Thankfulness

On Wednesday we spent more than half of the day packing our stuff up and putting it in our shipping containers.  It was a grueling day and we were exhausted physically and mentally after several days of this.  In these moments I tend to look only at what is in front of my face, seeing the task only and working single-mindedly to finish it up.  The problem is that when you move, the task seems to be endless.  You can get lost in the work and will find yourself having few positive interactions with your family.  That's where we were on Wednesday.

In the afternoon we headed to Galveston to spend Thanksgiving with the family.  This has provided a great opportunity to stop "doing" and spend some time as a family and with the Lord.  My son Samuel even accused me of being lazy after we got there because I wouldn't jump up and go play football with him.  I'm kind of proud of that...and we did play football later.

I was challenged about a week ago to consider the things that I am truly thankful for.  Unfortunately we tend to hear the usual responses every time:  house to live in, job, toys, family.  It isn't that any of those things are bad.  In fact most of them are very good.  However, it was John Maxwell who said that you can tell what someone's priorities are by how they spend their time and how they spend their money.  When I look at myself from the recent past I can see that I valued work, achievement, and task completion.  The problem for me is that this is a foundation of sand.  When the work disappears or a major storm in life moves in, nothing remains.  What, then, is this life all about?  What things will truly last?

Jesus' disciples might not have been thankful for the same things that we are thankful for since they didn't have many of the things that we have to distract us.  From Mark 6, we get a snapshot of how they lived.

Mark 6:7-11

And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil spirits. He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler’s bag, no money. He allowed them to wear sandals but not to take a change of clothes.

 “Wherever you go,” he said, “stay in the same house until you leave town. But if any place refuses to welcome you or listen to you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.”

They had left their jobs, had no possessions, no food, no money, no family with them,  and no change of clothes.  What they did have was each other.  They were sent out by Jesus "two by two" into a world that desperately needed the message that they professed.  Later in the New Testament we see them continuing this same work under more dangerous circumstances, many times being threatened with their very lives.  And yet they didn't stop spreading the message.  They must have had a very deep conviction about this Jesus that they knew personally.  You don't do what they did without being fully committed.  In fact, here are Peter's own words to us about how we should live out our lives.

1 Peter 2:11-12

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

We who are believers in Jesus are "temporary residents and foreigners" on this planet.  The things we purchase for ourselves will be left behind when we leave.  We don't even take the clothing that is on our bodies at death.  So if this is true, how should we live?  What should we do with our time, knowing that no matter where we go, we are never going to be at home on this planet?  What should we do with our money?  What things that you did yesterday or the day before are truly eternal?

Here are the things I am thankful for this year:

- My wife-  No matter where we go or what we do, I know that I have her.  We are on this adventure together.

- Calling- I still wake up every day surprised that Jesus would call our family to go tell others about Him.  But when you study the life of Jesus, that's the kind of thing He does for all of us!  Though betrayed by us, He never gives up.  Though injured by our actions, He never turns his back.  Though suffering the pain of death via beating and crucifixion because of things that WE do, He still waits for us with open arms as a Father and teacher.  He wants all of us to work for Him!

- Provision- The Lord continues to provide in the moment that we need it.  Our move was unexpectedly paid for at the moment where we couldn't figure out how to pay for it.  While I stay in Everett for 2 weeks in a hotel, the money for that has been covered to the penny by Amanda's recent work as a sub.  She had just enough jobs to cover it.  Money for incidental expenses for the next month has materialized at just the right moment.  Our original trip to Seattle was covered unexpectedly by friends and family.  And the house that we are praying over in Everett is still unsold, waiting on us if the Lord wills us to live there.  

Here are some wise words from the Apostle Paul on this Thanksgiving.

Philippians 4:6-7

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Did you notice the part about "thanking him for all he has done?"  Ask, wait, and thank.  Many of us are good at asking and are poor with thanking.  We all have much to thank God for.

Timeline

Beginning on December 1, I will make the trip to Everett on my own to begin work.  This will easily be the greatest road trip I have ever been on, covering over 2,500 miles over 8 states.  I plan on posting pictures along the way along with things God is saying through His word as I travel.

Stop 1:  Borger, Texas to visit my 91 year old Grandpa and his wife Lydia.
Stop 2:  Somewhere around Laramie, Wyoming for camping, weather permitting.
Stop 3:  Somewhere between Salt Lake City, Utah and Boise, Idaho for camping, weather permitting.
Stop 4:  Portland, Oregon for training associated with my new job.
Stop 5:  Mount St. Helens, because I can.
Stop 6:  Everett, Washington to settle in and begin work.

