Sunday Night Ramblings & HOUSE CONTRACT!!

/2 Comments/in , , /by

Had an awesome “first Sunday” at Forest Park Carthage.? Actually my second Sunday on staff, but my first being “on my own” doing all of the Campus Pastor elements.

I really felt good doing all of them!? It is great to feel like God has really gifted you and placed you here “for such a time as this!”? Pastor John talked about “Loving Your Enemies.”? In the worship response time, I extended an invitation to Christ–basically, there is no way you can truly love your enemies unless you have the love of God in your heart.? The New Testament also talks about those who are without Christ are “enemies of God.”? We all need to realize that Christ loves all of us unconditionally and therefore we need to love the way He loves us.

John had a great idea of putting Post-It notes in the VISION to write down initials of people we have a hard time loving.? We extended the illustration a step further here and had people leave their Post-Its on the altar.? We will be praying over those Post-Its tomorrow at Carthage staff meeting!! It was really cool seeing people at the altar placing their Post-Its, praying, and taking communion.? I love it when we can give someone a “takeaway” to hang the idea on as people leave!? I am working on my “takeaway” for July 27th when I preach!? It is going to be pretty cool!!

We had a Life Group “huddle” tonight and had a great time of prayer, encouragement and dreaming about the future of groups here at Forest Park Carthage.? I can’t tell you how excited I am about groups this year!!? They are going to be AWESOME.? You will definately want to be here AUGUST 17th for the GROUPLINK and jump into Life Groups!!? We had so many great stories of life change that happened because of Life Groups.? I love that stuff!!

Oh yeah!!? We have a CONTRACT on our HOUSE IN OZARK!!! It was on the market 20 days!!? That is stinking awesome!!? What a God thing!!? We close on the 12th of August!!? Yeah God!!? Thank you, LORD!!

Friday Fun

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We got Tucker into the Cox/Freeman orthopedic surgeon yesterday morning to look at his broken wrist. The doctor is a really nice older gentleman that is a wrist and hand specialist.? He suggested that we wait until next week to let the swelling go down and keep it in the splint until Tuesday when he is going to do a “closed reduction.” It is not in the growth plate or anything complicated like that, so we are thankful for that!

We spent the afternoon trying to rest up a little bit.? I got some work done that I needed to do on Thursday and we managed to get Tucker a nap.? Before we knew it, we had to head across town to Taylor’s baseball game.? HUGE game against the Mudcats!! We lost pretty big to them the first game of the season, but our guys WON last night!!? Pretty exciting to see much the guys are improving!! Then, we had an unplanned double-header because one of the teams in the game after us didn’t show and so we went ahead and stayed to help the other team get a game in.? Our guys did really well even though they were all pretty tired by the time we had played 10 innings!

Taylor is really hitting well and playing good defense (played some catcher last night). It seems that all of the times in practice when we are trying to teach them game situations are paying off–they are knowing where the ball should go more often than not now.? I am really proud of ALL of THEM!!

We got an OFFER on our HOUSE LAST NIGHT!! It is a good start and I think we are going to have our house sold SOON!!? Praise the LORD!!? We are going to work out a compromise this afternoon hopefully and close as soon as possible.? The buyer wants to move quickly too!

Here are some pics of Taylor’s Game and teammates as well as our Tucker boy in his splint and fat lip.

Crazy Week Indeed!!

/2 Comments/in , , /by

This has been a crazy week indeed for my first week at Forest Park Carthage–and it’s ONLY THURSDAY!!? Here is a few of the highlights:

