Its been a good start

Well, Easter was fantastic! We had 180 people show up. Three of them accepted Christ as their savior! God is so good! That is what its all about. I was so excited to see everyone stepping up and doing their part to help. The band sounded greater than ever, the greeters were all over the place saying hi to everyone they didn't know. The children's ministry was rockin and rollin, and the ladies in charge of the Easter Egg hunt did a fantastic job! Man, I was so humbled. It is so great to see the vision of Freedom Life being picked up and carried by so many people. I sit here and think back to 8 months ago when all of this was just a vision in my head. God has done so much for us so quickly. As I prepare to move my office to our new building that God gave us, I can't help but smile. Six months ago we were a group of 26 people who met in Lesa's back yard praying and having worship as we prepared to embark on the journey that has become Freedom Life Church. Now, we see God bringing new faces to us each week. We are seeing people who don't know Jesus come to know him and wake up to true life. We have been given a building, tons of equipment, lots of land, and a parsonage/office. We have been sent many leaders with a passion to serve and a desire to see the vision God has given us brought to life. We do it as a team. He is the coach, and we are carrying out His plan. I love being on His team. As long as we keep listening to the Coach, we are going to continue to experience victory! If God has done this much in 6 months, think of where we will be in two years...or five years. How many will have come to Christ by then? How much money will we have invested in Foreign missions by then? How many schools and orphanages will we have built in the country that we partner with in Central America? How many families will we have been able to minister to in Hampton? What about Freedom Life Smithfield? Or Freedom Life Downtown Newport News? What about an affordable private school? How many buildings will we have grown out of? How many pastors will have graduated from our Pastoral Apprentice Program, ready to launch out in an impactful ministry? How many times will we have realized that our vision was too small? If you think I am being ridiculous go back and read the first part of this post...
First six months- from 26 people to 150, 30 people got saved, given a building, parsonage, and six acres of land for free, launched a foreign missions ministry, enrolled first apprenticing pastor, financially blessed by faithfully giving covenant partners. This is just the beginning...

to be continued

Freddy is not a "construction" kinda guy

Well, I am sitting here at the computer in the new sound booth of our sanctuary looking at the newly painted walls, and newly installed lights. Looks great. As I sit here I think about Nehemiah. He was commissioned to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. I wonder if he was good at building or just good at getting people who were good at building to get excited about his vision. I feel like I haven't done a lot with the renovation of the church (at least not a lot of the physical work). This past Sunday, when everything was going on, I was up at a church in Williamsburg preaching. By the time I got here it already looked like a whole new place. It was amazing to see everyone working together doing their part. It was also cool to see James and others stepping up and leading the charge. Almost immediately after I got hear I was sent to Home Depot to get some supplies. Then when I got back I received a phone call about a problem someone was having. After that I ended up in a very intense make-shift counseling session that lasted almost an hour. I was loving it, but I was also missing out on all the construction stuff. Before I knew it everyone was going home and I still felt like I hadn't done anything. I guess there is a reason for this, that I discovered anew and afresh today. I am not a "construction" kind of guy. I don't know the first thing about anything when it comes to this kind of stuff!
Today I decided that I would take on the project of putting primer on a room that still needs to be painted tonight. Praise God that John Limmer was here, or I never would have even gotten the can of primer open. I am serious. By the time he jumped in to rescue me I had already bent my car key and managed to push down most of the part of the lid where I am supposed to open it (working directly against the desired result). After getting it open, I was ready to start painting, but John explained to me that it needed to be stirred first. So he sent me to his truck to get some of his tools out of the toolbox. The next five minutes were an interesting mix of anxiety and confusion as I move one thing after another in search of the "five in one". The funny thing is that I had actually used one of these before, so I was pretty confident that I would recognize it if I saw it. Well, eventually John realized that I wasn't going to find it and he showed up at the truck to rescue me again. So, long story short, I got the room primered (after Jeremy showed up and helped me), as well as my coveralls, most of my fingers, and my wedding ring. I don't know about Nehemiah, but I think I will stick to preaching, and getting those who are gifted accordingly to "build the wall". I have a feeling that I am one of those people who will create more work than I accomplish :) But that is ok with me....one body many parts. Well, gotta go...the wall builders are coming back for round two in one hour, and I have to go to the big scary Home Depot and ask for help finding a list of things we need for tonight :)

The Big Screen

First of all, it has been a while...oh how I miss the blog. Lots to say, and finally some free time to write. The blog...my dear friend whom I have neglected in this time of so much to do. Well I am back again dear friend so here I go...
Today has been a great day. I woke up and made some breakfast for the kids (good ol' scrambled eggs). Elias just had to help me with this by cracking the eggs for me, so there was plenty of shell in the final product and plenty of yoke on the counter, but it was a blast. It was funny trying to explain to him why daddy didn't eat the yellow part. He doesn't understand the whole "diet" thing, and I heard him telling the girl that Jessi babysits that he was on a diet too. LOL. Then, I decided to be really ambitious about this weight loss and hit the track. Since someone in our church recently gave us one of those jogging strollers I decided to take Eli with me (Kaelin was asleep still). So I strapped him in the super-stroller and we head for the CNU track across the street. My goal...jog two miles. Yeah right! What ended up happening was 3/4 of a mile of jogging (slowly) and briskly walking 1.25 miles. After the first 4 laps Elias was bored and kept telling me I should stop and rest (as he heard me breathing heavily). Nothing like a little motivation. When his advise wasn't taken he decided to step the encouragement up a notch and said, "Daddy, you are going to hurt yourself". He isn't even three yet! This kid should be a doctor when he grows up. Needless to say I found myself laughing out loud as I continued with so much encouragement. I later asked him where he had heard that daddy was going to hurt himself by running and he said, "Mommy told me." :) The truth comes out.
Well, somehow while he was showering me with encouragement he was able to convince me that I should take him to see Robots when we were done. He had never been to the movies and I quickly became excited about the one-on-one time that we have been missing lately. So I got him home. We got cleaned up and were headed to the movies. As we entered the AMC 24 his eyes lit up as he looked around. "Wow, look at this place", he kept saying as we headed towards the snack bar. I don't know where he gets these grown up sayings, but they always make me laugh. Then he kept saying, "Daddy, I am so excited." As we entered the theater he continued to look around with that little kid amazement. Everything was so huge and new to him. He was in little kid heaven with a Sprite in one hand and a hotdog in the other.
I realized how much we needed this time as that little fake movie came on to remind everyone about turning off your cell phone played. When the phone started ringing Elias looked at me and said, "Ah dad, your phone is ringing. You have to answer it." I explained to him that it wasn't my phone and then I quickly turned my phone off. Ten minutes into the movie he was in my lap, where he decided to stay until the end of the movie. Man, he really knows how to work me over...he kept looking up at me during the movie and saying, "Daddy, I love you." Yeah, he knows how to get daddy to take him back to the movies! It was a great time.
I have also decided that I am going to start taking my daughter out on a "date" once every week or two. And I mean a date! We are going to get all dressed up and go out to a nice dinner. Then we are gonna hit the childrens section of Barnes and Nobles. I used to do this with Elias when he was her age, and he loved it (but I didn't have to dress up for guys night out). I figure that the better date I am to her, the higher the bar is going to be set for those "dumb boys" that are going to come along one day.
Last thing, I have decided to dabble at writing a book. I started one before, but it was a fictional book that I was just writing for fun. I lost it when my hard drive crashed (the first time) on my old computer. Everyone I let read it said it was really good, but at the end of the day I knew it was just a story, and I couldn't stay motivated to dedicate my time to another story. This time I have decided to write about something that will make a difference. I think I am going to write a book about experiencing true freedom in life or something like that. I figured that I will just write it like I preach- personal in nature, stories from my life, illustrations from my favorite movies, practical applications to daily life, etc... Hopefully I can write better than I preach :)
Well that is it for now. It is good to be back.

Bye Bye to the hard drive

I know it has been a while, but that is because I have been recovering from a complete system failure a.k.a. hard drive crash! I just love Windows. Too bad I don't know enough about Mac's or I might have taken everyones advise when I was buying a new computer. Because I didn't listen...I have lost all of my files...everything! But that is ok I guess. Just means that I have more free hard drive space now that everything is up and running again. So I am back online, and will be writing more blogs in the near future...like tonight when I get home from church maybe. I have so much to say, but so little time to spend writing nowadays. God is still on the throne though, and long after I quit whining, He will still be awsome and powerful :)


Later...