God's grace led us to Good Shepherd

A few months ago, my wife and I were looking for a preschool for our daughter. Thanks to the spontaneous witness of a parent, our daughter is now attending Good Shepherd Lutheran School.

Let me tell you our story.

My wife and I feel very strongly about bringing our daughter up in a learning environment that fully embraces Christ. After touring many of the preschools located within a reasonable distance of our house, we were not able to find one that offered all we were looking for. Although we never stopped praying for God to reveal a clear path for our daughter, we ended up settling on a preschool that was not exactly what we wanted.

One day, while our family was at a community playground in Dulles, we met a mother and her son, who attends Good Shepherd Lutheran School. After exchanging stories, this mother seemed deeply concerned with our preschool situation and began to tell us about her many wonderful experiences with Good Shepherd. To my surprise, within minutes she was on her cell phone reaching out to the school office to see if there were any openings.

Later that same evening, I used GPS to locate the school and headed over with my daughter to scope things out. I was expecting nothing more than to view the location and the facility from the outside. However, when we drove to the school entrance, we noticed a light was on and decided to get a closer look. We were greeted at the door with a big smile and warm welcome by Susie Hardwick, the school director.

After introducing ourselves, we were given a wonderful tour of the school facility and information about the school’s Christ-based program. Everything felt just right. Then we learned that a student in our daughter’s age group had just withdrawn from enrollment, providing an opening for us to register, should we choose to do so. Only a few minutes had passed, but all the pieces were coming together, and I already knew our prayers had been answered. I thanked Mrs. Hardwick for the wonderful tour and headed home, excited to share the experience with my wife.

Once I explained our eventful day to my wife, she also felt that this was truly God’s answer to many prayers. We quickly scheduled a follow-up visit. From the minute my wife stepped into Good Shepherd’s preschool, she knew this was where our daughter was meant to be. Our daughter is now going into her third month at the preschool, and the entire experience has been nothing short of amazing.

I am sharing this story to encourage other believers to share with others their personal experiences with Christ. Many of us, including myself, often shy away from sharing our stories because we are not certain if they will be accepted. But because this godly mother—whom we happened to meet on the playground—decided to share her experiences, our family has been blessed by an amazing preschool and church community that we never knew existed.

Many thanks to the Good Shepherd staff and the special mother who allowed Christ to shine through her.

Home from Guatemala

After coming home from Guatemala I am quickly realizing that God has again chosen to change my perspective on all aspects of life. I truly would have never dreamed that a week could change my life so much. In short, our trip was absolutely amazing. We met so many wonderful people who were full of life, completely selfless, and yet most of them had next to nothing in material possessions.

If you think you are able to understand what this means by watching HD Net broadcast world relief programs in high definition or you can relate because you have vacationed in other parts of the world and gone beyond the “Hotel Zone”, think again. Sadly enough this is exactly what I thought before going on our Mission to Guatemala. Being submersed in the environment and living with people who have found Christ in spite of their absence of material possessions is by far the most humbling experience that I have ever had. You quickly realize that having too much is in many ways worse than having too little.

Although we are warned many times in the Bible about possessions and how they can divide our mind and control our direction in life; being born in America makes it very difficult to accept. In fact, without venturing outside of our society’s cocoon it seems almost impossible. Once your eyes begin to open and you are able to understand that simply being born on American soil puts us in the vast minority of the rest of the world, things really begin to change. You begin to see the very truth to which you were once blinded by.

You will begin to question why our society is so unhappy, why our families continue to grow apart, and why we find it so difficult to know Christ? The simple reason is material possessions, just as the Bible tells us they blind us from the truth. Our sinful ways sought after these possessions and for many of us they become our gods. They become the force that drives us and we find ourselves wanting to acquire more which pushes God’s truth further and further away.

Now comes the very important question, how do we fix this? How do we put an end to a world that is completely unbalanced? I will not for a moment claim to fully understand the answer to this and I am almost certain I never will. But I am compelled to write what God pours into my heart. I fully believe that each and every one of us plays a very special role, as we are all God’s children and we have all been given special gifts. It’s up to us to accept these gifts and through prayer follow God’s plan to share His grace throughout.

Let’s face it; God did not leave the world hungry. Right now at this very moment there is more than enough food to feed the entire planet, yet many people are unable to eat. It is up to all of us to find the means necessary to feed all God’s children with the abundance of food that He has provided. In the next few weeks as my mind continues to unwrap all that I took in, I pray that God will allow me to find the right words to articulate all that has been revealed to me.


