We are go for launch

Astronauts train for years to hear those five words. It is the dream of many pilots to leave the pull of earth’s atmosphere and rocket into the vast vacuum of space. I wonder what it must feel like to strap on 165,000 lbs. of Space Shuttle and wait for several hours to be shot into space at 17,500 mph.? I think it is probably terrifying, exciting, nerve twisting, and exhilarating all at the same time. You’ve trained for years for this moment. But, as you feel the rocket thrusters begin to kick in and that voice in your ears count off the final ten seconds of what has taken 15 years to happen, you must have a flood of emotion. I wonder if you think of Challenger and how it exploded before it escaped Earth’s atmosphere? Or if Columbia’s disaster over the skies of Texas flashes through your brain?

This weekend we seem to have gotten the word that we are go for launch on our church planting journey. I’m hesitant to say “We sold our house.” We’ve learned over the last month these things have a way of getting Scrubbed on the launching pad. But, it seems like this time we really are about to launch into a whole new world for our family. We have been in training for this moment for around eight years now. That’s when we first began to feel God was leading us toward church planting. With all the excitement of preparing to live out your dream sometimes you don’t stop to think of what it will be like when the thrusters kick in and God begins to propel you at a high rate of speed into the very thing for which you’ve been preparing for years. Thoughts of fear, failure, DISASTER flash before your eyes. You begin to wonder what if this thing all blows up around me? And when you look around the cockpit and see your wife and two little girls you realize how high the steaks really are.

But, with all the pre-launch jitters we feel like God has called us to this adventure, we are strapped in, and all signs are the final count down has begun. If all goes according to plan we will be making the move to Wisconsin sometime around the end of October. Thank you for your prayers family and friends. Please keep them up. This time it truly seems that we are go for launch. I’ll update you late with details. Houston, unless we have a problem, my next post may be from the great state of Wisconsin…GO PACK GO!

Impossible?

Most likely you have never heard the name Clarence Brazier. Clarence is not a celebrity, a politician, a war hero, or an internationally known figure. Clarence is an ordinary man who accomplished an extraordinary thing. Clarence grew up and lived his life in Canada. Because of his background and upbringing Clarence never learned to read. He struggled through life job after job finding work that didn’t require him to read. His wife of over fifty years, Angela, read him every single piece of mail, tax forms, magazines and all other print materials that came to their home. Sadly, Angela passed away leaving a now 93 year old Clarence alone. That is when Clarence decided to do the impossible. At age 93, with the help of his daughter, a school teacher, Clarence set out to learn to read. By age 95 Clarence was reading. By age 100 Clarence received an award from the Canada Post for his unbelievable accomplishment.

This morning I was reading in Ezra. Ezra is a book in the Bible all about God’s people Israel returning from being exiled for years in a foreign country. The book tells the story of how when they returned home God led them to rebuild their most sacred place of worship, God’s temple. The weird thing is who kicked this whole project off. It wasn’t Moses, Joshua, David, or one of the Old Testament all stars we’ve heard about. It was a guy named Cyrus. Cyrus was as Persian King. Did you get that? He was not even a Jew. But in the first chapter of Ezra God says this about Cyrus. “that the word of the Lord…might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia.” God took this man who would be the last person on the planet to build a temple for the God of the Jews and “stirred up” his spirit to do as Jerry Reed says “what they say can’t be done.”

Sometimes planting a church in a “foreign land” (a place where we know hardly anyone) seems impossible to us. But, “With God, all things are possible.” If you are staring down the barrel of an impossible situation in your life right now there is something you and I would do well to remember. When God has something he wants done he can make the impossible happen to get it done. He can stir hearts that you and I would never think could be stirred. If you feel like the road in front of you is impossible then pick up your foot and take that first step of faith. Soon you will be walking that road and realize that nothing is impossible. If you don’t believe me, just ask Clarence Braizer.