Saturday, February 13, 2016

Beginning of a New Chapter

*Time warp... again. Sorry about that! Getting one on one time with the computer is harder than I thought with three little people! But this is letter is important enough to require a VeggieTales morning*


Dear family and friends,

We pray 2016 has been full of wonderful adventures and seeing the Lord’s hand at work for you so far. It surely has for us! We wanted to send you a letter sharing some of what has been going on and ask for your prayers.

In late January, Jarrod accepted a call to Granite Hills Baptist Church as the associate pastor. As we speak; rather, as I write, we are packing up all we own to move to Reno, Nevada.  If you’re like me, you probably had to read that last line a few times.  The journey God took us on to get to this point has been incredible.  He has graciously shown His ability to carry us through our doubts and fears. As we walked through the interview process, He awakened our hearts for Reno and the people of GHBC. There’s a familiar kindred-heart /family-feel at GHBC and we have a growing love for God’s people there. Reno, however is a spiritually dark place. The national average of people who attend some kind of religious service throughout the week is 40%. The same statistic for Reno is 5% (Gallup poll). We hope to be used by the Lord to help the people in Reno fill their craving for more with the only One who will satisfy. By living a grace-empowered life and pointing others to Jesus, we hope to glorify our Father in heaven. We have seen God at work and He has confirmed over and over that this is our step of faith out of the boat (Matthew 14:28-29). This move gives us the opportunity to see God do what only He can do – give life to those who are dead.  Please pray for us. We are confident He will carry us, but oh how weak the flesh is and how quickly we are tempted to worry!

Some specific requests:
-          Pray for Jarrod’s ordination on February 24th. We will be presented to and commissioned by Chets Creek Church in Jacksonville, FL on the 28th.
-          Pray for our physical move out to Reno. We will be shipping all of our stuff and then flying with three small kiddos and a dog. Pray for Eliaya, Elora, Ezra to be comfortable during the flights and for our stuff to get there.
-          Pray for us to get settled quickly and to have a “home base” to help deal with the stress of everything new.
-          Pray for Jarrod and I to continue to be unified. Pray for clear communication and grace with each other as well as with our children.
-          Pray for the E’s, that they stay healthy and adjust quickly to new surroundings. Pray for friends.
-          Pray for our families as we go. We appreciate their support and willingness to serve the Lord with us by sending us out.
-          Pray for Jarrod to step into this new role smoothly. Praise God for the friendship he and Pastor Mark have formed already and pray they collaborate well.
-          Pray for Granite Hills Baptist Church (ghbcreno.org) to be unified in their desire to serve the Lord and the people of Reno.


Thank you for joining us in this adventure! We covet your prayers; we need you to “hold the ropes” as we venture into this spiritually dark place and seek to make much of Jesus. We love you all!