My Last Day

Well, I wish I could say I had this really good, insightful blog to post today about transitions or something, but I haven't put much thought into it. As I leave my job of only 3 1/2 years (a record for me, most jobs stints are much longer) I'm surprised by my elated mood. When I left Gallo, I was also very happy, looking forward to working at the church. As I leave the church, I'm also very happy, looking forward to planting a new church and enjoying all that comes with ministry. I look forward to seeing Greg finally enjoy the calling God placed on him so many years ago and absolutely flourish at what God created him for.

Much of my reading in the Bible these days point to a restored Jerusalem. I think of the Westside that way. Though many have turned from God, He is calling them back to an abundant life with Him. I can't wait to see what God will do in individual lives, families, and the entire neighborhood.

I invite you to continue reading my blog and following the gestation period and birth of this new baby church. It's an exciting time, and I pray that through this, God will spark a desire in you to take risks, put all your faith in Him, and go for it!

Blessings on this gorgeous Tuesday.

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Church Planting

Sorry it's been awhile since I've written. Between the speed of my life and being tired from it and allergies, blogging has been squeezed out. I hope to be more regular.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a church planting website. I really liked what it had to say about describing the qualities necessary for successful church planters. You can see the list here.

We continue to make slow progress in planting our church. I hope to have a more detailed report next week sometime. In the meantime, we're wrapping up the World Vision Experience in our church today, we have a sheetrock inspection today and the tape and texture happens this week I hope. Our pocket door frame to our bedroom was installed yesterday and the sliders came out. It's fun watching this happen. I'm also winding down my job and delegating a few responsibilities out so nothing gets dropped before a new administrator is hired. It certainly is a season of change!

Here are a few shots of the house in the last week.

Stolen Car

Sometime Friday night our son's car was stolen from in front of our house. If you live in Turlock or the surrounding areas and happen to spot it, please call the police. Here's a picture. He's named it the Flamin' Bean.



Our garage sale was moderately successful. Though we didn't make much money, we did sell two items that we really wanted to get rid of, our kitchen cabinets and our freezer. We may try again in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we're praying about just giving the stuff to people on the westside who might need it.

I'm feeling awful with allergies. After church, we have an appointment to counsel someone on their finances, then clean out the extension for the sheetrockers on Tuesday, then to Escalon to visit Greg's mom and sister, who's visiting from Montana.

Busy day. Blessings on this gorgeous Lord's day.

Great Bible Study

As I've mentioned before, we changed our Wednesday night prayer meeting on the westside to more of a Bible study. Last night Greg did a great job teaching on Matthew 18. He weaved the lessons on forgiveness together with a lesson on gossip and a lesson on the difference between just saying "I'm sorry" with the importance of also asking for forgiveness and what that means to both parties. He talked about cancelling a person's debt and gave great real life examples of the obligation to restore. He even put me on the spot on a couple of role plays. It was fun. Everything clicked with everyone. Next week we start our series of great people in the Bible by studying the book of Ruth and one of the people in it.

Tonight Greg speaks at the Turlock Gospel Mission and Kristen and I have a meeting at her school for the Junior/Senior Banquet. Can't wait for tomorrow. I get to work around the house! Everything in the extension has to be cleared out this weekend including our sliding glass doors. Coming down to the end!

Blessings on this gorgeous Thursday.

Remodel Update

It's been awhile, so here's an update. Saturday we got the sink and dishwasher working! Heaven actually opened up and all the angels began singing! Monday we got the refrigerator installed. Yesterday we got the microwave installed. Wahoo!
Yesterday they papered and chiken-wired the back outside of the house and I think they're stucco-ing today. Soon we'll do the sheet rock and texturing, then it's all mine to tile and paint. That should work out well with me leaving my job. Hopefully it will all land at the right time.

The World Vision truck rolled in last night and we will start setting up the exhibit today. We met with the tour staff yesterday and learned that the head person is from a church in Fresno that was a church plant 7 years ago and they are now planting their fifth church. Way to go!