Frankly, the following passage makes us a little nervous, but it is what it is!!  You can't deny that it applies.

Hebrews 11:8-10

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Endings and New Beginnings

Yesterday I said goodbye to Summer Creek High School, my beloved campus of two and a half years.  This was a day of many hugs and tears, celebrations and sadness.  I had an opportunity to talk to so many colleagues that I consider to be friends and bring closure to a job that has occupied many of my thoughts and much of my time since my arrival.  This was the job that I always wanted and dreamed about.  It was the most difficult job that I ever loved, and was the job I have most enjoyed.  The most difficult part was saying goodbye to those I am closest to.  These are the people who I had the pleasure of interacting with each and every day, who added to my life and daily taught me things about leadership.  It was here that I discovered that while I am an only child by birth, I have a sister that was on the campus with me all along.  I managed to hold it together all day, but I cried as I drove away.  Even now I write these words with tears.

For some readers of this blog, this raises questions:

- Why would you leave the job you dreamed about and admit that you loved?

- Why would you leave a house that you admit is your dream house?

- Didn't you just build a shop that you had wanted for 15 years?  Wasn't it exactly what you had wanted?

- Why leave family and friends that are so dear to you?

My simple answer is that when the King asks you to go on an adventure with Him, your answer should be yes.  Some people hear His message and have to think about it for a while.  They decide later whether to obey or turn away.  Those that turn away do so because of worry about the unknown, love of possessions, or because of difficulties in life that they feel that they are unable to overcome.  Some can't depart because of family or friends they feel they can't leave.

Jesus addressed each of these objections:

Luke 9:59-62

He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”

The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

 But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”

 Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good- bye to my family.”

 But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Luke 14:26-27

“If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:33

So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.

Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Luke 13: 3-9-  “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Others hear the message over time and fail to recognize it for what it is, only later discovering that God was planting seeds and watering them so that they would grow into a garden months or even years later.  We are in this group.  But like the Apostle Paul, when you meet the risen Jesus while traveling to a destination that you have chosen, your life and your destination are forever changed.

Is there precedent in the Bible for taking such drastic action in your life?

- Abram (Genesis 12) - Genesis 12:1-3

 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

-Joseph (Genesis 37)- In a dream God told Joseph that he'd be a ruler and that his family would bow down to serve him.  This didn't happen until he was pulled into Egypt as a slave, servant, and prison inmate.

-David (1 Samuel 16)- David was a shepherd boy who was called out of the field where he was tending sheep and was anointed by the prophet Samuel as the king of the Israelites.  He soon found himself in Saul's palace, playing a harp to sooth Saul.  After that, he was fighting Goliath with Saul and the army. He spent many years hiding and running from Saul, many times being away from family and his closest friend Jonathan.

Paul (Saul from Acts 9)- On the road to Damascus to throw Christians in jail, he met Jesus who told him to continue on into Damascus for further directions.  He later left Damascus by being dropped from a basket and rope over the city's wall, stayed in the desert for at least 2 years, and then continuously went on missional journeys for the rest of his life.  He stayed in many places for months and then moved on, making and leaving friends every step of the way.

-Peter, Andrew, James, and John Matthew 4:18-22

 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.

 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

Gideon -  Was found threshing grain in a wine press because he was afraid of being attacked.  The Lord gives him the mission of saving the Israelites from an oppressing nation.

Judges 6:14

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

Moses (Exodus 3)- Was tending sheep in Midian with his wife and her family and was called to be the one who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

Exodus 3:10

Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”

Yes, God does call believers to "go" on his behalf.  The only thing that matters in the believer's response is action.  Good intentions don't move the Lord's heart if they aren't followed by actual obedience.  Noble thoughts such as "I can't possibly leave my family because they need me" or "this church or this person or this ministry might fall apart if I leave" are actually empty and sometimes selfish.  By saying such things you are stating that God is not in control of those circumstances and couldn't possibly make good out of situations that you are not personally involved in.  At its root, this displays a lack of faith.

While it is very difficult to leave all that we have and know, the one thing we know for certain is that our Lord has called this family to go.  It is now our job to obey, believing that God has a plan and "causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."  (Romans 8:28)

What is God saying about what YOU are supposed to do?  Is it possible you are supposed to come to Seattle with us, or to go somewhere else in His name?  There is no greater adventure than to be on a mission for the King.  Ask Him what he would have you do, and then wait.

Discipline and Lyrics for Life

I was reading this morning from Matthew 26 when Jesus was betrayed and put on trial.  He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that the "My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away^[g] unless I drink it, your will be done.”

