Preparing To Serve!

Well, we have been spending the last two weeks getting the house set up, new drivers license, new license plates for both vehicles, new cell phones and much more.

Just this week, I have been working on preparing for my first Sunday and official start date. The title of the sermon is going to be, "Don't Get Caught Staring" and we will be looking at Acts 1:1-11.

The boys are doing great at school. We are up much earlier so they can catch the bus.

The fall leaves are beautiful!

We continue to need your prayers as we seek God's face for His direction for the church.

Moving Right Along!

It has been a very busy two weeks!

We drove the whole family from Ohio to Pennsylvania and then Wade and I flew to California. Wade had an Orthodontist appointment. We had the wonderful help of our church family in CA as we took everything out of the storage unit and loaded it in the moving trailer.

Wade and I are now working our way across the country for the second time in two months. We have stayed in Flagstaff, AZ and Oklahoma City, OK. We are currently spending the night with our dear friends in Warrenton, MO. We have one more night on the road before having our family all back together.

While Wade and I have been gone, Judy has been working hard around the house with the help of many church members. It has been a blessing for her. The other two boys have already started school.

Praise the Lord!

We have some exciting news for everyone! We have accepted the senior pastor position at a wonderful church in central Pennsylvania.

We are currently in the process of arranging flights for Wade and I, scheduling the moving truck, setting up a final orthodontist appointment for Wade, and much more.

We will be leaving Ohio on Friday to drive to PA. We will stay with some of my family before going to the parsonage on Saturday morning. We have some shopping to do, since we got rid of some stuff in CA.

Judy and the two youngest boys will be staying in PA while Wade and I fly to CA to get some stuff done. They will be starting school while we are gone. All of the kids are lamenting about not wanting to go to school. They want to continue to be home schooled.

My official start date will be November 1, 2009.

Please continue to pray as we have much to do over the next month.

Alabama, Pennsylvania and Ohio!

We left Alabama a couple of weeks ago to head to Pennsylvania for a family reunion. It was great to be with family that I haven't seen in many years. We camped in my parent's RV with them. The boys loved climbing the big tree that was a part of our campsite. They also made homemade fishing poles out of the materials that we found around the pond. You would be surprised what you can find -- hooks, fishing line, bobbers and sinkers. We were able to catch several fish with bread.

We were able to visit with a church in Idaville, PA that we have interviewed with. The people there were very friendly. I was able to hear a pastor friend of our families preach. He is currently the interim pastor there. God is moving with this potential ministry location for us.

We spent a couple of hours at Chocolate World in Hershey, PA before going to eastern PA to visit with some friends. We had a wonderful time with the Fetterhoff family. It was great to be able to catch up with them and to talk about pastoral ministry with them. I came away excited about our future.

We drove to Ohio and have been staying with Judy's Grandma for nearly two weeks. I was able to preach at a small church in Deshler, OH. It has great potential. They are currently working on seperating from a denomination that accepts practices that are not Biblical.

We have been enjoying catching up with family and old friends in Ohio.

Please pray for God's clear direction for our future. Either one of the churches listed above would be a wonderful opportunity to serve our Lord!

God's Perfect Timing!

Judy and I continue to wait for God's perfect timing. I know that no one else has experienced the frustration, doubt and fear of waiting for God's perfect timing. We are very eager to begin serving the Lord in the local church. I have to say that in my humanness I did not see our transition time taking this long. We have been living out of a suitcase for five weeks. This starts our sixth week. It is getting tough to come up with creative outfits to wear that I haven't already worn too many times.

We really appreciate your prayers as we continue to seek the Lord's direction. We asked you to pray for opened and closed doors. We received word last week from two churches, that we sent resumes too, that they are not going to consider us. Praise the Lord for answered prayer!