Much to do. Trying to conserve energy. Yesterday I was running on fumes and spent the evening by myself reading my appliance manuals, as I didn't have the strength to work on the house at all. With all the work Greg has been doing and me on the house, we are planning a 2 day family trip to Yosemite to rest and re-center before we fall apart. Can't wait!

Blessings this amazing Wednesday.

Split Brain

On September 3rd, Kristen lost her purse. She remembers taking it to Sizzler to celebrate Mark saving our tail in our business. While Greg was working on a big 4 week project, Mark had to do our commercial and residential maintenance routes for those weeks. He did a great job. We wanted to bless him with a meal at one of his favorite restaurants.

Kristen doesn't remember taking it home. She lost about $40 cash, gift cards, and her driver's permit. Sizzler didn't have anyone return the purse, so Friday I took her down to the police department to report it stolen or lost. We talked to a very nice police officer, maybe the Chief. As we were leaving, I had an idea. I had always wanted to talk to a police officer about the types of crimes on the westside. Don't want to go in blindly you know.

I asked questions about the gang names and types, how to identify them, what their habits were for violence, where they were from and where they went. Did the crimes happen mostly at night? What kinds of drugs were most prevalent? For about 10 minutes I grilled him and he gave me lots of information. Halfway through my brain split. One half was talking and listening about the westside, the other half was saying, "Are you nuts? Your 16 year old daughter is standing right here! She's already got a few apprehensions about her safety, why are you exposing her to all the dangers?" My analytical side took over. I reasoned, well, it's a good way to open up this conversation and find out what she's thinking about all this new info!

It turned out very good. She decided she wanted to learn martial arts to help protect herself. We haven't gone any further down that road yet. I let her know of some plans we have for ministry in that area and she was thrilled.

Do you ever start going down one road and some common sense, or conscience, or Holy Spirit or even the enemy shows up and tries to convince you to do a 180 and go in a completely different direction? Do you listen to it? Do you reason with it? Are you usually right or wrong? At 16 I think it was good to not hide the dangers we'll be facing on the westside. I want her to be fully aware. The police officer was kind enough to tell us how to tell the different gang members apart. He also wished us well on what we were doing. We plan to be partnering very closely with the PD.

May both sides of your brain have a blessed Tuesday!

The Chase

As I was thinking about my last blog where I wrote about Jesus leaving the 99 and chasing after the 1, I started to think about how God created us to chase or be chased.

God pursues us and we pursue God. Men pursue women and unfortunately, some women pursue men. God didn't create women to be pursuers, he created them to be responders. It's the same in the botanical world. The pollinator (bee) seeks out the flower. In the animal world, predators chase after their prey. Now, God could have done that differently. He could have had the prey, once seeing they were about to be hunted, could have been made to freeze in place and drop dead of a heart attack. That takes all the fun out of the pursuit, plus it wouldn't give the prey the free will to fight for their life by running away. You'd have a lot of unfit, fat predators in the animal kingdom that way. God is consistent, if he did that in the animal world, he would probably do that in the human world. The human race would be wiped out in no time. I digress.

So, why would God create 'the chase'? Why would he give all of us a desire to go after something, to chase after something with passion? I think part of it is a survival instinct. In this day and age at least in this country and other developed nations, we don't have to chase after our food, we just leisurely drive our car to the grocery store. No violence, no running, no chase.

But inside us we have this drive to achieve, to conquer something. Some people conquer mountain tops or marathons or their Olympic event. Some people seek after a disciplined life. No matter what we decide to chase after, God gives us a choice. It's called free will. This free will gives us the choice to decide to chase after good things or bad things. Some who seeking joy and satisfaction in this life chase after things that aren't good for them, like drugs, alcohol, ungodly relationships, or material possessions. After a while, they discover these things don't bring satisfaction and the joy is very short lived.

