Merry Christmas!!

Has it really been 3 weeks since I've blogged?? Well it's Christmas Day and what a wonderful season it has been! I have totally enjoyed the lights and festivities this year! (With the exception of the bitter cold below-zero temperatures!) We made it to the Holidazzle parade, I saw the 8th floor Macy's display TWICE, we celebrated with family and friends, and I saw the amazing lights on the tree off of Cedar Ave (right before the Mall of America) which is always a highlight! The Christmas Eve services last night were the cherry on top as we celebrated with our RVC family and had the largest single service ever at the 5pm service! God's gift of his son, Jesus, is the best gift that anyone could receive and we were challenged to proclaim that to everyone we come in contact with! Without being weird or overbearing : )

So let's continue to proclaim the good news of Jesus as we look forward to the new year! I am so blessed to have such an awesome life and I thank God for each and every one of you! Thanks for being a part of my adventure - here's to an INCREDIBLE 2009!!

No more back pain!

Ok - so I survived Thanksgiving! We had 40 here for dessert! It was a fun day and I continue to be thankful! One thing I am SO thankful for this year is that my back is finally feeling great!! I had been struggling with pain for almost 2 years (a bulging disc is what the docs said) and I am finally pain free! (After 2 MRI's, 3 cortisone shots, and 6 months of physical therapy I think God just finally said "enough" and blessed me with a healing) It's amazing how we take our health for granted when everything is going fine. But now I thank God every morning when I wake up that I'm not in pain! I know Thanksgiving is over but don't EVER stop being thankful!

Next up is getting ready for the Ketterling Christmas at our house on the 21st! No worries - we only have 23 coming for this one! : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving week and I'm getting prepared to have the Ketterling crew at our house on Thursday! It's a good thing they're not expecting me to cook too! : ) I bought a 19lb turkey but Rob's mom is going to stuff it for me. And then everyone else is going to bring a dish too. I can handle that! We usually eat around 1pm, watch a little football, go to a Disney movie matinee with all the kids (I know it sounds weird to go to a movie on Thanksgiving but it's become a fun tradition) and then come back for dessert around 5pm. A fun day to spend with family and friends and reflect on the past year of blessings in our lives. God is SO good to us and I hope you will all be truly thankful for his amazing faithfulness! Let the festivities begin!

SPARKLE!

Ok, so I'm revealing the name of our conference (and also what my house is doing now that I've put my Christmas stuff up) - SPARKLE!! For those of you that know me, you know I love everything that sparkles so that is an appropriate name for our conference! Of course it also refers to us shining or "sparkling" the joy, peace and fulfillment that a relationship with Jesus Christ brings! There's a great song that we're singing right now that says. "I want to shine for you, be a light to this world, and let the whole earth know that YOU are king..." I love that song! We are all called to shine (or sparkle) in this world so let's make sure we are doing our best to represent our AMAZING God! So please be in prayer about the conference - we are 10 months out!!

PS. My decorating is complete with 5 trees this year - 3 fully decorated and 2 with just white lights! Now I just need Rob to hang up the white icicles on the house! SPARKLE away...

I'm Back!

Ok, so I was honest with how often I would not be blogging! I promise I will get better! Wow - a lot has happened since my first post! We had an incredible trip to Europe where Rob finished up his teaching for John Maxwell's Million Leader's Mandate. Then we were able to spend 2 amazing days in Rome! A week later I had the privilege of attending the Live the Dream women's conference down in Baton Rouge, LA! It was fantastic and we got SO many great ideas...

So, my stretch now is that we are beginning to plan for our very own conference! Our first planning meeting is coming up on November 11th. We have so much to do!! But we're praying that God will meet us and smile upon us as we plan and prepare to bless the women of this community and state! God has so much in store for all of us and it's so exciting to see where He is going to take us on this journey! So be in prayer about how YOU can be a part of this awesome conference! Email me at becca.ketterling@rivervalley.org and let me know how God is stretching you out of your comfort zone!

Ok, I'm off to start my Christmas decorating - after all it is November 1st!!!

I'm here!!

Hi girlfriends! Welcome to my blog! This is a space designed to encourage comments about how you are stepping out and "stretching" yourselves out of your comfort zones! We are on a 12-month countdown to our VERY FIRST River Valley Women's conference and I want all of us to be consciously thinking of ways that God wants to use us in the next year. Let me start by saying how much of a stretch this blog is for me!! Writing is such a tedious discomfort for me so I'm not going to promise how often I will post a new entry. (So far this paragraph has taken me over 20 minutes! Ugh!) So comment away my lovely, amazing, incredible Sister Chicks!