Thursday, November 28, 2013

Post #2... Thanksgiving Edition

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I'll keep this short and sweet since I've got another post in the brewing. More than anything else I thank God for all the blessings in my life. My wife, my kids, my family and friends... they are all gifts from God. And I am most thankful for Jesus Christ and all He did and gave for me!

Thank you Jess, my loving wife... I am so blessed to have you as my bride :)

Thank you to everyone else I should be thanking.

God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

John 3:16 - give thanks for the greatest gift of all :)

Monday, November 25, 2013

Post #1... New Beginnings (otherwise known as "Blessed be Your Name")

Change... lately we've undergone a lot of change. By "we" I mean me and my family, and I promise I'll get to an introduction for all of us very soon. First, however, I really want to talk about the change. For us, the biggest and most recent change was the 1000 mile move from Burnsville, NC to Fredonia, KS. It's already been three weeks...

...but it seems like only yesterday that we were piling the kids in the car on our way to spend one last Sunday with our friends and family at South Estatoe Baptist Church. Well, yesterday was Sunday... three weeks removed from our last Sunday service at SEBC.

Change can be a good thing, especially when God is using it to grow us a individuals and ministers of His Word. With that in mind, we went to a church that wasn't SEBC for the first time in three years. I love the Lord and love worshiping Jesus with other believers, so no matter how much reservation I had about going to a new Church, I'm glad we went. It was a blessing!

No, it's not the same... Jeff wasn't in the pulpit, Jimmy's family wasn't to our left, and Michael's family wasn't in front of us. But God is good!!! The first worship song we sang was "Blessed be Your Name" (Matt Redman). For me, one verse stood out above all the others...

     You give and take away
     You give and take away
     My heart will choose to say
     Lord, blessed be Your name

God gave us our church family at SEBC, and seemingly overnight He took it away. Just as we were beginning to grow awesome friendships, we up and moved away from our friends. But to tell  you the truth, we've always been a part of the family at SEBC, we just hadn't met our relatives yet. And those new and awesome friendships will continue to grow and become stronger. Our Christian "network" has grown by leaps and bounds in the past three years, and with God's blessings, it will keep on growing.

SEBC has and always will be a blessing to me and my family. Thanks to all of you who helped us out with the move, whether it was packing up or helping with food. And a very special thanks for those that helped with the kids! :)  A day will not go by when I won't reflect on our family at South Estatoe. You are in our prayers daily, and will always have a place to stay should you ever be passing thru KS!

So for now we're trying to get to know our new home, all while keeping in our hearts everyone and everything we love back in the mountains of western North Carolina. It's a transition to say the least... as the days progress I'll regale all of you with tales of valor and heroism... ok, more than likely it will be stories of moving hay on the farm or chasing kids down the slide at ABC park.

And one last thing... I'm new to blogging and sharing my life with the world via the web, but I feel like it's something God has put on my heart to do. It will be a way to stay in touch with NC and all the other places we have friends and family, and to share the name of Jesus with any and all who will hear it. I plan on posting quite a bit in the following days just to get all of y'all up to speed that want to be. After that it will probably be weekly updates unless there is just something I can't wait to share.

A look ahead... in the next post I will reflect on Clear Creek Ranch and the friends/family we spent the past three years working with. I'll also introduce my wife and kids, and maybe even Sage the dog.

Until next time, Happy Trails and God Bless!!!

David
Phil 4:13