Buice Family | 2014

This family is precious to me.  I’ve known them for a while now, but they became family this past January when my family joined their church – Pray’s Mill Baptist Church.  This is our Pastor’s family.  Some of the things I love about them – they’re real, they’re growing in grace and knowledge, they’re passionate about the Lord and telling others about Him, they’re overflowing with love for their church family and others, they’re big dreamers, they’re faithful, they’re true, and mostly… they love the Lord with full and sincere hearts.  When David and I were praying about moving our family from our beloved church home of almost 14 years to this new church family that is much closer to our home, there were many factors involved (and many tears, I assure you!).  But one of the biggest for me – when my mom passed away unexpectedly last fall, Pastor Josh sent me emails that encouraged my soul when I was so devastated I could barely breathe.  He earnestly prayed for me.  He was a pastor to me, and he didn’t even know me all that well.  All he knew was that I was heartbroken and he loved me and my family in the midst of our great need.  I will never forget that.

Pastor Josh faithfully teaches us from God’s Word each and every week, Sunday morning and evening.  He labors over the text and then we get to share in the overflow of what the Lord’s taught him throughout the week – it’s something I anticipate every single Saturday night while I’m getting our things ready for the Sunday morning rush out the door.  Kari has the voice of an angel and I love when she sings… but even more, I love seeing her big smile and expectant eyes and hearing her stories and her heart as she talks and encourages and blesses those around her  (Kari’s blog – Christ Centered Home – has been such an encouragement to me).  Kari and Josh are young and beautiful and have gorgeous children and on the surface it might seem like life has been one big fairlytale… but they’ve been tested and tried and faced difficulties and learned trust in their Father through the school of hardship and grace.  I love working alongside them in ministry.  I love taking part in bringing their visions into fruition by God’s grace.  I love knowing them as my friends.  And their kids…  well… my heart may have melted just a little bit there!  Seriously, I’m so thankful for their kids – they’re GOOD friends for my boys.  Moms know what I mean.  We all pray for GOOD friends for our children.  I’m thankful to have that in the Buice family.

I’m so behind in sharing our session together, but it was on my heart today as my husband and I were talking about an upcoming trip he and Josh are going on to Zambia, Africa – a vision trip for future missions work for our church to come alongside Condrad Mbewe and his ministry there.

I’m thankful for this family because they are now our family.  And I’m thankful for them because they are God’s kind gift to us.  And so I wanted to share a bit of why I love them with you.