Seeking after God and his will is a good choice. If you look up the word Seek in your Bible's concordance, you will find all kinds of verses on seeking. We're told to pray and seek His face and turn from our evil ways, to seek His will in all we do, not to seek honors, to seek the Lord while we can, not to seek ending our marriage, and that God rewards those who sincerely seek Him.

God designed us with a desire to pursue Him. He also gave us that same desire to pursue interests. It's our choice whether we use that desire to pursue good things or evil things. Choose the good, always.

Blessings this cool Monday.

A Charge

I was reading in Ezekiel again this morning and found a great chapter. Ezekiel 34. The whole chapter was about Shepherds and I felt as if God was giving me a charge. That's the term that keeps going through my mind when I think of this chapter. Webster's dictionary defines a charge as a person or thing committed to the care of another. This is exactly what shepherds or Pastors do. They care for others.

Ezekiel 34 talks about good shepherds and bad shepherds. It reads:

1.The word of the LORD came to me: 2."Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3.You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4.You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5.So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6.My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

7." 'Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8.As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9.therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10.This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. 11." 'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12.As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13.I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14.I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15.I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16.I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

17." 'As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats.
18.Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19.Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

20." 'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21.Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away,
22.I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23.I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd.
24.I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the LORD have spoken.

25." 'I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. 26.I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27.The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28.They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid.

29.I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations.
30.Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord.
31.You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.' "

My Bible has a little table in it comparing the good and bad shepherds:

Bad Shepherds
Take care of themselves
Worry about their own health
Rule harshly and brutally
Abandon and scatter the sheep
Keep the best for themselves

Good Shepherds
Take care of their flock
Strengthen the weak and sick, search for the lost
Rule lovingly and gently
Gather and protect the sheep
Give their best to the sheep

As I read this, I felt like God was emphasizing the importance of chasing after lost sheep. I don't mean the unsaved, though we are called to do that. But as shepherds to chase after those who may leave the fold for some reason. Maybe they're angry or hurt because of something someone said or did or didn't say or didn't do. Maybe they're backsliding. Maybe they're not challenged enough or don't feel listened to or cared about. Maybe they're just busy or have had a baby or their car has broken down and they haven't made it to church in a few weeks. Jesus left the 99 to chase after the 1. We should never be too busy to chase after the 1.

Sometimes people choose to leave the fold. We should not let them go without a conversation about why they're leaving. It's not a healthy way to leave for them or the church body. So many slip away unnoticed. In the church world we call this the back door. This creates more hurt for them and confusion for the body. Just last night someone asked, "Where is so and so? I haven't seen them in church for weeks." They actually left months ago. People want to be chased. They want to know someone cares. When we create an atmosphere of accountability, such as having a conversation about why someone is choosing to leave the flock, it brings closure to the person leaving by allowing the shepherd to release them. This is especially true if someone is a member of a church. It frees them up to become members of another church. Though it is perfectly legal, people shouldn't have concurrent memberships at churches. We don't do it at health clubs and we shouldn't do it with churches. It also gives the shepherd the opportunity to discover why they're leaving, so they're not wondering about it. It also alleviates the awkwardness of running into that person in a store and not knowing what to say or feeling like you want to avoid them because you don't know how they feel about you. It's also helpful to know in case there is an unhealthy area in the church that needs addressing that the shepherd wasn't aware of before.

It was good for me to read this, especially as we begin to pastor in a few months. Blessings on this sunny Saturday.

Inch by Inch

Last night I got to cook on our new cooktop! We had a breakfast dinner. It was great! Jim even said how very nice the cooktop was. It glows in red! It senses when something is on it or not, and tells you when it is still warm. It even has a timer. Five burners is so nice! I've been cooking on 3 because 1 was flakey for about a year. Right now they're wiring the sub panel into the main panel so I can have the double ovens working.



