Trip to Midland

Hey guys, we're excited about coming to Midland this weekend and being with you a little while. This past week has worn us out -- and we're ready to be with family and friends. See you soon, uncle Ben.

This and That

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while for a lot of us it seems. It is a busy time of the year. First, congrads to Randy and Anda on number 5 (and I thought 4 was setting the bar high!) Snow on Easter is unusual, but I still remember Good Friday 1996 when it snowed 9" in Abilene and 18" in Sweetwater. That was in April, too, as I recall. I drove from Abilene to Waco (where it was not snowing) and hit my younger brother with a snowball, to which he exclaimed (where did that come from?) There were about six inches in the bed of the pickup, some of which we converted to snow ice cream.

We are partially moved into our next apartment, expecting the finishing help from our small group tomorrow.

Work is as busy as always. The legislature disappointed most everyone at work by keeping the staff in-office last Fri afternoon. I scheduled it off beforehand to move boxes and prepare for a LAN party, so I used overtime hours instead of holiday time.

Small group leadership has been a good challenge. We are starting a customized study of The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel a week from tomorrow.

I'm going to take a couple of sentences and brag on April. She has been working very hard at work with few if any breaks and usually no lunch. She will have been working for one year as of next Monday. She has been working to get an interview at UT for the past month, and the labor has now paid off. She has an interview late today or tomorrow at the Dean's office in the Law School. Please pray for the Lord's will to be done as there are advantages and disadvantages to both outcomes. It would be advantageous financially and would give us more time together, but she may lose some "work environment" advantages as the new office will be more fast-paced and it will be definite work transition for her. She is more than capable in either outcome. There will also be child care job openings later in the Spring or Summer that she is qualified for and that will also pay more.

We saw Larissa again on Sunday. She is having a time at the Four Seasons. She spoke with Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaghey, Owen and Luke Wilson, and other well-knowns during Austin's South by Southwest Music Festival. Also, the Bosts will be in Austin on April 10-13. We have considered offering to have them over for a meal, so if anyone wants to drop in and say hello, we could set that up.

I hope everyone has a blessed week.

-James

Returning from Easter

We just got home from spending Easter at the lake to find out Randy & Anda's good news. I have always suspected that Randy was more competitive than he appears. He waits for his brothers to get fixed and then one ups them with # 5. I started to call the REVERSE # but Jill indicated she didn't think that was such a great idea- So congratulations to Randy and Anda. I will leave it to my sisters to challenge for the crown of most grandkids.

On another note I will share what is going on with our family. We spent the weekend at Brownwood. It rained all day Saturday which is my favorite way to enjoy the Lake. The kids used the paintball masks to protect their face and enjoyed riding the go kart through the mud-they love the go kart - thank you out-of-town aunts & uncles. The Lunsfords spent the day with us on Saturday. They are some of our special friends- It makes me feel old to say that Will and I have been friends for 20yrs.

On Sunday we went in to Austin Avenue COC. While we were on spring break we visited a rock & roll church in Colorado Springs (Free Wind Church-lots of jokes about that). I wanted to give our kids some different experiences. They liked the Rock & Roll. It gave us a chance to discuss the differences and to teach them about what a special heritage we have. Everytime I visit a small Church of Christ I have a special joy thinking about our grandparents.

Next week is our Oil & Gas Conference so this will be a very busy week making sure everything is ready. I had to bribe Tod to be the MC again this year which will make 11yrs in a row. He makes us look good. Dad & I are also facing some big directional decisions at work. They are exciting, humbling and confusing all at once. Please pray that we will hear God's leading.

I enjoy hearing about all the good things you all are doing. Sounds like Easter was a big day for some of you. I want to hear more about it.

Keep Posting,

cb

 

Easter Snow 

Easter surprises

Happy Easter, everyone! We have had quite an exciting day around here! You won't believe this, but this morning we had big snow going on here for about an hour or more! I don't think we've ever seen snow on Easter - it was a cool reminder that God can do anything whenever He wants to! He washes us white as snow!
Our kids were also surprised this morning when they found that the lily they killed and buried last night (Jesus) had grown into a beautiful full-grown plant this a.m.! We celebrated new life!
We chose this activity over Randy's first idea which was to surprise them with a dog on Easter morning!! God had mercy on us and we decided to put that one off for a while.
We're just praising God for His goodness, remembering His sovereignty, and enjoying all the many surprises He has given us on Easter Sunday! Oh yeah - there's one more. God surprised us with the news this morning that there is more new life to be celebrated. We discovered that we will have another little "egg" hatch sometime around the first of December! SURPRISE!!! (So much for the rhythm method)! Admittedly, we are in a bit of shock, but very happy and trusting God. This is all very funny since I just spent the last month cleaning out all our baby stuff and have not one piece of maternity clothing left! We love you guys! Pray for us!!

