Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Almost Settled!

Two VERY tired boys after a long and difficult move!

Belated Greetings!

Can't believe it has been almost a month since I've posted anything! Bad Blogger! Bad Blogger! :-) I guess that speaks to how crazy and busy things have been.

Since my last post, we have started the new church, with three services now behind us. God has truly blessed, we are thrilled with how things are going. For detailed updates on the church, go to www.nbbctexarkana.blogspot.com

We have moved from Denton, TX to Texarkana, AR. We have bought another home here and have been trying to get settled here. We have made a couple of trips to Denton to tie up loose ends there. In fact, Carrie and the boys are there right now trying to get some things taken care of. We are having the interior of the house painted this week, and new carpet put down.

We are still praying for a good renter, our last one backed out at the last minute, so it really left us in a bind. Pray for us on this need, PLEASE!!! :-)

The family is doing great, Carrie has been working so hard at trying to make this house a home. She is doing so much, I'm worried she is overdoing it. Zachary has been more help than you can imagine. We never would have been able to make the move without him! I told him, "you sure are a lot more help this move than the last one!" Of course, he is a foot taller and has a LOT more muscles! :-) He was a tremendous blessing. He and I loaded the truck all by ourselves, and he matched me step for step. He was great! Samuel has adjusted well to our new home. He can open and close doors in this house, so he is into a LOT more things, a LOT more often! :-) He is getting much harder to keep track of!

I have almost a month behind me on the new job. I am a Correctional Officer. I work with the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections at the Southwest Arkansas Community Corrections Center, or SWACCC. It is the old St. Michael's building. I like it, the staff are great, the leadership are very genuine and do a great job. So far, I really haven't found anything to complain about! :-) OK, it is HOT in the building sometimes, but if that is the only complaint, I guess I don't really have one! :-) The pay isn't that high or anything, but the benefits and stability are really good. I'm thankful for the job, in this economic climate good jobs are hard to come by! I'm working nights, which has been a hard adjustment for me and the family, but we are making it.

As for New Beginngings, our new church, all I can say is THANK YOU LORD! God has blessed us with some of the sweetest and most faithful people you could hope for! We have seen a slow but steady increase each week. I'm excited and expecting great things from God next week! We are still meeting at the old YWCA on Magnolia, what a blessing that has been! We are so thankful for the generosity the owners have shown in letting us meet there! We have no outside support, but the faithful giving of our people has already been outstanding! Their faithfulness will allow our church to accomplish far more for the kingdom! I can't wait to get more and more of our church structure in place, from Sunday School to Missions. I told someone the other day, I'm having a blast!!! :-)

Well, I have to meet with a realtor in a couple of hours, to look at some potential meeting places. We appear to be getting close to outgrowing our current meeting place, so I'm trying to be proactive and be ready when the time comes we have to move to something a little more semi-permanent. What a great problem to have!!! :-)

Here are some recent pictures of the boys:

I LOVE my new house and my new church!
(OK, he was actually playing with my CPAP mask, but you
gotta admit he is mighty cute and has a gorgeous smile!) :-)

Mommy, these clothes are all in the wrong drawers!!!
(Samuel has taken to EMPTYING the drawers any
chance he gets! He also likes to put CLEAN clothes
into the dirty laundry hamper!) Annoying, but Cute! :-)

WHAT? I'm not sleepy or anything!
(Samuel LOVES Zachary's chair, he climbs up in it by himself,
and sometimes zonks out!)