You Can Do Seminary!

About 2 years ago I began to realize that God wanted me to attend seminary. The funniest thing about it is that a lot of really important people in my life weren't surprised! I wish that they had told me sooner that I need to go! One of the biggest, scariest parts of it though was moving my family of 5 from South Carolina to Texas, selling our house and finding a place to live in Dallas, and being able to support my family while attending seminary. Not all of those fears have been answered but now that I'm here I am proud to announce that it can be done! I and my family are here and we are making friends, we found a house, an awesome church, a great small group, and soon I know that the job thing will happen. We're out of money, but God is providing just like he has done so amazingly and miraculously every since we committed to moving here! He is God and has a plan for all of our lives. So I'm writing this blog to let anyone out there know that you can do it! You can do all things through Christ! I'm here if any one needs to make a connection here in Dallas. I'll be glad to help you find a place to live, a job, a church or anything that would prevent you in making a step toward seminary.

A New Member of the family

After a long time of thinking about this and praying about this we have a new member of our family.  Her name is Liliane. 

Liliane is six which is just about the age of Bonnie.  Lilian is in primary school and loves to sing.  She loves to play ball even though her health is not so good right now.  When Stacy saw Liliane we had to have her.  Liliane is from Rwanda.

Even though we know that we have done the right thing we're a little nervous about this because Liliane is black and may  be infected with HIV/AIDS.  I have family and friends that wouldn't understand.  Why a black child from Rwanda?  Here are our reasons:

1. Liliane is in great need.  She has had a difficult life and needs someone to care for her.
2. Rwanda is a desperate part of the world. 
   
3. Jesus instructed us to take care of widows and orphanes.
4. We fell strongly that God has told us to do this.

 So for those that are struggling with us doing this, let me at least somewhat give you some consolation to our news.  We are only sponsoring Liliane through World Vision by sending $35 a month.  We may never get to see Liliane on this side of Heaven - though I hope that we do.  But even if we had adopted this child I can't seem to come up with any need to justify myself other than the reasons above.  We'll get to pay a huge part of Lilianes life by sending money World Vision to provide food, clothing, school, and the much needed HIV/AIDS drugs.  

Here is the newest member of our extended family - Liliane:

 

Where the Hell is Matt?

This video is somehow beautiful to me. The guys name is Matthew Harding and Stride Gum paid to have him travel the world to make this video. The beauty is in the simplicity and the in the wonderful people that dance with him. A simple way of bringing people together across borders from around the world.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Howdy from Texas, Part 5

I began to push away from church a little more. I now spent all of my Sundays walking or riding my bike and my wife was afraid that I had left church for good. But I knew differently because I wasn't angry at God (at this point) I was disappointed with Christians. I had had some pretty bad experiences with other Christians in the previous few years and now I was wondering if I would ever want to be around them again. God I didn't have a problem with - it was his people that had most hurt me.

This was the beginning for me - the beginning of discovering my problems and hangups. This would be a path that would take me almost 9 years to journey. And it all began with a few people who cared, who talked to me and who took an interest with my relationship with my Heavenly Father.

I had met Jimmy Hawkins at church. In fact he was on staff at the church where my wife and kids attended and where I had fallen through the pastor's ceiling. He was an interesting guy who one day had a few minutes with me and just talked to me and he listened. That was the part that was new to me - he listened.

It's funny how we all like to talk about ourselves. Given a chance just about everyone will tell their life's story. Oh there are people that on the surface will say things like "my life's nobody's business" or "nobody cares about me". But you wait long enough and show enough interest and you'll get their thoughts and opinions about life and soon you know a lot about their story.

I was that was at that point. I was hurt and wanted to tell someone. I told Jimmy that day that I didn't think organized religion worked anymore. In some ways he seemed to agree or at least he seemed interested in what I had to say.

He told me to not worry about the ceiling or about some of the things that happened after that. He broke through a little and made me feel a little OK about the situation.

The pastor at the church also took an interest in me, but of course he had an interest in everyone - being the great person that he was - I knew this so it made me a little cautious - but he proved himself a genuine person who cared.

Looking back I know the "plans" that these guys had but they were plans driven by a real desire to see hurting people find healing. Their plans were plans that God was working out in their lives. The love that they had was a spill over from their own healing and it spilled over to me.

I began to feel some acceptance which was what I needed at that point and I began to attend church again. Funny, all it took was a few conversations with two people who cared - nothing dramatic, nothing difficult. Looking back now I am shocked at the simplicity of it all and I am challenged.

Howdy from Texas, Part 4

Well what happened next was both emotionally and physically shocking.

I hadn't been to church regularly for several months. It was really stressing out Stacy. I would get up each Sunday and take a long walk while she would take the kids and go to church. Those days were days of clearing my head and being alone with God. I was listening and not talking much. But we can't live our lives in seclusion and God knew that even if I didn't yet.

I did attend church some and one Sunday somehow found out that the church needed a network connection setup for the pastor in his study so that he could get a computer and be on the network. I volunteered!

The night before I was supposed to go, for some reason I couldn't sleep and I got to bed around 3:00am. So the next day I was tired and a little punchy. I had to go to the church cut a hole in the wall for his network cable to go through and then go into the attic above his office and drill a hole so that the network cable could be fed down into the wall. Should have been no problem! I cut the hole and then went up into the attic where I found that there was no floor. Just joists that I had to walk on and a lot of insulation (which I has since realized I'm allergic to) so I made my way across the ceiling slowly and careful to keep my feet on the joists because I didn't want to put a hole in the ceiling. I had my drill in hand. I crouched down to drill the hole and lost my balance and stepped backwards through the ceiling into the pastor's study - onto his desk - in his office - through his floresent light that was attached to the ceiling. Insulation, wires, dust, and me came poring out of the ceiling thankfully into his empty study. It was a mess!!

Normally the first thought when something happens like that is "Am I OK!" but for me in that instance it was "Oh gosh what did I say as I fell through the ceiling - I hope that it wasn't too bad and that no one heard it!" Honestly that was my first thought!

Then I had to find someone and tell them what had happened. They were all so nice about it. I felt terrible and had to get out of there so I told them that I would take care of it somehow and I left!

It seemed that I had finally crossed over into a terrible place. A place where I was embarrassed and ashamed. I couldn't go back to church now. How could I face those people? I felt like I was in a bad place and didn't see anyway out. My wife and kids had already made friends at the church. I couldn't/wouldn't ask them to leave. I had a lot of things to work through but it was there that God met me and began to open my eyes!

Stay tuned! Help is on the way!

NumNAH!

I have no words!

Life in Texas

Things that we have found out about Texas (so far):

1. It is hot – not bad (so far) – but it is not as humid as South Carolina.
2. Texans do love their state as indicated by stars and shapes of Texas everywhere.
3. Turn signals mean nothing when attempting to change lanes in Texas.
4. People are very friendly except for librarians (so far).
5. There are lots of great places to eat and one day we hope to be able to afford them!
6. Everything you need or don't need is no more than 20 minutes away and you may find it it may be even closer than you thought! Stores, malls, grocery stores are all over the place!
7. There are no people in these places most of the time. For the first two weeks we were out here we would go places and drive through traffic to get there but when we got to whatever place we were going there was no one there which got me asking the question “Where are all of these people on the road going?”
8. Fruits and vegetables are cheaper here. I think it may be because stuff from Mexico, stuff from the West Coast, and maybe stuff from South America funnel through Texas.
9. You can by meat in slabs at the grocery store and steaks are the size of pot roasts in South Carolina, but it is difficult to find chicken or pork.
10. Texas is where we are supposed to be!