first blog

This is my first blog, interested to see how I keep up with it and chronicle our life. We just came back from a two night camping trip with the boys. Had a good time cooking over the fire and sleeping in the tent. Josiah did fall from the jungle gym and cut his eye....but that happens when you have boys. I imagine this blog will be a hodgepodge of topics. Our efforts with helping my father build a new church, The Gathering Place, (www.gatheringplacechurch.us) in the north suburbs of Chicago. Our 5 yr old sons first year in kindergarten and the struggles he may or may not have with some minor disabilities he has. The crazy and cute things my 3 yr old son does as well as thee updates on our third child currently in the oven. The continuing and ever changing walk with God in our life and where his callings take us as well as news on our family developments. Will probably share some of my insights during my devotionals as well.

With that in mind. The Gathering Place Church began about 18 months ago with 8 people. During that time we have grown to about 30-40 people and lease a Lutheran Church building. We have learned a lot during this time, gotten close to one another and suffered the grief of losing a beloved and integral member of our church to pancreatic cancer. We have come to realize that we have grown in to a good core group of people and are ready to do a launch that really puts us on the map in the area. We are currently praying for God to supply a large amount of money for this purpose and praying that a church planting group we have begun to build relationship with will partner with us and match funds and give us key insights into strategy and solid church planting strategies. Please pray with us to this end. We are targetting February 5th 2006 as our official launch date. This is a date that coincides with a call to fast and pray for 6 months. This also marks the one year anniversary of our dear friend's death and it seems especially poignant that this be the date for our launch.

We are expecting our third child, will see the doctor tomorrow for the first ultrasound and exact due date. We are also going to look at houses tomorrow and are excited about the possibility of buying a home and getting out of our cramped apartment.

For a brief update for those of you who know me and wonder what is going on with us. We moved to Chicago in 2002 to be youth pastors in a local church. 6 months after arriving, the pastor moved to Florida. We had some disagreements with the direction of the church after his departure and felt it was time for us to resign after being there for one year and a half. We still dearly love the members of that church and are in contact with many of them. We had the opportunity to go to churches in Delaware, New York, Alabama and Florida but felt God wanted us to stay in this area. I began working at Bank One/Chase about two years ago and have been blessed with promotion and success. I now do personal banking with an emphasis on investments and hope to move into a position as a financial advisor within months. Please pray that this will work out for me. Charis and I feel strongly that God would have us plant a church in the city of Chicago in a few years. We know that our calling right now is to see The Gathering Place become a successful life-giving church in the north suburbs of Chicago.

Sorry for the long blog, in the future they will be more succinct.