Here's the Deal

So, I know I was going to release a completely redesigned blog a few months ago, but it's been busy.  Peripety has been going crazy in a very good way.  Family life has been hectic at times.  We've all been sick off and on since at least October.  For now, I think I will stick with blogspot.  They recently updated their user backend and fixed the things that drove me crazy, so I am giving them a 2nd chance.

Hope you enjoy the quick makeover and stop by a little more often.  We'd love to have you visit.  Grab a cup of coffee while you are here.

Peripety Designs

Peripety Designs is in the East Central/Vancleave Link Newspaper this week.

Click here to see where newspapers are sold or to buy an e-edition!

So Thankful

I have to say with much relief that God apparently knows what He is doing. Yes, chuckle if you must. You've all felt that way before. Being the sinful humans we are from birth we all doubt if God made a "mistake" with us. Maybe you don't like your crooked nose, your short legs, or your high-pitched laugh. I don't know what "that" is, but, I am confident that you know.

For me, after I went to college and became part of the nursing program, I just hated "me." I tried to think like the other nursing students or nurses I admired. They were so analytical, so fluid with procedures, so mechanical. If you know me at all, you know I don't think that way. According to Bryan, while most people go from A to Z by reciting every letter in between, I just jump from A to Z and have no idea how I got there.

I felt ashamed of my creativity and tried hard to work on the "weak" left side of my brain. I always found myself back working on a piece of art or a craft whenever I was completely stressed out. The right side of my brain could be ignored but not forgotten.

Since we started Peripety Designs, our web design business, I have had an amazing outlet for doing the creative stuff I used to just do for fun- no pay. Being able to support Bryan's ministry by helping our family financially has been a God-sent for me emotionally. The funny thing is that the dominant "right" side of my brain that I was so embarrassed of years ago has become my best friend. USA today wrote an article a year go titled, "Retrain your brain from "left" to "right" to fit into the new economy. Pretty neat.

I'm thankful now that I am wired to be creative. Just like the "left brainers," I have my place in this world too. It's rather beautiful the way God has set up such diversity among all of us. I find great comfort in this journey knowing that all of His details in creating me were purposefully planned. What a glorious God we serve! What other religion can brag about a god who intimately orchestrates the quirks in our personhood for a joyful, divine purpose? Praise Jesus, we can!

PD Mailout

Things have been going well for Peripety Design so far this year. We have built a total of 4 sites and are currently working on 2 more. We are excited about our business and hope for more soon. Here's a copy of a letter we are sending out to all of the local churches in the Jackson County Baptist Association this week.

Dear Church,

We would like to introduce ourselves as a new ministry on the Coast that is created to help serve you! We are a web and graphic design business that is dedicated to promoting your church's identity online and along the Gulf Coast. We are a husband-wife pastoral team at a church in Gautier doing what we love and helping you succeed in your ministry at a price you can afford. We build content-management sites that work within your budget and function
at an optimal level. Best yet, we customize everything to match your ministry perfectly. If you are too busy to maintain a site, we'd love nothing more than to manage it for you.

Our recent clients have asked why we price everything so affordably, and the answer is simple. We believe that great websites are a necessity to reach people for Jesus, not a luxury for megachurches. While similarly built sites cost at least two thousand dollars or more, we price sites according to what you can afford and trust the rest to God. We believe reaching this current generation for Jesus is priceless. When you hire us, you support a ministerial family, feed our super cute kid, and allow us to continue ministering in a small church.

While websites are one of our most popular services, we also specialize in logo design and branding, graphic design for prints, special event graphics, and many others. You can see our recent clients, our portfolio, and a detailed list of our services online at our website: http://www.peripetydesigns.com.

Here a few testimonials about us:

We are so pleased with the website. It looks great! The website looks
very professional and it is easy to navigate. Thank you Peripety
Designs for the great job on our site. We will recommend Peripety to
all our friends!

Jennifer Williams, Club Meth to Christ

Wow! Peripety went beyond our expectations and created us a unique, elegant, and user friendly site focusing on the central
purpose and theme of our church. Peripety listened to our ideas and tailor designed each area to fit the needs of our staff.
If you enjoy prompt customer service, attention to detail, and reasonable pricing, you will not be disappointed with Peripety.

