Sunday Church

Church is not where worship happens but where worshipers gather.

Leavell Update

It has been a while since we’ve posted, and really this site has not received the attention it deserves. We have been extremely busy lately and so we will fill you in on all the happenings of the Leavell household.

Yesterday, I resigned as Pastor of Berean Baptist in Ashton. This was not a surprise to our church family. We have been as open as possible with them about the situation. I think our church family is taking it better than I am. We will spare you all the details but we are leaving under excellent conditions. We do not want to go and the church does not want us to leave, but God has made His will plain. The church in Ashton has been wonderful to us and we love them dearly!

Ministry in a rural LDS community is extremely difficult; but with those difficulties, come enormous blessings. Yesterday, I tried to share those blessings with the church family and could not even get through my first point. Some of those blessings would include a love for truth, genuine Christian maturity, meaningful worship, and wonderful Christian fellowship.

After several months of being in contact with Grace Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ, I officially candidated at the end of June. On July 1, they voted unanimously to call me as their Pastor. We will be starting the first Sunday in September. We are excited about the ministry there and God’s working in the church.

Ministering in the Valley of the Sun with over 4 million people will be quite an adjustment from our community of around 1,500. However, people are still people, and God is still God.

Please pray for the sale of our house in Ashton.
Also, please pray for the ministry in Ashton and Tempe.

Blog for the Website

This last week I forfeited a night of sleep and added a new blog to www.leavellphoto.com. You know it is bad when you start dreaming in HTML and CSS.

One cool feature I learned was how to place a picture in a blog and have it link back to the website.

Click on this picture to see.

Passing the Winter

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Chris has been preaching through Romans and to think that this little child who came, was here for one purpose: to pay the penalty for sin. What wondrous love of God the Father. This truly is the greatest gift.

We are settling in for another long winter and already have a lot of snow. Last winter seemed brutal: the worst part was not being able to go anywhere for three of four days at a time. The kids loved going out and playing in the snow, and since we live at the end of the street, the city piles all the snow from our street in front of our house, and the kids can sled down it. The last of the snow finally melted on May 14. So here we sit, with a long winter ahead of us.

This year was another uneventful year, for which we are thankful. With gas prices so high, we did not make any long family trips, and kept mainly to home and Idaho Falls to see Grandma and Grandpa Scott, which the kids love to do.

The kids are growing like weeds. It seems as if every month they come to me and want me to measure them on our wall, and every time, it seems as if they grow. I keep seeing the marks get closer and closer to mine. In a few years, I will be the shortest one in the family. I’ll treasure the time between then and now.

Josie turned 6 on December 16. She is doing first grade work in homeschool and is very imaginative and creative. She loves to play the piano, sing and draw/paint/color. She wants to learn to play the flute, but I want her to have a least a year of piano lessons before we start her on a band instrument. This last summer, she played soccer and had a lot of fun. Josie is full of life and enjoys everything to the fullest. She is joy to all those around her.
Scott is 4 ½. He is in the tough spot of being between two sisters. Josie loves to pick on him, like any big sister does, and Colette loves to take the toy he is playing with and run away. He is all boy. He loves trains, planes, cars, and trucks and anything with wheels or wings. His favorite is to go outside and help daddy with yard work. He will use his little mower and trail Chris while he mows the whole yard. It is the sweetest thing. Now he helps daddy shovel snow.

Colette just turned 2 in September. With that, have come a few phrases that she especially loves to say: “Mine”, “Where’s mine?”, “That’s mine”, “No, mine.” This does not sit well with brother and sister (or Mommy and Daddy). We will survive. Colette loves to make people laugh and makes lots of silly faces. She has no fear of heights and will do anything her brother and sister do, especially when it comes to climbing.

Josie and Colette both love to wear dresses and look like princesses. Scott is very sweet and says they look pretty.

I am still giving piano/voice lessons when weather permits. I keep my days busy with teaching, housework, mediating fights, and teaching S.S. I do manage to find time for Sudoku, reading, and the occasional sewing.

Chris is still working on his photography. This last year, an ad agency used one of his photos for their client Subaru, in an ad they ran in USA Today. They purchased additional use of the photo for worldwide campaign. Chris also won “Best of Show” at the Eastern Idaho Photographic Society’s annual judged show. There have been a few opportunities. He has a website for selling some of his pictures.

Mostly, Chris is busy with ministry. December 1st, marked our fifth year of ministry here in Ashton. We look back and see how God has challenged us and the ministry. We are truly thankful for the opportunity God has given us to serve here. We can say with all our hearts that we have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

We think of each of you often and you are all in our prayers.

May the Lord give you grace this Christmas,

Love,
Michelle

Handel Visits Idaho

This past Sunday night, Michelle and I were able to take Josie to Anam Cara perform Georg F. Handel's great "Dixit Dominus". It was composed in 1707 when Handel was 22 and was his first great work. It is based on Psalm 110

The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."
The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth.
The LORD has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."
The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall execute the heads of many countries.
He shall drink of the brook by the wayside; Therefore He shall lift up the head.

We love the music of Handel, Chopin, Bach and listen to them often, but it was special to hear this performed live. Wonderful!!!

One of the greatest challenges I personally face as a Christian living in such a beautiful place, is that I am daily confronted with the work of a great and majestic God. I stand in the pulpit each Sunday and proclaim that I believe and have my faith in this great and wonderful creator. I am continually reminded through God's creation of what that confession demands. How is my confession reflected in my daily life and in my worship?

Each Sunday at sunrise, I take a short drive outside of Ashton on my way to turn on the heat at our church building. Oh, the amazing sights that I have seen as I watch the sun rise behind the Tetons or beautiful crisp breezes blowing off early morning fog on the Henry's Fork river. This is the work of the hands of the great God we gather to worship each Sunday. What great works, elaborate harmonies, from gifted musicians this God deserves. I have never heard with my longing ears worship worthy of our Saviour. Handel's "Dixit Dominus" is close and it makes me long for, with all my being, that day when all the hosts of heaven lift their voices to the Lamb and Him who sits on the thrown. I LONG for that day.

So when our small church fellowship gathers on Sunday morning and I have finished with my Sunday morning drive, people will probably not hear Handel or Bach but I hope they will hear worship through song and prayer offered in deep humility, reverence and godly fear, along with great Joy for the privilege that God has given us through His Son Jesus Christ to sing His praises as a church family each Sunday. It is also why there are tears of joy in our eyes as we sing songs like...

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
by Charles Wesley

O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim,
to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
that bids our sorrows cease;
'tis music in the sinner's ears,
'tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean;
his blood availed for me.

He speaks, and listening to his voice,
new life the dead receive;
the mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
the humble poor believe.

Hear him, ye deaf; his praise, ye dumb,
your loosened tongues employ;
ye blind, behold your savior come,
and leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ, your head, you then shall know,
shall feel your sins forgiven;
anticipate your heaven below,
and own that love is heaven.

"The true province of landscape art is the work of God in the visible creation, independent of man"

Asher Brown Durand