I am absolutley loving the new album by Hillsong “This is our God”. Hillsong always seems to hit a home run with there music. There is no doubt that they seek the face of God and are truly trying create an atmosphere that welcomes the presence of God. If you haven’t heard it yet, don’t wait it’s another good one!

Flexibility. This is a word that we have learned to live at a whole new level since we began the process of planting The Crossing. I heard it said once, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.” I know that may not be in Matthew 5 with The Beatitudes, but it could be. It seems like at every turn and every corner we need another “God Moment,” and He has never missed a chance to show Himself faithful.

On Monday evening we learned that everything was going as planned with the rental availability of our proposed location, but there was just one small glitch - timing. It was our understanding that we would be able to meet this Sunday, but now that has changed to October. Although we know this is a situation that is out of our control, this still came as a big disappointment. We are understanding what scripture talks about when it says in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” So, this obviously came as no surprise to God, and apparently He had other plans.

From the moment The Crossing began in our hearts to every step along the way, our deepest prayer and desire has been that God would direct our every move. There is no question that God has been our compass and is still leading as we begin this journey of reaching our community. I do not believe this is a moment to sit back and wait, but an opportunity to push forward and continue to build rapport in our community. Therefore, we will continue with our scheduled outreaches and comeback events, while looking at new opportunities to reach out and build this team up to make a greater impact in our city. We are still exploring possibilities of working something out in September, but have not yet solidified that avenue. God is on the brink of something huge, and we look at this as one more opportunity to trust God and know that He has everything in control.

I want you to know that Mandy and I are humbled and honored that you have chosen to serve with us in this venture. We want to say thank you for all that you’ve done and continue to do as we partner together to see Little Elm experience the love and freedom found in Christ

 mo·ron-[mawr-on, mohr-] –noun - a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.

The other day we were at my parents house and I decided to get Eli out of the house and take him for a spin on their riding lawn mower. Eli absolutely loves tractors so he thought he was big stuff while driving the mower. Later we were outside playing basketball and Gracie turned to me and said “Daddy, I want to ride the moron.” I didn’t understand what she had said so I asked her to repeat  it so she said “DADDY, I want to ride the moron.” Since she is only four years old I still wasn’t sure what she said I asked one more time, at this point she was getting frustrated with me and she said “DADDY, I WANT TO RIDE THE MORON, YOU KNOW LIKE ELI.” I then laughed pretty hard and asked if she meant the mower and she said “Yeah, the mower” as if she had said it all along.

Isn’t it amazing how powerful communication is, only one word can be off and it can alter an entire sentence. Just makes you stop and think how powerful your words are. To think that your words can bring either life or death to a situation. James spells it out pretty clear in chapter three. Check this out. 

So……. We went to Greenwood, Arkansas this past week to begin a family vacation that my Mom had planned nearly a year ago. (It’s crazy how it takes that long to actually get everyone together, but there is 17 of us.) However, we end up getting there a little early since Mandy had to have her hair done, by Mitzi who is a hairstylist in the Greenwood area. On Saturday, we decided to go to Van Buren, Arkansas and visit some of my  family. We ate lunch with Nanny and Aunt Vonda and then went out to Aunt Becky and Uncle Tommy’s house to sit and talk. Upon arriving they were out in the back in their swimming pool try to stay cool since it was over a 100 Degree’s that day. Contrary, to some beliefs Arkansas is NOT the north and it actually does get really hot. Well, upon arriving they just insist we go swimming, but we told them thanks but we didn’t bring our swimming suits, yet from the moment we walked up Gracie Belle was eyeing that gorgeous pool and letting us know how she really wanted to go swimming. We quickly reminded her there was one major problem, she didn’t have a swimming suit with her. My Aunt Becky then pointed out that it’s no big deal she can swim in her shirt and pantie’s and how they used to do it all the time with there kids. So, that was all the convincing Gracie needed and before you knew it the shorts were off and she was on her way into the pool.

Well, If you remember correctly we have THREE children and if one gets to swim then you can guarantee that the other two are soon to follow. This was okay as far as Mandy and I because they had suits for us to use, but the boys (who are two and one) were a different story. Eli and Harrison not only didn’t have a suit, but didn’t have SWIM DIAPERS! This posed a big problem, but Aunt Becky would have nothing of it, and quickly pointed out that there wasn’t swim diapers when her kids were little and they still swam. Against our better judgement we decided to go ahead. We then lathered everyone up with Sunblock and away we went.

So here we were swimming in the pool with a little girl in pantie’s and a shirt and two little jay bird boys swimming away having the time of there lives, and then it happened….. You guessed it Harrison decides he needs to go POOP, and guess who happens to be holding him when this happens? Yep, me and would you happen to know where we were at the time, oh yeah in the MIDDLE of the pool. I am holding him and all of the sudden he starts to grunt which mind you is not a good sign when there is NO DIAPER on him. I immediately begin the trek to get out of the pool, and actually did make it when he was HALF WAY through. So, as you can imagine we went in to panic mode and Mandy began the scooping process as I began the cleaning process.
Needless, to say we were a bit embarrassed, but what a memory to the start of a memorable vacation!

P.S. The next time we swam Eli threw a fit because he actually had to put a swim suit on! Imagine that my two year old kid already wanting to skinny dip!

I’m on vacation this week so I’m taking a break from writing, but will definitely update you with some of the crazy stories! Stay Tuned.