Two Significant Birthdays

Within four days of each other, two of our children have birthdays. On January 21st, our oldest son Jason had a birthday. I can't imagine a another father being prouder of a child than I am of Jason. Of all of our children, he was the planner, and determined to reach his goals. From ninth grade on, he knew he wanted to attend Evangel University, major in music and orchestrate music for live and recorded sessions. Today he is an Assistant Professor of Music at Evangel University. He has been instrumental in expanding the music technology and music industry sections of the Music Department. He has written countless orchestrations for many churches, civic orchestras, recording sessions and more. The idea of hearing the music in his head, and then being able to display it on a computer and then print all the parts for an orchestra, boggle my mind. I love hearing the music he has worked on. If he stays on his goal schedule, Jason will begin working on a doctorate this coming fall. The family side of life makes me just as proud. He is a wonderful husband and father. He and Jennie have done a wonderful job of raising their two sons. Both of them excel in different areas. Two years ago, Jason and Jennie began the adoption process to adopt a Haitian orphan who was very ill. Today, Josie is a bubbly, full-of-energy, bundle of excitement, and very healthy. Jason, Jennie and their boys have loved this little girl into health and vitality. The compassion and care of disadvantaged children that Jason saw in his own home as he grew up obviously translated into he and Jennie's decision to follow James 1:27, The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father's point of view, is the one who takes care of orphans... Happy birthday, Jason.

Today is Nicole's 20th birthday. It is hard to imagine that my little girl is all grown up. The memories of her as an 18 month old, playing "chase me" with me are as vivid today as they were 18 years ago. Every Friday we would dress her "to the nines", complete with her fuzzy white coat and take her to the county's social services division so she could visit with her birth grandmother. At the end of the visit, Kathy would usually spend a few minutes talking with Nicole's social worker, and I would take Nicole out in the hall to burn off some energy. For some reason, today she won't play "chase me" anymore. :) I agonized over this child because she had no father. Many nights I would feed her a bottle and put her to sleep, praying over her, and her future. After her grandmother had exhausted all the possible relatives that Nicole could have gone to, we began the adoption process. For you see, by 18 months, she was already embedded far too deeply in our hearts to let her go back into the foster care system. Today she has blossomed into a wonderful young lady. Her photography hobby has evolved into a small photography business, she is working and paying off her car, and learning the life skills that will make her a wonderful wife and mother. Near the end of the adoption process, we had a session with a doctor who discussed with us all of the possible health problems that Nicole could have. She was born a preemie to a 14 year old mother. She had a severe brain bleed at birth. The disclaimers went on and on, enough to scare anyone away from taking responsibility for her. Today she is healthy, beautiful, and is smart and intelligent. None of the "possibilities", ever came to pass. I believe God helped Kathy and I to love her to health, and God has blessed her with His presence for His purpose. Happy birthday, Nicole.

It's Really All About People

I spent the last week in northern Illinois, helping the Illinois District of the Assemblies of God, install new software and train church users. While I have never served in an Illinois church, I have always admired this district, and the cutting edge ministry they bring to their churches and ministers. In this case, they are trying to give their district supervised churches better tools to do the best job possible in their communities.

Generally, a district supervised church is a smaller church that needs help in organization, funding, governing leadership and other elements. Once a church has become healthy in all the major areas, it transitions to being a self supporting autonomous church. The idea in Illinois is that if you give as much help as possible to the district supervised churches and pastors, you build strong churches in each of the communities that you are trying to reach.

Both communities I worked in last week were rural, and small. The first town was small enough that it did not have a single chain business of any kind. That included fast food restaurants, drug stores, grocery stores, etc. However, the church we were working in has more than 300 people worshiping there today, nearly 10% of the population of their town. The other small city we worked in was a little larger, with a smaller church. The pastor is bi-vocational and they do not have any paid staff. Everything is done by volunteers. The infectious enthusiasm I sensed there was refreshing. Each person that came for training was excited about the new tools. While our job was to install and train on a software system, I could see that each volunteer saw this as a better way to reach their own people and reach out to their community. When we talked about a "person record", the trainees saw that person as a "real person". It was fun to hear them talk about their various groups and ministries and how this new tool would help add people to them.

As a church administrator, sometimes the job can break down to software, numbers, buildings, supplies, and systems. I was reminded this week that it is all about people. Telling people that Jesus can change their life, and then demonstrating that by the way we live. I'll be doing some more of these installations. I can't wait to meet the people.

Another Employment Update

It has been awhile since I have updated my blog readers on the status of my journey towards a new job. Since my last update, Christmas has come and gone. Today we will finish putting away the last of our Christmas decorations and our tree goes to the recycle pile. Since we traveled to Colorado Springs for the Christmas holiday, we did not decorate our house as much as we normally do. Sadly, some of my favorite nativity scenes were packed in my office "stuff" boxes in our storage unit, so they didn't get to be enjoyed this year. Not having an income changed the way we did most things, but it also reinforced the joy of being with family and enjoying those moments far more than the commercial part of the season. I really missed not being part of a Christmas production, but I was blessed to attend several in our area and in the Springfield, MO area. I read more Christmas stories and writings this year than ever before, and all-in-all, we had a wonderful celebration. As you might imagine, however, all church hiring activity stops from Thanksgiving through the New Year, so there wasn't much activity on that front.

I am waiting to hear on a couple of possible positions, I have recently applied for a couple of others, as well. Kathy and I are trying as hard as we can to hear from God. We are confident in His love and care for us, and know that He knows exactly where we are. We also know, however, that 20 million Americans are out of work. Many of those are devoted Christians, trying to trust God just as much as we are. We also hear the sad stories of homes lost, bankruptcies, financial devastation and family unrest as people try and cope with this very difficult time in our country's history. We had our house on the market, but after 6 months we took it off the market and have decided to wait until spring to try and sell it again.

So where are we? We have had and continue to have some tremendous prayer and emotional support from our families and great friends. We have had just-in-time financial support that has helped us stay current with our financial obligations. We are using our savings, but at a slower "clip" than we expected. Our faith in God's provision for us is at an all time high and we are confident that God's open door for us will be revealed soon. Thank God we are not in this alone. Blessings for a New Year...

Another Year Is Dawning

I meant to post this blog yesterday, but ran out of time. One of my favorite hymn lyrics writers is Frances Ridley Havergal. If you look through a hymnal, you will will find several of her hymns included. My all time favorite Havergal hymn is Take My Life And Let It Be.

Frances wrote several hymns for the new year. This one, titled Another Year Is Dawning, was written on December 31, 1874 for the new year of 1875.

   Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be. 
   In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
   Another year of progress, another year of praise, 
   Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.


   Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace, 
   Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face.
   Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast; 
   Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.


   Another year of service, of witness for Thy love, 
   Another year of training for holier work above.
   Another year is dawning, dear father, let it be. 
   On earth, or else in Haven, another year for Thee.


Another year to see the great hand of God at work in our lives as we demonstrate who He is to a needy and desperate world.