Yesterday

Yesterday was a pretty hard day. I preached in the morning service - my last Sunday here at First Baptist. I got through my message ok, toward the end some tears came. But then during the prayer time - I pretty much lost it. The church gave me a standing ovation for a long time, and so many people came up afterwards in tears to tell me really nice things. I described it to someone as being at your own funeral, where everyone says nice things about you and cries a lot. The reality of leaving is really starting to set in. Leaving our friends and my family behind is tough. Leaving the students here at FBCY behind is really tough. I'm fortunate to have four or five guys traveling with me across the country to help me move. It will be a fun time with them, sort of a last hurrah.

This week is basically a week to pack up my office and home, finish up some loose ends, and Friday morning I pull out of here. Crazy. I can't believe it. This is the hardest and easiest thing I've ever done. So hard to leave, so easy to follow where God is leading.

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God on Caller ID

As we've been preparing ourselves to move across the country and start this adventure of church planting, we have continued to pray that God would add people to our team. One particular family has been on our hearts since day one. Up until now, God had not given them the same vision. However, they did feel that God was stirring them to move, to go, and to be a part of something new, but they didn't know what that was. This week we had dinner with them again, and we connected like we never have before. It was an incredible night. It is so clear that God has been working in their hearts and changing them into something even more beautiful than they already were. After that night, they went home and continued talking and praying with the feeling like maybe God was in fact asking them to go with us. This is where it starts to get interesting.

They were sitting on the couch talking about the possibility of moving. Without knowing for sure, they say "God is going to have to give us a sign or something." Within a minute the phone rings. Not recognizing the number on the caller ID they didn't answer it. But suddenly, my friend felt the need to look up the number. He had never seen it before so he wondered where it was coming from. He jumped on the old internet and searched for the area code. Guess where? Durham, North Carolina. Yep. That just happened. So if that weren't crazy enough, the number keeps calling and guess what it says under the number for the caller ID - CHURCH PLANTING. Are you kidding me?

So this just in.... add Caller ID to all of the ways in which God can speak to us. I don't know how all of this is going to end up, but when you ask for a sign from God and less than 60 seconds later you get a call from Durham, NC that says "CHURCH PLANTING".... I'm just saying.

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Countdown

The plan is to move in 11 days. I just got back from my last youth outing - a 12 day mission tour up the coast. We served in shelters and on the streets with the homeless. It was a great trip. But 11 days? Wow. It's coming fast. Everything so far is falling into place except for the renting of our Yucaipa home. It's the last piece of the puzzle. So we are praying hard for a renter in the next few days so that we can stay on schedule. Some high school (I guess they are college now) guys are planning on driving with me across the country, so it's kind of important to get this all nailed down soon. We have to buy airline tickets and all of that. If you read this, please pray!

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