Hold On

I took my family to the Yankees victory parade on Friday. We took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhatten. By the time we got there the parade route had already been blocked off. We couldn't get over to see much of anything. We did manage to make our way over to where the parade started. We could see the ticker-tape up ahead. And we saw the marching bands and even the floats- just not the Yankees.

In order to get to where we could see anything we had to make our way through a crowd. This crowd was composed of a couple million of my closest friends- and I mean closest in proximity. As we walked through the crowd there were people pressing up against us from every direction. There was really no such thing as "personal space" in that moment. One kid tried pushing me out of the way- I looked at him and let him know that while I was polite, I was still a whole lot bigger and stronger than he was.

I felt bad for my 5 and 6 year old daughters who were holding onto my hands. They couldn't see anything except for the backside of the person in front of them. If you've read many of my posts, you probably have figured out that most of the stories about flatulence that I tell involve them. But this time I was afraid that they would be on the receiving end- right at nose level.

The experience of children holding on tight to dad while in a crowd is a good picture of what Christians are told to do in Hebrews 10:23, which says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." We are instructed to hold on tightly to the truth that Jesus is the way to God. We must believe this fact and then live our lives based on the truth of Jesus being our way to God. And just as an earthly parent makes sure that the kids hold on tight, we can be sure that God will help us cling to Him appropriately.

Silly Kids

Not long ago my first grade daughter asked, "Dad, remember when we went to New City York?"

Last night my daughter in kindergarten didn't want to be in bed. She tried to tell me that she was scared of the "hell . . . ss" outside her window. She was referring to a neighbor's "house" that she could see since the curtain wasn't quite all the way closed.

This morning my wife and I had trouble waking up one of the children. I was talking to her and pestering her. Eventually we started to tickle her. Did you know that in some children tickling is the trigger to farting? We found that out this morning. We kept tickeling, and she kept excreting gas (loudly).

Another Building Update

God continues to move the building project forward! Some of our Building Committee met with the architect today. The initial plans are exactly what we expected. The architect asked questions and listened to our comments about the plans. Additional details were discussed- things like coat rooms and audio rooms, the size of the kitchen pantry, and places where extra electric outlets will be helpful. All of those changes can be included on the final, more detailed plans. The plans which we currently have are ready to be submitted to the planning board of our township.

The site engineer informed me last week that he will be ready to meet with me by the end of this week. He wants to show us the preliminary site plans. These plans are also necessary when we go to the planning board.

In addition to the architect and site engineer, we also need to have an attorney help us with our submission to the planning board. We recently selected the appropriate attorney and he helped us with another matter. We agreed today to send this attorney a retainer check.

Please continue to pray that God will provide the funds and the approvals that we need in order to make this building a reality. Please also pray that we would indeed use this new building to serve God, His people, and our community.

God is Good

I still believe in miracles. We saw one last night. Last night John informed me that the lawyer received permission for us to use the parsonage for classrooms. We don't need to rent a trailer. We don't need tents. We don't need to find a different meeting area. I just need to clean my house. Praise God.

picture of building

Here is a basic idea of what the plans are for the new church building. It is a 7,500 square foot building. The santuary is between 2500 and 3000 square feet. The latest plans from the architect have a few small changes, but this is the basic layout that we are currently hoping to build. The latest plans from the architect have 200 seats in the sanctuary.