food for fish

Well it's New Year's eve here, it's a little after 5:00pm Pacific Stand Time right now. 2007 was full of all kinds of events and news that changes the course of many people's lives. Alexis and I concieved Emma who will be born in just over three months, we've been to France, Poland, and Germany, yet again with another trip to Poland not to far away, we got an additional car... I say all of this because they are all things which took faith in our finances...

None of these events were overly planned, we didn't put away for any of these specifically, nor did we consult our investors, we made a conscience desicision to give some things to God that we knew were either practical needs or ministry desires, and in Emma's case, a heart desire. On paper and ledgers, we didn't have the resources to make any of it happen.

We have and will always put our faith in God to provide for us, he always has, and always will. Sure it gets scary, sure we've used our "own" resources at times when we thought others would donate, but in the end it's always Him who gets the glory. It's all about Him.

While I would love the comfort of knowing that our financial resources were something that we didn't have to monitor, I know at the same time we would be so distracted by our own desires that leaving for our calling would be much more hard, if even possible to fufill.

Happy New Year, may you build your faith in Him and expierence the joy of serving in His kingdom this year - even when your resources are low, or negative (such as ours have been many times).

LOST STARTS on January 31st, NOT February!

The TV gods have been pleased by something...

Okay, not life changing, but exciting!

Boy time is flying by....

Thanksgiving - done
Christmas - done

New Years - less than a week
Trip to Poland - just over 1 month (still need $$)

Baby Emma - March 30th... coming soon!

So I've been thinking about the future a lot recently. Dreaming of tram riding and central radiator heating as a part of every-day life. Thinking of speaking in a language far removed from my native tongue. But most of all, envisioning following Christ on a daily basis in Kraków, Poland (Polska).

Here are the steps we must take to see all of this come to fruition.

1. Obtain our pastoral licenses which is a 6-8 month process that only starts once we are "accepted" into a position.
2. Both Alexis and I in a 20-hour paid or non-paid pastoral "position"
3. After two years of those positions we will seek "ordination", which in our denomination is for life, pastoral licensing is dependent on a position.
4. Seek much language school and language learning during this time
5. After ordination we will be sent
6. After we arrive, either through invitation by the existing church, or a job opening we will seek to create a small group, or home church fellowship.
7. We will seek a home, but fully expect to be in temporary housing for up to two years.
8. Buying a home/apartment might require more time, but it is possible for us to buy now if we can financially afford it.
9. Eventually we want to train up small group leaders to run groups in their own homes
10. We also envision mission teams going to other Polish and European cities and beyond.
11. Our ultimate goal is to see Polish people ministering to their own people with their visions, dreams, and holy-spirit lead ministries, in Poland and beyond.

Read the Wikipedia article on Krakow, it has great information, history, and pictures!

Also, here is an idea of what we would DREAM to have in Poland for a home. Of course the description doesn't say exactly where in the city it is, it's a pretty good deal from the appearance. But for the equivalent of $272,000 it's certainly a dream right now.

In Jesus' name let the dreams begin!

I could go on about the stereo type Christmas that many Americans try to adhere to. I could go on about the Christmas I try to adhere to. But I will not. Instead I want to simply give a public thank you to everyone that made it our Christmas party tonight. I wish we had been able to get the word out to more people, as there were many that simply didn't know, and I wish that those that couldn't make it, could have.

Christmas is a season about celebrating friends, family, and the fact that we are all brought together by God in special ways. The miracle I saw tonight was many people under one roof, with incredibly different backgrounds, some with ugly pasts, others with amazing pasts, and some that have randomly come together through God's providence on our lives.

At some point or another some of these people are ones that I have either been annoyed by, frustrated with, or would have rather "un-invited" in the past. But today I celebrated the fact that we were all together, enjoying one-another, loving on-another, and most of all simply having meaningful fun.

5 Years ago I was fairly flaky about things... the only constant was being with friends
4 Years ago I began getting serious about tithing
3 Years ago I began getting serious about offerings
2 Years ago I began creating boundaries for my day
1 Year ago I got serious about making priorities a reality

Out of all of this, I have always had what I needed, always made it through the hard times, always had wise council through confusion and have always been able to see through the fog.

Becoming consistent in life with my words, thoughts, and actions and making my yes be yes, and my no be no, has brought nothing but peace and love into my life. I never waver on the things I listed above, and the less I waver about life the less messy life is.

Well I am going to finally decalre an official miracle has happened in my life. The super-natural event doesn't come with much fanfare, except that in my own life it's been amazing.

I've been reading, learning, and journaling from my Bible every weekday morning for over a month now! This is the longest and most consistent I've ever been.

A little over a month ago a buddy of mine who just recently went through a divorce asked me to join him for his morning coffee time at a Starbucks near by... at first my flesh freaked out 6:30 in the morning! No way.

But then I was convincted, because here I am saying no to two things. 1. My need and desire to be in the Word of God more often. and 2. A time to fellowship, encourage, and be encouraged by a fellow brother on a regular basis.

So I said yes.

Thankfully it was the day that the clocks changed, so it felt to my body like it was 7:30 instead of 6:30... :P Good time to start... but that whole spring forward thing will suck :P

Your story.

Not the abridged version.

Telling people your full life story and iluminating the areas where God's hand is on it, is, in my opinion, of the best gifts a person could recieve.

The story of how God touches our lives is one of the most touching things a person could hear.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

More to come.