It’s been awhile since you guys have heard from me. Some of you may be wondering what happened to me? Did I back slide in my relationship with the Good Lord? Did I fall asleep spiritually. Have I been too busy? Did I get sick from Covid, etc? Yes Covid did slow me a down bit but the reason I haven’t been blogging much lately is that God has been preparing our next chapter in ministry.

God has been doing great things in my life. He always is. Whether I notice it or not. The year 2021 has been a year to be grateful. We were able to move into our new home. A home we searched and searched for and almost gave up on. However, God didn’t let that happen to us. He had a plan for us. A good plan. See Jeremiah 29:11

God chose a home for us that we could grow in. The new home gave us a private place for my dad. A private place for my office. A gym, a big yard to store our RV and boat, a bigger pool, and extra bedrooms for the kids to utilize as playrooms. It also gave us a big yard where we can entertain our big family.

We feel totally blessed to call it home. God is so good. We were very thankful for the Home and we decided to dedicate the house to the Lord. We wanted to be good stewards of the home. We started praying about it and decided to start looking for a new church closer to our new home.

Our neighbor at the time told us about a good church by us. We decided to give it a chance. I started listening to the sermons online for a few weeks before our family attended in person. The church connected right away with our family between the worship, the kids ministry and the message.

We decided to make the new church our home church and attended for a few months when we heard announcements about an upcoming ministry fair. This fair turned out to have a major impact on our lives. God opened two new doors for us. Two great blessings.

New Blessing #1 - Kids Ministry

The first door was for me in the kids ministry. I feel this is something God has been calling me to do for some time. The Lord has been preparing me. However, I kept saying I wasn’t ready. This time the Lord prompted and I said yes. I said yes to being an assistant teacher. I was super nervous going in but I took the leap of faith and its been such a blessing so far.

I have been serving as an assistant teacher in the 8am service every Sunday. Working with children in grades 1 - 5. It truly has been a blessing to serve the kids. They are great. Some of the children you can tell they really have the love of God in their hearts. The kids vary in age and some have been walking with the Lord for awhile. While some are completely new in their walk with the Lord.

In the classroom we usually start with some crafts. We then go into worship. Watch a video. After the video we then go into the study. After the study we then spend some time bonding with the kids and working on application of the study.

For me the greatest thing about the kids ministry is watching the children praise God. It brings great joy to my heart. In addition working in the kids ministry has equipped me to being a better teach at home with my children.

So if you guys can pray for me that I can be a great blessing to the children at my church. That I can help them grow in maturity in their relationship with God.

New Blessing #2 - Safe Families with OliveCrest

There was another blessing that came from the ministry fair. This was us joining a ministry called Safe Families. Safe Families mission is simple. To provide a safe place for children to stay in times of emergencies.

Some times Moms may have a dire need for help but don’t have the resources or a support system for help. This is where safe families comes in.

Safe Families is made up of families that have professed their love of Christ and have decided they want to be that support system for a family in need. Think temporary fostering without collecting money from the state. The families that do this they do it because they love God and want to serve Him.

It’s always been on our heart to want to help children in need. So my wife and I signed up. After going through months of screening we were accepted as a Safe Family. We were so excited and so eager to host. We logged into the database immediately but didn’t find any needs.

We were a bit bummed but we stayed patient. That is when we started to get alerts about some families in need. We prayed and responded to a few needs but none of them worked out.

It was a few weeks ago when we got the alert of a family looking for someone to watch their 15 month old girl so they can help an elderly cousin move. This turned out to be our first hosting. It was great an experience and I will be dedicating a whole post about it. Stay tuned!

Hosting definitely inspired us. My hope is that I can inspire others by sharing our testimony of God’s greatness. God really does use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Yes the Good Lord will equip you to do good works.

This last year has been a year of change and the good Lord has called me to come out of my comfort zone. Which, I am thankful for. It’s when you come out of your comfort zone that you can really grow. When you can really be a life giving presence. It’s when you can really declare victory in the name of Jesus Christ.

Love you family. Stay tuned for more devotionals and some new features that I am working on for the site. I think you will really like the new feature. It’s a tool to help you remember scripture. We all know the importance of God’s word. It’s living and sharper than any double-edged sword. So let’s make it a goal together family to memorize as much as we can of God’s word! Got to go for now family. Love you all.