Yesterday was a bit of a hard day. I had a filling at the dentist. I was blessed it was so quick, about 30 minutes because it was just a crack that created a chip, though the chip was still in place between my molars. The hygienist flossed the chip under a filling about 2 weeks ago. The bad thing about the work yesterday was I think he drilled parts of my tongue accidentally. I have these pink grooves on the side of my tongue and he mentioned the most challenging part of the filling was keeping my tongue out of the way and the tooth dry. Yesterday it was so sore! A little gly-oxide and I'm much better.

Today will be a great day. I get my back fixed. I get to shop for pots and pans and silverware and dishes. I get to have my first training lesson on the x-mark 60" mower. I think the fridge and dishwasher and faucet will be installed today so I'll have running water in the kitchen!!! That's the thing I've missed the most for sure. You probably don't realize how much you wash your hands and food when cooking until you have to walk to the bathroom every single time to use the sink. And that's only if no one is using the bathroom, otherwise it's a trip further back in the house to the master bathroom. I shouldn't complain, some people don't have clean running water at all. I'm blessed.

Time to finish breakfast and hit the stores for the 9:00 openings. Blessings this gorgeous sunny Friday.

We've Got Granite!

Yesterday I went home for lunch and to my surprise the granite guy was there. We walked in and the smell of glue (epoxy) hit us. I couldn't round the corner fast enough. To my surprise, the granite was much darker than I expected. I was expecting this milk chocolate brown and all I saw was black. Looking closer, I saw the brown and flecks of silver. It was the same granite but it's surprising how dark it looks in different lighting. It looks really sharp, playing off the black streaks in the edges of the cabinets. The edge is a narrow bevel. It's a great contrast. The look on the contractor's face was a smile frozen in time. He was waiting for me to say "I love it." I can't just yet but I'm working on it. I have to equate my thoughts of what I expected it to look like to what it actually looks like. It may lighten with all the lights on it. It is beautiful. Mark and Greg both said they like it better more black than brown.

Today the appliances get installed. Yeah! I get to cook! I get to use the countertops! In a week I'll have handles and little things fixed. Yeah! The whole house fan is too large for the trusses, which can't be cut because they're engineered to keep the roof up. So, I have to return the one we bought and get a little smaller one.

Our Bible Study was great last night. We did a survey of what books of the Bible people wanted to study, what people of the Bible, and what topics. There was some overlap. Greg wants to touch on four different things for a few weeks to give them a taste of what each would be like, then pick one to study in depth. Should be fun.

Lots of great things happening the next few days. Because Greg committed to volunteering at the church this Saturday, we're moving our garage sale to the next Saturday.

Blessings this beautiful Thursday.

Best Laid Plans

We WERE going to have a garage sale this last weekend. Friday night about 10pm Greg and I realized we really weren't ready. We didn't have the signs ready, I had no change, the cabinets weren't refinished, Greg wasn't going to be around to help. It just wasn't the right time. The funny thing is my contractor came over Saturday morning to have me make a few decisions and the first words out of his mouth were, "I thought you were going to have a garage sale!" Then he laughed and laughed and called me by his wife's name. They had gone through the same thing the last 2 weekends. Should be this Saturday, really!

This situation reminds me of when I worked at my previous job. 99% of the time a manager or director would be given a big project to do and be asked when they could get it done. I had one manager pick the date of his birthday. It was for no other reason than it was his birthday. That put incredible pressure on all of us to get the work done 'by his birthday'. I always thought that was a very unwise thing to do. Just picking a date that sounded good. I'm a planner and his manager was a people person. (He was later let go). It always seemed to me to plan out the steps required for the project BEFORE picking the date. I see it happen all the time. People just guesstimating something should take a few months to pull off, then the project is announced with a date. Then everyone is under incredible stress and strain to 'meet the date'. Why not do all the pre-work then when it is about ready, give a date that it will happen in a few weeks? Depending on the project, that's not always do-able, but often it is.

We're doing the same thing about starting our church. We know we have to train a launch team and know how important it is to train them well and give them time to gel together. That's why we haven't picked a date to start services. However quickly or however long it takes, that's fine. It would be nice to open our doors in the spring, but that's movable. We're not committing to a specific date until we get much closer. We want to do this well. We don't want to stress out anyone on our team, and we want them to have ownership of many decisions.