Homeschooling is going pretty well. The boys are settling in to their work each morning. They were highly motivated last Thursday and got both Thursday and Fridays work done. We left Friday afternoon to go camping with my parents for one night. The boys couldn't wait. We made camper pies over the open fire and roasted marshmallows for 'smores. Levi and I hicked through the woods. Wade and Seth balanced as they walked across the creek on a fallen tree. We also took in the Bug Bash (Volkswagon) on Saturday morning and were blessed to see a new friend that we made at the Homeschool gathering the Friday before. Her and her husband have a VW van that they entered in the Bug Bash. Her home church is currently in the middle of a pastor search, so I sent my resume to them. God works in wonderful ways!

Continue to pray for opened and closed doors. Pray for wisdom as I prayerfully consider seminary classes. Pray that Judy and I will be content, restful and patient during this transition.

Florida and Alabama!

Well, it has been a little while since I last updated the blog. So, I wanted to give you an update.

We spent a week in Florida with Judy's parents, which was awesome!!! The boys loved going to the pool almost every day. They also loved riding bikes that Grandpa had waiting for them. Seth and I did the most fishing at the pond in the development. I had three bass on, but only landed one 12 incher. It was nice to relax by the water and baptize some fake worms. We spent one morning enjoying the water park at Cypress Gardens. We also took a trip to Downtown Disney to look at all of the stuff we couldn't buy. All three boys were able to purchase a LEGO kit at the LEGO store there. We were able to visit with Judy's brother, wife and daughter while we were there. It was such a blessing to have cousin Katie and our boys together. It doesn't happen very often.

We had a safe trip to Stuart's parents place in Alabama. We have been here one week now. It was a good week. The boys enjoyed several days of playing with their two cousins (my brother's girls). The girls will start school the middle of this coming week. We have been to the pool almost every day at the community center where my parent's have a membership. There are diving boards there, so we have been enjoying jumping, diving and flipping (only the two oldest boys). I never learned how to flip. I have been able to tag along with my Dad as he does pastor stuff. That has been a real joy. It is like on-the-job training. We have been to a pastor's prayer meeting, hospital visitation and a mentoring group. The rest of my time has been spent preparing and sending out additional resumes and following up with church contacts that friends have forwarded to me. I have two important meetings this week -- one is a phone call with a church in NJ and the other is a dinner with some high school friends, who have a really good contact with a large church in Atlanta that is continually planting churches.

We are continuing to pray for opened and closed doors. Please pray as we sift through all of the details to enroll the boys in a Church school here in Alabama. Church school is what they call Home schooling. It all feels very overwhelming, but God is in control!

Cross Country Trip -- Day 6 (July 25, 2009)

We drove from Pensacola to Winter Haven today. It was nice to finally get to Grandpa and Grandma's house. We got here around 4:30 PM. We went to the pool and went swimming this evening. It was like bath water.

We went to bed exhausted this evening. I was glad to finally get to bed.

We are continuing to trust the Lord for our future. We have not heard anything yet. Continue to pray for God's direction and timing.

Thank you for your prayer support.

Cross Country Trip -- Day 5 (July 24, 2009)

We spent the day traveling, but we decided to make it a short day instead of pushing through to Judy's parents place. We traveled for about five hours and then stopped in Pensacola, FL at our hotel.

After unloading all of our stuff, we jumped into our beach clothes and headed to the Gulf. We had a great time! The water was really warm, so we jumped right in. The boys used their swimming goggles to look for shells. They found a lot of nice sized scallops shells. We will have to upload some pictures of those soon.

We went back to the hotel and ate leftovers from our friends BBQ restaurant. They brought it over to our motel last evening in Baton Rouge, LA.

Cross Country Trip -- Day 4 (July 23, 2009)

We slept in this morning until about 8:30 AM. I'm not sure how that happened.

We went back to the Alamo this morning when it was open and walked around. It was something else. We watched a 17 minute video about the Alamo, which encompassed more than just the famous battle there. It was very informative.

The rest of the day we spent driving. We finally made it out of Texas! That was a long drive, but very beautiful.

