The Fair, Dust, and Busted Lips

I always try to think of eye catching titles to draw you in. I imagine that you read the title and think what's happening there now? Well I'll get to the subject of the title in a bit, but for now, here's what I'd love for you to pray for us about. Sunday was a great day at church, we had full house and there were 9 kids in Children's Church as well as several teenagers in the crowd too! I continue to meet people that I haven't met before and it's exciting and confusing. I still don't have a great grasp of who's from the SBC congregation and who's from here, and who's a visitor. The SBC congregation met after church last Sunday to vote on what to do next. The original agreement was that they would be with us through August. Well, the vote was for them to continue to stick around. This is exciting because, as I'm sure you know, when the church is full it feels better than when there's fewer. This now really also adds some complexity to my situation. I went home to take a nap on Sunday afternoon and my subconscious woke me up earlier than I wanted to because I began to think about how to move forward not really knowing who's who. Well, yesterday I met with the pastor of the SBC church for two and a half hours to determine if there really could be a merger. We agreed that there is a lot of complexity, but it's only trouble if we let it be trouble. Tomorrow morning we'll meet to put a plan on paper so that both of us can present it to our leadership teams and begin to move forward. I should tell you about this other pastor. His name is David Kite, he's a former Sr. Pastor and he and his wife, Ms. Sue, moved out here two years to ago to plant Cowboy Churches. Picture a wrangler jean wearing with a shiny belt buckle, starched western shirt, and cowboy hat, now imagine the deepest southern drawl and you've got the Kite's. They have hearts of gold and are doing amazing work here in eastern Idaho. He has told me in no uncertain terms, "I don't want your pastorate, I'm here to do the Cowboy church thing," that made me like him immediately. As we have talked about the future, he has always said, you're the Senior Pastor, I could do missions and discipleship or something lie that. Did I mention that I like this guy. Anyway, please pray for our time tomorrow, that God would make us wise in blending two families for God's glory. The Eastern Idaho State Fair is this week and so Blackfoot is a very popular place. Our population doubled this weekend and traffic was terrible. Okay not really, and I'm not even sure I noticed bad traffic, we stayed away from the heavy areas. We're headed to the Fair this Friday, it should be fun, I haven't done anything like that for years! All the smells, the good (funnel cakes) and the bad (pig, horse, cow, lamb, goat, rabbit, chicken, etc...) will flood my mind with memories of my childhood. I can't wait to share this with my family. Speaking of family, did I mention that we're having our first visit from family this week? Tonight my in-laws arrive for a coupe of weeks. It'll be a good time and Kate and I will even get to go on a date or two, yay! Another God thing happening is the time that we got to spend with the Joyner family on Saturday at the park. The Joyner's (Jason, Becky, Nathan(14), Matthew(12), Caleb(10), and Makaya(5)) are from here and currently run a ministry to an area of town called Camas Street. This is a very poor area in need of a lot of help. For the past two years, this family along with some others have spent Sunday afternoons out doing ministry, loving on people, and serving this area. This family is also really involved in Awana and the homeschool group that we'll be a part of. Daniel and their youngest son Caleb were immediate BFF's, both the boys love sports and we almost couldn't get them to stop playing so we could eat lunch. Claire and Makaya seemed to get along real well too. Jolee just loves to swing, so find a swing and push her on it and she'll be happy for hours! As we got to know this family, it was really nice to hear their heart for outreach and my hope and prayer is that we as a family and as a church can begin to work together to turn our eyes outward. It'll be good for all involved. You can also pray for God's direction, that we, our family and our church, would resist the temptation to be inward focused and comfortable. Here's another prayer request: as we implement changes, pray that God would give me the grace and compassion to hear those who struggle with change, and the strength to continue to do what we came here to do, create a new kind of church that is a blessing to the community and the advances the kingdom of God in Blackfoot. I could keep on going, but I figured that I should get to the dust and busted lips. First the dust. Imagine, like Washington, a house that does not have AC, so the windows are always open to keep things cool, add to that a desert climate where there is a lot of farming, there are fields all around our home, dust is an issue. Now that we've got pretty laminate floors done in a darker wood color, we remembered a friend of our years ago told us that it's better to have light wood colored floors because it doesn't show dust and dirt as much, oh well, they still look nice. Finally busted lips. Poor Claire was in the wrong place at the wrong time when her wonderful younger brother angrily slammed a door, literally, in her face. I had just arrived at the office when Kate called to tell me what happened. To make a long story short, we opted not to get stitches, and Daniel got in major trouble because I had just told him the day before not to slam doors because someone could get hurt, err! I know, I know, I get what I deserve. I can hear my parents saying, he's just like his daddy, to which, I have to smile and agree, and then ask God for the grace to parent myself. Kids are gift from God to sanctify us and to show us how much we must frustrate him. Oh, one more thing... Did anyone catch the Aggie Football game on Thursday? I think I'm in for a good football year : ) As always we love and miss y'all, and are now taking reservations for the Team Overalls guest suite (a small dusty farm experience) in Blackfoot, ID. Until next time, may God grow in your heart so much that you can't contain it and Jesus spills out in your love and words to everyone around you.