Hello Everyone,<\/p>\n
I know it has been some time since we have posted a blog.\u00a0 There has been much going on around here along with the normal means of business and ministry for the last several weeks and we appreciate your patience.\u00a0 For those of you that have not heard, Tony’s (my husband) Grandfather did pass away and we were out of town for the funeral and have since been trying to get caught back up.\u00a0 Rebecca has been on vacation this week enjoying the beaches of Florida in between hurricanes.\u00a0 We will see what kind of savage tan she comes back with!\u00a0 Tony and I have been holding down the fort and it has only been Christ through us that we have survived!!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let me share with you a new opportunity that it appears that Father is giving us.\u00a0 It has been our hearts desire and prayer from the beginning of NLD (New Life Design) that we not do ministry events just because every other ministry similar to ours does that event.\u00a0 We want to be uniquely who God\u00a0desires\u00a0NLD to be.\u00a0 We have been asked, “Are you going to do one of those Grace Life Conferences?”\u00a0 Well, we would like to but it just hasn’t been time yet.\u00a0 There have been several other ideas we have “kicked around” and yet, Father just hasn’t given us a peace about them.\u00a0 But one thing that we have begun to see emerge over the last month is this idea to provide an authentic, small group Bible study for our clients, former clients and friends.\u00a0 There was a series of really strange events that began happening to confirm this really radical idea that Rebecca and I had been tossing around off and on for most of the summer.\u00a0 One of these events that started happening was that several of our clients started to meet each other.\u00a0 Obviously, we operate under a code of confidentiality and I tell our clients that no one will ever know you are going through our coaching process unless you tell them because we can not.\u00a0 It just so happens that several of our clients go to the same church in the area and through a series of random events one couple came in for their session announcing that they had meet this other couple.\u00a0 Well, you can image my surprise.\u00a0 They ended up sharing a meal together and really making a connection and sharing about what they are learning in the process and how Father is changing their lives.\u00a0 So much of what the couples said was exactly what Rebecca and I had talked about providing through a small group.\u00a0 This was just one of the things\u00a0that Father used to confirm this idea with us.<\/p>\n
Another thought that had continued to emerge in me was this complete paradigm shift in thinking about church, small groups etc….\u00a0 My heart has always been about being relational verses being involved in Religion.\u00a0 But recently, I have really gotten a better grasp at what being relational\u00a0actually means.\u00a0 It doesn’t mean that you attend a small group or Sunday school class with your church; It is so much more than that.\u00a0 The relational part starts with being relational with Father – receiving, embracing and walking in the reality of Father’s affection for us.\u00a0 When that is happening on a moment by moment basis in our daily lives we begin to know more of what it means to love others.\u00a0 We have to experience being well loved by Father first before we can love others well.\u00a0 As we are walking in Father’s affection we become convinced of our identity, acceptance, purpose and are so satisfied and fulfilled with Father and His work in our lives.\u00a0 At that point, His perfect love drives out our fear of being rejected and left alone so we can, in a healthy way, risk being open with one another\u00a0and loving each other.\u00a0 I have sinced that this is to be a key characteristic of NLD and a key point that we are to teach our clients.<\/p>\n
So, with that said we are looking forward to beginning a small group Bible study through the ministry of NLD on Tuesday, October 7 at 6:30pm.\u00a0 We will be meeting here at our offices every OTHER week and the Study we will be going through is called the Grace Walk Experience, a 9 week study writen by Steve McVey.\u00a0 This group is open to any of our current clients, former clients, their spouses and friends of NLD.\u00a0 If you would like to be apart of this group please call Rebecca or myself or email us to get your name on the list.\u00a0 It is a “first come, first serve” basis as we can only take 12 members at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We desire this group to grow into a place of being real and authentic with each other.\u00a0 No masks allowed here!\u00a0 The uniqueness of a group like this is that if you are going through the coaching experience or have gone through it you know that you have no reason to impress, put on aires, feel the need to conform, please\u00a0or act like you have it all together.\u00a0 The process that we take people through is for every Christian – but the unfortunate, yet maybe the fortortunate thing is that you don’t pick up the phone to call someone like me and commit to this process unless you have found yourself at the bottom of the barrell.\u00a0 Lessons learned at the “Bottom of the Barrell” prove to be grace centered and forever life altering.\u00a0 One of these days I am going to write up a teaching series entitled “Lessons Learned @ The Bottom of The Barrell”\u00a0 Humility becomes a huge focus in those lessons that we learn and that coupled with\u00a0embracing your identity in Christ just seems to disarm the need to put up a good front or implore a “keep up your image” philosophy.\u00a0 Therefore, my hope is that in this group as we genuinely connect with each other, hearing each others stories and studying God’s Truth we will become real and authentic with each other.\u00a0 I think it is at this point where Christ as our very life will then flow out of us and spill out all over each other bringing sweet healing to our wounds.\u00a0 Yes, no man is an island and we do need each other on this journey.\u00a0 Come experience\u00a0a “New Design for Living”\u00a0with us here at NLD.<\/p>\n
Dana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hello Everyone, I know it has been some time since we have posted a blog.\u00a0 There has been much going on around here along with the normal means of business and ministry for the last several weeks and we appreciate your patience.\u00a0 For those of you that have not heard, Tony’s (my husband) Grandfather did pass away and we were out of town for the funeral and have since been trying to get caught back up.\u00a0 Rebecca has been on vacation this week enjoying the beaches of Florida in between hurricanes.\u00a0 We will see what kind of savage tan she comes back with!\u00a0 Tony and I have been holding down the fort and it has only been Christ through us that we have survived!!\u00a0 Let me share with you a new opportunity that it appears that Father is giving us.\u00a0 It has been our hearts desire and prayer from the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anewlifedesign.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}