Soul Renovatus

We're here!

We've finally made it to Grand Rapids!

We had a wonderful weekend to move into as well, as temps climbed into the 70's.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  Thanks to all who helped out with the move!

Right now, it's 36, rainy, and windy.  Yesterday it snowed all day.  Welcome to Michigan.

As of this moment, I'll have a lot more time on my hand, hopefully to make a more regular habit of blogging, although I still will be working a lot...I've got a house to fix up and paint. 

Speaking of which, it's amazing to actually have a house!  This is the first time we've owned a home, and this one has tons of potential!  My wife is extremely excited just to have a place to call "her house." 

I went to Mars last Sunday, and got to chat with my friends Nate and Brad, and start connecting to others.  Attended an awesome seminar on serving with those who are oppressed, and am trying to get plugged in as a house church leader.  The crazy connections keep coming, as our neighborhood is in desperate need of house church leaders.  I don't view it as a coincidence that we are here.

There is also a Torah study at the church that starts up in a couple of weeks and I am totally excited for that!  It's perfect for all of the reading I have done thus far on Jewish culture and this will only make it better!  It's just unreal to continue to think about all of things God is working out.

I also took my daughter to Kindergarten for the first time this week.  It's the first time she's been in "big school."  She is having an easy time and has made some great friends. An interesting note about schools around here is that the area we live we have a "school of choice" option, basically saying that we can choose whatever school Grace can go to.  There is a great more suburban district we live near that is considered one of the best schools (if not the best) in Grand Rapids.  However, we decided to put her in our neighborhood school.  It's interesting how some from Mars who have visited have commented on our school district here.  I think the deterrent is that it is more heavily Hispanic.  I think when it breaks down demographically, it's 50% Hispanic, 20% African-American, 25% Caucasian, and 5% of other ethnicity. 

I can't think of a more beautiful setup for our daughter.  The school has an excellent reputation education wise (at least at the elementary levels), I think some of the people who were talking to us were concerned with the higher Hispanic population.  It just makes me sick when I hear those type of comments.  I honestly couldn't think of a more beautiful thing for us and our daughter.  If we are truly going to live out this way of Jesus amongst those who most people want to ignore, then why are we here?  Grace has made many new friends already, I have met some wonderful neighbors, and we're excited to see what God will do with us here in our community.

I'll try to get the blogging more regularly, although I assume I'll still be busy with house stuff (unpacking, painting, etc...).  Julia has a wonderful job already, has made some great friends at work, and is excited about her job.  We can get by with me not working for a few months so there's not too much pressure at the beginning, plus it gives me a lot of time with our daughter, which I haven't had as much as of late.

Well off to run errands and such.  Thanks to all for your continued prayers!

Moving next week...

We'll be packing up on Monday and having our stuff shipped on Tuesday. 

This means that it should arrive at our new home in Grand Rapids by Friday.  If any of you are from the area and could lend a hand, shoot me an e-mail.

I just finished clearing out my office today.  I should've taken a before and after picture, because you wouldn't believe I got as much done as I did today.

Of course, my body is screaming at me right now for abusing it like I did.  Hopefully I can recover before Monday (I have a bad back...so takes a little longer for me).

On another note, just listened to the latest message in the Jesus Wants to Save Christians series at Mars Hill.  Rob Bell talks on hell.  It was AWESOME!!  Go download it if you have a chance.

Our new adventure to Mars Hill...

I feel like my blogging has just taken a back seat for the last 3 months.  There has been a reason why, and now I can share the story.

God has called us to be part of Mars Hill Bible church in Grand Rapids, MI.

My wife and I have followed Mars for several years, keeping tabs on what they are doing around the world.  So we decided this year that we would take a vacation in May to go up to Grand Rapids and spend a week in the life of their church.

Of course, I'm sure they get these requests all of time, and we were told we could not meet with any of the staff while we were there.  They told us just to show up and meet people at the Sunday service. 

So we did, and what happened afterward is mind-boggling still to this day.

We were sitting in the first service, and at the end we were asking God to help us connect with some people to talk to.  We wanted to hear the stories of things behind the scenes, of what really makes this group of people tick.  We ran into Keith, who was sitting 3 chairs down from us.  We introduced ourselves and vice versa, and Keith asked what we were doing in GR.  We told him we were on vacation at the church, which he was puzzled about.  We have a friend who used to live in the area, and connected us with the church (he was a youth pastor in Grandville at another church), and we told Keith about this.  He asked us what his name was, and we told him we're pretty sure you don't know who he is.  He asked anyway and so we told him.  Ironically enough, he did know him, quite well, as he was a former pastor at his church!   Keith then introduced us to a couple of other staff members, and by the time the service was done we had appointments with two staff members (Keith is a staff member too!).

Later that day we were grabbing some literature and ran into someone named Tim, who was raising money for inner city kids to go to camp.  We found out he was a real-estate agent.  We talked about Mars and his story, and went on our way.  Throughout the day, we kept running into him in random places.  We would chat every time we saw him for awhile.  It was just so weird.  At the time we thought nothing of it.

