Floods of Thanksgiving

What do you get when you cross a frozen turkey, a bathtub, a to-do list and a man whose multitasking skills are only so-so? Answer: a flooded bathroom, master bedroom, 6 year old's bedroom and hallway!

That's right, after turning the water on to allow the turkey to thaw, I was called away by the kids then absent mindedly went on to the next thing on the list - which happened to be removing the broken pieces of the old play-set in the back yard. As best I can figure the water as running for nearly an hour and a half!

The carpets are now draped over ladders in the back yard, the carpet pads in a soaking pile ready to be discarded and the concrete floors are nearly dry. Not the way I planned to spend Thanksgiving eve, but I'm sure God has a great way for this to turn into a blessing. I look forward to posting exactly what that turns out to be!

But for now it is 12:01 - officially Thanksgiving. So here it is: I'm thankful it was a flood, not a fire; I thankful for neighbors who lend a helping hand; I'm thankful for kids who will pitch in when the going gets tough; I'm thankful for a wife who knows me, understands me and loves me anyway (it's not our first time around this block. There was an incident with a fish tank a few years ago, but that's another story!).

Hope you all have a great, safe and DRY Thanksgiving!

Pre-Thanksgiving Gratitude

It continues to be a time of taking new ground in our lives. Both Meryal and I are very grateful for the opportunity we have to serve at Redeemer Church, for the great effort all three of our kids put into everything they day and for the little ways that God shows us that He is present each and every moment - whether we bother to acknowledge Him or not!

Next week officially kicks off the Holiday season and along with it most us will be putting our schedules into high gear - and many of us don't have much margin in our normal schedules to crank things up at all.

My prayer for our community (geographic and virtual) is that we will not sacrifice the Joy of the season in the name of perpetuating the season itself. In that sense the holidays are very self-defeating!

Have a great week and enjoy the world God put you in for what it is.

Exciting Times at Redeemer Church!

OK - here it is again - another attempt at becoming an avid blogger. I have a great deal of admiration for those of you out there who have mastered this communication tool. I'm praying for an extra measure of grace to follow through this time! So here's the goal - once a week church update and once a week family/spiritual journey stuff - sound like it should be doable!

One thing that I'm hoping will help me stay on task is all the things going on at Redeemer Church. Since July, we have been more and more engaged with the church and are working toward a part-time and then full-time position on the staff - still working out the details of what the title for the position will be, but the focus is simple - let God work through me (us) to build His Church. I just plan on being surprised quite often at what that means on a daily basis. It's a very young church, so we have some big hills to climb - that's really when we start to seek God at work with no ability to take credit for anything that is happening!

This week, we are going to welcome back Robbie Buie to lead us in Worship. Please be praying with us for a leader that is in a place to commit to serving and growing with us over the long haul. We've had some great guests over the past few weeks, but we really need someone who can be a part of our community and engage in this journey with us.

We are also in the throws of planning for our Christmas Eve service and should have some announcements about that time-table with in the week.

Have a blessed week and be a blessing to someone else while you're at it!
-B