Mitch Osborne, Minister of Music/Facilities, Ridglea Heights Baptist Church

When planning a local community-wide youth rally, Peripety Designs created one-of-a-kind graphics to suit our needs. They
did an amazing job creating a theme design that was used throughout the advertising, planning, and production of the event.
Peripety worked with our church very professionally with our event budget in mind. Thank You Peripety Designs!

Ryan Ogborn, Minister of Youth, Eastlawn Baptist Church

We would love to be your turning point in creative outreach. After all, it's all about Jesus. We'd love to help you point more people to Him. Let us bring your church online with a website that explains to your community who you are and what you offer as a ministry. It's our dream to bring the Jackson County Baptist Association to the web, so that we can reach out to the lost and bring them to Christ. We'd love for you join us in this mission. We look forward to hearing from you!

In His grace,
Anna Cirlot
Owner & Graphic Designer, Peripety Designs
contactus@peripetydesigns.com
http://www.peripetydesigns.com

Completely New & Improved!

Introducing the new Peripety Designs.

For those of you who know me, I'm a perfectionist to the "t." Since we built our first site, I've been dreaming about the next. So, here it is! I'd love to have feedback.

If you're not already a fan on facebook, we have 145 so far. We'd love to make it to 150 by this weekend. Add us or spread the word!

FBC Wired

I'm a few days late posting this, but we launched FBC Wired this weekend. Check it out!

Good Business

I was trying to decide what to label this post and had decided to say good "busy"-ness. Then I realized, that it looks like "good business." I had to laugh at the irony. If I had to describe our past month with Peripety Designs, that's what I would describe it as. "Good busyness" which has turned out to be "good business." God has been gracious to us, and we are having fun designing websites for churches. Here's the last one we have finished. Introducing...

http://www.ridglea.org

The Fruits of 2009

This past year has been one of much emotional and spiritual growth for me as a person. I think I learned more about myself in 2009 than I have my entire existence. What caused this "epiphany" might you ask? I think it was drastically affected by how much time I spent in the Word. The more I read the more I changed. It was inevitably beautiful and satisfying.

The other night I was lying in bed talking to Bryan before we went to sleep and our conversation went like this.

"You know I've been struggling for the last few years about my calling and finding happiness in what I do."- Me

"Yeah."- Bryan in typical male short-answer form

"Well, since I have been praying about it this past year, it's like everything has just been lining up and falling into place. When I was most discouraged recently, I started reading a book (48 Days to the Work You Love) that has helped affirm where I am going and has provided closure for where I have been. It's kind of crazy. It's like God actually wants me to know what He wants me to do with my life."

Bryan upon hearing that claimed this as a future sermon illustration then laughed at me for such a simple "revelation"

It's true. For most of my life, finding God's calling has seemed elusive and mysterious. I had never truly considered that it would align with your greatest joys and gifting. How wonderful our God is! He has not called us to be a martyr of misery but to find great satisfaction in His plan for us. Am I suggesting that we will never face difficulties or that we will never suffer? Absolutely not. I'm just promoting the idea that sometimes we place upon ourselves a "calling" for which we were never called to do in the first place.

For me, I believe I forced myself into nursing as a means of trying to help hurting people while still ensuring that Bryan and I would always have a sizeable income guaranteed at our disposal. While somewhat noble and well-intentioned, my efforts were misguided and fell short of being ultimately satisfying to me. Nursing is a great career with many opportunities, but it was not my perfect fit. In the nursing jobs I have had, I could always find something I enjoyed, but I never felt fulfilled or satisfied. I always had this longing for so much more but passed it off as a personality flaw or as emotional instability due to stress or some other excuse. You get the idea.

Coming to this point has been very humbling and anything but easy. I am a nurse now and am thankful for having a respectable degree from a university. I also want to pursue what makes me alive- not what inwardly wastes my spirit day by day. I know only in God's will can I find true peace and grace.

As Beth Moore likes to say, "My calling is to follow God." Yes, that's true. It is. It is also so much more. It's taking what is unique about me, the way our Creator designed and fashioned me, and using it to impact the world for Jesus. Understanding and following my calling is celebrating God's genius in His design and workmanship of me. As Pastor John Piper famously states, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

Thus, Peripety Designs has been birthed. Please pray for me as I endeavor to pursue God and walk in faith into this new area of my journey.

http://www.peripetydesigns.com