jesus should move us to invite others to experience the same justification. This should not be an aspect of theology that we casually graze over, but rather it should be a heart-felt mentality that we embrace deeply and live with consistently.

We can approach God confidently as a justified people because we are not coming to God based on our actions or ability to obey. Whether we are living in obedience, disobedience, good deeds, or bad deeds, we are still approaching God in the righteousness of Christ. On our best day we are unable to please God with our good deeds. In fact, God declares that our righteousness is like a filthy rag to God. While this belief of justification is common amongst evangelicals in theory, it is not usually lived out in practice. Most evangelicals, myself included, get so caught up in following moral checklists and rules that we forget the fact that if we are believers in Christ, we are standing in the righteousness of Christ. When we do all the right things, we are standing in the righteousness of Christ. When we fall into sin, we are standing in the righteousness of Christ.

I am not making a case for anarchy or disobedience for believers once we are saved. God makes it clear that he expects us to follow him in faithful obedience and to walk in good deeds all the days of our lives. However, I am saying that because God through Christ justifies us in salvation, our access and approach to God is never dependent upon our righteous, but rather the perfect righteousness of Christ. This is the beauty of justification. This is the truth that should cause us to fall at the feet of Jesus daily, thanking him for this gift of righteous.

The truth of justification also enables us to focus on Jesus and point others to Him. So many of us are so consumed with our sin struggles and our own righteousness that we do not have the time or the energy to minister and serve others. We often feel this way because we are bearing all of our sin and grief and do not have any room left to bear the sin and grief of others. The problem with this mentality that plagues so many of us is that we cannot bear our own sin, much less others. However, the beauty of justification is that Jesus bore all of our sin and actually became sin for us so we could be declared righteous. If we truly get the idea of justification in our lives, we will be able to listen to others and equip others to know Jesus and experience the justification he offers.

North Village Church

So we have officially started having Sunday services at North Village Church!! Not that it is about a Sunday service, but it's cool to be able to worship God together with music and teaching. So September 13th was our official 1st Sunday and this past Sunday was our 2nd service.

It's been such an encouragement to see God provide and open doors in the community and in people's hearts. It just confirms for me that this is where God wants us to be. It's sad to say I could not just trust that this is where God wants us to be, I had to have him show me by providing earthly securities of a place to meet, people, finances, and much more. I love that God is so graciously loving that in this learning time he lead me so gently.

We have three different "neighborhood gatherings" every week which has been a fun time of eating together, hanging out, and looking at scripture. We talk about hard questions and have an open environment to ask questions. We are all ok with not being ok. We know none of us are perfect so why try to hide our imperfections. We know we all have hurts and struggles and we don't have to hide them.

Check out the website to learn about more ways you can get plugged in.

Up coming events:

Back to School Supply Drive - September 13th

Austin Dog Fair 2.0 - October 17th

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
John 10:10