Sunday!

Today was great at church! Journey is the best, Pastor Jeff is awesome! We had STOMP practice after church and to be honest I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but OH MAN it was awesome! The students stepped up and did an incredible job! It is going to rock the house Wednesday night at the Diamond Daze festival! Tonight we had our 5th Sunday communion night at church and it was great! The Holy Spirit was moving and you could feel His awesome presence there! What a great night of worship and just being intimate with Christ! We had a fantastic time together! We then went to our new house and got the keys and garage door opener and all that stuff! We move in tomorrow, YES! We ares so excited to have our very own place, that is a real house! It is going to be great to finally get settled here in Sallisaw! We love it here and God is using us so much as we reach out to the community and serve our awesome church! I love life and more importantly JESUS!!!

Guys Night

Well, it's 4:30 in the morning and I am here at the guys night! We had an awesome night with almost 40 students here, praise God! The goal of the night was mostly to hang out and build relationships with the students. It's hard to get to know 80+ kids only on Wednesday nights when we have service. Tonight was great! We played all kinds of games and hooked up the video games to the big projectors and just had a fun time! The students here are very respectful and listen well. I figured at this point there is no sense in going to sleep since it would only be a few hours anyway. Some students are still playing but most went to sleep. I will wake them up at 7 to clean up, eat breakfast and pack up to leave by 9a.m. God is doing great things here, it is great to build trust and relationship with these students God entrusted us with!

Rockin' & Rollin'

Whew! We are going at it here! We had some meetings today with other pastors about all the community events we are planning, hosted the Chamber of Commerce lunch here @ Journey, and have youth tonight to do. Things are great and getting better! What great opportunities God has opened up in our community to be a light! The community is asking us to do stuff, we aren't even having to ask them, that is favor! God is opening up all kinds of doors to reach and bless our community here in Sallisaw! That is what the church is ALL about going beyond the 4 walls and reaching those who don't know Christ! I am so in love with my awesome Creator GOD! My prayer is that Journey and all the other churches in the community catch a fire in their Spirit for the power of God and the passion he has for us! I have tasted and seen that God is powerful and amazing, my prayer is that we get more of His presence so that those who have never tasted God's presence get a glimpse of the reality of God! He is amazing and His ways are higher than anything we could ever think, dream, imagine, or even ask for according to Ephesians. What a great God we serve, I want to rock' 'n' roll with what God is doing!

I'm Back

Well, I am back from being sick Saturday night/Sunday. Saturday Erin and I went and hung out at prom here @ Sallisaw High School, and we had a great time! The theme was "A Red Carpet Affair" and they did a great job. Erin and I got dressed up and took Zion over to Pastor Jeff's house to hang out with Garrett & Gavin. We stayed for a few hours and talked with some of our students, meet parents, and met some new students as well, it was well worth it. After the prom we picked up Zion and headed home. That night I started feeling a little tingly and a fever started coming on, so I quickly went to bed so I could get as much sleep as possible for Sunday morning. Well, Sunday morning came and I didn't sleep at all, I was tossing and turning and feeling horrible. My whole body was achy and I was freezing yet sweating. Anyway, when I tried to get up Sunday morning for church I stood up and the room was just spinning and I couldn't get much balance. I tried to get up and get going but everything was hurting and I couldn't stand up for more than a few seconds before I felt like throwing up and falling over so I figured I better get back to bed and let this thing pass over. Anyway, it was the worst Sunday to get sick, we had pictures to take, stomp practice after church and we were going to move all the chairs for the Chamber lunch here on Wednesday. Needless to say it was VERY hard to stay home, but I don't think I had a choice!

Today I am back and feeling much better, I am still on the up though. We closed on our house yesterday, so we officially bought our very first home, YEAH! We are so excited. We move in this Monday, we have to wait a few days here, long story...but a legitimate one. We can't wait to get settled in to our new place and get EVERYTHING unpacked. We still have half our stuff in boxes in our garage now so it will be nice to get it all out. Well, this is a busy week with Diamond Daze coming up, youth, worship, stomp, banners, promo, videos, connecting, planning, organizing, and much, much more! I am so excited to be here in Sallisaw under an incredible pastor and with a great church!!!

House Stuff!

Today was a beautiful day outside. It is finally warming up again! We had an awesome service Wednesday night 4 students got saved and we are having new visitors every week. What is cool is that we are not even challenging the kids to bring friends yet, we are still trying to get to know the ones we have, yet they are bringing them every week! It is a good sign when growth is so natural and students are proud to bring their friends to youth! God is up to great things here!

Tonight Erin, Zion and I went to Fort Smith and priced more appliances and stuff for our new house. We have priced just about every fridge, washer & dryer, t.v., lawn mower, weed eater, grill, patio furniture, etc.. we can! It is so fun moving into a new house and being able to get fun stuff! We are so blessed to have the opportunity to get the things we need for the house! God blessed us with a great deal on the house and many other scenarios since we have been married, and we are so grateful! We close on Monday, so hopefully we can move in in the next week or 2, FINALLY! We can't wait to finally have our own REAL house!

Well tomorrow Erin and I are chaperoning the prom here at the high school, we are excited! It is a great chance to meet students and make a good connection with the school. We already have a lot of favor with the school system. Journey has done so many great things in the community, we really have a good reputation for supporting many things in the county. Pastor Jeff does an AMAZING job with staying involved with the city and not just doing our own thing within the four walls of the church! Well, I am going to go back and search out more info on appliances and stuff, so God bless!

Tonight Is Going To Be Good!

Last night I played Table Tennis with some people in the church that play every week. I did not do to good! It has been too long since I played real table tennis, so it was a frustrating time for me. Anyway, tonight is going to be GREAT! We are talking about standing on God's strength. We will us the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built his on the sand. Obviously the foolish man's house was destroyed by the storms but the wise man' house stood the test of time. Jesus is the ROCK! We need to build our life on the purpose, love, and foundation of honoring God in our life not on the quick sand of sin, the world, and all of it's influence. Tonight will be a great message that challenges the students!

We are so busy here with getting ready for Diamond Daze festival and simply running the day to day operations of ministry and touching lives! I love being able to focus all my time and energy on people and building the Church for God. I believe the Church is the lighthouse of the world. Not the small "c" church as a building, the Church as the body of Christ! God is awesome and only in Him is there power to change lives and situations. He is supernatural and His power goes beyond human strength, and we are on His side, YES!

Tuesday

Tuesday morning in the office, I love it! Lat night Erin and I watched Bob Ross paint "happy trees" & "almighty skies", it was awesome! I remember seeing Bob Ross on T.V. a few times when I was little. Pastor Jeff let me borrow his VHS tapes "The Joy of Painting". I must say it was awesome to see Bob paint these pictures in like 10-20 minutes. I am so excited about starting to paint, I have been practicing with some cheap acrylic paint and paint paper. I love learning new hobbies and new things so I am pretty fired up about painting!

Today I am staring the week off with ALL that needs to be done. Things are going great here and they are only going to get better! God is really moving in the hearts of the people here at Journey. We are seeing Him do amazing things among us. The students are really stepping up and getting involved. I can't wait to get moving on the remodeling of the zone and all the things we will be doing. God is amazing and His word is alive!