Just like our garage sale, we picked a date before we were ready. Duh! Still learning this lesson! We've now gotten almost everything ready for the sale, we'll be ready on Saturday.

Blessings this beautiful Monday.

What Do I Call This Post?

Two things come to mind . . . Better Late Than Never and Stop the World I Want to Get Off. It's been crazy! Though I got up before 6 and tried getting back into my routine of quiet time first, then exercise, then shower, the breakfast and blog, blog somehow got squeezed out!

After a whirlwind of errands, I was reminded my life has a lot of crazy things going on all at once. Remodeling your house and starting a church are probably two things someone wouldn't normally choose to do at the same time!

I was blessed today though as I ran errands in Turlock and Modesto that I found our kitchen faucet, soap dispenser, air switch (a button installed in the granite to run the garbage disposal), and our garbage disposal all at the same place. Ordering my handles for the cabinets was less successful. After a 20 minute wait for the only person who could order them, I left. I'm going to look online. I would have bought the air switch and garbage disposal at the same time. Oh well.

I was going to share the cool cabinet features today, but decided to wait, as some of the features haven't arrived or been installed yet. They're coming.

Got lots more to do today. Just stopped for a snack and let you know all is well, just on high speed.

Blessings this gorgeous Friday.

The Build Has Begun!

After weeks of destruction, yesterday we saw the fruit. The cabinets got installed!
My driveway yesterday.
My contractor and cabinet guy.


The cabinet for the double ovens.

Tomorrow I'll try and show pictures of all the cool cabinet features. Yesterday the inspection cleared for insulation and plywood to go up outside. We'll get the whole house fan installed and cabinets adjusted. Fun! What hasn't been fun was our washing machine went out a couple of nights ago. It leaked water and smelled like a hamburger restaurant. That' what I smelled, Greg smelled rubber burning. We decided to just buy a new one rather than hassle the repair route. It's already been repaired at least once After the $200 appliance rebate from buying all our appliances, it didn't cost too much at all. God sure timed that one well. Last night Greg and I picked it out and Mark and Greg brought it home and installed it. Tonight I get to do laundry. Yeah!

We have much still to do on our end. Some painting, linoleum removal, carpet removal, and tile installation. I've got to get the bathroom re-done too. All this and I'm craving a trip to the ocean for some peace and solitude, an escape from the chaos. I cant' wait until it's done and I can put everything away and clean everything well and decorate. That will be my joy. Greg's is landscaping the backyard. Whaoo.

Got to go. Blessings this beautiful Thursday.

Hello Again!

After having a few days off from blogging, I feel like I've been away a very long time. My computer has been unplugged and under plastic, I've run short on time and one day I had absolutely nothing to say.

Greg and I had to go to San Leandro yesterday morning to pick out our granite slabs. For some reason I thought when looking for the same name of granite, they would all look pretty much the same. Nope! What we saw in February at Bedrosians was nothing like what we saw at GMS. The colors were muted and two opposing corners had huge fissures in them. I declined those slabs and suggested we go check out some other stores. There are several in a very close area. The next place had slabs that were clean (no fissures) and had more of the contrast I was looking for. I still wanted to look around so we went to a few more and ended up buying at the second store.

Today the cabinets go it. The contractor saw them yesterday and said they were beautiful. Our cabinet maker is a perfectionist and and artist with a great eye. I can't wait to see them! I hope the granite goes well.

We're having a huge remodel garage sale this Saturday. Kitchen cabinets, light fixtures, furniture, drapes, blinds, windows, appliances large and small, a California King pillowtop mattress, you name it! In a few weeks, carpet and a sliding glass door. If you live nearby and are interested in any of it, let me know and you can have it before Saturday. Everything must go!

Blessings on this gorgeous Wednesday.