Encouraging Start

Yesterday was an encouraging day, and the KFC Building was open for only half of it! Campus has life again as SHSU started classes, our cleaned floors were received incredibly well, students came by with renewed excitement, prayers were offered by and for me, we had a great first Bible study of the semester, and my productivity was higher than normal! I praise God for His encouragement.

Lord, at the beginning of the day today, I ask you for the focus you need in me to extend your kingdom one encounter at a time! May excellence compel me forward in your service. With all the new pieces of information that will come my way today, Holy Spirit, teach me your ways in those decisions. So much is before me that I could easily be overwhelmed today. May your strength, Jesus, and faithfulness work in me today. Amen.

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks find; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Luke 11:9-10

New Beginnings

Last night marked the official announcement of the hiring of our new minister. Matt Springfield will be joining us here in Huntsville. They are moving in the middle of December with an official start date of January 3, 2010.

So, for one full year we will have been without a full-time preacher. For one year we are experiencing a desert of sorts in our transition. So much has happened during this time. Figuring out who we are as a congregation. Searching through many resumes. Having many conversations, some difficult and some exciting. Learning that I am not in control. Hearing the call to trust God. Finding clarity and confusion at the same time. Loving others. Battling Satan. Searching for God in the midst of it all. It has been a full 2009.

I stand amazed at what 40 years of this might look and feel like. The forty years of Israel's wandering in the desert is hard to comprehend on the edge of our own new beginning. We hardly setup camp and here we are moving on to something new already.

Well, despite our desert's brevity, I'm excited about this new stage in the life of our congregation! Having fresh eyes to see us and what God is doing is a much-needed thing. I'm not sure if this is blasphemous, but we will have a new voice of God in our midst, someone new to speak God's word. God certainly speaks in many ways and in various forms.

Will we have ears to listen? Will we have eyes to see? Will we have hands to serve? Will we have mouths to praise? Will we smell the aroma of Christ in our midst?

I am confident we will! I praise God for this new beginning.

Just beginning

Well, I found out about this site from a friend of mine. It seems like it is going to be pretty cool! People can come to the site and check up on what is going on in my neck of the woods.

I just graduated with my Masters of Divinity a few weeks ago. I can't believe I am already through with an 84-hour graduate program. It seems like yesterday that we moved to Abilene.

Our team training begins in just over a week. My wife and I are on a team going to western Miami, Florida to start a new Hispanic/English church AND a new college ministry. We are in the middle of fundraising and we are a little stressed about the lack of funds coming for the training in the coming year. In spite of this, we know that God will provide.

Kayla Leigh Blair is about to be born (around Jan 30). Tanya is experiencing the last month of pregnancy full force right now. I am just trying to be a wonderful, supportive husband through these times. We are both in eager expectation at her arrival. Our lives are about to change!!