One Week Anniversary

So it is official, we have been in our new place one week today. It has been a whirlwind tour and to be quite honest, i am not sure if the weight of all of it has fully hit us. we have a bank account now and have changed our mailing address. we have cancelled all our services for our old house and start new ones for our new home, but it all seems so fast and dizzying. we have met a few of our neighbors and i can honestly say that i feel rich now when i hear their stories. When we were in Buda, we were wealthy in the perspective of our new neighbors. What an eye opener! Even in downsizing , we have not come close to knowing what having little means. we are rich here in America and i am not sure that we even know it.

One really cool story was from a couple who has been in Seminary housing since 2002 because the wife stays home with the kids and they can only afford to go part-time. The cool part is that the husband, whom i have not met yet, works as a custodian for one of the local churches. What a testimony. i am a firm believer that if you cannot work what would be considered the least of jobs, then you are not fit to be pastor. It warmed my heart and i pray that i can be that humble.

The kids have adjusted well and have met the neighbor kids which is comprised of mostly Korean children who run wild and unsupervised (cultural differences). There is also a couple of German children that are really nice and like our children. They live upstairs from us. There is not any formal community activities here and we are hoping to change that.

i promise that Mickie will start writing on here also so you all will not get bored of my dull language. we are going to visit our Messianic Jewish friends tonight and celebrate Shabbat (Sabbath) by eating and listening to or studying the weekly Torah portion. we are stoked about this because of all that God has been showing our family of our Hebrew roots.

Please pray for God to guide us to a church as we have not been shown a replacement for the Austin Stone as of yet. Also please be praying that God would guide me to an opening as an associate pastor so that i might begin to exercise my gifts and calling.

Mickie, Abigail, Mikaela, Luke,and Chloe give their love to all and we miss all of you dearly. i will leave you with solid ground. Drink deeply from the well of God's promises to His people. And when God says His people, He means all who believe in the Messiah, whether Jew or non-Jew. For not all of Israel is Israel (physical descendants). The children of promise are delineated by their belief and active faith in Yeshua (Jesus):

Isaiah 58:13-14
13 "If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot
From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,
And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable,
And honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure
And speaking your own word,

14 Then you will take delight in the LORD,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."