Life Change All Up In My Face

Life change happens right in front of us all the time and most of the time we don't slow down long enough to either one-let God use us or two-take hold of opportunities God is hitting us in the forehead with. I've had a couple instances that have happened over the past month that may be an encouragement to anyone who may read this.

I was sharing with our Sunday morning, 5AM bible study guys a couple of weeks ago out a situation with my car. Basically, my car got towed for no reason and I fought for about 5 hours on the Saturday before I shared with them to get it back without paying. Without going into all of the details on that situation I will go into detail on the conversation I had with my neighbor who had a friend staying with her whom also had her car towed(Her's was a legit tow, mine on the other hand...I did get it without paying if your wondering!) While we sat in the lobby of our apartment complex waiting for things to unfold, the conversation started out with them dropping just about every four letter word you can think of out of frustration. I'm going to give you a break down of how the conversation went so if you don't follow it, read it again and I think it will make since.

So, it started out talking about how we felt about the complex, what I paid for our 2 bedroom, were we lived previously, how much more expensive and smaller that it was, if Sara was my wife living with me, then how we had ended up in Wilmington, what I do for work, the fact that she used to work for the lady that replaced, how she hated it, what I used to do for work, that I'm a youth pastor, if I work at a church now and what church we go to now, how she feels like she needs to get back to going to church and wants to be connected in a small group, the fact that me and Sara lead the Life Groups at Lifepoint....inviting her to come back to church and check out Lifepoint.

Now that I'm done with that, I hope you followed the progress of conversation. The biggest point that I want to make is that in all of the frustration and just staight up being pissed off that my car had been towed and they were wanting me to pay $100 to get it back, I made a point at the beginning of the day to ask God to use this situation rather than focusing on the situation. All said and done, I was pumped to know in my own heart that I had done what God wanted me to. I was fulfilled in know that, without knowing that she may come to church some week, which by the way she did a couple weeks later with another friend of hers...and she said she loved it! As I sit in the same spot I did that morning and remember the feeling of frustration but realization that its not about me or my situation but that God has a plan in all things makes me realize how important it is to slow down and look for God in all that we do. So, when I wake up, when I go to work, when I look at my wife, everything...my focus has to be on what God wants from me!

It's been a while!

I've been thinking a lot lately and realized how much blogging helped me get out my ideas/feelings. Thought that I would start a new blog for myself, but then again, I don't want to deal with starting a new one. Our lives have been completely thrown everywhere in the last year. Everything from moving to Wilmington after a modern day computerized dart throw at a map, to having the responsibility of a Life Group ministry put under us, to meeting new friends that have changed our lives forever. Being homesick has reached a whole notha level. When I realized that I will not have seen any family in over 10 months by the time we get home for Christmas blew my mind. Before our move, I hadn't went more than a month without seeing family. Being a holiday has made it even harder. Standing outside of the King's house outside of Raleigh, looking over the Lake behind their house, I realized how much I missed Arkansas, Family, and friends back home...but then I realized how absolutely blessed we are to be in the position we are. Having as many people invite us over to join their families for Thanksgiving as we did has blown my mind. God has placed us in a position that has truly challenged both of us, but for me, the friends I have made challenge me daily to focus on my relationship with God, with Sara, and doing everything I can to be a leader and example of Christ to anyone. I've been challenged to truly reevaluate what it means to live in a constant relationship with Christ and what it means to live ministry, not be in a ministry. The feelings I have felt over the last couple months has been one of humble growth and confused direction. God has called us to this area for a reason, but beyond this, I have no clue. It may be the typical thing to say, but I've grown more in the past 10 months than I've ever grown. My life has been thrown upside down, our relationship is stronger than ever, and I can see how God is setting us up for something huge!!! Hold me accountable, whomever reads this, blogging helps me get things out, and I look forward to sharing the ideas that I feel God is placing on my heart so that I can possibly use this to help anyone that may read this. Love you all and look forward to getting back into a good habit of expressing myself. If I can help you in any way, let me know!

PS...Starting on a plan of getting out of Debt and will be giving updates periodically, but pray for Sara and I to stick to it and kick this Debt we have in the Teeth!!!!

If you attend Lifepoint, you NEED to read this!