Anda

Please God, catch me!--bw

When is the last time you took a really big risk of faith and asked a whole bunch of people to make that "leap" with you? I feel like I have done that and the ground is coming up on us real fast, but I can't tell if a "parachute" will open or not.

That is what I feel like tonight. We have prayed for over 40 days asking God to do specific, miraculous things in the lives of our neighbors. I believe He is answering our prayers. We have invited nearly 5,000 of our neighbors to worship with us tomorrow. And I believe many will--I just don't know if they will worship in our building or someone elses.

I wish they would come to our building -- probably more for selfish reasons rather than the amount of work their attendance would require of me. Perhaps my prayer needs to be: Lord, place your people right where you need them, regardless of what that does for me or Glenwood or the "Church of Christ."

It is enough to see the change of heart that You Lord, are making in our people as they pray for our neighbors. It is enough to finally take on a project that brings the body of Christ together and makes us stretch! It is enough that people who have been disengaged are getting excited about the church reaching out to our community. It is enough that You are alive Lord. It is enough that I am alive tonight and that You care more about my neighbors and church than I ever will.

P.S. -- If Lord, You would rather me smack the cold pavement of reality in a painful way, don't let me ever think I failed. Ready my feeble legs for more audacious leaps tomorrow. --bdub

Haven't blogged in a while

Hey Gang,
I haven't checked in for awhile. I thought I might get you up to speed. We put our house up for sale last week. We aren't in any big hurrry but we have had a lot of attention. We are looking for something with a gameroom for teenagers and a good setup for hosting groups. We got a strong offer yesterday and countered so something may be happening soon. We don't have a house to move to so we are going looking some today. I think Mom and Dad may be getting a little nervous that we may have to move in with them.

You saw Hutton's post. He was invited to a big tournament for kids in the 8th-10th grades. He is pretty excited about it, but we are trying to decide what to do.

Lee Ann and I are having a lot of fun with a young couple who are really growing in the Lord. The came to our Easter service two years ago. She was baptized over a year ago but he has been holding out. Recently they decided to host an Easter egg hunt at their local park. We volunteered to help them. He is really excited about it. In the process we found out about some needs they had and we pitched in to help. It turns out I am a pretty good mechanic watcher. Last night our whole LifeGroup and some others went over to their apartment and had pizza and then passed out flyers to the whole apartment complex. It was so great. We overwhelmed their little place, but it was a lot of fun. They were so excited. Matt told me earlier this week that he has been thinking about Jesus a lot. It has been pretty cool to watch.

That's enough for now. Grace.

Been a while

Hi everyone! I know it's been a little bit since I last blogged, but I've been busy. We are in the process of moving to a different apt. and I am trying to apply to UT for jobs again. There is one job that I have applied for that I hear I have a real chance for. We'll see. Anyways, I better go pack and move some more. Just wanted to let you know that I'm not trying to ignore you all.

April

God

I heard a great sermon by John Piper yesterday. It was called A Plea For the Supremacy of God in Preaching, Part 2,or something like that. It was yesterdays radio broadcast, so you can find it in the radio archives. It was a good reminder that my speech needs to be directly God-glorifying not just neutral. Go to www.desiringGod.org to find it. It's only about 25 minutes long. By the way, if you are not getting regular doses of John Piper in your life you really need to. He helps me keep from falling into the superficial flow of the world around me.

I just need to praise God for my friend Andre. You guys have heard about him. He's an alcoholic that was doing well then fell back several times. He went to Victory House, an intense Christian discipleship rehab home, and did well for several months. Then in February he was found beat up in a convenience store parking lot. Nobody knows what happened, but he was probably starting to get into trouble again. God graciously let him get beat up before he got to far into it.

He was in a coma for over 3 weeks, and the first time I saw him I was 95% sure he would die. He was on a ventilator, on 100% oxygen, and they still couldn't get his oxygen levels up close to normal. I left the hospital with almost no hope. He made it through that, but I thought he would be mentally retarded the rest of his life. He made it through that also. When they extubated him the first words he said were, "Jesus is alive."

