Distractions

It seems the last week and a half have been full of distractions--some good, some not so good, but all seem to pull me away from focusing on the ministry. Here's a summary:

Friday July 24, 4:30 a.m. I take my son Bretton to the ER with excruxiating stomach pains. He'd been crying for 3+ hours. After several hours, they can't find anything wrong that caused the stomach pains, but did find a potentially difficulty in an enlarged kidney (we think he's had since birth.)

Friday July 24, 6 p.m. Teegan falls off the front porch putting many scratches, cuts and bruises on his face. This begins several days of not feeling well.

Saturday, July 25: I find out my grandpa is taken by ambulance to the ER.

Sat-Tue: Bretton rests and feels better. Teegan gets a low-grade fever.

Wednesday 7/29: Teegan's eye is al matted. Dr says Pink Eye.

My grandfather continues to go up and down, and we are prepared to make a trip to Missouri in a moment's notice. It could be days, it could be months.

Although these distractions are in many ways a priority over the ministry, it still is frustrating. And then comes the dsitraction of worry--how to pay for it all, how to balance the time, how to move ahead, etc. Is this the devil trying to get us down?

And then, the reminder that In His name, there is mercy for sin, there is safety within, there is strength to remain, to stand in spite of pain. And I remember that He regins. And quite frankly, we have it good compared to so many right now. And I come away more focused, more centered, and more looking forward to what God wants to do. Ironic that a distraction is becoming another place for me to see God at work and to reveal his Holy name to BSU! Whodathunkit?!

Stompin Grounds

Well the advisory team met for nearly 2 hours last Saturday. We brainstormed a number of ideas for a name of the ministry and came up with "Stompin Grounds." It ties in with several things: BSU Broncos, Grounds=coffee, and is a common phrase for where I'm from, where I grew up, where I hang out. I like the name. What do you think? Do you have any comments or thoughts. Any connotations that we should be aware of, etc? (I've since learned there are five or six stompin(g) grounds coffee shops around the country.)

On a different note, I really sensed a unity and delight in the advisory team. They are great team members with many resources and ideas. They get it. There were four of us present--no, scratch that, there were five of us present because Christ was certainly in our midst. We just have this sense that God is up to something huge!!

I met with a couple of people today. Bill is the campus minister's association president at BSU. Tremendous man with a heart for God. I look forward to working with him. I also met Steve, who has operated a bookstore campus ministry for nearly 20 years. A wealth of information, and very helpful.

And I met with Chris. Chris attends a Nazarene church in Boise, and moved here from the Dakotas last June. He is becoming quite a man of God! But get this...Chris and I met in 2003 at a camp. He actually was one of the guys that picked me up from the airport. I didn't recognize him at first, but he remembered me. (He's gotten more mature!) Just another one of those things that I couldn't dream up if I had tried. Again, just this sense that God knows what he is doing and is coordinating this whole thing more than anything I could do. Wow, what a blessing!

We appreciate your prayers. Again, I WANT to hear from you regarding your thoughts on the name "Stompin Grounds."

My tour guide

Yesterday afternoon I met with Nikki, a student at BSU. How we got connected is another whodathunkit thing. She grew up in Minnesota, and became a more intentional follower of Christ her freshman year at U of Minn. During that time, she wanted to work at a Christian camp over the summer. She applied at Camp Orchard Hill (COH) in Dallas, PA. This is the camp that my brother-in-law, Jim, is the executive director. She has worked at COH the past three summers. While there, she has greatly impacted my sister's family and they find her a special girl.

She transferred to Boise State after her freshman year, is an RA on campus, involved with BSUCRU (Campus Crusade), is finishing her nursing degree, and is getting married in May.

Nikki spent time with me talking about the campus, it's atmosphere toward Christian organizations, her heart for people, and showing me the buildings dorms and giving me the "inside" scoop into BSU lingo--such as QUAD, SUB, etc. I came away enriched, thrilled, and grateful. She will be very helpful and will give an insiders view and feedback!

Yet, I am most amazed at the process and God's orchestration. I couldn't come up with this if I tried, and if I did, no one would believe it. Only God can make these moments of connecting us with a girl from Minnesota who worked at a camp in Pennsylvania and goes to school in Boise. It is just one more thing that makes me grateful for God's big plan and direction. WOW!

Sam's Club encounter

So, we go to Sam's Club last night. Sam's is fairly new in town, so it is not hardly ever busy. So I checkout, and I make the comment that "I love this Sam's because it is not busy like the old one I always went to."

The cashier asks where I was from and I tell him Springfield, MO. He tells me he lived in Springfield and we talk about the neighborhoods we lived in. He tells me he went to CBC (a school in Springfield). Then he asks me about what brought me out to Bosie. I ask him if he had ever been to the Potters House. His response: "I love that place." So I tell him that God has sent us here to Boise to start something similar.

As we continued to talk we discovered a like-mindedness in several ways. What a strange but beautiful blessing! I hope we'll encounter each other more!

I'm so amazed...

I've been thinking about all the ways we've seen God at work. He has provided so much for one.
But there are so many more:

1. Campus crusade meets at one of the Nazarene churches. That means they already have a postive vibe toward Nazarenes and won't see it as opposition. So cool!!!

2. My sister lives in Pennsylvania, and her husband directs a camp. One of the counselors that works out there goes to Boise State!

3. Thanksgiving meal provided by one of the pastors.

4. Boxes of food, and buying gas.

5. One of the churches adopted us as their ministry family for the holidays--that is quite a story itself...I'll write more later on this.

I'm sure there are more, but I wanted to just write some of these out.