In Jesus Name

Amen

Easter 2008

Today marks a very special day, for one its Easter Sunday the day Christ resurrected from the dead and gave eternal life to all of His believers. (Matthew 28:1-20) Easter is also the anniversary of my Christian faith; after all it was 3 years ago today that I attended my first Frontline service which has proven to change my life forever. There is truly no doubt in my mind that Christ has grown me more in the last 3 years than I have grown in the last 33 years of my life.

As I search for words to write in this blog I am compelled to pray; to give thanks for all that God has given to me and to my family. In less than 48 hours I will be departing to Guatemala with my men’s Bible study group on our first mission’s trip together. Although I am filled with excitement I also know that God will use this trip to continue to grow each of us and my human instincts are over flowing with curiosity as to what exactly that means?

Only He knows what lies ahead and I continue to pray that He will give me the words and knowledge to share with each and every person that I meet in Guatemala. Although we may come from a completely different world and we may never endure many of the hardships that the Guatemalan’s face we do share something in common. We are brothers and sisters in Christ; we serve the same God, a God of mercy, a God of justice, a God of grace, and a God of glory.

With this we can learn from each other as God has provided us all with different talents and skills to ultimately bring Glory to His name. As I look out across the Church tonight during Easter service I will be reflecting on how amazing the last 3 years of my life have truly been. I will wonder how many others will be taking their first Christian steps as I did 3 years ago. I will be praying that God pours into each and every one of them as He continues to do for me. God is truly an Awesome God and I praise Him above all else on this very special day.


In Jesus Name,

Amen

Stress

For most of my life I chose to live completely stressed and quick to snap when faced with worldly issues. This is probably the reason it upsets me so much when I see my family and loved ones get so STRESSED OUT! We are all faced with difficult situations however God is ultimately in control so if we choose to allow these situations to stress us out we are falling directly into Satan’s plan. In fact, stressing out will only make these situations worse. In addition there are literally hundreds of health related problems directly associated with stress. Sadly enough I learned about many of these problems first hand. Not too long ago I allowed my stress levels to become so high that I developed three ulcers in my stomach which led to a four month extensive treatment.

For many years I continued to allow stress to fill my life and consistently found inadequate excuses to justify each of my stressful situations. Today I have learned the only real reason for all the stress in my life was ME! I am not trying to imply by any means that I no longer deal with stress, I am simply saying that God has opened my eyes and allowed me to begin correcting this part of my life. My worldly perspectives have completely changed as I now fully understand that God has given me all I need to handle even the darkest hours.

When I do begin to feel stressed about worldly issues I simply stop what I am doing and reflect on this scripture "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). I then take a moment to give thanks for everything I have including the stressful situation that I may be going through at that time. God may choose to use any and all experiences to bring glory to His name. Even when we find it nearly impossible to see the light, we must hold tightly to our faith and proudly submit to His honor.

Stress comes in many forms and will decompose our lives if we allow it. I would like to ask each and every one of you to pray along with me, God allow me to submit to your glory during the difficult situations that this world may put upon my shoulders. Give me the strength to handle even the most stressful events and allow me to remain close to Your word even in the darkest hours. Your grace is larger than anything I know, In Jesus name I pray. Amen

God is good

If I only knew where to begin… Each and every day I continue to grow deeper in my faith and God continues to open my eyes wider than I could have ever dreamed. Although it’s been a while since my last blog God has continued to spread His grace throughout my life. October began with a bang as Yeter and I attended the Frontline Fall Retreat. To say the very least we had an absolutely incredible time. Never in my life have I ever been exposed to such a wonderful environment where God was truly the center of each and every event.

I am beginning to see a connection between my passion for fitness and God’s truth. I continue to pray for direction in my life and God has begun to show me the light. I set aside time to read 1 Corinthians and really found strength in 1 Corinthians 6-19, 20. Although Paul was referring to sexual immorality I feel very strongly that this also applies to many other areas in our life including fitness. Understanding that our bodies are a gift given from God paid for with the ultimate price of crucifixion has gives me even more motivation to be in the best physical shape that God will allow.