He's now staying at his sister's house, and recovering well with full mental function, able to walk and talk normally. He's still weak and they won't let him eat or drink anything yet, but he's the same old Andre that I used to know (hopefully without the alcoholism). I really believe he was miraculously healed by God. He had a lot of people praying for him. My prayer is that Andre will be a partner in ministry with me for many years to come.

God is good.

Where is everyone?

Hey everyone! Just wondering what happened to all our bloggers! I'm missing you!

While I'm here, I'll just fill you in on life here in Tyler. We're in the middle of "8 Days of Worship". Starting last night we get to have church every night this week. Reminds me a little of the gospel meeting days but with a different focus. Tonight Ben was in charge and I have to say it was awesome! He did a "concert of prayer", which had everyone curious. Some wondered if we'd be singing prayers for an hour. He set up about 20 prayer stations around the worship area--kind of a hands-on, experiential way to pray. It included everything from scrolling through the names of our neighbors on powerpoint to a footwashing station. I was brought to tears when I saw Bill Chambers on his knees washing my husband's feet. One of those moments that will go down in the archives of my mind.

I love the way God moves us when we pray.

We finished our 40 day fast, and Alex is now enjoying eating chocolate again. He remained faithful to the end--never once wavering from his commitment. We celebrated with homemade Paradise Pie (like Chili's makes)--our new favorite dessert treat! Alex asked me tonight if he could have something chocolate for breakfast. Maybe we'll make pancakes with chocolate syrup or something! I don't have any chocolate breakfast recipes--what a shame!

That's all for now. We love you all!
Trisha

skipping church

Well, Moriah had a little stomach bug on Thursday and guess who's got it today? Me. We've had kind of a sicky year around here so far! Let me just say that the Lord is really merciful to let these things happen on the weekends when Daddy is home. We might be up a creek otherwise!
We had our garage sale yesterday and made a little over $1000! We were really happy about that. God was faithful to answer prayer. Still a little more "purging" to do around the house, but we already feel somewhat "lighter" with so much of the clutter gone.
No news really. Just sitting here in this quiet house and thought I'd check in with you guys before another wave of nausea hits!
Love you,
Anda

Bball in Hawaii

Hey family. This is my first time to blog so here it goes. Me and two other people got invited to this national all star basketball tournament in Hawaii for nine days this summer. I get to stay and the Waikiki and play with all star basketball from all over the country. It is a great honor to get invited. Very few people got invited to this. Only three in my grade. It'd be a great experience. The only problem is I have to raise a lot of money. It's $1,875 dollars for admission. That includes lodging in the Waikiki for me and my parents, food, a custom made uniform, and any other tournament related expenses. My parents have to pay for their food, and we have to buy our own tickets to fly. They're $675 a piece. As you can see it's expensive. So any donations that you can make would be great. They allow me to be sponsored and all that. I think it'd be fun and a great experience to play with allstars from around America. Every little bit helps.

Sincerely,
Hutton

Hey guys

Jill leaves town and everyone stops blogging. She deserves some kind of blogger award or something.
Quick update. We're on Spring Break this week. Having a huge garage/moving sale on Saturday. Not keeping much because we won't have room. This has been an interesting process - walking around the house and literally asking God what goes and what stays. It's actually been very fun. I've never prayed about a garage sale before, but we're praying like crazy about this one. Feel like it's a significant step in this whole process.
Josiah had another soccer game last Sat. He scored 2 of the 3 goals. It's a great league - not real intense, etc. He's having a lot of fun!
Had our women's retreat a couple of weeks ago (did I already blog about this?). It was incredible. I'll have to send you girls the tapes. The woman who spoke was from Antioch and led the first team that went to Indonesia right before Randy. That trip was TOUGH with many trials, etc. This lady is one tough cookie and spoke with authority, you know what I mean? I'm making Randy listen to the tapes right now.
Moriah is really cute and quite spunky. She "talks" non-stop, almost runs everywhere she goes, and is throwing some enthusiastic tantrums.
McKenna would now like to blog some words to the family:
On Sunday, one of my best friends left for Israel. She is from Israel, and going back. By the way, it is March 17. At the playground at school, on the last day she was here, me and my friends grabbed on to her and wouldn't let her go. I'll miss her a lot and wish she could come back. I hope you're having a great time in Midland or wherever you are! Goodbye!