  • Attended my first Forest Park Carthage staff meeting–AWESOME!? This is a really good team we are putting together!!? Really sharp people!? Exciting things on the horizon.
  • Had to go the Social Security Administration to get a new Social Security Card because you need two forms of ID for the Homeland Security Administration form–guess how many forms of ID the Social Security Administration asked for??? One! My drivers license–WHICH IS MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!
  • Drove around with Mark Dinwiddie to see where a good location for the West Joplin Campus might be!!
  • Went by AT&T store to see about my new iPhone!! They come tomorrow, but I probably won’t be getting it then for a myriad of reasons . . . I’ll get to them in a second!!!
  • Hung out with a Forest Park Carthage Small Group on Monday night until like 10:30 p.m. and then stayed up until almost midnight talking about groups with our groups coordinator (I am staying at his house when in Carthage.)
  • Met with Don (small groups guy) all morning and hammered out a lot of stuff for groups.
  • Had my first “one-on-one” with Pastor John!! Was really good!? He gave me a bunch of preaching resources right off the bat!? Funny, I thought I wasn’t going to preach that much!? Actually going to be preaching my first message at FPCarthage on the 27th!? I feel like I am really going to learn a TON about how to “do” church from John!
  • He also gave me the secret staff knock to get in to his office–I’m not telling!!
  • John and I are teaching the 1st Base class (membership) on the 27th too!
  • I am BAPTIZING TAYLOR on the 27th!! WAY COOL!!!
  • We are moving on the 25th and 26th after closing on our house on the 24th–can you say CRAZY WEEKEND!?!
  • Ran home to Taylor’s game on Tuesday night–canceled because of the monsoons that occurred on Tuesday morning!? Good to be in my own bed!
  • Had my first Forest Park Carthage Staff meeting Wednesday afternoon!
  • Stayed up late working on Small Groups with Don and Brenda again!!? I am PUMPED about Groups this fall! Exciting things a-brewing!
  • Ordered small group books from my cousin, Mark Sanders, at For All Bible in Joplin–he’s the manager!? Good to be close to them again!
  • Mark Dinwiddie had a surgery this morning and the staff went to see him and “serenaded” him in his room!? TOTAL SWEETNESS!? “Do Wa Dinwiddie, What Did He Do??” Let you mind wander!!!? I have a feeling their will be a “ENCORE PERFORMANCE” in staff on Wednesday!!
  • Right when I got back to church, had Ryan Hunter help install some software on my new Mac and got a call from Jenny that TUCKER had an accident and she was taking him to the doctor (in the St. John’s network).
  • Got another call that HE BROKE HIS ARM!!? NO WAY!!
  • Spent the rest of the day on the phone with doctors, nurses, and several insurance companies to figure out what to do because we had just switched over to a new insurance on Monday.? We hope to get him in to an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow (in the Cox network now) or early next week to set his arm.? When it rains it pours!!
  • AWESOME NEWS–We have an offer on our house!!!! Don’t know what it is yet, but we are praying and hoping we have good news in the morning!!!
  • Exhausted!! Heading to bed early tonight!!!

Check out my mug on the FPC website

/0 Comments/in /by

Taylor Orr, who does both websites for Forest Park Carthage and Forest Park Joplin took my picture on Sunday and already has it and a bio up on the website.? Just click on the “Contact Us” page and you see the staff page.? Check it out? . . .

By the way, they say the camera adds at least? . . . what was it?? Fourteen pounds??

First Sunday at Forest Park Carthage!!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We had our first Sunday at Forest Park Carthage yesterday and it was AWESOME!!

We got a ton of gift cards to restaurants and such from the church–awesome!!

There was a HUGE basket of stuff in the hotel room when we got back from hanging out with Mark & Debbie Clements.? Mark is on staff at Forest Park, Joplin as the worship pastor.? Debbie was one of Jenny’s roommates in college at OBU.

We also rushed out to Neosho to see Lyndall and Kari Jones new baby boy, Landon Max!? That was great to see them and Kari’s mom and dad, Max and Sherri were there visiting the grandbaby!

I am TOTALLY EXHAUSTED after a full day of Forest Park Carthage staff meeting and TONS of paperwork and stuff to get started.? Had to go by the Social Security Administration to get a SS card.? Went by the AT&T store to get my phone stuff looked at . . . drove all over the “west Joplin” area (including Carl Junction, Briarbrooke, and Webb City) for possible sites for WEST campus!? Exciting stuff!!

By the way, I have a new email address:? it is david (at) fpbc (dot) net. . . drop me a line and say ‘Hi.”? I also will have my finleycrossings.com account for a bit before I turn it off soon.? I also have dalestine (at) gmail (dot) com.

Here are some photos from yesterday. . . I will try to get some photos up of the last day of camp . . . including horrible headwound Harry ahem Tucker!!? Enjoy!

Youth Camp–Day 4

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Another really busy day of travel.? Mark Dinwiddie, from Forest Park, brought my new computer down yesterday along with a bunch of paperwork to get my employment stuff setup.? We headed to Forest Park Joplin to turn that stuff in after I met with the camp staff reporting and praying for the week.

I went by the Lowe’s in Carthage to buy some dowel rods to use as takeaways for tonight’s sermon.? They are going to be “wooden pegs” that are used in building–thanks to my student pastor friends.? (They also helped me flesh out the rock takeaway last night–I love sitting around in a room with creative people and seeing how the Lord will work out all of the details!

I really feel like I “brought it” tonight!? I don’t know if I could preach much better or harder than tonight.? I talked about Isaiah 6 and Haggai.? Basically that we all have some “building” and “rebuilding” to do for the Kingdom.? Again, the spirit of expectancy in the room before and during worship was really evident.? Lots of kids praying for one another at the altar.? They took home a wooden peg to remind themselves about the story in Haggai where the people of God obeyed Him and went up the hill, chopped down trees, and rebuilt the temple.? I love the promise from God–“I am with you!”

