The Past Month

Well here goes my attempt at catching up on my ravings over the past month. It has been crazy to say the least. The best way I can describe how things have gone down over the last four weeks is that I have not run or had a home cooked meal in that time frame. It has been nuts and Becky asked me Sunday on the way to church if this week was gonna be normal. Not sure I know what normal is but here's hoping this week looks more like it than the previous four. Anyway, here is my attempt to catch up on my blog:

• We have moved into a new house and are daily reminded of God's hand and grace in our lives.
• Moving is fun. It is also stressful and exhausting especially when you do it with 3 kids under the age of 5.
• Change and lack of structure has been hard on my kids and has probably stressed them out as much as me and Becky.
• The way that Mike and Irma B. love me and my family is truly astounding!
• Becky Suiter is AMAZING!
• Moving my family and my church and traveling out of the country all in the same month was probably not the best idea.
• God has reminded my a lot in the past four weeks, "My grace is sufficient for you"!
• Missions is the key to church growth. It is not my preaching! It is obedience to God in giving and missions. God will bring the increase.
• It is a great privilege to partner with GO Ministries and with Francisco Feliz in order to provide physical and spiritual nourishment to Batey Cuchia in the Dominican Republic.
• God is presently challenging me and expanding my idea of what in means to be involved in missions. This hopefully will have great impact on our church and the Kingdom of God as a whole as Crossroads is obedient in giving and going.
• It is amazing the difference that $2,000 makes in the life of a Dominican pastor.
• It was so invigorating to meet like-minded American pastors at the GO Ministries Mission Conference. God has burdened so many for the same things that He has burdened me with.
• For all the things that Crossroads Church does wrong, we are doing most things right and God is blessing because of it.
• The timing of God is perfect!
• What is man that God is mindful of us!? The love and grace and humility of our Savior is truly unfathomable!
• We met in our new building this past Sunday with an attendance of 124! Did that really happen?!
• The two weeks leading up to Sunday in which we were trying to get everything ready was CRAZY! A BIG thanks to everyone who helped! Couldn't have done it without you all!
• Still much work to be done and am exhausted by the mere prospect of it.
• I am buying me a motorcycle! I gotta have an out and its all I could think of. If you have any other ideas, I would be more than happy to entertain them. Don't say a nap or a book. I am not that kind of guy!
• If I could pick two words two describe the past four weeks, I would pick BUSY and GRACE. I used to think that I knew what "busy" was until the past month. You take all that has been on my plate and then you throw 3 kids under 5 in the mix and "busy" has a whole new meaning! Sleep has become a luxury and I am beginning to think that is going to be the case until Mary is at least 5 or 6. Whew, we got a long way to go. I have been blown away this past month by the grace of Almighty God! In the midst of the most busy, stressful time of my life, God's amazing grace has come shining through in every facet! The house, the ministry, the new church building are all expressions of God's grace to me. He has also been teaching me so much about how to manage busyness and leadership in the process of a busy ministry and family. His grace has truly overwhelmed me as much if not more as my busyness has this past month. I am so grateful to God for the grace that flows to me through Jesus Christ my Lord! Without grace, the busyness would be empty and deadening!
• That's all for now. I will try to pick up from here as the days roll on. There has been SO much more to blog about but I don't want to bog you down or me down. So, I just hit some of the high points and will try now to start fresh as I try to get back on track with everything in my life including my blog.