It is striking to me that Jesus knew what was going to happen to him, wanted to avoid it, prayed that He would be able to avoid it, but in the end prayed above all other things that God's will would be done.  He was scared like we are, faced trials like we do, but ultimately laid his very life down so that God's will would be accomplished.  

While we may not be called to physically die today, our job each and every day is to lay down our very lives and follow Him.  Each day we must die to self.  If you don't have a relationship with Him that is like that, perhaps you are clinging to something that you can't keep.  On your last day it won't matter how much money you made, where you lived, what leadership positions you had, or how much power you had.  The only thing that will matter is if you truly know Him.  And to know Him is to work for Him.

James 2:
¹⁸ Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
¹⁹ You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.^[f] Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. ²⁰ How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
²¹ Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. ²³ And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”^[g] He was even called the friend of God.^{[h] 24} So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

Perhaps the Lord is putting you through something difficult to teach you something.  Think about this:  what have you ever learned that didn't come with a price?  You could have asked your parents to simply lecture you about living the "right way" but that would have had no impact in the long run.  Sometimes they had to spank to get your attention, and it stuck with you.  Or how about driving?  You had to get behind the wheel and practice next to a neurotic teacher who had a "chicken break" just in case you screwed up.  You ran into curbs, failed to parallel park correctly, and cut people off in traffic.  You might have been scared, but through it you learned to drive.  God cares about us so much that he trains us along the way.

Hebrews 12:

⁷ As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? ⁸ If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. ⁹ Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?^[g]

^{This is what partially makes us nervous about our situation right now.  We have no place to live in Everett yet because we haven't sold this house.  But we are praying daily about it that it would sell quickly and that the Lord would work it out.  We have absolutely no control over things right now and have to rely on Him.  It may not be comfortable for us right now, but He has a bigger picture that only He sees right now.  May the Lord be glorified in how He does this!}

 

If you haven't figured it out yet, music has a dramatic impact on my life.  In earlier posts I described how God has used particular songs to speak directly to me.  I believe He can and will speak through his Word, prayer, songs you listen to, people you speak with...pretty much anything you are doing.  We just fail to recognize that He is speaking.

Here's what I was listening to this morning.  It definitely speaks to what is on my heart at this moment.  Please see the focus of this song.  It illuminates a great God who works through us to accomplish His purpose.

Train Song by Josh Garrels

Shame on you, shame on me
Lord he took all our shame and pain, and set men free
And I’ve got that fire on the mountain
Fire in my soul
It’s been a long time coming, long time
And ready to go
I’m stepping out the door
Doing what feels right
Following my Lord, through the darkest night
And when the path gets narrow
I’ll follow him
And when the world comes down, around
I’ll follow him
He said, sing it on the mountain
Or in the valley low
He’s my God, and he never let me go
He said, sing it on the mountain
Or fight in valley low
Every mans going to see, and everyone will know
That peace runs deep in him
I said peace runs deep in him
Peace runs deep in him.

Faith in Waiting

Our current hurtle related to our move to Everett is in waiting to sell the house.  It has been on the market for 2 weeks now, but we haven't had anyone look at it in a week.  This has been discouraging to us for a variety of reasons, but primarily because we are looking toward what is coming.  We have a house picked out in Everett which also still hasn't sold.  The owners will not do a contract with us as long as our current house hasn't sold, so we wait.  We also are without options in moving forward without selling this house since we don't have enough money to put down on a purchase now.  Essentially, we are boxed in and believe the Lord is leading us down a very specific path that only He can orchestrate.  We are praying that the Lord will continue to reserve that house for us and that He will send the right buyer at the right time. 

The Lord has been reminding us about what it means to have faith.  Hebrews 11:1 says:   

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

In thinking about people in the Bible who had to wait, I see many:

• Abram was told that he would have a child and that his decendents would be "as numerous as the stars in the sky."  Yet Abraham waited for many years before his wife was able to have a child for him. 
• Noah was told to build an ark because a flood was coming.  The ark took him 100 years to build and when he finished it, the flood came.  He likely endured a lot of doubt over those 100 years.
• The Israelites had to wait before taking the city of Jericho.  They had to march around the city for 6 days, and on the 7th day they had to march 7 times and blow trumpets and shout at the end.  Only then did the walls come down.
• David was crowned king by the Lord, but had to wait for years and years in exile, even living in caves and in towns occupied by the enemies of Israel.  Although he was given numerous opportunities to kill king Saul, whom the Lord had rejected, he chose instead to wait on the Lord's provision.
• Joseph was shown that he would be a great leader and that his family would be subservient to him.  However he was soon sold into slavery by his brothers.  After working his way out of slavery he had a position of status in the house of his master, only to be falsely accused of trying to take advantage of his master's wife.  He was thrown into prison and stayed there for several years.  He was only made second in command of Egypt after a 13 year wait.
• Moses waited in the desert tending sheep for 40 years prior to being called to assist in setting his people free from slavery in Egypt.
• Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus as he was pursuing Christians so that he could throw them in prison.  He was struck blind, told to go into Damascus, and wait.  He waited 3 days in his blindness before the Lord sent a messenger to free him from it.
• The disciples had to wait 3 days to see Jesus resurrected from the dead.  Although He had told them He would die and be raised to life, they had to experience a wait prior to that happening.