I am actually sitting right now in the ER waiting room at St. John’s hospital . . . don’t freak out grandparents . . . we are all OK!? We were all walking back down to the worship center after the service and Tucker had on his brother’s flip-flops and was running and fell and cracked his head open on the asphalt.? Right next to his almost healed spot where he ran into the coffee table.? He bled like crazy . . . and immediately went to see the camp nurse.? She bandaged him up and recommended that we come to St. John’s to “make sure” everything is alright.? I hoping that they will just Durmabond him up and we can head home.? I will let you all know how things turned out, but think everything is fine–Tucker is busy playing here in the pediatric ER waiting room.? They must be really busy with the holiday or something, but we have been waiting over an hour after they took our vitals.? I sure hope this is not as long as my horrible 6 hour ER visit this January!!!? Pray for us!? We have a long night ahead and a final message tomorrow morning. Yikes!

On a good note, there was a showing of our house tonight at around 7 p.m.!? With this new Rural Development loan, we can re-do the amortization schedule again after we apply the proceeds from the sale of our Ozark house, so we can move forward and close on our house in Carthage.? So we signed papers today and took the contingency off of our contract on our house in Carthage, so we are hopefully going to close on that house on July 24th.? It would be AWESOME to have a contract on our house before we close in Carthage!? Keep praying!

Youth Camp–Day 3

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Spent the entire day at camp today–except to make a run into town for some supplies.

The morning celebration time was the “Guatemala? Mission Team” sharing about their experiences and perspectives of their trip last week to Guatemala.? I was VERY impressed with these students as they shared about their week!? Plus, the “future worship leaders” did and AWESOME job in leading the worship time.

I met with the “Moms and Pops” and student pastors to discuss the service and pray for the students.? Man, there is some really heavy stuff going on with some of these kids–much more than any student should have to deal with, that is for sure!? There is a real sense of urgency for these leaders to be in prayer for the night tonight!!? That is really cool!

LATER:? We talked about the woman caught in adultery (John 8) tonight.? We had a “guest speaker” tonight as I did a dramatic monologue of the event.? I was “Jonathan,” a Jewish businessman in Jerusalem that was caught in the act with the woman.? I was told to “disappear,” as the Jews really wanted to question Jesus rather than car that much about the woman . . . she was just a convenient pawn in their game.? It really turned out well and the Lord really moved tonight–especially during the worship response time.? We used rocks to help the students physically respond to the spiritual invitation.? They went and grabbed a rock and prayed over it and left it at the altar–along with their sin that has been forgiven.? There was a real sense of brokenness in the room and a lot of students responded to the Lord.? It is really exciting to see that kind of movement of God.

Youth Camp–Day 2

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

We spent most of the afternoon driving in the car!! We left camp after the morning celebration time and had to go all the way back to Ozark to pick up some papers for the banker. We are changing loan “programs” and are getting at “Rural Development” loan and this particular loan has manual underwriting instead of the web-based underwriting that we had already completed several weeks ago. We had to have a lot more documentation than the other loan had that we had already packed up and put in storage–nice. So, it was off to the storage unit and then to the house to get some more documents. While we were there, the Doyle’s came home, so the boys wanted to play, so we were later getting to Carthage than planned.

We did finally get to Carthage and back to camp just in time for dinner–not back in time to swim during free time. So after promising to stay and swim on Wednesday, we prepared for night two at camp.

I talked about one of my favorite stories in the Bible . . . John 11 and the story of Lazarus. We talked about why tragedy happens and that everything in life is for God’s glory–the good and the bad. The worship band has done an AWESOME job this week and did an excellent job tonight as well! They are called Broken Outside Beautiful. They are all from around Joplin and Cartersville (right next to Carthage.) So basically this is a week as they said, “to welcome me to the neighborhood.”

There was a lot of good discussion in church group times and I think the Lord really moved tonight!

Taylor and I went to the “Late, Late Night” and watched the “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.” Pretty cheesy indeed!!

Going to bed . . . Taylor and I are sharing a bed tonight and Jenny and Tucker sharing . . . we’ll see how that works for us tonight! Exhausted from all the driving and searching through the storage for files! More tomorrow. No showings today I don’t think–bummer.

Youth Camp–Monday Night

/2 Comments/in , , , /by

We had an awesome night at youth camp last night!! The worship was really good and I felt good about the message! The theme is “fresh” for camp this year. I will be talking about four different passages where people had “fresh encounters” with the Lord and He changed their lives. Last night, we talked about Nicodemus. The Gospel in one verse–John 3:16!

We are in a TINY room with the boys! We “acquired” a mattress from one of the dorms for the boys to share and Jenny and I are on a double bed using their fleece throws that Grandma Betty made for them this Christmas. We didn’t bring double sheets, just twins as we thought we would all be in twin bunks or something like that.

Taylor and Tucker stayed in the worship service last night through the entire service–including my talk. Tucker loves the drums, so he needed mom to hold him up to see the drums during worship and Taylor stayed on the side all night to watch the band and dad from close up. I’m really proud of them, but they are wearing mom out right now in that TINY room while she is getting ready!! Pray for that deal!!

Pray for our house to sell!! Did I mention the house needs to sell?!?

Here are some pics from last night: