Sick of Being Sick

It used to be that I would catch colds from the people that came into Mardel and then give them to Britt, but since she's started working at a hospital and I don't see hundreds of strangers a day, we seem to have swapped positions. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that she would catch viruses and colds from a hospital that deals with delivering babies and doesn't treat sickness, but it's happening anyway. Last week, she had some kind of nasty virus that came with the worst headaches that either one of us have ever had and then moved to a cold and ended with a sinus infection. She also got pink eye in both eyes right in the middle of all of that. Right at the end of her sickness, I started and followed the same cycle. Fortunately, I think the worst of it is over.

Old Friends and Late Christmas

My former Youth Pastor and fellow Church Planter, Aaron Johnson, and his family stopped by Fayetteville for a day on their way back to Washington, PA and it was awesome to get to hang out with them for a couple of hours. Aaron and Renee are great people and really mean a lot to us. Take the time to check Aaron's blog. They're doing a great and difficult work in PA that not many people would be willing to do. Check out Aaron's blog and Lifepoint's website. You can also download their podcast on itunes. Search for "Lifepoint At Washington".

We are heading to Independence County this week for our late Christmas. Britt had to work on Christmas Eve and the Day after Christmas so we weren't able to go home. Hopefully, we'll have time to hook up with some friends after we see all of our family. Have a Happy New Year!

Snow!

I love snow. It's cold and wet and nasty, but I love it anyway. It's snowing right now, if you haven't guessed that yet. The snow has made me feel like it's actually almost Christmas. Granted, I don't ever remember having a White Christmas, but still, it's how I feel. We were supposed to have outreach today and I really wanted to be able and grab some of those Christmas and Easter Christians but, God knows what He's doing. So, even though I'm not going to be able to go door to door in a 19 degree windchill, I'm still enjoying the snow. I hope you have snow, too. Here's some pictures of our Christmas tree to make you feel like it's Christmas, too. I made Britt wait until Thanksgiving to put up the tree, even though she wanted to put it up the first of November.

Here's one of the Christmas Card pix we took with Britt's family.

Here's some pix of Samson. This is from when we first got him.

These are more recent. Also, I just want to say for the record that I am not a fan of the bandana.

Recap

Ok, a lot has happened since the last time I blogged.

We had our second person saved. It's a long story, but let me say that sometimes you should take those phone calls that come in late on a Saturday night.

We've started services. We had 79 at our first services with 16 from out of town and 63 from the Fayetteville area. The following weeks were 62, 66, and 72.

Last night we had a "Membership Banquet" (it sounds a lot more formal than it was). We baptized two and accepted 25 charter members. Things are going really well and it's exciting to be a part of this.

Our college ministry, "Thrive", has had some success. We met for a couple of weeks before our on-campus kick-off. We had 27 students at the kick-off and a pretty solid core group of students who attend every week. The really exciting part is that a lot of them have been attending our Sunday services, too.

We have about 16 kids from infant to 5th grade and two Jr. High students. Britt and I are starting a Small Group with them that will happen at the same time as their parents group. If anybody has any suggestions for Small Group material for Jr. High, send them to me.

That's about it on church stuff for the last couple of months. As far as personally, we have a new member of our family: Samson. He is a Cairn Terrier and a great dog. He doesn't whine, he's great with kids, and he's low maintenance.

Britt's job is still going well. She's on orientation right now, but hopefully will be off of orientation in time to help deliver one of our church members baby.

I'm still looking for the perfect part-time job with flexible hours and great pay. If you have any leads, let me know.

That's about it for the Hightower House. I'll try not to have such a long gap between this and my next blog.

Don't Be Stupid Like Me

One of my favorite sermons to preach is one about self-control and how Jesus dealt with it. I don't often get angry enough to lose control, but today I did and it bit me in the butt.

