Excited, Excited!

I have been super eager to post this. It's been sooo hard to keep it quiet. Yesterday, my amazing hubs became the Student Pastor at our church, Stillwater Community Church, in Rowlett, Texas. We are beyond excited for this new adventure in our lives and feel privileged to serve the Lord in this capacity.

Brett and I both surrendered to God's call into the ministry as teens. It has felt like such a long journey to get to this point. It almost feels surreal. However, something I've realized along the way is that it isn't our occupation that qualifies us as ministers of the Gospel. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. God's calling has nothing to do with occupational status or promotions, but rather it has everything to do with the people God has called you to. Jesus was a carpenter, yet his calling was to disciple. The Lord is looking to use each of us to share His salvation with those He has positioned around us. Sometimes He places specific groups of people in our hearts for us to pursue like: teenagers, children, the elderly, widows, orphans, young women, or even people from a specific ethnic group or foreign country. Despite the different people, age groups, and ethnicities, the call is the same: Reach, Teach, and Multiply. These three simple words make up our church's mission statement. I am so excited to get to continue our ministry journey at a church that truly understands the responsibility we have to disciple others.

Another exciting announcement is that I have been chosen for an internship at Buckner's Humanitarian Aid office. I'll be starting that this week, and I am so pumped! Buckner is an adoption agency and a missions organization. I've been interested in serving in some capacity at Buckner for the past three years. I'm so excited to have this opportunity. We ask that you join with us in prayer for these ministry opportunities and that we would be obedient to the Lord's voice and steadfast in the calling we've received. 

With love,

Brandi 

See inside our lil home :)

Greetings and Happy New Year from the Gilpatrick's!! I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas Holiday and have gotten some time to rest up for this new season we are all entering into. Christmas was a true blessing for Brett and I. We got to go home for about four days to visit our families. It is awesome to have both of our families in the same hometown. We get to see EVERYONE in a short amount of time. It is always great to get away from the city to rest and visit with loved ones in the country. Over the break, we also got to celebrate a very important day ;) My 22nd Birthday!! I was very blessed with getting to eat dinner with my family and going on a weekend getaway with Brett to Houston. It was exactly what we needed before the craziness of 2013 begins. We got to rest, shop, and just spend quality time together. It was nice to not be busy for while and just be together.

I want to switch gears however and give you a promised peek into our little home in Garland. I have said for months that I would post this, but I wanted the final touches to be in place before doing so. Well, here you go for all you curious people out there. Our first home :)

Living Room

Dining Room (my favorite room)

Kitchen (notice the chalkboard pantry door)

Guest Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Our offices (two guest rooms)

Our Bedroom

There you have it folks! Our home has been such a blessing. Its awesome to know that we know that we aren't throwing our money down the drain renting. This house was an answer to the prayers we prayed to be able to live in closer proximity to our church family in the Rowlett/Garland area.

In my next post, I plan on sharing some of my personal 2013 resolutions and some new exciting stuff coming up in the near future! Stay tuned ;)

With love, Brandi