There are literally too many examples of waiting in the scriptures to list them all here.  Yet a pattern emerges:  God calls the person, gives them some information, and then somewhere in there they have to wait on Him to clear the path for them.  In each case, God received the glory from it because He himself did it and the person did not.   Waiting is normal, but it is not easy.

Now we have to confront the issue of faith. 

If you have little faith, little will happen.

• Matthew 13- When visiting his hometown, Jesus noted that the people there did not believe he was the Messiah.  As a result, "he only did a few miracles there because of their unbelief." 
• Matthew 17- Jesus' own disciples were unable to cast out a demon.  Jesus noted their lack of faith.
• James 2- 
  
  ¹⁴ What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? ¹⁵ Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, ¹⁶ and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
  ¹⁷ So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

If you have much faith, much will happen. 

• Matthew 9- Jesus healed a woman who had been dealing with a physical illness for many years.  He commented that "her faith had made her well."
• Matthew 15- The faith of a Gentile woman caused Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter.
• Mark 10- Jesus heals a blind man, commenting that "his faith had made him well."
• Luke 7- A Roman centurion's servant was healed from a distance by Jesus.  Jesus commented that he "had not seen faith like this in all of Israel."

The Lord has an extensive track record of giving us some details to get us moving and then making us wait on something.  The wait develops the faith, because "faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen."  You have no evidence.  There appears to be no progress being made.  And yet our Lord is working behind the scenes on our behalf, only asking that we wait on Him and put our very hope in Him.  At this point, your actions matter.  Will you work yourself to death trying to make things happen on your own?  That didn't work for Abram, who conceived a child with his wife's servant during his wait, even though the Lord had made it clear that his wife would have the child.  Or alternatively, will you wait, pray, and hope? 

May the Lord receive glory for what He does in making our move happen.  While we periodically struggle with discouragement and impatience, He has also set things up to where only He can deliver us through this storm.  He is a great God.

Alignment, Preparation, and Strange Coincidences

Now that I think about it, the Lord has used a lot of situations from our past to prepare for our future in Everett.  You'll find that theme in the Bible as well.  Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, was thrown in prison, and eventually was made second in command of all of Egypt.  Each stage in his journey prepared him for something he was going to do later.  Moses started life in Pharoah's household, was exiled for 40 years while working as a shepherd (the most humble of professions), and later was called to free God's people from bondage in Egypt.  Saul spent his life as a religious zealot, but during that time he studied scripture so much that, when he became a believer, his proofs that Jesus was the Messiah were not refutable by any of the religious officials who were around him.

Here are some of the situations that God has used in our lives to prepare us for this missional journey.

1.  In college, I felt like I was supposed to go into the ministry.  I was serious enough about it to look into seminaries, and went and talked to the youth pastor of our church at the time.  As I talked to him, he impressed upon me that I could have a greater effect for the kingdom as a layperson than he would ever have as a professional minister.  He said that, no matter what, people would always look at him as someone who earned his living from working in the church.  He said that was something I didn't have, and people would pay attention to it.  That thought has shaped my beliefs since then.

2.  During my first few years of teaching professionally, I got caught in the middle of a nasty fight within our church.  A group of people assembled against the pastor, and their primary complaint was that he was not "warm" enough.  They put so much pressure on him that he eventually resigned.  Their anger at him didn't seem to end, as they called a church business meeting for the sole purpose of denying him a severance package that, by tradition, all pastors get when they leave a place.  I attended that meeting, knowing ahead of time of their plan.  When the opportunity came, I stood up and made a motion that he receive his full severance that was due to him.  I believed that this was fully supported by scripture.  The church body quickly voted to affirm this action, and suddenly I was at the center of a major drama in our local church.

