View from St Louis

Great stuff!

Telling Lewis of 'Lewis and Clark' not to mess around and get scalped.

Wow look at that!

View from the Arch. Our hotel was the cylindrical tower in front of Busch Stadium.

630 feet! We took a tiny cable car constructed inside the Arch in the 1960s

The View Straight Down!

The View from our Hotel Room downtown.

I will be your tootsie wootsie

We are in St Louis, MO. this weekend for a wedding. We took the opportunity to make it a weekend getaway for just Cessie and I. This is just in time for our 7 year anniversary, which is this week...yeah 7 years married!

St Louis is a very large and old city with mostly brick buildings and an industrial flair downtown, but the community parks and the country side are beautiful, lush and green. Lots of runners and bikers to dodge. With cool mornings and mild afternoons it has been a great escape from Florida's humidity.

Well we are off to the Art Museum in Forest Park...Check back for pics later

The Chapman Family

MARIA SUE CHAPMAN, DAUGHTER OF STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN, DIES IN ACCIDENT AT FAMILY HOME

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08... At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.

More than five years ago, Chapman and his wife MaryBeth founded The Shaohannah’s Hope Ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry’s goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world. Chapman is a five-time GRAMMY ® winner and 54-time Dove Award winning artist who has sold over 10 million albums and garnered 44 No. 1 singles.

We pray for their family and their son in this tragic time. Their concert and testimony sealed the deal for us to begin taking seriously the adoption process. So as soon as we get settled in Greenville we will pursue adoption.

Thank you Chapman family for sharing your love with Maria while she was here; God knew that she would receive the love and care she needed in her short life. You were a blessing to her and her to you.

Zoo

So we played hooky from church this Sunday and went to the Zoo. It was $5 day and we were at my parents housesitting, so church was too far anyway. It was super busy at the zoo, but now that gas is so high and ticket prices are in the $20 range, it was an awesome value.

Damage Control

So we have had a week to stew on the disappointing results of our contract falling through. I wish I had a more victorious story about how God has brought us through unscathed. That is definitely not the case.

We just, as in this morning at church, reconciled our hearts to God about the situation we are in. I began to entertain the thoughts of life without 'Discovery Church', asking myself what I missed, and what was the purpose of this failure? Why does God not want us to go and what else is out there? We were stressed, confused, conflicted, convicted, pouty, angry, (did I say confused...?) and other emotions.

We were exercising our minds, trying to figure out God, and not liking the options we were coming up with. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and early this Sunday morning we, honestly, were unsure what God was doing. We were making contingency plans and searching for other jobs on the internet. Conflicted in our hearts, we were "grasping for straws" for any ray of hope. Anyone ever felt this way about God? Anyone ever given or been given any good advice about how to deal with it?

This morning God whispered to me while in church, "Why are you treating me like an adversary?"...and that was it. I realized that in our search for clarity and direction, we were distancing ourselves from God. Adversary is the literal definition for Satan. So I know that what draws me away from peace with God is the "adversary" working to create disunity. I am not a "devil behind every corner" kind of guy, but like in the garden, with Adam and Eve, I was listening to reasoning that was in direct contrast to what we heard just a few weeks ago.

Just weeks ago we were celebrating with friends that God confirmed His call in us to N.C. and that we just needed to be patient and persevere. We knew then that God was writing an amazing story about us to lead and encourage others. It is not a funny thing to know that the next opportunity to show perseverance, we (I) failed miserably.

Thank You God, that You are patient with me. Help me to be patient with my kids and family. You give me what I don't deserve, and You don't give me what I do deserve...like a lightning bolt up my......;)

Rewind- House NOT under contract

Not sure what is going on but the brakes have been hit on this moving process. The potential buyers are military and have had a change of plans, not their fault but a change all the same. So we are scrambling to get some work lined up for the indefinite future but are confident that we are on our way.

The buyers are still interested and might lease purchase this property but it will take them at least 2 months to figure this all out, we would love to still help them. Until then we will get the house back on the market and use this time to sell the house.

God is still in control and it is just a matter of time before we see this transition completed.

National Day of Prayer

I started the day off right by co-leading a worship and prayer service at Onething Prayer Center from 12 midnight to 2am. It was an amazing time and I really enjoyed worshiping without an agenda or a church program. We just worshiped and prayed what ever God led us to. It was refreshing to just rest and hear from the Father.

So by the time it was finished I didn't get home 'til 4am, so I am a bit off kilter. But it sure was worth it.