10/23/06 UPDATE

Well, at least I'm discovering a rhythm now. It goes like this. . . catch your breath on Monday and Tuesday and then begin a mad downhill dash from Wednesday to Sunday. Weekends are especially busy. One of the "nuggets" I got a few weeks ago was to fill every breakfast, lunch, etc. with an appointment to build relationships with people. Well, we're finding that many of those contacts are taking place on the weekends when other people have time, so our weekends are really busy.

Friday, I went with the boys on a field trip to the Strategic Air Command museum. They were doing a special presentation on space travel. There was a really interesting video on the Columbia and then the boys got to build paper rockets and fire them off in a hangar. I was able to hang out with a couple we've been getting to know (Brent and Michelle Myers - they have three boys the same age as ours). On the way there, J and I talked about another lady involved in the home school network whose husband is "not in the same place she is spiritually." We wanted to get an opportunity to know her and her husband. When the groups split up, J wasn't able to get in her group, but at lunch, the lady came over and asked her to get together next week. It's really weird how God works things.

Saturday, we went to dinner with another couple (Jeff, Kelly, and Jocelyn Cunningham) that have expressed an interest in helping start the church. He is an officer in the Air Force and they are a really cool young couple (they're like 25 or 26). We had a great time and they said they'd be interested in participating in a Bible study and praying about helping us out. I really wish people would start "signing the dotted line" and committing, but this was an encouragement. It's the most concrete committment we've had yet.

Sunday, we went to Heartland (the movie theater church). Afterwards, we had dinner and hung out with another couple with kids (Art and Valerie Calderon). The boys have really hit it off with their kids. We all had a blast, but didn't get home until about 8:00 because we left their house at 6 and had to stop to buy winter coats, gloves, etc. for the boys. We saw our first snow on Saturday - nothing stuck and it wasn't serious, but it sure is early for snow! Our poor kids can't even figure out how to put on a pair of gloves!

This week I'll be working on our "proposal" to present to several churches - that's my major task. Pray that I will have some productive "thinking time" and put together a good, God-driven, coherent, visionary, and exciting proposal. Continue to pray for a partnership to develop with Westside, as well as others. We'll talk with them more once I get the proposal together. They've been very interested though, so I'm encouraged.

Also, as usual, I've got several decisions to make. One is that the small group I've been leading wants to continue to meet (and have me lead). I'm not sure what to do because I have limited time and need to invest all of my energy toward the church. The Cunningham's are a part of the group and one other family mentioned they would like to help in theory, but that the proposed site is too far away. That's the only interest from the group, but I'm not sure if more might be cultivated if we continued. It's just another dicey decision to make.