I was next elected to a "Transition Team" whose purpose it was to fix the problems within the church.  For the next 18 months we met weekly and dealt with all of the mess that was going on behind the scenes in the church.  We had to reach resolution, forgiveness, and had to lead the church to decide as a group to move on from the past.  It was one of the more emotionally difficult experiences I have had, but its end result was that it taught me about how churches work (they are full of people, and those people are sinful including myself), taught me how to extend grace to those who openly dislike me, and showed me the value of standing up for right principles from God's word even when faced with lots of opposition.  I also learned about other church models during this time, including the ever expanding home church model.  This idea has intrigued me since that time.

3.  Our trip to Portland, Oregon in May of 2009 was a pivotal event in our family's decision to move to the Northwest.  This planted the seeds for the move, and literally helped us to discover a land and people that we loved.

4.  The death of my Mom in 2011 has forever marked my life.  Death forces Christians to confront the ideas that they have "head knowledge" of, particularly the goodness of God in all situations, heaven and hell and the reasons for going to each, death as a consequence of sin, God's sovereignty in spite of lengthy illness, love for others at all times even when it hurts, and serving God in all situations.  I struggled mightily with each of these issues and have found that God is present even in the pit of despair.  It was He who waited for me with open arms, and it was I who walked away from Him for a time.  However, his mercy allowed me to come back. 

Mom's death also opened the door to our move.  While we both still have family in Texas, as parents go we only have my Dad left.  While leaving him is not easy, I can also admit that our family is not as tied down to a place like other families are that have aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and grandparents who are still alive and well and living nearby.

5.  Our adoption of 3 boys has taught us significant lessons that we take with us to Everett.  Adoption is quite simply a choosing of a person to be a part of your family and extending full benefits to that person as though they were yours by birth.  This looks and sounds easy when you read it on a brochure, but when you actually bring those individuals into your family, you bring with them all of their emotional baggage.  You have to learn to lay down your life for the betterment of these individuals, and that is not an event but is instead a 24 hour per day job.

Through adoption, I have gotten a picture of myself from God's perspective.  I come to him with tremendous baggage, faults, problems, selfishness, and neediness, and He has fully accepted me into His family even with this knowledge.  To go further, He even interacts with me for my betterment, shows love at ALL times without strings attached, and cares for me each and every day.  Many times my response to this has been like that of my adopted children:  to shake my fist at him, become angry, decry his unfairness at recognizing MY plan for MY life, and selfishly sulk in a corner.  And yet in spite of all of that, He still loves me and still cares for me and still refuses to abandon me.  That is what adoption is all about, and it also happens to be what a relationship with Christ is all about.

Strange "Coincidences"

The Lord as usual has been quite clever in how He has arranged for us to move to Everett to join Him in ministry.  Below is a brief list of things that I see now that on the surface could be seen as coincidental.  However, I believe in God and not in coincidences.  I will add to this as time goes by since God isn't finished with executing His plan yet.

1.  The entire journey started in Portland where I was receiving training for work.  My first day of work at my new job will be in Portland, once again receiving training.  He has brought us full circle.

2.  Our return trip to Seattle after our mission trip this summer was randomly chosen to be during October 23-26, 2013.  After scheduling this trip, we learned that church planter initial training was occurring in the same week and initially we disregarded it.  However, since the Lord moved things so quickly we got to attend part of this event as learners and future planters. 

3.  I got a call 1 week before going on the return trip asking if I'd interview for a job in Everett.  They wanted to do round 1 over Skype since I was so far away, but I quickly let them know that I was actually going to be in Seattle that week anyway and could come by.  They were amazed.

4.  After a good first interview, I was called on that Thursday evening in Seattle and told that they were going to try to do round 2 of the interviews on Friday, the very next day.  The big issue was that round 2 was going to be done by the superintendent and his cabinet, and they weren't sure they could schedule all of those individuals together that quickly.  I later received a call and the person told me that they were shocked, but that the superintendent and his cabinet were all available that Friday at 1:00 PM.  They admitted that that never happens and they really were not sure how they had been so "lucky." 

5.  When in Everett for the interviews, we felt compelled to look for houses since things seemed to be moving so rapidly.  Amanda really was pushing that we get a realtor and start going into houses.  I told her to look one up on Google, and she found one about 2 blocks from our location in town.  We walked in and only one was available, and after talking with him a little while we discovered that he is a Christian.  That's pretty unusual up there.

6.  This school year, another associate principal was moved to our campus at the start of school.  There generally is only one associate principal, and I was the only one at the time for Summer Creek.  God helped me to realize after I experienced His calling to the Northwest that He had made it so that I could leave Summer Creek at literally any time.  He had already put my successor in place.  And this successor was at the time going through a difficult time because the move was forced upon her.  God used my situation to bless her in the same way he blessed Joseph from the Old Testament.  She was pulled from an undesirable situation and eventually was made second in command of the campus.

