We are back on the air...

It has been a few weeks since I have last posted and many things have happened. So much so that I probably could write for days and still not list all the exciting things going on. Let me start by working backwards in this timeline and finish with a great praise.

This weekend shaped up to be a weekend like any other, but something happened that I/We were not prepared for: The worst ice storm I have every faced. This year we had two ice storms, with a possible third coming tomorrow, but the latter was much worse than the earlier one. We had tree branches cracking and falling everywhere. Most of Galesburg lost their power. We were one of the fortunate ones to keep their power, which was a great answer to prayer. About 12:00 on Saturday, I went in to our Boys room and told them, “Boys, I don’t want you to be afraid or even worried, but this storm is looking to be a pretty big one. I want you to start praying now that we don’t lose power. If we do we will be fine, but let’s pray that we don’t.” So we started praying, all of us, and we lost no power. What a tremendous answer to prayer as well as a great way to show our boys how much prayer really works. Some may say it is a coincidence, but I say it is a great God answer the prayers of our family!

A few weeks before this, we sat down with our Pastor and shared our heart for the ministry. I have no doubt in my mind that I will Pastor a Church one day, but God has not set that passion in my heart…not yet. I still have a strong passion for our young people today more specifically teens. After sharing this with our Pastor and my wife pretty much echoing the same he asked if we would consider accepting the position as youth pastor of our Church. What an answer to prayer. We did not anticipate this happening, but we do praise God for the opportunity to serve him again, but what we did know is that we have a strong desire to minister to the teenagers of the Galesburg area. We may have lost our previous job, but never lost our passion and now God is allowing us the opportunity to see that Passion visualized.

As I write this, I think of what we will be training our teens in and the thought weeks ago came to my mind. I remember the phrase growing up that was used so often to tell a person to stop acting fake and be sincere. It was a simple phrase, two words actually, just simply stated, “Get Real!” Then the thought hit me…this is what our Churches need, a sense of reality. Most Churches are ritualized, not sincere. Most go through the motions but have not thought as to the heart. With that thought in mind, I want to help our teens “Get Real” but more specifically become “Real Teens.” I will give more on my thoughts on this later, but for now, I think it is time to “Get Real.” We have real problems, we live in the real world, but we have a real God who solves real problems in the real world. It is time to get to know him more and see what he has in store for us. Let’s get real!