Todd and I continue to grow both spiritual, mentally, and physically. Recently Todd was able to break the 200lb plateau and now weighs 190 something. God continues to strengthen me as a person through our relationship and uses my knowledge in fitness to bring Todd to new physical high. Watching God transform us both for His glory is nothing less than amazing and knowing that he brought us both together is even more profound.

October was an extremely difficult month for my father who has been battling an unknown illness. I fully trust God and continue to pray for relief. At times I find it hard to reason with many of life’s hardships but I keep reminding myself that if God were so simple that my narrow mind could fully understand Him; He would not be a God that I would want to serve. (Thanks Todd)

I continue to look forward to our Wednesday night Bible study and feel strongly that God is using it to grow each one of us spiritually. By sharing intimate stories and life experiences we are all able to learn from one and other. Biblical community has become a very important part of my life and I feel very blessed that God has led me to such a wonderful environment.

Yeter and I continue to benefit from God’s grace as our marriage has grown deeper and continues to strengthen daily. Every day I feel more of my old shell broken away and my new God driven soul evolving. I continue to welcome God’s pruning into my life and I am excited to learn what He has planned for my future.

In Jesus Name

Amen

Biblical Agenda

Sadly enough it's been 3 weeks since my last blog entry and I feel like I have taken advantage of all the wonderful things that God continues to pour into me. Although the summer days continue to fly by God continues to take His time blessing me and my family in many wonderful ways.

Yeter, Corrine, and I spent the 4th of July in Oxford with my parents and as always we had a wonderful time. While in Oxford I attended dad's Bible study group and really enjoyed myself. Mom must have spent hours preparing the meals and as a result the home cooking was absolutely amazing. Walking through dad's backyard gives you the feeling of a tropical paradise. Everything is so beautifully landscaped and colorful at times you feel as if you are lost in a botanical garden. Corrine passed the written driving exam and she was able to get some quality driving time around town.

Due to vacations and summer schedules our men's small group has not met for 2 weeks. I quickly became accustomed to our weekly meetings and I am looking forward to our group getting back together next week. Yeter's small group continues to meet regularly and everything seems to be moving forward as planned. I am ashamed to admit that I have not yet memorized all of Psalm 19 and I need to get back on track immediately.

Compliments of Todd I have begun to read a book by Philip Yancey titled What's So Amazing about Grace. Understanding God's grace is very difficult for me and reading this book is starting to give me a better understanding. At times I find myself struggling to stay on top of the biblical agenda in my life; however when I adhere to this agenda I find myself physically, mentally, and emotionally stronger than I have ever been before.

To say the very least God's continues to pour into me daily and I continue to search for ways to bring glory to His name.



In Jesus Name

Amen

This World Is Not Our Real Home!

Father's day was wonderful as God led Yeter and I towards Oxford to spend the day with my family. Although I was extremely tired from working the midnight shift Yeter kindly jumped in the drivers seat and drove both ways. Sunday night after returning home I crashed hard and Monday morning I barely even realized that I lost a full day of sleep.

Tuesday was the last day of school and Corrine was excited to begin her very first day of summer vacation. I cannot believe that she has now completed her junior year and will soon be a BIG SENIOR! Later today Corrine and I will be going to DMV and she will be taking the written driving exam and if all goes as planned she will be driving me home.

Our men's Bible study went well this week although I found it difficult to focus due to the fact that I had to report to work immediately after we finished. This week's chapter was titled Living a Balanced Life which began by saying "This World Is Not Our Real Home!" and once again I found the entire chapter to be a great wealth of knowledge. Nathan announced that he has accepted a new position with MBC which will require him to relocate his family to South Western DC. I am both excited and sad to learn of his move only because I believe he will be leaving our Bible study group. Tonight shortly after arriving at work I shared some very exciting unexpected biblical conversation with a sister in Christ. God continues to jump into my life when I least expect it and each time He brings new understanding to His word.

Todd and I have been doing well with our workouts and I continue to look forward to our time together. I am concerned about the weeks ahead because travel plans will force us to spend many weeks apart. Although Todd has a very strong foundation I fear that he may fall short and allow his recent success to slip away. I will continue to pray that God will give him the strength and guide him toward the ultimate goal that he has chosen for himself.

Last night was the first meeting for Yeter's Bible study group and although we did not get to talk about it in detail she seemed really excited. I look forward to spending time with her later this evening and hearing more about it.


In Jesus Name,


Amen