We did not decide where to stop until late this afternoon. We thought about pushing on and going to Gulfport, MS, but settled on Baton Rouge, LA. Wade and Seth were bummed about that. They wanted us to push on so that we would do one more long trip and be at Grandpa and Grandma's house in Florida tomorrow night. My body is a little older than theirs and I am the one doing the driving. Although, today Wade and Seth were driving me crazy. They were not interested in watching movies or playing games on their handheld gaming systems. They were content to pick at each other and on Levi. I can't blame them after being in the van for 4 days.

We should reach Florida in two days.

Pray for continued safety and patience as we travel. We saw several accidents today. On our entire trip, we have seen at least 6 burned spots on the side of the road where you can tell that a vehicle was on fire. We praise the Lord for His continued hand upon us. Continue to pray for God's direction for our future.

Cross Country Trip -- Day 3 (July 22, 2009)

Well, we spent most of the day driving. There was quite a bit of rain. We managed to make our way across the most desolate part of Texas.

We had planned to get up extra early (5:15 AM) so we could pack the van and then eat breakfast at the hotel at 6 AM so we could leave and make it to San Antonio earlier in the day. We were planning some site seeing events. We woke up at 6:45 AM. Wade's theory is that we slept in because we had stayed at a Sleep Inn. I guess we will go with that.

We spent the evening on the River Walk in San Antonio. We ate at Casa Rio's -- it was wonderful! We walked along the river and took in the sites. We saw a guy playing the bagpipes, so we gave him a tip. Seth and Levi both wanted to see him.

We took a swim in the hotel pool before we got around for bed.

Cross Country Trip -- Day 2 (July 21, 2009)

We drove for a little while today and then spent several hours in Tombstone, AZ. We stood in the place where the Earp's and the Clanton's had their gun fight. We learned that Tombstone was named by the founder who went outside of the fort to search for silver in the hills. He found it alright and some gold too.

After spending time in Tombstone, we kept on driving until we reached El Paso, TX for the night. We saw some awesome rock formations and more cactus. We also saw a few dirt/dust tornadoes.

We had to go through a border patrol stop on our way back from Tombstone, because it is very close to the Mexican border.

Thank you for your prayers. God has been so good to us.

Cross Country Trip -- Day 1 (July 20, 2009)

Judy and I did some final cleaning before we met with our landlord to do the final walkthrough. We said our final sad goodbye to our dear friends, Jim and Jessica and started our trip.

While still in California, we drove up on a huge windmill farm. There were windmills of all sizes framing the roadway. We drove past the California/Arizona border check point and were thankful that we were heading east and did not have to stop like those heading west -- who were going to have to dispose of any fruit, vegetables, etc. before entering California.

As we were approaching Phoenix, we could see that there was black smoke rising from some fire. As we got closer, we noticed that traffic was stopping. We could see that some vehicle was on fire on the east bound side of Interstate 10. We were completely stopped on the interstate for about 15 minutes, before they would allow traffic to pass by what used to be a tour bus. The only part remaining was the metal framing of the bus and chairs. There was luggage and people standing along the side of the road. It appears that everyone was able to get out in time. The other amazing thing that we saw was little dust tornadoes in the distance beside the road.

We had a wonderful dinner and fellowship with the Koan's -- some dear friends from many years ago. They live just outside of Phoenix. It was a much needed break for the family and for the van.

We spent the night in Tuscon.

Please pray for continued safety as we travel. We will be entering Texas today (Tuesday).

Packing and More Packing!

We are continuing to pack all of our wordly possesions in preparation for a cross-country adventure. Our items will be in storage until we know God's direction for our future. It has been a bitter sweet time for us. Our friends here have been such a great encouragement to us. The large furniture items will be put in storage on Saturday.

Please continue to pray for God's perfect direction for our lives. Also pray for Stuart as he preaches on Sunday, July 19, 2009. Acts 3 is such an incredible passage of scripture. I am looking forward to sharing God's Word. Pray that He will speak through me. Pray for our safety as we begin traveling on Monday, July 20, 2009 to visit family.