April 2007

I know I have neglected my blog for the past week or so. I apologize. For some reason, life doesn’t slow down for my blog. Today, I am including something from Amy that she has written. I told her to get her own blog, but she insisted that she could improve my ratings if I would just let her post something. After reading what she wrote, I am sure you will understand how blessed I am to have a wife that is willing to write my messages for our services as well. Anyways, I would like to introduce my lovely wife, Amy.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone that has sent us e-mails and cards. They have been very encouraging and appreciated. And more improtantly, thank you to everyone who has kept us in your prayers.

I want you all to know that I am doing very well. There are some days that I ask God for more strength than others, and I am quick to say that He always delivers. Scripture says in Psalm 40:2, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.” I believe I make it through each day because I trust my Lord. There is no doubt in my mind, my God loves me and promises to take care of me. I Peter 5:7 says, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” There are times in all of our lives that are tough and sometimes seem unbearable, but know this, God is still there with us, walking beside us every step of the way. I Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation (trial) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted (tested) beyond what you are able, but with the temptation (trial) will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” Scripture also says in I Peter 5:10, “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” What an amazing promise!!!

Now, as for myself and my situation, I’m not scared. I’m not even worried. I know I serve a God that created the very universe that we live in, a God who hung the stars in the sky, and created man from dust. Do I believe that God can heal our little boy? I would be silly not to. So please, do not spend your time feeling sad for me or my family. We know that God is in control, and through our situation, He can do amazing things. I actually see lives being changed daily because of our little boy – the little boy we have yet to meet.I can only imagine God’s purpose for all of this. What an awesome God we serve!!!

Thank you again for all of your prayers. I am strong because God has put me on a rock.

As I feel our son move inside of me, I know he’s saying, or maybe even singing (he would get that from his daddy), “He’s Still Workin’ On Me.”

Please continue to pray for our son, and know that God is faithful and God is good all the time.

Everyone who knows me knows that I am a huge 24 fan. Jack Bauer is my hero. When I grow up, I want to be just like him. However, there is another show that I watch pretty consistently as well and that is American Idol. Now, I am not the best singer in the world, in fact, I do not even claim to be good, but how in the world did Sanjaya Malakar make it to the top 7? I am sure he is a nice guy and would not put him down in relation to his personality, but the boy did not belong in a singing competition that usually produces superstars.

It was kind of cool though to see Simon squirm because he did not know what to do when America wasn’t listening to his advice and kept Sanjaya going. I laughed a couple of times over that. It is humorous to me to see Simon take a bunch of heat especially when he is usually right. I have to admit that I wonder a little bit as to how much of the fights between Ryan and Simon are staged for ratings. They get into it pretty good. Why is it that we enjoy seeing people belittle each other? Is it because we are just glad that it is not us that is being put down? Not sure. Could be.

It is an entertaining show that sucks America – including me – in to. It will be much easier to endure this next week knowing that Sanjaya will not be singing. So long Sanjaya!

There are so many times when all you know of a college/university are its athletes. You know we see them on TV and think them to be heroes. Some probably are, although not defined by what they do on a field or court. Yet we never get to know the people at these schools who are making a difference. I look at the faces of those who were killed in that horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech yesterday and although they might not be well known, they represent people – people whose families are going to be radically different for a very long time. They represent people who were doing what should be considered wise and respected – attending classes to enable them to pursue their dreams. I love people! When things like this happen, I cannot help but think of all of the people that are going to be affected!

God help them!

I also realize that the media wants to focus their time and attention to the negative things that the school did or did not do to help this situation. While there might be a better way to protect the students for the future, I want to commend the school for employing professors who were willing to do their part in protecting the students to the best of their ability against someone that was out to cause damage and no one could have prevented it. We will probably never hear from our “blessed” media about the students and professors that risked their lives to save others, but will continue to hear them blast the president of the university and any one else that they can make look like an idiot.

There is something in people that causes them to do the unthinkable – some positive and some negative (this shooter). We need to do our part to start the wave of reducing the negative and be someone that does the unthinkable in a positive way.

Until next time…

The baby boy that my wife Amy is carrying in her belly right now has not been given any chance to live once he is born. Every doctor and website that I have been to has stated this unfortunate outcome. There is not, to my knowledge, one person that has survived for any amount of time with this condition. I know some people would say well then let’s pray for the family as they begin now until September 14 to deal with the loss of their son. Let me pause and say – hold off on those prayers for now. As this past weekend has brought to my attention in a very real and relevant way – our God conquers death. Hello? He thrives on the impossible! Let’s not get caught up in believing only what doctors say when the God who conquers death hasn’t had any say. We will know what God wants to do when this child is born. So please pray that God would form this little boy’s brain and close the skull and scalp. This isn’t supposed to happen – I get that. But dead guys aren’t supposed to come back to life either!

Some people probably think that Amy and I are setting ourselves up for heartbreak. No – we are asking God to give us our heart’s desire. If He doesn’t – He is still God and He is still good.

How do you want to be remembered? Praying for God to comfort us (He has already promised to do that) or having a part in praying for the impossible? Please help us pray for the impossible! We will leave the rest up to the God who hates death so much that He overcame it.

Psalm 40:3 – “And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”

Our goal is that many people would see that we believe God is good even when life is not, begin to fear (respect), and trust in the Lord.

Thank you for coming in this journey with us! We need you!

Trust Him anyway!

Amy and I just found out that our son whom she is carrying has a disease that is not compatible with life. It is called anencephaly. It is a neural tube defect that will not allow our son to see very much of this life if any at all. We went in for the normal ultrasound to see what we were having and saw the heartbeat and feet and hands. When the ultrasound tech. finished, she said that the doctor wanted to speak with us. Amy knew something wasn’t right. I just said, “We saw the heartbeat right? Anything else we can deal with.” Little did I know how little I know. The doctor came in and explained the situation and we were devastated. This can’t be right! But it was right – it was right in God’s perfect plan.

We are puzzled as to why this happens and why God allows things such as this to happen. However, we still believe in God and we still believe God is better than good. Do we want this to happen? We would rather not. We are confident, though, that God has all of this figured out and although we can’t understand, don’t see His plan, can’t trace His hand – we trust Him! This is not, believe me, because we are “super-spiritual” – it is because there is no other logical thing to do. We hope that as a result of this journey that we will become closer to our God. We know because it has already happened that God wants to take something of this nature and glorify Himself. He wants to use this to bring people into a relationship with Him, draw those who are in a relationship with Him closer to Him, and give us a story to tell of His grace, goodness, and ever surrounding love.

We covet your prayers. Please let us know if you have been able to tell someone about our loving God as a result of communicating this story. We are keeping a journal that will help us to see what good can come out of this unfortunate circumstance. You can send me an email at northline@northlinebaptist.org to let me know.

Until next time!

We serve a breakfast for anyone and everyone who will come on Easter Sunday before the morning worship time. Whenever you have events like this, it is always a blast to see who comes out to help pull it off. We serve biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, egg beaters available upon request, bacon, sausage, and french toast. It is neat for me to see everyone doing their part to serve the people. To me, it is like the body of Christ operating as it is supposed to. Everyone doing what they can for the purpose of God to be served. We had servers and dishers and cookers and greeters and seaters and drinkers (we need to talk to those people – j/k they served the drinks) and cleaners. It is a great opporunity for us to “wash the feet” of people so that they will be more receptive to the message in the following hour. God worked!

We had 6 people come to Christ during the service. We had about 175 people in attendance. The energy level was good. God worked in a great way. I could get use to Him working like that every week. He wants to.

Thank you volunteers for your hard work!

Thank you God for showing up and doing Your thing!