Entering His World

When was the last time you completely put yourself aside & entered another person's world?

Friday night I was home w/ Cade while Erin has a ladies party at the church. I had been w/ him all days as I was off & Erin was substitute teaching. That evening after dinner I decided I was completely devoting myself to Cade. I turned off the TV. I didn't pick up my book. I didn't do dishes, laundry, or anything else. I entered Cade's world. He played, stared off into space, drooled, laughed, babbled, drooled some more, kicked me like 100 times. I watched his facial expressions, tried to figure out what he was thinking or saying. I paid attention to nothing else but him. I did my best to determine what he wanted. I changed him, fed him, & then put him to bed.

After all this I began to think about my day. All day long, though I was taking care of him, I was doing the things I needed to do or wanted to do & brought Cade along w/ me. He sat in the high chair while I did dishes & ate lunch. He played on his activity mat alone while I put up laundry. I realized though I was w/ him all day I was forcing him mostly to surrender to my agenda rather than trying to understand his. The most meaningful part of my day was the time devoted completely to him.

Our marriages would be better if we intentionally devoted time completely to our spouses. No distractions. No implementing our own agendas or leading the conversations.

Our parenting would be better if we intentionally devoted time completely to our children. No distractions. No dragging them around & forcing them to meet the demands of our agenda but rather submitting to their agenda.

Most importantly, our spiritual lives would be revolutionized if we devoted time each day competely to Jesus. No distractions. No trying to fit Jesus into our plans or agendas. Not trying to get him to meet our demands, but rather discovering his desires for us & going along w/ it.

Super Sunday & Sad Monday

We had a great time in worship yesterday as a church. We were down a bit as far as attendance numbers, but the spirit was high. God's presence was truly among us as I believe God began to lift some heavy burdens off the hearts of many who surrendered to Him. We're still experiencing a great number of visitors & hopefully we can get 'em back & keep them. We also had about 40 women register for the new women's discipleship study on Esther by Beth Moore. We're spending a lot of time planning & implementing change that hopefully will bring growth.

Last night we has Super Bowl parties all over town in various locations. More people participated than usually attend a typical Sunday night worship service...hmmm...funny how that usually happens. It was great times fellowshiping together, eating together, & building relationships. The only non-Super thing about yesterday was the Steelers won. Everyone in the media wanted them to & I guess the officials did too b/c for some reason they didn't review the last fumble. If it was ruled incomplete & the penalty on the Steelers was inforced it would have been one more play from the 29. (But hey, that's not really all that important)

Today is sad Monday because we took Cade to the babysitter for the 1st time. Erin has began substitute teaching & will be all week long. She really wants to be home w/ him full-time but she is teaching a few days here & there to help w/ the family finances. It also gets her out of the house. I can only imagine how sad it will be once he trots off to school for the 1st time. He will be 5 months old on Wednesday. Parenting is great. Pastoring is great. All because God is great!

Have a great Monday.

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.