May you be blessed in Jesus today!
Love,
Anda, a wretched sinner just basking in the blood and grace of Jesus today!

Nothing much

Hi everyone--
I am missing hearing from you! How is life??? We're having a fun spring break. (It's not quite as big a deal when you're in 2-day preschool as it will be in a few years.) The weather's been crummy, but should be nice by Friday so maybe we can go to the zoo.

LeeAnn, Happy Birthday! I'm sorry we failed to mention it on your day--you were at the lake and I assumed you weren't keeping up with the blog! I hope it was wonderful and relaxing. You deserved a break! We continue to pray for endurance and joy as you finish up your semester! You amaze me with your great outlook on it all!

Our 40 days of prayer ends this Sunday, so we're trying to get together the mailouts inviting our neighborhood to church on Easter. We're planning a lunch and Easter egg hunt as well. After praying for people by name for 40 days, everyone wanted to be able to write a personal note to "their people", so we had a guy donate the extra postage and are trying to manage getting that done while not leaving anyone out. It really is interesting getting attached to a group of people that way!

Anda, I was thinking about your chart that you used to have on the wall in your dining room (maybe still do?) that had the circle of blessing, etc. Do you still have that? Could you take a picture with Randy's handy little camera and post it? I have wanted to use that for awhile and keep forgetting to ask about it. Thanks!

Also, we're planning to be at Stream. Are any of you Midland folks planning to be there? What are you doing with kids?

We love you!

 

Purple thing-one and Pink thing-two 

 

midway-meltdown 

Dad looks confident that he can get Josh down the mountain 

Josh innocently awaits his first blue run 

Dogs love Mitch 

One more run, mom!

Thought I would give another obnoxious ski report plus pictures from spring break. We (everyone except Josh who was in ski school) skiied hard the first day. My family would all wait for me at the bottom of each run since I am the only one in my family with a healthy fear of injury/death. Cary kept on yelling at me, "It's a controlled fall - go faster!" The term 'controlled fall' is quite the oxymoron, and did not set well with me as I was sliding down a steep blue on my back.

You never really intend on skiing as long as you do. I kept on thinking, "Okay, this is about it for me....I'll probably go in after this run...Yep, I think my feet have lost circulation...bout time to go in." I even verbalized most of these thoughts to my family, but they cheered me on, "One more run, mom! Come on, you can do it! We'll go in after this run."

My bad for believing them.

Pretty soon I started to realize that my legs were not responding to the signals my brain was sending. I was "done" about three runs prior to the one I was on, and I was starting to yell things like, "Hey! Don't ski that close to me! Keep going - we've got to get down this mountain!" I was panicking.

We were basically kind of lost - we kept on skiing to the same lift chair. I would think, "Okay, we made it," and then I would see the same lift and think - no way - we were just here! We were skiing in circles.

Then, I heard the dreaded words from one of my children..."Mom, I gotta go pee!" Now I was really yelling. "On your right - no left, get out of my way! Ski fast! Go straight down the mountain, children - don't stop!" Our family is looked like a "Ski-Fest" racing competition - it was brutal.


Mitch can ski great - pretty parallel skiing - great hockey-stop. He likes the blues & blacks. Emily and Ashley look like trick skiiers. They play on-going games as they ski down the slopes. Snowball fights and tag are their favorites. They look like a tiny purple and a tiny pink streak whizzing in and out of startled skiiers.

Josh was in ski -school for 2 days and skiied with us the rest of the time. We were all so proud because he skiied his first blue slope. Poor thing, he didn't know what he was getting into, but he figured it out fast about half way down the mountain. I couldn't resist getting out my camera and documenting the "midway meltdown."

We made good (and not so good) memories, and we have started to restore our family relationships after a 16 hour road trip home. We are thankful to God that He kept us safe and kept us grateful for every crazy minute of our trip!

Nice Mugs! 

Random thoughts

I know everyone is out of town, so this may not get read. But I'm feeling pensive, so I thought I'd just blog a bit. It seems to me that we live in a difficult time here in America. I feel like we're right on the verge of a national breakdown. Maybe it has always felt this way and I'm just getting grown up enough to notice it. As I read the teachings of Jesus and the prophets and I look around me I realize there are not many people who worship God. Many people are fairly moral. Some attend church services. Few people worship Jesus.

