Thoughts From A Government Statistic

As we prepare to leave the St. Louis area, one of the main transition items is selling the house we have owned for almost 10 years. We purchased this home at a very good price because it was a work in progress. The previous owners had done some updates and remodeling, but there was a lot of work to be done. In the ten years we have owned the house we have added a full bath, added a fourth bedroom, installed new windows and back entry doors, put on a new insulated garage door, a high recovery fifty gallon water heater, painted every room, updated the master bath and many other improvements. With the passage of about five years and all the improvements, our house appraised for $45,000 more than we paid for the house in 2007. While we were pleased, it is still a work in progress.

Then came 2008.   Kathy and I watched the news stories, read the articles, and heard the horror stories of people trying to sell homes as the real estate market started its free-fall. While the falling prices affected us, just as they did everyone else, they really didn't affect us because we weren't trying to sell our house. It is interesting how we all react to bad events or bad news. The more distant the event, or news, the less it affects us. We may feel badly for the people affected, but in reality, because these events or news do not impact us personally, they quickly lose their punch. Even though some events take years to recover from, like the Gulf hurricanes, the Joplin, MO tornado, etc., because the majority of us are not affected, the news becomes old news fairly quickly.

In the summer of 2011, our world was shaken with the loss of my job I had done for nine years. At the worst possible time to look for a new job, and to sell a house, we were doing both. Suddenly all the housing articles and television stories took on a whole new meaning. Now we were part of the statistical base. Suddenly reality hit us in the face. The house that had appreciated in the first five years we owned it, now was probably only worth what we had paid for it in 2002. But since we had added approximately $30,000 in improvements, we now had a house that was worth significantly less than what we had expected it to be worth. From July, 2011 until just before Christmas, 2011, we tried to sell our house. While we had a few people look at it, we did not have anyone interested enough to submit an offer. For awhile in 2012, it appeared we might be able to stay in St. Louis. In June, however, I received the job offer that we accepted, in Tucson, Arizona. Now we are trying to sell our house again. This time, all the stories impact us. We are government statistics. We are looking at alternative selling options, like a short sale, or the possibility of leasing the house until the market improves. Some experts believe that may be ten years. What should we do? There aren't any good answers.

The bottom line for us, in the face of very dismal news, is that we are still blessed. We have been able to make every mortgage payment on time. While many good people have had to walk away from their homes, and lose everything they have invested in them, God has helped us keep our loan commitment, reputation, and faith in His ability to help us, intact. So, in spite of being a true government statistic, the more important thing is that we are God's children. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Luke 11:11-13 Waiting on God's will and direction can be difficult, because we want everything to happen on our schedule. As I have learned with a new job, His schedule works pretty well. Well, I need to stop writing, we have to clean the house for another showing...

God Knows, He Cares, and He Provides

Luke 12:24-26  Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?


The picture on the right is our Blessing Box. At the beginning of our unem- ployment last year, Kathy had the idea, when the first unexpected blessing came, to keep a record of all the things that God might do for us. In one sense it was a record, and in another sense, because we started it with the very first blessing, either we were very presumptive that God would help us, or we simply believed His Word, and counted on His promises being true. The latter was true for us. When we were first married, we had a few months of very tight financial times. God provided for us throughout that period, so we knew God's promises were true. It had been quite awhile, however, since that time. In the mid 80s, we had an experience of God's provision that still amazes us when we talk about it. We wanted to buy a house in South Carolina, near the PTL Television Network, because Kathy and I were both working long and erratic hours. We had lost all our equity in our previous house because of a housing recession in the Northwest, so we borrowed money from both of our parents for a down payment. We agreed to pay them back over a 3 or 4 year period. (foggy memory) The incredible thing is that we paid this money back in 1 year. To this day, we have never really figured out how that came about. All we know is that God helped us, blessed us and showed Himself real to us. Now, fast forward to last October.


October 2011 began a period of no income. I had been given 4.5 months of severance pay and health insurance. 4.5 months for 9 years of service seems fair, and is based on a formula that many businesses use. The only difference is that for most employees, after severance pay, unemployment pay begins. The US government has extended some benefits to 99 months. Churches are exempt from paying into the unemploy- ment insurance program, and therefore, church employees are not eligible. And, in addition to having our pay end, I was now responsible for paying our health insurance premium, another $1,500 monthly addition to a family budget with no income. That is when the miracles started to happen. Wonderful friends committed to helping us with our mortgage payment, other friends helped us at key times, when bills needed to be paid. We learned how to live much more frugally, and conserve the funds we did have. Going to the mailbox became an adventure as we were sent gift cards for grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, fast food places and even an Oberweiss gift card! We received a wonderful ham for Christmas, groceries dropped off at our doorstep, shopping trips to Sam's and many other blessings. Our little glass box began to fill up as we experienced incredible blessings from God, via our friends and sometimes, people we did not know. Just like our experience in the 80s, I can't tell you exactly how it happened, but after 13 months of unemployment and under-employment, all our bills are paid and they have been paid on time. We have accumulated a little credit card debt, but once we have a regular paycheck, we can take care of that. We have been humbled, and awed by what God has done. Luke 12:24-26 has indeed been real for us.