God has a plan, and occasionally we get a chance to peek behind the curtain to see what He's up to.  The Bible tells us that no man can thwart His plan.  Our desire as Christians should be to follow His leadership and allow Him to work through us every chance we get.

The Calling

The question that I am asked most often about our calling to Seattle is "how do you KNOW God told you to go?"  That's a great question and is not easy to answer.  I have never received a letter in the mail from our Lord.  I have never heard his audible voice in the air and have never seen Him in visible form standing in front of me.  However, I can say with great certainty that when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords talks to you, you just know it.  His voice and message isn't like anything that you'd experience in real life.  It might be a thought that pops into your head that goes against the grain of how you normally think.  It might happen as you are reading the Bible and a particular passage seems to leap off of the page and smack you in the face, almost as though the author wrote it just for you.  Sometimes it happens in conversations with other individuals, particularly other believers, when something is said that just gets your attention.  It even can be in things you listen to such as music.  Our Lord is very creative in how He speaks to us, but he speaks all the same.  Most people miss it because they aren't listening and aren't seeking.  His calling to Seattle was one that was so clear from the beginning that it couldn't be missed.

When you look at this material, you may question it.  Your initial thoughts may be that this doesn't say the same things to you as it did to me.  That is normal.  Remember that this was God's personal calling on our family, and as such was tailored to our ears.  I simply am sharing it so others can see how He spoke to me.

To recap, we already felt a strong pull toward the Northwest prior to this mission trip.  Our primary objectives in going were to see what it was all about and to share the Gospel.  I can't explain it in super clear terms, but as time went by from May of 2009 forward, the pull on our hearts became stronger and stronger even though we hadn't ever gone back to the area.

While in Tacoma, I woke up early one morning to go work out.  I had downloaded an album by Josh Garrels, thinking that it was just good music.  While listening to it that morning as I worked out, I heard the following verse in the song as though the volume had been turned up on me suddenly:

Child the time has come for you to go
You will never be alone
Every dream that you have been shown
Will be like living stone
Building you into a home
A shelter from the storm

As it turns out (and I didn't know it at the time), Josh Garrels is a strong Christian and this song is about the Great Commission.

8/13 -I was reading Experiencing God at the time, and came to Reality #5:  God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads to a crisis of belief.  I began to question whether God was talking to me about Washington or whether it was me. 

Then I happened to read Deuteronomy 12:8-11.   

⁸ “Your pattern of worship will change. Today all of you are doing as you please, ⁹ because you have not yet arrived at the place of rest, the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession. ¹⁰ But you will soon cross the Jordan River and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you. When he gives you rest from all your enemies and you’re living safely in the land, ¹¹ you must bring everything I command you—your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, and your offerings to fulfill a vow—to the designated place of worship, the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored.

8/13 - Received several articles from Brian Harper via email.  In a nutshell, they made the point that it is ALL of our jobs to share Christ with the nations.  References Luke 10:2

² These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.

8/15 Deuteronomy 12:4;  20- in response to an internal question I had about how I would provide for our family if we were to move to Seattle.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God expands your territory as he has promised, and you have the urge to eat meat, you may freely eat meat whenever you want.

 ⁴ “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods. ⁵ Rather, you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where his name will be honored.

8/16- Read Experiencing God chapter on spiritual gifts.  Made the point that we look at spiritual gifts the wrong way.  Our job is to look for where God is working and join Him. We knew that God was clearly working in the Seattle area.

8/19- While running one morning I listened to another Josh Garrels song called "Beyond the Blue."  Again, it was as though the volume turned up suddenly and I heard this:

 Sometimes the only way to return is to go,
Where the winds will take you

And to let go, of all, you cannot hold onto
For the hope, beyond,the blue 

I immediately burst into tears and had to stop running.

8/20- Deuteronomy 18:6 - A call to go and minister in His name.

⁶ “Suppose a Levite chooses to move from his town in Israel, wherever he is living, to the place the Lord chooses for worship. ⁷ He may minister there in the name of the Lord his God, just like all his fellow Levites who are serving the Lord there. ⁸ He may eat his share of the sacrifices and offerings, even if he also receives support from his family.

8/23  John 12:24-26- A call to die to myself and let go of my life.

²⁴ I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. ²⁵ Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. ²⁶ Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.

8/28  1 Corinthians 2:9- The Lord assuring us that He has a plan in Seattle.
⁹ That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
    and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
    for those who love him.^"

^{Joshua 1: 6-9- The Lord telling us to go and don't be afraid.}

⁶ “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. ⁷ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. ⁸ Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. ⁹ This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

9/3 -  God's reassurance that we're supposed to completely die to ourselves and serve Him.

