Obedience and Change!

Kim and I will have been married for thirteen years on December the 16th! This past Saturday I was blessed to marry one of our former youth to a young man and at the reception the D.J. had couples get out on the dance floor and then by years of marriage take a seat. In the end there were two couples left, one had been married 55 years and the other 57 years. What a legacy and rarity these days! As I sat there in my seat looking at the two couples I couldn't help but wonder what adventures and surprises they must have experienced throughout their marriages?

As we were driving back to Katy Kim began to experience some sever chest pains that just wouldn't go away. So this morning she went to the doctor, after much prodding on my part, and she is fine! but the reason I tell you this is the experience she had at the doctors office.

As Kim and I have just moved here we have yet to find a family physician. So the couple of times we have been to the doctor over the past six months we have just gone to a minute clinic kind of place up here near the house. The lone doctor is a great guy! His dad is a pastor who migrated here from Haiti his son grew up in the U.S. and graduated from medical school here in the U.S. I assume he is running this clinic because his accent is very thick and he is trying to build his reputation, thus is on his own. I have to add that he is the most thorough doctor I have ever been too.

Today as Kim went to see him he asked where I was? We had told him I was a pastor starting a satellite campus in north Katy back in January and he had not only remembered but wanted to know where I was because he said he had been thinking about me and praying for some time hoping we would come back in because God had given him a word for me. You can imagine what a shocker it was for us that him being so busy and treating so many people as the lone doctor that he even remembered us, but he did. He went on to tell Kim that the Lord had told him to tell us that God was getting ready to do something bigger and better than we expected but that it was going to be different than we had planned. That we needed to just live out each day obeying His prompting and that God would take care of the rest!

What an encouragement and a challenge! We know God wants to do something bigger than we could dream or imagine! We need to be faithful in the little things and obedient to His prompting and prepare ourselves because it is going to be something we wouldn't have pictured on our own! These are great words for us all!

I'm sure, God willing, when Kim and I reach 57 years of marriage, much of what we will have experienced won't have been what we would have planned.  But it will have drawn us together and taken us through an amazing adventure. In fact that has already been the case every step of our young thirteen year marriage.

The same is true for the church, Jesus' bride as well!

As you pray for us pray for us to be obedient and faithful in the little things! That they may add up into a collective big thing that we could never dream or imagine!

Pray for Paul Saavedra our new worship leader for the north campus!

Pray for our awesome team of volunteer leadership!

Pray the Lords will will be done!

Thanks!

Jeff, Kim, Max, Joshua and Tate

God Knows Best!

Wow how time fly's when your having fun!

We have been in Katy now since January and have loved every minute of it. The weather hasn't been as bad as everyone made it out to be, of course we haven't been here during August or September, which everyone says are the worst months. Here's to hoping though, right?

God has been amazing in making the transition and move seem relatively smooth. The boys adapted to a new school, mid year, fairly quickly. After some searching God lead us to the perfect house for us! We started with a new small group on our first Sunday here and made some great relationships with friends who have kids our boys age and more than anything have really enjoyed living life with them.

One thing I didn't anticipate is the amount of behind the scenes work needed to launch a new campus. It is like having all the work of planting a church along with learning and carrying over the DNA of another. So I have been a student of Grace Fellowship as well as a student of what it takes to start a new church all at the same time! Fortunately Grace Fellowship is the kind of church i would want to be a student and member of even if I were not working here. I have already learned so much sitting under the leadership here and God has expanded my capacity to soak it all in in a short amount of time. It has been fun!

As many of you know, we had determined to launch in a retail space and had located a great spot but that fell through while I was overseas meeting and working with the field workers among the UPG's we have adopted.

So much of the last few weeks has been spent trying to determine where God would have us launch. Last week some of our leadership core of volunteers for the North Campus met together and went and toured various schools and unanimously decided on one where we will begin holding services in January. The same day Bette (you can find out more about her in a previous post titled "Sorry" on April 16th) and I met with the executive director of the YMCA and found out that they wanted to partner with us in our endeavors to minister to the community in North Katy. In short they are going to pour resources and materials as well as launch a new program and they will start with the school we launch our services in!

God is good! and we will be able to make a major impact among the families of north Katy and the school we are meeting in for several months before we ever ask them to attend one of our events. This is how it should be!

Please pray that God will help our contract with Katy ISD go through quickly and without a hitch! Pray for the meeting we have set up between YMCA, Grace Fellowship North and The Elementary school staff as we begin this partnership. Pray that families lives would be touched with the love of Christ and we would earn the right and respect to be able to share about Christs ultimate act of love and that they would come to receive the gospel! Pray that as we begin to maximize the facilities and purchase "church in a box" that we can get all we need to do worship services with excellence yet that can be portable!

Thanks!

Jeff, Kim, Max, Joshua, Tate