We Got "Pounded"!

Last night after church we had a "pounding" for the preacher. We enjoyed refreshments & fellowship as well as coming home w/ a huge load of groceries, household items, & several gift cards. Our pantry is full now so hopefully we won't go hungry anytime soon. There's also quite a bit of deer meat in the freezer that was given to us last night as well. We are so blessed to have our church love us & provide for us as they have so much already. We hope they like us as much in a few months as they do now!

There is still excitement in the air as we are starting to lay some groundwork for the ministry here at Grace. We'll be changing & adapting several areas of our children's ministry in the weeks ahead as well as evaluating all of our other programs & ministries. We've had solid worship attendance in our 1st month here. We pray daily for God to send a fresh outpouring of His Spirit on us in hopes we can see lives changed every week.

Catching Up

The whole process of moving during the holidays kept me from updating the blog as regularly as I would have liked. I thought as I was sorting through some pictures on my computer I would share a few with you. Cade is discovering new things all the time. He is entering the phase where his toys, hands, blanket, etc. go to his mouth (that is when his coordination is good enough rather than hitting himself in the eye while trying to put something in his mouth). Erin said the other day when he woke up from a long nap he all of the sudden looked down & saw his feet. Ever since then he wants to hold his feet, making it very difficult to change his clothes or a diaper.

This is our neice Kara who is a little more than 2 years old. This was taken over the holidays & she kinda had this glazed look in her eyes. We think it kinda looks like a hollywood style picture & w/ her spunk & charisma she might just take hollywood by storm one day.

This was the best picture we got of Cade in one of his Christmas outfits w/ santa on the shirt.

The week of Christmas it was warm enough for the 3 of us to take a walk in the neighborhood. It was sunny so we put his shades on him that his Papaw & Nena bought him. He knows he's a cool dude.

Erin had a mini photo session in the Pottery Barn chair he (really Erin) asked Pops & Mimi for at Christmas. I think he likes it.

Playing on his activity mat is much more interesting now since he's easily & regularly rolling over. Sometimes (like here) he seems surprised as to how he got in this position.

This was our 1st attempt of putting him in his Bumbo. He will love it & so will we once he gets a little older & more used to sitting in it. The tray is great b/c we can put his toys on it for him to play with. That is, until he knocks them on the floor & leans to the side to see where they went & can't sit back up straight on his own.

Molly really likes Cade as long as it's on her terms & no one else is watching. Too bad Erin caught her in the act of giving some sweet kisses to Cade.

This was our 1st attempt at eating cereal a few weeks ago. Thankfully all of us have gotten better at it in recent days.

This was our accomodations our 1st night in Bastrop. We came ahead of the moving truck the night before & slept on air mattresses on the floor. Cade's pack-n-play was on the other side of the living room. This is a glimpse of the rent house where we're living. Hopefully we can get some good pics soon.

4 Month Pictures

We're a couple of weeks late getting these posted, but our little boy is growing up fast. He's become so much more active, vocal, & alert as he interacts, smiles, & giggles all the time. Our new church & friends here in Louisiana just can't get enough of Cade! We can't either.

Family Crusade

On Sunday night we began a family crusade here at our church. This event was scheduled before I came as pastor, but I'm very glad we have this opportunity to reach children & families in our community. Each night there is a theme. Sunday night was "choices" & the puppets, along w/ Brian & Vicki, shared scripture, told stories of how we make good choices, did some singing & dancing, as well as a lot of laughing. Last night we talked about "creation" & had a wonderful time seeing this unique ministry connect to families outside our church.

We had over 200 people registered on Sunday night & a little more than 150 in attendance last night. We're praying God will use this in many ways but especially we're praying for families to hear the message of Jesus & accept him into their lives. Also we're praying for the opportunity to have a list of prospects to reach out to in our community. I personally have enjoyed having this group with us & will be praying for them as they travel the country sharing the message of Jesus.

Brian & Vicki travel in their R.V. They are hooked up & living behind our church on site & we provide them finances for their meals. They work on a love offering basis. For more information about their ministry which is called "2Talk42" see thier website:

www.2talk42.com

New Beginnings

We have officially arrived in Louisiana! The moving truck showed up last Wednesday & we've been trying to unpack ever since. We haven't had internet at home or the church until now, so I can now update everyone on what's happening here in Bastrop. The transition has been nice & the church has overwhelmed us with their love & support. Anything we've needed they have been there to take care of it. Here's a few updates:

House: We're settling into our 2 bedroom/1 bath rent house that is nice & well-kept. This is tough for us b/c we were living in a 4 bedroom/2 bath home in Arkansas. We unpack 2 boxes & re-pack one to go in storage. The house is more spacious than we remembered & most everything we wanted in the house has found a place. It's a mile or less from the church & center of town which is very nice. The floors are all wood which makes it cooler & Molly won't sit or lay on something not carpeted so it was a challenge for her until we got some rugs laid down. We enjoy it & hope it will suffice until we can decide when or where to buy a home.

Church: The church, like I said, has been great to us. I have my office mostly set up & we're spending a lot of time learning the lay of the land. I told the church my responsibility for the 1st couple of months is primarily to preach, pray, & pay attention. Once we get settled we'll evaluate all the ministries before implementing a fresh vision & direction for the church. We love worshipping here & I greatly enjoy preaching to these people. We look for God to do a great work here, which he's already begun.

Family: All of us are doing well, Cade has been a little under the weather w/ some type of cold. He's better today & enjoying having Erin home to take care of him. He's growing & changing so fast. He interacts much more & is grabbing & playing more w/ his toys, burp cloths, & clothes! We're slowly starting to introduce him to some rice cereal, which he's not real fond of at this point. He turned 4 months old this week & weighs 14 lbs. & is 24 inches long. (50%) Erin is tired from unpacking, organizing, & decorating. She likes not teaching full-time but is planning to substitute teach some this semester. We're making friends & getting used to a new town. We miss our family & friends we were close to in Arkansas, but are so grateful to be here making new friends. Our dog Molly is adjusting OK. She is still trying to figure it all out, but she will be fine in no time.

I hope to post some recent pictures of Cade soon & continue to share what God is doing here at Grace Baptist.