Romans 6:13-
¹³ Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

Romans 10:13-16

¹³ For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”^[g]
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? ¹⁵ And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”^[h]

9/29 - God telling us specifically how we should live while in Seattle.

2 Corinthians 6:3-10

³ We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry. ⁴ In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. ⁵ We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. ⁶ We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us,^[a] and by our sincere love. ⁷ We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. ⁸ We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. ⁹ We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. ¹⁰ Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

Mission Trip to Seattle/ Tacoma

Looking back at it, our mission trip to Seattle/ Tacoma was quite surreal.  We landed at the airport, got into our 12 passenger van, and headed to Tacoma immediately.  After checking in at our hotel we headed to see The Pathway- Tacoma, a church plant started by Bobby and Kelli Higginbotham.

That afternoon our group began working on a VBS type kids program for the community, and Amanda and I got to go down the street to a women's shelter.  This shelter is for women who have been through the worst life can throw at them including addictions, abuse, and prostitution.  We were asked to talk about how to have a healthy family.  With such a broad topic, we just assumed we knew what to say to these women.  However, when we started to write down things that we wanted to talk about, we soon realized how difficult this would actually be.  When you come from middle class America, live in a safe neighborhood, have a good and stable job, and generally live very comfortably, what do you say to people who have never experienced any of that?  How can you relate to them without seeming shallow, self-centered, and selfish?  We chose to pray about what to say and trusted the Lord to use our mouths.

When we arrived at the shelter it was made clear to us that we couldn't preach the Gospel.  This is a federally funded facility and therefore can't be associated with church work.  Additionally, these women were being forced to come listen to us as part of their program of recovery.  When we heard that it actually made us feel better because we felt that it wouldn't be right to preach the Gospel to people who are there under compulsion.  It might have the unintended effect of turning them away from Him, and that would be wrong.  So, our strategy was simply to tell the Gospel through what He has done in the life of our family.  We talked about adoption.

It's a strange thing to sit across the room from the very people that your adopted children came from.  When you're receiving training prior to adoption you begin to hear the sad stories about how truly broken and destitute families are in America.  You develop a deep sense of sadness and sometimes anger when you think about choices that people have made and how they have exposed children to the most evil things our society can produce.  How can you do those things to children?  What's wrong with you?  How dare you think of yourself before your children!  But then when you sit across from these same individuals, you see what it is really about.  They don't have Jesus.  They have a massive black hole at the center of their being and they are desperately trying to fill it up with anything that will make them forget their emptiness and need.  At that point, you sense the strong love and compassion that Christ has for people, and your desire becomes bringing them to Him.

We told our story on adoption from start to finish, telling these ladies about how God had told us to adopt, selected our children, been with our children when they were in a pit of despair, and brought us all together.  Within about 15 minutes most of the women were in tears listening to the story, and they began asking questions.  Mostly, they wanted to know how to find a man that would take care of them and their children.  We told them not to compromise because they are better people than that, and their kids deserve better.  We spoke to choices in life, and tried to keep things practical.  We did get to invite them to the kids events happening every night, but at all points kept coming back to what Jesus had done for us.  We walked away clearly feeling like the Holy Spirit had been there with us, and these ladies were clearly impacted by what had been said.  We were in awe of God.

We spend our days in local parks cooking food and talking to anyone who happened to walk by on the streets.  Many homeless are in Tacoma and we struck up conversations with many of them about Jesus and His power to save.   They were quite receptive and grateful for a meal at the same time.  On a Wednesday evening, we went to Bobby and Kelli's house to help with a block party they were setting up for their neighbors.  They use events such as these to build community with their neighbors and develop friendships.  Through those the Gospel message is told.  We met many dear people from their Intentional Community Group who love the Lord and others who are still seeking but are interested in Him.

During one of the days we drove to downtown Seattle to get a picture of the scope of the spiritual need there.  We were in an area of downtown known only as The Blade, a name earned through years and years of knifings and stabbings on the streets.  There is a very high homeless population in this area because Seattle has many social services that other surrounding cities and even states do not have.  Because of this, those cities and states find ways to get their homeless population to Seattle.  What is left is a mass of people, many of whom are addicted to drugs and are down and out, wandering the streets of downtown each and every day.