We have one more hurdle to jump. This month we transferred the last of our savings into our checking account. In the beginning, we had a 4 month *Dave Ramsey emergency fund in savings. Amazingly, it lasted 10 months! As we move to Tucson, Arizona to begin a new pastoral position, we will have a rent payment and a mortgage payment, deposits, some moving costs and one more health insurance payment. For the first time in 10 months, the well is dry. Concerned, yes, worried, no. God has met us too many times in these past months for us to worry or panic. If we start to worry, all we have to do is pull out some of the pieces of paper in our Blessing Box. God is good... (*Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University program)

A West Coast Celebration of Life

If you regularly read my blog postings, you know that my father passed away on March 17, 2012. We had a wonderful celebration of his life in March in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Today we had another celebration of his life in San Jose, California. My parents, their extended families and other friends all moved to the Bay Area of California during WWII. The men went off to war and the ladies worked in the shipyards and other war related jobs. After the war ended, my parents married and started a family. About that time, my grandfather began pastoring a Spanish speaking Assemblies of God church in San Jose. From my birth until sometime in my 15th year, my family and I attended the church. In my 15th year, my grandfather died of stomach cancer. My parents were leaders in the church, taught Sunday School classes and conducted seminars for many Spanish churches in how to have a healthy and productive Sunday School. When I was about 12 years old, I began playing the piano for church services in my grandfather's church. So, with all those connections, it seemed right to celebrate his life, again, in San Jose.

So today, we held a San Jose celebration service for my father at Bethel Church, our adopted home church. Many of our west coast relatives attended and many people from the Spanish speaking church, Templo La Hermosa (Beautiful Temple), attended. It was a wonderful time of seeing relatives I had not seen in many years, and renewing relationships with people who had attended my grandfather's church many years ago. My dad's children and some of his grandchildren shared many memories, experiences and stories of my father's influence in their lives. During the lunch that followed the service, we all agreed that it had been much too long since we had seen each other, and that we all must do a better job of staying in contact. After the service, my son Josh and I, drove to the Willow Glen part of San Jose so he could see my childhood home, and then we drove to Templo La Hermosa to see where his spiritual heritage was formed.

Our extended family and friends that attended today represent a wide variety of people, of education, of employment, and success. When it was all boiled down to the reality of our being together, none of that mattered. What did matter is that there was a lot of love in the room, even though it hadn't been expressed in a long time. Nobody loves you like your family. We decided today that even though a lot of miles separate us, we all must do a better job of staying in contact. My dad would have been proud today. Not just because of all the great things that were said about him, but because it brought together a wonderful set of people that shared the greatest human emotion - love.

Another Birthday For An Incredible Woman

Today is Kathy's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, but she was a child bride and next month we will celebrate 36 wonderful years of marriage. You do the math...

She has been a life partner, a team mate with me in church ministry, a great mom, foster mom, adoptive mom, grandmother, Godly example to our children and grandchildren and many people whom she has influenced for good. She has taught many of you in Sunday School classes, small group meetings and workshops and seminars. She helped coordinate many of your children's weddings, directed your church women's groups, directed kid's choirs, youth choir's, ensembles, adult choirs, played the harp for every kind of occasion, sang in ensembles she coordinated and sung on many worship teams. She has sat with you in the hospital, praying and encouraging you as you worried about your loved you there. She has had many meals, meetings and telephone conversations with women who needed a compassionate and godly ear, a loving shoulder to cry on, and someone they could count on to be a prayer partner. She has entertained many of you in our home with her wonderful hospitality gift.

On our first date, she told me she wanted to be a pastor's wife. I told her that was the dumbest thing I ever heard. 36 years later, this pastor's wife and I are about to embark on a new ministry adventure. As we have walked together through the most difficult year of our marriage, she has never complained once about being a pastor's wife, or being career ministers. Even when her prayers for the details of a new job didn't come to pass (she asked the Lord to be near relatives, live in a place that was familiar, and wasn't too hot in the summer), she is looking forward to moving to Tucson, Arizona, a place we've never even visited, isn't near any of our relatives and has triple digit temperatures for much of the summer. She is a trooper, called of God, to be exactly what she has become.

The writer of Proverbs 31 had Kathy in mind when he wrote: She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." (Emphasis mine)


Kathy's oldest grandson is in the picture with her, Jackson, our first teenage grandchild. She has on her Tim Tebow Denver Broncos jersey. She is one of the top 10 Bronco fans of all time. (When we found out we were moving to Tucson, one of the first things she did was check the Broncos schedule for this upcoming season and found out they play the Arizona Cardinals in a pre-season game in Phoenix in August. Guess where she'll be.)


Happy birthday, baby doll...you deserve it.