Bubbling Crude

Funny title I know. There has been sooooo much going here since I last posted and I know that I mentioned in that post that I would tell you more about our adventures to that point. So that I don't run the risk of writing a novel, I'll hit some of the highlights. 1. After church on our fist Sunday in town, we got home to find that our pasture was flooded with water. That sounds bad, but is not that is how people irrigate around here. The problem was that we weren't irrigating! Quickly, Claire, Daniel, and I went to investigate to find that a small part of the canal had been washed away in a couple of places. The three of us got to work patching the canal with giant dirt clods and mud. Did I mention that it was 90+ degrees! So far things have held up well. 2. Our first week here, including our move-in party, was well into the 90's, and then the skies opened up. We experienced a couple of days of thunder, lightening, and rain that I think would have been similar to what Noah experienced. One afternoon I was in my office at the church when the phone rang, it was a reverse 911 call telling people not to come into town because many of the streets were flooded. A bit later Kate called and was stir crazy at home with the kids, she was also worn out from unpacking boxes for the third or fourth straight day, so she asked if they could "come in to town" (that sounds funny to say). I figured that it was fine and when they arrived at the church and I went to open the door for them, I noticed that part of our church parking lot was now a lake! We were never in any danger of flooding at home or at church. Since I was in the big truck we decided to make a short trip to our new favorite store, C-A-L Ranch, to look for horse stuff. On our way to the store we got to see just how extensive some of the flooding was. There was water bubbling up from the ground just like the Beverly Hillbillies intro song. 3. We traded some of the most sophisticated and noisy airplanes in the world flying over our house in Anacortes for the simpler and much yellower crop-duster variety here in Blackfoot. Still, though, every time I see one, I'm in awe and dream about flying, swooping, diving and turning, and then climbing again. If I could any animal in the world, I'd be an Eagle. 4. Due to the rains I mentioned earlier, the Blackfoot Southern Baptist church's basement flooded and long story short, it looks like their building will probably be condemned. I met their Pastor, Brother Dave, on our second night in town as we were leaving a restaurant with some of our new church friends. They quickly introduced us and I told him that I knew he and I needed to have a conversation or two. Before we got here, the interim at our church told me that Brother Dave had mentioned to him that he thought it might be a good idea for our two churches to merge. Since our initial meeting a couple of weeks ago, Dave and I have spoken several times and perhaps this flooding might be a real first step towards something like that, in fact, once I heard that they had trouble, I called Dave and offered our help in any way we could. Here's what we're gonna do: for the next 3 to 4 weeks, they are gonna come our and we're gonna worship together!!! So exciting for everyone involved. They bring some young families and Sunday School, we offer a nice facility and a group of people whoa re ready to turn their eyes outward. Some of you may be wondering how a merger would affect me as the new pastor here, well as it turns out, Dave and his wife are actually SBC (Southern Baptist) missionaries. Dave pastors three Cowboy churches, and has been the interim at Blackfoot SBC for a couple of years. He told me as we spoke about a possible merger, that he had no interest in taking my pastorate. He's more interested in doing discipleship and outreach type ministry. He even said that since they are missionaries (they have raised their salary elsewhere), the only thing that the church has been doing for he and his wife financially, is covering their insurance. Sometimes I wonder what God is up to. Oh yeah, there was an Hispanic church meeting in their building too that is now displaced, so naturally I told them come along and meet at ours as well. I can't wait to see what happens here. 5. Last Sunday was my first Sunday in the pulpit, and it was an interesting morning to say the least. We had a bunch of visitors and a good offering! I preached from Luke 4:14-30. We focused in on verses 18-19 where Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The big idea is that by the power of the Spirit, Jesus came to do these incredible things and that we can join him here in Blackfoot doing these same things. The congregation was small but very excited. If you're wondering how many people were in attendance, I didn't count, but probably 40. They all agreed that they were ready to join in with Jesus to reach out to a lost, broken, and hurting world. It's exciting. The next three weeks we'll talk about our strategy, that I know our Anacortes friends will recognize. Connect-Grow-Serve. Here's how it plays out here in Blackfoot: Our mission is to make follower of Jesus Christ. We hope to do this by CONNECTing people to the gospel, GROWing to love like Jesus, and Serving in a ministry for the glory of God. After that, in September we're gonna jump into the book of Acts. For those of you who asked about financially supporting our church, we're still working on electronic giving, but will hopefully have something going soon. 6. The name change. Blackfoot FBC's name will change soon, and here are a couple of possibilities: Blackfoot Community Church and Blackfoot Christian Fellowship. Weigh in and let me know which one you'd choose if you were here. 7. Last Saturday, I spent the entire day driving a Bobcat Skidsteer, it's a favorite pastime in Blackfoot. Not really, it was just something that I rented to clean out our horse stalls, and to fix the pasture so that our backyard wouldn't get flooded again. It was fun and it actually made it into the sermon on Sunday. If you've never used one of these machines, you haven't lived until you do. It was a great time. 8. Finally, Kate left Monday morning to go back and get our horse and a few items that we left in Washington with some friends. That means I've been mom and dad, and pastor, and project manager here at our house. I have no idea how single moms do what they do. I'm in awe of them and will explore options to see how we can serve them as a church. So far so good, the kids have missed no meals, they've had baths, and lots of fun too. Yesterday, I set up a homemade slip and slide in the back yard for the big kids and they had a blast! The worst thing that has happened so far was that Daniel lost a tooth, but thats because it was time for it to come out. We have a tradition in our house that whoever looses a tooth gets to choose dinner that night, and it is usually pancakes, so tonight we had pancakes. Go dad! I can't wait for Kate to get home!!! I'm going to try to post a pic of Daniel and his missing tooth for all to see. We miss you all and I hope that you can discern a few ways to pray for us from all thats going on. Don't hesitate to send an email or even call, we'd love to here from you. THanks for all your love, prayers and support! May the grace of God drive us all to our knees in worship and praise!