We chose to prayer walk there with Brian Harper, another church planter who lives near the downtown area.  We went to a local park and were greeted to a strong police and security presence.  It seemed as though every 10 feet there was a police officer.  Homeless individuals were everywhere and it was clear that some of them were either drug dealers or were looking for their next fix.  We struck up a conversation with a homeless man who was running a large chess board for the city parks department.  He was 29, was from the Dallas area, and had gotten to Seattle over the prior 2 weeks hoping to get a job on an Alaskan fishing boat.  This sort of thing is common in Seattle, probably because of the celebrity surrounding Deadliest Catch.

It turns out that this guy had been kicked out of his dad's house and was now trying to make it on his own.  He told us that he lived in a homeless shelter at night, and that the prior day he had been offered heroin from a dealer on the street.  He seemed genuinely shaken by this experience but seemed to imply that this sort of thing was common on the street.  We talked about Jesus with him and he listened with interest, but became visibly offended when we stated that He is the only way to the Father.  Many there believe that there are many paths to God, so saying that there is only one way is offensive.  However, he overcame that and continued to listen to us, although he did not make a decision that day.

Later that morning we did more prayer walking, frequently passing prostitutes who were looking for work, and we even walked by a young homeless man in an alley who was smoking crack out in the open.  We were shocked at the degree of lostness that we saw in this great city.  It could be argued that literally everyone we were looking at was not a follower of Jesus.  We had never seen this anywhere before.

As the week came to a close, we began to get a significant sense of calling to the Seattle area.  It was almost as though we were "home" even though we were on this mission trip.  The feeling can't really be described in tangible terms.  What I can say is that when we got on the plane to leave we both strongly felt like we were leaving home and going to visit Houston.  Landing in Houston was even more difficult as we felt a sense that we no longer belonged.  We were mere visitors, passers by, even vacationers here.  So we prayed, and we waited.

In the beginning...

This adventure started in May of 2009 when I went on a trip to Portland, Oregon for work.  My wife Amanda came with me this time and we made it into a mini vacation from work, home, the kids, and life.  We got off the airplane and were greeted to a beautiful setting.  There was a city next to 2 large rivers, massive trees on the hillside, and massive Mount Hood in the distance, covered in snow.  We quickly fell in love with this quirky city, taking in all of its sights and sounds each day.  We would part during the day so I could go to training, and we would meet up in the evening to talk about all that we had experienced. 

On Saturday of that week we rented a car and drove around Oregon, first going to see the beautiful waterfalls that lined the Columbia River Gorge, and taking in the beauty of Mount Hood close up.  We drove to the top to see snowpack that was more than 10 feet deep, and then we drove to the coast to see the mountains that line Oregon's coast.  We were hooked, and the seeds were planted at that time that perhaps someday we could move to this area just to live out our days enjoying all of the natural beauty.

We came home and got back to work and to life, but we quickly found that Oregon and the northwest were not out of our minds.  We kept talking about it, and as time went by we talked about it more and more!  My wife enlarged a number of the pictures she had taken while on the trip and they were mounted on a wall in our living room.  At night we talked about going there once the kids were grown.  Maybe I could teach at a university and she could be a photographer.  The kids could visit us anytime they wanted!  We were only an airplane ride away.  So we made our plans, and God began making His.

In the spring of 2013, I remember sitting in church on just another Sunday as the worship team was preparing for worship.  This Sunday was different though because we had a special speaker named Ron Shepard, who was visiting us from Seattle.  Ron got up and quickly started talking about the northwest and the degree of lostness there.  He displayed a map of the United States that was color coded by the number of churches per capita.  Oregon and Washington were some of the few states that were red.  Red meant few churches.  Red meant few knew Jesus.  In fact, he through out the statistic that the Seattle area has one church per 20,000 people, a staggering statistic.  Over 90% of the population arguably does not know Jesus, with only about 5% going to any church even 1-2 times per year.  I was floored, but I also sensed that there was something to all of this.  There was a reason I was sitting there in the chair that morning listening to this man from Seattle.  I remembered Portland and the northwest that I loved, and I wondered what plans God might have for us.

I remember nudging Amanda and telling her that I thought there might be something to all of this.  The church promptly announced that it would be taking a mission trip in the summer to go to Seattle and that they hoped to form a long-term partnership with the northwest and church planting.  We were the first to sign up for the trip.

We didn't know how we were going to come up with the money to go on this trip, but were encouraged by the church to send letters to people to ask that they pray or consider funding us.  Amanda drafted these and sent them to about 10 people and we just figured that if God wanted it to happen, it would happen.  We soon learned that we had been given more than enough for both of us to go.  It was paid in full, and we again were the first to have this happen.  God was moving, but we really didn't learn until much later about the sheer scope and magnitude of His plan for our family.