Monday, February 20, 2012

Crazy times

First & foremost I want to apologize for not posting last Monday. I truly appreciate all of you who follow our blog so faithfully and pray for us so passionately. There is a lot going on in Tacoma right now and I want to try and catch you up.

Most of you know that through God's provision and the Holy Spirit's guidance we've been in the process of purchasing a house. Long story short, the day before closing on our new place everything fell a part. It was the most unbelievable and unexplainable disaster... must have been God's sovereign hand at work!!! Unfortunately, by the time we found out we weren't going to close on our new house, our current house had already been rented out. That left us exactly 12 days to find a new place, pack up and move! Talk about crazy times?!!!

While all this chaos is stirring in regard to our house, our kids health starts to go haywire again. Rylan got MRSA a while back (a tricky form of staph) and it was miserable and painful for her. Well, we found out in the midst of our house chaos that she got MRSA again!!! Many of you know Jagen has had issues with acid reflux and severe stomach ulcers. Well, all his symptoms began to arise again last week. It seemed like nothing was going right!

Then, by God's grace, one of our good friends told Kelli that the awesome part of all these crazy things happening was the realization that God is moving in our midst. We've said it many times before... every time God starts to do great things through The Pathway, chaos breaks out in our family... typically through the health of our children. We just laughed at this observation and praised Jesus for allowing us to walk through the chaos for the praise of his glory. Romans tells us that those who are in Christ Jesus are more than conquerors! That there is absolutely nothing... no trial, pain, sickness or anything else that can separate us from the love of Jesus. We are clinging to that reality in the midst of so much uncertainty.

So, what exactly is God up to here in Tacoma. Well, I honestly don't know how to quantify it or describe it, but the Holy Spirit is moving. We are seeing people's lives changed by Jesus. Just the other day we had a single mom come up to us because Jesus is rocking her world. She wants to be baptized but she first wanted to make sure she fully understood what it means to be a Christian. Another young woman who we have been battling for showed up to our worship service on her own... for the first time ever. No one had to pick her up or invite her, she just came! New faces are showing up all the time. New leaders are stepping up including a couple tonight telling us they are willing to take a leadership role with our teenagers!

We still don't know for sure where we are going to live in 9 days... but we are confident God does. We have found a house but we are still waiting on the final approval from the property management company. Jagen had another test this week that for the first time revealed some possible answers to the problems he's been having! Rylan seems to be moving past her MRSA and the Spirit-led momentum for the gospel does not seem to be slowing down. Please continue to pray for Tacoma, pray for my family and pray for The Pathway as we try to saturate our community with the gospel. Please keep praying for life change!

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