My blog has been dormant for a while! I’ve been working as a seasonal UPS Delivery Car Driver since October. There were a few stretches the last few weeks I didn’t see my kids for a few days! Change ahead!
New Years gives us all an opportunity to reflect back and look forward. 2014 was a year full of change for me and my family. 2015 will be an even bigger year of change.
Change Behind (in 2014)
Calling
In 2010 I started a D.Min. program at Dallas Theological Seminary. The first year of my program focused on church planting. From that point on I knew I had to be part of church planting. I just didn’t know how it would unfold.
Between 2010 and 2014 (graduated in May) God’s calling became clearer. That culminated in February 2014 as my wife and I clearly and separately heard God calling us to step out in faith to plant Restoration Church! Much thanks to Brad Bridges who coached me through the transition. And to Derwin Gray who helped me clarify God’s call.
At the Velocity Church Planting Conference Feb 2014
Church family
In February 2009 I accepted the call to be the English Pastor at the Chinese Christian Church of Germantown (MD). CCCG is a wonderful church family that we were honored to serve for 5+ years. Our time concluded with a great celebration, my ordination, and send off to pursue the call to plant Restoration Church.
Sharing on our last Sunday at CCCG Aug 31 2014
Work
In September I started working for 1800GOTJUNK. Some called me the “Junk Pastor.” It was not for me! Thankfully God provided a great seasonal job as a UPS Deliver Car Driver. I enjoyed working hard, feeling like Santa delivering packages every day, and working with great people! I learned a lot from this experience that I’d like to write more about in the weeks to come. My time with UPS will end at the end of January.
Change Ahead (in 2015)
2014 was an amazing faith stretching year with lots of change. We thank God for all He has done. Now we look ahead to what we believe will be the most exciting year of change we’ve ever had.
Restoration Church
The vision and dream of Restoration Church is to be an ethnically diverse community of faith joining the mission of God in the Restoration of all things. We dream of seeing this start in Gaithersburg, MD and multiplying around the area, country, and world!
A full post is needed to paint the picture of what’s happening. Here are a few things to come:
- Monthly “Discovery” meetings the last Sun of each month Jan-May. Potential launch team members are invited to join us discover more! Let me know if you’re interested.
- Feb 3-10 Laura and I will attend support raising training with GCM. We begin raising support (prayer and financial) full time immediately following the training. We need to raise an initial $2000 by January 18th to get started. A link and more info will be posted in the next few days.
- In June my teammate/co-pastor/bro-in-law Rodrigo Bender with his wife Annie (my wife Laura’s sister) will move to MD to join us (with their three boys).
This summer we will evaluate what God is doing/saying and take the next steps toward launching Restoration Church. We will likely launch public services at the RIO movie theater in late Fall of 2015 or early 2016.
Baby coming
In November (2014) we got the exciting and scary news that Laura is pregnant! We’re transforming our small townhouse to accommodate. My office is now a temporary storage room! Our storage room is now a game/play room. Elijah’s room will become the baby room in May.
We need to turn our temporary storage room into Elijah’s bedroom in May. We’re praying for a place to store things that may fill a small bedroom. If anyone has space we could use for an indefinite period of time (locally), please let us know.