How many men do you know who are like Daniel? Occasionally I see people who are very outspoken and public with their faith. They do the right thing when it's unpopular and they pray no matter who's watching, like Daniel did. I also meet people who live moral lives with diligence, like Daniel did. It seems that not too many people are in both groups, though. I want to be overtly Jesus-loving, so everyone knows who I worship. I want to stand up in crowded auditoriums and say, "Sir, that's not true. We didn't come from apes." Daniel did that sort of thing. He was in a land where everyone worshipped a false god. They all told happy little lies to each other about how their idols were taking care of them. Daniel didn't just pray in his room and wait for things to get more favorable. He stood strong, and at times loud, in honor of his God. That is hard for me. I like for people to like me. So I preach to my kids at home about how evolution is wrong, but I don't take the opportunities to stand up for truth in the public forum when those opportunities are there. I know it seems like spitting in the wind now, but God can still close lions's mouths. I believe that we have turned a corner as a nation. It seems that from now on the government institutions will be run as if there is no God. We must be like Daniel now more than ever.

I also want to be faithful in all that I do. I want to be the most well-educated doctor in my clinic. I want to have the best kept medical records and be diligent in my tasks. That's hard, too. I find myself putting church and family concerns above studying medicine. It's easy to settle for good enough sometimes.

My prayer for my family is that we will grow in diligence and faithfulness, and that we will not be turned off by those we consider to be fanatics. My sense is that if we don't become fanatics ourselves we will find ourselves bowing our knees when we should be standing in defiance. May we do all that we do with humility of heart and passionate love for Jesus.

From your wretched, blood-washed brother and son who's more thankful that ever for God's grace,
Randy

girls' weekend

Hey, last I heard, the official date set for the girls' weekend at the lake was the 15th weekend in April. Is this still okay Trisha? Rita? Is anyone else going to be able to come hang out? Just wondering.

Anda

God's sense of humor

Wednesday night at church, one of the the singers on our worship team begged off of singing due to a raspy voice. I told him that would be fine and then boldly proclaimed that in 13+ years in ministry and even more singing before then, I had never missed singing because of laryngitis. Saturday morning, I woke up and could barely talk. So I rested my voice as much as possible in order to be ready Sunday. Sunday morning came and you guessed it, I couldn’t sing. I couldn’t talk much – but everyone who heard about my “boasting” sure got a kick out of what happened! Have a great day. bw

Justice

Josiah had his first soccer game today. Grandma and Grandpa came down from Brownwood to be part of it, which made him feel like a star. He did great, and even scored a goal. He's a great kid.

I went to a conference this week on Christian Community Development. It was challenging to me. The basic premise of the speaker, Bob Lupton, was that the inner city neighborhoods are going to be redeveloped and turned back into nice neighborhoods, but the big question is will it be done with justice. He was trying to convince us and train us to begin with a specific end in mind. Basically the ideal neighborhood would be self-sustaining economically, but with poor people included. So instead of a big developer just coming in and buying the land to build high rise condos, the community would map out it's objectives and develop a diverse, healthy neighborhood. It seems like a great idea as we think about what needs to happen in Como. In fact, I think they are doing some of that development planning already. The hard part came when he said that "betterment" (just giving people a temporary fix) is not what we should spend our time doing. He said we should always be working on development. The most striking statement was that in the ministry he runs (which has been around for 35 years) they never give anything for free. They felt like that stole the dignity of people and in the end didn't really help anyone. So instead of giving away clothes they started a thrift store with community members as the employees. Instead of doing a food pantry they do some sort of a co-op. When people ask him for money he has them mow the lawn or sweep the floor or wash windows. His premise is that there is almost noone who has nothing they can contribute. It has got me thinking. I'm not sure what to do with it because it seems to contradict some of what Jesus said. But I also know in my heart that most people getting handouts aren't getting helped. The balance is how to have a "developer" mindset and still keep a soft heart.
Just a few thoughts. Have a great Spring Break everyone.
Randy

spring break?

Hey everyone! We are wondering who is going to be at the lake when. If I remember what Holly said earlier, she will be there with the kids all week. We are thinking about coming for Thurs-Sat., but only if some of you are there to play with! Our spring break is the next week.

