40 Days of Community

The Father's House is a wonderful part of God's family where we fellowship. We came to know of this Church through doorhangers - can you believe it! What is a doorhanger? It is an effective advertising tool that you might be more familiar seeing in a Hotel on the door saying "Do Not Disturb". Well, if you have a need to get a message out then you go ahead and design a fancy doorhanger and go door to door in your neighborhood and place your doorhanger on the door and hopefully attract an audience to your special. The Father's House ran a campaign of doorhangers in February and something caught our attention about this Church and so we decided to go along and see if this would be a Church we could call home. Indeed, from the moment we arrived we felt the love - genuine love and week by week the desire to stay and grow became stronger. Finding a good place to worship the Lord and to plug your life in and get on with what God has called you to do is sometimes a difficult mission, but what makes the seeking easy is when the foundation is strong and the hearts of fellow brothers and sisters are filled with the love of the Lord.

Now, eight months later, as a family we have put down roots, built our tent so to speak and are connected with our extended family in the Lord. Nancy and I are involved in the "House Cafe" which is a coffee tent that is set up every Sunday, offering Krispy Cream donuts, Coffee, Tea and Bottled water. We have a truly fabulous team that we work together with, and it is amazing how you can really get to know a person over a cup of coffee. Tammy and Vicky are involved in the "Kid Builders" Ministry where they too are growing and helping others to grow in their walk with the Lord.

So, what is 40 Days of Community? It is the coming together of the Church in your area, in small groups where we get together to pray, to go through some teaching material and to look outward into your immediate community to see where you as a Church can connect with people. This is not a Bible bashing scenario, it simply means going into the community to be a part of it by means of doing a project and sharing the love of the Lord. The City has a project that they work on every once in a while, and this year the City is selecting a home that is in a state of disrepair. It needs yard work, painting, clearing and cleaning up. So, together with the City we have opted to engage in this community project. It is all a part of taking what we carry in our hearts out to those who just need to be loved, who need to be cared for, and who need to see that Christians are normal - oh we are???

A couple of weeks ago we had the kick off service for the start off the 40 Days of Community, and I had my camera with me so decided to take a few pics, which I have attached to this blog because I want to share them with you.

Moving House

You will have noticed a period of silence from me lately. This has not been intentional, but when you move house things take time to get established all over. Funny how I had my office setup running sweet in the old house, now with the exact same setup just relocated differently, it all feels really weird! The keyboard feels different, the screen looks totally different, the desk is weird, and my chair feels awkward. Wow...I have just read that sentence back to myself and I sound like a grumpy old timer - but for those of you who have moved you will identify with what I am saying.

Anyways, on to the move. We have been renting for almost three years now, and felt that the need to purchase was bruning stronger with each passing month. Haveing a small shop, you need to really have some form of real estate under your belt to nejoy some of the benifits. So, after a good four months of hard plowing and working like there is no tomorrow, an opportunity arose for us to buy a home, so we took that step from rental to mortgage, and have been trying for two weeks to work during the day, move at night, and pack and unpack all in one go. I can tell you that we miss the comfort of Zimbabwe where we had untold hands and muscle to help move, but now it has been asmall group of Church people, and Nancy and I that have labored till after midnight for the past two weeks. We have two more days in the old house to clear last minute items, and clean the place spic and span so that we enjoy the full deposit refund. So, there is never a dull moment, and to top it all, we are at the end of a month and have to push last minute work to bump up the invoicing - it is fun isn't it?!

So, the new house is a gem. The Lord really opened a few miraculous doors, and made it possible to buy into the housing market. Sadly we have lost 600 square foot of interior room which has necessitated the "getting rid of" much STUFF, that just would not fit in the new house. So, we had this huge garage sale on Saturday, starting at 630am. We sold things that we thought we couldn't even end up giving away. What you consider junk is the next man's prized purchase - totally weird how that works. Then items you figure will sell like a hot cake, don't get sold and you either take a knock in price or you give the goods away. By the way - just so you know, garage sales in the States is big weekend business. Most housing communities will let you hold a garage sale once every 4 months, in our entire time of being here this was our first so no offense was casued - if so - tough luck. The great thing is that if you are looking for a bargain and you manage to get out there early enough you can pick up some really interesting gems. Our neighbor was telling me that his Dad went to a garage sale, picked up a watch and bought it for $5.- took it to the repair shop, had it fixed and serviced, and the shop owner asked if he knew the tru value of the watch - turns out it was a genuine rolex and was valued at $5000.- makes you want to go out there every weekend hunting for that bargain doesn't it?

Ah yes, almost forgot to mention that on Saturday we went with a couple form Church to the Grape expectation wine tasting event. We had a really grand time, and shared a lot of laughs. The Rotary clubs of Vista really put on a terrific event, and rasied more than $75000.- to help kids with scholarships and victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Good works are amazing, and seasoned with the Lord those works are a blessing indeed.

So my dear people, this is a little update on why the silence (moving house) and now as i get my little office space back on the block, I will be posting updates regularly. If there are any items of interest that you would like to comment on, go ahead and email me and I will post your news.

Go out there and make it a good one...be blessed!

Ps....photos will follow as soon as I get a moment to hook my camera up.