My Cousin's H.S. Graduation

I recently traveled to McAllen, TX in the Rio Grande Valley to visit family and celebrate my cousin Celeste's graduation from McAllen High. Way to go Celeste!

May Photos

Here are a few snapshots of our life in May 2008. Caroline turned 6 months old May 1st.

Spring Pictures

Here are photos from more of our life in March & April 2008.

March photos of Family

Here are some pictures from our life in March 2008.

Valentine's Day Weekend

This past weekend was a whirl wind weekend of traveling to my hometown of Hamilton to see some of my family that live in the area. It was great to see everyone light-up when they saw Caroline. It was also great to see Caroline light-up when she saw them. She is almost 4 months old now and has a great smile & laugh that she shares with everyone she meets. We got back to Columbia in time for me to go to work & preach Sunday and then the next round of visitors arrived. Everyone wants to see Caroline?! My in-laws drove up from Lamar and spent the afternoon. Our neighbors joked that we needed to install a revolving door on our home for all the visitors we have had since Caroline has been born. When a family lives apart like mine, it is work to stay connected. Luckily automobiles & other technology helps bridge the geographical barriers we face. With one post of a blog, an email, a facebook post, a cell phone call, a web cam phone call , etc., we can all stay in touch regardless of how far apart we are or how little we get to physically see one another. So, with this blog entry I say hello to all our family & friends, we love you all and wish we could bring Caroline to see you - especially those who are currently living in warmer climates! Keep in touch yourselves - we want to see pictures and hear from you.

Desert Reflections

I have recently returned from a doctoral seminar week held in Carefree, AZ. I greatly enjoyed the week of learning with my cohort pastors concerning missional leadership. I am now two years into the five year program and have really begun to connect with my classmates and the program itself. Learning to be more "missional" as a Baptist is an interesting journey. I'm learning the deeper meanings of missional living, leadership and church. The two biggest questions that come from the missional movement is what is called the God questions: 1) What is God doing? and 2) What does God want to do? As Christians we talk a lot about seeking God's will for ourselves and our churches, but these two God questions re-frame how we understand God and the essence of the church. Missional thinking leads us to understand God as a missionary God that is working in the world (yesterday, today & always) to restore all creation into right relationship with God's self (see 2 Corinthians 5:17ff) and we (the church) are about being on God's mission in the world. God is the acting agent in the world & the church is helping carry it out via the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is an interesting nuance considering our Western Christian views of missions. I think the missional conversation is the key to church health and survival into furture generations in the North American context. I'm looking for dialog partners for this journey-anyone interested?

Christmas Reflections & Caroline

I have experienced the Christmas story differently this year. I've experienced it as a proud father of a new born child. I marveled this year as I read through the entire Christmas story in the Gospel of Matthew, especially that of the journeys Joseph, Mary & Jesus had to make together.

My wife & I loaded up our daughter and made two separate journeys to the grandparent's homes to celebrate Caroline's first Christmas. These two journeys were much different than Jesus' early family journeys, for instance we drove an automobile vs. riding a donkey for hundreds/thousands of miles. I better appreciate the challenges, the family moments and the deep love that existed between Joseph, Mary & Jesus as they made their way to and from Egypt fleeing from Herod's wrath.

On another level, I also found a new appreciation for Joseph & Mary's ability to act on God's request of them. God asks them to do some crazy things that put both Joseph and Mary's reputations on the line in their community. Mary agrees to be a faithful servant and to take care of the Christ child. Joseph agrees to wed Mary and treat Jesus as his own. An then if that wasn't enough, they are called upon to make the long and dangerous journey to/from Egypt.

This makes me ponder how well we listen to God and are willing to act on what God requests of us? Are we willing to listen to God and if so are we willing to act when the requests get out of our comfort zones?

These are a few of my thoughts for the journey this year in 2008.