Transitions...

If you're having trouble viewing the pics in this email, click here.

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,

Lily lost her first teeth this month!

The mission statement of SERVE, the missions sending arm of Denton Bible Church, says We Exist to Cultivate, Equip, and Mobilize Christian Leaders Worldwide.  If  you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that for the past five years a large portion of our ministry has been centered around helping to operate the Storehouse with Mountain Vision Ministries. A year ago, we relocated the Storehouse into the lower level of the Calvary Chapel church in downtown Greeneville.  Over the past year, volunteers from Calvary Chapel have taken an increasing ownership of that ministry, and my time there has dwindled.  Charlie and Earlene continue to be involved providing oversight and encouragement, and Dennyr Florez functions not simply as the lead volunteer, but the as the day to day operations manager.  She coordinates and oversees the volunteers who process donations, meet with clients, handle the food distribution, etc.  In practical terms, Dennyr and the other volunteers have been cultivated, equipped, and mobilized to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of people in their community.  We praise the Lord for their faithfulness and for the work He is currently doing in and through them.  At this point, the time has come for me to formally step back and let them run the show.  They've already been doing that for most of the last year if not longer.  I am still available to fill in and help out, to offer counsel and encouragement, to drive the big truck and pick up donations, etc.  But day in and day out, the Lord has me investing the vast majority of my time in other places.

About the time the Storehouse moved into Calvary Chapel in downtown Greeneville, I began preaching at West Hills Baptist Church in Jonesborough, and last November I became their pastor. At the time, the average attendance was about 12 on Sunday morning.  They hadn't had a pastor in a number of years, and the church had declined to a handful of faithful senior saints who love Jesus and love their church, but who lacked vision and leadership.  Truly, they were like sheep without a shepherd. As their pastor, my responsibility is to equip them to do the work of the ministry.  So we developed the idea of the Garden of Hope as a place where we can all participate in being a blessing to our community.

We've made good progress.  Mrs. Dana Jones did an amazing piece of original artwork that we've put on banners, brochures, business cards, and even down by the road!  What this means for you is that when you get your next "Thank You" note from us, it'll have the Garden of Hope artwork, not the Mountain Vision artwork.

Our booth at the Farmer's Market!

Several folks thought the tomatoes in our display were plastic! They are in fact very tasty!

We've done our first community outreaches, spending some Saturday mornings down at the local farmer's market hanging out, meeting people, and recruiting folks to come and grow with us next season.  We've also canvased the apartment complex nearest the church, and over the next few months, we hope to get to all the neighborhoods near the church.

Last night at our member's meeting, we finalized our yearly survey for the local baptist association. Basically, this is how Southern Baptist churches track their statistics. Since it essentially marks my first year as their pastor, it was quite interesting.  The most encouraging thing on that report from my perspective as a pastor was that in the past year, West Hill's giving to missions has increased from about 3% of all money received to almost 20%.  God is so good!  We are excited to see what the next year brings!

In other ministry news, right now I'm in the middle of the Fall semester of seminary extension at the Baptist Association.  The course is Genesis, Part 1, and covers the first eleven chapters.  I've got a great group working hard, and they're always a delight to teach.  I just need to remember to take their picture!

If you're in or around Greenville, NC, I will be participating in their annual missions conference next month, October 21 and 22. Put that on your calendar!  I'd love to see you there.  My good friend and fellow Denton Bible missionary, Dennis Omondi from SERVE Kenya will also be there.  It should be a lot of fun in the Lord.

Lily's 1st day of CO-OP.

Geography! First Grade here she comes!

Lily loves her piano lessons with Mrs. Hawk!

Chatting up the lady in the "Cinderella dress".

Granny and Papa came to celebrate kid birthdays!

Bedtime stories with Granny is so much fun!

What's Hosea's favorite food? Ice cream!

We did a single party for both kid birthdays. Got lucky to get a picture before Hosea took off the corner of the cake when no one was looking :)

In family news, over the last month Lily started first grade, piano, celebrated her sixth birthday, and lost her first two teeth!  Hosea continues to drive us crazy with his antics. He has a mischievous smile when he's into something he shouldn't be that makes it so hard not to laugh at him when he needs to be disciplined!  He is as sweet as sugar and curious about everything.  The only thing he really hates is bedtime!

LuLaRoe Day 1. Inventory arrived at 11:30am. Set up at vendor event at 4pm!

You probably know that we're Dave Ramsey people, debt-free except for our mortgage.  Meredith hates the mortgage like the devil hates Jesus, and for years we've been looking for a way to pay it off earlier. Working more hours as a PA isn't a good option, because it creates a childcare issue that outweighs the benefits. After praying and planning, this week she officially launched her new business as a LuLaRoe Fashion Consultant. Being self-employed means the hours are flexible around my work schedule but most importantly, she's having a lot of fun with it! She loves the product, and she's having a lot of fun introducing ladies to clothes that are cute, modest, and comfortable!  I'm proud of my industrious, debt hating, entrepreneur of a wife!

He's a goober!

These two always compete for mama's lap!

Family cuddles!

Learning to Sabbath... If you read this blog, know us personally, follow us on Facebook, etc, you probably realize that resting is not something we're good at.  Truthfully, we stink at it.  We struggle with the sin of busy.  Over the last two months, we've been learning how to rest on Sundays.  With so many irons in the fire, we're always tempted to work on something on Sundays.  But God rested on the Sabbath day, not because he needed to rest, but because he gave us an example to follow.  What we're learning is that our to-do list doesn't get any shorter if we work on it on Sundays. So we pause and reflect on how the Lord has blessed us over the past week. We give thanks for the good things and the hard things.  Pausing from our work pushes us to trust the Lord more in the week to come.  In this life, there will always be more work to do than we can get done in a day or a week.  We're learning to slow down and enjoy our time in worship and with our church family, and then trying to be intentional about enjoying our time as a family in the afternoons, usually after we all take a nap!

Thank you for praying with us and for your faithful support of our ministry and our family in East Tennessee.  We couldn't be here without you!

Whew!  You made it to the end!  You deserve a nap!