baptism

This past Sunday I baptized Wesley and it was an awesome occasion. The pastor asked Hillary and I to acknowledge his need of a savior, to claim Chrsit on his behalf, and to dedcate him to God. It was deeply meaningful to answer yes to all of these questions. Overall, it was a great time of worship at church and we felt very loved by our family as many came to celebrate us. I'll post pictures soon, but haven't downloaded them from our camera yet. Otherwise, life is flowing in a usual sort of pattern. We had our first week of a bible study at the University of Hartford this past Wednesday. It was great to have an mix of guys and girls there, but sadly there weren't any guys from the University of Hartford. The impetus for this effort has been a women's bible study on this campus and now we are looking to reach men on this campus. Presently there isn't anything happening to reach guys on campus and we were hoping this might be effective. It has been good to teach and prepare for this study, but we hope that God will work through it to do something on campus.

Newark, teaching, and a baby on the move

While Newark, NJ might not have the hottest reputation around I had a great time there. We stayed at an old school built in the 20's which is now owned by World Impact - a Christian ministry to the urban poor. I was there to be part of the Newark School of Prayer and Evangelism which ran Saturday through Friday. I was only there three days, during which there was prayer and teaching in the morning, and then in the afternoon or evening to talk with people about Jesus. One of the highlights was spending time with some older guys in their late 70's who walk very closely with God. Just being around men like that is always exciting and challenging.
After getting back from Newark, it has been a full week as I've had a lot of teaching opportunities before me. In the course of two weeks I'll have taught a teen bible study, led two family worship seminars, taught at college outreach event, spoken at two chapel services at a local Christian school and baptized our first child. This is the sort of stuff I love to do, so it isn't overwhelming - yet. Finally, Wesley is on his way to crawling. We put him on one side of a blanket the other night and he made his way to toys on the other side. This was exciting and a little scary because I'm not ready for a mobile child yet.

Full Throttle

As we posted last, September is full throttle. We returned from Jarrett's parents house Saturday night, Jarrett led worship on Sunday with a church picnic following (celebrating the six years Christ Community has been existence). Monday Jarrett left to attend an evangelism and prayer seminar in Newark, NJ and will be back Wednesday so he can lead the first youth group bible study of the fall semester. I'm sure you will hear about what it was like next week on the blog. So I am trying to get the household back in order and do a few odds and ends for Jarrett so he can focus on these other good things. Hence me blogging instead of Jarrett. Although life is full and can be overwhelming when you look at the calendar we know that God is in control. What I am realizing is the importance of relying on Him to do what he desires through these things otherwise it is in vain. So despite my tendency to do things in my own strength I am trying to trust Christ that His grace is sufficient. As an aside, Wesley is such a joy, he has been so content despite the crazy schedule. We are so thankful for God's kindness to us as parents.

beginnings and endings

For those of you on the East Coast, this is a time of transition and schedules changing as school starts and vacation mode officially comes to an end. We are experiencing the shift in a lot of ways, as August was really low key, while September has begun full throttle. Kids are back in school, youth stuff is kicking off, and we are traveling to see family for weddings and other such occasions which we can't skip out on. This past weekend we were with Hillary's family which was good, but tiring. There was a wedding, and gatherings with family and friends, but we spent the majority of the time cleaning out Hillary's dad's house. Since Hillary's mom passed away we've been working through her stuff, trying to declutter and organize the place. With Hillary's dad getting remarried there is now a more urgent push to finish this work and how we spent our weekend is a picture of life right now: celebrating the new, cleaning out and categorizing the old, being on the move from one place to another, and trying to care for the family in the midst of it. Tomorrow night we head down to my parents for a few days and I'm looking forward to it, but trying to figure out what needs to happen between now and then is a little daunting.