So, I don’t quite know how to go about telling this but here goes. We were absolutely blown away last night in our Life Group. Our group is comprised mostly of younger couples from what we had gathered from talking with everyone, but we also knew there was a couple that we didn’t know much about, that was new to Lifepoint, and that was looking to get plugged into a couples group...by the way, we also knew that she had an accent from talking with her on the phone. NOW, bringing you to tonight. We only had 4 people show up, but we had a dating couple that attends UNCW who we haven’t met before come, and then our foreign friend and her Personal Assistant. Now, when I say Personal Assistant, I mean a individual that is helping her get acclimated to the U.S. (getting a bank account set up, drivers license, all the stuff we see as normal and a pain)!!! Through talking with them, we found out that she has only been in the U.S. since Thursday, September 10^th as I recall (three weeks!). On Friday, she received a door hanger from Lifepoint saying something about a Church. Now, on to the amazing back story! She and her son moved here from Germany, but her son has been here since school started back in August by himself...HE’S 14! She received a lottery Green Card for her family from the U.S. last year, and their family has decided to take the chance of giving up everything in Germany to see if God is calling them to the U.S. Her son told her in moving here that they needed to find a church...HE’S 14...and Lifepoint is there with an invite, God is at work here! Her husband is still in Germany, and pending finding jobs and such here in Wilmington, he will be visiting for 4 weeks in December and possibly giving up his job, land, etc. in Germany to make Wilmington, NC, U.S.A. their home! God is amazing in that we were planting Midtown the week they moved here, a week earlier and they would have never gotten the door hanger! Instead of figuring out the Midtown thing, they went online, Googled Lifepoint and visited our Ashley Campus that Sunday, 3 days after moving here. Now in talking with her tonight, she and her family are all Christians, and know that God has put them and Lifepoint here for a reason. They have attended every weekend since, and she said that this past weekend’s message on life choices made it clear that she was following God and he is in control. Her son has even attended the Ignite service and loves it! God is doing amazing things here in this city and I can’t wait to see what’s next! Now, if that doesn’t pump you up about what God is doing through Lifepoint Ashley, and now Lifepoint Midtown, I think we may need to hook you up to some jumper cables!

This is why I love my church!!!

So, this morning I got my 1st official phone call concerning our new role as Life Group Coordinators at Lifepoint Church and it totally pumps me up! NOT going into ANY details, the conversation came to a point where a statement was made and I realized how awesome our church really is! The individual I was speaking with stated that if we were in a typical church, he knew what the response would be, "throw them under the bus," but we're not your typical church! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!! Lifepoint church exists to Love God, Love Others, and Serve the world...we don't throw our brothers and sisters in Christ under the bus...we love them and guide them in grace! Everyone lives in sin in one way or another, we've ALL fallen short, but we don't exist to cut peoples legs out from under them or judge them. We are here to respond as Christ would, and I pray that we would never loose sight of that!
Pastor Jeff has set an amazing vision before us as Lifepoint Church, and God is going to do whatever it takes through our church to reach this city and beyond. I pray that we would all come behind Pastor Jeff and do whatever he leads us to do because he is annointed by God to reach this city...and with that said, we will do whatever we are asked in order to reach people, and with grace, we will guide these Life Groups under the vision of our Pastor! WHO'S IN? It fires me up to see God move the way He is moving and to hear from people in our church who are IN!

No Doubts

So, its been a while and I'm feeling kinda anxious about this...pretty much fired up that I get to share what God is doing and that I was reminded that I have a blog to get things out on!
Life has gotten completely crazy for us here lately. Let me try to explain, this may take a while. When you move to an area where you don't know anyone, you have no jobs, and it was kinda the throw the dart at the map and move where it hits type thing, I'd say we had pretty much laid it all on the line and told God that if He wanted us here, He would have to provide for us, and giving up that control was hard enough, especially if you know me and most definitely if you know Sara very well at all!!! We've been here for 4 months and 9 days and after just asking Sara, she agrees that it has been the most exciting but scariest time of our life! We haven't ever grown this much in Christ. I can tell you from my perspective that if you would have asked me 9 days ago, I would have told you that I had some feelings of "God, are we REALLY supposed to be here?" "God, how is this going to work?" To say the least, I was confused and ready for something new! Then as I was sitting at the pool I WAS working at as a lifeguard for the summer, my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number but went ahead and answered thinking it was probably someone from the church or one of the other pools. When I answered a lady asked for me and then asked if I would be interested in interviewing for a job at Codington Elementary School here in Wilmington for the After School Program Coordinator position. I DIDN'T EVEN APPLY TO THAT SCHOOL!!! Long story short, within a week, I was filling out a hiring packet and within days I was on staff working at the school...can God answer prayers or what?!?! BUT, that's not all...in the last couple days, Sara and I have been approached about a new opportunity at the church and we're pretty pumped about it! God is really putting us in a position to reach people and I can't tell you how awesome this is!
So, with a guarunteed job for the next year and a crazy awesome opportunity to serve the people of Lifepoint Church, I'd say that my doubts and questions about if we are really supposed to be here have been answered! God has been faithful to us 100%, we just don't tend to focus on all we have, but all we wish we had. I constantly get asked what brought us to this area, and now the only answer that I can truthfully give that God called us here and I wan't to open my life to whatever He may have in store for us! For those of you that read this, hold me accountable to that! God has blessed us with amazing friends, an increadable church, and finally a job, and my heart goes out and prays for those that are still searching, God has something out there for you so use this time to get as close to Him as possible!!!