I have to tell you about my son, Alex. Let's see who he reminds you of in our family...
As our church began the 40 days, we began talking about what we could give up. Alex decided to give up chocolate and has been very, very faithful to his commitment. I'm so proud of him. He doesn't act prideful or like a martyr or even sad--just matter-of-factly reminds me when something being offered him is not allowed. If you ask him why he's not having chocolate, he'll simply say, "So I can think more about Jesus."
We were at Wendy's earlier this week and I unthinkingly asked him if he wanted a Frosty or Sprite. He first said Frosty, then ran up to me and said, "Wait, Mom! I can't have a Frosty. I'll take Sprite." As Katy and her little friend ate their frosties, he never said one word about it. (Every so often we do dream about what kinds of chocolate we're going to have for our Easter celebration--it's going to be good!)
I long for the kind of innocent faithfulness he shows me. He just does what he says he's going to do. No big show, no need to draw attention to his great sacrifice--just living with integrity. That's how I want to be when I grow up.

I'm thankful for all the role models in my life--many of whom are on this blog!

CCDA conference

Randy and I went to the CCDA conference today at Central Dallas Ministries about incarnational ministry - the theology and practice of relocation. To summarize, what we heard was that Jesus didn't "commute" to be with the people every day. He was born a poor Jew and came to dwell among us (the Message says "moved into the neighborhood"). If we aren't in the neighborhood - literally - then their problems are their problems. When we become a part of their community, the issues become our issues and we can identify with them, just like Jesus did with us. The speaker, Noel Castellanos, from Chicago pointed out that the Church today could be described as "commuter" and generally has little, if any, discernable impact on any particular neigborhood/community. Anyway, I could blog some killer quotes, but I won't yet. Bottom line from yesterday? To really understand the incarnation of Christ will impact how we live here on this earth. Sounds simple (but I cried all the way home from Dallas yesterday)! When the Lord is stripping away all your "crutches" and "excuses" it's excruciating. All the things I heard rang true with my spirit, but I didn't particularly want to hear them. I prayed on the way to Dallas that the Lord would break whatever it is inside of me that doesn't really want to right now - it's a bitter sweet answer. Wanted to share an excerpt from an email from Julie Pennington, one of my faith heroes. God was sweet to have her send it - she doesn't know what's been going on with us (by the way, she ended up putting this in their newsletter, so I'm not revealing her deepest darkest secrets):
"It's been a sweet week here wandering to the Lord in prayer on you behalf and thinking about you. One more thing I think I am supposed to share with you. We have had a hard February (yet full of incredible breakthrough this last week)-- I have almost quit about four times this month. But learning anew or maybe for the first time about God's grace for me each day. On a bad end to a particularly hard week, I was secretly plotting my escape from here. The whole shebang- getting to the airport, buying tickets home, packing up some stuff, do I take the kids or leave them here, what would Brent think when he came home and I was gone, etc. However, I got stuck on the issue of where I would go once I got back to the U.S. because I couldn't think of one friend or family member that would let me wallow in self pity and not send me back over here and tell me to work things out. So I stayed. Died some more and the Lord came and revived my deadness. I share that all to say, that when that day comes for you and maybe it already has, the day you realize that you are so far in over your head, made some mistakes, are ready to run and hide and forget it all, the day the lies are louder than the Truth, I wonder if maybe we are just normal and this is a part of the journey. Like when my doctor told me when Ben was a newborn that I wouldn't be a real mom until I let Ben roll off the bed accidentally. I thought to myself, "I will never allow that to happen." A few months later, clunck, and he's wailing on the floor. And now the Lord pours His love on me to give me strength for each day as I am so weak. So all this to say, maybe we aren't real "missionaries, church planters, ministers to the poor" until the day we plot our escape and then realize the Lord's power in our deep deep deep weaknesses. What He has called you/us to is impossible. Praise God. May He be glorified in our foolishness. May he make you/us more foolish and make us love Him more."
Amen. Blessings on this awesome family,
anda

Can't Sleep

Once again, Cary is out of town so I'm thinking out loud on a blog. Too many thoughts (Eventhough I DID get my hair highlighted today, I am still getting thoughts). I've been doing some research on Midland's ministries to the poor- very interesting. For instance, First Pres. is really plugged into helping the community. They've got lots of things going. There are 2 soup kitchens I found - maybe more that I don't know about. There's Casa de Amigos, Salvation Army, and Fair Havens. And it looks like most churches have some sort of food pantry or individual ministries to help the poor or needy in their congregations. All good stuff.