The next day we talked with one of the Community Life assistants that I had corresponded with through e-mail.  We wanted to put a name with the face so we popped in to say hi.  2 hours later we left.  She told us not to get wooed by Rob Bell's teaching and the size of the church.  We told her we really didn't care about that (don't get me wrong, we love Rob's teaching, but we wanted to hear what was making the church tick).  She was greatly encouraged. So were we.

The next night my wife went to a women's worship event at the church building.  I was trying to look for her through the crowd, where a woman was standing asking me if she could help me.  I told her our story and she said she would sit with Julia.  After the event was over, the woman came out (her name was Amy) and said, "You're wife told me your story, I gave her my card.  If you need anything give me a call."  I was thinking..."What story did she tell?"  I had no idea what she was talking about. 

Julia was sharing our journey and where God has been leading us these last 4 years or so.  The woman asked what Julia did for a living, and she told her that she was an accountant.  Amy then pulls out her business card and says, "My dad and two brothers are CPA's, if you need anything, give me a call."  Julia tells me this and was thinking, "REALLY weird."  So then we staring at each other, rewinding the last 3 days or so, and I finally asked, "Do you think God is trying to tell us something here?"  We were serious about it...it was more confusion than anything else.  We continued talking that night and praying about God was trying to say.

The next morning there was a "Covenant Members Meeting" at the church building.  They were restructuring membership and talking about the vision of the church and where it is going down the road.  We had nothing else to do so we showed up.  We were still talking and praying that morning of why this place was special to us, and asking God if He was trying to tell us something more.  We asked if He would make clear after the meeting of the direction He was leading us with all of this.  We started talking about what we thought they were going to say, and prayed right before the meeting started, "God, make this crystal clear to us."  Right after we pray that, Tim, the real-estate guy, sits right in front of us!  We just looked at each other and him for awhile.  I tapped him on the shoulder, and chatted for a little more.  Rob Bell and Don Golden (the lead pastor) get up and explain who Mars Hill is and where they are going.  They said everything we had talked about the night before and morning of the meeting.  Most of it almost verbatim.  By the time the meeting was over, I was bawling and overwhelmed.  I couldn't believe it...God was actually telling us to move to be part of Mars Hill.

There is more to the story, but it's already been too long.  I am not taking any staff position (obviously), and we don't know of all of the reasons we are going, but we know He has called us.  And when He calls, we go.  We are in process of moving there at least by the end of September.  There is much more I can talk about, but I'll have to space it out with future posts.  For now, I just wanted to share the story with you and ask for your prayers as we continue to follow God's lead.

In the midst of a flurry...

I'm the in midst of my second of 3-day homesteads being home in the month of July.  It has obviously been a very busy month.

I was off to Belize the first half of the month, which has so many memories I can't even begin to count.  I will try to sit down and report when I get back from my next trip.  It was absolutely incredible.  I hope I can go back soon to see my new friends again.  I do know this...we know nothing about poverty being in the States.  It was just unbelievable there.  More later in a couple of weeks.

I was home then for three days and then off to another camp in Barnegat, NJ.  It was the absolute contrast to Belize.  We stayed in a state-of-the-art air-conditioned high school (only 2 years old), and had about every luxury you could have compared to Belize. Many great memories from that as well that I will report on when I get back from this next trip.

Next is IMPACT, which is an annual event with our youth ministry here.  It is a 4-day conference where we will hear speakers, attend seminars, and have tons of fun camping out in tents.  It is always one of the highlights for our youth ministry every year.  I will speaking again this year on the stage, which I still need to finish up today.  I'm talking about how we experience God's love in our hearts and not just our heads.  Please pray that many students will have a chance to experience the love of God on Friday night.

My body is exhausted, but I keep going. After this trip things will calm down a little bit, although not much.  There are some other very huge things in the works I'll talk about later down the road (maybe a month or so).

Until then, I pray God's shalom would rest upon all of you.

Belize...

I am about 5 days away from going to Belize with Group Workcamps to MC and Music Lead a camp there.  I have been looking forward to this for awhile now.  We are working about 20 minutes north of Belize City in the rural areas, doing various amounts of things like fixing/building homes, visiting orphanges, and hanging with the locals. 

My history with international trips has not been very encouraging.  So far so good I am slated to go.  The last two trips have not proved otherwise.  In 1995, I was slated to go to Albania, which had just opened up 5 years previously, to show the Jesus Film to villages where there were no roads.  We would take land rovers, hike with 80 pounds of equipment on our backs, and setup and show the film.  I was so excited about the trip...and then I tore a disc in my back.  So there goes that.

Two summers ago I had planned a mission trip to Mexico City with some local missionaries from our denomination at the time.  It was 2 years of planning and hard work, I was so excited to go. Then, unfortunate circumstances arrived and I had to leave the church before the trip was to take place.

So three times is the charm here.  Hopefully it's more a happening thing than "I just jinxed it" thing.

It's going to be hot, muggy, and as of this moment, wet, but I can't wait to see what God is going to do.  It will be the most challenging workcamp I have done yet, but I'm looking forward to it!