Ok, so, Britt and I've been reading this particular set of books for many years. There are seven books in the series and we've anxiously awaited each of the books that have been released. Very recently, the last of the books was released, but our copy has yet to arrive. We've avoided any news that might give away the ending, but tonight it was all ruined. We thought that there was no way that any of our friends would give away the ending, and I'm sure the girl that gave it away didn't do it intentionally, but we were wrong. Through a post on myspace, she said something that indicated the answer to everyone's question about the book. Now, if someone does something to upset me, I usually just get over it and go on. But, if someone upsets Britt, as this did, the I can sometimes have trouble dealing with it. So, I ignoring the Spirit leading me to cool off and think through the reactions to the problem, I picked up the phone to call my friend and politely encourage her to remove the offensive material. I picked up the phone, scrolled to her name, and dialed. A woman's voice, very similar to that of my friend's, answered and I began to talk to her. I went quickly through the pleasantries, not noticing that she sounded confused about the call, and very soon arrived at the subject I was concerned with. I was never rude or mean, at least not in a way that couldn't be denied, and valiantly defended my cause. She began to deny the offense. I saw a vulnerable position and pushed my advantage. After I read her exactly what she had written twice and received two denials, my brain returned to normal functioning capacity. I realized that I was not talking to who I thought I was talking to. It was another friend of the same first name who also happens to be my fearless leader's wife. Not only that, but she was sitting at NC2 at the time and I'm sure that she was surrounded by a group of people that I would not want to embarrass myself in front of like that. I apologized profusely, this is not the first time that I have embarrassed myself with this very same person in much the same manner, and am now currently living in shame.

Think through what you do before you do it. Recognize what is worth embarrassing yourself over. If you happen to call the wrong person and very politely chew them out for something that they had nothing to do with, let it be over something that they can be equally enraged over. Now, the worst thing that has happened to me today is not the ruining of several years of waiting, but my own stupidity. To both people of the same name, I'm very sorry. And believe me, my shame will last through the ages. Especially since I've managed to compound my shame by posting my stupidity on the Internet. Go me.

1st Saved

Ok, I know it's been a long since I've blogged, but it's been kind of busy. Every two weeks for the last six weeks we've had an outreach event for Pathway and that has kept me busy. Two of them were ok, but this most recent one was awesome. We had a "Day at the Beach" at Agri Park and had between 9 and 11 new families come by. We also had at least one family who was very interested in Pathway. For DATB, we had two groups come up: one from Lonoke in Morrillton (my sponsoring church) and a college group from East Union. They were here from Tuesday til Sunday. We had a great time of Worship and a devotional that morning and they headed out. Then, at 5 that evening, a group from Antioch arrived. Everyone else, with the exception of the first group of the summer, had been up to canvass, invite to events, and work events. Antioch was here strictly to do surveys for us, which is great, because they just came back from Super Summer where the theme and their classes were all on Apologetics (the study and defense of faith for those of you in Rio Linda) so they were pumped to get out and do some active Christianity. They've been excited, but tonight took the cake. One group was out knocking on doors and came across a lady. She invited them in, they shared the plan of salvation, they offered to pray with her, and she accepted. Things are going great in Fayetteville, but things are busy in Fayetteville. Go door to door. It's easier than you think and you may not reach anyone going door to door, but you're not going to reach anyone sitting on your couch reading this either.

New Home

Well, we now live in Fayetteville. We moved our stuff Thursday, moved it in Friday, and finished unpacking today (Saturday). We're excited to finally be moved and have everything unpacked. It was strange at first, but now that all of our stuff is out it feels like home. Now, we just have to get settled into a routine up here. I'll be looking for a part-time job, Britt is preparing to take her boards and eventually to begin her career, and the summer is going to be packed full of events with Pathway. The easy part is making the list. There are only two bad points about our current situation. One, we've moved away from some of the best friends we've ever had, although we've been moved for three days, but have managed to talk to them every day, which is not a bad thing. Two, we have NO INTERNET!!!!! We have to go and borrow internet from other people and not in the way that I intended to borrow it from other people. We'll just have to make due until we each get our respective jobs. I've got lots to tell you (Disney Trip, new apartment, how hard it is to be a christian all of the stinking time), but that will have to wait till later. Until then, I'll be enjoying your internet use vicariously.