Anyway, back to the thought. What if there was a place where meals could be assembled to be given out to the poor - an unconventional soup kitchen. Holly mentioned a franchise that did this and it became a little community in and of itself. Different churches could take different weeks/months to come together in a building (south side, east side, southeast side, southwest side? - feedback, please) , assemble the meals, and when the people came to pick it up, they would be invited to a Sunday worship service at the building and afterwards be served a free Sunday lunch. Different churches could be responsible different weeks for the service and for the luncheon.

If I have any grasp on what a missional church would look like (In this family I probably don't) maybe this would be close. ? I don't know if it would have any denominational or traditional look to it. Just a lot of worship, prayer & fellowship. I guess you might consider this a type of a church plant?

When I start having really big thoughts (scary), I think the building could be built by an apartment complex that we could rent out some units to people. And then maybe build a medical clinic by it, a law firm, a job placement center - I start thinking Central Dallas Ministries.

Oil price is crazy these days, and I'm starting to have very socialistic thoughts about the redistribution of Midland's wealth. This is not a popular thought in a capitalist/Republican town like Midland. I also believe there are a lot of good-hearted, love-the-Lord people that would really desire to do something like this - or to have a small piece of something bigger than themselves. They just don't know where they fit in or what to do. Yes, some of them might be "guilt-giving" just to appease their conscience - I do a lot of that, too. But God can use a guilt offering for His glory - I believe He uses all of my short-comings and failures for His good (keeps Him real busy, too).

Anyway, just thougths I needed to process & get out. I'll probably wake up tomorrow (it already is) and wonder if this idea was just a dream. Maybe it is, and maybe God's giving this dream to other people, too. That might be a dream come true.

I can't wait for heaven

Today I took all 3 kids to Sam's. As we were leaving the lady who draws the line through your receipt commented on Elijah, who was sleeping peacefully in his carseat, and how he looked just like his brother. Katy piped in with "That's my little brother, Elijah-jijah." The lady gave her some sympathy for being the only girl with two brothers and she said, "Yeah, because my sister, Hope, died." An awkward moment, but the woman was kind and said, "Well, maybe she's in heaven." I confirmed that she certainly is, and that I bet she looks like Katy. As we walked to the car, we had a sweet (but very teary for me) conversation about what Hope looks like. (Katy has said things about Hope lots of times since Elijah's birth and really latched on to the idea that her sister might look like her.) Alex thinks she might look like an angel--even be an angel. I don't know, but I look forward to the day I get to see her. In the meantime, I got a great reminder of the sovereignty of God, of the tenderness of our human hearts--that I can go from the joy of shopping at Sam's to the raw emotion of grief in just seconds, and of the many, many people around me who are hurting and I haven't noticed yet.

I don't know why I even share that story--not to elicit sympathy or make you sad. Just to acknowledge that this is life. You are my family, and I just wanted to share that little piece of me. I can't wait for heaven. As my brother Randy might say, "Kumbayah!" (his new favorite explitive, I believe!)

Also need prayer

I had planned yesterday to post an original, happy blog today. I had a couple of jokes related to work topics. Instead, I will write about my grandmother.

She was born in the Northeast in 1911 and migrated to Texas with her family in a covered wagon. She married my grandfather and came to know the Lord in Sweetwater in the 30's. After her husband passed in 1968, she retired from working as a seamstress to spend time with her grandchildren. She was there during my tests and heart surgery as a toddler. She was the primary caregiver for me after my mother went back to work until I entered gradeschool. She always seemed to stay near her older sister, Hellen. Now, two weeks after her sister went to meet the Lord, she has followed closely behind.

She passed yesterday evening, and I got the call early this morning. April has finished packing, and she and I will be travelling this evening. Services are Thursday in Sweetwater at 2, location TBD.

It is in many ways a blessing, as she was mostly bedridden and had lost her short term memory. My aunt had cared for her in Sweetwater since the mid-90's.

It is beginning to become difficult for me, but it is also still very surreal. I'm hoping that going out there will bring closure for both. Please pray for peace and for a recollection of fond memories. We know she is with the Lord, but I also know how much my aunt and mother will grieve. Please pray for them especially, that they will not harbor regret or remorse at the close passing of their mother and aunt.

Thank you so much for your support of April and I, through these times and through our mistakes. It is such a blessing to have a loving family that is godly, truthful, and gently loving. We hope to see some of you this weekend as we drive back through Brownwood on Saturday or Sunday.

With loving regards,

-James